The Indic God Aja Ekapad, the One-Legged Goat

THE NATURE of the mysterious Vedic god called Ekapdd, the one-footed or one-legged goat, has been explained in different ways. Roth, taking aja, not as , but as driver , sees in him the storm. Bergaigne, taking aja as unborn , thinks he is the unborn god who dwells in the isolated world, in the place of mystery. Hardy finds in him the moon; Oldenberg, the mythical figure of a which holds apart the worlds. Macdonell suggests that the lightning is meant, the goat alluding to its agile swiftness in the cloud-mountains, and the one foot to the single streak which strikes the earth. And A. B. Keith accepts this hypothesis as satisfactory.' According to Victor Henry and M. Bloomfield, Ekapad is the sun; and their interpretation is almost certainly the correct one. The best proof for it is the following passage of the TaittirlyaBrahmaina (III, 1, 2, 8): Aja Ekapdd has risen in the east, delighting all beings. At his urging, all the gods go. It also seems clear enough that Ekapdda denotes the sun in the following passage of the Atharvaveda (XIII, 1, 6-7) : (the ruddy one, the sun-god) begot heaven and earth; there the Paramesthin (the lord on high) stretched the thread. There Ekapdda (the one-footed goat) fixed himself; by his strength he made firm heaven and earth. Rohita (the ruddy one, the sun god) made firm heaven and earth; by him the heavenly light was established, by him the firmament. By him the atmosphere and the spaces were measured out; through him the gods obtained immortality. And it must be noted that according to Durga, the commentator of the Nirukta, Ekapdd is a form of Agni or the sun.2 In the IRgveda, Ekapdd is mentioned five times with Ahi Budhnya (the Serpent of the Depth) ; he seems to be closely associated with him. He receives with him a formal share in the offering at a ceremony of the domestic ritual.3 But Ahi Budhnya

American Literature and Culture · History