hindu-mythology

"Vamadeva was an unusual and mysterious Rishi, ascribed with an almost miraculous birth. Vamadeva and his gotra (family), the Gotamas were associated with the land of Videha in Bihar and Nepal from which Sita came and which was the home of the great royal-sages, the Janakas, on which many Upanishads like the Brihadaranyaka, and Advaitic works, like the Ashtavakra Gita, were based. The first mentioning of Sita as an earth Goddess occurs in the hymns of Vamadeva in the Rig Veda (IV.57). Many teachings are ascribed to dialogues between Vasishta, purohit of Kosala, and Vamadeva, purohit of nearby Videha, including teachings on astrology and on Ayurveda. Vamadeva was a name of Indra, the supreme Vedic God, particularly as a falcon (shyena). It was also a name of Savitar, the Sun God, who dispensed his grace or beauty (vama). Vamadeva later became a name of Lord Shiva in his northern face. So it was an important and powerful name and one that few people carried."

"I first noted the name Vamadeva while studying the Upanishads. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad quotes Rishi Vamadeva for the great saying (mahavakya) Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman or I am God). This it relates to Vamadeva’s saying in the Rig Veda, "I was Manu and I became the Sun (IV.26.1). The Aitareya Upanishad mentions Vamadeva, who was said to have learned the Vedas while still within his mother’s womb. It quotes another statement of Vamadeva from the Rig Veda (IV.27.1), "When I was in my mother’s womb I learned the birth of all the Gods." Among the first hymns of the Rig Veda whose inner meaning became clear to me were those of Brihadukta, the son of Vamadeva (RV X. 54 – 56). Others were hymns of Vamadeva himself, which comprise most of the fourth book of the Rig Veda, particularly his hymns to Agni and Indra, such as Sri Aurobindo also specially admired."

"The sacrifice of horses, in fact, is in no way specific to Vedic India: only the ritual of this sacrifice is, very different from that of the funerary ritual of Sintashta. The Indian aśvamedha is in no way a funeral ritual."

"Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured."

"What time thou settest near the Sun thy body, thy form, Immortal One, is seen expanding: Thou a wild elephant with might invested. like a dread lion as thou wieldest weapons."

"It must be emphasised that the process of polarisation of relations between the Ahuras and the Daevas is already complete in the Gathas, whereas, in the Rigveda, the reverse process of polarisation between the Devas and the Asuras, which does not begin before the later parts of the Rigveda, develops as it were before our very eyes, and is not completed until the later Vedic period."

"Great Varuṇa and Mitra, Gods, Asuras and imperial Lords,"

"As a wild elephant rushes on this way and that way, mad with heat,' None may compel thee, yet come hither to the draught: thou movest mighty in thy power."

"Even as hunters follow two wild elephants, we with oblations call you down at morn and eve. To folk who pay you offierings at appointed times, Chiefs, Lords of splendour, ye bring food to strengthen them."

"The people deck him like a docile king of elephants."

"Great is the single asurahood of the devas."

"Worship thou Rudra for his great good favour: adore the Asura, God, with salutations."

"Child of a double birth he grasps at triple food; in the year's course what he hath swallowed grows anew. He, by another's mouth and tongue a noble Bull, with other, as an elephant, consumes the trees."

"For they are Asuras of Gods, the friendly make, both of you, our lands exceeding fruitful. May we obtain you, Varuṇa and Mitra, wherever Heaven and Earth and days may bless us."

"The golden-handed Savitar, far-seeing, goes on his way between the earth and heaven, Drives away sickness, bids the Sun approach us, and spreads the bright sky through the darksome region. May he, gold-handed Asura, kind Leader, come hither to us with his help and favour. Driving off Raksasas and Yatudhanas, the God is present, praised in hymns at evening."

"By separating the meaning of the Vedic varana from the classical one, Roth allowed himself to be led to believe that the elephant was still foreign to the songs of the Rigveda. If this statement were correct, the Vedic Indians would not have been Indians at all, for the elephant is inseparable from India. But as shown, it is erroneous."

"Mighty, with wondrous power and marvellously bright, selfstrong like mountains, ye glide swiftly on your way. Like the wild elephants ye eat the forests up when ye assume your strength among the bright red flames."

"The higher gods of the Rgveda are almost entirely personifications of natural phenomena, such as Sun, Dawn, Fire, Wind. Excepting a few deities surviving from an older period, the gods are, for the most part, more or less clearly connected with their physical foundations. The personifications being therefore but slightly developed, lack definiteness of outline and individuality of character. Moreover, the phenomena themselves which are behind the personifications have few distinctive traits, while they share some attributes with other phenomena belonging to the same domain. Thus Dawn, Sun, Fire have the common features of being luminous, dispelling darkness, appearing in the morning. ... The universe appeared to the poets of the Rgveda to be divided into three domains of earth, air, and heaven, ... This is the favourite triad of the Reveda, constantly mentioned expressly or by implication. The solar phenomena are referred to heaven, while those of lightning, rain, and wind belong to the air. In the three worlds the various gods perform their actions, though they are supposed to dwell only in the third, the home of light."

"Saraswati, whose endless, unencompassed, brilliant, mobile flood with power continues to roar (VI.61.8)."

"It is seldom difficult to doubt that the anthropomorphic forms but faintly veil phenomena of nature... [He notes that the outlines of the Greek gods are hopelessly blurred] “in comparison with the much clearer and more transparent figures of the Vedic hymns.” ... ‘The degree of anthropomorphism exhibited by the Vedic deities is extremely variable. In some cases the active clement is constantly present, and the view taken may be set down as almost animistic: the waters are indeed goddesses, but they are also wholesome to drink; the goddess Dawn bares her bosom like a beautiful maiden, but there is comparison here rather than identity, and, if in some cases the goddess seems to be considered as ‘one who appears morn after morn to men, in others each separate dawn is a fresh divinity. Surya, the sun, by his, rising is born as a child of the sky; the constant presence of the actual deity prevents any real development of anthropomorphism. The same consideration affects Agni, who never appears as a god disconnected from his element of fire: when he is hidden in the waters or in the clouds, it is as fire: as messenger of men he is the fire of the sacrifice flaming up to heaven to bring gods and men together. But the difficulties of this view were clearly felt in connexion with the question of the innumerable fires of earth and their relation to the god. Strictly speaking he must be present in each, and this view is often taken, but there appears also the conception that in some degree the god is free from the element and able to come to it, not merely to be manifested in it when it is produced. The evidence for this view is, however, it is important to note, late: ... The contrast ‘with the figure of Agni in later literature such as the epic is marked: in the epic the gods have long ceased to be nearly as closely connected with their natural bases as in the Rigveda, and Agni can figure as the main personage in tales which never had any relation to the fire as an element. Regarding theriomorphism, Keith (1925/1:61) notes, ‘While most Vedic nature deities are normally conceived as anthropomorphic, there did not prevail any rigid exclusion of theriomorphic conceptions of deities. It is often asserted, even by Oidenberg, that in earlier periods of religion theriomorphic conceptions were more frequent than anthropomorphic, but the proof for such & theory seems to be wholly lacking."

"Some unite to him, others flow to him, the rivers fill a common wideness. Shining pure, the Son of the Waters, the pure waters converge into him. All the worlds are like branches of him (II.35.3, 8)."

"The Gods who dwell in the luminous realm of Heaven above the firmament, who make the mountains shake across the flooding ocean; who extend with their rays with strength across the ocean, Indra come with the Maruts (I.19.7-8)."

"For Turvasha and Yadu, you calmed the gushing waters on the farther shore (V.31.8)."

"Oh Maruts, you draw up the rain from the ocean and, full of the heavenly waters, make it pour (V.55.5)."

"May the Creator with the Gods and their wives in accord, Heaven with the Gods and the Earth with the oceans, and the Dragon of the Depths hear us, along with the One-horned Goat, the Earth and the Ocean (VI.50.13- 14).63"

"Whose eldest is the ocean, from the middle of the sea, the Waters continue flowing unceasingly. The Waters which are heavenly or those which flow, which are dug out or those which come forth of themselves, whose goal is the sea (VII.49.1-2).65"

"From the lap of the mountains, happy, smiling, like two running mares, like two bright mother cows licking their calf, Vipas and Shutudri run with fluid. Directed by Indra, seeking power, as chariots they travel to the sea (III.33.1- 2)"

"Saraswati, pure in her course from the mountains to the sea (VII.95.2)."

"Saraswati, who is like a great ocean (or flood; 1.3.12)."

"Oh Maruts, what medicine of yours is in the Indus and in the Asikni rivers, what is in the oceans or what is in the mountains (VIII.20.25)."

"Priests, go to the ocean, worship with offerings the Son of the Waters (X.30.3)."

"The king of the river plunges into the sea, lodged in the rivers, he holds to the wave of the waters (IX.86.8)."

"As the wind, as the wood, as the sea stirs"

"While some flow together, others flow towards; the rivers fill the common receptacle’."

"Agni Vaisvanara received treasures in the rising of the sun from the samudra lower and upper, from sky/heaven and earth."

"Indra killed the dragon, opened outlets for the waters splitting the breasts of mountains then … flowing directly to the ocean down rushed the waters."

"And both oceans are Varuna's flanks (AV Atharva veda, IV.16.3).16"

"The day is the greatness born to the east of the horse. His source is in the eastern ocean. The night is the greatness born to the west. His source is in the western ocean. These two greatnesses have come into being around the horse (Brihadaranyaka upanishad I.1.2)."

"Much Rig Veda imagery is maritime. A hymn in Book Ten says, ‘In the beginning there was darkness hidden in darkness, all this universe was an unilluminated sea.’ Another has the gods standing in the sea, ‘then from hidden in the oceans, they brought forth the sun’. One from Book Four also describes creation from the oceans. ‘The universe rests within your nature, in the ocean, in the heart of all life.’ The later Puranas also identify the origin of life as the sea. Indra is the most frequently invoked god, ‘who is as expansive as the sea,’ ‘extensive as the sea,’ and ‘a four-fold ocean, the support of treasures’. Agni is the second major god in terms of number of hymns and also ocean related. ‘All delights converge in Agni, as seven mighty streams into the ocean’ and ‘Agni, the one ocean, the upholder of treasures.’ The god of sacred fire and wisdom, ‘Agni will deliver us across all difficulties as a ship across the river or sea,’ imagery which also pervades later Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The earth and Mother Goddess Aditi are compared to a ship, only possible for a deeply maritime people. There are references to months of sea-travel, images of the sun’s movements through the year compared to a vessel crossing the sea. The enlightenment of a sage is compared to a ship’s journey. They understood the mechanics of evaporation and precipitation. ‘Oh, Maruts, you draw up the rain from the ocean and full of heavenly waters make it pour.’ The ocean is the father of all gods, the support of cosmic laws. ‘Flow on Soma as wealth from four oceans to us.’ ‘There is perhaps not a single Vedic god or group of gods that is not somewhere related to the ocean or ships,’ and the ocean is repeatedly identified as the means to bring riches, hence the importance of Indra’s dragon-slaying and freeing of rivers."

"To [Indra] go praises… as to the samudra [go] in company those desiring gain."

"That is the great magic power of this divine greatest seer, Varuna, that no one can challenge, when the diverse flowing streams cannot fill the one ocean with their water."

"Varuna dug a path for the Sun and led forth the ocean-going floods of the rivers."

"All offerings go to Agni like the seven swift-ones flowing to the ocean."

"For three nights and three days, o Asvins, you carried Bhujyu… to the distant dry-shore of the watery ocean."

"Impelled by Indra … you-two [rivers] ‘like chariot- horses go to the sea."

"O Maruts, you raise up rain from the samudra [and] cause-to-rain."

"Whatever medicinal balm is in the Indus and Asikni rivers… in the oceans … on the mountains."

"From the upper to the lower Samudra he released the celestial waters."

"Ashwins, whether you are in a distant habitation, or beyond in the luminous realm of Heaven or in a house built upon the sea, come thence to us (VIII.10.1).54"

"In 7.95.2, if one has faith in grammar and syntax, the text describes the Sarasvati as “pure, travelling down from the mountains, from the gathering-place of waters.”"