F. B.J.

Kuiper THE BASIC CONCEPT

OF VEDIC RELIGION

I
The basic concept of Vedic religion is no doubt an unusual object
of study, as it implies at least three assumptions: first, that the
time has come for a more general survey of this religion; second,
that there actually does exist a basic concept; and third, that
something sensible can be said about it. Each of these assumptions
will perhaps be questioned. The following study will show how I
think it has become possible in the present state of Vedic studies
to discuss the underlying idea of Vedic theology.1

II
The key to an insight into this religion is, I think, to be found in
its cosmogony, that is, the myth which tells us how, in primordial
time, this world came into existence. This myth owed its funda-
mental importance to the fact that every decisive moment in life
was considered a repetition of the primeval process. Therefore the
myth was not merely a tale of things that had happened long ago,
1 This is the text of a lecture given to an audience with no previous
knowledge of Vedic religion. This explains why the concentration on the main
lines has sometimes led to some simplification in the presentation of the facts.
Thus, for the sake of clearness only Varuna is mentioned because the other
Adityas were not relevant in this context. Oversimplification will, I think, only be
found at the end, where the status of the gods of totality could best be illustrated
by Visnu. The lecture is here reproduced without material changes because it
seems the best form in which to summarize what I think Vedic religion was basi-
cally about. It is based on a study which will be published elsewhere. Therefore,
only a few references have been added in footnotes.
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 Basic Conceptof Vedic Religion
nor was it a rational explanation of how this world had become
what it is now. The origin of the world constituted the sacred
prototype of how, in an endlessly repeated process, life and this
world renewed themselves again and again.
To this aspect of the myth, however, we shall have to return
later on. Let us, for the present moment, see what the myth tells
us about the origin of the world.
In the beginning there was only water, but these so-called
primeval waters bore in themselves the germ of life.2 From the
bottom a small clod of earth rose to the surface, where it floated
about. The clod spread on the surface and became a mountain,
the beginning of the earth, but it continued to float on the waters.3
There is a variant version in which the highest god, the World
Father, drifted about, but the presence or absence of this god is
only of marginal importance. The primordial world itself was
sacred, and for the process of this genesis to take place there was
no need of a creator. Things were considered to exist, somehow,
in their own right. In this first stage, however, as represented by
the mountain, the world was still an undifferentiated unity. The
poets sometimes speak of a darkness as the initial state, but this
is clearly a mere attempt to express what could not properly be
expressed in words. None of the contrasts which constitute our
phenomenal world yet existed. There was no heaven or earth, no
day or night, no light or, properly speaking, darkness.
Nor did that contrast yet exist in which for archaic man the
cosmic dualism manifested itself most clearly in human life,
namely, the all-pervading contrast between man and woman, male
and female. Hence it is that the myth, at this stage of the genesis,
sometimes refers to bisexual primeval beings to whom others owe
their existence. In mixing up the roles of father and mother the
myth is, indeed, consistent and, in its own way, logical. A special
group of gods, the Asuras, was connected with this first stage.
Their great importance will become clear later on.
It is obvious that this first stage of the cosmogony is not a
creation myth at all. There were in the beginning already certain
things the existence of which was taken for granted, as a last
irreducible fact. The first Vedic thinkers who have left a trace in
the Rigveda were well aware of these bounds set to their specula-
2
Apah. See Sylvain Levi, La doctrine du sacrifice dans les brdhmanas (Paris,
1898), pp. 13, n. 3; 159, n. 3. Compare, e.g., India Maior, Congratulatory Volume
Gonda (Leiden, 1972), p. 145, n. 1; F. B. J. Kuiper, "Cosmogony and Conception:
A Query," History of Religions 10 (1970):99.
3 For references see, e.g.,
Kuiper, pp. 100 ff., 109-10.
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 History of Religions
tions. The last words of a philosophical hymn are: "Whence this
creation came into existence . .. that only the Supervisor of this
world knows-or perhaps not even He."4

III
This state of undifferentiated unity came to a sudden end by the
second stage of the cosmogony. It started with the birth of the god
Indra, outside the primeval world. It is not said whence he came,
nor could the texts have been more specific on this point as it was
apparently part of his character that he came "from nowhere."5
Indra's mythical function is limited to promoting the emergence
of a dual world of individualized forms from the undifferentiated
chaos. Again, Indra is not a creator in the Old Testamentary sense
of the word, and there are even versions which describe the process
as due to some internal forces, without the intervention of the god
at all. His exploit, which we shall have to consider more closely,
can best be defined as a demiurgic act. He starts a process in the
primeval world of unformed matter, a process owing to which a
world of mere potentiality became the world of reality, in which
light has arisen and forms a contrast with darkness, in which life
exists along with death, and in which good is counterbalanced by
evil. Indra does not create anything but rather acts as a kind of
magnetic force which, as one text says, causes all powers, all
entities in the world, to side with one of the two poles of existence.6
One might perhaps call the process an evolution, in the strictly
etymological sense of the word. Anyway, if one refers to this myth
as a creation myth (as I prefer to do), it should be borne in mind
that the word is here used in a very indirect way.
As for the Rigveda, it is for special reasons only concerned with
this second stage of the genesis of the world. From the stray ref-
erences in the hymns the following picture can be reconstructed.
Indra's demiurgic act appears to consist of two different parts,
which concern the primeval hill and the tree of life, respectively.
Let us first look at the former. The hill, which is still floating on
the primeval waters, has to be riveted to the bottom, and to be
opened. There is, however, a strong force of resistance in this
4
Rigveda X. 129. 7.
5 On the about Indra's origin, see Rigveda II. 12. 5 (kuha seti),
uncertainty
X. 73, 10.
6 Baudhdyana Srautasutra XVIII. 46 (p. 401, line 11): "When the Devas and
Asuras were waging the Great War, all these beings split into two groups; some
went to the Devas, others to the Asuras."
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 Basic Conceptof Vedic Religion

mountain, and so Indra's heroic fight, although sometimes de-

scribed as being directed against the mountain, is more often
directed against that force, which is denoted by the word vrtra.
Vrtra means "obstruction, resistance." In the myth the power of
resistance is personified by a dragon, and Indra must accordingly,
like Saint George and other mythological heroes, slay the dragon.
It should not be forgotten, however, that this dragon, which itself
came to be called Vrtra, only represents a special aspect of the
primeval mountain, a resistance which Indra had to overcome in
order to split open the hill. In this fight Indra is victorious. He
slays the dragon, and from the hill, opened by force, life bursts
forth under its two aspects of water and fire. In the creation myth
the water is represented by four rivers, which stream from the top
of the mountain in four different directions, and the fire by the sun
which rises from the mountain or the waters. At the same time
the mountain is no longer floating about. It has now found a
support (as the texts say) and starts growing on all sides, until it
has the expanse of the earth. Still, the primeval mountain remains
the cosmic center and the nail which keeps the earth in its place.
As for the second part of Indra's act, which concerns the tree of
life, Indra here functions as a pillar in propping up the sky, which
until then had been lying upon the earth. In so doing he creates
the duality of heaven and earth. From a mythological point of view
this is not a separate event, because the contrast between heaven
and earthis only one particular aspect of the all-pervading dualism.
Thus, with the sun rising to the sky, the contrast between light
and darkness is born, which is parallel to that between life and
death.
Indra's mythical role remains limited to this single exploit.
Again and again the poets say that he slew the dragon, extended
the earth, and lifted up the sky, but that is about all they can tell
us about him. There is, however, one particularly interesting detail
in his creation act, and here we return to his connection with the
world tree. This tree belonged to the dual cosmos, since it was
identical with the cosmic pillar which, in the center of the world,
kept heaven and earth apart. It must accordingly have arisen
when the sky was separated from the earth. The obvious conclusion
is that Indra, at the moment when he "propped up" the sky, must
have been identical with the tree. On the other hand, there are
sufficient indications to show that in general Indra has nothing to

7 On pratisthd, see, in general, Kuiper, pp. 109-10.

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 History of Religions
do with the cosmic tree and the world center. His identity with
the pillar at the moment of creation, when he himself literally was
the world axis, must accordingly have had a momentary character.
This inference is confirmed by data about the Indra festival of
much later times. From these we learn that it was then still cus-
tomary to erect every year, during the New Year's festival,8 a pole
in honor of Indra. Its most interesting feature is that during the
few days that it stood erected and was worshipped, it was consid-
ered to be identical with god Indra and was sometimes denoted by
his name. This gives a special significance to the fact that after
some seven days the pole was pulled down, taken away, and thrown
into a river, which would not have been possible unless the function
of the god himself, whose name it bore, had for the time being
come to an end. This, again, confirms the conclusion drawn from
the Vedic evidence that Indra was a seasonal god, whose myth-
ological act consisted in creating and renewing the world and
inaugurating a new year.
It does not mean that the god was entirely absent during the
rest of the year. Just as it was said that Indra immediately after
his birth slew the dragon, so he was present to aid his devotees,
whenever they had to overcome inimical forces in various shapes,
such as aborigines sheltered in their fortresses or demons of disease.
Even the poet craving for inspiration considered his mind a micro-
cosmic replica of the earth resting upon the subterranean ocean,
and he prayed to the god to break his inner resistance so that the
inspiration could stream forth from the ocean of his heart.9

IV
So much for the description of Indra's part in creating this world.
It is, however, only one side of the genesis. It seems never to have
been recognized that there is a different aspect, which constitutes
the very core of the Vedic conception of the world. This is the
problem of the Asuras.
As we have seen, the Asuras had been the gods of the primordial
world. Since Indra broke its obstructive power, the question nat-
urally arises, What became of them and their world?
As far as their world is concerned, the answer is clear: after the
8
See, in general, J. J. Meyer, Trilogie altindischer Mdchte und Feste der Vegeta-
tion (Zurich and Leipzig, 1937), 3:4, 113; and Mahdbharata I. 57. 18, gate samvat-
sare, "at the end of the year."
9 For the
breaking of the inner "resistance" (vrtrd), see Indo-Iranian Journal 8
(1964):125.
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 Basic Concept of Vedic Religion

powers of life had been set free, the primordial world became the
sacred earth, which together with heaven formed a pair of cosmic
moieties. But while on the surface of the earth life manifested
itself, there was also the subterranean world, with the primeval
waters on which the earth was believed to rest. This, too, had
come to form part of the organized world after Indra's creation act.
As we shall see, however, it had not quite lost its original character
and remained an ambiguous element in the creation.
As for the Asuras themselves, they constitute the central prob-
lem of Vedic religion. After Indra had created the dual cosmos, the
Asuras were no longer the only gods, since the dualism also
extended to the world of gods. Along with Indra a new group of
gods made their entrance. Their name, Devas, was the old Indo-
European word for celestial gods. As such, the Devas were opposed
to the gods of the primordial world, and the fight of Indra, the
chief and protagonist of the Devas, against the dragon must have
been considered to be also directed against the Asuras. Indeed, later
Vedic texts no longer refer to Indra's fight but instead always
speak of the cosmogonical fight between Devas and Asuras. Their
enmity had a tragical character because the Devas were the
younger brothers of the Asuras. That the younger group proved
superior to the older is a pattern not unknown in systems of social
organization.
After Indra had slain the dragon, which signals the defeat of the
Asuras, the two parties of Devas and Asuras had to come to terms
with each other. What then happens is the most momentous event
in the whole cosmogony. It appears impossible to incorporate all
the Asuras in the ordered cosmos. Only some of the chief Asuras,
such as their king Varuna, go over to the other party and side
with the Devas. The rest of them, however, are driven away from
the earth and take refuge in the nether world. (See fig. 1.) We owe
it to the very archaic character of the Rigveda that a direct and
clear trace of this split within the group of Asuras has been pre-
served. In this oldest text a distinction was still made between
devdv dsurd, "Asuras who have become Devas," and, on the other
hand, dsurd adevdh, "Asuras who are not Devas." This fact had
already attracted the attention of a discerning scholar in the nine-
teenth century,10 but since the true nature of the Asuras, as far
as I can see, was and has ever since been misunderstood, it was
impossible to appreciate the implications of this distinction. Only
10 See P. von Bradke,
Dydus Asura. Ahura Mazdd und die Asuras (Halle, 1885),
passim.
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 History of Religions

Stage I
Primordial World Asuras (Varuna, etc.)

Chaos Ordered cosmos

Devas

Stage II
Dual World Asuras Varuna, etc. Indra, etc.

nether upper
world world

FIG. 1

in the light of the cosmogony its full relevance becomes clear.

Although the original nature of the Asuras had already been recog-
nized without the help of these Rigvedic data, they are, as a
confirmation of the correctness of this reconstruction, welcome and
valuable.
I used the word "reconstruction" because in later Vedic texts
it is hard to find any direct trace of the situation which I have
sketched here. Never again is Varuna called an Asura. This term
is henceforth reserved for the banished demons, whose cosmo-
gonical fight with the Devas is constantly referred to in this lit-
erature. Varuna, however, had become a Deva, no less respectable
than Indra and the others, although still marked by certain inaus-
picious features. Only a more profound study discloses that Varuna,
although his title of Asura had long since been tabooed, continued
to be much more ambiguous than is usually realized. If, however,
Varuna's character has to a large extent been misinterpreted, this
is not due to a lack of interest on the part of students of Vedic,
religion. Far more studies have in the last few decades been devoted
to him than, for instance, to Indra, and he has recently been
characterized-and rightly so-as the neuralgic point in Vedic
studies.1l

11 See Louis Renou, in Festgabefuir Herman Lommel (Wiesbaden, 1960), p. 122:

"le point nevralgique des etudes vediques."
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 Basic Conceptof Vedic Religion
For that reason the figure of Varuna must, even in the frame-
work of these sketchy outlines, occupy us somewhat longer than
Indra.
First, it must be remarked that Varuna's transition to the Devas
is not an isolated phenomenon. It rather reflects a stereotyped
pattern. In this connection it may not be superfluous to warn
against the current misconception that the Asuras as so-called
demons impersonated evil. It should not be forgotten that their
world is one of unformed, potential life-the material out of which
the cosmos is shaped. The Asuras are not fallen angels but potential
gods. Sometimes it is related that an Asura of his own accord
leaves his world and sides with the Devas. In other cases he is
"called forth" (as the texts say) by the Devas, who are unable to
achieve their aim without the assistance of a certain Asura. The
myth here clearly points to bounds which are set to the powers of
the ordered world.
Second, when Varuna is willing to become a Deva, Indra offers
him a rulership.12 Seemingly-and this is the current interpre-
tation-Varuna is here enticed by the promise of sovereignty. What
in fact is meant is that Varuna becomes "lord of the waters," his
traditional title until much later times. Then, however, the true
meaning of this function was no longer known, as the term was
mostly interpreted as "lord of the ocean." There can be little doubt
that the original meaning was quite different. In the Veda the
term "the waters" denoted, first and foremost, the primeval waters
upon which the earth rested, and it can be proved that it was of
these waters that Varuna became the ruler. Even after his incor-
poration in the ordered cosmos, accordingly, Varuna had a function
which corresponded to his origin as god of the primordial world.
From now on he resided in the netherworld, at the roots of the
world tree and near to (or in) the subterranean cosmic waters.13
Third, the difficulties which Varuna has presented to modern
research are, it seems, largely due to vain attempts to describe in
rational, noncontradictory terms a god whose very characteristic
is his ambiguity. His inner contradictions, indeed, defy any
attempt at a strictly logical definition.
An illustration of his basically ambiguous character can be found
in his relation to the banished Asuras, his former brothers. As we
have seen, all the Asuras who were not integrated in the organized
world fled to the netherworld, accordingly to the same world
12
Rigveda X. 124. 5.
13
See, e.g., Indo-Iranian Journal 8 (1964):107 ff.; and India Maior, pp. 150-51.
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 History of Religions
where Varuna resided. The Vedic texts omit, purposely I think,
to mention this fact, but the question inevitably arises of what
kind of relation there was between Varuna and the Asuras.
The answer to this question is given in the much later Mahd-
bhdrata. In some passages it describes in an ingenuous way Varuna
as seated in his subterranean palace, surrounded by Asuras as
attendants.14 What exactly the authors of these passages may have
thought when composing these lines, is hard to say; but it is
obvious that others must have felt shocked by this intimacy
between a respected Deva and the Asuras, and since the latter
were there and could not be done away with, they made Varuna a
jailer, who had to watch the fettered Asuras.15
The truth of the story clearly was, although this is never overtly
stated, that Varuna, even after he had become a Deva, continued
to entertain secret relations with his banished brothers. It reminds
us of a Vedic tale about a priest who publicly officiated for the
Devas but secretly was the priest of the Asuras.16

V
I now come to the main point of this mythology. The Asuras had
been driven away but not annihilated. They were not part of the
cosmos but continued to exist beyond the pale, as a constant
menace to the existence and coherence of the ordered world.
One need not be a psychologist to presume that their banishment
may have meant, in Freudian terminology, a repression and that, if
repression there was, the inevitable consequence must have been
anguish on the part of the cosmos. This conclusion would, however,
ignore the fact that their banishment was only temporary. At certain
intervals-I think the Rigvedic evidence allows us to say: at the
beginning of every new year-the war between Asuras and Devas
was renewed. On the social level it was reenacted by contests,
which may be interpreted as reiterations of the cosmic strife and
as a ritualization of human aggressiveness.
14 Also in the Mahdbhdrata, Varuna is located in the netherworld; see III.
160. 10; V. 96. 5; and V. 106. 12. For the Asuras attending him, see II. 9. 15-17.
Varuna rules over them and protects them; cf. VIII. 45. 32, Bombay ed., pdlayann
asuran (against 30. 77, critical ed.), and XII. 4497, Calcutta ed., apdm rajye
'suranam ca ... prabhum (against XII. 122. 29, critical ed.). Although it cannot
be proved that these are the authentic readings, the occurrence of variant readings
may in these cases be significant.
15 Varuna's world is a refuge for Vrtra's allies; see III. 98. 3, 99. 21, 100. 1,
101. 7 ff. (cf. I. 17. 28). Varuna is the jailer of the fettered Asuras; see V. 126. 44 ff.;
III. 42. 6, 27-28. Cf. I. 19. 6, asurdnam ca bandhanam (said of the ocean).
16 For the tale of
Visvaripa, see Taittirlya Sarihitd II. 5. 1; and Jaiminiya
Brdhmana II. 153-57.
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 Basic Concept of Vedic Religion

However, I will limit myself to the theological problems and

leave a discussion of the social aspects of these potlatch-like cere-
monies to those who are better qualified. In this context I must
insert a remark on a point which I will not stress but which cannot
be ignored, because it seems obviously to follow as a conclusion
from the preceding discussion. This point is Varuna's position
during the annual period of crisis, which apparently formed a trans-
ition to the new year. If at this time the Asuras returned on earth
and renewed their war with the Devas and if, at the end of this
period, the world order was to be restored again, just as it had been
established in the beginning of time, one conclusion would seem
inevitable: in that case Varuna was during these days once more
the adversary of Indra and had to be reconciled again. In other
words, his secret conspiracy with the Asuras, traces of which we
have found in later literature, must for a short while have turned
into an open alliance. The reason why it is no use dwelling on this
point is that the Rigveda provides no evidence in support of this
conclusion. It has been suggested that this is simply due to the
circumstance that the majority of the Rigvedic hymns had been
composed for New Year ceremonies, during which Varuna was
particularly inauspicious and dangerous. This would explain why
all that concerned Varuna's darker aspects was tabooed in these
hymns. Although I believe that this is materially true, it is clear
that intentional reticence can seldom be proved and that there is
no point in arguing about things which are not explicitly said.
I now return to the problem of the banished Asuras. Rather
than indulging in psychological speculations of our own making,
we can state the basic problems of Vedic religion in terms which
the poets themselves used.
They had, indeed, two words which perfectly well expressed
their reflections on existence. One word is sat, literally "being, that
which is." It is used with reference to the phenomenal world, the
ordered cosmos. Its opposite is dsat "the nonbeing," which denotes
the world of unformed matter, the undifferentiated state. The
cosmogonic myth describes their relation as one of successive
states in such phrases as "In the first period of the Devas sat was
born of dsat,"17 or, "The seers, searching with insight in their
hearts, found the origin of sat in csat."l8
17 Rigveda X. 72. 2. The creation and
every renewal of the world must have
been regarded as a process of shaping the unformed, which made the assistance
of the Asuras indispensable.
18
Ibid., X. 129. 4, satd bdndhum dsati nir avindan.
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 History of Religions
In the light of the interpretation here given, the question might
be raised to what extent the Vedic poets were thinking in terms
of successive states and how far they were referring to a logical
relation, the latter state necessarily presupposing the former. In
fact, the word which I translated as "origin" has various connota-
tions and might also be interpreted as "relationship."
Whatever a Vedic poet might have thought of our problems of
interpretation, the question would be a legitimate one, for the
myth did not merely imply a succession of two different states. As
a matter of fact, the emergence of an ordered cosmos did not put
an end to the existence of the world of dsat. In fact, the problem
of the Asuras here recurs clothed in different terms. Asat, the
primordial world of chaos, was not entirely replaced by the cosmos
but continued to exist on the fringes of this world and as a per-
petual menace to the latter's existence.
When I venture to translate this philosophy in more modern
terms of my own, I should say that the world order, as the Vedic
Indians saw it, was a precarious balance between the powers of
cosmos and chaos, and that this world was only part of a much
wider universe, which also comprised the nonindividualized world
of unformed matter.

VI
The Indian Genesis started with a state described in such phrases
as "In the beginning all this was nothing but the waters" and
"There was no dsat nor sat."19 The next stage was the primordial
world of dsat. This finally became our world, described as a state
of tension and struggle, with the annual intrusion of the repressed
dsat and the Asuras into the established order, which is the world
of sat and the Devas.
Still, conflict is not the last word that the Vedic myth has to say
about the nature of the universe. I think the following outline is
sufficiently well founded to be presented here.
In a philosophical hymn of the Rigveda we read the words "dsat
and sat in the highest heaven."20 The term "in the highest heaven"
is well known in these hymns. It sometimes clearly refers to a
place which transcends the dualism of this world, for instance,
when Indra is said to hold heaven and earth in the highest heaven.
It is no doubt identical with Visnu's third or highest step, which
19 See the ndsadidsya-hymn, Rigveda X. 129. 1, 3.
20 Rigveda X. 5. 7, dsac ca sac ca parame vyoman daksasya jdnmann dditer updsthe.
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 Basic Conceptof Vedic Religion
is hidden from the mortal eye. Many years ago I tried to demon-
strate that in the Veda Visnu, far from being a subordinate
assistant of Indra, must have been a central figure, of greater
importance than Indra himself.21 While Visnu's first two steps
express his relationship with the two opposed parts of the cosmos,
his third step corresponds to a transcendental world in which the
two conflicting parties are united in an all-encompassing totality.
In this light we can view the poet's words about "Asat and sat in
the highest heaven." They point to a world which transcends the
cosmic antithesis and in which sat and dsat have been reconciled in
the synthesis of an all-embracing unity. (See fig. 2.) In this respect
Visnu must have been, since the earliest time, a higher god than
both Varuna and Indra, as he transcended the dualism which
they impersonated.22
The "highest heaven" is a specific term of the poetical language
of the Rigveda. Later theological texts refer to a "third heaven."
Since they never mention a first or a second heaven and since the
number three traditionally expresses the concept of totality, there
can be no doubt that the terms "highest heaven" and "third
heaven" denote the same idea. The concept of a transcendental
world explains some difficult problems of Vedic mythology, which
are, however, too technical to detain us here.
Rather than dwelling on Visnu's highest heaven in the Rigveda,
I will conclude with a few words about the development of Indian
21
See Indological Studies in Honor of W. Norman Brown (New Haven, Conn,
1962), pp. 137-51.
22
As is apparent from fig. 2, there is a double dichotomy: the contrast between
dsat and sdt and, within the ordered cosmos, that between netherworld and upper
world. In Vedic texts there is evidence of Visnu representing the totality of the
cosmos. If the reconstruction and especially the interpretation of the nether-
world as part of the cosmos but somehow related to the world of dsat is correct,
the question arises of whether Visnu from the outset comprised sat and dsat. As
for the primordial waters, they were apparently incorporated in the cosmos at
the moment of Varuna's transition to the Devas, but in the annual periods of
crisis, with the return of the powers of chaos, they must again have become the
world of dsat. At that moment Visnu transcended the dualism of Asuras and Devas
(dsat and sct), just as he had transcended it in the beginning, when the dual cosmos
arose (see n. 21 above). In the later cosmogonical myth of the churning of the ocean,
as told in the Mahdbhdrata, Visnu also stands above the two parties of the Asuras
and Devas. About the tenth century A.D., when this myth was retold in the
Bhdgavata Purdna, the gods were represented as adoring Visnu in the words "Thou
alone art both sat and asat, the dual world and that which transcends dualism"
(VIII. 12. 8, ekas tvam eva sadasad dvayam advayam ca). Although these quotations
refer to the cosmogony, during which Visnu's transcendental aspect must have been
particularly manifest, it was an essential part of his nature. As for the parallelism
between the "third heaven" and the primordial world in the brahmanas (see, e.g.,
Asiatische Studien 25 (1971): 94), this is due to the fact that in the latter the
dualism did not yet exist, while the former had transcended it. Hence it is that
the third heaven could be substituted for the primordial world as the place from
which Soma was fetched.
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 History of Religions
Totality, Visnu, etc.

Chaos Ordered cosmos

sat, Devas

asat

Asuras Varuna, etc. Indra, etc.

nether upper
world world

FIG 2

religion in post-Vedic times. No doubt, foreign, non-Aryan

religions had a great influence in this period. However, when con-
sidered from a general point of view, their influence appears to
have been a marginal phenomenon. The basic line of development
can best be illustrated by starting from a belief which, although
only attested in later sources, may well date from an early period.
According to this belief, Visnu is for eight months of every year in
the upper world. In this period he takes part, as a Deva, in the
processes of the cosmos. In the remaining four months, however,
he is in the nether world, where, reclining on the world serpent,
he sleeps on the surface of the subterranean waters. Incidentally,
there is a close connection between sleep and the netherworld.
One has to know this belief, which has survived into modern
times, in order to understand how in the classical period this
annual process has come to be projected, in gigantic proportions,
onto the scale of a world year. Just as in Vedic belief the world
was at the end of every year menaced by the intrusion of the
powers of chaos, so in this later belief, at the end of a world period,
this world is doomed to be annihilated and to return to its primeval
state of chaos.
What remains after the world with all its gods has passed away
is the cosmic waters and on them, sleeping on his world serpent,
god Visnu, who comprises within himself a potential new world
with reborn gods.23
23
See, e.g., Markandeya's vision, Mahdbhdrata III. 186. 92 ff. The idea that as
a result of the return to the undifferentiated state only the waters remain is in
conformance with older conceptions. Cf. also, e.g., Bhdratiya Ndtyasdstra 22 (20). 2
"When Lord Acyuta, after destroying the worlds by his supernatural power and
changing the universe into one ocean, lay sleeping on the serpent as his couch ...."
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 Basic Concept of Vedic Religion

In this vision the eternal war between chaos and cosmos has
not vanished, but the Vedic notion of periodical fights between
Asuras and Devas-and the concomitant ritual of annual con-
tests-has here ceded to the concept of a transcendental harmony
-a harmony in which the conflicts and antagonisms of our
existence have been reconciled in the figure of one God who sur-
vives all vicissitudes of a transient world.

University of Leiden

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