al here below. The Vedic gods may be contrasted
with them in this, that they are of an impersonal nature, as the
characters they display are mostly but expressions of the powers
of nature. To take an example, the fire or Agni is described, as
Kaegi has it, as one that "lies concealed in the softer wood, as
in a chamber, until, called forth by the rubbing in the early
morning hour, he suddenly springs forth in gleaming brightness.
The sacrificer takes and lays him on the wood. When the priests
pour melted butter upon him, he leaps up crackling and neighing
like a horse--he whom men love to see increasing like their own
prosperity. They wonder at him, when, decking himself with

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[Footnote 1: _The Rigveda_, by Kaegi, p. 26.]

17

changing colors like a suitor, equally beautiful on all sides, he
presents to all sides his front.

"All-searching is his beam, the gleaming of his light,
His, the all-beautiful, of beauteous face and glance,
The changing shimmer like that floats upon the stream,
So Agni's rays gleam over bright and never cease."

[Footnote ref 1] R.V.I. 143. 3.

They would describe the wind (Vata) and adore him and say

"In what place was he born, and from whence comes he?
The vital breath of gods, the world's great offspring,
The God where'er he will moves at his pleasure:
His rushing sound we hear--what his appearance, no one."

[Footnote ref 2] R.V.X. 168. 3, 4.

It was the forces of nature and her manifestations, on earth
here, the atmosphere around and above us, or in the Heaven
beyond the vault of the sky that excited the devotion and
imagination of the Vedic poets. Thus with the exception of a
few abstract gods of whom we shall presently speak and some
dual divinities, the gods may be roughly classified as the
terrestrial, atmospheric, and celestial.

Polytheism, Henotheism and Monotheism.

The plurality of the Vedic gods may lead a superficial enquirer
to think the faith of the Vedic people polytheistic. But an intelligent
reader will find here neither polytheism nor monotheism but a simple
primitive stage of belief to which both of these may be said to owe
their origin. The gods here do not preserve their proper places as in
a polytheistic faith, but each one of them shrinks into insignificance
or shines as supreme according as it is the object of adoration or not.
The Vedic poets were the chil