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

Brhaspati is related to have gained the (deity) Gäya~rï bymeans of a group
of eight syllables. On the other hand, this metre is SB. 10, 3, 1, 1 homologized
to Prajäpati 's vital breath.
In the regressive account leading to the thesis that the brahmalokëi1) are
the ultimate world.:..ground this universe is at BÄU. 3, 6 said to be based
on water, water on the wind ... , on the worlds of the gods, on those of
Indra, on those of Prajäpati, on those of Bráhman, which therefore is regarded
as more fundament al than the sphere of the personal Creator God,
who is nevertheless next to it. - This is also the case in TB. 2, 1, 10;
ÄpS. 6, 9, 1 enumerating the deities to whom the sacrifice (agnihotra) in
the various periods of development passed through by the fire belongs:
viz. the Vasus, Ru~ras, Ädityas, Visve Deväl}., Indra, Prajäpati, Bráhmab;
according to SB. 2, 3, 2, 9 ff. , however, these deities are R udra,
VaruI)a, Indra, Mitra, Bráhman.
From a passage such as JUB. 3, 7, 1, 1 it becomes clear that at the time
of the author there were authorities who not only regarded Brahman as
superior to Prajäpati, but also as more original and even as the creator
or father of that god: "Brahman emitted (created) Prajäpati (notice the
order of the words: prajäpatim brahmäsrjata); it emitted him as not-seeing
and without a face. When Bráhman saw him lie thus it entered him.
That is characteristic of a person; one should know that Bráhman is the
vit al air (prä1;w). It was the vital air that then entered him. He (Prajäpati)
stood up (as) the creator of creatures (offspring) ... ". Compare
TU. 2, 3. - A variant of the same version was related by VädhUla, who
must have belonged to the earliest Taittirïya authorities 21 : "Brahman emitted
(out of itself) Agni and Prajäpati and he created the latter in the form
of a human being (man, puru~a). Agni, one should know, is death (Mrtyu).
This one rushed up to Prajäpati, as if he would eat him ... " (VädhS., AO
6, 4, 109).
In the elaborate atharvanic cosmogony in the upanü?adic manner which
opens the Gopatha-BrähmaI)a (1, 1, 1-15) it is Brahman, which by means
of austerity and creative heat produced living beings, the waters and 80
on and entrusted the creation and protection of the creatures (prajëi1)) of
Prajäpati to Atharvan, the semi-divine priestly figure whoSe descendants
came to be connected with the literary activity to which we owe the Atharvaveda.
Because Brahman pronounced the relative words, Prajäpati came
into existence. "That is why Prajäpati is (called) Prajäpati ("the lord of
creatures"). Prajäpati indeed is Atharvan" (GB. 1, 1, 4).
An interesting - and no less intelligible - view on the relation bet ween
Prajäpati and Bráhman is presented in SVB. 1, 1, 1 ff.: "In the beginning
this (All) was (the) Bráhman. lts semen became redundant (predominated,
atyaricyata)22; it became the Brahmán (the masculine term). He considered
(the situation) tacitly in his 'mind' (manas). His 'mind' became Prajäpati" 23.
(The text adds that that is why one offers to Prajäpati without pronouncing
the mantra aloud). This 'genealogy' is remarkable, first in that the
21 Cf. Gonda, Ritual sütras, p. 522.
22 C. A. Scharbau, Die Idee der Schöpfung in der vedischen Literatur, Stuttgart
1932, p. 100 translated "der Saft seiner Wirksamkeit lief über".
23 From the use of the imperfect it may be concluded that the author describes a
process that took place in the past and persists in its results and consequences.
So Scharbau's question "läuft Brahmans Saft seit Ewigkeit über?" shouldbe
answered in the negative.
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