DYAUS PITAR AND PRITHIVl, THE HEAVEN FATHER AND EARTH MOTHER

Dyaus (related to Div = "to shine”) is the Greek Zeus, and the Latin Deus. From Deus comes the English word Deity, which suggests a god who is Light. Hence this deity is often invoked as Dyaus Pitar, the Sky, or Heaven Father. Max Muller says :

“ If I were asked what I consider the most important discovery which has been made in the Nineteenth Century with respect to the ancient history of mankind, I should answer by the following short equation :—Sanscrit, Dyaus-Pitar = Greek, Zeus Pater = Latin, Jupiter=01d Norse, Tyr. Think what this formula suggests. It implies not only that our ancestors and the ancestors of Homer and Cicero, in their undivided primitive home, spoke the same language as the people of India—a discovery which, however incredible at first, has long ceased to cause surprise—but it also implies and proves that at one time they all held the same faith and worshipped the same supreme Deity under the same name—a name which meant Heaven Father “ Thousands of years have passed away since the Aryan nations separated to travel North and South, West and East: they have formed their own languages ; they have founded empires and philosophies; they have built temples and razed them to the ground ; they have all grown older and it may be wiser and better ; but when they search for a name for that which is most exalted and yet most dear to every one of us, when they wish to express both awe and love, the infinite and the finite, they can but do what their old fathers did when gazing up into the eternal sky and feeling the presence of a Being as far and as near as can be ; they can but combine the self-same words and utter once more the primeval Aryan prayer, Heaven Father, in that form which will endure for ever ‘ Our Father which art in Heaven.’ ”

The Heaven Father and the Earth Mother are the most ancient of the Vedic deities, and are revered as the primitive pair from whom the rest of the Vedic gods sprung. They are described in the Vedas as “ great, wise, and energetic.” They “ promote happiness and lavish gifts upon their worshippers.” Not only are they the creators, but also the preservers of all their offspring, and are beneficent and kind to all. Their marriage is a most poetic conception . 1 “ The Vedas,” 2 says Huxley, "set before us a world of rich and vigorous hfe, full of joyous, fighting men ‘ That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine ’  Yet these rough, primitive people pictured the bright, wide-spreading Heaven taking into its strong embrace the rich bountiful Earth which stretched beneath it. The Aitareya Brahmana says : “ The gods then brought the two, Heaven and Earth together, and when they came together they performed a wedding of the gods.” The Greek similarly addressed the Earth as “ the Mother of the gods, wife of the starry heavens.” 31 In the Aitareya Brahmana, iv. 27, reference is made to the marriage of Heaven and Earth :

“ These two worlds (heaven and earth) were once joined, (subsequently)

they separated. (After their separation) there fell neither

rain, nor was there sunshine.

“ The five classes of beings (gods, men, &c.) then did not keep peace with one another. (Thereupon) the gods brought about a reconciliation of both these worlds. Both contracted with one another a marriage according to the rites observed by the gods.” It is observed by a recent French author, M. Albert Reville, that " the marriage of Heaven and Earth forms the foundation of a hundred mythologies.” - Evolution and Ethics, Romanes Lecture, 1894.

3 In the 41st fragment of Aeschylus (from the " Danaides ”) Aphrodite is introduced as saying : " The pure Heaven loves to inflict on the Earth an amorous blow' ; and desire seizes the earth to obtain the nuptial union. Rain falling

We have considerable reason to believe “ that Indra gradually superseded Dyaus in the worship of the Hindus soon after their settlement in India. As the praises of the newer god were sung, the older one was forgotten, and at the present day, whilst Dyaus is almost unknown, Indra is still regarded; but in the Vedas both are called “the god of heaven.” 1 The explanation of this change is, as in the case of most of the changes in early Hindu religious ideas, a  climatic one. The early Aryans in their common home in Central Asia, where bleak winds howling over cheerless steppes constituted their daily experience, looked to the brilhant radiance of heaven as the holiest and most divine thing in their experience. Then when they settled on the sultry Indian plains where the sun pours down its well-nigh intolerable heat they longed and prayed for the cooling, lifegiving showers at Indra’s disposal. So Dyaus was quickly forgotten and Indra reigned supreme. Dyaus, however, for some time continued to be invoked in connection with the worship of the Earth Mother, Prithivi . 2

The Vishnu Purana 3 gives us the story of Prithivi’s origin

:

“ There was a king named Vena, notorious for his wickedness and general neglect of religious duties. When the Rishis (sages) of that age could bear his impiety no longer, they from the moist Heaven impregnates the Earth, who brings forth for mortals the food of sheep, and the sustenance of Demeter. The verdure of the woods also is perfected by the showers proceeding from this marriage. Of all these things I (Aphrodite) am in part the cause slew him. 1 Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, p. 14. 

5 “ At the festivals (I worship) with offerings, and celebrate the praises of Heaven and Earth, the promoters of righteousness, the great, the wise, the energetic, who, having gods for their offspring, thus lavish with the gods the choicest blessings in consequence of our hymn.

“ With my invocations I adore the thought of the beneficent Father, and that mighty inherent power of the mother. The prolific Parents have made all creatures, and through their favours (have conferred) wide immortality on their offspring.”

Rig-Veda, i. 159, 1 and 2.

3 Wilkins, pp. 14-15.

 But then a worse thing happened : anarchy prevailed and they felt that a bad king was better than no king at all. Upon this they rubbed the thigh of the deceased Vena and there came forth a black dwarf whom they rejected as their king. The right arm of the corpse was then rubbed, and from it came a beautiful shining prince named Prithu, who reigned in his father’s place. During his reign there was a terrible famine in the land, and as the Earth would not yield her fruits great distress prevailed. Prithu, moved by the troubles of his people, said : ‘ I will slay the Earth and make her yield her fruits.’ Terrified at this threat, the Earth assumed the form of a cow, and was pursued by Prithu even to the heaven of Brahma.

“ At length, wearied by the chase, she turned to him and said :

‘ Know you not the sin of killing a female that you thus try to slay me ? ’ The king replied that ‘ when the happiness of many is secured by the destruction of one malignant being the slaughter of that being is an act of virtue.’ ‘ But,’ said the Earth, ‘ if, in order to promote the welfare of your subjects, you put an end to me, whence, O best of monarchs, will your people derive their support ?

The Earth then declared that, at the king’s command, she would restore all vegetable products ‘ as developed from her milk.’ ‘ Do you, therefore, for the benefit of mankind give me a calf so that I may be able to secrete milk. Make also all places level, so that I may cause my milk, the seed of all vegetation, to flow everywhere around.’ Prithu acted on this advice. Before his time there was no cultivation, no pasture, no agriculture, no highways for merchants. All civilisation originated in the reign of Prithu. . . . When the ground was made level, the king induced his subjects to take up their abode. ... He therefore, having made the calf, milked the Earth, and received into his own hand the milk from which proceeded all kinds of corn and vegetables upon which the people now subsist. By granting life to the Earth Prithu became as her father and thence she derived the patronymic, Prithivi.”

This legend with variations is found in most of the Puranas. Professor Wilson says : “ These are all probably subsequent modifications of the original simple allegory which typifies the Earth as a cow, who yielded to every class of things themilk that they desired, or the object of their wishes.” 1 Prithivi, as a personification of the Earth, also represents Patience. Hindus in their proverbs refer to her as an example of the greatest forbearance. She permits herself to be lacerated with ploughs, to be wounded and bruised, and to suffer every indignity without resentment or murmuring. On the contrary, she actually returns good for evil and confers her richest favours on those who harm her most. “ The worship of the Earth assumes many forms. The pious Hindu does reverence to her when he rises from his bed in the morning and even the indifferently religious man worships her when he begins to plough and sow. In the Punjab when a cow or buffalo is first bought, or when she gives milk after calving, the first five streams of milk drawn from her are allowed to fall on the ground in honour of the goddess, and at every time of milking the first stream is so treated.

“ Throughout North India the belief in the sanctity of 1 Dyaus Pitar and Prithivi.—A curious variant of this myth is found among the Khonds of Orissa who give the Earth goddess the most remarkable place in their worship. Their legends say that Boora Pennu or Bella Pennu, the Light-god or Sun-god, created Tari Pennu, the Earth goddess, for his consort and from them were born the other great gods. But strife arose between the mighty parents and the wife tried all ways to thwart the good creation of her husband and to cause all physical and moral ill. This is their explanation of the origin of sin. This evilly-disposed Earth goddess had to be propitiated by hideous human sacrifices known as the Meriah sacrifices, the suppression of which is a matter of recent Indian history. With dances and drunken orgies and a mystery play to explain in dramatic dialogue the purpose of the rite the priest offered Tari Pennu her  sacrifice, and prayed for children and cattle and poultry and brazen pots and all wealth ; every man and woman wished a wish and they tore the slave-victim piecemeal and spread the morsels over the fields they wished to fertilise. See Macpherson, India, ch. vi. the Earth is universal.

The dying man is laid on mother  Earth at the moment of dissolution 1 and so is the mother at the time of parturition. Earth again is regarded as a remedy for disease. It is used frequently as a poultice, and an application for the cure of wounds and sores, and not unnaturally often causes great mischief and irritation.” 2 At the side of a Mission  Compound in North India is a tank which during half the year is dried up. The women of a neighbouring Chamar village, before any wedding, go in procession to the dry tank to fetch from it the sacred earth used to make the marriage altar and fireplace on which the wedding feast is cooked. The ground close to which the earth is taken away is smeared with vermilion, and marigold flowers are scattered here and there, while puja (worship) is offered before the soil is removed. The earth is always given by the digger to a maiden, usually the prospective bride herself, and married women are not allowed to touch it. The maiden receives it into her sari (dress) and heads the procession on its return to the village. This rite is  performed with secrecy, and usually at nightfall, and must surely be a relic of ancient earth-worship.