s Durga assumed in some sects a paramount position, and
though the Veda is familiar with the idea of the world being born, there
are few traces in it of a goddess corresponding to the Great Mother,
Cybele or Astarte.

In an earlier period of Vedic studies many deities were identified with
figures in the classical or Teutonic mythology chiefly on philological
grounds but most of these identifications have now been abandoned. But a
few names and figures seem to be found among both the Asiatic and
European Aryans and to point to a common stock of ideas. Dyaus, the Sky
God, is admittedly the same as Zeus and Jupiter. The Asvins agree in
character, though not in name, with the Dioscuri and other parallels are
quoted from Lettish mythology. Bhaga, the bountiful giver, a somewhat
obscure deity, is the same word as the Slavonic Bog, used in the general
sense of God, and we find _deva_ in Sanskrit, _deus_ in Latin, and
_devas_ in Lithuanian. Ushas, the Dawn, is phonetically related to
[Greek: 'Ehos] and Aurora who, however, are only half deities. Indra, if
he cannot be scientifically identified with Thor, is a similar personage
who must have grown out of the same stock of ideas. By a curious
transference the Prophet Elias has in south-eastern Europe inherited the
attributes of the thunder god and is even now in the imagination of the
peasantry a jovial and riotous being who, like Indra, drives a noisy
chariot across the sky.

The connection with ancient Persian mythology is closer. The Avestan
religion was a reformation due to the genius of Zoroaster and therefore
comparable with Buddhism rather than Hinduism, but the less systematic
polytheism which preceded it contained much which reminds us of the
Vedic hymns. It can hardly be doubted that the ancestors of the Indians
and Iranians once practised almost identical forms of religion and had
even a common ritual. The chief features of the fire cult and of the
Soma or Haoma sacrifice appear in both. The sacrifice is called Yajna in
the Veda, Yasna in the Avesta: the Hotri priest is Zaotar, Atharvan is
Athravan, Mitra is Mithra. Vayu and Apah (the divine waters) meet us in
the Avesta in almost the same forms and Indra's epithet of Vritrahan
(the slayer of Vritra) appears as Verethragna. Ahura Mazda seems to be a
development of the deity who appears as Varuna in India though he has
not the same name, and the main difference between Indian and Iranian
religion lies in this, that the