Indo-European Mythology and Religion

by Alexander Jacob

that the Druidic tradition may go back to at least the

  second millennium B.C. since it has much in common

  with the Indo-European language and ideology, especial y

  the Sanskritic and Hittite.20 However, it is quite possible

  that the Druids were settled in Europe even earlier than

  the Āryans, perhaps as early as the third millennium

  B.C. The three-headed god attributable to the Druids in

  the Marne and the Côte d’Or is possibly related to the

  three (or four) headed god21 of the Indus Valley of the

  third millennium B.C.22 Hence it is not surprising that

  Clement of Alexandria believed that the Pythagorean and

  Greek philosophers derived their wisdom from the Gauls

  and other barbarians,23 by which he no doubt meant the

  Druidic priestly core of these tribes. Dio Chrysostom (1st

  c. A.D.) considered the Druids as being similar to the

  Persian Magi, Egyptian priests, and Indian Brāhmans. It

  may be recalled that F.E. Pargiter once maintained that

  Brāhmanism itself may not have been original y Āryan

  19 The Druidic type is perhaps most evident today among the Welsh.

  20 See S. Piggott, op.cit. , p.74.

  21 The fourth head of the god is invisible since it is turned backwards.

  22 See, for instance, M. Jansen, Die Indus-Zivilisation:

  Wiederentdeckung einer frühen Hochkultur, Köln: DuMont, 1986.

  23 See S. Piggott, op.cit., p.81.

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  alexander jacob

  but adopted into Indo-Āryan religion from Dravidian.24

  However, Pargiter did not consider the possibility that

  both Āryan and later Dravidian may have been derived

  from a proto-Dravidian/Hurrian spiritual culture.

  The religion of the Druids was clearly cosmological, as

  is attested in the commentaries of Caesar, who attributed

  to them much knowledge of the stars and their motion,

  and of the size of the world.25 Ammianus Marcellinus

  declared that they investigated “problems of things secret

  and sublime”.26 Diodorus Siculus, following Posidonius,

  maintained that they held that “the souls of men are

  immortal, and that after a definite number of years they

  have a second life when the soul passes to another body”,27

  which is also the doctrine of the proto-Dravidians who

  formulated the original tenets of Indian religion.

  Although the Celtic religion included sacrifices, even

  human, there is no evidence however of fire-worship

  among the Druids such as became characteristic of the

  Indo-Āryans and Iranians. However, the veneration of

  fire among the ancient Celts may be dimly detected in the

  relative frequency of the appel ation “Áed” (fire) among

  the legendary and early historical high-kings of Ireland.28

  It is only among the proto-Aryans that the Indo-European

  religious rituals become centred on fire-worship, which

  entails an external dramatisation of cosmic events

  and particularly the birth of the sun within the sacred

  sacrificial fire, Agni.

  However, with the rise of the later Hamitic cultures

  of Sumer and Egypt, the adoration of the cosmic forces

  24 See F.E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, London: Milford, 1922, Ch.26.

  25 Ibid.

  26 See S. Piggott, op.cit. , p.101.

  27 Ibid., p.102.

  28 For instance, Áed Rúad (see the Lebor Gabála Érenn).

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  indo-european mythology and religion

  assumed anthropomorphic forms and idolatrous temple-

  worship became the rule, as it did in later Hinduism as

  wel . At the same time, it should be noted that the temples

  of the ancient Indo-Europeans, as well as the fire-rituals of

  the Āryans, are both equal y built on a sacred ground-plan

  (mandala) of the Purusha who is revived, through the

  various rituals performed therein, to his original cosmic

  solar splendour. In the Indo-Aryan sacrifices the sacrificer

  undergoes a ritual death and rebirth as the sun, whereas in

  the Hamitic temple worship, the sacred idol is adored as a

  living representation of the nascent and developing sun.

  Both these forms of worship are natural y related to the

  Tantric yogic exercises that employ the correspondences

  between macrocosm and microcosm to divinise the adept

  himself.29

  The gods of the various cultures that emerged from

  the original homeland of the Indo-Europeans symbolise

  the various vital aspects of the macroanthropomorphic

  Purusha. Thus Enlil, Vāyu, Wotan, representing the divine

  breath or life-force, are chief gods among the Sumerians,

  Indians, and Germans; Zeus, Indra, Perun represent

  the storm-force, among the Germans, Greeks, Indians,

  and Slavs; and Atum, An, Brahman, Mithra, Helios, Sol

  are worshipped by the Egyptians, Sumerians, Indians,

  Zoroastrians, Greeks and Mithraists as the cosmic Light.

  While the fire-sacrifices and temple-rituals of the ancient

  Indo-European religions were considered necessary for

  the well-being of the Purusha and the proper functioning

  of the universe, the aim of the truly enlightened sage,

  however, was to transcend the cosmic incarnation

  altogether through yogic ascesis.

  29 For a more detailed examination of the rituals of the ancient Indo-Europeans see A. Jacob, Brahman: A Study of the Solar Rituals of the Indo-Europeans, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2012.

  24

  II. Pralaya

  Cosmic Floods, the Sun

  and the First Man

  In surveying the origins of the Indo-Europeans as

  well as its cosmological myths and religious rituals we

  may do well to start with the Indo-European accounts

  of the creation of the cosmos itself.

  Naimittika Pralaya

  The story of the Deluge which we are familiar with from the

  account in Genesis 6-9 is indeed a popular representation

  of the cosmic floods which usher in the recreation of

  the material universe after the col apse of the cosmos at

  the end of a cosmic age. The first flood that engulfs the

  cosmos at the end of a kalpa, or ‘day’ of Brahman is called

  Naimittika Pralaya (periodic dissolution) and the second

  that precedes the formation of our universe and our sun is

  called Chākshusha Pralaya (dissolution of the Chākshusha

  Manvantara).

  The prehistory of the cosmos is presented in greatest

  detail in the Indic Purānic literature,30 where we get a

  glimpse not only of the cosmic events that marked the

  creation but also of their psychological significance. In

  30 The Flood stories are to be found also in the Tamil Purānams.

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  indo-european mythology and religion

  the Bhāgavata Purāna31 III,xi,18-22, a day of the supreme Lord is calculated as equalling 1000 Chaturyugas, each

  Chaturyuga32 being 12,000 divine years long (that is, years

  as prevalent in the realm of the gods),33 or 4,380,000,000

  terrestrial years.34 After creating and sustaining the

  cosmos for this extraordinarily vast period of time, comes

  the night in which the Lord “sleeps”. This night is equal y

  as lo
ng as the day of the Lord and is the period when the

  cosmos is dissolved into its original subtle constituents in

  the flood called Naimittika Pralaya ( BP XII,4,3).

  Each kalpa is divided into fourteen “manvantaras” or

  ages of Manu, a Manu being a prototype of enlightened

  mankind. Each Manvantara lasts for 71 odd Chaturyugas,

  or 310,980,000 years ( BP III,11,24). A lifetime of Brahma lasts hundred years totalling around 155,520,000,000,000

  terrestrial years. The first kalpa of the first half (parārdha)

  of Brahma’s life was called Brahma Kalpa ( BP III,11,33ff.), since it was marked by the perfect light of Brahma, and

  the last of the same half was called Padma Kalpa (the

  age of the lotus), since it was in this kalpa that Earth was

  formed in the shape of a lotus. We live in the first kalpa of

  the second half of Brahma’s life, called Varāha Kalpa (the

  age of the Boar) in which the divine light is transferred to

  the material universe.35

  31 The following abbreviations are used in this essay: BP= Bhāgavata Purāna, BrdP= Brahmānda Purāna, RV=Rgveda, SB= Shatapatha Brāhmana, W=Warka, W.B.=Weld-Blundell Collection (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

  32 A chaturyuga is made up of four ages, Krita, Treta, Dvāpara and Kali, corresponding to a Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron Age, in the course of which the divine virtue is gradual y diminished. We now live in the fourth, degenerate, age (Kaliyuga) of the Varāha Kalpa.

  33 A divine day is as long as a terrestrial year.

  34 A terrestrial year is the period taken by the sun to revolve through the twelve constel ations of the zodiac ( BP III,11,13; V,22,5).

  35 Current astrophysical theories suggest that the cosmos is roughly 26

  alexander jacob

  The Naimittika Pralaya which occurred at the end

  of the previous Padma Kalpa is described in some

  detail in the Brahmānda Purāna. In the Brahmānda

  Purāna III,iv,132, the cosmic cataclysm is said to have

  begun with a drought in which the sun burnt everything

  up with his “seven rays”, while the “Samvartaka” fire36 burnt

  the four worlds of Earth, the Mid-Region, Heaven and

  “Mahar” (the supracelestial realm):

  Seven rays of the sun that blazes in the sky sucking

  water, drink water from the great ocean. Being

  il uminated with that intake, seven suns are evolved.

  Then those rays that have become suns, burn the four

  worlds in the four directions. Those fires burn up the

  entire universe.

  The Earth is thus enveloped in flames until the seven

  suns merge into one, and then the samvartaka fire

  burns up the underworld, Rasatala, as well (153). The

  three worlds as well as the superior, Maharloka, are

  thus burnt up entirely and the universe “assumes the

  form of a huge block of iron and shines thus” (159).

  All the creatures of the universe are reduced to the state

  of the “mahābhūtas” (principal elements) (231). Brahman

  himself as the sustainer of the creation gets merged into

  the Mahat (the principle of manifestation),37 which in turn

  14 billion years old whereas, according to the BP, the cosmos is approximately 13,140,000,000 years old (the first day and night of the Lord plus half of the second day). The latter is likely to be more accurate since it is not based on fallible empirical observation but on spiritual intuition.

  36 The burning of the universe at the end of a cosmic age is called

  “kalpadaha” in BrdP I,i,5,122.

  37 See

  BrdP III,iv,2,115: “The manifest part evolving out of the unmanifest one is gross and it is called Mahan (Mahat)”.

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  indo-european mythology and religion

  becomes Avyakta (the unmanifest) and the three gunas, or

  energies (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) are restored to their initial

  perfect balance. Thereafter arise Samvartaka “clouds”

  which also “group themselves in seven, identifying

  themselves with the suns” and these clouds succeed in

  extinguishing the fire when they shower as torrential rains.

  Through these torrential rains, everything mobile and

  immobile is dissolved into one undifferentiated ocean of

  water in which the supreme deity Brahman “sleeps”

  during his long “night”.

  In the Shiva Purāna, the endless ocean into which the

  universe is dissolved at the end of the process of cosmic

  destruction is also called Mahādeva, that is, Shiva himself,

  since he is the destructive aspect of Brahman.38 A little

  earlier the same ocean is called the “ocean of mundane

  existence” since it is the inchoate source of the life that will

  infuse the new universe.39

  It is in this universal water (ambhas) called Ekarnava,

  Salila or Naras ( BrdP,III,iv, 174-8) that the deity, gradual y waking, begins to recreate the cosmos, first assuming the

  form of the macroanthropos, Purusha. Then he extracts,

  in the form of a Cosmic Boar, the material substance of the

  universe called Earth, which lies sunken, from the previous

  cosmos, in the Ocean. This Brahman is interestingly also

  called Kāla (185ff.), who is the same as Shiva, for it is the

  latter who, at the end of the divine “night” is the secret

  impetus to the recreation of the universe. Kāla/Chronos/

  Kumarbi, representing Time, features prominently in the

  Hurrian-Greek cosmogonies as wel , as the producer of

  the Cosmic Egg and its light.40

  38 See S. Shastri, The Flood Legend in Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: S.

  Chand and Co., 1950, p.91.

  39 Ibid., p.66.

  40 See p.224.

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  alexander jacob

  The process of the formation of the macroanthropos

  is described in detail in the Brahmānda Purāna. The

  initial unmanifest form of the deity in the waters is that

  of the supreme Soul, Ātman: “This entire dark world

  was pervaded by his Ātman” (I,i,3,12), with its three

  essential energies, Tāmas, Rajas, and Sattva, maintained

  in perfect balance. This unmanifest deity begins to be

  gradual y manifested when one of the energies begins to

  predominate over the others. The first and highest, sattvic,

  form of the deity is as Vishnu, the ideal macroanthropos,

  while the rājasic is Brahman, who creates the material

  universe, and the tāmasic is Rudra, who will destroy the

  universe at the end of a cosmic age.

  The transformation of Vishnu first into Brahman, the

  self-conscious, enlightened form of the supreme deity,

  is accomplished by virtue of intense Yogic meditation

  (I,i,5,6). The first act of the macroanthropos is to recover

  Earth through the force of his “breath” which emerges

  from his nostrils in the form of the wind-god Vāyu

  assuming the shape of a “Boar”. This is followed by the

  intelligible creation beginning with the lower tāmasic

  and proceeding to the sattvic, the creation of the gods,

  of the “sages” who are intellectual creations of the deity,

  and, final y, of human life (I,i,5). Then Brahman manifests

  himself material y as the Light of the universe. The close

  union of the Light with Earth is destroyed by Time,

  Chronos, who is, in Hesiod’s Theogony, 170ff, s
aid to have castrated his father ‘Heaven’. This castration results in the

  development of a Cosmic Egg which develops within the

  ideal macroanthropos, Purusha. The light of Brahman

  then constitutes the upper half of this egg while the lower

  half is constituted of the newly recovered Earth in the

  form of a lotus. The development of the egg is given in

  more scientific detail in the Vishnu Purāna I:

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  indo-european mythology and religion

  Then (the elements) ether, air, light, water and earth,

  several y united with the properties of sound, and

  the rest existed as distinguishable according to their

  qualities as soothing, terrific, or stupefying; but

  possessing various energies, and being unconnected,

  they could not without combination create living

  beings, not having blended with each other. Having

  combined, therefore, with one another, they assumed,

  through their mutual association, the character of one

  mass of entire unity; and from the direction of spirit,

  with the acquiescence of the indiscreet principle,

  intellect, and the rest, to the gross elements inclusive,

  formed an egg, which gradual y expanded like a

  bubble of water.41

  It must be remembered that the earlier cosmic age (Padma

  Kalpa) was also marked by the creation of a universe or

  universes, since the Naimittika Pralaya begins with a

  conflagration due to the “suns”. However, it is possible that

  there was no human life in it, since that is mentioned only

  in our cosmic age (Varāha Kalpa), whose seventh Manu,

  Manu Vaivasvata, is responsible for the transmission

  of the seeds of life to earth as well as for the mortality

  of the forms that spring from these seeds.42 According

  to BrdP I,ii,6, the natural destruction of the earlier cosmos was followed by the intermediate period (pratisandhi)

  between two kalpas when the deity returned anew to

  his task of creation. However, this time it is clear that he

  proceeded farther in his material manifestation than in

  the previous cosmic age.

  In the Padma Purāna I,39,48ff. , Vishnu (the form of the supreme lord as macroanthropos) is said to have taken

  41 See W.J. Wilkins,

  Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic,

  London: Thacker, Spink & Company, 1882, p.348.

  42 See p.40.

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  alexander jacob

  four forms in the process of destroying the universe. First,