pears an ancient side
of sun-worship. While under his other names the sun has lost, to a
great extent, the attributes of a bucolic solar deity, in the case of
P[=u]shan he appears still as a god whose characteristics are bucolic,
war-like, and priestly, that is to say, even as he is venerated by the
three masses of the folk. It will not do, of course, to distinguish
too sharply between the first two divisions, but one can very well
compare P[=u]shan in these roles with Helios guiding his herds, and
Apollo swaying armed hosts. It is customary to regard P[=u]shan as too
bucolic a deity, but this is only one side of him. He apparently is
the sun, as herdsmen look upon him, and in this figure is the object
of ridicule with the warrior-class who, especially in one family or
tribe, take a more exalted view of him. Consequently, as in the case
of Varuna, one need not read into the hymns more than they offer to
see that, not to speak of the priestly view, there are at least two
P[=u]shans, in the Rig Veda itself.[28]

As the god 'with braided hair,' and as the 'guardian of cattle,'
P[=u]shan offers, perhaps, in these particulars, the original of
Rudra's characteristics, who, in the Vedic period, and later as
Rudra-Civa, is also a 'guardian of cattle' and has the 'braided hair.'

Bergaigne identifies P[=u]shan with Soma, with whom the poets were apt
to identify many other deities, but there seems to be little
similarity originally.[29] It is only in the wider circles of each
god's activity that the two approach each other. Both gods, it is
true, wed S[=u]rya (the female sun-power), and Soma, like P[=u]shan,
finds lost cattle. But it must be recognized once for all that
identical attributes are not enough to identify Vedic gods. Who gives
wealth? Indra, Soma, Agni, Heaven and Earth, Wind, Sun, the Maruts,
etc. Who forgives sins? Agni, Varuna, Indra, the Sun, etc. Who helps
in war? Agni, P[=u]shan, Indra, Soma, etc. Who sends rain? Indra,
Parjanya, Soma, the Maruts, P[=u]shan, etc. Who weds Dawn? The Acvins,
the Sun, etc. The attributes must be functional or the identification
is left incomplete.

The great disparity in descriptions of P[=u]shan may be illustrated by
setting VI. 48. 19 beside X. 92. 13. The former passage merely
declares that P[=u]shan is a war-leader "over mortals, and like the
gods in glory"; the latter, that he is "distinguished by all divine
attributes"; that is to say, what has happened in the case of Savi