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

ment al power AVS. 9, 6 (AVP. 1b, 111-117), exalting the significance of the
entertainment of guests, represents a guest as a manifestation (pratyak~a)
of Bráhman (st. 1) and the presents given to him as an offering to Prajäpati
(AVS. st. 28; AVP. 16,113,4). The host who bestows güts to a guest "strides
Prajäpati's strides" (AVS. 29, not in AVP.). This most probably - remember
Vi!?t:lu's strides 52 - means that this person hic et nunc re-activates, for his
own benefit , the power inherent in a primaeval, exemplary and fundamental
deed of the god and identifies himself with him. It would be a logical conclusion
that Prajäpati and Brahman are here, by implication, regarded as identical.
At this point the explicit identification of Prajäpati and Bráhman calls for
closer attention . According to KB. 8, 3 (8, 4, 14 f. ) the man whom people recognize
as being in the sun is Indra, Prajäpati, Bráhman (which however may
mean "according to some Indra, to others Prajäpati, or Bráhman"). At least
one place in the SB. is, however, q uite uneq uivocal on th is point. In a passage
dealing with the ploughing, watering, and sowing of the ground required
for the construction of the great fireplace (7,3, 1,42) it reads: "And as to
why he scatters sand - that fireplace is Prajäpati, and Prajäpati is the whole
(sarvam) Bráhman. Now that sand is (put) in (the place of) the vanished
(decayed, utsanna) part of Bráhman, and that part of lt which has not vanished
is this fireplace which is now being built; thus when he scatters sand
he restores to him that vanished part of Bráhman •.. And verily he who knowing
this, scatters sand restores the whole entire (sarvap krtsnam53) Prajäpati".
In this passage the sand that is scattered is said to be unnumbered and
unlimited (asapkhyiiUi aparimitä1;t). The lat ter adjective is also used as an
epithet of Prajäpati who more than once is characterized as being limited and
unlimited (SB. 6, 5, 3, 7; 14, 1,2,18). It is worth noticing that an unlimited
number of stanzas should be recited, if one wishes to obtain all objects of desire
by means of the recitation of the morning litany which belongs to Prajäpat
i who is unlimited or undefined (aparimita1;t, AiB. 2, 17, 9) 54; cf. also KB.
11, 7 (11, 8, 6 ff.). For the injunction to praise with an aparimita number of
stanzas because Prajäpati is aparimita see also AiB. 6, 2, 3 and for the conviction
that one wins the unlimited with the unlimited KB. 10, 1 00, 2, 6)55 and
TS. 2, 5, 10, 4; for Prajäpati obtaining an unlimited portion of the offering
GB. 2, 1, 7 56 • - On the other hand, according to TB. 3, 12, 2, 4, which also
deals with the agnicayana ritual, Bráhman is related to say: "0 Prajäpati,
thou art making effort with bráhman. And lam Bráhman. Now do thou worship
me with a sacrifice; and thy sacrifice will become endowed with bráhman,
and thou wilt find the world of heaven" 57.
52 Gonda, Aspects of ear1y Vi!;u;lUism, p. 55 ff. ,
53 On this expression see J. Gonda, All, universe and totality in the Satapatha­
BrähmaQa, JOIB 32 (1982), p. 1 ff. (esp. p. 16).
54 See a1so J. Gonda, The Vedic morning litany (Prätaranuväka), Leiden 1981, p.
92; a1so p. 88.
55 Compare AiB. 8, 20, 2 where the adjective aS01pkhyätam (see above) is added;
MS. 3, 7, 4: 80,8 f.
56 Compare a1so MS. 3, 2, 5: 22 f. (see N. Tsuji, in F. Staal (ed.), Agni, Berke1ey
1983, I1, p. 151). - In somewhat unc1ear passage M. E1iade (Histoire des croyances
et des igées religieuses, I, Paris 1976, p. 243 f. ) argues, without explicitly referring
to SB. 10, 4, 2, 23 f. etc. that both the bricks of the great fire-p1ace, which is
'identica1' with Prajäpati (e.g. SB. 8, 3, 2, 8), and Brahman are associated with the
432000 syllab1es of the I.tgveda-Sarphitä and therefore identified.
57 On Prajäpati's re1ation with Bráhman and his ambiguous position in the works of the
ancient Indian interpreters see Gonda, Fatherhood in the Veda, Turin 1985 r p. 10.
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