thunder-bolt, Indra may be described as releasing the waters imprisoned therein. But where are the cows which are said to be released along with the waters. The Niruktas interpret cows to mean Waters; but in that case the release of the waters and the release of the cows are not two distinct effects.
The struggle between Indra and Vritra is really a struggle between the powers of light and darkness. The passages where waters are said to be released by Indra after kilhng Vritra do not refer expressly to the rain- cloud. Vedic scholars have wrongly supposed that when the Rig-Veda speaks of the celestial waters (divyah apah) only the rain-waters are intended. But this is a mistake; for in passages which speak of the creation of the world (X, 82, 6; 129, 3) the world is said to have once consisted of nothing but undifferentiated waters, —or in the language of modem scientists of 'ether' or 'nebulous mass of matter.' The ancient Aryans like the old Hebrews believed that the subtle matter which filled the whole space in the universe was nothing but watery Vapours; and secondly that the movements of the Sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies were caused by these Vapours which kept on constantly circulating from the neither to the upper and from the Upper to the lower celestial hemisphere. The mischief wrought by Vritra was that he stopped the flow of these waters; consequently the Sun, the moon, the stars all ceased to rise. Indra by killing Vritra released the waters and brought with them the dawn, the Sun, and the cows (i.e., days or the rays of the morning). The victory is thus naturally described as four-fold. Objectors to this theory might say that the struggle
