ABSTRACT
The divinities of Vedic polytheism unarguably constitute a pantheon: in myth and above all in ritual, each god is distinguished from the others and co-ordinate with them; his personality is marked by the domain and modes of action assigned to him as well as by his physical and moral attributes. (The articulation between the various components of the divine world does not, of course, exclude rivalry or even hostility: the gods are frequently involved in conflict over the shares due to them in the various rites.) Nevertheless, these divine figures are often confused, and the features which give them shape are not enough to endow them with stable identities. Vedic theology strives on the one hand to undo the notion of a divine individual; being endowed with ubiquity, each god has several bodies or, rather, an infinite number of bodies, and his power can be decanted into the body of another god. The texts state continually that, considered from such-and-such an angle and in the particular circumstance created by the rite, one specific god is identical to such-and-such another one-that he quite simply is this other god. On the other hand, the kinship relations between the gods are the object of fragmentary and disparate statements. Some gods are known to be fathers or sons, and this genealogical positioning with reference to an ascendant or descendant, who is designated by name, may play a major role in their history and in the cult surrounding them. However, other divinities appear to have no family ties of any sort. Still others have the character of ‘sons’ even though it is impossible to tell who their fathers are; in fact, in the case of a god like Agni the question cannot even be phrased in these terms, for this god, above all else a son, is ‘son of himself. Although the cosmogonic figure of Praj&pati undoubtedly came to
dominate later Vedism and all the gods are derived from him as his sons, the same thing applies to all creatures and to all elements of the cosmos, human society, and ritual. This does not prevent this creator from being re-created in his turn, in both myth and rite, by his own creation; in this respect, the father is also the son of his sons (or, rather, of the particular son, the god Agni, who took the initiative in this re-creation). The scholars writing at the end of the Vedic period (in the Br. haddevata-and the Nirukta) were receptive to the notion of reciprocal and reversible filiation (anyonyayonita-) among these gods who give birth to each other (itaretarajanmanah.). Thus, the fact that we have trouble in distinguishing clearly the families of the gods is due not only to lacunae in the mythology but also to the desire of the Vedic theologians (who may have exploited these silent and obscure passages) to demonstrate that the identity of a god cannot be defined by the same criteria as are applied to the identity of a mortal. Furthermore, this blurring of their affiliation is repeated in a way with their alliances; some gods have one spouse, but in ritual there is the indistinct mass of the ‘wives of the gods’. Kinship ties between gods may occasionally be stressed, but when this happens it is generally to reveal an instance of incestPraj&pati’s attempt to commit incest with his daughter Dawn (UUas) or Speech (V&c) or the secret committing of incest with his daughter SaraTy* of TvaUVr. ‘the shaper’.
