a
later period treated almost as separate deities. Matarisvan is sometimes
a name of Agni and sometimes a separate deity who brings Agni to
mankind.

In the same way the Rig Veda has not one but many solar deities. Mitra,
Surya, Savitri, and perhaps Pusan, Bhaga, Vivasvat and Vishnu, are all
loose personifications of certain functions or epithets of the sun.
Deities are often thought of in classes. Thus we have the Maruts, Rudras
and Vasus. We hear of Prajapati in the singular, but also of the
Prajapatis or creative forces.

Not only does Agni tend to be regarded as more than one: he is
identified with other gods. We are told he is Varuna and Mitra, Savitri
and Indra. "Thou art Varuna when born," says one hymn, "thou becomest
Mitra when kindled. In thee, O son of strength, are all the gods[147]."
Such identifications are common in the Vedas. Philosophically, they are
an early manifestation of the mental bias which leads to pantheism,
metempsychosis, and the feeling that all things and persons are
transitory and partial aspects of the one reality. But evidently the
mutability of the Vedic gods is also due to their nature: they are
bundles of epithets and functions without much personal or local centre.
And these epithets and functions are to a large extent, the same. All
the gods are bright and swift and helpful: all love sacrifices and
bestow wealth, sons and cows. A figure like Agni enables us to
understand the many-sided, inconsistent presentment of Siva and Vishnu
in later times. A richer mythology surrounds them but in the fluidity of
their outline, their mutability and their readiness to absorb or become
all other deities they follow the old lines. Even a deity like Ganesa
who seems at first sight modern and definite illustrates these ancient
characteristics. He has one or five heads and from four to sixteen arms:
there are half a dozen strange stories of his birth and wonderful
allegories describing his adventures. Yet he is also identified with all
the Gods and declared to be the creator, preserver and destroyer of the
Universe, nay the Supreme Spirit itself[148].

In Soma, the sacred plant whose juice was offered in the most solemn
sacrifices, we again find the combination of natural phenomena and
divinity with hardly any personification. Soma is not a sacred tree
inhabited by some spirit of the woods but the Lord of immortality who
can place his worshippers in the land of eternal life and light. Some of
th