Indo-European Mythology and Religion

by Alexander Jacob

  195 See A. Jacob, Brahman, Ch.X. 84

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  the permanence of the soul (ātman) as a hindrance to

  moral conduct and liberation. Indeed, moral conduct, and

  not rituals, are the only means of liberation according to

  Buddhism. In the consideration of asceticism, it prefers

  self-discipline to self-mortification. It not only opposes

  the theistic and past-life determinism of Brāhmanism

  but also the quasi-biological determinism of Jainism and

  posits moral action as the sole determinant of individual

  destiny. It thus represents a moralistic middle path

  between the extreme anti-corporealism of Jainism and the

  immanentist and sublimational doctrines of Tantra and

  Tantric Buddhists

  Indeed, Buddhism did incorporate various Tantric

  practices from the 7th century A.D. onwards especial y

  in its Vajrayāna branch, which, unlike the Mahāyāna

  and Hīnayāna schools, emphasises the importance of

  ritual rather than mere meditation. Scholars such as A.

  Sanderson and S. Hatley have suggested that Tantric

  practices may have penetrated Buddhism already in

  the 5th century from Shaivaite sources.196 The Manjushri

  Mūlakalpa text attributed to the Boddhisattva Manjushri

  of the Mahāyāna tradition, and dating from the 6th century

  A.D., is, for example, based on Shaiva as well as Vaishnava

  Tantric texts.

  ***

  The Shramana tradition is thus general y an ascetic one. It

  focuses on the cycle of births and deaths and the liberation

  (moksha) from it that may be achieved through asceticism

  and non-violence. Asceticism was more severely practiced

  196 See, for instance, S. Hatley, “Converting the Dākini: Goddess Cults and Tantras of the Yoginis between Buddhism and Saivism” in Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation, (ed.) D.B. Gray and R.R.

  Overbey, N.Y., NY: Oxford University Press, 2016, Ch.2.

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  by the Jains than by the Buddhists and one of the major

  Jain sects, the Digambara, to this day renounces even

  clothing as an earthly attachment and as a source of

  violence against the minute organisms present in one's

  environment.

  II. Brāhmana

  The Vedas

  When we turn to the spiritual traditions of Brāhmanism

  and Tantra we find that they are much less world-abjuring

  than the Yogic and Shramana traditions. The Indo-Āryan

  Brāhmanical tradition venerates the Vedas as the font

  of its spiritual knowledge. The Vedas are considered to

  be divinely revealed scriptures that emerged from the

  original cosmic sacrifice of the Purusha, or Primordial

  Man, the form in which the divine Soul first imagined

  itself in the manifest universe.197 Thus in the Rigveda, X,90

  (Purusha Sūkta), we learn that

  9. From that great general sacrifice, Ṛcas and Sāma-

  hymns were born: Therefrom were spel s and charms

  produced;198 the Yajus had its birth from it.

  According to the Manusmriti, I,23, the Vedas, as liturgical texts to be chanted during sacrifices, were created by the

  Supreme Soul original y for the performance of the cosmic

  sacrifice of the Purusha itself:

  197 For a full account of the mythology of the Purusha and its

  significance for an understanding of the Āryan as well as Hamitic religions, see A. Jacob, Brahman, and Ch.V below.

  198 This would refer to the contents of the Atharvaveda.

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  22. He, the Lord, also created the class of the gods, who

  are endowed with life, and whose nature is action; and

  the subtile class of the sādhyas [lower celestial beings],

  and the eternal sacrifice.

  But from fire, wind, and the sun he drew forth the

  threefold eternal Veda, called Rik, Yagus, and Saman,

  for the due performance of the sacrifice.

  In BP III,12, the Vedas accompany the physical creation

  of the universe guiding its formation through sacrificial as

  well as ethical rules:

  34. When the creator of all worlds one day wondered

  how he should create the three worlds the way they

  were before, the Vedic literature manifested itself from

  his four mouths.

  35. Thus the four functions of [sacrificial] action [the

  offer, the performer, the fire and the offering] and the

  supplements of the Veda with their logical conclusions

  became manifest, as also the four principles of religion

  [truth, purity, austerity and compassion] and the

  spiritual stages [ âshramas] and vocational divisions

  [ varnas].199

  26th Chaturyuga, Dvāpara Yuga

  The editing of the Vedas in their present form was

  undertaken by the sage Vyāsa. Though Vyāsa is mentioned

  in BP I,3, as an avatār of Vishnu in the Treta Yuga, the Vishnu Purāna, III,3, declares that the Vedas are edited

  in every Dvāpara Yuga and the editor of the Vedas that

  199 However, we may remember the attribution of the institution of the āshramas to Kapila by the Sāmkhya-Yoga school and that of the caste system to Rishabha by the Jain.

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  we possess appeared in the Dvāpara Yuga of the twenty-

  sixth Chaturyuga. The Vedas as we have them are divided

  into four texts, Rigveda, Sāmaveda, Yajurveda and

  Atharvaveda. The first three are sacrificial liturgies for the

  use of the Hotr priest, the Udgātr and the Adhvaryu priest

  respectively. The Atharvaveda is older in its contents and

  is meant for the supervising Brahman priest, or Atharvan,

  a name that is clearly of Indo-Iranian rather than Indo-

  Āryan origin.

  28th Chaturyuga, Treta Yuga

  Brāhmanism

  Brāhmanism itself traces its origins to the Treta Yuga of

  the 28th Chaturyuga and the mythic figure of the first man,

  Manu. A brief account of the beginning of our humanity

  with Manu may be in order here.

  According to the Bhāgavata Purāna, the cosmos is

  said to be ever recreated after a periodic devastation by

  a “flood”, when the supreme deity in the manifest form

  of Vishnu descends into a deep sleep within the cosmic

  ocean. Gradual y waking, he begins to reproduce the

  cosmos. The antediluvian epoch, or kalpa, was called

  Brahmakalpa ( BP III,11,33ff.), since it was marked by the perfect light of Brahma,200 and the second, after the cosmic

  cataclysm, is the present one, called Padmakalpa (the

  Lotus epoch),201 in which the divine light is transferred to

  the material universe. Each kalpa is divided into fourteen

  “manvantaras” or ages of Manu, a Manu being the type of

  200 Brahma is the Purānic form of Brahman.

  201 According to VP, I,27-28, however, the first kalpa was called Padmakalpa (the kalpa of the Lotus) and the present one is called Varāhakalpa (the kalpa of the Boar).

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  enlightened mankind. Each manvantara lasts for 71 odd

  Chaturyugas, or 310,980,000 years ( BP III,11,24) and is

  followed by a deluge lasting as long as a Krita Yuga, or

&nbs
p; 1,728,000 years ( Sūrya Siddhāntha, I,18).

  According to the Sūrya Siddhānta, Ch.I, 22, the

  Manu of our cosmic cycle is said to have appeared in

  the 28th Chaturyuga of the [Padma] Kalpa. And, in the

  Mahābhārata, Shantiparva, it is said that Manu manifested himself in the Treta Yuga. This Manu is the seventh and

  called Manu Vaivaswata [of Vivasvant, the sun]. He is

  responsible for the transmission of the seeds of life to earth

  as well as for the mortality (Yama) of the forms that spring

  from these seeds. BP VIII,14,3, informs us that the role of a

  “Manu” is to maintain the cosmic order at the time of the

  creation of the universe and in BP VIII,24,13 the seventh Manu is called also Satyavrata, and King of Drāvida. So we

  may assume that Drāvida and its king Satyavrata represent

  the first ful y enlightened post-diluvian mankind. As

  regards the proto-Dravidians, we may rely on Lahovary’s

  pioneering research into the Mediterranean race, which he

  identified with the Dravidian, and considered as being the

  original inhabitants of the ancient Near East “in its largest

  meaning”, that is, including “Anatolia, Syria, Palestine,

  Caucasia, Persia, Mesopotamia with its extensions towards

  India, as well as Arabia and the African regions facing

  Arabia, i.e. from the Nile valley to the high tablelands of

  East Africa”.202

  Manu is warned of a deluge by a fish (representing

  Prajāpati in his piscine incarnation Matsya).203 In the

  MBh, the divine identity of the fish is revealed to be that of Prajāpati/Brahman (the name of the supreme god in his

  luminous, creative aspect), since the fish declares to the

  “seven sages”—who accompany Manu in the ship—“I am

  202 See N. Lahovary, tr. K.A. Nilakantan, Dravidian Origins, p.2.

  203 See the list of Vishnu avatārs. 89

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  Brahma, lord of progeny [Prajāpati] … I in the form of

  a fish have delivered you from this peril”.204 The fish goes

  on to state that Manu should create all creatures including

  “gods, asuras, and men and all the worlds and what moves

  and what does not move [i.e. animal and vegetable life].”

  Manu saves himself in a ship which is tied to the

  “horn” of the fish205 and is borne by the latter to the heights

  of “the northern mountain”, which, not being specified

  as a Himalayan one, may well be Mt. Ararat, which is

  general y identified as the mountain on which the “ark”

  of Noah/Manu rested after the deluge.206 It is important to

  note that Manu is the divine ancestor of the race that is to

  inhabit the earth. In the SB, Manu is described as offering a sacrifice after the flood recedes, and from this sacrifice

  arises, first, a “daughter” Idā [a variant of Ilā],207 and then

  a son Ikshvāku, from whom the human race is derived.208

  The Indic Manu is identifiable with the Noah of the

  Hebrew Bible, and Noah is said to be a descendant of Seth,

  the son of Adam [Man], who is the same of the Vedic

  Purusha, or Primordial Man. In the the Ethiopian version

  of Pseudo-Callisthenes, the brāhmans are said to be the

  sons of Seth. Josephus identifies the land of Seth as located

  around “Seiris”, which is also the land of Noah, who is said

  to have preserved the wisdom of Seth.209 In the Christian

  Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum of Pseudo-Chrysostom,

  the books of Seth were supposed to have been hidden

  204 MBh II,187,2ff.

  205 See

  SB I,viii,1,5.

  206 For the identification of Manu with Noah see below; cf. A. Jacob, Ātman , Ch.I; A. Jacob, Brahman, Ch.IV.

  207 Ilā and Idā are interchangeable in the BP (Ilā: IX,16,22) and other Purānas (Idā: BrdP III,60,11, VP 85,7).

  208 We have noted the Edda (‘The Deluding of Gylfi’) records the first human beings as a girl called Embla and a boy called Ask.

  209 See Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, I:70-1.

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  by Noah in the land of Šir, and the so-called “cave of

  treasures” in which they were hidden is identifiable with

  Mt. Ararat.210 In Genesis 14:6, the Horites, or Hurrians, are particularly identified with Mt. Seir, and we note here a

  close identification of the proto-Hurrians with the proto-

  Dravidians of BP, according to which Manu is King of

  Drāvida. Since Manu/Noah is a Dravidian “king” in BP,

  it seems that Vedic religion itself derives from a proto-

  Dravidian origin. It may be significant, in this context, that,

  in the Mahābhārata, Āranyakaparva (IX,45, 87ff.), the title

  “Yogeshvara” (Lord of Yoga) is applied particularly to the

  chief god of the Dravidians, Muruga/Skanda. F.E. Pargiter

  maintained that Brāhmanism was not original y Āryan

  but adopted into Indo-Āryan religion from Dravidian.211

  However, Pargiter did not consider the possibility that

  both Āryan and later Dravidian may have been derived

  from a proto-Dravidian/Hurrian212 spiritual culture.213

  Manu's daughter Ila, according to the Purānas is

  the originator of the Lunar Aila dynasty of kshatriyas.

  According to Rāmāyana, Uttarakanda, 100, Ila was the

  son, rather than daughter, of the Manu Kardama, king of

  Bāhlika (Bactria). We have already noted the identification

  of Manu's son with Kapila, the founder of the Sāmkhya-

  Yoga school. If Bactria should, therefore, be associated

  with the possible origin of the Shramana sects, we will see

  that Bactria is equal y associated with Brāhmanical fire-

  210 See G.G. Stroumsa, Another Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology, Leiden: E.J. Bril , 1984, p.117.

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

  212 For a good account of the Hurrians see G. Wilhelm, Grundzüge der Geschichte und Kultur der Hurriter, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesel schaft, 1982; G. Wilhelm, The Hurrians, tr. J. Barnes, Warminster: Aris and Phillips Ltd., 1989.

  213 For a detailed discussion of the proto-Dravidian/Druidic origins of Brāhmanism see A. Jacob, Brahman, Ch.VI.

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  worship. In ancient West Asia, the kingdom of Elam in

  the western part of Iran may well correspond to the Aila

  dynasty, while the Akshak dynasty of Sumer may represent

  the Ikshvāku. If so, the entire region from western Iran to

  Bactria was inhabited by the Aila dynasty. In general, we

  may assume that the Aila dynasty represents an eastern

  branch of the same race that is represented in West Asia

  by the Sumerian/Akkadian Ikshvākus.

  Purūravas, a grandson of Chandra and Ila, is said

  to have acquired the sacred fires of the Āryans from the

  Gandharvas (Gandharva being a term for heaven as well

  as for a particular tribe). Purūravas is said to have lived

  at the end of the Treta Yuga, at the end of which age too

  there was another flood when the earth was submerged

  under the waters. However, with the assistance of the sage

  Agastya the earth was recovered from the depths and life

  revived on it. The Aila dynasty thus is clearly associated

  with th
e Indo-Āryan fire-worshipping peoples, while

  Agastya represents the transmission of the Vedic religion

  to the Hamitic peoples of Sumer, Egypt, and India..

  Of the Solar Ikshāvku line, Rāma, the famous son of

  Dasharatha, is said to have been born in the Treta Yuga

  ( Rāmāyana, Uttara Kanda, 44). His kingdom is said to

  be Kosala, which is identified as being a part of present-

  day Uttar Pradesh, but this might just be a transference

  of a more westerly original location, perhaps Kish.214

  Although—as we shall see below—the fire-worshipping

  Āryan tradition is associated specifical y with the Aila

  dynasty of Purūravas and is first evidenced in the Bactria-

  Margiana Archaeological Complex, the veneration of the

  Ikshvāku Rāma in Brāhmanical terms in India suggests

  that his story was equal y Brāhmanised by the people

  who brought the mythological story of Manu and his

  descendants to the sub-continent.

  214 See below p.112.

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  Both the Brāhmanical religion, which may have had a

  northerly Indo-Āryan origin in the Pontic Steppe, and the

  Hamitic religions which begin in eastern Anatolia, around

  Mt. Ararat – are characterised by a concentration on the

  Purusha form of the divine Soul in the macrocosmos as

  well as in the microcosm The fire rituals of the Āryans

  are magical dramatisations of the cosmic sacrifice of the

  Purusha and aim at reviving the latter through the force

  of the ritual fire. The Agnicayana ritual, for instance, is

  an elaborate example of Vedic ritual conducted for the

  purpose of reviving the Purusha.215 These rituals also serve

  to sustain the entire cosmos through an identification of

  the chief participants, that is, the sacrificer guided by the

  brahman priest, with the solar force.

  The Vedas in their present form are thus primarily

  sacrificial liturgies aimed at restoring the creation to its

  ideal status as the Primordial Man. However, the ethical

  aspects of Vedic sacrifice too may be gleaned through

  the description of the evolution of religion provided in

  the Manusmrithi. The aim of all Vedic enlightenment,

  whether it be through Āryan fire-worship or the later

  Tantra, is indeed the attainment of the ultimate identity

  of the individual soul, ātman, with the primal light of the