gods had been
elaborated, the Vedic _Ri_shis asked without hesitation: Who then has
made heaven and earth? not exactly Heaven and Earth, as conceived
before, but heaven and earth as seen every day, as a part of what
began to be called Nature or the Universe.

Thus one poet says:[178]

"He was indeed among the gods the cleverest workman who
produced the two brilliant ones (heaven and earth), that
gladden all things; he who measured out the two bright ones
(heaven and earth) by his wisdom, and established them on
everlasting supports."

And again:[179] "He was a good workman who produced heaven and earth;
the wise, who by his might brought together these two (heaven and
earth), the wide, the deep, the well-fashioned in the bottomless
space."

Very soon this great work of making heaven and earth was ascribed,
like other mighty works, to the mightiest of their gods, to Indra. At
first we read that Indra, originally only a kind of _Jupiter pluvius_,
or god of rain, stretched out heaven and earth, like a hide;[180] that
he held them in his hand,[181] that he upholds heaven and earth,[182]
and that he grants heaven and earth to his worshippers.[183] But very
soon Indra is praised for having made Heaven and Earth;[184] and then,
when the poet remembers that Heaven and Earth had been praised
elsewhere as the parents of the gods, and more especially as the
parents of Indra, he does not hesitate for a moment, but says:[185]
"What poets living before us have reached the end of all thy
greatness? for thou hast indeed begotten thy father and thy mother
together[186] from thy own body!"

That is a strong measure, and a god who once could do that, was no
doubt capable of anything afterward. The same idea, namely that Indra
is greater than heaven and earth, is expressed in a less outrageous
way by another poet, who says[187] that Indra is greater than heaven
and earth, and that both together are only a half of Indra. Or
again:[188] "The divine Dyaus bowed before Indra, before Indra the
great Earth bowed with her wide spaces." "At the birth of thy splendor
Dyaus trembled, the Earth trembled for fear of thy anger."[189]

Thus, from one point of view, Heaven and Earth were the greatest gods,
they were the parents of everything, and therefore of the gods also,
such as Indra and others.

But, from another point of view, every god that was considered as
supreme at one time or other, must necessarily have made he