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

figure in the A V. is, ho wever , questionable 7; brahmán mostly denotes the
brahman as a well-informed authority or officiating priest, regarded as an
embodiment of Bráhman 8 •
Unmistakable occurrences of the name of the male god Brahmä 9 are not
found 10 before such comparatively later Vedic works as the Kaufili:taki BrähmaJ}.a,
which in 15, 2 (15, 2, 20 f.) says that Brahmä encouraged Indra to
slay Vrtra and Indra proposed to drink Soma with him ll • He appears in
ChU. 3, 11, 4 and 8, 15 where he is related to have told the doctrine under
discussion to Prajäpati who communicated it to Manu. In BÄ U. 4, 4, 4 the
adjective brähmam must belong to the masculine brahmán: here the ätmä
is related to make for himself a shape like that of the Fathers , the gandharvas,
the gods, of Prajapati, of Brahma or of other beings. According
to KB. 1, 7 the great f§i described as "consisting of Brahman" (brahmamayal)),
i. e. of the fundamental power embodied in the sacred texts, is to
be known as Brahmä 12 • These passages are as instructive as those ot her
places where SäyaJ}.a and modern scholars hesitated or unconvi!1cingly took
the stem brahman to refer to the male deity (TB. 2, 7, 17, 1; SB. 11, 5, 6,
9 etc. ). The transition to the personal god might indeed be anachronistically
seen in statements such as "there is no termination of tapas without
Brahman" or in a compound such as brahmayajfia "sacrifice to Brahman".
But historically the idea of a personal god must almost inevitably have superseded
the older Bráhman when, for instance, an ambiguous compound
such as brahmaloka occurs in the same context as references to the lokah
or lokäl) of one or more than one personal (divine) figures: SB. 14, 7, 1:
39; BÄU. 4, 3, 33 mentioning the world of the Fathers, the gandharvaloka,
the devaloka, prajäpatiloka and brahmaloka 13 (compare BÄU. 4, 4, 4 quoted
above). See also KBU. 1,3 ... ädityalokam, indralokam, prajäpatilokam,
brahmalokam 14 and 1, 5 where the one who approached the couch or throne
of Brahma has previously become acquainted with the brahmatejas (also
SÄ. 3, 5)15.
HiraJ}.yagarbha, the Golden Germ, "which was evolved in the beginning"
7 In A VS. 2, 36, 1 bráhmalu~tam certainly does not mean "enjoyed by the gandharva
who possessed the girl" (comm.); the accent points to bráhman; for bráhman
beside names of gods see also 11, 10, 9.
8 See Gonda, The Savayajfias, p. 96; 282.
9 Clearly distinct from Bfhaspati, e.g. VS. 18, 76; SB. 10, 1,3,8.
10 I refer tO ,A.B. Keith, The Aitareya ÀraI;tyaka, Oxford 1909 (1969), p. 304, n.
23; JRAS 1910, p. 216; Religion and philosophy, p. 209.
11 As to MS. 2, 9, 1 see L. von Schroeder, Indiens Literatur, Leipzig 1887 (1922),
p. 91, n. 1.
12 Here and in BÀU. 4, 4, 4 R.E. Hume, The thirteen principal Upanishads, 2London
1934, translates Brahma.
13 Keith, Religion and philosophy, p. 573 wrote Brahman just as E. Senart, BrhadaraI;tyaka-Upanililad,
Paris 1934, p. 77, but S. Radhakrishnan, The principal
upanililads, London 1953, p. 267 Brahma (see however also p. 757, KB U 1, 4!).
14 However, Indian authors, using, e.g., the pronoun "he" to refer to Bráhman,
do not always keep personal concepts distinct from the impersonal. In KBU, 1,
4 the brahmavidvän advances towards Brahman after having been adorned with
a brahmälankära, which we would take to mean "an adornment (worthy) of
Brahma"'.
15 Notice, however, that in cases such as MuU. 1, 1, 1 and SvU. 5, 6 the intimate
relation between Brahma "who taught the knowledge of Bráhman (brahmavidyä)"
and "Brahma knows that as the source of the Veda (brahmayonim)" is quite
clear.
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