"Krsna tvac as a metaphor for darkness in the RV yet is no abstract idea, but in the minds of Rgvedic man a real part of the world, of the cosmological scheme. The poets describe it eventually as a cloth a cover which could spread over the earth. Darkness is related to the âdepthâ, the lowest region of the trinominal concept of the world-structure, being at the same time the home of the waters. Two verses give a vivid picture of this. In RV 4. 13. 4 the poet adresses Surya who drove away the nig'ht ...Definitely the verse means the night, the âblack clothâ lying over the earth, not the symbolical darkness. But in the minds of the poets the bounds between real and symbolic darkness were fluent, as RV 4. 17. 14 â 15 suggests... If at the three above cited passages krsna tvac is translated with âdark cloth, dark coverâ but not with âdark skinâ in the sense of âdark complexionâ it fits better into the habits of thinking of the Rgvedic poets, than the rather trivial translation current up till now. Assumedly the Rgvedic hymns are mythological poetry not in the first line depicting real events but out of these events creating myths â myths as models for reality. The fight against enemies dominating the life of the Aryan immigrants, this theme presented itself to be an excellent (and necessary) subject for mythologization."
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Visva-bharati Annals,new Series 3. Maria Schetelich THE PROBLEM OF THE ââDARK SKINâ (KRSNA TVAC) IN THE RGVEDA
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Maria Schetelich
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