Beneath whose course the earth hath bent and bowed her,
  Beneath whose course the (kine) behoofed bestir them,
  Beneath whose course the plants stand multifarious,
  He—­thou, Parjanya—­grant us great protection! 
  Bestow Dyaus’ rain upon us, O ye Maruts! 
  Make thick the stream that comes from that strong stallion! 
  With this thy thunder come thou onward, hither,
  Thy waters pouring, a spirit and our father.[30]
  Roar forth and thunder!  Give the seed of increase! 
  Drive with thy chariot full of water round us;
  The water-bag drag forward, loosed, turned downward;
  Let hills and valleys equal be before thee! 
  Up with the mighty keg! then pour it under! 
  Let all the loosened streams flow swiftly forward;
  Wet heaven and earth with this thy holy fluid;[31]
  And fair drink may it be for all our cattle!

      When thou with rattle and with roar,
      Parjanya, thundering, sinners slayest,
      Then all before thee do rejoice,
      Whatever creatures live on earth.

  Rain hast thou rained, and now do thou restrain it;
  The desert, too, hast thou made fit for travel;
  The plants hast thou begotten for enjoyment;
  And wisdom hast thou found for thy descendants.

The different meters may point to a collection of small hymns.  It is to be observed that Parjanya is here the fathergod (of men); he is the Asura, the Spirit; and rain comes from the Shining Sky (Dyaus).  How like Varuna!

The rain, to the poet, descends from the sky, and is liable to be caught by the demon, Vritra, whose rain-swollen belly Indra opens with a stroke, and lets fall the rain; or, in the older view just presented, Parjanya makes the cloud that gives the rain—­a view united with the descent of rain from the sky (Dyaus).  With Parjanya as an Aryan rain-god may be mentioned Trita, who, apparently, was a water-god, [=A]ptya, in general; and some of whose functions Indra has taken.  He appears to be the same with the Persian Thraetaona [=A]thwya; but in the Rig Veda he is interesting mainly as a dim survival of the past.[32] The washing out of sins, which appears to be the original conception of Varuna’s sin-forgiving,[33] finds an analogue in the fact that sins are cast off upon the innocent waters and upon Trita—­also a water-god, and once identified with Varuna (viii. 41. 6).  But this notion is so unique and late (only in viii. 47) that Bloomfield is perhaps right in imputing it to the [later] moralizing age of the Br[=a]hmanas, with which the third period of the Rig Veda is quite in touch.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

     [Footnote 1:  Compare I. 134. 3.]

     [Footnote 2:  For the different views, see Perry, JAOS. xi.
     p. 119; Muir, OST. v. p. 77.]

     [Footnote 3:  La Religion Vedique, ii. pp. 159, 161, 166,
     187.]