From Polytheism to Monotheism
From pagan origins the worship of One Supreme God emerges
The hymns of the Riga Veda demonstrate the gradual transition from polytheism to monotheism in the Vedic society
The Pagan Origins of Hinduism explained how the early Vedic society deified the many forces of nature, thereby creating a religious system of polytheism. The Riga Veda is a testimony to the many hymns sung in worship of these deities. But the Riga Veda is a compilation of hymns composed over a period of few thousand years. And it also shows a perceptible transition from polytheism to monotheism.
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan explains the process of this deification of the forces of nature. In moments of awe of nature, or of deliverance from natural peril or realization of utter dependence on nature the ancients felt the presence of God. (Radhakrishnan,2006,p74) And there were so many aspects to nature each different from the rest. The earth was supportive whereas the sea was unfathomable. The sun was fiery whereas the moon was calm. This led to the creation of a multitude of deities.
Polytheism eventually gave rise to some inevitable but uncomfortable questions. Who is the most powerful of the deities? Which one of them came first? Who created the others? After initial jostling Varun, who was then considered as the deity of the heavens, became the leader. In a sense this was natural because the sky is all encompassing and oversees the movements of the heavenly bodies. Varun was also given moral attributes – the power to judge and to forgive as can be seen in Hymn 87 of Book VII of the Riga Veda.
“Before this Varun may we be sinless, him who shows mercy even to the sinner”
Later because the warring society needed a more aggressive leader Indra displaced Varun. This process of henotheism could not have lasted forever. Only one can be supreme. Each one cannot be supreme in turn. Another factor that must have started the shift towards monotheism was the understanding of the cosmic harmony. The flow of the tides, the coming of the seasons, the movements of the heavenly bodies all were interconnected. There came a realization that there was “a single creative cause of the universe, itself uncreated and imperishable.” (Radhakrishnan,2006,p92) These words describe the quest for a single supreme being some thousand years before the birth of Christ, but they have a resonance with Einstein’s quest for a unified field theory.
The Supreme God is referred to by different names in the Riga Veda, possibly as a result of the different time periods in which the relevant hymns were composed. But the concept is clear. Hymn 72 of Book X of the Riga Veda illustrates this.
“Let us with tuneful skill proclaim these generations of the Gods,
That one may see them when these hymns are chanted in a future age.
These Brahmanaspati produced with blast and smelting, like a Smith.”
The deities of the early Vedic period were not discarded but relegated to the status of demi-Gods and the realization that God is One and Supreme was established.
Radhakrishnan, S. (2006) Indian Philosophy Volume 1,Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
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