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

series of parallel statements that accompany the placing of the so-called
sf~ti bricks (agnicayana) is hardly due to the merest chance (TS. 4, 3,
10; VS. 14, 29: "when they praised with 17, domestic animals were created,
Brhaspati was the supreme lord", suggesting a relation between Brhaspati
and the creation of cattle 50 ; MS. 2 1
8, 6: 110,13; K.S. 17,.5.: 248,22; KapS.
26,4: 107,8). See also, e.g., Äp:s. 18,2,17 and, m addlbon to these,
ÄpS. 18, 4, 14 f.; 18, 5, 1; 18, 6, 10 etc. It seems warranted to say that
in a context such as the Väjapeya ritual (cf. the mantras in VS. 9 and 10),
in which the number 17 is associated with Brhaspati, this god might be implicitly
regarded as, or was virtually, identical with Prajäpati 51 .
"Those who run a race depart from this world ..." (TB. 1,3, 6, 6). To
each of those who join in the race he (probably the patron of the sacrifice)
gives a small piece of gold (see also ÄpS. 18, 5, 4). (Thus the patron)
purchases the väja 52 , i.e. the loka ('world' or sphere to dwell in
safely, 'place' of recognized sanctity) which they conquer 53. After having
taken them back (18, 5, 5), he offers them together to the Brahmán.
(This one) "gives vïrya (manly energy and virtue) to the patron) "....
He who performs the väjapeya ritual (which is being discussed) "which
is in all respects seventeenfold, because Prajäpati is characterized by that
number" - thus PB. 18, 7, 5 stating, moreover , that the performer reaches
(i.e. becomes equal to) Prajäpati - becomes bärhaspatya (belonging to
Brhaspati, of Brhaspati's nature) with re gard to his deity (because when
the gods ran a race, Brhaspati won the victory, TB. 7 f.).
In enumerations or parallel sentences containing nam~s of deities Brhaspati
sometimes occurs immediately before or af ter (cf. SB. 3, 9, 1,12) PÜ­
!'jan, the divine representative of the processes of fecundity, fertility,
development and reproduction that are linked up with the reclamation and
cultivation of the Aryan land and with the promotion of the prosperity of
its inhabitants: TS. 1, 8, 17; TB. 1, 8, 1, 1 f. Agni, Sarasvatï, Savitar,
PÜ!'jan, Brhaspati, Indra ... (samsfp offerings)5'+; MS. 2,6, 13: 72,8
Savitar, Sarasvatï, PÜ!'jan, Brhaspati; 4, 2, 10: 33, 8 says that the words
"let Aryaman, PÜ!'jan, Brhaspati, Indra bring you (the cows) together"
mean: "Aryaman is the sacrifice, he therefore unites them by means of
the sacrifice, PÜ!'jan is pu~ti ("a well-nourished condition , prosperity"),
he ... ; Brhaspati is Bráhman, he ... ; Indra is indriyam, he ... "; (cf.,
e.g., also TB. 2, 5, 3, 3). MS. 4, 7,8: 103, 7 Püsan receives a dark-coloured
animal victim, Brhaspati a white-backed one. When Prajäpati, having
created creatures, was exhausted, he combined the physical and
psychical faculties (indriyäJ;li) which he beheld by two, among them PÜ­
!'jan's,pu~ti and Brhaspati i.e. Bráhman, and connected them with himself
(cf. SB. 12;. 15)55. Af ter a victim for PÜ!'jan by means of which Prajäpati
50 See also S. Bali, Brhaspati, p. 63 f.
51 According to S. Bali, op. cit., p. 74 f. the identity of both gods can be inferred
from VS. 9, 10, where the person speaking ascends Brhaspati's highest heaven,
as weU as from the occurrence of the number 17.
52 See p. 32 ff. below.
53 Gaining väja is implicitly regarded as identical with gaining a loka (cf. also PB.
18, 7, 12); see also J. Gonda, Loka, Amsterdam Acad. 1966, p. 92 f.; 97. - According
to MS. 4, 4, 5: 55, 2 Brhaspati is vïryam.
54 "A brahmin has five gods, viz. Agni, Soma, Savitar, Brhaspati, Sarasvatï; that
is why other men have recourse to him for assistance. Of them, three belong to
a learned brahmin (srotriya) , Agni, Brhaspati, Sarasvatï" (MS. 4, 5, 8: 76, 1).
55 See Gonda, PÜfilan and Sarasvatï, p. 154; cf. also p. 95; 142; 156; 160.
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