[5]
Here I would draw attention to the significant fact that the feat
celebrated is that to which I have previously referred as the most
famous of all the deeds attributed to Indra, the 'Freeing of the
Waters,' and here the Maruts are associated with the god.
But they were also the objects of independent worship. They were
specially honoured at the Caturmasya, the feasts which heralded the
commencement of the three seasons of four months each into which the
Indian year was divided, a division corresponding respectively to the
hot, the cool, and the wet, season. The advantages to be derived from
the worship of the Maruts may be deduced from the following extracts
from the Rig-Veda, which devotes more than thirty hymns to their
praise. "The adorable Maruts, armed with bright lances, and cuirassed
with golden breastplates, enjoy vigorous existence; may the cars of
the quick-moving Maruts arrive for our good." "Bringers of rain and
fertility, shedding water, augmenting food." "Givers of abundant
food." "Your milchkine are never dry." "We invoke the food-laden
chariots of the Maruts."[6] Nothing can be clearer than this; the
Maruts are 'daimons' of fertility, the worship of whom will secure the
necessary supply of the fruits of the earth.
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