^{page 705 note 1} It should be observed that in RV. the celestial Soma is imagined (a) sometimes, and most commonly, as a spring or stream, on which cf. above, p. 704, and Hillebrandt, V.M. I. p. 319 ff., (b) sometimes as a plant of paradise, and (c) perhaps in some places of RV., and usually in later Vedic and post-Vedic writings, as being contained in a bowl or pitcher. But even in the tale of the Rape of Sōma in Mahābh. I. the ideas seem confused: Garuḍa is said to pluck it up, samutpāṭya, as if it were a plant, xxxiii. 10 (cf. Charpentier, , Die Suparṇasage, p. 182, n. 1).Google Scholar

^{page 705 note 2} Verse 8 refers to Sōma descending into the water in the earthly vat. “Gazing with a vulture's eye,” páśyan gṛdhrasya cálcṣasā, is a proverbial phrase for keen sight: cf. sāuparṇarp, cákṣasā Suparṇâdhyāya III. 5; for the thought cf. X. xxx. 2, where the priests are bidden to come to the waters (in the Sōma-vats) upon which the ruddy Bird (the spirit of Sōma) is gazing. Hillebrandt, , Ved. Myth. I. p. 430 ff., interprets this hymn as a Moon-psalm.Google Scholar

Waters are the foundations of the whole world, ŚBr. VI. viii. 2, 2, XII. v. 2, 14; Hiraṇyakēśigṛhya-s. II. iv. 10, 7; they are the elixir of immortality, ŚBr. IV. iv. 3, 15, XIII. viii. 1, 9; they are the same as amṛta, ib. I. ix. 3, 7, XI. v. 4, 5; the wives of Amṛta (= Sōma), amṛtasya pátnḥ, ib. III. ix. 4, 16. They are the body of Viṣṇu, in Smṛti quoted in Śrībhāṣya on Vēdântasūtra II. i. 9; their presiding deity is Sōma, Mahābhār. XIV. xlii. 22 (Anugītā). They form the essence of vegetation, ŚBr. III. vi. 1, 7. They are the healing principle in nature, and give long life and generative power, RV. I. xxiii. 19 ff., X. ix. 1 ff. (where note 3, jandyáthā ca naḥ, “give us generative power,” and 6, an allusion to Sōma), AV. VI. xci. 3; Macdonell, V.M., p. 85; Bloomfield, , Ath. Veda, p. 62, etc.Google Scholar

^{page 706 note 2} This is the meaning of the prayer for offspring addressed to G. and A. in Paficav. Br. XIX. iii. 2, and the belief that every bride belonged first to Sōma, next to the G. Viśvāvasu, and next to Agni, and that in the early days of marriage the G. was a rival of the husband, RV. X. lxxxv. 22, 40 ff. (cf. AV. XIV. ii, 3 f.): Sōma is the prime spirit and source of life, the G. his minister who brings the life to earth, and Agni the ministering god by whose agency the marriage is solemnised (cf. gāndharvām pathyām, RV. X. lxxx. 6), and each of the three gods claims a droit de seigneur. The Buddhists have preserved a popular belief (perhaps already hinted at in RV. X. clxxvii. 2) that every soul (or what corresponds to a soul in Buddhism) is conveyed into its mother's womb as a Gandharva: cf. La Vallée Poussin, Deux Notes sur le Pratītyasamutpāda, Actes du XIV^e Congrès Intern, d. Oriental., tom. I, p. 200, and Hillebrandt, A., Ved. Myth., I. p. 426Google Scholar, and id. Zur Bedeutung v. Gandharva, Jahresber. d. Schles. GeselUch. f. vaterland. Cultur, IV. Abteil, 1906 (the latter two articles unconvincing). The G. digs up for Varuṇa an aphrodisiac plant, AV. IV. iv. 1. On the residence of G. and A. in trees see Macdonell, , V.M., p. 134.Google Scholar

^{page 707 note 1} Tradition has been very tenacious of this succession, which is preserved even in Firdausī and subsequent literature. Cf. Windischmann, , Zoroastrische Studien (Berlin, 1863), pp. 32 ff., 190, 197.Google Scholar

^{page 707 note 2} Hukairyāṭ paiti lit. “from the mountain H.”: Y. stood on or beside the mountain and invoked the goddess within it.

^{page 708 note 1} The attempts to identify this lake with the Sea of Aral or the Caspian seem to be futile.

^{page 708 note 2} The sun, moon, and stars are said to circle around Haraitl (Yašt XII. § 25; cf. Vend. XXI. § 5 ff.). Yašt XIX. § 1 wildly describes it as surrounding both the western and the eastern lands (like the Jabal Kāf of the Arabs).

^{page 708 note 3} For this sense of ṛdh ef. ŚBr. I. ix. 1, 16, tad aśyāt tad rdhyāt.

^{page 709 note 1} I have touched on this fundamental feature of Viṣṇu's character in Hindu Gods and Heroes, p. 37 ff., and must refrain from enlarging on the point here.Google Scholar

^{page 710 note 1} Cf. Windischmann, , Zor. Stud., pp. 166, 171 f.Google Scholar It is possible that the “Eagle's Tree” of Yašt XII. § 17 is the .

^{page 710 note 2} It may be suspected that the Babylonian Tree of Life (on which see Wünsche, A., Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum u. Lebenswasser, Leipzig, 1905) had a considerable influence on the evolution of the idea of the White Haoma tree.Google Scholar

^{page 711 note 1} According to later tradition, Yima made the world enjoy immortality for 1,000 years, viz. 900 as above and 100 spent in the Close.

^{page 711 note 2} The Close had a door “luminous, self-luminous on the inner side”, (§ ii. 30). Reichelt is probably right in saying that this door “is to be understood as the heaven with sun, moon, and stars” (Av. Reader, p. 141), i.e. as serving to give light to the Close in lieu of the natural sky with sun, etc.; the connected passage (39–41) is obscure, and may be a later addition.

^{page 712 note 1} It is from the south that the fragrant breeze blows which greets the soul bound for Paradise ( Nask ii. 7). The ancient Iranians oriented themselves from the south.

^{page 712 note 2} See further SBE. XXIII. p. 60, n. 2, p. 252, n. 1.

^{page 713 note 1} On the legends of Yima's fall cf. Windischmann, Zor. Stud., p. 31 f.

^{page 713 note 2} Cf. zairigaona “green-hued”; see Bartholomae, Wōrterbuch, s.v., and on the confusion of colours Geiger, L., Contributions to the History of the Development of the Human Race (London, 1880), p. 56 f.Google Scholar The point is overlooked by Hillebrandt, , Ved. Myth. I. p. 25 f.Google Scholar

^{page 714 note 1} To these hypotheses I venture to add a small epicycle of speculations on the so-called caitya-symbol found on many Indian coins from the earliest times.

As is now generally admitted, this symbol represents not a caitya but a mountain.

At its base is normally a waved pattern which is most naturally to be interpreted as signifying a river or lake. This at once suggests the Mountain of Heaven—the Mount Mēru of classical literature—and the divine Lake at its base. The mountain is associated on coins with other symbols—sun, moon, a tree, and on punch-marked coins also a bird and a beast, possibly an antelope. The sun and moon are obvious. The tree, however, demands explanation. Sometimes it stands on the ground at the side of the mountain, sometimes upon the mountain, and sometimes it is absent. Either then it originally formed an integral part of the design, or else it was added later to the mountain, which is equally possible: the separate and solitary tree enclosed in a square paling is a common device on coins. On either view the tree may be compared to the Iranian White Haoma of which we have spoken, and may conceivably be meant for the Kalpa-druma of Indian legend. The bird I take to be Garuḍa alighting on the Mountain of Heaven to carry away Indra's Sōma (cf. especially Suparṇâdhyaya xiii. 5, p. 263 in Charpentier's edition). On other punch-marked coins we find a huge bird on a tree, which reminds us of Garuḍa on the tree Rauhiṇa, a well-known mythic trait, on which see Charpentier, , Die Suparṇasage, pp. 176, 368.Google Scholar The Rauhina may be the “Eagle's Tree” of Yašt XII. § 17, which may possibly be the same as the Gaokorana.

^{page 715 note 1} So in the Arabian Nights the Water of Life is on a mountain; ef. Wiinsche, A., Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser, p. 100 f.Google Scholar