20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The importance of myths in search of the significance of the saumikī dīkṣā 635The very name of the offerings suggests that these are the offeringsgiven by the sacrificer for getting back something that has gone away fromhim. As is evident, it is the kṣatra that has gone away from him (AitBr34.4).HAUG has rightly pointed out while explaining the wordajītapunarvaṇya:This refers to the Kṣattra which the Kṣattriya first lost by his turningtowards the Brahma, but subsequently regained it by embracing theKṣattra which he cannot throw off, if he otherwise wish to retain hissovereignty. (1922:325, n. 4)But then the question arises as to why he has to approach the holypower before the consecration and again come to the lordly power afterthe performance? To find an answer to this question, it is necessary to seethe introduction, which is a myth, pertaining to the prescription of theseofferings.The importance of the myths 4Regarding the myths the attitude of the scholars is changed now. Theyare considered to be important from the anthropological point of view.Mircea ELIADE the revered scholar in the field of mythological studiessays in this connection:Myth is an extremely complex reality, which can be approached andinterpreted from various and complementary viewpoints. […] it relatesan event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the“beginnings”. In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds ofSupernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole ofreality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a speciesof plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Myth,then, is always an account of a “creation”; it relates how something wasproduced, began to be. Myth tells only of that which really happened,which manifested itself completely. (1963:5 ff.)Very important in the present context is his comment thatMyths, that is, narrate not only the origin of the World, of animals, ofplants, and of man, but also of the primordial events in consequenceof which man became what he is today – mortal, sexed, organised in asociety, obliged to work in order to live and working in accordance withcertain rules. (1963:11)4The importance of the myths is dealt with in detail by Madhavi KOLHATKAR1999: 73-88.