Dyaus Pita

Dyauṣ Pitā (Dyauṣpitṛ द्यौष्पितृ), literally "Sky Father" is the ancient sky god of Vedic pantheon, consort of Prithvi Mata "Earth Mother" and father of the chief deities of the Rigveda, Agni (Fire), Indra, and Ushas (Dawn).

In the Rigveda, Dyaus Pita appears only in verses 1.89.4, 1.90.7, 1.164.33, 1.191.6 and 4.1.10, and only in RV 1.89.4 does Pitar Dyaus "Father Sky" appear alongside Mata Prithvi "Mother Earth".

He is thus a very marginal deity in Rigvedic mythology, but his intrinsic importance is visible from his being the father of the chief deities. That Dyaus was seen as the father of Indra is known only from one verse, RV 4.17.4:

"Thy Father Dyaus esteemed himself a hero: most noble was the work of Indra's Maker / His who begat the strong bolt's Lord who roareth, immovable like earth from her foundation." (trans. Griffith (1888))

He is mainly considered in comparative philology as a last remnant of the chief god of Proto-Indo-European religion. The name Dyauṣ Pitā is exactly parallel to the Greek Zeus Pater etymologically, and closely related to Latin Jupiter. Both Dyauṣ and Zeus reflect a Proto-Indo-European *Dyeus. Based on this reconstruction, the widespread opinion in scholarship since the 19th century has been that Indra had replaced Dyaus as the chief god of the early Indo-Aryans. While Prthivi survives as a Hindu goddess after the end of the Vedic period, Dyaus Pita became almost unknown already in antiquity.

The noun dyaús (when used without the pitā "father") means "sky, heaven" and occurs frequently in the Rigveda, as a mythological entity, but not as a male deity: the sky in Vedic mythology was imagined as rising in three tiers, avama , madhyama, and uttama or tṛtīya (RV 5.60.6). In the Purusha Suktam (10.90.14), the sky is described to have been created from the head of the primaeval being, the Purusha.

See also

• Rigvedic deities

References

• Thomas Oberlies, Die Religion des Rgveda, Wien (1998).