place’ (or step) being the home of the departed spirits, where he himself dwells, inscrutable.  This led to the spirit’s union with the sun, which, as we have said, is one of the first phases of the pantheistic doctrine.  In the family-books Vishnu gets but two hymns, both in the same collection, and shares one more with Indra (VII. 99-100; VI. 69).  In some of the family-collections, notably in that of the Visvamitras, he is, if not unknown, almost ignored.  As Indra’s friend he is most popular with the Kanva family, but even here he has no special hymn.

  None born, God Vishnu, and none born hereafter
  E’er reaches to the limit of thy greatness;
  Twas thou establish’st yon high vault of heaven,
  Thou madest fast the earth’s extremest mountain. (VII. 99. 2.)

  Three steps he made, the herdsman sure,
  Vishnu, and stepped across (the world). (I. 22. i8.)

  The mighty deeds will I proclaim of Vishnu,
  Who measured out the earth’s extremest spaces,
  And fastened firm the highest habitation,
  Thrice stepping out with step all-powerful.

  O would that I might reach his path beloved,
  Where joy the men who hold the gods in honor. (I. 154. 1, 5.)

Under all these names and images the sun is worshipped.  And it is necessary to review them all to see how deeply the worship is ingrained.  The sun is one of the most venerable as he is the most enduring of India’s nature-gods.[52] In no early passage is the sun a malignant god.  He comes “as kine to the village, as a hero to his steed, as a calf to the cow, as a husband to his wife."[53] He is the ‘giver,’ the ‘generous one,’ and as such he is Mitra, ‘the friend,’ who with Varuna, the encompassing heaven, is, indeed, in the Rig Veda, a personality subordinated to his greater comrade; yet is this, perhaps, the sun’s oldest name of those that are not descriptive of purely physical characteristics.  For Mithra in Persian keeps the proof that this title was given to the Indo-Iranic god before the separation of the two peoples.  It is therefore (perhaps with Bhaga?) one of the most ancient personal designations of the sun,—­one, perhaps, developed from a mere name into a separate deity.

HEAVEN AND EARTH.

Not only as identical with the chief god of the Greeks, but also from a native Indic point of view, it might have been expected that Dyaus (Zeus), the ‘shining sky,’ would play an important role in the Hindu pantheon.  But such is not the case.  There is not a single hymn addressed independently to Dyaus, nor is there any hint of especial preeminence of Dyaus in the half-dozen hymns that are sung to Heaven and Earth together.  The word dyaus is used hundreds of times, but generally in the meaning sky (without personification).  There is, to be sure, a formal acknowledgment of the fatherhood of Dyaus (among gods he is father particularly of Dawn, the