Earthly Gods (Deified Terrestrial Objects) in Rigveda

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Deified Terrestrial Objects

Overview. Beyond the great aerial and celestial powers, the Ṛgveda also treats certain terrestrial features and man-made things as divine. This is not pantheism—each object is invoked as a distinct divinity—but a form of reverence for inanimate things chiefly valued for their usefulness to humans.

A. Natural features

Mountains (parvata)

Mountains are often conceived as animate and are invoked as deities—usually together with other natural powers (waters, trees, heaven and earth) or alongside gods such as Savitṛ and Indra. They are praised as manly, firmly fixed, rejoicing in abundance. In three passages “Indra-Parvata” (Indrāparvatā) appears as a dual divine pair, even pictured as driving in a great car to the offering. [1][2][3][4][5]

Plants (oṣadhi) and the forest goddess (Araṇyānī)

A long hymn (RV 10.97) praises the healing powers of the plants, calling them “mothers” and “goddesses”; Soma is their king. [6]

Large trees (vanaspati, “lord of the forest”) are at times directly addressed as deities, and later texts recall tree-adoration in wedding processions. [7][8]

The forest as a whole appears as the goddess Araṇyānī, “mother of beasts,” whose eerie sounds and bounty “without tillage” are celebrated in RV 10.146. [9]

B. Implements (chiefly sacrificial)

Sacrificial post, grass, and doors

The sacrificial post—also called vanaspati and svaru—is deified and anointed, “posts set up by priests are gods and go to the gods.” In the Āprī verses the post (thrice anointed with ghee) stands beside the fire, the sacrificial grass (barhis) is addressed as a god, and the doors to the sacred space are invoked as goddesses. [10][11][12]

Pressing-stones, mortar, and pestle

The pressing-stones (grāvan, also adri) receive full hymns and are called immortal, unaging, even “mightier than heaven”; their thunderous “voice” drives away demons and wins wealth and offspring. The mortar and pestle are also invoked to sound aloud for pressing Soma. [13][14][15][16]

Agricultural tools

The ploughshare and plough—named Śuna and Sīrā—are invoked in RV 4.57; later ritual assigns them an offering-cake. [17]

Weapons and war-gear

A whole hymn (RV 6.75) extols armour, bow, quiver, arrows, and the war-drum (dundubhi). The arrow is directly adored and implored to protect the worshipper and smite foes. [18][19]

C. Symbols

Later Vedic texts sometimes treat material objects as pratīkas (symbols) of deities. Something like a portable representation (perhaps an image) is hinted at in the famous line, “Who will buy this my Indra for ten cows?—when he has slain his foes let him be returned to me.” [20] The use of idols is mainly attested in later Brāhmaṇa and Sūtra strata. The wheel serves as a symbol of the sun in the Vājapeya and other rites; so too gold or a firebrand could stand for the sun after sunset, and a golden disc is laid upon the fire-altar to represent the sun. In early passages a phallic cult is disapproved: the śiśnadevāḥ (“those whose deity is the phallus”) are kept from the sacrifice and said to have been slain by Indra; only later does the liṅga become Śiva’s generative symbol in post-Vedic religion. [21][22]

References (Ṛgvedic)

  1. RV 1.122.3 — Indra-Parvata invoked as a dual pair.
  2. RV 1.32.6 — Indra with Parvata as companion.
  3. RV 3.53.1 — The pair drive in a great car to the offering.
  4. RV 7.34.23 — Mountains invoked with other natural powers.
  5. RV 6.49.4 — Mountains invoked with Savitṛ/Indra.
  6. RV 10.97 (hymn to the plants) — plants as healing goddesses.
  7. RV 10.64.8 — Vanaspati, large trees, invoked as deities.
  8. RV 1.90.8 — Vanaspati addressed in worship.
  9. RV 10.146 — Hymn to Araṇyānī, the forest goddess.
  10. RV 3.8 — The sacrificial post (vanaspati, svaru) deified.
  11. RV 2.3.4 — Āprī verse: post/grass/doors invoked.
  12. RV 10.70.4 — Āprī verse: doors as goddesses; barhis as a god.
  13. RV 10.76 — Hymn to the pressing-stones.
  14. RV 10.94 — Hymn to the pressing-stones.
  15. RV 10.175 — Hymn to the pressing-stones.
  16. RV 1.28.5–6 — Mortar and pestle invoked to press Soma.
  17. RV 4.57.5–8 — Śuna and Sīrā (ploughshare and plough) invoked.
  18. RV 6.75 — Weapons hymn (armour, bow, quiver, arrows, drum).
  19. RV 6.75.15–16 — Arrow adored as a protecting deity.
  20. RV 4.24.10 — “Who will buy this my Indra for ten cows?”
  21. RV 7.21.5 — Indra, keep the śiśnadevāḥ from the sacrifice.
  22. RV 10.99.3 — Indra said to have slain the śiśnadevāḥ.

Other sources mentioned in the section (not RV)

  • AV 6.136.1 — Medicinal herb as a “goddess” born of the earth.
  • TS 2.1.5.3 — Animal offering to plants in a fertility rite.
  • AV 5.20 — Hymn to the war-drum (dundubhi).
  • Vājapeya and related rites — Wheel used as a solar symbol; gold/firebrand as sun after sunset; golden disc on the fire-altar.

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