casionally are found. All of these hymns except the first two
simply invite V[=a]yu to come with Indra to the sacrifice, It is
V[=a]yu who with Indra obtains the first drink of soma (i. 134. 6). He
is spoken of as the artificer's, Tvashtar's, son-in-law, but the
allusion is unexplained (viii. 26. 22); he in turn begets the
storm-gods (i. 134. 4).

With V[=a]yu is joined Indra, one of the popular gods. These
divinities, which are partly of the middle and partly of the lower
sphere, may be called the popular gods, yet were the title 'new gods'
neither wholly amiss nor quite correct. For, though the popular
deities in general, when compared with many for whom a greater
antiquity may be claimed, such as the Sun, Varuna, Dyaus, etc., are of
more recent growth in dignity, yet there remains a considerable number
of divinities, the hymns in whose honor, dating from the latest
period, seem to show that the power they celebrate had been but lately
admitted into the category of those gods that deserved special
worship. Consequently new gods would be a misleading term,
as it should be applied to the plainer products of theological
speculation and abstraction rather than to Indra and his peers, not to
speak of those newest pantheistic gods, as yet unknown. The
designation popular must be understood, then, to apply to the gods
most frequently, most enthusiastically revered (for in a stricter
sense the sun was also a popular god); and reference is had in using
this word to the greater power and influence of these gods, which is
indicated by the fact that the hymns to Agni and Indra precede all
others in the family books, while the Soma-hymns are collected for the
most part into one whole book by themselves.

But there is another factor that necessitates a division between the
divinities of sun and heaven and the atmospheric and earthly gods
which are honored so greatly; and this factor is explanatory of the
popularity of these gods. In the case of the older divinities it is
the spiritualization of a sole material appearance that is revered; in
the case of the popular gods, the material phenomenon is reduced to a
minimum, the spirituality behind the phenomenon is exalted, and that
spirituality stands not in and for itself, but as a part of a union of
spiritualities. Applying this test to the earlier gods the union will
be found to be lacking. The sun's spiritual power is united with
Indra's, but the sun is as much a physical phenomen