[paragraph continues] Pischel's opinion. He believes that the singular dhishana is everywhere to be interpreted as a proper name: the name of a goddess of wealth and prosperity. The dual dhishane means 'Heaven and Earth:' thus the original meaning of dhishana must have been, as Pischel concludes, either Heaven or Earth. He tries to show that it is Earth, and so does Prof. Hillebrandt. The goddess of wealth originally was a goddess of the earth conceived as the liberal giver of wealth. This goddess, Prof. Pischel thinks, was closely related to, or even identical with, the goddess Aditi, whom the same scholar also believes to be a personification of the Earth.

I must confess that even this close agreement of these two distinguished scholars has failed to convince me. It is quite true that the dual dhishane means Heaven and Earth, and it is possible that the singular may, at least in some passages, mean the Earth. But I cannot believe that this is the original meaning of the word. Originally, in my opinion, dhishana was an implement used at the sacrifice, more especially at the Soma sacrifice. The adri (Soma-stones) are said to rest in the lap of the dhishana (I, 109, 3). In a Yagus Mantra referring to the sacrificial preparation of Soma (Vagasaneyi Samhita VI, 26) the dhishana, or more exactly the Dhishanas, as goddesses (dhishanas ka devi'h), are mentioned together with the sacrificial fire, the waters, and the gra'vanah, the stones. In a similar connection we find a Yagus formula pronounced when the Adhvaryu began to beat the Soma plants with the Upamsusavana stone (see Weber, Indische Studien, X, 370). There the Soma was addressed first, and then the two Dhishanas: 'Do not be afraid, do not be terrified, assume sap (O Soma!). O two Dhishanas! Being firm show firmness!' (Vagasaneyi Samhita VI, 35). Here the Satapatha Brahmana (III, 9, 4, 18) says, that some authorities refer the last words to the two boards (phalake) on which the pressing-stones rest (see Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythologie, I, 149 seq.). But the author of the Brahmana himself declares that Heaven and Earth are addressed; for as to the boards