the beginning seemed to represent the terrestrial and celestial fires." But this origin, he says, even if correctly conjectured, had long been forgotten.
Beyond the certainty that the Asvins represent the element of kindly and healing powers, as commonly conceived of in popular mythology—for example, in the legends of the saints—there is really nothing certain or definite about their original meaning.
A god with a better defined and more recognisable department is Tvashtri, who is in a vague kind of way the counterpart of the Greek Hephæstus. He sharpens the axe of Brahmanaspiti, and forges the bolts of Indra. He also bestows offspring, is a kind of male Aphrodite, and is the shaper of all forms, human and animal. Saranyu is his daughter. Professor Kuhn connects her with the storm-cloud, Mr. Max Müller with the dawn.[1] Her wedding in the form of a mare to Vivasvat in the guise of a horse has already been spoken of and discussed. Tvashtri's relations with Indra, as we have shown, are occasionally hostile; there is a blood-feud between them, as Indra slew Tvashtri's three-headed son, from whose blood sprang two partridges and a sparrow.[2]
The Maruts are said to be gods of the tempest, of lightning, of wind, and of rain. Their names, as usual, are tortured on various racks by the etymologists. Mr. Max Müller connects Maruts with the root mar, "to pound," and with the Roman war-god Mars. Others think the root is mar, "to shine." Benfey[3]
