USHAS (from the Sanskrit usli, " to shine, to burn," and kindred with the Greek e4.3 or heOs. and the Latin aurora), dawn," is one of the female deities of the Vedic religion of India (see sec. Religion), and among these is invoked with special pre dilection by the poets of the R'igveda hymns. The invigorating influence which the dawn exercises on body and mind, and the luminous and other phenomena connected with the beginning of the day, form the subject of some of the best portions of Vedic poetry; and out of them Ushas arises as one of the most pleasing goddesses of the ancient Hindu pantheon. She is invoked as "the affluent," as "the givereof food," and " the bringer of opulence ;" she is asked to bestow on the pious " riches with horses and cattle," "posterity and troops of slaves;" and she is praised for the many boons she has showered on the worshipers who were liberal to her. She is the goddess "endowed with an excellent intellect," and the " truthful," or fulfiller of her promises. " She animates the diligent;" when she appears, "bipeds and quadrupeds (are in motion)," " the winged birds, flock around from the boundaries of the sky," and "men who have to earn their bread quit their homes." She rides in a "golden chariot," which is "ample and beau tiful;" and the Sanskrit word go meaning a cow (or, as a masculine, an ox), and also a ray of light, she is not only "the mother of the rays of light," or attended by them, and rays of light are her banner, but her chariot is drawn by " ruddy kine," or, as they are sometimes called, " ruddy oxen." Less frequently she is spoken of as traveling with horses; for the horse, as a symbol of light, is more especially appropriated to the god of the sun. The relation of Ushas to other Vedic deities is of a twofold, a physical and a ritual, character, inasmuch as the phenomena of dawn are connected with other phe nomena of nature, and as certain religious ceremonies are performed at daybreak. Ou these grounds, she is frequently addressed as " the daughter of heaven;" and when her " parents" are spoken of, the commentator explains this word as implying "heaven and earth." She is further called the daughter of night (night being the precursor of the dawn); but, on other occasions, she is also spoken of as having night for her sister. She is, besides, the sister of the two luminous deities Maga and Varun'a, and the faith ful wife of Stirya, the sun. According to an old commentator (Thska), she would in one passage of the R'igveda also be the deity "who has the sun for her child," " either because the sun is her companion, or because he absorbs the moisture (i.e., the frost);"
but as rus'advatsa, the word, so interpreted, admits also of another rendering, it is doubtful whether she bears this epithet, the more so as in another passage the sun is said to follow Ushas as a man follows a woman. The As'wins being the luminous twin-gods, who probably represent the transition from darkness to light, and therefore that inter mingling of both which becomes inseparable. (see John Muir's "Contribution to a Knowledge of the Vedic Theogony and Mythology," in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, new series, vol. ii., 1866), Ushas is called their "friend"—according to Silyan'a, also their sister; she " follows their luster," and " awakes" them to partake of the soma prepared for them; and in their turn they are asked " to unite with the dawn." Another god, who originally on physical grounds is associated with Ushas, is Indra (q.v.), the ruler of the bright firmament. He " generates (i.e., causes to appear) sun and dawn," and " appoints them to their office," which is that of dispelling darkness; but though, " when (in the morning), desiring (the soma), he honors the dawn," his ascendency dur ing the day becomes fatal to her; for then " he slays her," " breaks her chariot;" and •' her shattered chariot reposing on (the banks of) the river Vipits', she departs from afar." Most of these deities become, in consequence, associated with Ushas also 113 sharers in certain sacrifices which are offered to her; and besides these, Agni, the god of fire, who carries the offerings to the gods, and Soma (q.v.) Like many of the most poetical deities of the Vedic creed, also Ushas is excluded from the Hindu pantheon of the classical period. Her place is there taken by A.run'a (the ruddy), whom the epic poems and the Purtin'as make the son of the patriarch Kas'yapa and his wife Vinatfl, and the younger brother of Garud'a, the bird-vehicle of Vishn'u. ;, According to the ifaltdbharata, he was appointed by the gods to the office of charioteer of the sun, in order to intercept his fiery heat, when the sun, angry with the gods for being exposed to the enmity of Rau (q.v.), it was feared, would consume the world. Where repre sented, Arun'a is therefore seated before the sun on his chariot, driving his horses; but as the legends deprive Lim of his legs, his body is seen perfect to his knees only.