A new approach to the Vedas : an essay in translation and exegesis

A NEW APPROACH TO THE VEDAS

mothers in relation to the Son (Kumara, Agni VaiSvanara), are the possibilities of manifestation.

Parallel to the passages cited above is the myth of Puriravas and Urvasi, Rg Veda, X, 95 (also IV, 2, 12 and 18), and Satapatha Brahmana, XI, 5, 1; their son Ayu, ‘‘ Life,” is identified in the Vajasaneyi Samhita, V, 2, with Agni, Fire. Puriiravas evidently corresponds to Prajapati, the “‘ first sacrificer,” cf. how in the SBr. passage he brings fire to earth by performing the (first) sacrifice, that is after he has lain again with UrvaSi on “‘ the last night of the year ’’ subsequent to their first intercourse, that means a year of supernal time, the duration of one cycle of manifestation, the ‘‘ Year’’ of our Upanisad. By the sacrifice, he who had been “‘ changed in form ”’ and “ walked amongst mortals,’ and was thus divided from Urvasi (manifestation, or existence necessarily implying a diremption of essence and nature) he becomes a Gandharva, and is reunited with Urvasi, that is he becomes again the pure Will-spirit in union with its object. Thus he has proceeded in time, and now returns to the unmanifest at the end of time. Thus also Purtravas corresponds to Aditya (Vivasvat): Ayu may be compared to Manu Vaivasvata. The “‘ mortality ’’’ of Puriiravas does not mean that Puriiravas was “‘a man,”’ but belongs to his existence as Universal Man, saguna, martya Brahman. That all this was clearly understood is shown in connection with the Soma sacrifice, when in the Titual of making fire, the upper and the lower twirling-sticks are addressed as Puriiravas and Urvasi, the pan of ghi (the food of the sacrificial fire, whereby it exists) as Ayu, “ for UrvaSi was the Apsaras, Puriiravas her Lord, from their intercourse was Ayu born, and now in like manner he (the sacrificer) brings forth the sacrifice from their union,’”’ Satapatha Brahmana, III, 4, 1, 22.

The relations between Vivasvant (the mortal Sun) and Saranyi (in person or represented by a savarna) are the same as those of Puriiravas and Urvasi: Ayu corresponding to Yama-Yami, Manu, and the Asvins.

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It may be added that -vavas in Pururavas, and Ravi, “‘ Sun,” are from the same V ru, to “‘ roar’’; the notion being that of the roaring of the Cosmic Fire (Rg Veda, V, 2, 10), which is the purring of the World-Wheel, the Music of the Spheres. Cf. Maiiri Up., II,, 6 (c).

Note that the designation of the upper fire-stick, pramantha, corresponds to ‘“‘ Prometheus.’’ The correspondence between the myths of Purtiravas and Urvasi and Eros and Psyche is evident. Prometheus is post-Homeric, the myth of Eros and Psyche only in Apuleius: pra-V math occurs first in Smrti, corresponding to nir--/ math in Vedic usage. The importance of Fire and Water in early Greek philosophy may well reflect Oriental, that is immediately, Persian influences, cf. Harrison, Themis, 1927, p. 461. It may be noted that the correspondence of Prometheus with pramantha is far more than merely etymological. Prometheus, like Agni, is the child of Earth, and the Okeanids who sympathise with him (in the Prometheus of Aeschylus) are his blood-kin, for the birth of Fire on Earth is but one remove from his source in the Waters. Like Urvasi, these Okeanids appear to him in the form of birds; and ‘“‘ Okeanos is much more than Ocean.”

As for the diremption of essence and nature (represented in our myths by Puriravas and Urvasi, Eros and Psyche), cf. Taittiviya Brahmaaa, I, 1, 3, 2, ““ The sky and earth were close together. On being divided, they said, etc.,’’ with the famous fragment of Euripides (Nauck, frg. 484): Cf. RV. 1, 164, 8-9, x, 124, 8 and JUB, 111, 14.)