to the Brahman poets. This esoteric knowledge must have included the
‘hidden names of the gods’ (RV 5. 5. 10, deva ̄ ́na ̄m gúhya ̄ na ̄ ́ma ̄ni), needed for
successful ritual; the expression implies that the gods had names for them-
selves that differed from those in common use but were not unknown to
the learned Rishi. Whatever other poetic or cultic vocabulary he had at his
disposal might, if it suited him, be classified as gods’ language. In 4. 58. 1 ‘the
secret name of the ghee’, understood to be the holy Soma, is called
‘the tongue of the gods’, apparently because it causes the sacral vocabulary to
be uttered at the sacrifice.
S ́B 1. 1. 4. 4 describes a ritual in which the priest takes a black antelope skin
(carman-) with the words ‘You are a defence (s ́arman-)’, and it is explained
that while carman- is its human name, ‘it is s ́arman- among the gods’.
Grammarians faced with Vedic forms that differed from those expected put
them down as ‘gods’ words’.Aitareya Bra ̄hman
̇
a 7. 18. 13 explains how the
officiating priest, the adhvaryu, responds to the hotar’s mantras: ‘ “Om” is
the response to an r
̇
c,“evam
̇tatha ̄” to a ga ̄tha ̄. For “om” is divine (daivam),
“tatha ̄” is human (ma ̄nus
̇
am).’Om is a sacred word, more or less ‘amen’,
whileevam
̇
tatha ̄ is a pedestrian ‘just so’.
In the ritual of the As ́vamedha, the great royal horse sacrifice, the horse
was ceremonially addressed with its four names, ás ́va-, háya-, árvan-, va ̄jín-,
of which the last three are elevated synonyms of the ordinary word for
‘horse’; as it were, steed, courser, racer. The four terms are assigned to four
distinct cosmic orders: ‘As háya- it carried the gods (Devas), as árvan- the
Asuras, as va ̄jín- the Gandharvas, as ás ́va- men’.^140 This is virtually saying that
these four races each have their own language, to which the respective words
belong.
In many places in Homer and later Greek poetry the gods’ name for a
person, place, or thing is stated, usually contrasted with the human name.^141 It
is a means by which poets can present alternative, elevated or ‘marked’ names
and vocables and acknowledge their special status.
The Greeks never go beyond a pair of names and the binary opposition of
gods and men. On the other hand, the fourfold division made in the Indian
text is outbid in the Eddic poem Alvíssmál (9–34), where the dwarf Alvíss
(Know-all) systematically recites the names of various things –– earth, heaven,
moon, sun, cloud, wind, etc. –– in the languages of six orders of being: they are
usually humankind, the Æsir, the Vanir, the giants, the elves, and the dwarfs,
but in some stanzas one or other of these is replaced by another term. It is
(^140) TS 7. 5. 25. 2; Güntert (as n. 138), 160; Watkins (1995), 269. For the Asuras see below.
(^141) Il. 1. 403 f., 2. 813 f., 14. 290 f., 20. 74; Od. 10. 305, 12. 61, etc.; a full collection in West
(1966), 387.
- Gods and Goddesses 161