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

this epithet should "not be taken too literally" 7. In the Mahäbhärata Kasyapa
is one of the Prajäpatis who in that later period are supposed to have
been progenitors of creatures; Kasyapa Prajäpati the husband of Prajäpati's
daughters Kadrü and Vinatä and (3,187,1 ff.) is identified with Näräyal)a.
,
According to SB . 13, 7, 1, 1 Brahman Svayambhu was performing tapas,
considering however that there is no perpetuity in tapas; by ritual means
it (he) compassed supremacy and sovereignty 8. In TA. 2, 9, 1 this neuter
brahma appears likewise as a living being: "Brahman Svayambhu ran spontaneously
to the unborn Prsnis (a family of r~is) who performed tapas,,9.
In 3, 6, 1 the name of this person (the paral'Jl brahma) is mentioned immediately
af ter the Ilames bhür bhuvaQ suvaQ which denote the tripartite
universe (his creation, cf. the comm.).
It would appear to me that an interpretation of A VS. 10, 8, 44 which involves
the characterization of the man who knows the iitman as svayambhü
lO is not correct. The long series of nominatives constituting the first
line, "desireless, wise, free from death, svayambhü, satiated with enjoyment
(delight) , not deficient in any respect" should, I think, be taken to
constitute a nominativus pendens ll , Le. a nominative which is loosely connected
with a sentence and a nominal concept which either itself or by
means of a pronominal substitute in the proper case forms part of the
sentence; such nominatives of ten precede a sentence. The characterization
of the iitman as svayambhü is in the "first and oldest passage known to us
in which the iitman is proclaimed without reserve as the World-principle,,12
a priori more probable than that of the man who in piida c is said to know
it: "who knows that (tam eva, occupying the first position and referring
to what precedes l3 ) does not fear death, (that, viz.) the iitman which is
wise l 4, ageless, (eternally young)". The qualities enumerated in the first
line form so to say the predicate belonging to the verb form vidviin "knowing"
in piida bIS. According to BAU. 1, 4, 5 the iitman was in the beginning
alone (cf. also 1,4,17; AiU. 1, 1) and to KU. 2, 18 (cf. BhG. 2, 20)
the iitman is never born (na jiiyate); it sprang from nothing and is unborn,
7 I refer to M. BIoomfield, in JAOS 11, p. 377; and Hymns of the Atharva-Veda
translated, Oxford 1897, 3Delhi 1967, p. 403 f.; 686 f.; see 'also Bhattacharji,
Theogony, p. 384; and below, p. 9.
8 S. Jaiswal, The origin and development of Vai!?l.lavism, Delhi 1967, p. 33 erroneously
speaks of the neuter Brahman and seems to over look the difference betweeD.
the sacrifices in SB. 3, 9, 1, 4 and 13, 7, 1, 1.
9 SäyaI}.a explains svaya'!1bhu brahma as follows: jagatkärar;tatvena svata~ siddha'!1
parabrahmavastu.
10 See, e.g., Gonda, The vision ofthe Vedic poets, p. 229; Edgerton, Beginnings,
p. 103; Malamoud, op. cit., p. 505. In the literal translation by P. Deussen , Allgemeine
Geschichte der Philosophie, ~I, 1, p. 334 and Whitney and Lanman, Atharva
Veda Sarphitä, p. 604 this point does not become clear.
11 See, e.g., W. Havers, Der sog. Nomin. Pendens, Indogerm. Forsch. 43 (1926),
p. 297 ff.; J. Gonda, Defining the nominative, Lingua 5, p. 288 ff.; E llip sis ,
brachylogy and other forms of brevity in speech in the IJgveda, Amsterdam
Acad. 1960, p. 65 f. etc.
12 Edgerton, loc. cit., following Deussen, loc. cito
13 Cf., e.g., IJV. 10, 107, 5 and also VS. 31, 18.
14 On the meaning of dhïra see Gonda, Vision , loc. cito
15 For "desireless" in connexion with the ätman compare BÄ V. 4, 4, 5; for "free
from death" , e.g. KV. 2,18.
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