Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 58
58 In the Rig-Veda (X, 156:4) we read that the fire-god carried the sun and placed it in the sky. But in the Rig-Veda itself in another place (VIII, 12:30) we read that god Indra alone carried the sun to heaven. And in yet another place, (X, 62:3) it is stated that the sun was carried unaided by the sons of Angira Rishi to heaven. In the Atharva-Veda (XIII, 2:12) it is given that the sun was carried unaided by the Atri Rishi to heaven that it should create the months. In Shukla Yajur-Veda (4:31) we have that it was the god Varuna who set the sun on the sky. The belief that the sun was carried from the earth to the heavens is ridiculous enough. But contradictory versions of it are even more ridiculous. The Rig-Veda alone gives three contradictory accounts. One is that the sun was taken by the fire-god from the earth to the heaven. A second is that it was the god Indra who did so. A third is that the sons of Angira Rishi performed this feat. The Yajur-Veda also gives contradictory versions. According to one, all this duty was performed unaided by the god Varuna. The Atharva-Veda gives quite a different account, declaring that it was the Rishi Atri who carried out the task. (iii) Of the creation of heaven and earth, we have many accounts in the Vedas. But these accounts contradict one another as much as the accounts of ghosts and fairies do in children’s tales. In the Sama-Veda , Purva Archik (VI, 1:4), we have that the heaven and the earth were made by the Soma god. But in the Rig-Veda (VIII, 26:4) we find that the heaven and the earth were made by the god Indra living on the Soma juice. In another place in the Rig-Veda (II, 40:1) made by Soma and Pushan. In the Yajur-Veda (13:4) it is written that the heaven and the earth were made by Brahma. Number of Vedic Gods We believe, as we have said before, that the Vedas were originally a revelation of God and as such they taught nothing but the Unity and Oneness of God. But the Vedas, as we know them today, are not the Vedas which were revealed to the Rishis. The Vedas today are full of polytheistic descriptions and these descriptions are to be found in such abundance that what little in the Vedas still bears on the Unity of God is relegated to the background. We give below a few examples: In the Yajur-Veda (7:19) we are told that there are in all thirty-three gods, eleven on the earth, eleven in the sky, eleven in the waters. In the Rig-Veda (III, 9:9) we are told that the total number of gods is 3,340. This, because, according to the Rig-Veda , 3,339 gods went to the fire-god and fed him with ghee. On his joining the big company the total number of gods became 3,340.