Prajapati's relations with Brahman, Brhaspati and Brahma - DWC

great (primaeval) ocean, the timely germ from which Prajäpati was born.
According to the commentators this svayambhü one is the Purul?a "without
beginning and end".
The passage TB. 3, 12, 3, 1 eulogizes tapas "creative heat" '+, that power
concept "by which in the beginning the gods attained godhood, the r~is
obtained heaven, and by which this universe , whatever exists, is overpowered".
The wish is expressed to worship with an oblation the firstborn
god (deva), Bráhman Svayambhu, the highe st , who (which) is tapas
(or, B. S. , which is the highest tapas?) ; he (it) is son, father , mother
(i.e. he is the procreator, the womb or female parent and its (his) creation,
the created reality). "Tapas indeed became (and still is, sarpbabhüva)
the first divine spirit (yak~am prathamam) ". This implies that Brahman
Svayambhü 's creative activity consists in tapas, which was the real eausa
effieiens in the beginning as weU as in the universe as we know it. Mention
of tapas as the original and ultimate creative power is, for instance,
also made in SB. 11, 1, 6, 1 stating that the primaeval waters inaugurated
the era of phenomenal existence by means of tapas and 11, 5, 8, 1 f.
where Prajäpati is said to have been alone, to perform tapas and to create
the world out of himself.
In AVS. 19,53, 10 (AVP. 12, 2, 10) time is declared to have generated
(made emanate from itself, asrjata) progeny (creatures, prajal) and, in
the beginning, Prajäpati; the svayambhü Kasyapas(and) tapas were (likewise)
born from the same fundamental conception . The occurrence of this
epithet is the more interesting as the names of both figures are also
coupled in AVS. 17, 1, 27 (AVP. 18, 32, 10), which is a prayer for a long
life and protection afforded by Bráhman, accompanied, possessed or even
more or less controUed (avrtal), and in st. 28 parivrtal) by Prajäpati and
by Kasyapa's light (jyotis) and brilliant energy (vareas) , for which see
AVS. 13, 3, 10; AVP. 4, 3, 1; 19,31,9 (for Kasyapa's bráh7!lan AVS. 1,
14, 4 ; AVP. 1, 85, 1; for Kasyapa and his triple lifetime A VS. 5, 28, 7).
A more intimate relation between Prajäpati and this person - who in GB.
1, 2, 8 is related to have performed tapas on Kasyapa's peak (kasyapatunge)
- occurs at SB. 7, 5, 1, 5: Prajäpati, having assumed the form of
a tortoise (kürma) , created creatures; since kürma and kasyapa are synonyms,
"all creatures are said to be descended from Kasyapa". It has
unconvincingly been supposed 6 that in cases such as SV. 1, 1, 2, 4, 10;
1, 4, 2, 3, 2 this figure is identical with Prajäpati. As to svayarpbhü Kasyapa,
it should be noticed that in AVP. 1, 25, 1; TS. 5, 6, 1 a; MS. 2,
13, 1: 151, 7 this person is stated to have been born, like Indra, in the
golden (primaeval) waters. In a variant of this stanza, AVS. 1, 33, 1, it
is, however, Savitar and Agni who are said to have been born there. If
this is another argument in favour of Kasyapa's being a 'personification'
of the sun (cf. T Ä. 1, 7, 1; see also 1, 8, 6), his epithet svayarpbhü is
perfectly intelligible; if (or, when) he was regarded as having been born,
4 Rather than "asceticism" (P. E. Dumont, in Proc. Amer. Phi!. Soc. 95, p. 663).
See Renou, E.V.P. 11, p. 76, n. 1; Gonda, Religionen Indiens, I, p. 31; 184 f.
etc.; 359; J. Blair, Heat in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, New Haven 1961.
5 As to Kasyapa see Gonda, Aspects, p. 118; 127.
6 Petersburg Dictionary, 11, 187.
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