Roots Deep in Heaven Indo-Iranian ritual concepts in a cross ...

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14 th Fachtagung of the Indogermanische Gesellschaft, Copenhagen, September 17–22, 2012 6 ● Side A: [...] I bind Theodora to remain unmarried to Charias and (I bind) Charias to forget Theodora, and (I bind) Charias to forget . . . Theodora and marriage bed with Theodora. Side B: [...] – With enumeration of anatomic parts (also in curses for “seizing” body parts, such as in § 8.1): ● SEG 30. 353 (SGD 57), Nemea, prob. 4 th c. BC: “I turn away Euboula from Aineas, from his face (προσώπου), from his eyes (ὀφθαλμῶν), from his mouth (στόματος), from his nipples (τιθθίαν), from his soul (ψυχᾶς), from his belly (γάστρος), from his [penis] ([ + ψωλίον]), from his anus (πρωκτοῦ), from his entire body (ὅλου τοῦ σώματος). I turn away Euboula from Aineas.” (GAGER – VERSNEL). 9. Seizing/binding the (person by his/her) name: 9.1. Name of the person concerned is given according to matrilineal principles, in the form: “X, son of [the mother] Z, descendent of the clan Y”: ● AVŚ 10,5,44: rā́jño váruṇasya bandhó ʹsi | só ʹmúm āmuṣyāyaṇám amúṣyāḥ putrám ánne prāṇé badhāna ||44|| ● AVŚ 16,8,2–4: jitám asmākam údbhinnam asmā́kam r̥ tám asmā́kaṃ téjo ʹsmā́kaṃ bráhmāsmā́kaṃ svàr asmā́kaṃ yajñò ʹsmā́kaṃ paśávo ʹasmā́kaṃ prajā ́ asmākaṃ vīrā ́ asmā́kam | tásmād amúṃ nír bhajāmo ʹamúm āmuṣyāyaṇám amúṣyāḥ putrám asáu yáḥ | sá nírr̥ tyāḥ pā́śān mā ́ moci ||2|| You are bond of king Varuṇa. Bind now „X“, descendent of „Y“, son of the mother „Z“ in his food and his breath/vital energy. Ours is / We have (all that which is) won; we have (all that which is) dug up; we have R̥ ta, we have (vital) ardor; we have bráhman-; we have the sun(-light); we have sacrifice; we have animals; we have descendants; we have men(-heroes): of this (all possession) we deprive 10 „X“: „X“, descendant of „Y“, son (of mother) „Z“; (the one) who is „X“, he shall not be liberated from the bonds of Nirr̥ ti. 9.2. Ritual instructions in Graeco-Egyptian poetry to intentionally use metronymics. 9.3. ‘Seizing names’, as a method of control over the adversary. – AVŚ. 1,191,13; 10,145,4. AVP. 6,7,7: yas tvā bhūme 'nvavindad yas tvā bhūma udābharat | tayoḥ sahasradhāmann ahaṃ nāmāni jagrabha || AVP. 2,32,4: śunam ahaṃ madhughasya pitur nāmeva *jagrabha | yo mā hiraṇyavarcasaṃ *kr̥ ṇavat +pūruṣapriyam || AVP. 1,21,2a.3cd apacitaḥ pra patata [...] sarvāsām agrabhaṃ nāma- -avīraghnīr apetana || I have seized the names of these two [= (divine) Eagle (Vi- ṣṇu/Sun ? ) and (divine) Hog (: Viṣṇu ? )], o you of a thousand abodes: the one who has discovered you, o Earth, the one who has brought you up, o Earth (cf. ed. GRIFFITHS 95). For a profit I have seized the names of (the plant) Madhugha, (just) like (his) father’s name, which (‘Madhugha’) will make me of golden brilliance, pleasant to people (coni. ed. ZEHNDER 91f.). O Apacits (scrofulosis)! Fly forth [...] I seized the name(s) of all, go away, as ones, who do not kill men. 9.4. ‘Knowing X’s mother’s / father’s name’ as method of control and linking. – AVŚ. 1,2,1: vidm śarásya pitáraṃ | parjányaṃ bhridhāyasam / vidmó ṣuv àsya mātáraṃ | pthivṃ bhrivarpasam//1// We know the reed’s father, Parjanya the much-nourishing; and we know well its mother, the earth of many aspects. 10. Seizing gods: ‘seizing divinity’: 10.1. Indian evidence: Kauśika-Sūtra 133,3: for power above gods and the world. – AVP. 1,40: AVP. 1,40,1 mamobhā mitrāvaruṇā mamobhendrābr̥ haspatī | mama tvaṣṭā ca pūṣā ca mamaiva savitā vaśe ||1|| Mitra and Varuṇa, both, (be in) my (power) Indra und Br̥ haspati: mine, mine Tvaṣṭar and Pūṣan in mine power olny (be) also Savitar. etc.: divine names; all gods; heaven, earth, atmosphere, sun; plants, waters; cows, horses, goats, sheep; humans; all the living world. 10.2. Greek evidence: ritual of ‘seizing Ares’ and subjecting him to the will of the polis in Boeotia. ● Binding gods as a form of re-ligio: public rites. ● “Rituals of burning” effigies of demons and living enemies (cf. maqlû incantations). ● Lead or wax figurines pierced, buried, melt. 11. ‘Binding, piercing, burying the victims’ in the form of effigies in cursing and amatory rites: 11.1. Burying figurines as usual black magic practice: DTA, no. 49: τούτους ἅπαντας κατα-δῶ ἀ-φανίζω κατ-ορύττω κατα-πασσαλεύω. All of them, I bind them down, I make them disappear, I bury them ‘down’, I nail them down. 11.2. Materials of the effigies: lead, wax, clay. ● Greek evidence: WÜNSCH, Defixionum Tabellae Atticae [DTA], no. 55, Side A –: Τούτους ἐγὼ καταδίδημι ἅπαντας ἐν μολύβδωι καὶ ἐν κηρᾶ(ι) [...] [From the town of Karystos on Euboea]: I bind all these people in lead and in wax.
Velizar Sadovski, Indo-Iranian ritual concepts in a cross-cultural perspective, 18.09.2012 7 ● Latin evidence: Horace; Ovid (Loves 3.7.29; cf. GAGER, FARAONE ad loc.): wonders if a specialist sorcerer has “victimized (defixit) [him,] who has written his name in red wax and pierced it with a needle”. 11.3. The Vedic notion of kr̥ tyā́ -. Dimensions of the concept (studied by HILLEBRANDT, HENRY, S.K. LAL, GOUDRIAAN): 11.3.0.: Material: Counter-spell against charmed clay effigies – Kauśika-Sūtra 39: esp. 7ff., 11ff.:, the Brahmán pierces it ‘with a hostile eye’ (sūtra 39,11) and shoots (an arrow) on places the effigy has wounded; he puts the effigy made of clay (12) on a hide, with the heels turned downwards (16), anoints it (18), binds it (19), pours water on it (14) and on places vulnerable by the effigy (28, 31) and plows on it with a plough drawn by black oxen (29). (A.) kr̥ tyā́ -, f. (esp., RVKh., AV., YV.): 11.3.1. Abstract: ‘powerful magic hidden in an object’; 11.3.2. Concrete: ‘magical object (buried into the ground)’, esp. “voodoo doll” – Evidence from Yajurveda, from Kauśika-Sūtra and from the Atharvaveda-Paippalāda-Saṃhitā: ● VSM 5.23 / VSK 5.6.2 út kr̥ tyā́ ṃ kirāmi ‘the kr̥ tyā I dig out’. ● Kauś. 39,7ff.: kr̥ tyā́ - presented like a doll (CALAND, HENRY) or another object (GOUDRIAAN) to bury. Cf. also Egypt and Greece: The figurine “does not to be a portrait, it suffices that it bears some very superficial resemblance to the identity” (M. MAUSS; F. GRAF). ● GRIFFITHS ad AVP. 7,1: “the wording of KauśS 39, sūtras 13 [...] and 14 [...] clearly implies an object of human (or animal) shape, and so do stanzas like ŚS 10.1.1, 10.1.24”. ● On forming human figures (puruṣākr̥ ti-) with the bones in of burying and commemorative rituals, cf. LANMAN in WHITNEY – LANMAN 2,856–857, ad AVŚ. 18,3,25, on the father, represented by the prostrate figure of bones; and the quot. of Bāudhāyana-Pitr̥ medhasūtra 1,10, 5.7.10.13 (ed. CALAND, 15). 11.4. Indo-Iranian evidence – Re-Binding disiecta membra. – AV 3,25,3–6: y plīhnaṃ śoṣáyati kmasyéṣuḥ súsaṃnatā / prācnapakṣā víyòṣā táyā vidhyāmi tvā hdí //3// śuc viddh víyòṣayā śúṣkāsya abhí sarpa mā / mdúr nímanyuḥ kévalī priyavādíny ánuvratā //4// jāmi tuvā janyā pári mātúr átho pitúḥ / yáthā máma krátāv áso máma cittám upyasi //5// víy àsyai mitrāvaruṇau hdáś cittniy asyatam / áthainām akratúṃ ktv mámaivá kṇutaṃ váśe //6// 3. The well-straightened arrow of love which dries the spleen [...], forward-winged, consuming — therewith I pierce thee in the heart. 4. Pierced with consuming pain [...], dry-mouthed, do thou come creeping to me, gentle, with fury allayed, entirely [mine], pleasant-spoken, submissive. 5. I goad thee hither with a goad [...], away from mother, likewise from father, that thou mayest be in my power (krátu), mayest come unto my intent. 6. Do ye, O Mitra-and-Varuna, cast out the intents from her heart; then, making her powerless, make her [to be] in my own control (WL). (B.) valagá-, m. ● TS. 1,3,2,1: idám aháṃ táṃ valagám úd vapāmi yáṃ naḥ samānó yám ásamāno nicakhā́ na ‘Here(and-now) I (am) get(ting) out the Valaga which an equal, an unequal (person) has buried/dug in for us’. (C.) Kauśika ritual of burying a substitute of a female rival with AV mantras like AVP 1,15. 11.5. Greek: ἀποστρέφω ‘to turn down’, generally used for the twisting of hands and feet that are bound backwards (VERSNEL), a wide-spread topos in classical tabellae defixionum and esp. in ‘judicial curses’. – ἀποστρέφω as terminus technicus transferred on the tongue: SGD 99, ed. JORDAN (Demeter Malaphoros sanctuary at Gaggara, Selinous, early 5 th c. BC): Σελινόνντιος [κ]αὶ hα Σελινοντίο γλôσα ἀπεστραμέν’ ἐπ’ἀτλείαι ἐνγράφω τᾶι τένον VERSNEL, Fs.Burkert, 220: I ‘register’ Selinuntius [or the Selinuntian?] and the tongue of Selinuntius, so that it will be twisted and devoid of success. (b.) Veda: 11.6. Kauś. 2,7[16],1-26: “To terrify enemy’s army, let it run away”: common nucleus and additional details: (3) somāṃśuṃ hariṇacarmaṇy utsīvya (3) He binds an (amulet) consisting of Soma stalks, which he has sewn kṣatriyāya badhnāti into a piece of gazelle leather, to a kṣatriya- around (his neck). (4) (pari vartmāni [6.67]) (indro jayāti (4) Pronouncing the songs AVŚ 6,67 or 6,98, the king goes (three times) [6.98]) iti rājā triḥ senāṃ pariyāti around his army (turning his right side to it, in order to make it invincible). (5) uktaḥ pūrvasya somāṃśuḥ (5) (Kauś. 2,7[16],3) deals with the charm – connected (only) with the first cited (song, i.e. 6,67) – with the (amulet) consisting of Soma stalks.
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