India: Hindu Chief Deities; Creation; the Afterlife; the Mother; the Hero

Myths of Creation in the Rig Veda

From chaos (Rig Veda 10.129) (cf. Hesiod's Theogony) There was neither non-existence nor existence (paradox; how can both be true?) In the beginning, there was Darkness, Desire, Wisdom, and Water - then "someone" (Lord of Creation) puts seeds in place. (Note the Greek creation myth in which there was Night and Eros in the beginning.) "Someone" breathed and arose through the power of heat and desire came The story is full of question; gods come later in the story. "Who really knows" where the creation came from?

Indra, The Hero God

Her son Indra is extremely popular. He is the son of Aditi (Infinity) and Tvashtr, who was a craftsman god. Indra's characteristics: Greatest drinker of Soma God of war, lightning and rain, controlling water/fertility Creator God of cattle: his dog is Sarama

The Four Ages

Hindu religion tracks time in a series of Ages that have been compared with the Greek cycle of Ages. The Hindu scheme is very detailed and includes a vast, almost incomprehensible spread of time. There is a decline of morality as the ages proceed. The Cosmic Cow is conceived of as standing on her 4 legs in the first age. As morality declines she stands on three legs, then on two and finally on one and can no longer stay upright. This is regarded as an Indo-European scheme. Compare this to Hesiod's ages of man (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, Iron). The Greeks may have originally had four ages, with the age of heroes added in to make Hesiod's five. Krita Yuga ("Four" Age) = 1,728,000 years Trita Yuga ("Three" Age) = 1,296,000 years Dvapara Yuga ("Two" Age) = 864,000 years Kali Yuga (Evil Age) = 432,00 years Maha Yuga (Great Age) = 4,320,000 years (the span of one cycle of the four ages) 1000 Maha Yugas = 4,320,000,000 years = One Day of Brahma; 1000 Maha Yugas = 4,320,000,000 years = One Night of Brahma; Brahma lives for 100 years, each of 365 Brahma Days and Nights There is a cycle of creation, preservation, and destruction, a period of nothing, then it begins again. The whole system is meant to be vast and mind boggling!

The Religion of Hinduism

Hinduism is not a certain language or people/culture. Doesn't really have a founder.It is practiced by Hindu peoples of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, other countries of South Asia A basic - common unifying belief in Hinduism is that the soul is reborn over and over(reincarnation) There is a continuous cycle of life with continuously sufferingThe Pantheon is rich and diverse, meaning there are many deities that take many different forms, over a very long period of time even until today. The great trio of powerful gods is called the Trimurti (Sanskrit word)= three forms. These are the central deities of the Hindu pantheon, a kind of Trinity who have a threefold role in the universe: Brahma, the Creator. Has 4 heads, holds a copy of the 4 Veda texts Vishnu, the Preserver (maintainer), carries a conch shell (which makes a cosmic sound: Om ) Shiva, the Destroyer, god of sex, lust and dancing, in charge of ultimate destruction, carries a drumIt is common for Hindu deities to be represented with multiple arms and heads. These allude to their exceptional abilities (cf. Marduk with 4 ears and 4 eyes).

Geography

Indian subcontinent, south Asia Two principal rivers: -Indus, located in modern Pakistan to the west of India -Ganges, located primarily in the eastern portion of India

Overview

Now we turn to India, and the stories found in the earliest texts associated with the Hindu religion, from the Rig Veda, written in Sanskrit. It is amazing that all their stories are so closely linked that in one lecture we can talk about our four major themes of Creation, the Afterlife, the Mother, and the Hero.

The Golden Embryo

Rig Veda 10.121. Here we have the idea that creation begins with an egg. Again the prayer/hym is laced with questions. "Who is the god whom we should honor with the offering?" The answer is Prajapati, Lord of Creation, the Golden Embryo. The Golden Embryo was born in water and fire. The creation egg cracks open with the sky above, the earth below Prajapati the Lord of Creation, is also equated with Daksha, the male principle of creation. He also is identical with Brahma, the creator god.

Afterlife in the Vedas

Rig Veda 10.14 This is a poem chanted at funerals The Hindu religion practices cremation (burning) as opposed to inhumation (burial) The texts are vague, and it is hard to tell if there is a heaven or hell. There is a strong belief that the dead person will be reincarnated. Who is there in the afterlife? Yama, King of the Dead, his wife and twin Yami; he was the first man to die. He and his sister have a strongly sexual relationship. Chitragupta, the Scribe who records everything throughout one's life, administering dharma The fathers, the ancestors. The deceased person joins them. Two brindled dogs with 4 eyes each (compare to 3-headed Kerberos) who sniff around when someone is about to die and may lead deceased to underworld.

The Mother Goddess?

Rig Veda 10.72 Aditi, whose name means Infinity, is sometimes described as "the only important Vedic goddess" She is a creation deity, and gives us yet another paradoxical creation story. She goes through mutual creation with Daksha (she is both his mother and his daughter! He is her father and her husband! ) She is the great mother of the gods, described as she "who crouched with legs spread" equated with a cow giving birth). Sometimes she is referred to as"The cosmic cow". The cow is sacred, very special in Hindu religion The Adityas ar the sons of Aditi. She has 8 (or 12 in another version) sons. Martanda-the Sun, who was rejected by Aditi after seeing that he was defective (he disappeared at night!) Varuna (=Uranus??) - He, too, is a reator, a god of ocean, sacred laws, diseases, and also appears with Yama in Afterlife. His name is etymologically close to that of Uranus (Ouranos), but they are very different deities.

Indra and Vritra

Rig Veda 4.18 and 1.32 These two poems tell about the birth of Indra and how he fights against the monster Vritra. His birth is unusual since his mother carries him for 1000 month, and he finally emerges from her side. At his birth his father Tvashtr wants to kill him, and Indra instead kills Tvashtr by grabbing him by the foot and crushing him. His father was a craftsman god, and from him Indra got his greatest weapon, the thunderbolt. Vritra is referred to as the "shoulderless" one; he is a great serpent or dragon, who had tried to hold captive the rivers of India. The rivers represent a theme of fertility. Vritra had stopped the waters needed for crops to grow. The two adversaries drink soma, and Vritra gets drunk. In the battle, Indra kills Vritra with a thunderbolt from his father. Release of the waters leads to return of fertility.

Soma

Rig Veda 8.79 and 10.129 refer to a god named Soma. Soma is both a sacred drink and a godIt was likely an intoxicating or hallucinogenic drink, made by grinding up a plant into a milky substance with mortar and pestle. No one today knows what plant it was made from. Maybe the fly agaric mushroom, which has hallucinogenic properties. Something changed, maybe the climate, so that the substance was no longer available, and no one ever recorded what it was. "Have I not drunk soma?" (Rig Veda 10.119) The poet is intoxicated and declares extravagant happiness and success. As you sacrifice the drink, you also drink it yourself.

The Case of the Cows in the Cave (Sarama and the Panis)

The Panis (demons) have stolen the cows and hidden them in a rock-bound area. Indra sends his dog, Sarama, to find them. The Panis tempt Sarama but she refuses the offer and leads Indra to the cattle. Compare this to Hercules and his fight with Cacus over his cattle. The comparisons are pretty superficial, but the scholars who love Indo-European connections often point to this comparison: Hercules is driving his cattle through Italy and he stops in Rome to rest. His cows disappear. He can see their tracks, but following the tracks he finds that they suddenly stop. He is planning to move on with the remaining cattle, when these start lowing, and then he hears an answering moo coming from a hillside. It turns out that the cows have been led backwards into a cave by a monster named Cacus ("Bad Man"). He traps Cacus in the cave and kills him, then retrieves his cattle and departs on his way. This is also another fertility theme.

Purusha: Hymn to the Man

The Rig Veda 10.90 has a different approach to creation. In this we have the myth of the elemental man. The theme is Creation by Dismemberment (Compare Tiamat, Ouranos, Adam).Purusha is his name. He has 1000 heads, 1000 eyes, 1000 feet: ¼ of his parts is used to create universe Melted fat is made into beasts, law, sacred poetry, meter (for poetry), rules for society, humans and animals. Compare how Ptah created similar things. Compare also the me powers of civilization in Mesopotamia. Especially important is the origin of ritual law: the dharma. There is an eternal law, and everything has its proper role in the world (This is a Charter myth. It controls societal structure for centuries. The Hindu castes - originate with Purusha's sacrifice Brahmin (Priest) - comes from Purusha's mouth Warrior - from Purusha's arms Common people - from Purusha's thighs Servants - from Purusha's feet Parts of the universe come from specific parts of his body: The moon comes from his mind, the sun comes from his eye, the wind comes from his breath. Agni and the god Indra were made from him.

The Journey

The deceased goes on a journey/ He goes to the south (south of India is water); the journey happens as the body is slowly burned; this takes 4 hours, 40 minutes Agni (fire), is necessary; there must be oblations (ritual/religious offering) to the dead (butter, soma, honey) Demons want to attack the deceased The body parts disintegrate, go to various directions (dismemberment theme) The eye goes to the sun, breath to the winds, limbs to the plants Then there is a period of three days in which the deceased wanders (Three Days of Soma) Finally, the deceased achieves unity with the gods

The Rig Veda-Early Sanskrit texts

The language of our texts in the Rig Veda is Sanskrit. Some scholars think the spread of the languages is paralleled by the spread of myths and rituals and that we should recognize the religious material in the Rig Veda as similar to what we find in ancient Greece and Italy. There are two main rival theories about the spread of Indo-European languages. We are following the steppe hypothesis, that the languages radiated from a site in the Eurasian steppes, now supported by DNA evidence. The rival theory, that the languages spread from ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey), would place the event some 3000 years earlier. In this argument, agriculture spread from the Near East and the languages along with it.

The Importance of Ritual

The sacrifice with Fire is at the heart of Vedic religion. The sacrifice is identical with the divinity (Rig Veda V 1.1). The Sanskrit word for fire is Agni . Agni equals the priest, the fire itself, the god, and the sacrifice. He is the go-between for the gods and humans. Offerings are made, of butter (from milk), fat (from butter), and honey. There was no animal sacrifice in Hinduism. Agni as fire burns the offerings, and makes them holy. This is the first and literal meaning of sacrifice. Since it destroys them, we think of sacrifice as meaning killing or destruction. Using Agni (making offerings) gives access to luck, wealth, children

Indo-European Connection

TheIndo-European language family includes a variety of languages spanning throughout Europe, the Middle East, and India. They all came from a core location in Central Asia and radiated outward. These include Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. Indo-European languages entered India ca. 1500 BCE, during the "Aryan Invasion". India is home to several Indo-European languages including modern Hindi and ancient Sanskrit.

Hero characteristics of Indra

Unusual birth - mother carries him for 1000 months then he's born from her side Threat at infancy - Tvashtr (father) wants to kill him, but Indra kills his father Triumph over adversary - Vritra Marriage to a high-born local woman - wife Indrani, queen of heaven, who has many other love affairs Divine helper? - Vishnu. Also, Tvashtr created the lightning and Indra somehow gets it and uses it in fight with Vritria No alter ego, exile, journey, conquest of the underworld, or tomb with a cult

Earliest Hindu texts - 1500-1200 BCE

Veda = "divine knowledge." The whole of the Vedas is in 4 parts, of which the Rig Vedais one. Rig = "praise" or "hymn." There are 1018 hymns. No known author. We do not get a real narrative. They were originally transmitted orally, memorized by heart by priests and apprentices. These Vedic texts often show paradox and mystery. They create contradictions present in the time and place of story; aura of mystery, difficult to understand.

What is there?

What's in the afterlife? The landscape is vague and vast. -Great, steep, narrow path -Deceased comes to a Pasture "under the tree with beautiful leaves," strewn grass "Six broad spaces and one great one" - 6 broad spaces were probably 3 earths and 3 skies.