Goddesses from the Samhitas to the Sutras
by Rajeshri Goswami | 1989 | 68,131 words
This essay studies the Goddesses from the Samhitas to the Sutras. In short, this thesis examines Vedic goddesses by analyzing their images, functions, and social positions. It further details how natural and abstract elements were personified as goddesses, whose characteristics evolved with societal changes....
Description of Goddess Nakta
Nakta is sometimes personified as a goddess. She is beseeched to sit down at the place where sacrifice is to be performed; she is well-endowed with splendid wealth, and is also possessed of a beautiful appearance, she is the daughter of the 59 heaven. The Vedic Aryans looked upon her as a goddess who is wealthy beautiful, the daughter of heaven, and who plays a bit role in the sacrifice performed by them. Independently, she is a goddess of very little importance in the Vedic pantheon. She is sometimes invoked together with Usas as Usasanakta in a few hymns of the Rigveda am Atharvaveda. 58 Manava-grihya-sutra II : 13:6, 59 Rigveda X : 70:61