The Aswini, apparently a personification of light and moisture, as sons of the sun, also as the sun's rays, are noticed as the physicians of the gods. They are described as young and handsome, and riding on horses. Vayu or the air, and the Maruts or winds, are personified and invoked. The Maruts are depicted as roaring amongst the forests, com pared to youthful warriors bearing lances on their shoulders, delighting in the soma juice like Indra, and, like hint, the bestowers of benefits on their worshippers. Uslias or the dawn, the early morn ing, the first pale flush of light, is compared to a mother awakening her children, to a lovely maiden awakening a sleeping world, to a young married maiden, like a youthful bride before her husband, thou uncoverest thy bosom with a smile.' As a goddess, she is styled the (Rig Veda, i. 123, v. 2) mighty, the giver of light ; from on high she beholds all things ; ever youthful, ever reviving, she comes forth to the invocation. Indra, accord ing to Bunsen (iii. 587, 8, iv. 459), is the proto type of Zeus, and was a personification of Ether ; soma was offered to him in sacrifice.
In the Rig Veda, I. 115, 1, is, Surya atma jagatas tashthusas' cha, The sun is the soul of ail that moves and rests. Surya, called also Savitra, Mitra, Aryaman, and other names, was a Vedic god, but continues to be worshipped down to the present day, by Hindus and Zoroastrians. The Solar race of Kshatriyas, who appear in the Rama yana, derive their origin from the sun ; but, in the higher spirit, the sun is regarded as divine, as pervading all things, as the soul of the world and supporter of the universe. In a verse of the Rig Veda (iii. 62, v. 10) this idea is supposed to be indicated. It is O'm ! Bhurbhuva suvaha, O'm ! Tatsa vit'hru varennyam. Blargo devassya dhimahi dhiyo yona ha pracho dayath. ! earth, air, heaven. O'm ! let us meditate on the supreme splendour of the divine sun. May he illuminate our minds. And, at the present day, even the most enlightened Brahmans regard this verse as an invocation to the several deities who are implored by the worshipper to aid his intellect in the apprehension and adoration of God. In connection with the sun as a Hindu deity, are the twelve Aditya, sous of Aditi, the universe. In the later Vedic age, these were identified with twelve sig,ns of the zodiac, or the sun in its twelve successive signs.
Early objects of adoration in Rajputana were the sun and moon, whose names designate the two grand races, Surya and Chandra or Indu. Budha son of Indu 'parried Ella, a grandchild of Surya, from which union sprang the Indu race.
They deified their ancestor Budha, who continued to be the chief object of adoration until Krishna ; hence the worship of Bal-nath and Budha were coeval. That the nomade tribes of Arabia, as well as those of Tartary and India, adored the same objects, wo learn from the etuliest writers ; ' and Job, the probable contemporary of Hasti, the founder of the first capital of the Yadu on the Ganges, boasts in the midst of his griefs that lie had always remained uncorrupted by the Sabeism which surrounded him If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in bright ness, and iny mouth has kiased iny hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge, for I should have denied the God that is above.' That there were many Hindus who, pro fessing a pure monotheisin like Job, never kissed the hand either to Surya or bis herald Iludlia, Ive may easily credit from the sublimity of the notions of the One God,' expressed both by the ancients and moderns, by poets and by princes, of both races, but more especially hy the sons of Budlia, who for ages bowed not before graven images, and deemed it impious to raise a temple to The Spirit in whose honour shrines are weak.' Hence the .Tain, the chief sect of the Buddhists, so called from adoring the spirit (Jin), were untinctured with idolatry until the apotheosis of ishna, whose mysteries superseded the simpler worship of Budha. Neinnath (the deified Nemi) was the pontiff of Budha, and not only the contem porary of Krishna, but a Yadu, and his near relation ; and both bad epithets denoting their complexion ; for Arishta, the surname of Nemi, has the same import as Sham or Krishna, the black,' though the latter is of a less Ethiopic hue than Netui. It WAS anterior to this schism amongst the sons of Budha that the creative power was degraded under sensual forms, when the pillar rose to Baal or Surya. in Syria and on the Ganges; and the serpent, ' subtlest beast of all the field,' worshipped as the emblem of -wisdom (13udha), was conjoined with the symbol of the creative power, as at the shrine of Eklinga, where the brazen serpent is wreathed round the lingam. lindha's descendants, the Indu race, preserved the ophito sign of their lineage when Krishna's fol lowers adopted the eagle a.s his symbol. These, with the adorers of Surya, form the three idolatrous classes of India. Surya, or the sun, is exclusively worshipped hy the Saum sect, who acknowledge no other deity ; but this sect is not numerous.