DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.638#0087
30 INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
Vedic Age, being probably associated with a group of
abstract deities — his attributes symbolized—who are
represented by the Adityas. .The Mitra-Varuna group
of Celestials were the source of all heavenly gifts; they
regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters and the
seasons. If we assume that they were of Babylonian or
Sumerian origin—deities imported by a branch of Aryan
setders who had been in contact with Babylonian civiliza-
tion—their rivalry with the older Aryan gods, Indra and
Agni, can be understood. Ultimately they were super-
seded, but the influence exercised by their cult remained
and left its impress upon later Aryan religious thought.
The Assyrian word " metru" signifies rain.1 The
quickening rain which caused the growth of vegetation
was, of course, one of the gifts of the Celestials of the
firmament. It is of interest to note, therefore, in this
connection that Professor Frazer includes the western
Mithra among the "corn gods". Dealing with Mithraic
sculptures, which apparently depict Mithra as the sacri-
ficer of the harvest bull offering, he says: "On certain
of these monuments the tail of the bull ends in three
stalks of corn, and in one of them cornstalks instead of
blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted by the
knife ".2
Commenting on the Assyrian " metru" Professor
Moulton says: "If this is his (Mithra's) origin, we get
a reasonable basis for the Avestan (Early Persian and
Aryan) use of the word to denote a 'contract', as also for
the fact that the deity is in the Avesta patron of Truth
and in the Veda of Friendship, He is 'the Mediator'
between Heaven and Earth, as the firmament was by
1 Professor H. W. Hogg, in Professor Moalton'i Early Religiout Paltry of P'n'^>
P-37-
*"The Golden Bough" {Spirits of tht Corn and Wild, vol. ii, p. 10).
Vedic Age, being probably associated with a group of
abstract deities — his attributes symbolized—who are
represented by the Adityas. .The Mitra-Varuna group
of Celestials were the source of all heavenly gifts; they
regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters and the
seasons. If we assume that they were of Babylonian or
Sumerian origin—deities imported by a branch of Aryan
setders who had been in contact with Babylonian civiliza-
tion—their rivalry with the older Aryan gods, Indra and
Agni, can be understood. Ultimately they were super-
seded, but the influence exercised by their cult remained
and left its impress upon later Aryan religious thought.
The Assyrian word " metru" signifies rain.1 The
quickening rain which caused the growth of vegetation
was, of course, one of the gifts of the Celestials of the
firmament. It is of interest to note, therefore, in this
connection that Professor Frazer includes the western
Mithra among the "corn gods". Dealing with Mithraic
sculptures, which apparently depict Mithra as the sacri-
ficer of the harvest bull offering, he says: "On certain
of these monuments the tail of the bull ends in three
stalks of corn, and in one of them cornstalks instead of
blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted by the
knife ".2
Commenting on the Assyrian " metru" Professor
Moulton says: "If this is his (Mithra's) origin, we get
a reasonable basis for the Avestan (Early Persian and
Aryan) use of the word to denote a 'contract', as also for
the fact that the deity is in the Avesta patron of Truth
and in the Veda of Friendship, He is 'the Mediator'
between Heaven and Earth, as the firmament was by
1 Professor H. W. Hogg, in Professor Moalton'i Early Religiout Paltry of P'n'^>
P-37-
*"The Golden Bough" {Spirits of tht Corn and Wild, vol. ii, p. 10).