Note 153 — Chapter IV · NOMADISM AND AGRICULTURE.

As the myth grows more and more into a religion, and the conception of a mighty god who excels all others becomes fixed, the production of thunder and rain, &c., is gradually transferred to this originally solar god (see also Max Müller, Chips, &c., I. 357 et seq.). The sharp division made above is therefore absolutely true only of the purely mythological stage. Conversely Indra and Varuṇa, originally figures belonging to the gloomy cloudy and rainy sky, which take the highest places in the Indian religion, are in the Vedic Hymns endowed with solar traits.