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Ushas



 
 
Ushas (; ), Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 for "dawn
Dawn

Dawn is the twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the presence of weak sunlight, while the sun itself is still below the horizon. Dawn should not be confused with sunrise, which is the moment when the leading edge of the sun itself appears above the horizon....
", is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity
Hindu deities

Within Hinduism a large number of personalities, or 'forms', are worshiped as murtis. These beings are either aspects of the supreme Brahman, avatars of the Bhagavan, or significantly powerful entities known as Deva ....
 as well.

Ushas is an exalted divinity in the Rig Veda, sometimes spoken of in the plural, "the Dawns." She is portrayed as welcoming birds and warding off evil spirits, and as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot on her path across the sky.

Twenty of the 1028 hymns of the Rig Veda are dedicated to the Dawn: Book 7 has seven hymns, books 4–6 have two hymns each, and the younger books 1 and 10 have six and one respectively.






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Ushas (; ), Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 for "dawn
Dawn

Dawn is the twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the presence of weak sunlight, while the sun itself is still below the horizon. Dawn should not be confused with sunrise, which is the moment when the leading edge of the sun itself appears above the horizon....
", is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity
Hindu deities

Within Hinduism a large number of personalities, or 'forms', are worshiped as murtis. These beings are either aspects of the supreme Brahman, avatars of the Bhagavan, or significantly powerful entities known as Deva ....
 as well.

Ushas is an exalted divinity in the Rig Veda, sometimes spoken of in the plural, "the Dawns." She is portrayed as welcoming birds and warding off evil spirits, and as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot on her path across the sky.

Twenty of the 1028 hymns of the Rig Veda are dedicated to the Dawn: Book 7 has seven hymns, books 4–6 have two hymns each, and the younger books 1 and 10 have six and one respectively. In RV 6.64.1-2 (trans. Griffith
Ralph T.H. Griffith

Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith , scholar of indology, B.A. of Queen's College was elected to the vacant Sanskrit Scholarship on Nov 24, 1849. He translated the Vedas scriptures into English....
) Ushas is invoked as follows:
  1. The radiant Dawns have risen up for glory, in their white splendour like the waves of waters.
    She maketh paths all easy, fair to travel, and, rich, hath shown herself benign and friendly.
  2. We see that thou art good: far shines thy lustre; thy beams, thy splendours have flown up to heaven.
    Decking thyself, thou makest bare thy bosom, shining in majesty, thou Goddess Morning.


In his Secret of the Veda, Aurobindo described Ushas as "the medium of the awakening, the activity and the growth of the other gods; she is the first condition of the Vedic realisation. By her increasing illumination the whole nature of man is clarified; through her [mankind] arrives at the Truth, through her he enjoys [Truth's] beatitude."

In the "family books" of the RigVeda (e.g. RV 6.64.5), Ushas is poetically identified as a divine daughter—a —of Dyaus Pita
Dyaus Pita

In the historical vedic religion is the Sky Father, husband of Prithvi and father of Agni and Indra .Derivatives can be found in the Proto-Indo-European religion sky god *Dyeus, who appears in Greek language as Zeus pater , in Latin as Jupiter , in Slavic mythology as Rod , and Germanic and Norse mythology as Tyr or Ziu....
 "Sky Father." This identification is taken literally in the traditional genealogies of Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas....
.

Sanskrit is an s-stem, i.e. the genitive case is . It is from PIE
Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness or savoury ingredients....
 , cognate to Greek *Eos and Latin Aurora
Aurora (mythology)

Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Aurora is comparable to the Greek mythology goddess Eos, though Aurora did not bring with her any resonance of a greater archaic goddess....
.