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

NOTES

Heaven and Earth were once one form, but stirred And strove and dwelt asunder far away: And then rewedding, bore unto the day And light of life all things that are. . . . each in his kind and law,

and the later echo in Apollonius Rhodius, T, 494, ‘‘ how that they parted after deadly strife asunder, etc.”

For a comparative treatment of the whole theme see Siecke, E., Die Liebesgeschichte des Himmels, Strassburg, 1892.

Amongst the proposed derivations of apsaras, that which gives the sense ‘moving on the Waters” is to be preferred, but apsu-rasa, “ savour of the Waters” is also possible, and a third derivation from a-psa, implying “ forbidden food,” also suggested by Yaska, is not without interest. Wedic Apsaras and Gandharva are a single pair ; the former, by name Urvasi (“ wide-pervasive ’’) is a persona of Aditi, later represented as $n-Laksmi, the latter equivalent to Kandarpa, Kamadeva. In any case, the Apsaras represents the fascination of the possibilities of existence, to which the Will, Gandharva, responds : their mutual relation is the causa causans of the movement of the world. It is again as Will that the Gandharva holds the bridle of the cosmic steed, i.e., Varuna, Taittiviya Savihita, IV, 6, 7, and Rg Veda, I, 163, 3-

Observe that nirukta is not “ etymology,” but “interpretation,” ‘eounuea. Waska never had in view the special science of philology, and it is merely “ unscientific’ to speak of his ‘‘ derivations ” as “ false etymologies.’ Neither is mivukta merely “‘ exegesis ’’ (concrete interpretation), but rather “ anagogic. Examples of nairukta, “ hermeneutic,’’ interpretation would be (1) to correlate Grk. apoBatixds with Lat. probare, in the sense to ‘‘ prove,” “ make good,” (2) to compare A and QM with Alpha and Omega, ( 3) to explain amor as a~mor=amyta. At the same time nothing hinders that nirukta may in certain cases accord with ‘‘ true etymology.”

16 Or as expressed by Jili, while religion (dualism) distinguishes ice (the universe) from water (God), understanding (monism) realises their identity (Nicholson, Studies . . . p. 99).

17 Cf. Jili’s ‘‘ nine phases of will, beginning with inclination (may/) and ending with the highest and purest love (‘ishqg) in which there is no (distinction of) lover or beloved,”’ Nicholson, Studies . . . p. 102.

18 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, II, 12 and XIII, 19; Sankaracarya, Comment. on the Veddnta Sutra, Il, 1, 35, anaditvatsamsavasya; and Dante, “ nor before nor after was the procession of God’s outflowing over these waters,” but “‘ where every where and every when is focussed,’ Paradiso, XXIX, 13, 20, and 21.

19 Mrtyu as Death-absolute, the last death of the soul, mors janua vitae, is to be distinguished from death-temporal, mytyu, or punar mytyu ; which distinction 1s, for example, sharply drawn in the seventh stanza of our brahmana.

It is developed above, p. 32, that the relation of Godhead to God, nirguna Brahman (Mrtyu in our text), is as it were maternal, a relation of Aditito Aditya. Observe then that corresponding to the conception in our text of nirguna, anatmya Brahman as Death-absolute is that of Aditi as Nirrti, as in Rg Veda, VAI, 58, 1, where the Maruts rise up, grow up, into the regions of angelhood (daivasya dhamnah) from the abyss of Nirtti (nirrteravamsat)—the metaphor contrasts dhaman