Aśvin

AŚVIN. - To the "lords of horses" (Aśvin) and horsemen, who, awakened by the Dawn, appear together in the morning sky, the Rgveda (v.) dedicates 54 hymns. They are invoked as a pair, but they are not twins because "they were born in different places" (Rg., I, 181, 4; V, 73, 4). On their swift golden chariot, with three wheels and three seats, drawn by flying horses or even by birds, they complete the circuit of heaven and earth in a single day. Honey drips from their whip, the dispenser of gifts, with which the pious sacrificer prays that his offering may be sprinkled. Suryā, the female personification of the sun, attracted by the youthful beauty of the A., mounts their chariot and chooses them as husbands. From then on the A. make their daily journey in the company of the bride, also called "daughter of the sun." Although the comparison with the Greek Dioscuri, themselves famous horsemen and benefactors of men, allows one to assert that the myth is of Indo-European origin, the natural phenomenon that the A. personify is not clear. The most common interpretation is that they represent the planet Venus in its double aspect of Lucifer and Hesperus, and that the two personifications are invoked together at dawn because evening worship is not acceptable to the gods. The A. are also miraculous bestowers of graces, minutely indicated in hymn I, 116 of the Rgveda. Divine physicians, they heal diseases, restore sight to the blind, youth to the old and, like the Dioscuri, save from shipwreck sailors in danger. The A. are also called nāsatya, an epithet of obscure meaning, traditionally interpreted as "the truthful ones" (na-asatya).

Ferdinando Belloni Filippi