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

who gives the brahmán the dak{Ji~ä should say "brahmán, I ~i~e yo~ manas",
and this means that "he gives the moon, with which manas IS ldentlcal, and
as long as the moon will continue to exist, the present given will endure" .
According to GB. 1, 4, 2 the brahmán priest is in respect of the deity (adhidaivatam)
the moon, and in respect of his individual personality (adhyätman)
manas. And BAu. 2, 5, 7 argues that the immortal person who is in
the moon and (with reference to one's personality) is in (consists of) the
manas, is just the ätman, the principle that is free from death, Bráhman,
sarvam. Connexions between, and even 'identifications ' of, manas and the
moon are often recorded: in the Puru!?a hymn (~V. 10, 90, 13) it reads:
"the moon was born from his (Primaeval Man's) manas"; SB. 10, 3, 3, 7 manas
is homologized to the moon, and so on 31. On the other hand SB. 6, 1,
3, 16 the moon is stated to be Prajäpati, and 6, 2, 2" 16 Prajäpati to be yonder
moon. See also 10, 4, 2, 27; BÄU. 1, 5, 14. In SB. 12, 1, 1, 2 the brahmán
priest is 'identified I with the moon 32 (cf. 13, 2, 7, 7; likewise G B. 1,
2,24; SB. 2, 5, 4; 2, 10, 9; cf. also GB. 1, 1, 13).
Referring to a brähma~a GB. 1, 2, 21: 59, 8 enjoins - as the outcome of an
argument that need not be reproduced here- that a brähmyClJ!l havi~, i.e. an
oblation that belongs to the brahmán, should be offered first and the oblation
belonging to Prajäpati offered later on. The former is superior to the latter.
In the account of the Creation found in the Gopatha-Brähmal)a, 1, 1, 1 ff. ,
Brahman Svayaqtbhu which in the beginning was the only thing existing ordered
Atharvan - the head of a semi-divine family of mythical priests - to
create and protect the creatures of Prajäpati (1, 1, 4). "To the pronunciation
of these words Prajäpati owed his existence; that is why he is called Prajäpati":
a striking instance of the creative power of the word of a divine being
as weIl as of the belief that the name - an actuality expressed in a word - is
not only an essential part of a personality, but even equivalent to the bearer's
true existence 33 • The passage continues: "Prajäpati, indeed, is Atharvan".
In a remarkable passage (KB. 6, 10 (6, 4, 1-5, 1) Prajäpati is related to
have created, by means of tapas, successively the tripartite universe , their
presiding gods, the threefold Veda, the sacrifice; thereupon he fulfilled himself
the tasks of the priests who recite the texts of the ~gveda, proceed with
the yajus formulae, and chant the sämans; and he developed the essence of
the fiery energy (tejorasam) of the threefold lore for the sake of these Vedas.
No mention is made of the creation of the brahmán priest, but the text
rat her abruptly informs us that "on the south side there was with him the
brahman ,,3,+. The author, probably intentionally, leaves theorigin of the
brahmán, an embodiment of Bráhman, undecided; in any case, he does not
say that the co-operation of that functionary was regarded as dispensabie
or that Prajäpati invited him to perform his task; the brahmán simply was
there, and as far as appears from the text, independenty of Prajäpati.
31 Elsewhere 1 made an attempt to show that manas was believed to be periodically
away from the body and hence could be homologized to the moon which is primarily
characterized by its periodicity. (Mind and moon, Vol. D. C. Sirkar , Delhi
1986, p. 147 ff.).
32 The consequences of this identification need not detain us.
33 M. Eliade, Birth and rebirth, New York 1958, p. 28.
34 Thus in E. R. Sreekrishna Sarma 's edition , Wiesbaden 1968: tena daksinato
brahmäsït; B. Lindner, Jena 1887 reads kena, Ka being Prajäpati; A: B·. Keith,
Rigveda Brahmanas, Cambridge Mass. 1920, p. 379 translated "on the south
side of Ka" .
56