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

ahmán priest urging the adhvaryu to bind the horse for the gods and Prajäpati
"supplies this victim with its own deity" OSB. 13, 1, 2, 4).
It is not surprising that Prajäpati should have preserved the worlds which
he had created and kept them in the same condition . According to AVS. 10, 7,
7 (AVP. 17, 7,8) he does this in (sic) the skambha, the Frame of Creation or
Fulcrum of the Universe , which constitutes the subject of AV8. 10, 7 and 8.
(Prajäpati is (in the next stanza) expected to have created by way of emanation
(sasrje), but what he created is one of the many unanswered questions
of which these stanzas consist ). The skambha is described as sustaining
heaven, earth and atmosphere as weIl as the directions of the sky; the whole
world has entered into it (8. 10, 7, 35; P. 17, 10, 7). It contains, or is composed
of, a large number of important power-sub stances such as tapas "productive
heat", Rta "the right structure of cosmic, mundane, human and ritual
events"S (8.10; 7,1; P. 17, 7, 1); the 33 gods are placed in it (8. 10, 7,13;
22; P. 17, 8, 4; 9, 3); it has entered the existent and enters that which will
exist (8. 10, 7, 9; P. 17, 7, 10); it has, in the beginning , poured out the
golden embryo into the world (8. 10, 7, 28; P. 17, 9, 9), i. e. the primaeval
principle described in RV. 10, 121, 1. It is identified with Bráhman (8. 10, 7,
32 ff.; P. 17, 10, 3 ff.): which is characterized ~s pre-eminent (jye~tha) and
is worshipped by the gods who know Bráhman (8. 10, 7, 24; cf. P. 17, 9, 5;
~ee above). The poet pays homage to Bráhman (8.10,7,36; P. 17, 10,5). In
8. 10, 7, 11 (P. 17, 8, 2) it is in an enumeration given the last place, that is
of ten occupied by an encompassing figure or concept: tapas, vrata, rta, sraddhä
"Faith", the (primaeval) waters, Bráhman, all being placed in the skambha.
Men indeed know that Bráhman and the waters, the really existent (sat)
and the chaos (non-existent, asat) are there (8. 10, 7, 10; P. 17, 8,1). But
the rela,tion bet ween Bráhman and Prajäpati 9 is not explained, although
stanza 8. 17 (cf. P. 8, 8) may perhaps point, to a certain extent, to a solution
of theproblem: "Those who know the Bráhman in man, know the Parame~thin
("the One who resides in the highest"lO); who knows the Parame~thin
and who knows Prajäpati, those who know the pre-eminent manifestation
of Bráhman (bráhmm;wm) , they also know the 8kambha". Two points are not
clear: does knowledge of Prajäpati also presuppose knowledge of Bráhman?;
and who (or what) is the chief brähmar;ta? is it Prajäpati as a divine depository
of Bráhman?; or is a doctrine, a form of sacred knowledge meant?
In AV8. 11,5 (AVP. 16, 153 ff.), which eulogizes the brahmacärin, this
mighty mythical prototype of those who are completely replete with Bráhman
is considered able to move heaven and earth (st. 1), to generate past and future,
day and night, year and season (8. 20; P. 154,5). His extraordinary
creative power enabled him to generate (janayan) even Bráhman (8.7; P. 153,
7), the (primaeval) waters, the world (or, rather, 'Lebensraum' loka), Prajäpati
(and) Parame~thinll, the viräj (i.e. the hypostatization of the conception
of the universe as a whoie). That must mean that all these aspects of the ultimate
reality owe their existence to the ideal brahmacärin who in the same
8 I refer to Gonda, Religionen Indiens. 2 I. p. 78.
9 The thr~e !ights that are in Prajäpati (AVS. 10, 7,40; AVP. 17, 11, 1) probably
are, as In SB. 11, 5, 8. 2 f., Agni, Väyu, Surya (otherwise Edgerton, The beginnings
of Indian philosophy, p. 96: fire, moon and sun; cf. st. 12; 33). See
also p. 39 above.
10 See Gonda, Parame!?thin, in JAOS 105 (1985), p. 439, esp. p. 450.
11 Perhaps Prajäpati is called (the) Parame!?thin.
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