so high,
but rather because they are the nearest approach to the effulgence of
the Supreme. Thus while in one place one is told that after seven suns
have appeared the supreme gods become the fire of destruction and
complete the ruin, in another he reads that it is the sun alone which,
becoming twelvefold, does all the work of the Supreme.[67]

Indra has hymns and sacrifices, but although he has no so exalted hymn
as comes to his 'friend Agni,' yet (in an isolated passage) he has a
new feast and celebration, the account of which apparently belongs to
the first period of the epic, when the worship of Indra still had
significance. In i. 63, an _Indramaha_, or 'glorification of Indra,'
is described a festivity extending over two days, and marked by the
erection of a pole in honor of the god--a ceremony which 'even
to-day,' it is said, is practiced.[68] The old tales of the fire-cult
are retold, and new rites are known.[69] Thus in iii. 251. 20 ff.,
Prince Duryodhana resolves to starve to death (oblivious of the rule
that 'a suicide goes to hell'), and since this is a religious
ceremony, he clothes himself in old clothes and holy-grass, 'touches
water,' and devotes himself with intense application to heaven. Then
the devils of Rudra called D[=a]iteyas and D[=a]navas, who live
underground ever since they were conquered by the gods, aided by
priests, make a fire-rite, and with _mantras_ "declared by Brihaspati
and Ucanas, and proclaimed in the Atharva-Veda," raise a ghost or
spirit, who is ordered to fetch Duryodhana to hell, which she
immediately does.[70] The frequent connection of Brihaspati with the
Atharva-Veda is of interest (above, p. 159). He is quite a venerable,
if not wholly orthodox, author in the epic, and his 'rules' are often
cited.[71]

That Vedic deity who, alone of pre-Vedic powers, still holds his proud
place, Yama, the king of departed spirits, varies in the epic
according to the period represented. In old tales he is still quite
Vedic in character; he takes the dead man's soul off to his own realm.
But, of course, as pantheism prevails, and eschatology becomes
confused, Yama passes into a shadow, and at most is a bugbear for the
wicked. Even his companions are stolen from another realm, and one
hears now of "King Yama with his Rudras" (III. 237. 11),[72] while it
is only the bad[73] that go to Yama (III. 200. 24), in popular belief,
although this view, itself old, relapses occasionally into one still
o