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Fugitive from Faiths

The opening verses of the Rigveda do not preach any religion, nor do they threaten the infidel. What comes across in the first few stanzas of the earliest of the Hindu texts is a people’s quest for warmth, awed as they are by the overwhelmingly dark, capricious night.

“To you, dispeller of the night, Agni, day by day with prayer
Bringing you reverence, we come.”

The uncertainty of a people amidst unfamiliar circumstances seeking a little comfort and assurance from their god is poetry of unmatched quality. A while later the mood changes – the spell of fear, misgivings of the unknown replaced by cheerfulness, conviviality of tipsiness:

“Beautiful Vayu, come, for you these soma drops have been prepared:
Drink of them, listen well to our call.”

Significantly, all through the Vedas there are no references to temples. For the composers of such elegant lines almost betraying a modern sensibility, fire was the only means of communion with the gods above. Terrified by tyrannical dark nights, hostile forces all around, the community was still some distance away from the stability and rootedness required to raise structures of faith. The intoxicating drink of soma bringing them cheer was accorded divine status. Neither the Vedas nor the later texts of Hinduism acknowledge a single, male, dominant figure as the articulator of the faith, extolling him as divine. Rather, all across the scriptures we see remarkable instances of gender equality: Sita-Ram, Uma-Shankar, Radha-Krishna… Always the female deity ahead of her man. This refinement, among the texts of all religions, is unparalleled.

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