either as the summing up of
Brahmanism in the new Hinduism, as the final expression of a religion
which forgets nothing and absorbs everything; or one may study it as a
belief composed of historical strata, endeavoring to divide it into
its different layers, as they have been super-imposed one upon another
in the course of ages. From the latter point of view the Vedic
divinities claim the attention first. There are still traces of the
original power of Agni and S[=u]rya, as we have shown, and Wind still
makes with these two a notable triad,[63] whereas Indra, impotent as
he is, hymnless as he is,--save in the oldest portions of the
work,--still leads the gods, now godkins, of the ancient pantheon, and
still, in theory, at least, off a paradise to the knight that dies
nobly on the field.[64] But one sees at once that the preservation of
the dignity of these deities is due to different causes. Indra cannot
even save a snake that grasps his hand for safety; he wages war
against the demons' 'triple town,' and signally fails of his purpose,
for the demons are as strong as the gods, and there are D[=a]navendras
as well as D[=a]navarshis.[65] But Indra is the figure-head of the
whole ancient pantheon, and for this reason he plays so constant, if
so weak, a role, in the epic. The only important thing in connection
with him is his heaven. As an individual deity Indra lives, on the
whole, only in the tales of old, for example, in that of his cheating
Namuci (ix. 43. 32 ff.). Nothing new and clever is told of him which
would indicate power, only a new trick or two, as when he steals from
Karna. It is quite otherwise with Agni and S[=u]rya. They are not so
vaguely identified with the one god as is 'Indra and the other Vasus.'
It is merely because these gods are prominently forms of Vishnu that
they are honored with hymns in the epic. This is seen from the nature
of the hymns, and also from the fact that it is either as fire or as
sun that Vishnu destroys at the end of the aeons. For it is, perhaps,
somewhat daring to say, and yet it seems to be the fact, that the
solar origin of Vishnu is not lost sight of.

The pantheistic Vishnu is the _[=a]tm[=a]_, and Vishnu, after all, is
but a form of fire. Therefore is it that the epic Vishnu is
perpetually lapsing into fire; while fire and sun are doubly honored
as special forms of the highest. It is, then, not so much on account
of a survival of ancient dignity[66] that sun and fire stand