travel, commanded by the gods. They strive not, they rest not, the prolific Night and Dawn, concordant, though unlike. 4. The shining Ushas, leader of joyful voices (or hymns) has been perceived; she has opened for us the doors (of the sky); setting in motion all moving things, she has revealed to us riches. Ushas has awakened all creatures. . . . 6. (Arousing) one to seek royal power, another to follow after fame, another for grand efforts, another to pursue as it were his particular object,—Ushas awakes all creatures to consider their different modes of life. 7. She, the daughter of the sky, has been beheld breaking forth, youthful clad in shining attire: mistress of all earthly treasures. Auspicious Ushas, shine here to-day. 8. Ushas follows the track of the Dawns that are past, and is the first of the unnumbered Dawns that are to come, breaking forth, arousing life and awaking every one that was dead. . . . 10. How great is the interval that lies between the Dawns which have arisen, and those which are yet to arise! Ushas yearns longingly after the former Dawns, and gladly goes on shining with the others (that are to come). 11. Those mortals are gone who saw the earliest Ushas dawning; we shall gaze upon her now; and the men are coming who are to behold her on future morns. . . . 13. Perpetually in former days did the divine Ushas dawn; and now to-day the magnificent goddess beams upon this world: undecaying, immortal, she marches on by her own will" (O. S. T., vol. v. p. 188.—Rig-Veda. i. 113).
Hardly a trace of a moral element is to be found in those
productions of the Rishis which have hitherto been quoted.
And such as these are is the general character of the Rig-Veda-Sanhitâ.
It consists in petitions for purely material advantages,
coupled with unbounded celebrations of the power of the god
invoked, often under the coarsest anthropomorphic images.
But while it must be admitted that the sentiment expressed is
rarely of a high order, it must not be supposed that the old
Hindu gods are altogether destitute of ethical attributes.
Marked exceptions to the general tenor of the supplications
offered to them certainly occur. There are passages which
betray a decided consciousness of sin, a desire to be forgiven and
a conviction that certain kinds of conduct entail divine disapprobation,
while other kinds bring divine approbation. Thus,
in the hymns addressed to the Adityas, a class of gods generally
