On “Parents” and “Children” in Vedic Tradition
Issue: Vol 33 No. 1 (2014)
Journal: Religious Studies and Theology
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies Biblical Studies
Abstract:
In the symbolic language of Vedic tradition, parental relationships are among the ways used by poets to articulate relationships between the one and the many, the parts and the whole. Mythological figures, and the principles they represent, are named as offspring to indicate that they are made manifest by an originator or “parent.” In some cases, what is named is the inter-relationship of principles through a cyclical process of “reverse” parenting. Prajā́pati, or Sacrifice, for example, is the father of his son, the fire god Agní and yet Agní, in turn, gives birth to him. There is also a well-known pattern of creation by an original “parent” or “one,” who gives birth to a “second,” and from these two “parents” arises the manifest world of the many. This paper will examine ideas of creation and re-creation through a study of parental relationships in Vedic tradition.
Author: Adéla Sandness
References :
Aufrecht, Theodor. 1968. Die Hymnen des Rigveda. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Bergaigne, Abel. 1878 & 1883. La Réligion védique d’après les hymnes du Rig-Veda. Paris: Vieweg, tome I, 1878; tome II, 1883; tome III, 1883.
Biardeau, Madeleine. 1981. Études de mythologie hindoue I. Cosmogonies Purāṇques. Vol. 128. Pondichéry: École Française d’Extrême-Orient.
Doniger, O’Flaherty, Wendy. 1975 Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit. New York: Penguin Books, 1987 Repr.
Elizarenkova, Tatyana. 1996–1997. “The Concept of Water and the Names for it in the Ṛgveda.” Orientalia Suecana XLV-XLVI (1996–1997): 21–29.
Gonda, Jan. 1991. The Functions and Significance of Gold in the Veda. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Kuiper, Franciscus Bernardus Jacobos. 1960. “The Ancient Aryan Verbal Contest.” Indo-Iranian Journal 4: 217–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/000000060790085609
Malamoud, C. 1989. Cuire le monde: rite et pensée dans l’inde ancienne. Paris: Éditions de la découverte.
———. 2005. Féminité de la parole: Études surl’inde ancienne. Paris: Éditions Albin Michel.
[Matsya-Purāṇa] 1907. Matsya-Purāṇa. Poona: Ānandāśrama Sanskrit Series 54.
Renou, Louis. 1939. “L’ambiguité du vocabulaire du Ṛgveda.” Jouranal Asiatique 231(4–6): 161–235.
———. 1956. Études védiques et pāṇinéennes (ÉVP) II. Paris: E de Bocard.
———. 1978. “Les origins de la notion de māyā dans la speculation indienne.” In L’Inde fondementale, Études d’indianisme réunies et présentées par Ch. Malamoud. Paris: Hermann (collection “Savoir”): 133–140.
Sandness, Adela. 2007. “On rta and Brahman: Visions of Existence in the Rg-Veda.” Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 88: 61–80.
[Viṣṇu-Purāṇa] 1972. Viṣṇu-Purāṇa with the commentary of Shrihara. Calcutta: Santana Sastra.
Weber, Albrecht. ed. 1855. Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa in the Mādhyandina-Śākhā with Extracts from the Commentaries of Sāyaṇna, Harisvāmin and Dvivedaganga. London: Williams and Norgate.