Rta - Vedas

Vedas

Due to the nature of Vedic Sanskrit, a term such as Ṛta can be used to indicate numerous things, either directly or indirectly, and both Indian and European scholars have experienced difficulty in arriving at fitting interpretations for Ṛta in all of its various usages in the Vedas, though the underlying sense of "ordered action" remains universally evident. In the Rigveda, the term Ṛta appears as many as 390 times, and has been characterized as "the one concept which pervades the whole of Ṛgvedic thought".

Ṛta appears most frequently as representing abstract concepts such as "law", "commandment", "order", "sacrifice", "truth", and "regularity", but also occasionally as concrete objects such as the waters, the heavens or the sun as manifestations of the operation of Ṛta in the physical universe. Ṛta is also frequently used in reference to various Vedic deities. Thus, Bṛhaspati is referred to as possessing a powerful bow with "Ṛta as its string" and as one prepared to "mount the chariot of Ṛta"; Agni is described as one who is "desirous of Ṛta", one who is "Ṛta-minded" and as he who "spread Heaven and Earth by Ṛta"; the Maruts are referred to as "rejoicing in the house of Ṛta" and as "knowers of Ṛta"; Ushas is described as having been "placed at the root of Ṛta"; Varuna is praised as "having the form of Ṛta" and, along with Mitra as Mitra-Varuna, as "destroying the foes by Ṛta" and as "professing Ṛta by Ṛta". Epithets such as "born of Ṛta" and "protector of Ṛta" are frequently applied to numerous divinities, as well as to the sacrificial fire and the sacrifice itself.

Despite the abundance of such references, the gods are never portrayed as having command over Ṛta. Instead, the gods, like all created beings, remain subject to Ṛta, and their divinity largely resides in their serving it in the role of executors, agents or instruments of its manifestation. As Day (1982) notes, the gods "do not govern Ṛta so much as immanentalize it through the particularities of divine ordinances and retributions concerning both rewards and punishments. In this sense they do not "govern" Ṛta; they serve it as agents and ministers".