Eschatology: The genesis and transformation of a doctrine in the Indo-Iranian traditions

Eschatology: The Genesis and Transformation o f a Doctrine in the Indo-Iranian Traditions by Mitra Ara

B.A. (University o f California, Berkeley) 2000 M.A. (University o f California, Berkeley) 2003

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction o f the requirements for the degree o f Doctor o f Philosophy in Asian Studies in the GRADUATE DIVISION o f the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Committee in charge: Professor Robert P. Goldman, Chair Professor Gary B. Holland Professor Johanna B. Nichols

Spring 2006

UMI Number: 3228257

Copyright 2006 by Ara, Mitra

All rights reserved.

INFORMATION TO USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, th ese will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

UMI

®

UMI Microform 3228257 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346

Eschatology: The Genesis and Transformation o f a Doctrine in the Indo-Iranian Traditions

Copyright 2006 by

Mitra Ara

Abstract

Eschatology: The Genesis and Transformation o f a Doctrine in the Indo-Iranian Traditions by Mitra Ara Doctor o f Philosophy in Asian Studies University o f California, Berkeley Professor Robert P. Goldman, Chair

This dissertation systematically investigates religious beliefs about life after death that are still flourishing today, from their deepest roots among the IndoEuropean people, through their first textual emergence among the Indo-Iranians: Indian and Iranian peoples. The central issue in these religions, as in most other religions, was death and the journey to the afterlife, i.e., what becomes of an individual as the life in this world ends. The Indo-Iranian beliefs preceded the Vedic and Avestan religions, and there were contacts between them, which are the conditions required for the investigation o f possible influences. Therefore, by necessity, an attempt is made to recover the antecedents o f afterlife beliefs, beginning with a search, by means o f archaeology and iconography, into the reconstructed religious lives o f not only the Indo-Iranians, but also the Indo-Europeans and Old Europeans.

1

Further investigated are the characteristic points o f the Indo-Iranian religions, which contribute to a better understanding o f the development o f eschatological beliefs in the later religions. The ethical worldview, cosmogony and conception o f the battle o f the opposite forces o f gods and demons, with reference to relevant verses from primary texts, are discussed. Additionally explored are numerous topics relevant to Vedic eschatology, e.g., the concepts o f sat (existence); asat (nonexistence); rta (order); anrta (chaos); mrtyu (death); amrta (not death); atman (self); pitr (ancestor, guardian spirit); devas (gods); raksasas (demons); and svarga (heaven). Most o f the concepts in Vedic religion form parallels with their Avestan counterparts: asa (truth/order) and drug (lie/chaos); amaratat (immortality); urvan (soul, self); ahura (lord); fravasi (guardian spirit, ancestor); daena (consciousness, vision); asahyd gaeSa (‘world o f asa ,’ heaven); drujo-ddmana (‘abode o f the lie,’ hell); Saosyant (the Messiah); and frasokarati (a new world created). Similar beliefs in an afterlife were labeled differently in different times and places. In the Old European, Indo-European, and Indo-Iranian religions, these beliefs were expressed as regeneration, resurrection, or reincarnation (metempsychosis or transmigration); and they entailed a future life or a series o f lives on earth or elsewhere. Nonetheless, all o f these ideas express human concerns that arise from people’s fears and hopes within a given time and place.

2

Contents

Abbreviations and Symbols

iv

Acknowledgement

vi

Chapter I INTRODUCTION

1

Chapter II INDO-EUROPEANS: A HUMANISTIC APPROACH i.

ii. Hi. iv. v.

Homeland, Migration and Archeology Divergence o f Indo-European Languages Culture and Religion: Indivisible Secular and Sacred Life Cosmogony and Anthropogony: Sacrifice and Creation Death, Rebirth and Eschatology

21 28 32 36 49

Chapter III OLD EUROPE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

i. ii. iii.

Collision o f Cultures: Hybridization o f Ideologies Religion: Birth, Death, and Regeneration Death and Rebirth: Disintegration and Reintegration

61 67 74

Chapter IV THE EMERGENCE OF INDO-IRANIAN PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES i. ii.

Aryans: An Epoch o f Unity Language Divergences

79 85

i

Hi. iv.

Indo-Aryans: Migrations and Languages Iranian Expansions and Contractions: Realms and Languages

90 95

Chapter V INDO-IRANIAN RELIGION i. ii. iii.

Background: Religio-Cultural Perspectives Religious Practices: Cosmos, Gods, Demons, and Man Death and Retribution: Funerary Geography

102 106 112

Chapter VI VEDIC RELIGION: COSMOGONY AND ESCHATOLOGY i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. x ii. x iii. xiv.

Background and Religious Textual Corpus Sacrifice, Ritual and Gods Indra: the Warrior God Man and Sacrificial Death The Primordial World o f the Asuras Genesis: Battle o f Forces Dualism: Good and Evil The Vedic Ethical World: Law and Order Judgment: Reward and Punishment Death and the Journey o f the Spirit Yama: King o f the Dead Resurrection in Heaven Equivalent fo r Hell Life After Death

117 125

131 135 140 145 154 158 165 175

186 191 196 205

Chapter VII ZOROASTRIAN RELIGION i. ii.

History and Textual Sources Cosmogony: the Genesis o f Dualism ii

209 226

iii. iv. V.

vi. vii. viii. ix. X.

Gods and Demons Rituals, Rites and Customs Yima: King o f the Dead Corporeal and Spiritual Man Individual Eschatology Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory Soteriology: The World Savior Universal Eschatology

Afterword

239 253 259 263 268 275 280 285

295

Bibliography Primary Sources

307

Secondary Sources and Reference Works

311

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

Abbreviations

Av AV AVN Bd DD DK GAv GK IE Hr KhA LAv MPers MX NPers OE OInd OIr OPers Pahl PR PIE Pllr

Avesta, Avestan Atharva Veda Arta I VTraz Namak Bundahisn Dadestan i Dlriig Denkard Gathic Avestan Greek Indo-European Indo-Iranian Khordeh Avesta Later Avesta Middle Persian Menog i Xrad New Persian Old-Europe/European Old Indian Old Iranian Old Persian Pahlavi Pahlavi Rivayat Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-Iranian

RV

Rgveda

RS SGS Skt Vd Ved YAv Ys Yt ZA

Rgveda Samhita Skend Gumanig Wizar Sanskrit Videvdad ( Vendidad) Vedas, Vedic Younger Avesta Yasna Yast Zand Avesta

Symbols




Indicate glosses or explanations in the original text.

[

]

In the translations indicate a gloss or interpolation.

(

)

In the translations indicate additions by the translator to clarify the meaning.

*

Indicate a reconstructed word.

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With great honor, I would like to take this opportunity to thank those individuals who over the course o f my studies at the University o f California, Berkeley, gave me the necessary support and encouragement to complete this project. With deepest gratitude, I would like to thank Professor Robert P. Goldman, my academic advisor, for his guidance and for his excellent instruction not only in Sanskrit Studies, but also in other aspects o f Indo-Aryan Studies. I am also appreciative o f the guidance provided by the other members o f my dissertation committee, Professor Johanna Nichols (Slavic) and Professor Gary B. Holland (Linguistics). I want to thank Professor Bonnie C. Wade, Chair o f Asian Studies, for her thoughtful endorsement, and her support o f my interdisciplinary dissertation project. I am also grateful to Dr. Sanjyot Mehendale (Near Eastern Studies/Central Asia and Silk Road Projects), who provided me with a much broader vision needed for my Indo-Iranian research, and who devoted time and effort to support my academic interests. In addition to Professor Robert Goldman, I want to acknowledge others in the Department o f South and Southeast Asian Studies who contributed in significant ways to my studies. I would like to thank Dr. Sally J. Sutherland Goldman for instruction in Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, Usha Jain for instruction in Hindi, and Professor Ram Karan Sharma for his insightful ways o f teaching Sanskrit and for sharing with me his

knowledge o f Hindu religion and philosophies. In addition, I thank Dr. Luis Gonzalez-Reimann, who never hesitated to provide time and resources to guide and support my research. I would like to thank those in other Departments who were not directly involved with this project but helped in many ways leading up to it, including Professors Hamid Algar, Daniel Boyarin, Martin Schwartz, Associate Professor Margaret Larkin, Assistant Professor Marian Feldman, Dr. Boris Marshak, and many more. I also want to extend my thanks to those whom I have not mentioned individually, but who have assisted me along the way, either through their administrative or academic works. In closing, I would like to thank my family for their patience and encouragement. Without their constant support and understanding, this project would not have been possible.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

The world o f antiquity, in both the East and West, was deeply concerned with eschatology, the hereafter, and with the awareness that there is something after death. The term eschatology derives from the Greek eschatos, meaning ‘last,’ and is defined in The Oxford Dictionary o f World Religions (Bowker 1997: 318) as referring to “that which is concerned with the last things, the final destiny both o f individuals and o f humanity in general.” Eschatology is further clarified as referring to “a concern in those religions which have a sequential (from a beginning to an end) understanding o f time, and by application to religions which envisage an end to this particular cosmic cycle.” It was this concern with the hereafter that endowed early conceptions o f the beginning o f the world with further shape and meaning. Early descriptions o f the creation o f the world are tied up in a very close manner with the end; it is with the end in mind that the world came into being. Indo-Iranians (Aryans), like their predecessors the Indo-Europeans, and their descendants, the Vedic and Avestan peoples, agreed that in the beginning the world had been set in order by a god or by several gods, and that in its essentials it was immutable. Security, victory in war, and social relations sanctioned by custom and law were the outward and visible signs that a divinely ordained order did indeed exist (Kuiper 1983; Lincoln 1986). However, evil and destructive forces, including death, always threatened that order.

1

The Indo-Iranian religions preceded the Indian Vedic and Iranian Avestan religions, and there were contacts between them, which are the conditions required for the investigation o f possible influences. The Indo-Iranian worldviews, including the concepts o f birth, life and death, do not differ widely from ancestral ideologies. As this work seeks to trace the earliest concepts o f death and afterlife in Indo-Iranian cultures, it is necessary to first confine our attention to the period when Indo-Iranians initially appeared in the historical record, with linguistic and cultural similarities as offshoots o f the Indo-European family (Lincoln 1986). In so doing, we draw nearer not only to the ancestral community, whence they all originated, but also to their subsequent trustees: the Indians and the Iranians. The traditionalist view that reveres order and fears chaos is mirrored in nearly all known religious cultures— as in most mythologies, the act o f creation is the process of developing order out o f chaos. In the Indo-Iranian myths, the combat between cosmos and chaos was given symbolic expression. A god or a hero was charged with the task o f keeping the forces of chaos at bay, and in return he was promised a reward— a heavenly life was guaranteed. Heavenly rewards or un-heavenly retributions, naturally, had to be the result o f some form o f ‘judgm ent’ based on the ethical (virtuous) or unethical (sinful) conduct o f individuals in this life. Subsequently, issues o f justice gave rise to not only questions o f judgment, punishment, and reward, but to the intercession for the dead, either by relatives and the host community, or by a divine being, a god.

2

Iranians took this belief a step further by promising a time to come, when a supreme god, with the arrival o f the final messiah, in a final battle, would defeat the forces of evil and chaos for the last time. These apocalyptic beliefs (Greek apokalypsis ‘revelation,’ apokalyptikos ‘pertaining to revelation’) comparable among Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam point to genetic historical relations, which are reviewed in this dissertation (Boyce 1987; Hultgard 1983, 2000). This dissertation will investigate the characteristic points o f Indo-Iranian religions, which will contribute to a better understanding o f the development o f eschatological beliefs in later religions. Today we are witnessing the rise o f religious fundamentalism and martyrdom, fueled by the eschatological promise o f rewards in heaven and fear o f torments in hell. The traditions and doctrines whose origins are researched in this dissertation are still alive and remain potent. This study is intended to generate enthusiasm for further in-depth research into the Indo-Iranian religion as a system, recognizing its genetic historical connections with the earlier and with the subsequent traditions. The issue o f direct influence of one religion on another is a delicate one, since the evidence is always open to different interpretations. Nevertheless, it seems arbitrary to stop the investigation o f known religious traditions, as has been done in the past, at some Judeo-Christian point in time without examining the precursor religions. There are genetic and historical links in the eschatological beliefs o f the, so-called, eastern and western religions, or the Semitic and Indo-European traditions, which argue for a comprehensive and collective treatment.

3

It is important to note at the outset what this investigation intends to do and what it does not. This dissertation investigates the deepest roots and first textual emergence o f religious beliefs about life after death that are still flourishing today. O f course, these topics as part o f the study o f monotheistic religions have preoccupied others, but no one has systematically studied these eschatological doctrines in the Indo-Iranian cultural and religious systems, as they are presented here. I use an interdisciplinary methodology, isolating and identifying artistic, archaeological, cultural, religious, and literary affinities, examining afterlife beliefs in Indo-Iranian traditions, and their unique bond with their ancient ancestral cultures: Old-European and Indo-European. This process incorporates a generalist approach, which looks for universal patterns, as well as a particularistic approach, which identifies what makes the Vedic and Avestan cases unique. In a contextual framework, I provide a brief general overview o f the archaeological and historical backgrounds o f earlier related traditions, with respect to their overarching worldview and their doctrines o f the ‘last four things’: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. Then, highlighting their commonalities, I establish a connection with the same doctrines found in the Indo-Iranian traditions and their successors, the Indians and the Iranians. Each religion, Vedic Indian and Avestan Iranian, is treated individually in separate chapters. The format is that o f an ‘encyclopedia,’ in the sense o f ‘covering all aspects of one subject,’ in which everything that is considered eschatological within the Indo-Iranian traditions is briefly treated. However, this research will not deal with the apocalyptic views

4

covering the meaning and end o f history, as found in the major monotheistic religious traditions, except insofar as these have some direct relationship to Indo-Iranian beliefs. In order to provide an accessible approach, I have intentionally emphasized only the universally accepted doctrines as found in the scriptures o f major religions. I will deliberately risk oversimplification to make certain doctrines easier to grasp, and avoid exhaustive analyses o f metaphysical-philosophical concepts, such as “God,” “soul” and “death.” I also do not concern m yself with the problem o f the origins o f these concepts, a question that is not decisively answerable in our present state o f knowledge. My main claim will rather be to elucidate in common language, to which most people today can relate, the cultural and religious views on the life o f the dead held by people during the Vedic and Avestan periods. Since religion never has an absolute beginning, every beginning is only a point in the history that owes its existence to events still farther in the past. Bearing this in mind, we must expand our knowledge o f a tradition as far as the historical testimonies, including archaeology, allow us to do so, and not stop at an arbitrary point in time. Just as understanding Indo-European language and culture is a prerequisite to the study o f the Indo-Iranians, in the same way, an analysis o f the culture o f the Old Europe (Dexter 1984,1990, 1996; Gimbutas 1989, 1991; Lyle 1991), as the new homeland of the Indo-European immigrants, becomes imperative. Here, I feel compelled to note that as the objective o f this research dictates introductions o f Indo-Iranian related cultures, such as Indo-European and Old European are essential. Acknowledging and incorporating such traditions into Indo-

5

Iranian studies may perhaps further clarify some o f the ambiguities regarding Indian and Iranian religious elements. However, since this research has been conducted primarily from the perspective o f a humanist, for the sake o f clarifications, some generalization and simplification has been made. Eschatology has been a major element in most religions, both ancient and modem. However, to emphasize the importance o f eschatology is not to refute its ambiguity. Most o f the eschatological and apocalyptic philosophers o f the monotheistic faiths hold fast to factual reading o f what they consider are godly revelations about the end o f the world, and its accompanying rewards and punishments, which includes a forthcoming end to history involving God’s final judgment on evil, and foresee a coming reward for the faithful, both in heaven and on earth. As current historical events show, scholars can no longer ignore the eschatological beliefs o f such faiths, with their myriad o f believers, in a literal heaven and hell, reward and punishment (Collins 2000). Most of the past scholarship devoted to eschatology and apocalypticism concern the origins o f eschatology within Judaism and Christianity. These beliefs have not been adequately examined from the perspective o f earlier religious beliefs that existed in the geographic areas where these monotheistic religions originally flourished. Ideas about death and the afterlife, as we know them today, chiefly through Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, were not created in a vacuum. Studying the history of the evolution of these ideas is like reading books for a course in the

6

humanities. Today, one needs to know the ancient ideologies o f East and West, and not just the current available scriptures, in order to understand why we envision our afterlife in heaven or on earth as souls or as bodies (Collins 2000). The emergence o f eschatology among the three major monotheistic religions, e.g., Judaism, Christianity and Islam, was impelled by the productive encounter with Iranian religions, deeply concerned as these were with the struggle between good and evil, and the moral and ethical issues o f right and wrong, sin and virtue, judgment, punishment, resurrection, and the divine promise, all o f which are themes researched in this dissertation. Several scholars have recognized this influence. DuchesneGuillemin, on the subject of the possible influences o f ancient Iranian religion on the development o f the eschatological and apocalyptic notions in Judaism and subsequently in Christianity, compares various subjects, among which the development o f the concept o f Satan, dualism, and the Messiah-King are most frequently discussed (1973: 179-83). Similarly, Hultgard in answer to the question o f “How much does the Judeo-Christianity tradition owe to Persian apocalypticism?” (Hultgard 2000: 80) replies, The encounter with Iranian religion produced the necessary stimulus for the full development o f ideas that were slowly under way within Judaism. The personification o f evil in the form o f figures like Satan, Belial, or the Devil, the increasing importance o f the dual opposition between Good and Evil as well as their eschatological confrontation are ideas that are unlikely to have emerged without external influence. The doctrine of the two Spirits as professed by the Qumran community provides a striking example o f Persian religious impact that had wider and long-lasting effects on Jewish and Christian traditions.

7

This is also the case with the belief in the resurrection o f the dead, Hultgard further explains (1978: 80-1). Iranian thoughts in the 1st millennium BCE greatly influenced the Jewish people in the development o f their eschatological beliefs, including the apocalypse, which then was passed on to their religious descendants, the Christians and the Muslims. Judea was part o f the Achaemenian Empire for two centuries, during which time large Jewish communities also lived within the territories o f the empire. In addition to certain affinities between the two religions, i.e., Judaism and Zoroastrianism, Jews were in close contact with Zoroastrians for centuries, working closely with Persians as scribes and business agents. The most famous union between Persians and Jews is the marriage o f Esther to King Xerxes I (486-65 BCE). From the liberation o f the exiled Jews by the Persians, and their return to rebuild the temple by the order o f King Cyrus, whom Isaiah, in the Bible (Deutero-Isaiah), hails as the Messiah, a ‘Lord’s anointed,’ down through the centuries there were strong bonds o f political sympathy between Jews and Persians (Zaehner 1961: Boyce 1982). This investigation does not stray from the theme o f Indo-Iranian religion; on the contrary, it is meant to display a small sample o f the countless ways through which an idea or a religion may be influenced and subsequently develop in distinct ways. Current historical events urgently call for identifying the similarities o f and relationships among religions, and utilizing the findings in the eradicating o f religious ideologies, which produce separation through a false sense o f unique ownership. Nevertheless, the subject of possible influences o f other religions on the development

8

of eschatological ideologies, the opposition o f good and evil, the importance o f maintaining the ‘Law,’ rebirth after death, retribution, and God’s promise o f heavenly life, are open for further exploration. Beliefs in life after death, in another plane o f existence, are found among most known cultures, from Asia, Europe, Africa, to the Americas, where the question o f what is meant by a life in Heaven or in Hell has given rise to impassioned discussions from very ancient times. Such prevalent ideas among ancient peoples were often rooted in their religious beliefs, and their deep reverence for the ‘cosmic order,’ known for example as m a'at among Egyptians, rta among Vedic people, and a m among Zoroastrians, resulted in developments o f beliefs in order, ethical deeds as opposed to unethical, with a set o f consequences attached for both. The Egyptians, for example, with over 5,000 years o f history, had remarkable beliefs in the splendid life after death—their perceptions o f Heaven and Hell are recorded in the Book o f the Dead. The Mesopotamians, too, as part o f their beliefs in an afterlife, believed that the soul o f the dead would continue its existence in an underground world. In the AssyroBabylonian netherworld, however, demons and monsters also populated the underworld. The Zoroastrians, too, believed in Hell, drujo-demana ‘abode o f the lie,’ placed deep in the earth, and Heaven, asahya gae&a ‘world o f asa,' the destiny o f the best, the most excellent, a place above the earth. In addition to hell and heaven, the Zoroastrians also believed in hamestagan (the balanced place), a purgatory— and so did the Christians (Bode 1960; Pavry 1965; Dhalla 1972).

9

Similarly, a popular Indian view on the afterlife is reflected not only in the Vedas, but also in the post-Vedic religious literatures o f India, including the Sutras, Smrtis, Puranas, and the epic Mahabharata. In these literatures, there exist numerous references to Hell, naraka, as the place where transgressors are sent to be tormented. Svarga, heaven, is a place above the earth, while Naraka is a place located below the earth. In the R g Veda, there are numerous references to a ‘hellish’ world, as an abode o f sinners and demons, marked by darkness, misery, and chaos. However, there is not a single term uniquely assigned to this place o f existence. Following the Vedic Brahmanical writers, in Buddhist religion Hell (niraya) as a living place for the sinner is mentioned frequently. There are eight great hells in addition to many other minor ones with considerably vivid and clear descriptions, which might actually testify to ancient, even Vedic, popular beliefs. There is also the Tibetan Book o f the D ead describing the state o f the dead after death and before a rebirth. Correspondingly, there are various hells and heavens in both Chinese and Japanese traditions (Coward 1997). The Jewish people were promised a heavenly life here on earth by God, and an afterlife in a physical, house-like, dark gloomy abode, Sheol, in the lowest parts o f the earth, where there is also chaos (Job 10.21-22, 30.23). The ge-hinnom (Gehenna), however, is described as a place o f torment for wicked sinners, located below the earth’s surface in a pit (Apocrypha, 2 Esdras 7:35-36). Notably, among Jews, and similar to the Indo-Iranians, the concept o f ‘Law’ and keeping the ‘Covenant’ with God was imperative. Therefore, transgressors were marked as those who broke the

10

Law, the Covenant, and subsequently were the subject o f God’s wrath. The Greeks also had the same perceptions o f heaven and hell, or Hades. In the New Testament, Hell is a land of fire, underneath the earth, for Satan, the evil one, and his messengers. It is a place where sinners are tortured (Matthew 25.41, 46; Luke 16.23, 12.5). Hell in Christian texts is also referred to as the Hebrew Gehenna. Heaven is described as a place o f immortality, above the earth and the clouds, where the virtuous attain an eternal life in the company o f God and the prophets (Luke 23.43; Revelation 2.7) (Boyce 1987,1984). Among the three major monotheistic religions, Islam has the most prolific and vivid descriptions o f events after death, which are found in the Qur'an. The word for H d\,jahannam , from the Hebrew ge-hinnom, is mentioned more than seventy-seven times in the Qur'an, in addition to various other references such as ‘fire,’ ‘abyss,’ ‘flame,’ and ‘punishment.’ The sinner is tortured by various methods, such as by knives, boiling water, fire, smoke, snakes, and beating by a bar. Heaven, however, is described as a Garden o f Delights, al-Jannat, which is located in the al-a'raf, ‘the Heights,’ (Smith 1979). In English translations, the Islamic Heaven often is translated as Paradise, which is from the Old Persianpairidaeza ‘walled gardens.’ The word entered Hebrew as Pardes, and later into the Greek language as Paradeisos. In addition, the English word best is also etymologically related to the Avestan vahista, New Persian Behesht, which under Persian influence also became the word for heaven in Islamic literature (Taylor 2000).

11

In ancient times, religion was a way o f life, a well-defined pattern o f behavior in accordance with the surrounding culture. Since history demonstrates that in ancient cultures, sacred and secular life was one and indivisible, therefore, studying the religious aspects becomes essential in understanding peoples and cultures (Eliade 1987). This investigation commences with the Indo-Europeans, and subsequently the Old Europeans, whom they succeeded. In the 3rd millennium BCE, various peoples were emerging from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who were living somewhere in the steppes of southern Russia in the 4th millennium BCE. Emerging among their descendants were peoples with diverse identities, speaking distinct, though related languages. These people, in a span o f centuries, were moving further away from their original homeland, spreading their many branches all the way from Europe to the Indus Valley (Mallory 1989; Anthony 1991). The Proto-Indo-Iranians and their descendants, the Aryans in India and Iran, were only one branch o f this expansive tree. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research, aided by linguistics, archaeology, prehistoric and historic data, would provide a view of both the sacred and secular life of Indo-European times. Indo-European, fundamentally a linguistic construct, has not only been used for comparative linguistics but also for research in the fields of anthropology, history, comparative religion, and mythology. Hence, the religions o f peoples whose languages are classified in the Indo-European language family such as Indian and Iranian and so forth, are also categorized as Indo-European religions. Abundant research in the past century on Indo-Europeans has provided a variety o f viewpoints. Regrettably, to acknowledge the various views presented on the

12

archaeology or linguistics o f related cultures would generate lengthy discussions outside the scope o f this project. Nevertheless, it is necessary to bring to light previous findings and to provide a general scholarly consensus, even if such an overview appears cursory. Indo-European ideology, including the creation and cosmic ending myths at the central core o f its cultural legacy, takes into account the origin and fate o f the physical universe and humankind (Lincoln 1986). The most secure heritage o f the Indo-Europeans is not only to be found in the languages people speak, but also in their views on life, death, and afterlife, irrespective o f whether they view themselves as Europeans or Asians. On the subject o f Indo-European religion, past research has provided an enormous volume o f scholarly production. However, by utilizing a generalist approach, our interest is mainly focused upon what Indo-European religion may tell us about its worldviews concerning both this present life and in the hereafter. At this juncture, when we speak o f Indo-European religion, it is necessary to consider the cultural milieu in which it developed and was transformed throughout centuries o f various cultural interactions. So far, our perception o f the past on the topics o f Indo-European religion and social structure has been based on later reconstructed materials. Since it is impossible to determine how far and how much o f the later materials can be projected back, and how safe it is to do so, it is crucial to combine the archaeology and mythology o f the peoples and cultures (Old-Europeans) that the Indo-Europeans subjugated or encountered (Gimbutas 1989, 1991). In the

13

present study, I have attempted to accomplish this, in order to assemble a religious system with a chief overarching worldview. Therefore, by necessity, an attempt is made to recover the antecedents of afterlife beliefs, beginning with a search into the reconstructed religious lives o f not only the Indo-Europeans, but also the Old Europeans, with whom they collided, through the means o f archaeology and iconography. This provides a fresh look at the totality of those prehistoric cultures related to the Indo-Iranians. Such a comparative study brings us a step closer to an enriched understanding o f Indo-Europeans and their subsequent cultural inheritors, and perhaps helps to clarify some o f the ambiguities and inconsistencies in the Indo-European religious system, such as the presence of female and male gods whose names are o f non-Indo-European origins, as well as beliefs in both linear and cyclical time, opposing myths, etc (Gimbutas 1970, 1991). The Old European beliefs provided the backdrop against which the IndoEuropean tradition was developed. As Indo-European people entered into the established traditions o f Old Europe, they had to reinforce an awareness o f difference. Through a realization o f what they were not, they intensified the reproduction of distinct identities. This brings us to the Old European setting in which this replication, often in a opposing format, took place. The same manner was also adapted by the Aryan culture, where by devaluing the non-Aryans, they elevated themselves. The principal reason for devoting a section o f this study to an examination o f the Old European culture is to draw attention to elemental aspects o f European prehistory that have not been treated on a pan-European scale, especially in the area o f

14

Indo-European studies. Old European materials, which have come down to us largely through archaeology, may affect our vision o f the past as well as our sense o f possibility for the present and future. As indicated earlier, it is through understanding other cultures that we get to know ourselves. Gimbutas explains that much o f Old European religion perhaps ‘went underground,’ but some o f the old traditions, particularly those connected w ith birth, death, and earth fertility rituals, have continued to this day. The final product o f Old European elements combined with the religious traditions o f the Indo-Europeans was not a substitution o f one tradition for another, but a gradual amalgamation o f two diverse symbolic systems. This is a historic process by which all the known religious belief systems o f the world have evolved. Although Indo-European ideology has been researched as the ‘official’ system o f the ancient beliefs o f Europe, the symbols and images o f Old Europe were never totally uprooted (1989, 1991). In the Indo-Iranian chapter, as the aim o f this research demands, the focus will be, firstly, to ascertain the Indo-Iranian orderly ethical world, and its related gods; secondly, to investigate other worlds created for a life after death: who goes where, why and how? Furthermore, in an ethical world watched over by ethical gods, there is bound to be some kind o f judicial system. The brief account o f mythologies, including the principal characters and their exploits, however, is not intended to provide a comprehensive treatment with detailed explanations o f the symbols and metaphors involved such as one found in Bergaigne 1897; Oldenberg 1894; Keith 1925; Kuiper 1983. This is merely an attempt to provide, in regard to Vedic and

15

Avestan religions, something analogous to other religions’ acknowledgments o f beliefs in death and the afterlife, i.e., something similar to the stories o f Enoch, the Book o f Jubilees, the book o f Revelation, and the Tibetan Book o f the D ead (Bardo Thodol). In brief, the chief themes reviewed in this exploration are the genesis o f the world, dualism and opposition, god and demon, good and evil, sin and virtue, death and the journey to another world, punishment and reward, and heaven and hell. In more recent years, Raymond M oody’s 1975 classic work Life After Life: The investigation o f a Phenomenon— Survival o f Bodily Death, documenting near-death experiences (NDE), generated a great deal o f interest in the afterlife. He records a man’s experience after being pronounced dead by his doctor. The man feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. He notices that he still has a body, but one o f a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. He glimpses the spirits o f relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit o f a kind he has never encountered before— a being o f light— appears before him. This being asks him a question, nonverbally, to make him evaluate his life, and helps him along by showing him the major events of his life. At some point, he finds himself approaching a barrier or border, apparently the boundary between the earthly life and the next life. However, he finds that he must go back to earth, that the time for his death has not yet come. Are there any parallels between this contemporary account o f a near-death experience, and what has been described by Indo-Iranians?

16

O f course, others, before Moody, from diverse fields o f knowledge, like Plato, Pope Gregory the Great, and Jung have spoken o f visions o f NDE. Since M oody’s publication, several more books have been published on near-death experiences, but none of these examined cross-cultural and religious perspectives o f the oldest existing religious texts belonging to the Indians and the Iranians. The central issue in Indo-Iranian religions, as in most other religions, was death and the journey to the afterlife, i.e., what becomes o f an individual as the life in this world ends. The Indo-Iranians’ general beliefs about death and the afterlife are laid bare by indications from linguistics, mythology, the later known religious texts, and archaeological evidence about funerary practices. Views o f the afterlife, o f expectations concerning some form o f survival after death, have not been isolated from the totality o f the understanding o f the nature o f creation, the nature o f humankind and the structure o f reality (Segal 1989). Death is not an absolute end to existence, and there are geographies o f death, resurrection, and a life after death. It is the oppositions o f chaos and order that brings about genesis, and the antithesis o f death that brings about an afterlife. The migration o f the Aryans and the division o f the Indo-Iranians into the Indo-Aryans and Iranians, and their historical, cultural, and linguistic divergences up to the present time are reviewed in the Indo-Iranian section. The focus, however, would be, in a particularistic approach, on the Indo-Iranian religious beliefs and practices, supported by comparative mythology and the most recent archaeological findings, which include funerary practices, and rituals, with a concentration on beliefs

17

concerning death and afterlife. Furthermore, each chapter is designed to stand independently, and connections with the previous chapters remain, as correspondence between their particular topics becomes more evident. For the Iranian and Indian source material, both primary texts and reference works in various translations and editions are utilized. Whenever possible, translations that have remained as literal as possible have been used, allowing the texts to speak for themselves in their own idioms. The R g Veda as the primary Indian text is used with relevant excursions into secondary sources for the purposes o f further clarification and exposure to more elaborate interpretations. However, some references in the Atharva Veda, Brahmanas, Upanisads, and the Mahabharata are also examined. The Vedic research covers the historical and cultural background o f the Indus Valley, the Indo-Aryans and their settlements in the northern region o f the subcontinent, from the second half o f the second millennium BCE. The Vedic ethical worldview and sources o f evil and death, the battle o f opposite forces o f gods and demons, with references to relevant verses from primary texts and comments by the authoritative sources are discussed. Further, the Vedic chapter explores numerous topics relevant to eschatology, life in heaven and hell, and concepts o f sat (existence); asat (nonexistence); rta (order); anrta (chaos); druh (lie); rtavan (righteous); mrtyu (death); amrta (not death); Atman (True Self, spiritual breath); pitr (ancestor; guardian spirit); ethical devas (gods) Yama, Mitra, and Varuna; asuras and raksasas (demons); Svarga (heaven) and Naraka (hell); Pitrloka

18

(world of ancestors); funerary rites from inhumation to cremation, and sraddha (funerary ceremony). In researching the Avestan Iranians, the historical, cultural, and related religious topics, from the Aryan migrations to the advent o f Zoroastrianism, and its subsequent expansion and influence on nations from Africa to South Asia are referenced. Zoroaster, his life, his ideologies, his pre-Zoroastrian religion, and his doctrine o f apocalyptic eschatology are reviewed, including the primary religious text, the Avesta, along with other later Zoroastrian religious texts such as Arda I Viraz Namak, ‘Visions o f Viraz,’ an apparent predecessor to Dante’s work the Divine Comedy (Haug and West 1971), the Bundahisn (the book o f creations), and some Pahlavi Rivayats (liturgical correspondences). Hindi and Persian versions o f some of these texts are also utilized. Most o f the concepts and entities in Zoroastrianism are paralleled with the Vedic equivalents: asa (order) and drug (lie); asavan (righteous); am srstat (immortality); urvan (soul, inner self)', fravasi (immortal aspect o f the soul; guardian spirit; ancestor); Angra Mainyu (arch-demon); Cinvato Psratu (crossing o f the separator/judgment); daena (consciousness, vision); Yima (first mortal); and Sraosa, Rasnu, and Mithra, the gods associated with ethical, moral judgment, and afterlife; Heaven, asahya gaeda ‘world o f asa,’ and Hell, drujo-demana ‘abode o f the lie,’ placed deep in the earth; misvan gatu (Pahl. Gyag THamestagan) (Place for the balanced ones, purgatory); Saosyants (the Messiah); frasoksrati (renovation, a new world created).

19

In summary, it is the interaction o f culture, religion, environment, and language that forms a people at any given time. Therefore, to gain a more accurate idea o f who we are, we must examine the ancient cultures. Today, in order to appreciate and respect the religious diversity o f the world, one must recognize their development from their conception to the present time; and to understand the past by building parallels, by tracing the continuity o f institutions and beliefs in given areas down through the centuries. At the end o f this study, it will become more evident that religion is by nature not static, and that the globally prevalent beliefs in an afterlife are the result of religion’s genuine dynamism. This dissertation seeks to confirm that beliefs in an afterlife are labeled differently in different times and places. In the Old European, Indo-European, and Indo-Iranian religions, these beliefs are expressed as regeneration, resurrection, or reincarnation (metempsychosis or transmigration), with its possibilities o f one or a series o f lives on earth or elsewhere. Nonetheless, all o f these ideas express human concerns which arise from peoples’ fears and hopes within a given time and place.

20

CHAPTER II INDO-EUROPEANS: A HUMANISTIC APPROACH

i.

Homeland, Migration and Archeology As this work seeks to trace the earliest concepts o f death and afterlife in Indo-

Iranian cultures, it is necessary to direct our attention to the time when these cultures initially appeared in the historical record, with shared linguistic and cultural characteristics, as offshoots o f the Indo-European family. In so doing, we draw not only nearer to the ancestral community from which they all originated, but also to their subsequent trustees: the Indo-Iranians. Possible solutions to the unresolved problem o f the time and original homeland o f Indo-Europeans have been derived from the Bible, mythology, linguistics, physical anthropology, genetics and archeology (Mallory 1989: 7-10). Indo-Europeans, together with the Old Europeans, as one o f the most important entities in the study o f Indo-Iranian religions are further researched, incorporating all the various research apparatuses available, including linguistics, mythology, folklore, and archeology. Along with the archeological findings, we will also utilize the most important evidence from extant artistic expression in its various forms. Art, as a reflection o f the thoughts, beliefs, religious cults and culture o f every society, is an opulent treatise on the life of the people in any given time - how they lived and what they believed in. Therefore, we will use artistic representations to read the minds o f our ancestors, who have left us no written history. 21

Historical documents reveal to us that peoples who lived 3,000 years ago in the vast regions from India to the Atlantic spoke intimately connected languages, which today are recognized as “the linguistic ancestors o f nearly half this planet’s population” (Mallory 1989: 7). These languages, marked linguistically as IndoEuropean, “ [were] spoken in Eurasia some 6,000 years ago” (Mallory 1989: 7). Subsequently, the various peoples who shared these widespread familial languages also are referred to as Indo-Europeans (IE). Their geographical origin, the nature o f their migrations, and their archeological artifacts remain debatable. It is literally impossible to research cultural commonalities o f every known Indo-European culture and to trace them back to their original homeland. However, here, as the necessity demands, we will identify those known cultures that contributed to the cultural developments o f the Indo-Iranians. Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1985) and Mallory (1989) state that the final stage o f unity o f the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) ended with their initial dispersal seven millennia ago. The archeological evidence o f an existing cultural frontier in the Volga-Ural region also confirms a date before 6000 BCE (Anthony 2001: 25). However, Gimbutas suggests the archeological materials o f the Volga-Ural and the Caspian Sea regions “prior to the 7th millennium BCE are, so far, not sufficient for ethnographic interpretation. More substantial evidence emerges only around 5000 BC” (1991: 352). Further, Anthony (1991: 198-99; 2001: 17-18), based on the shared PIE words related to wheeled vehicles, which did not exist before 3500 BCE, firmly assigns a homeland located between the Urals and the Caucasus between about 4000

22

and 3000 BCE. Thus far, it is widely accepted that “The PIE homeland was probably located in eastern Europe, given the linguistic evidence for a temperate-zone homeland and for contact between PIE and Finno-Ugric on the one hand and PIE and Kartvelian on the other” (Anthony 1991: 215; see further Gimbutas 1991; Nichols 1997). Anthony further suggests, “The presence o f wheeled vehicles in the PIE homeland implies a dispersal no earlier than about 3300 BC; and the presence of differentiated Indo-Iranian and Anatolian by 2000 BC requires dispersal no later than about 2200 BC” (1991: 215). Since the multifaceted borrowings and cultural interrelations between numerous diverse cultures over several millennia have influenced the Indo-European languages, some scholars have based their Indo-European debates on the archeological findings. Bruce Lincoln explains that o f all the considerations “which [have] won the broadest acceptance” is the proposal o f M arija Gimbutas, who has recognized what she refers to as Kurgan Culture (1991: 4). Gimbutas introduced the concept o f the Kurgan Culture for the first time in 1956. She explains that the borrowed Russian word kurgan, meaning ‘Barrow’ in Slavic and Turkic, is used because “it has appropriate connections to the eastern origins” (1970: 156). She also suggests the PIE culture, “as reconstructed on the basis of comparative Indo-European linguistics and mythology and supported by early historic records, coincides well with archeological data” (1991: 393). Gimbutas further confirms, “The Kurgan culture o f the 5th millennium B.C. in the Volga foreststeppe and steppe and its newly acquired territory north o f the Black Sea agrees with

23

much that is reconstructed on a linguistic basis as PIE” (393). Her theory, which has been defended by other scholars, including Mallory (1976-77) and Thomas (1982), supports the existence o f a culture in the southern Russian steppes, starting from the middle of the fifth millennium BCE, which is considered an ancestor o f the preceding Indo-European cultures and languages (Lincoln, 1991: 4). Gimbutas declares: “We can begin to speak o f ‘Kurgan people’ when they conquered the steppe region north o f the Black Sea around 4500 BC” (1991: 352). The term ‘Kurgan culture’ has been used as a blanket term by various IndoEuropean/Iranian researchers, primarily in association with the works o f Gimbutas and her supporters, o f the Kurgan as the key to the puzzle o f the Indo-European motherland and the dispersal o f the Indo-Europeans. The term ‘cultures’ is an archeological reference, which is “traditionally defined as the recurrence o f similar ceramics, tools, and architecture and burial rites over a limited area” (Mallory 1989: 24). Gimbutas has located the Kurgan cultural area originating in and expanding from the forest-steppe o f the Ukraine and steppes o f southern Russia, and carrying with it the Indo-European language. The discovered Kurgan cultural elements are equivalent to the identified traits o f Proto-Indo-European society (Lincoln 1991: 3-4). From 4500 to 2500 BCE, the migrations took place eastward in the form of related cultures, such as the Afanasyevo and Andronovo cultures o f the Asian steppe and forest steppe; southward through the Caucasus; and westward in a series o f three waves into southeastern and central Europe (Mallory 1989: 222-45; Masson 1992: 345-47; Thomas 1982: 61-86; Gimbutas 1991: 361-84). As to the direction o f the IE

24

linguistic spread, Nichols notes “Mallory (1989) and Anthony (1991, 1995) interpret the directionality o f cultural derivation as west to east. It is the east to west directionality of cultural derivation that would be consistent with the east-to west linguistic trajectory, since spread o f a whole culture is likely to involve language spread (and vice versa)” (1997: 14). Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, the goal o f this project is not to determine an accurate homeland, true trajectory, or exact date, but simply to recognize a process through which a traditional belief is formed. Anthony (2001) suggests that if the extant texts can be linked to an archeological culture and a geographical region, then the connection between linguistics and archeology can provide answers to the questions produced in both disciplines. Among recognized Kurgan cultures, Afanasyevo and Andronovo are the most important cultures in studies o f Indo-Iranians. Afanasyevo and Andronovo are blanket terms for a series o f Copper/Bronze Age cultures very closely identified with prehistoric Indo-Iranians. Dating to ca. 3500-2500 BCE, they occupied the Yenisei river valleys and the Altai Mountain steppes. Afanasyevo and Andronovo are often related to the Yamna Kurgan tradition, which appeared in the Old European territories during the first wave o f migration, ca. 4400-4300 BCE. “Yamna comes from yama, ‘pit,’ i.e., ‘pit grave’ under a barrow” (Gimbutas 1991: 352). The Yamna culture, reflecting the earliest developments o f semi-nomadic pastoralism, covered territories from the Danube to the Urals, ca. 3600-2200. This culture is largely known from its tens o f thousands o f burial mounds. The pits were roofed with stone slabs or timber

25

with a Kurgan (tumulus) covering. Inside the graves, the remains o f children, women, tools, weapons and solar motif-decorated pottery have been discovered. In addition to wheeled vehicles, cattle and horse breeding were also known within Yamna cultures (Gimbutas 1991: 352-69; Anthony 1991: 203-6). The geographical territories o f Afanasyevo assist in their identification with the linguistic ancestors o f the eastern Iranian and the main line o f post-PIE, pre-Turkic steppe cultures, which are customarily assigned to the Indo-Iranians (Mallory 1989: 223-31). Afanasyevo cultures are known from their settlements and cemeteries, in which were discovered wheeled vehicles engraved on stone, the remains o f horse, cattle, sheep/goats, dogs, tools, and weapons in the forms o f axes and arrowheads, and other ornamental items made from copper, silver, and gold (Vasilev and Semenov 1993: 213-42). The communal character and physical type o f their burials, the positioning o f the corpse, the inclusion o f animal remains including horses, wheeled vehicles, and the use o f ocher and precious metals all suggest that these people were indeed o f the same traditions as the Indo-Europeans. Anthony (1991) adds that the cultures o f Yamna on the west and Afanasyevo on the east contributed to the cattle/sheep pastoralism, and to the mortuary customs o f the Indo-Iranians. He also describes a Yamna cart and human burial from about 3200 BCE as the earliest example o f a wheeled vehicle discovered in the steppes (205-6). In addition, some of the Europoid mummies o f Xinjiang have been claimed as Afanasyevan; however, many o f these have been dated to the 3rd millennium BCE (Francfort 1994). Furthermore, Anthony (1991: 30) equates the early Proto-Indo-Iranian culture with

26

"Sintashta-Arkaim culture o f east o f the Urals.” He adds, “their eastern migration after 2200-2000 was accompanied by chronic warfare. They were heavily fortified and the graves seem to reflect a warrior ideology.” Anthony highlights numerous studies (Gening 1979; Kuzmina 1986; Mallory 1989: 53-54, 228-30; Parpola 1988: 232-35) that have proposed a link between Andronovo and Indo-Iranian cultures, based on “mortuary rituals, animal sacrifices, residential arrangements, settlement organizations, and economic systems that match very well with those described in the Vedas and the Avesta” (1991: 203). Anthony, sharing the same views as many other scholars, points to the archeological discoveries o f Andronovo culture in Central Asia, excavated in the Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex (BMAC), near the borders o f the Iranian plateau and India. He says that aspects o f Andronovo are associated with the “spread o f Iranian or IndoIranian languages across Central Asia and into India and Iran between about 1800 and 1500 BCE” (2001: 26). Similarly, in studying the iconography o f the Oxus Civilizations, 2300-1800 BCE, Francfort (1994) states that the iconographic/mythological elements from this region traditionally are based on the structure o f Indo-Iranian, Aryan, Iranian or Elamite terminology. Francfort, refraining from any back projections o f known deities and demons, analyzes the iconographic elements independent o f other known regional traditions. In reconstructing their social, political, and religious traditions, Francfort concludes, “the Oxus Civilization symbolic system follows a deep trend o f Old Central Asian beliefs o f naturalist and shamanistic tonality... they venerate the 27

goddess who gives life to the world each year again and again, encompassing the snake-eagle opposition/complementarily” (1994: 10).

ii.

Divergence o f Indo-European Languages Indo-Europeans entered history gradually over several millennia, occupying

vast geographical areas. As Mallory remarks, they “did not burst into history” (1989: 24). Indo-European testimonial records are discovered throughout various locations in “varied media as clay tablets in Anatolia and Greece, inscriptions carved on the face o f an Iranian cliff, a dedicatory inscription on a German helmet or a Lutheran catechism for pagan Lithuanians” (Mallory 1989: 24). However, Mallory also indicates that “no matter when or how we first encounter the language o f Indo-European speakers, they all have one thing in common: they invariably speak an already differentiated IndoEuropean language never Proto-Indo-European” (1989: 24). Based solely on the archeological sites, burials, and excavated artifacts, so far as can be determined, they also shared a similar cultural structure and basic religious ideologies, including beliefs in an afterlife. Regardless o f the uncertainties involving the original homeland of the IndoEuropean languages, the only clarification that can persuasively explain the reason for half o f the people on earth speaking languages linked to each other is the IndoEuropean hypothesis. This necessitates the acceptance o f the earlier archeological explanations, based on Gimbutas’s theory, that people who lived somewhere in 28

Eurasia long ago “spoke a language directly ancestral to all o f those we now recognize as Indo-European (Mallory 1989: 22). Moreover, the concept o f a language family expresses the genetic relation o f a group o f diverse languages that shares a common ancestor. The Indo-European language family is divided into approximately twelve major groups, which are situated in differing degrees o f relationship to one another. Comprehensive descriptions o f various divergences and their affinities via already recognized branches o f Indo-European languages are provided by Burrow (1973a). The twelve major braches are listed as Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Baltic, Albanian, Slavic, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Phrygian, Tocharian, and Anatolian, which includes Hittite (7-9). Nichols explains that, “The striking feature o f the IE family is the early, almost simultaneous spread o f many branches from a single root. The earliest partial branchings are those o f Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian” (1998: 256). By the beginning o f the seventeenth century, the intimate associations among some European languages had already been identified. Mallory (1989) cites Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), who separated the European languages into four categories based on the word ‘god:’ deu, dio, dio, dieu o f the Romance languages contrasted with the Germanic gott, god, gud; Russian bog; Polish bog; Czech huh; and theos in Greek (9-10). Scaliger’s theory, however, did not advance much further than this. Nevertheless, researchers of the following century made it even more apparent that the languages o f Europe are much closer to the ancient languages than previously anticipated. Following Scaliger’s linguistic classifications o f the European languages,

29

and in search o f some practical explanation for such correspondences, historians and classicists looked into the Scythian and Thracian data to find possible relations with the northern Greeks and Romans. Others, who favored the Bible as a historical source, found explanations for the relations among Europeans in the Book o f Genesis. The results o f the biblical discoveries were noted as “Semites (Jews, Arabs) and Hamites (Egyptians, Cushites) had derived from Shem and Ham respectively. It was then left to N oah’s third son Japhet to father much o f the remaining human race and hence it was not uncommon to lump the early peoples and languages o f Europe under the Japhetic” (Mallory 1989: 10). Later, in the eighteenth century, James Parsons for the first time revealed the relations among Eurasian and European languages by comparing Germanic, Slavic, Romance, and Indo-Iranian (basically Bengali and Persian) languages. He then concluded that the languages of Europe, Iran, and India all derived from a shared ancestor. His original findings revolutionized the world o f linguistics. However, he then related the common ancestral language he had discovered to the language o f “Japhet and his offsprings, who had migrated out o f Armenia, the final resting place o f the Ark” (Mallory 1989: 10-11). Because o f such biblical interpretations, his name along with his important discovery were abandoned in the historical studies o f IndoEuropean languages. Instead, in 1796, the honor o f equal findings went to Sir William Jones. Mallory comments that Jones’ findings are suggestive o f “a common and extinct ancestral language for the majority o f the people o f Europe... Iran and India”

30

and were viewed by many as the first modem exhibition o f the Indo-European hypothesis (1989: 11). Scholars hold various views on the use o f lexical approaches to analyze IE cultural subjects, such as environment, economy, settlement, technology, social organization, religion, and so forth. As part o f the process, vocabularies derived from cultural materials in Indo-European languages, such as the words for cattle, sheep, plow, horse, yoke, or the names o f trees, birds, rivers, and mountains, were compared and analyzed (Friedrich 1970; Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1985; Lincoln 1991; Anthony 1991). For example, Mallory (1989: 110-12), utilizes linguistic methods to analyze and reconstruct Proto-Indo-European cultural materials, supported by archeological discoveries. He employs vocabulary items such as horse and cart to deduce that the horse was indeed known to Proto-Indo-Europeans (119), and that “the earliest wheeled vehicles are a fourth-millennium phenomenon whether they are initially found in Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, the Pontic-Caspian steppe or along the Danube” (127). Mallory also cites other researchers, such as Renfrew, who argue against the use o f linguistic palaeontology (a concept/term coined by Adolphe Pictet in 1859) to reconstruct such cultural items as wheeled vehicles for the Proto-Indo-European. For instance, Renfrew (1987) argues that two similar words do not tell us that some hypothetical Proto-Indo-European used chariots with wheels or carts in their original homeland. Renfrew further states, “Certainly, the circumstance that the Sanskrit word for “chariot,” ratha, is agreed by competent linguists to be cognate with the Latin for “wheel,” rota, is interesting, and merits historical explanation. But that is

31

a far cry from saying that the two cognate words tell us that some hypothetical ProtoIndo-Europeans used chariots with wheels (or indeed carts with wheels) in their original homeland” (Mallory cites in 1989: 86).

iii.

Culture and Religion'. Indivisible Secular and Sacred Life Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research aided by linguistics, archeology,

and prehistoric and historic data, would provide a view o f both the sacred and secular life o f Indo-Europeans times. As both Anthony (2001) and Gimbutas (1991) have suggested, archeology linked with texts and linguistics would clear up many ambiguities in both disciplines with respect to the Indo-Europeans. Since history demonstrates that in ancient cultures, sacred and secular life was one and indivisible, studying the religious aspects o f a particular culture becomes essential in understanding that culture (Eliade 1987: 282-86). Accordingly, studying the sacred aspects o f the Indo-European peoples and those o f the prehistoric cultures that were transformed through contacts with the Indo-Europeans provides a fresh look at the totality o f prehistoric cultures, including Indo-Iranian culture. Although the archeological reconstruction o f religion cannot be complete, Gimbutas (1991) and Mallory (1989) disclose the available data, which closely corresponds with the ancient elements o f Indo-European mythologies that have been reconstructed based on comparative mythology and linguistics.

32

As discussed in the previous section, Indo-European linguistic reconstruction is the only convincing explanation for the close relations among the languages spoken by most o f the people o f the world. As a result, Indo-European, fundamentally a linguistic construct, has not only been used for comparative linguistics but also for research in the fields o f anthropology, history, comparative religion, and mythology. Hence, various religions o f peoples whose languages are classified in the IndoEuropean language family, such as Indian and Iranian, etc., are also grouped and researched as Indo-European religions (Lincoln 1991). On the subject o f IndoEuropean religion, past research has provided an enormous volume o f scholarly production. However, here, these findings are pared down by focusing our interest mainly where the details o f Indo-European religion may tell us something about their concomitant worldviews, especially regarding present life and life in the hereafter. To illustrate a transparent image o f Indo-European people, which includes their religious life, Indo-European researchers have tried to fashion a reconstruction based on the evidence o f comparative linguistics. This reconstruction includes equivalences in the rituals, myths, laws, and cosmologies, together with views on death, afterlife, and eschatology o f the Indo-European family and beyond. In the process, a hypothetical prototype has emerged that is capable o f accounting for evident similarities, along with a possible sequence o f historical progress. In this dissertation, I will use the same approach in an attempt to recover the antecedents o f afterlife beliefs in Indian and Iranian cultures. Here, by necessity, this research begins with the reconstructed religious lives o f the Indo-Europeans, and the Old Europeans with

33

whom they collided. However, since this research is conducted primarily from the perspective o f a humanist, for the sake o f clarifications, some generalizations and simplifications are made. In ancient times, religion was part o f a way o f life, as a well-defined pattern of behavior in accordance with the environing culture. Eliade states that “The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence or set o f qualities that distinguish the ‘religious’ from the remainder o f human life, is primarily a Western concern. The attempt is a natural consequence o f the Western speculative, intellectualist, and scientific disposition” (1958: 282). At this juncture, when we speak of Indo-European religion, we must consider the cultural milieu in which this developed and was transformed throughout centuries o f various cultural interactions. So far our disjointed perception o f the past concerning the topics o f IndoEuropean religion and social structure has been based on later linguistic materials projected back onto the earlier cultures. Since it is impossible to determine how far and how much o f the later materials can be projected back, it is crucial to combine the archeology and the mythology o f the peoples and cultures the Indo-Europeans subjugated or encountered in order to assemble a religious system with an overarching worldview. Based on the linguistic and archeological research, Gimbutas describes the Indo-Europeans as semi-settled pastoralists, with wealth comprised o f herds o f sheep, goats and cattle. They had a strong clanic organization and social hierarchy that gave prominence to the warrior class, whose heroes often were depicted as gods (1989:

34

399). Apparently in concurrence with the Indo-European incursions into Europe, the construction o f temples, as a recognized tradition o f Old Europe, ceased, with the exception of some areas o f the Aegean and Mediterranean (Gimbutas 1991: 396). However, the question as to whether or not the constructions o f temples and altars existed in the Indo-Iranian traditions, as it did in the traditions o f Old Europe, is reviewed in the chapter covering Indo-Iranian religion. The Kurgan people engraved stone stelae from the second half o f the 4th millennium BCE, the remains o f which have been found in the Alpine regions, Eastern Europe north o f the Black Sea, and in the Caucasus. These remains provide good evidence of a new religion in Europe. These stelae are typified by male gods, weapons, and solar signs, including a radiant sun marked in the area o f the head, which is perhaps a symbol o f a sky god. The Kurgan stelae also display daggers, axes, bows, quivers and arrows, belts, breast plates, double spiral pendants; horses, stags, and goats; vehicles; and ox teams pulling a plow. These items have been used as a prime source for the reconstruction o f mythical imagery and hold great value for a more accurate representation o f the cultural and social organization o f the related Indo-European traditions (Gimbutas 1989: 399). Elements in the religion o f the Kurgan people based on archeological excavations (Gimbutas 1989: 399) imply the existence o f a thunder-god, and the veneration and/or existence o f cults o f the sun, fire, the horse, the bull, the wolf, the dog, the boar, and the snake. The rotation o f the sun and other celestial occurrences, such as thunder and lightning, had direct connection with Kurgan religious ideologies.

35

The Kurgan bright-sky god is depicted in Bronze Age representations, adorned with copper or gold chest plates, gold or amber discs, and copper-plated belts, carrying shining daggers, swords, and shields. In addition, a very strong belief in life after death is apparent from the burial remains, which involved the practice of animal and human sacrifice. Concerning the subject o f human and animal sacrifice, Gimbutas records her excavations o f some o f the early IE cultures as epitomizing a “classed social structure and the dominant position o f men demonstrated by richly equipped graves that contained astounding numbers o f sacrificed human beings and animals” (1991: 383). She further explains that the male buried at the center was to be accompanied by his women, children, servants, horses, dogs, and oxen on his journey into the afterlife.

iv.

Cosmogony and Anthropogony: Sacrifice and Creation In general, the myths o f creation and cosmic consummation in all religious

systems are utilized to account for the origin and fate o f the physical universe. As past Indo-European research shows, some insight into the process o f such religious evolution has been achieved. Even though recognizing the structure o f Indo-European proto-myth does not necessarily ensure a complete understanding o f its social significance, a comprehension o f IE viewpoints on life in this world nonetheless greatly assist us in reconstructing IE and their antecedent visions o f life in the worlds beyond death. 36

Cosmology is defined in The Oxford Dictionary o f World Religions as a “reflection on, and account o f the world/universe as a meaningful whole, as embodying or expressing an order or underlying structure that makes sense: cosmogony is concerned with the coming into being o f the cosmos, and cosmography with the description o f its extent” (Bowker 1997). Even though there is an assortment o f cosmogonic myths among the various Indo-European peoples, there are also an adequate number o f widespread fundamentals, which allow us to propose the existence o f an underlying Proto-Indo-European myth, the all-purpose structure o f which can be, at least to some extent, retrieved. Part o f the cosmogonic mythology explaining the origins o f the social and physical world are the foundation myths, which seek to explain the genesis o f humankind, i.e., anthropogony, or the founding o f specific peoples. Moreover, there are cosmologic myths describing the worldviews and the process by which all the elements in the world relate to one another, in contrast with cosmogony, which is concerned with the origin o f the universe and the end of universe as described in the eschatological myths (Lincoln 1986: 1-40). Among shared fundamental elements o f PIE cosmogonic mythology, including anthropogonic elements, is the myth centered on the dismemberment o f a divine being— either anthropomorphic or bovine— and the creation o f the universe out o f its various elements. As an example, Lincoln tells o f the story in the Old Norse where Ymir, meaning ‘Twin,’ a giant, is the first being that lived in the world. “Ymir inhabited a primordial realm, rich in potential but as yet unformed” (1986:1). The gods killed him and from his body the necessary materials needed to build the world

37

were collected. Lincoln draws a generalized account o f creation, commonly shared among all the known Indo-European myths. He determines that creation is the result of a violent death in the forms o f sacrifice, murder, or death in battle, followed by dismemberment and the formation o f the physical universe, including humankind, all other species, elements, and the formation o f the social universe (1-3). This account presents a set o f alloforms between the anatomy o f the host source and that o f the physical world. Accordingly, in many Indo-European traditions similar stories are told o f the origins o f the material world from the substance drawn from the body o f a sacrificial victim and the extensiveness o f the similarities o f matter posited between the microcosm and the macrocosm (Lincoln 1986: 5-9). Respectively, the formation o f the physical world is described as stones formed from the bones o f the sacrificial man, earth from his flesh, sun from his eyes, sky/heaven from his head, trees/plants from his hair, wind from his breath, clouds from his brain, moon from his mind, water/seas from his blood, etc. This process is reversible where, in anthropogonic myths, the various parts o f the human body are made from the elements cited in the above dismemberment: breath is made from the wind, flesh from the earth, blood from the water, mind from the moon, eyes from the sun, hair from the trees, and so on. This anatomical cosmology is also seen to extend into the cosmic and social partitioning o f the universe, where the whole body is divided into three sections: the head at the top, the feet at the bottom, and the middle region. These sections constitute respectively the tripartite division o f the universe: sky, atmosphere, and earth, and the corresponding social divisions: sovereignty,

38

warfare, and fertility (Lincoln 1986: 1-9). A similar picture o f world creation, including the tripartite universe and society, was handed down to the Indo-Iranians, who in turn shaped the worldviews o f the Indians and the Iranians, respectively. Most important o f these IE creation myths is the foundation myth associated with the origin o f man. Similar myths are found in the Germanic, Roman, and IndoIranian traditions, all o f which describe how the first mortal died and how he established the otherworld after his death. In these shared IE creation myths, there is a first man who dies a sacrificial death, or as Lincoln labels it, a “creative death” (1986: 3). *Manu, meaning ‘m an,’ offers his twin brother, the first king named *Yemo, meaning ‘tw in’ in a sacrifice along with the first ox. From the sacrifice o f *Yemo, the world, and along with it birth and death, is set in motion (Lincoln 1991: 7). The significance o f the twins, which is further discussed in our Indo-Iranian chapter, can be clearly seen in this IE creation myth. The proto-Indo-European *Yemo- ‘twin’ underlies the name o f a god common to the Indo-Iranians (Indie Yama, Avestan Yima), who becomes the progenitor o f humanity. Even though rudiments o f this foundation myth are separate from the cosmogonic myth, there is adequate evidence for positing a single PIE myth involving the sacrifice o f a PIE *‘Tw in’ and his subsequent dismemberment in order to bring about the world (Lincoln 1991: 35-38). Another creation myth has as its central character the first warrior, whose name was ‘Third’ (*Tritos). Lincoln explains that “cattle were stolen by a monstrous three headed serpent named *Ngwhi-, who was a non-Indo-European, an aborigine living in

39

land entered by I-E invaders” (1981: 103-24, 1991: 10). The story continues with the ‘Third’ invoking the assistance o f armed deities. He pours out libations, consumes intoxicating drinks, finds the serpent, slays him, and recaptures the cattle, which had been held captive by the serpent. Lincoln continues to track the image o f the serpentkiller hero all the way through Roman, Hittite, Indo-Iranian stories, and even in the Christian history o f “Saint George and the dragon, and Saint Patrick who drives the snakes from Ireland” (10). The exact myth, as reflected in the Iranian legend, will be discussed later. The central element in the creation myth is the sacrifice o f a man, a giant or an animal. Therefore, the entire act o f sacrifice among the Indo-European peoples was probably seen as a re-enactment o f the initial cosmic dismemberment o f a victim, and the re-creation o f the universe by returning the elements back to the universe. The continuity o f the sacrifice o f a man, a cow, or a horse is recorded in Greco-Roman, Iranian and Indian myths. Lincoln in 1991 credits scholars such as Giintert, Gotze, and Reitzenstein, who worked on the idea o f microcosm and macrocosm, and Kasten Ronnow who, in Lincoln’s view, “rightly—related this theme to that o f ritual sacrifice” (167). However, Lincoln states that Ronnow was heavily criticized for his writings on the widespread practice o f human sacrifice in ancient Greece and IndoIranian cultures (167). Lincoln summarizes his own findings on the theme, starting with analyses o f the primordial sacrifice o f ‘M an,’ to underscore the importance o f sacrificial ritual, and then the practice o f sacrificing/killing o f the wives, children, servants, and soldiers o f a king after his death, to which burial remains, such as the

40

Kurgan pit-graves and the Scythian Royal burials, testify (Lincoln 1991: 175; Gimbutas 1991: 383). Based on the mythologies o f various Indo-European traditions, the Proto-IndoEuropean pantheon o f gods was a socially oriented ideology. This system was well suited for a culture with prominent sovereign class. Lincoln indicates the most common term used for a divinity was *deywo-s, which means ‘celestial, luminous, radiant’ (1991). It fixes the locus o f the gods in the region above, and places them in contrast to men. Lincoln, with the support o f the previous research o f Schmitt (1967­ 77), Hopkins (1932), and other scholars based on linguistic evidence, lists a number o f deities, using their reconstructed names, within the PIE pantheon. Gods were also referred to as *nmrto- “immortal,” in contrast to humans *mrto- “mortal.” *Swel, a distant, radiant, powerful god, and a source o f goods, personified the sun. *Ausos, was a goddess personifying the dawn, *Egni, the fire, and water *Nepto-no- “Lord o f Water” (1991: 5-6). The development o f a sky god varies in different Indo-European cultures, including the Indo-Iranians, who will be discussed later. However, James, in The Worship o f the Sky-God, explains: Both in its Semitic and Indo-European modes o f expression the belief in a celestial Supreme Being who created the earth and fertilized it by sending rain upon it has been almost universal. Behind it no doubt lay an earlier cult o f the sky in which the vault o f heaven was defied and associated with transcendental gods and supra-mundane powers that dwelt in exalted seclusion in the celestial regions. Although concealed under a variety o f names, forms and functions, the concept o f the skygod basic in Semitic and Indo-European religion was that o f the physical sky with its constellations personified as the Supreme Sky-Father, best 41

known as the Vedic Dyaus Pitar, the Greek Zeus and the Latin Jupiter, whose names betray their common source (1963: 139).

In addition to the gods that can be reconstructed on linguistic grounds, there are gods in the Indo-European mythologies having the same functions, for instance as *seu- ‘impeller,’ but do not have anything linguistically in common with the others (Haudry 1987). As for these gods and goddesses for whom there are not any ProtoIndo-European linguistic cognates, Lincoln (1991) and Mallory (1989) suggest that they most likely belong to already existing religions prior to the Indo-European arrivals. Moreover, it is possible to reconstruct a number o f myths that describe the origins o f these divinities, their nature, and their at times problematic interrelationships. Such reconstructions, befitting the scope o f this project are taken into account under their respective subjects. The goddesses that are assumed to be Proto-Indo-European, Lincoln (1989 and 1991) suggests, are those that are mythologically comparable and linguistically cognate, such as *h2eusos, goddesses o f dawn, *seh2ul, daughter o f sun/sun-maiden, *dhdnu, personification of river or watery place and earth goddesses. However, the Indo-European female deities that do not have any linguistic cognates are perhaps the products o f pre-Indo-European cultures aboriginal to the areas to which the IndoEuropeans migrated. These goddesses were assimilated and subsequently assigned passive roles in the patriarchal pantheon o f the IE gods. They were merely the wives, brides, and consorts o f male gods. The origins and nature o f these goddesses as

42

studied by Dexter (1984, 1990, 1996) and Gimbutas (1989) are further discussed in the chapter on the Old Europeans. Descriptions in the early religious literature and imprints on the archeological artifacts o f the Indo-European cultures clearly present a physical tripartition o f the universe. Haudry elucidates an Indo-European universe consisting o f three rotating skies or heavens, each marked by its own deities, color, and social association. He further explains that presentations o f the skies rotating around a pole or a giant tree are shared among all the known IE cultures. On the same subject o f cosmology, Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1985) suggest that all living things were also grouped into three main zones about the tree o f the world: the upper, middle and lower worlds. The three skies, their deities, and the diurnal cycles, according to Haudry (1987), are imitated in the generational myths o f the Indo-Europeans. For instance, the ‘kingship in Heaven’ theme with its three generations o f ancestors, also exhibits a succession o f divinities ruling until the present time. Subsequently, Haudry portrays various designs for the ages o f the world. The cycle is presided over by a deity; it begins in the black o f the night, then moves into red-gold dawn and twilight, and finally into the white-silver daylight. Haudry interprets the order o f the deities as representative o f the three heavens. Respectively, the same colors are applied to the social divisions in various IE cultures: the sovereign, the warrior, and the laborers. The diurnal cycle o f day, twilight, and night provided the early Indo-Europeans with a homology on which was also based their view o f time in general.

43

As to the originality o f the Indo-European origins o f the ‘kingship in Heaven’ theme, Littleton (1970: 383-404) rejects all claims made by other scholars, including Wikander (1951, 1952), for the proposed Indo-European derivation o f such an ancient theogonic theme. In reviewing the theme in ancient Greek, Norse, Iranian, Babylonian, and other cultures, Littleton cautiously favors a possibility of a Babylonian origin for the idea and concludes with a suggestion that “The search for a common Indo-European theogony must continue” (400). There is also a deity in IndoIranian religion whose name means ‘brilliant’ (Vivasvant). He is the father o f the progenitor o f people. Similar figures, though semi-divine or only a king, play the same role in the mythologies o f Norse, Indian, and Iranian cultures, where a king, by means o f a contest, divides the world among his three sons (Littleton 1970: 385-88). Another useful method in the study o f IE religion was proposed by Emily Lyle, in an article titled, “Markedness and Encompassment in Relation to Indo-European Cosmology” (1991). Lyle suggests that since the “old world traditional society was holistic,” we, therefore, need to view the “society as a whole,” and “to make a re-entry into a holistic world view” (59). In doing so, Lyle further suggests that: If the existence o f an old world cosmological continuum is accepted, the problem that C. Scott Littleton addresses on a number o f occasions... concerning the ‘kingship in heaven’ theme dissolves away. The theme can be seen to be present in Mesopotamian tradition as part o f the old world cosmological ordering, and to be present in Indo-European contexts partly through inheritance from a proto-IndoEuropean source and partly through the borrowing o f motifs developed by other carriers o f the world tradition (59). Furthermore, Lyle, as part o f the envisioned cosmic structure, finds “three generations of gods counting from the first couple” essential (39-40). Utilizing Germanic 44

mythology, Lyle points to a female figure not only as the wife o f the primordial god but also as the ‘primal goddess’ - she not only appears and symbolizes the mother goddess, but she also appears as the three rivers, three hymns, and three seasons (53). Lyle’s essential discovery becomes more apparent in the study o f Old European ideologies, wherein a creative female energy is recognized as the impetus behind both cosmogony and eschatology. We will come back to this subject in the Old European chapter. The division o f three hierarchical classes or roles characterizes the social cosmology o f the Indo-Europeans. Such a conclusion results from the comparison of texts describing the models o f cosmic and social categorizations among the IE peoples, including the Indo-Iranians. The French comparativist Georges Dumezil (1989), among other scholars (e.g., Polome 1980; Haudry 1987; Littleton 1982), has drawn parallels between the PIE structures o f the pantheon and society. Dumezil has suggested that verification for the tripartition o f the Indo-European world can be seen in one of the earliest sources o f Indo-European religion, the treaty between the Kings of Mitanni and the Hittites, dating to about 1380 BCE. In the treaty, the king o f Mitanni, who ruled over the “territories from the shores o f the Mediterranean to the Zagros Mountains,” swears by a series o f Hurrian gods: “Mi-it-ra (Indie Mitra), Aruna (Varuna), In-da-ra (Indra) and Na-sa-at-tiya (Nasatya)” (Mallory 1989: 37-39). In his theory o f the “three functions,” Dumezil conceptualizes the IE world in terms of “religio-magical sovereignty,” “martial force,” and the “spheres o f production and reproduction” (Lincoln 1991: 167). Based on this theory, Dumezil categorizes the 45

gods evoked in the Mitanni treaty as M itra-Varuna representing the two aspects o f sovereignty, i.e., the magico-legalistic and the religious; Indrathe warrior-god representing the martial force; and the twins, Nasatyas (Asvins), closely associated with people, livestock and horses representing the third function (Lincoln 1991: 6, 167). Furthermore, Mallory adds that, “Ideology is often regarded as the central core of culture and it is here that some would see the most striking evidence for the IndoEuropean legacy” (1989: 270). He then acknowledges Dumezil for identifying not only the “genetic relationship” o f the Indo-European languages, but also the “persistence o f an inherited ideology.” In recognizing similar partition methods in non-Indo-European cultures, Mallory maintains that the “trifunctional ideology” not only pervades the ancient religious materials, but has also influenced the later societies. The Indo-European ideological structure, has influenced the thinking o f the later Christians o f Europe, which still surfaces in Judeo-Christian ideology “to equate the three sons o f Noah— Japhet, Shem and Ham - with the three estates o f society: nobles (warriors), clerks (priests), and serfs (cultivators)” (1989: 270-72). Dumezil, following his tripartite class categorization o f the Mitanni deities, also proposes a pattern o f dualism in the Indo-European ideology. He maintains that paired divinities, Mitra-Varuna, and the twin Nasatya, provide clear evidence o f dualism. Moreover, duality becomes even more significant in the foundation myths mentioned earlier, wherein the PIE *Yemo- ‘twin’ (Indie Yama, Avestan Yima) becomes the progenitor o f humankind (Lincoln 1991: 7; Mallory 1989: 140). The 46

Indo-Iranian myths that describe the origins and functions o f the ‘Twins’ and the significance o f duality and opposition are discussed in the ensuing chapters. Mallory suggests, “We can go beyond the dualism expressed by twins to outright binary opposition as one o f the underlying structures o f Indo-European ideology” (1989: 140). He then explains the systematic opposition seen in the IE treatments o f right and left directions, and respectively between genders and concepts: male, strength, and female, weakness. This examination o f the binary opposition in the Indo-European ideological structure “is hardly removed from the structuralist approach o f Claude Levi Strauss, who proposes a universal tendency to mediate between opposites” (Mallory 1989: 141). The importance o f the dualistic/binary roles in the understanding o f cosmogony, and therefore afterlife and eschatology, in the Indo-Iranian religious system will become more evident in the ensuing chapters. As previously viewed in the “death sacrifice,” the creation myth being inextricably connected to sacrifice reinforces the importance o f ritual action. Moreover, it was established that without the substance drawn from the bodies o f sacrificial victims, all the items o f the material world, e.g., sun, earth, stone, water, and wind, would become exhausted. The cosmos continues to exist only because these items are replenished by means o f the sacrifice. An important part o f ritual action was the use of a sacred intoxicating drink by a god, a hero, or a priest. Previous research on the subjects o f its nature, its origin, and its use (Lincoln 1986, 1991; Nyberg 1995; Parpola 1995) suggest that the various Indo-European cultures had inherited a common myth concerning a sacred drink. The shared myth conveys the same story in

47

which the sacred drink bestows immortality and invincibility among other things, and that it is to be stolen by a swindler figure on behalf of humankind, but the swindler fails and the gods take exclusive ownership of the drink. Thus, humans are condemned to eventual death and the assurance of immortality remains only with the gods. The oldest Indo-European intoxicating beverage, *nmrto- ‘un-dying,’ was a pressed drink known to the Indo-Iranians as *sauma, and as soma to the Indians and haoma to the Iranians (Parpola 1995: 370). According to Parpola, the archeological

discoveries of the Margiana temples, ca. 1900-1700 BCE, provide clear evidence not only for the cult of fire, but also for the use of soma. In his discussion of soma, Parpola examines the Andronovo, Bactria, and Margiana territories in search of remains of the Indo-Iranian sacred drink. He provides evidence for the presence of the cult of soma in both Bactria and Margiana. Along with his discoveries of soma, Parpola provides evidence of a fire cult in the same region and during the same period (1995: 371). Sarianidi has also discovered in Togolok 21, an Indo-Iranian temple of the second millennium BCE in Karakum (Central Asia), microscopic residues of a narcotic drink (1990: 159, 162). More details are provided in the Indo-Iranian chapter. According to Dumezil (1924), the concept of this sacred drink of immortality persisted all the way into Christian mythology, such as the quest for the Holy Grail. In addition, Oosten (1985) in his comparison of the Nordic and Indie myths, the Mahabharata and Hymiskvida, states that in both traditions, the drink of ‘undying’ is

from the sea, involving a serpent, and that it is obtained as a result of a partnership 48

between demons or giants in Norse, and gods. Ultimately, the gods win the drink of immortality in both traditions, due to the falling out of both parties over the allotment of the drink.

v.

Death, Rebirth and Eschatology The Indo-European ideology, including the creation and cosmic-ending myths

at the central core of its cultural legacy, accounts for the origin and fate of the physical universe and humankind. The central issues, in Indo-European religions, as in most religions, were death, the journey and the life after death, or what becomes of an individual as life in this world comes to an end. The Indo-Europeans’ general beliefs about death and the afterlife have been determined by evidence from linguistics, mythology, inscriptions, the later known religious texts, and archeological evidence about funerary practices. Lincoln explains that Proto-Indo-Europeans viewed death as “the dissolution of a complex entity, which was reduced to its constituent parts after a long process of erosion” (1986: 119). He then adds that various textual evidences show the “dissolution” perceived and explained as “the separation of body and soul— a falling apart of sorts” (1986: 14). Indo-Europeans believed in a concept equivalent to that which the English language refers to as ‘soul.’ This concept is only “identified with the breath, *nsu-, as the seat of life force and vitality.” Like the other parts of the body, the breath departed at death, turning into the wind, its macrocosmic alloform” (14). In other examinations, Lincoln considers the ways in which the body itself after 49

death collapses into smaller particles: “The proto-Indo-European verb *ger- straddles the meanings ‘to go’ and ‘to fall apart,’ so also the verb *mer- combines the sense ‘to die’ (thus: Sanskrit marate and mriyate, Avestan miryeite)” (1986: 119; Watkins 2000: 17, 55). Such notions of the subjects of death and afterlife are also found in an ancient Greek inscription at the burial place of the Athenian soldiers, 432 BCE, which states: “Aither received their souls, and earth their bodies” (Lincoln 1986: 120; Guthrie 1957: 49-52). Lincoln gives further details on the Greek term psykhe, meaning “life-breath,” which, as it is described, departs the body at death and returns to the air. In the same way, the body that is believed to be created from earth returns again to the earth at the time of death. Moreover, Lincoln uses a quote from “Euripides, Suppliants, II. 531­ 534”: Let the corpses now be covered with the earth, From which each of them came forth to the light Only to go back thither: breath (pneuma) to the aither, And body to earth (120). Lincoln states that similar descriptions are also found in the oldest Russian epic, Slovo o P ’lku Igoreve ‘The Song of Igor’s Campaign,’ where the return of the body to the

earth, in an agricultural symbolism, is compared to grain that has fallen to the earth (1986: 120-21). Nourished by the water formed from the blood of the dead, the dead man then comes back to life. “First the corpses are compared to grain that is threshed and winnowed, the souls presumably being associated to grain and the bodies to chaff that is let fall to earth..., the bones—the most solid and enduring part of the body—are

50

further compared to the seed, which is sown in the earth in order to produce a rebirth of the grain” (120-21). “Threefold Death,” as discussed by D. J. Ward (1970), is another repetition of the Indo-European trifunctional division. Ward along with Evans (1979) and Sayer (1990) have researched the patterns and the significance of threefold death in the myths of Indo-European cultures, especially the Celtic and the Germanic. Apparently, the threefold death referred to three kinds of death, mainly by a weapon, drowning, and burning. Even though every particular type of death is connected to a particular social function, at the mythological level, a victim, whether a king or a woman, simultaneously undergoes the suffering of a triple death by three different means. Sacrifice is another aspect of the threefold death that connects functionally located divinities to a particular mode of sacrifice, which is also connected to a specific functional identification of the victim, such as the drowning of a commoner, or the killing of a warrior by a weapon. In addition to the above-mentioned philosophical approaches to death, a more pragmatic approach is also employed in the study of Indo-European death beliefs. Gimbutas writes that the particulars of the IE belief about death and afterlife can be established to some extent by indications from archeological findings about funerary practices and inscriptions combined with mythology (1989: 400). Certainly, the IndoEuropeans believed that individual existence would continue from this life into the next life in perhaps another world. Because of such beliefs, they built burial houses for the dead to where they would take their belongings, including items that would

51

signify their status in the afterworld, such as weapons, soldiers, servants, tools, vehicles, and domesticated animals. Deduced from the excavation of the Kurgan graves of the fifth to the third millennium BCE, Gimbutas (1970: 170-72) describes that IE people held strong beliefs about life after death, which would continue in a similar fashion to life on earth. Consequently, their graves replicated houses topped with stone stelae and carved images of a male divinity wearing a belt or a necklace and holding a mace or an axe. “The old Indo-European custom... that the wife should die with her husband is indicated archeologically by frequent double graves of man and woman..., buried at the same time” (Gimbutas 1970: 170). Among symbols carved on objects found in the graves and elsewhere, the snake and the ubiquitous sun have eminence. The fact that the wheel or sun is imprinted on “almost every ritually important object speaks for the prominence of the sun cult and the significance of the symbolism in connection with the rotation of the year. Carefully constructed braziers found in houses and in graves suggest the perpetuation of fire as a holy element” (Gimbutas 1970: 172). Footsteps on third millennium stelae are probably associated with a belief in giant gods’ footsteps, probably the gods of fertility and underground (Gimbutas 1970: 170). Tombs belonging to important members of the society were extravagantly furnished, providing the dead with status. Kings and chieftains were often buried with their households: wives, servants, children, and animals, which included teams of oxen, horses, and dogs. Death in battle was particularly glorified, perhaps instigated by the eschatological beliefs of a ‘final battle,’ and the subsequent restoration of the world.

52

In Eurasia and the Iranian steppes, the tomb is also often decorated like a house, with lavish funeral gifts. Frequently a supply of vehicles and foods supply the necessities for a journey to the afterlife. Considered necessary for the well-being of the departed, offerings of food continued to be made after the burial. The outcome of research conducted on the funerary tradition of the various Indo-European cultures (Puhvel 1969; Lincoln 1980,1986, 1991; Melchert 1991; Makkay 1992) all point to a variation in funeral rites over both space and time. However, an ‘original’ Proto-Indo-European burial mode has been constructed through an analysis of the burial rites of the various Indo-European cultures. All that can be said is that an Indo-European origin set at any time up to about the fourth or third millennium BCE would more likely have been inhumation rather than cremation, which at that time was less widely employed, being more common in peripheral areas of Europe. When a person died, family and friends mourned him or her, and the body was prepared for inhumation or cremation. Generally, inhumation was soon after death; however, there is some evidence from the Atlantic coast to Asia of secondary burial of the deceased after either the flesh had been removed through exposure, or the flesh had been cleaned from the bones. Even in the case of cremation, Lincoln adds, “the bones—which would not be consumed by the heat of a wood fire—would have been buried” (1986: 215-16). On the subject of the archeological excavations of the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures, which are in some sense related to Indo-Europeans in the eastern parts of Central Asia, Zhimin explains that the 4,000 tombs discovered over the past thirty

53

years were mostly built as “dwelling houses with rich and varied painted tools and potteries” (1992: 161). Additionally, the Arjan Kurgan, from the first millennium BCE in the northern areas of Central Asia, is one of the best examples of early nomad burial monuments. Zhimin describes it as a colossal tomb of a king or an important leader, “in the form of a gigantic stone circle with a diameter of roughly 120 meters, and containing the bodies of several people, dozens of fully caparisoned sacrificial horses of different colors, and various artistic bronze artifacts illustrating the initial period of the so-called Scythian animal style” (470). There are numerous burial sites in the Indo-Iranian spread zone of the Caucasus and Central Asia that betray similar characteristics with those of the IE. This is testimony to their common belief in life after death. Evidence from the archeological-mythological comparisons of different IndoEuropean groups (Gimbutas 1989; Lincoln 1980, 1986, 1991) suggests a Proto-IndoEuropean belief that, after the inhumation or cremation of the corpse, the spirit of the dead person embarked on a journey. In different Indo-European cultures, the soul’s journey to the afterworld may start immediately at death, at the end of ceremonies (most often three days long), or at the destruction of the body, whether by natural decay or cremation. The general consensus, however, is that the journey, whenever started, was to the gloomy underworld via either crossing a river, climbing a hill, riding in a chariot, following a path, or passing over a bridge. The world of the dead, where souls drifted in a pale and passive manner, was imagined as an underground realm ruled by the sovereign male god, or a deified man, together with some minor

54

deities. The motif of conveyance to the site of burial by a wheeled vehicle is widespread among many Indo-European cultures of both the historic and prehistoric periods. Based on the artistic depictions of the place where mortals go after death, the afterworld is marked by an earthen wall, a house-like enclosure, or a fort. In this afterlife, the souls of the dead carried on their existence, occasionally revisiting the world of the living, but more often simply receiving gifts or sacrifices from their survivors and descendants. Scandinavian evidence also portrays the spirit of the dead person closely associated with the grave, while apparently a separate soul inhabits either Hel, the underworld named after the goddess of death, or Valhalla, the warriors’ paradise. The Valkyries took those who died in battle immediately to Valhalla (Lincoln 1991: 41, 121). Once the journey was accomplished, the soul, or the breath, was believed to exist eternally in the afterlife. Among Indo-Europeans, as part of the imagery connected to the afterlife, are a female figure and two guard dogs. The female figure referred to the goddess *Kolyo, “the coverer.” Her name is “preserved in the name of the Old Norse Goddess Hel (English Hell), that of the Greek Kalypso, and that of the Indian God Sarva (= Avestan Saurva)” (Lincoln 1991: 15, 78). Hermann Giintert (1919), the reconstructor of Kolyo’s name and, hence, one of the major contributors to her studies, describes her front appearance as seductively beautiful and young, while her old decrepit back is covered with serpents, worms, and reptiles. Moreover, in addition to the concepts of duality and opposition discussed earlier, Lincoln in 1991 suggests that one can first 55

observe the dualism expressed by the double-sidedness of Kolyo, the twins, and the reunion of the living with the ancestors, and then identify this binary opposition as one of the underlying structures of Indo-European ideology. In addition, the association o f dogs with death and the otherworld is another common Indo-European theme. Both Schlerath (1954: 25-40) and Lincoln (1991: 96­ 106) have discussed this theme. Dogs appear, singly or in a pair, to guide the soul to the afterlife. They also appear as choosers of the dead. In the mythologies of all IE cultures, dogs have a clear role in guarding the path or gate to the otherworld, in addition to their other duties. There is also evidence that the souls of those who, for various reasons such as suicide and murder, cannot enter the afterlife, must pass their intervening time in the form of dogs or wolves. Lincoln clarifies that this hellhound is still referred to by scholars with its Greek name Kerberos - the name of Hades’ hound - *Kerbero-, ‘spotted.’ However, Schlerath in explaining the mythical hellhound in Indo-European traditions disagrees with any views equating its name with that of the Greek: ‘spotted hound,’ *Kerbero-. Despite their varying names and colors in various IE cultures, including Indian and Iranian, the dogs’ presence, functions, and associations with the afterlife remain similar. The pairing or doubling of the dogs associated with mortuary beliefs is commonly expressed, whether as a pair of dogs or in the doubling of some feature of the dog, e.g., the four-eyed dogs o f Indo-Iranian traditions, or perhaps a two-headed dog. These pairs are usually depicted in contrasting colors, for example in Armenia and Brittany, they are black and white, while in Indie and Iranian traditions one is

56

spotted and one is solid black, brindled, or copper (Lincoln 1991: 96; Merh 1996: 48­ 56). Some archeological reflection o f this network of beliefs has been recovered from prehistoric sites that have been associated by some with the early Indo-Europeans (Gimbutas 1991: 383-84). In the northern Caucasus, a tomb of the Maykop Kurgan culture dating to ca. 3300 BCE has yielded at the head of the deceased, among other things, two figures o f dogs, one of bronze and one of silver, reflecting the different colors of the two guardians of the dead in Indo-European myth. The remains of dogs are also found in the burials of the various Kurgan cultures of the steppes, and even further east into China. Sarianidi (1992) confirms that burials accompanied by dogs are known at least as early as the Mesolithic period in Scandinavia. Dogs’ remains are also found in Iran during the same Mesolithic period, i.e., the tenth to eighth millennia BCE. Nevertheless, debating whether dogs in the burials of the Shang dynasty derive from Indo-European contacts, Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1985) find it unpersuasive given the fact that dog burials are also found in the much earlier native Neolithic cultures of China. On the subject of eschatology, some comparative mythologists (O’Brien 1976; Lincoln 1986) have managed to salvage the original Indo-European proto-myth in the remnants of associated traditions, as recognized in the eschatological literature of Old Norse, Ireland, Iran and India. A recapitulation of their findings is that early IndoEuropean societies, being true to their martial nature, believed that the world would end in a great battle between the traditionally opposed forces of good and evil. Motifs common to the various eschatological myths include an arch-demon whose paternal

57

relatives are traditionally unfavorable to the gods. It is clear from the evidence that the importance of specific deities and their functional significance change both spatially and temporally, and that these factors affected their role in the ‘final battle.’ A hero appears, spending some time preparing for the final battle. He assumes leadership of the community through default or guilt; he builds projects and forts. Prior to the battle, a climatic, astronomical or social change occurs: earthquakes, floods, or the disappearance of the sun. In Norse and Iranian traditions, a cataclysmic “cosmic winter’ foreshadows the final battle. The final battle occurs on a famous field. In it, many notables among the community of gods and their adversaries slay each other in single combat. Associated with the final battle and its aftermath are widespread death and destruction, an interruption of the cosmic order, and the end of a temporal cycle or era. Germanic sources are rich on the subject of the events leading to the conflict, and the actual battle is followed by an apocalypse, resurrection, and renewal. Lincoln (1986 117-40), when investigating Indo-European eschatology, discusses the Old Norse legend of the Ragnarok, the ‘Fate of the gods,’ which includes the destruction of the cosmos followed by the resurrection. He also mentions that O’Brien (1976: 295-320), among other scholars who have sought to recover the original IE proto­ myth, believes that Ragnarok is representative of ancient eschatological beliefs, and is therefore very similar to the Indo-Iranian data. Additionally, on the issue of possible influences from Christianity concerning the theme of the restoration of the world following the eschatological destruction in

58

the Germanic myths, Bauschatz (1982: 141-44) argues that such eschatological beliefs were indeed part of the indigenous Germanic pagan traditions. He further demonstrates that the portions of the myth that tell of the world’s renewal after its almost total annihilation are part of the pagan Germanic system, and not the result of Christian influence, as argued by some. Bauschatz states that, “the fundamental preChristian Germanic ideas of time and causality of the Rangarok cataclysm must be followed by a renovation and new beginning, Christian influence hardly being necessary for such a conclusion” (cited in Lincoln 1986:130-31). In this dissertation, a similar argument is used in support of the autonomous development of Iranian eschatological visions, independent of Judeo-Christian influences. Indo-European eschatological versions may differ in the outcome or aftermath of the final battle due to the accumulated impact of centuries of social change. However, it has been affirmed that a complex, cosmic-ending myth did exist in the Proto-Indo-European period. In addition, in view of the widespread occurrence of an epic version of the ‘final battle’ theme and the concurrence of an epic and mythic version in various Indo-European traditions, Lincoln (1986) deduces that it is likely that a rearranged epic version had evolved in the Proto-Indo-European period. It is apparent that traditional Indo-European thoughts on the topics of death, eschatology, and resurrection rest upon the same premises which had informed their creation mythology and sacrificial ritual. When the orderly world is created, it is created out of man, whether this is done by means of cosmology, sacrifice, or death. Similarly, when humankind is created, it is created from the cosmos. The creation of

59

one always implies the destruction of another. Death, therefore, is not a final fate and life will continue in another realm until the end of time, for it appears that nothing within the cosmos was perceived as final. The matter that assumes its cosmic form when one specific human body dies will once again assume bodily form when that specific cosmos itself dies, as must inevitably happen. What we see in Indo-European belief systems is that death and resurrection are reciprocal processes, in which matter passes from microcosm to macrocosm and back again. When analyzing the IndoEuropean concepts of death and resurrection, time and eternity, Lincoln arrives at four major points as the “fundamental premises” of the Indo-European myths: 1. Man and the cosmos are alloforms of each other. 2. Matter is eternal in its existence, but subject to infinite recombination. 3. Time is infinite. 4. Change is constant, but the same processes cyclically recur (Lincoln 1986: 140).

The study of Indo-European beliefs, naturally, brings us to the backdrop against which these were developed. As IE people entered into the distinctly established traditions of Old Europe, they had to reinforce their own awareness of difference. Through the realization of what they were not, they intensified the reproduction of distinct identities. This brings us to the Old European setting in which this reproduction, often in an opposing format, took place.

60

CHAPTER III OLD EUROPE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

i.

Collision o f Cultures: Hybridization o f Ideologies Since religion never has an absolute beginning, then every beginning is only a

point in the history that owes its existence to events still farther in the past. Bearing this in mind, we must expand our knowledge of a tradition as far as the historical testimonies, including archeology, allow us to do so. Just as understanding IndoEuropean language and culture is a prerequisite for the study of the Indo-Iranians, in the same way, an analysis of the Old European culture, the new homeland of the IndoEuropean immigrants to Europe, becomes imperative. The justification of devoting a section of the present study to the examination of Old European culture is “to bring into our awareness essential aspects of European prehistory that have been unknown or simply not treated on a pan-European scale” (Gimbutas 1991: vii). Traditionally, research on the Indo-Iranian and Indo-European religions involves projections of concepts and divinities back and forth, from one culture to another, never going beyond a certain fixed point in time. This is the case even when there are absolutely no linguistic or mythological grounds for the reconstruction of an archetype. However, the Old European materials, which come down to us largely through archeology, “when acknowledged, may affect our vision of the past as well as our sense of potential for the present and future” (Gimbutas 1991: vii). 61

“Archeomythology” is a term used by Gimbutas in her study of the “Old European social structure as mirrored by religious imagery and myth” (1991: 342). She describes this Neolithic society (7000-3500 BCE) as growing from small agricultural villages to settlements “larger than the largest proto-urban tells in the Near East” (1991: xi). Gimbutas, encapsulating archeological, historical, linguistic, and religious evidence, describes Old European society as “organized around a theocratic, communal temple community and a higher female status in religious life.... The structure was matrilineal, with succession to leadership and inheritance within the female line” (349). In his investigation of the worship of a sky-god in various Semitic and European cultures, James states: In an essentially male patriarchal and nomadic type of society the Skygod has tended to assume the role of the sovereign Lord and Creator of the universe and the Father of mankind, whereas in a predominantly matriarchal and agricultural social structure the Mother-Goddess has tended to become supreme, and sometimes has acquired celestial status though generally still retaining in some measure her original vegetation and fertility functions as life producer in a variety of forms and aspects as the universal Mother (1963: 169-70).

The massive presence o f female figures, as depicted in painted potteries, figurines, engravings and other excavated materials, and, respectively, the lack of male figurines during the early periods, from central Europe eastward to Mesopotamia, testify that “the goddess religion was a relatively unified tradition across various ancient societies” (Townsend 1990: 189). In addition, many other contemporary scholars (Wall 1990; McLean 1989; Lyle 1991) have also devoted their research to the topic of early goddess traditions. By utilizing modem scientific archeological

62

interpretations and interdisciplinary methods, they have gone beyond what previous scholars have hypothesized over the last century. In recent years, some Indo-Europeanists have pointed to the importance of studying myths as a whole picture, which includes Indo-European history. For example, as part of the research of Indo-European cosmogonic myths, Lyle in 1991 suggests methods through which a “detailed model of the whole in the register of the pantheon” (59) can be produced. Lyle and Dumont claim that the “old world traditional society was holistic,” and therefore needs to be studied in a “holistic model based on a range o f particulars” (59). Incorporating previous studies (Dumont, Littleton, Dumezil, Levi-Strauss), Lyle declares, “The emergence of the male from the primordial female associated with undifferentiated space and time is the first stage in the postulated Indo-European cosmogony” (1991: 51). Furthermore, she clarifies that: It is the female totality expressed in these goddess figures that I see as the ultimate encompassing element in the cosmogony, and I attempted some years ago (1982: 42,1990: ch. 2) to grapple with the apparent anomaly by which the female was both the whole (the cosmic tree, the entire year) and also a part (the earth’s surface, harvest) (1991: 39-40).

Accordingly, in researching the Greek and Germanic cosmogonic myths, Lyle first, in the Greek myth, identifies the “three generations of gods counting from the first couple,” and then “an additional generation before the first couple where there is a single primordial female” (1991: 39). In the Germanic myth, Lyle points to a female figure not only as the wife of the primordial god but also as the “primal goddess” - she not only appears and symbolizes the mother goddess, but she also appears as three rivers, three hymns, and three seasons (1991: 53). 63

Consequently, what this study intends to do for a better understanding of death and afterlife beliefs in Indo-Iranian traditions is to bring to light a less treated factor, i.e., that of the Old European peoples, who played a crucial role in the ideological development of their successors. These peoples built magnificent tomb-shrines, temples, and homes, and created splendid paintings, sculptures, potteries, and myriads of other religious paraphernalia. In bringing to light Old European creative symbolism, researchers have provided us with a window for a glimpse into the minds and therefore the beliefs of Old Europe. Simply by juxtaposing the textualized myths of Indo-European cultures with the Old European visual imagery and symbolism, one can clearly see a pictorial pattern starting to develop from one tradition into the next. Such comparative study would bring us a step closer to our further understanding of Indo-Europeans and their inheritors, and perhaps clarify some of the ambiguities and inconsistencies in Indo-European religious systems, such as the presence of female and male gods whose names are of non-Indo-European origins, and beliefs in both linear and cyclical time, opposing myths, etc. Evident from the archeological research is the fact that Old Europe’s images and symbols continued to survive and were disseminated by the Indo-Europeans. As to the exact meanings and the functions of these symbols and images, and as to what extent they were transformed by Indo-Europeans, is hard to say, but not impossible. McLean, in The Triple Goddess : An Exploration o f the Archetypal Feminine, starting with the Paleolithic period, follows the goddess figure through various ancient traditions of east and west, examining the triad of goddesses in particular. In

64

explaining the use of the word “archetype,” a Jungian term, McLean clarifies it as meaning “those spiritual patterns woven into our astral soul, as the embodiment of spiritual being in our inner substance” (1989: 112). He does acknowledge the difficulties of understanding such an idea, nevertheless, he continues with his presentation. Providing a varying view in reading the past, McLean further clarifies C.G. Jung’s explanation o f ‘archetype’ as follows: An archetype represented a structure in the unconscious part of the human psyche. It belonged not so much to the particular race and tradition within which this individual was bom and brought up. The archetypes are, in this sense, the remnants of experiences of our ancestors and, collectively, of the race to which we belong. A hard line behaviorist would be tempted to describe these as part of a racially inherited programming o f the brain (111).

Gimbutas, in describing the source of her discoveries of Old European traditions, says “Freud would have denigrated such imagery as ‘primitive fantasies’” (1989: 321). Jung would probably have valued it as “the fruits of the inner life flowing out from the unconscious,” or “the repository of human experience” and a “depth structure” (320-21). However, Gimbutas concludes by proclaiming: “To an archeologist it is an extensively documented historical reality” (320). Hence, this study briefly examines the way of life, religion, and social structure of the “people who inhabited Europe from the 7th to the 3rd millennia BC,” which has been termed Old Europe, referring to Neolithic Europe before the Indo-Europeans (Gimbutas 1989: preface). The functions and images of Old European and IndoEuropean deities and different sets of symbols prove the existence of two contrasting religions and mythologies. Gimbutas confirms that “their collision resulted in the 65

hybridization of two symbolic structures in which the Indo-European prevailed while the Old European survived as an undercurrent” (1989: 401). Without this insight into the belief structures o f the Old European and Indo-European peoples, and the genesis and meanings of their symbols, beliefs, myths, and their penetrations into subsequent religious divergences, such as Indo-Iranian, any research into related subject matter is unwarranted. The coming together of two traditions, with a dissimilar social and ideological structure, resulted in delineating the changeover to a dominating culture, that of IndoEuropean, which gradually changed the features of Old Europe. Here, by means of interdisciplinary research, which also embraces historical-archeological-mythological data, an attempt is made to substantiate this transition. Gimbutas suggests that examining the religious features of prehistoric cultures, e.g., Neolithic, might provide a fresh look at the totality of the culture that transformed it, i.e., Indo-European (1989: xv-xxi). She also suggests that it is important to study the history of Old European culture to consider several chief junctures of transforming ethnic patterns. Gimbutas explains that: Around 4300 BCE, horse-riding pastoralists from south Russia (Wave No. 1) created the first shock wave and population shifts in the Danube basin. The flowering o f Old Europe was truncated and the hybridization of two very different culture systems began... In the second half of the 4th millennium BC, from the North Caucasus region, strong influences increased the transformation of central Europe... The massive Kurgan Wave No. 3, from the lower Volga region after 3000 BCE. into east-central Europe, caused a new ethnic shift... The warlike and horse riding Bell Beaker people of the middle and second half of the 3rd millennium BCE... By the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, almost all parts of Old Europe were transformed economically and socially... The Indo-European religion became 66

official, but the Old European Goddess religion was carried on to the present day through fragments of Old European culture (1991: 401).

In describing the “creation of the original frontier from 5800 BC,” and the cultural conflicts between the Indo-Europeans and the Old Europeans, Anthony states that “The Western ‘Old European’ cultures had distinct origins and histories, not just different pot types” (2001: 20-21).

ii.

Religion: Birth, Death, and Regeneration The chief subject of religious symbolism in Old European archeology is a

female figure; Gimbutas explains that this figure represents the “cyclic mystery of birth, death, and the renewal of life” (1991: 399). This “parthenogenetic (selfgenerating)” female is the sole source of life. In the archeological findings, the imprint of her figure is surrounded by images and symbols (1991: 399). Gimbutas describes this female figure, based on the way she has been depicted, as “a creative energy” that is discernible in all plants and animals, wells and springs, in the earth, sun, and moon. She is the Giver-of-life, Wielder-of-death, and the Earth Fertility Goddess, rising and dying with the plants. In her recurring image, closely connected with earth and water, Gimbutas refers to her as the “Primeval Mother,” and “a giver and guardian of Life Water.” These female figures were mainly iconographic representations of life creators, “not Yenuses, or beauties,” not male gods’ consorts,

67

and most certainly not representative solely of “fertility and motherhood” (Gimbutas 1989: 320). As an explanation of the motive behind creating such a great quantity and variety of female images, Gimbutas eloquently elucidates: This symbolism is lunar and chthonic, built around the understanding that life on earth is eternal transformation, in constant and rhythmic change between creation and destruction, birth and death. The moon’s three phases—new, waxing and old—are repeated in trinities or triple functional deities: life-giving, death-giving, and transformational; rising, dying, and self-renewing. Life-givers are also death-wielders. Immortality is secured through the innate forces of regeneration within Nature itself... The obvious analogy would be to Nature itself; through the multiplicity of phenomena and continuing cycles of which it is made, one recognizes the fundamental and underlying unity of Nature. The Goddess is immanent rather than transcendent and therefore physically manifests (1989: 316). Similar descriptions are also given for those goddess figures discovered in Central Asia and the Indus Valley (James 1963; Fairservis 1995). Francfort, in describing the archeological discoveries of the Oxus civilization and the socio-political changes brought about by male dominant cultures, writes, “the local male aristocracy loves to see itself in representation. However, they (Oxus Civilization) venerated the goddess who gives life to the world each year” (1994: 14). In the Old European tradition, male gods are depicted as the protectors of wild animals and nature. Gimbutas, however, claims that since male figurines make up only “2 to 3 percent of all Old European figurines” (1989: 175), therefore, it is impossible to thoroughly reconstruct their exact cultic role. However, in the Upper Paleolithic art, male figures are identified in paintings, engravings, and in sculpted forms. Gimbutas explains that the “Homed, nude, and the most well known in 68

archeological literature are two bison-men from the cave of Les Trois Freres, France. They have bison’s heads with large horns and hairy pelts with tails, driving before them a herd of animals” (1989: 175). Here, it is necessary to list a brief summary of only a handful of Old European recurring images from the Neolithic period, in connection to creation, death, and afterlife, that still continue to play a part in the folk and religious beliefs of most IndoEuropean traditions. Moreover, in Indo-Iranian religions these presentations are often found with the exact same meanings, or reversed meanings, perhaps intentionally done to disguise their origins. The functions and meanings of relevant symbols and images that have survived in the Indo-Iranian religious traditions are reviewed in the following chapters. The images and symbols that have been discovered in cemeteries, graves, and shrines, in the form of friezes, engravings, sculptures, paintings on potteries, carved objects, and religious paraphernalia, are persistent images of the vulture, owl, raven, crow, toad, frog, and lizard as omens of death. Gimbutas further explicates that the cuckoo and the owl are presented as “Death prophetic birds” (1989: 322-29). Images of the dove and the swan, as they appear in tombs, are symbolic of that which continues to move forward after death; perhaps what is referred to as the “soul of the human.” Caves and graves constructed in the shape of the womb are symbolic of birth and rebirth. The crescent and full moons are symbols of becoming or transforming into something else. A cup, holding a sacred drink or water and associated with a divinity, is symbolic of life, health, and strength. The color black is used in

69

representing the earth and red represents the color of life and seasonal renewal. “Stiff nudes,” as images of death, are made of bone, marble, and alabaster. White, the color of bone, is symbolic of death, as well as bone’s relative tones: yellow and gold. The number three symbolizes the totalities and wholesomeness. Tri-lines, triple levels, triple images, and a unit of three females represent the triple aspects of life: birth, death, and rebirth. The snake is symbolic of the life force, a coiled or horizontally winding snake, “often with 14-17 twinings denoting the waxing moon, or with 29-30 symbolizing the days of the moon cycle” (1989: 324). Snakes, which are represented in an upward winding fashion from water or the womb, are portrayed in tombs, temples, and on pottery, and may signify rebirth, particularly when snake and tree are depicted together (323). Since ships in megalithic tomb-shrines appear in association with the serpent and the Goddess of Death and Regeneration, they may be interpreted as vehicles of the afterlife. Ships also have serpent shaped keels, and since serpents represent hibernation and transformation, death may therefore represent a similar transition. “On Bronze Age rocks of southern Scandinavia, it [ship] is portrayed with serpent, life tree, sun, and cult scenes” (1989: 324). Reverence for the snake as a symbol of life energy, cyclic renewal, and immortality, is represented by the hibernating and awakening snake, as a metaphor o f dying and reawakening, which remained in the IE mythologies, but often with negative overtones in some later traditions (Gimbutas 1989: 322-29).

70

To communicate strength and increase, “the cultures of the Old Europe used images of doubles to indicate progressive duplication, and hence potency or abundance” (1989:161). Gimbutas explains that this is seen in the frequent use of double images o f caterpillars, snakes, female figures, double-headed figures, double­ fruit symbols resembling two corns, or seeds, seasonal earth fertility of summer and winter, and by the dual concepts of young and old - life and death - death and regeneration (1989: 323). In Indo-European religion, the majorities of Indo-European female deity names do not have linguistic cognates in Indo-European, and most likely are the products of pre-Indo-European cultures indigenous to the areas to which the Indo-Europeans migrated. It must be that after the migrations of Indo-Europeans, Old European goddesses were subsequently assimilated into the Indo-European pantheons. They generally are represented as transfunctional, similar to the Greek Athene. The preIndo-European female figures, which were assimilated into the Indo-European pantheons, fulfilled a broad range o f functions and were diversely personified. In contrast, a lack of personification, narrow functionality, and passivity may be demonstrated for the goddesses of Proto-Indo-European origins, who are not only mythologically comparable with one another but who are linguistically cognate as well, as suggested by Lincoln (1991), Mallory (1989) and Dexter (1990, 1996). Among the Old European figures that survived through transformations are the Greco-Roman deities. “Most strikingly visible is the conversion of Athena, the Old European Bird Goddess, into a militarized figure carrying a shield and wearing a

71

helmet. Her birth was from the head of a male god, Zeus” (Gimbutas 1989: 318). In Indo-European symbolism, a ‘Thunder God’ is represented in the form of a bull. Similarly, in the Old European imagery, the goddess is bom from the head of a bull, which is often translated into a creation myth (Gimbutas 1989: 318-19). Gimbutas cites from the Golden Ass, a Latin novel from the 2nd century CE, where Lucius Apuleius invokes the goddess Isis. She emerges and avows: I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the powers divine, queen of all that are in Hell, the principle of them all that dwell in Heaven, manifest alone and under one form of all the gods and goddesses. At my will the planets of the sky, the wholesome winds of the seas, and the lamentable silences of hell be disposed; my name my divinity is adorned throughout the world, in divers manners, in variable customs, and by many names (318). Hence, these images of the past may explain the feminine principle, which has played a significant role in the religio-spiritual life of the IE peoples. Later, in Christian times, the “Birth Giver and Earth Mother” (Gimbutas 1989: 316), were fused with the Virgin Mary. She is still connected with life-water and healing springs and trees. Gimbutas further clarifies that ‘Mother Goddess’ is a misconception for the prehistoric female divinities, and that there was solely a ‘Mother Earth,’ and a ‘Mother of the Dead,’ and that the rest of the goddesses cannot be subsumed under the same term (1989: 316). However, in later times, this female deity was also turned into a witch of night and magic. She came to be considered a disciple of Satan and an evildoer demoness, associated with death, darkness, and night. In the Christian era, German fairy tales tell

72

of a Winter Goddess, “Frau Holla” (Holle, Hell, Holda, etc.) (Gimbutas 1989: 320). She is an ugly old hag who lives in the depths of caves and mountains. She is known as the snow and weather maker. She appears as a frog and a dove. Bread sacrifices are made to Holla, as the Mother of the Dead. Having healing powers, Holler, Holunder, or the ‘elder tree’ was her sacred tree, under which the dead lived. Gimbutas says the same goddess still plays a prominent role in the beliefs of Europeans in the Baltic, Polish, and Siberian regions. Moreover, “The Old European culture was the matrix of much later beliefs and practices” (1989: 319-20). As explained in the previous chapter, Indo-Europeans’ images and concepts which do not necessarily belong uniquely to the Indo-Europeans but have survived with a lesser significance, were perhaps incorporated from the indigenous culture into which IE migrated. Old European sacred images and symbols remain a vital part of the cultural heritage of Indo-Europeans and their subsequent descendants, including the IndoIranians. In most, if not all, Indo-European cultures, including the Indian and the Iranian, the folk and epic worlds contain similar images transmitted from a time long ago. In both countries, sacred and miraculous rivers and springs continue to flow, and holy forests and groves with mysterious powers continue to flourish. The female image is associated with not only with life but also with death and the afterlife.

73

Hi. Death and Rebirth: Disintegration and Reintegration In the iconography o f Old Europe, there is much more emphasis placed on regeneration than death. Nevertheless, death is notably exhibited in art by the nakedness of bone, by howling hounds, vultures, owls, and boars. On the subject of beliefs concerning death in Old European culture, Gimbutas adds, “The question of mortality was of profound concern but the deep perception o f the periodicity of nature based on the cycles of the moon and the female body led to the immediate regeneration of life at the crisis of death. There was no simple death, only death and regeneration. And this was the key to the hymn of life reflected in this art” (1989: 321). This mirrors the conviction that new life grows out of every death - life energy reemerges in another form. Gimbutas further explains that human death was thought to imitate nature’s death in winter, with short days and long nights. Consequently, depictions of death are often combined with the dark night and the moon, and tombs are constructed facing the direction of sun on the day of the winter solstice. Bull figurines, horns, and bucrania became ubiquitous in the art of the Near East and Old Europe, with the introduction of sedentary life (Gimbutas 1989: 265). In Old Europe, similar to Indo-European traditions, a bull, not only as a symbol of life itself, but also as a source of life, is visible as the imperative and essential animal in the lives of the people. “Miniature clay bucrania are known from early farming village occupation layers of the 8th millennium BCE at Tepe Guran, Iran. At Qatal Hiiyuk, shrines of the 7th millennium BC are dominated by the bull” (Gimbutas 1989: 265). Wall paintings of the tomb-shrines depict bulls, people, and vultures defleshing 74

bodies; and bulls’ heads are also hung on the wall. Despite the presence of death in the tomb-shrines, the scene where the vulture is depicted in red color and flying upward conveys a resurrection subsequent to death (187). Janies writes about the discovered terracotta nude female figurines of the Harappan civilization, a culture that flourished in northwestern India from 2500 to 1500 BCE. The descriptions o f the figurines mirror the goddesses of Old Europe. James describes them as wearing headdresses also similar to the ones found in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. James adds, “To enhance their life-giving properties most of them had been painted over with a red slip or wash, as are many Hindu figurines today” (1963: 69). In addition, James quotes Sir John Marshall as saying, “these sacred images in all probability represent ‘a goddess with attributes very similar to those of the great Mother-Goddess, “the Lady of Heaven” and a special patron of women.’” Among archeological discoveries, James describes th cyo n i symbolism of Harappan culture as a sexual and fertility symbolism. Behind it “lay the mystery of birth and regeneration which in the Ancient Near East, from the Mediterranean to the Indus valley, found expression in the worship of the Mother goddess, with or without a male god” (1963: 71). In addition, it has been suggested that since the £atal Hiiyuk site lacks the minimum requirements of an Indo-European culture, such as evidence of horse and wheel, therefore it is not Indo-European (Yakar 1991; Mellaart 1967). Further, it has been pointed out that the strong male deities of the early Indo-Europeans contradict

75

the “goddess-centered” religious ethos of £atal Huyiik. Moreover, this tomb-shrine occupies a region that later became dominated by a non-Indo-European people. The dog, too, held a prominent role in Old European religion as is demonstrated by its copious depictions in terracotta, marble, and rock. Dogs also appear in the form of vases and in paintings. As one of the foremost sacrificial victims, the dog is closely linked with funerary rites. A representation of a white-gray hound next to an image of a woman is associated with death. As in the Indo-European traditions, the dog symbolizes a protector and guide of the dead. In addition, dogs were guardians o f both the living and the dead. Occasionally dogs’ sculptures appear wearing a mask of a woman (Gimbutas 1989: 197). Masks were a special category of Old European death symbols: “In a cemetery from the 5th millennium BCE, in Bulgaria, 16 graves out of 81 excavated were mask graves,” Gimbutas explains (1989: 205-6). There were no human or animal remains, only life-size masks in the form of a human face with convex eyes, decorated with gold. Old Europeans’ strong belief in cyclic regeneration is the main idea in their grave architecture, where the tomb is constructed in the shape of a womb. Such caves and tombs, interchangeable with the womb, egg, and uterus, are symbolic of death and life. Columns of life, trees, snakes, and phalli, as embodiments of the life force, rise from the womb, cave, or tomb (Gimbutas 1989: 185). Moreover, it was thought that a barrier of water existed between this world and the next that was crossed by ships, themselves symbols of regeneration. Communal burial was a typical Old European practice. The megaliths of Western Europe were sacred centers of the community, and

76

the burial of defleshed bones in these central shrines meant a return to the ancestors. Furthermore, burial of the bones, in various forms, meant “a return to the body of the Mother for regeneration within the womb of nature” (Gimbutas 1989: 199-201). In summary, the concepts of creation and destruction, life and death, in both Old European and Indo-European cultures, do not differ greatly. Based on thus far reviewed beliefs concerning life, death, and rebirth/regeneration, in traditions of Old Europe and Indo-Europe, in both belief systems, the sustenance of the world and everything in it is drawn from the bodies of the dead, and death is not an absolute end to existence. Creation always follows death, and the life cycle continues, and just as cosmogony alternates with anthropogony, so death alternates with renewal/resurrection. As is evident from the constructions of cemeteries and graves built in the shape of a womb, with the corpse positioned as a fetus, most likely death was viewed by the Old Europeans as another birth/another existence. It appears that the life after death also involved a journey by a ship through waters. The engravings of the ceremonial ships found in the tombs often have depictions of cup-marks containing a liquid, trees, vertical lines resembling people, and keels like serpents. The fresco paintings on the walls of the shrines and at the burial sites depict vultures, in ascending flying positions, marked with the color of life, red - pointing to life as a continuation of death. A female figure with a hound is either accompanying the dead or heralding the nearness of death.

77

Perhaps much of the Old European religion, as Gimbutas declares in 1991, has continued to this day, particularly those connected with birth, death, and earth fertility rituals. The final product of the collision of Old European religious traditions with those of the Indo-Europeans was not a substitution of one tradition for another but a gradual amalgamation of two diverse symbolic systems. This is a historic process by which all the known religious belief systems of the world have evolved. Although the Indo-Europeans’ ideology has been researched as the formal system of the ancient beliefs of Europe, the symbols and images of Old Europe were never totally uprooted. Some of the earlier traditions, which were not completely assimilated into IndoEuropean beliefs, are those particularly connected with birth, death, rebirth, and the ‘Mother Goddess.’ The latter includes notions of nature goddesses, especially in connection to waters and rivers, and rituals of earth fertility (Gimbutas 1989: xv-xxiii).

78

CHAPTER IV The Emergence o f Indo-Iranian Peoples and Languages

i. Aryans: An Epoch o f Unity Indo-Iranian is one of the early branches of the Indo-European family, among other early cultures of Asia such as the Anatolians, including the Hittites, Tocharians, Phrygians, and Armenians. As previously stated, the Indo-Iranians were related not only linguistically, but also culturally to the extensive family of Indo-Europeans. In addition, linguists observe that the resemblance between the two groups of Aryans, the Indian and the Iranian, is not only one of grammar and general lexicon but even the references to the means of rituals in the two languages derive from a common ancestor, which is evidence of a common cultural background. This common background is also reflected in the sharing of deities and geographical milieu of which the latter includes names for rivers and mountains. This physical and cultural background shared by Indo-Iranians shaped their religious beliefs and rituals. Based on the writings of Herodotus, (Jackson 1928; James 1963), it is believed that IndoIranians venerated the sun, the moon, the earth, fire, water, and the stars. Subsequently, we can infer in part from allied beliefs of the Iranians and the Indians a confirmation of the epoch of Aryan (Indo-Iranian) unity. Due to the sketchy nature of Indo-Iranian materials at hand from the epochs of their unity to the time and nature of their divergence, it is extremely difficult to

79

establish a portrayal without encountering some opposition. However, Mary Boyce has briefly described what we tentatively know about the milieu of Aryan life: In still remoter times, the ancestors of both the Iranians and the Indians had formed one people, identified as the Proto-Indo-Iranians. They were a branch o f the Indo-European family of nations, and they lived, it is thought, as pastoralists on the South Russian Steppes, to the East of the Volga... perhaps from the fourth to the third millennium B.C. - the Proto-Indo-Iranians forged a religious tradition of immense strength so that, to this day elements from it are preserved by their descendants, the Brahmans of India and the Zoroastrians of Iran. Eventually - it is thought early in the third millennium - the Proto-Indo-Iranians drifted apart, to become identifiable by speech as two distinct peoples, the Indians and the Iranians (1979: 2).

What is presented here, as a precursor to the ensuing analysis of Indo-Iranian religion, as this has developed in India and Iran, is a bird’s-eye view of their so far researched religio-cultural practices. As the earliest branch of Indo-Europeans who lived as one people in the same region, spoke the same language, shared similar beliefs and worldviews, and practiced the same customs, the Indo-Iranians branched off into various communities, partitioned themselves into different countries, and inhabited different lands even beyond Iran and India. Eventually, the various Indo-Iranian peoples came to speak different languages and adopted different habits of life. Among these people, the Indians and the Iranians, over millennia, developed and transformed their once shared religions beyond recognition, conditioned as these were by historical and ecological events. And yet, when an attempt is made to study the fundamentals of their religious ethos and world views, we arrive at countless similarities, if not complete identity,

80

with those of the ancient people who branched off from the same parental stock, which was known in times long past as Aryan. It is certain that the Indo-Iranians lived in the steppes of what is now Central Asia, north o f the Caspian and Aral seas. As to the exact date when they lived in a continuum as a single group, there is not a unanimous consent. The proposed dates, based on the archeological evidence, range from 3500 to 2000 BCE. Historical linguists, however, suggest that Indo-Iranians began to diverge before 2000 BCE (Mallory 1989: 39), and the dispersal and division into two linguistically distinct groups, Iranian and Indo-Aryan, began in the middle of the third millennium BCE. As for the exact migration routes of Indo-Iranians, there exists just as much controversy as there is concerning the original homeland of the Indo-Europeans. J. Harmatta, based on an elaborate chronological linguistic scheme drawn from ProtoIndo-Iranian and Proto-Iranian loan words, such as horse and chariot, concludes that the contacts between the tribes in the Caucasus and the Indo-Iranians “took place perhaps at about 4000 BC” (1992: 368-69). Harmatta further suggests that the migrations of the Proto-Indo-Iranians perhaps took place over several centuries in three consecutive stages with different characteristics: the first type of migration was by small cattle-breeding groups; the second by the tribes and clans with armies and chariots; the third by huge groups of equestrian nomads with their livestock (368). Today, the most widespread model of Indo-Iranian origins, locates their direct ancestry among the peoples of the eastern steppe in the southern Urals and Kazakhstan, from the third millennium BCE. The region also provides a convenient

81

contact zone with the Finno-Ugrian languages. The culture most frequently associated with the earliest Indo-Iranians (Aryans) is the Andronovo culture, situated across the forest steppe, the steppe, and later in the northern regions of Central Asia. The blanket term Andronovo, as mentioned earlier, was named based on the Kurgan archeological discoveries o f Gimbutas. Andronovo culture, ca. 2000-900 BCE, extended over areas of western Siberia from the southern Urals to the Yenisei River in Russia. This culture was made up of mostly mobile pastoralists, as well as those established in small villages, chiefly in Central Asia (Thomas 1982: 61-86). The structures of the burials and the remains of wheeled vehicles, livestock, horses, ornaments, weapons, and tools are closely associated with the Indo-Iranians. This relationship is further supported by their pastoral lifestyle and by the distribution of Iranian place names across the region of their occupation. Andronovan archeological evidence is often compared with the textual data of the Indo-Iranians, and the results are often utilized to confirm the IndoIranian identity of the various steppe tribes, including Iranian-speaking tribes of Sarmatians, Alans, and Sakas, that had occupied the region during the 1st millennium BCE. Furthermore, the course of the Indo-Iranization of greater Iran and the Indian subcontinent rely heavily on a model that requires Andronovo tribes to have originated in Central Asia (Parpola 1995; Hiebert 1995). As for the archeological traits that would identify the migration routes of the Aryans from Central Asia into India and Iran Frye lists various characteristics (2001) including horse sacrifices and horse burials, or a cult of the horse; a fire cult, which if

82

not invented by the Aryans, was most definitely spread by them; burial customs of cremation and the exposure o f the corpse. Weapons found in the excavations are made of bronze and iron. According to Frye, Aryans “brought iron tools and implements into the Near East and India” (2001: 62). The Aryans who moved into their newly discovered homes were experts of horse drawn chariots and wagons, as well as cattle herding. Elena E. Kuzmina (1996, 2002), based on the archeological remains of the Andronovo people, has traced Aryan migration from the steppe to the south in the second millennium (17th-16th centuries BCE). Kuzmina also agrees that all the above­ mentioned Aryan features were shared among the Andronovo culture of Kazakhstan, and the later Aryans (Iranians) who remained in the Central Asian region after the separation and southern migration of a group of them into India. She further explains that these Aryans did not migrate as horse-riding nomads as in later times, but migrated either on foot or in chariots or wagons. Cemeteries from various sites where warriors were buried “have produced the earliest known examples of light-wheeled horse-drawn chariots” (Parpola 1995: 357). Kuzmina emphasizes the importance of incorporating the archeological data with the linguistically reconstructed cultures in order to broaden our understanding of Indo-Iranian history/peoples during the period before writing. She reveals that “In determining the routes followed by the IndoIranians as they migrated away from their original homeland, precedence is taken by the data reflecting their spiritual culture, and not by the characteristics of their ware and similar characteristics” (2002: 2).

83

There have been archeological discoveries, including burials, shrines, and temples, marked with signs, images, and symbols that confirm an Indo-Iranian cultural basis. One of the Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex (BMAC) sites, the most important for our study, is a mound one hundred feet high and one hundred and twenty-five acres wide, and is an archeological-historical-cultural treasure. It is a mud-brick structure of a walled city with gated towers, buildings, and streets. The most prominent structure has connecting rooms, hallways, storage facilities, altars, hearths, burials, painted pottery, a myriad of artifacts, jewelry, including a gold bull’s head set, and enigmatic amulets. Fairservis notes, “The entire complex is virtually a hecatomb, probably representative of a century or more of funerary ritual” (1995: 206­ 8). Furthermore, the BMAC culture, associated with Indo-Iranians, further attests to a southern migration from Central Asia into the Indian subcontinent. It is believed that studies of BMAC will definitely shed more light on the cultural and religious understandings of the Indo-Iranians, particularly those of the Indians and the Iranians. Other archeological sites in Central Asia, including constructed cemeteries and graves, shrines, temples, and altars, are ascribed to the Indo-Iranians (Dani 1992, Askarov 1992, and Zhimin 1992; Sarianidi 1987, 1990, 1992). Supported by the Mesopotamian, Central Asian, Iranian, and Indie records, we know that the Aryans were knowledgeable in the arts of weaponry, mining, carpentry, pottery, seafaring, construction of buildings, agriculture and, therefore, in the mechanisms of irrigation and sewerage. As Aryans migrated into newly discovered lands, they also circulated the practices and beliefs of their religion.

84

In summary, as part o f a broader movement of the Indo-European peoples, the distributions of the Indo-Iranians find them spanning the Eurasian steppe. The spread zone is further confirmed by the historically attested movements of Iranian speaking peoples, such as the Sarmatians and Alans, into Central and even Western Europe, across Southern Russia, Kazakhstan, and extending as far east as Xinjiang in western China (Mallory 1989: 35-55). Even though there is not a conclusive migratory route determined for the Indo-Iranians, “it is known that the Indo-Aryans finally settled both in the northwestern part of India, the Punjab region, and in Anatolia; the Iranians settled in Iran, that is, in a geographical area that included modem Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia, especially the area bounded by the Oxus and Yaxartes rivers” (Malandra 1983: 6).

ii.

Language Divergences The linguistic similarities of the Indians and the Iranians not only suggest a period of Indo-Iranian unity, but also a period of accord with the earlier ProtoIndo-European language (Mallory 1989: 36). He also further explains the process by which the Indian and Iranian materials were discovered by the European scholars: The discovery of the Indo-European language family did more than simply elucidate the historical relationship between many European and Asian languages. It severed once and for all the fantasy of deriving all languages from Hebrew, and by extension, Adam. The indivisibility of the human race was being destroyed not only by those who profited from exploiting different peoples, but also by science itself. Following 85

the west’s discovery o f the wealth of Indie and Iranian literature, European scholars looked beyond Eden to seek their own more illustrious forebears in Central Asia, Iran and India (267). The Indo-Iranian subcultures of Indie, or linguistically referred to as Indo-Aryan, are distinct from other non-Indo-European languages of India, such as Iranian and much smaller groups of Dardic and kafiri, known as Nuristani languages, of which only the first two, the Indie and the Iranian, were recorded in antiquity. Kafiri, meaning ‘infidel,’ was a name given to the people of the Hindukush by their Islamic conquerors. The genetic relationship between the Indo-Dardic, kafiri and Iranian languages means that they formed a common system of communication in an earlier period (Burrow 1973a; Witzel 1995a). However, the most recent research demonstrates that Nuristani languages “exhibit certain features that suggest that they are neither a direct descendant of ProtoIndo-Aryan or Proto-Iranian but an independent third branch of the Indo-Iranian group” (Harmatta 1992: 358). Additionally, Witzel writes that these languages have preserved features of Aryan language that were lost in Iranian and Vedic. Evidence shows that they perhaps belong to another “Western, Indo-European-speaking immigrant group that has left traces in the high Himalayas” (1995a: 110). More Avestan and Vedic scholars are now looking into Central Asia, including the Hindukush region, to gain a better understanding of Indo-Iranian language and tradition (Parpola 1995; Witzel 2003). However, the earliest Indo-European written evidence, from northern Mesopotamia, the Mitanni treaty (2nd millennium BCE), with its Proto-Aryan names, is still at the center of Indo-Iranian linguistic debates. 86

Reading through the related materials, it appears that there is some confusion regarding the proper usage of the terms ‘Aryans’ and ‘Indo-Aryans.’ Some clarification is needed before we proceed further. On the subject of the usage of these terms, George Erdosy, after observing constant confusion among “archeologists and to a lesser extent linguists,” provides such a clarification for the usage of both terms: The careless use of labels, of course, reflects the view that a single process produced both entities. Yet the first term (based on the self­ designation of the Vedic poets) denotes a multitude of ethnic groups subscribing to a newly emerging ideology, and the second, Indo-Aryan, identifies speakers of a subgroup of languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Neither is coterminous with racial groups (1995: 3). However, the linguistic, cultural, and religious usages of Aryan and Indo-Iranian terminology, referencing periods of their unity, are interchangeable. Erdosy further adds that there is no debate about “the external origin o f Indo-Aryan languages spoken today in South Asia” (1995: 3). Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages are further discussed in the following pages. The Indo-Iranian languages have the largest territorial distribution of any IndoEuropean language sub-grouping, and were spoken in the region north of the Black Sea to the Yenisei River in Russia, as well as in Central Asia, Western China, Iran, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Historically, this would include the Sarmatians, Alans, and Scythians. Burrow explains that the ability to reconstruct a Proto-IndoIranian language is supported by the self designation, aryo-‘Aryan’ (Sanskrit dry a-, Avestan airya-, Persian ariya ) shared by both Indians and Iranians (1973a: 1-3). Additionally, Zaehner, in accordance with the general scholarly consensus, adds that 87

‘Aryan’ is also preserved in the name of Iran (Iran), which is derived from an earlier term, aryanam, meaning [the country] of the Aryans (Aryas). He further clarifies that “These Aryans or Iranians, though differing in dialect, formed a nationally self­ conscious whole, which must have felt itself racially one, since they were careful to distinguish themselves from the an-aryas, peoples ‘not Iranian’” (1961: 20). According to Thomas R. Trautmann, some scholars have claimed that the name for “Ireland, Eire” is the same word as arya, and that, considering the wide and early dissemination of the word, Arya must be the name used for all the early speakers of Indo-European languages (1997: xii). He also clarifies that the primary indicators of Aryan identity are not physical or racial but cultural (e.g., religion and language). On the subject of ethnic identity and language spread, Nichols explains: Though ethnic identity and pure ethnonyms are not typical for attested and reconstructible steppe and desert nomads and are apparently not necessary for language spread on the steppe, they have occurred. An example is *arya-, an ethnonym attested at Skt. *arya, Ossetic Iron (ethnonym for speakers o f one dialect, and name of the dialect), Scythian Alan, Persian Iran ‘Iran’... Though probably also attested in Celtic (Irish Eire) it is chiefly Indo-Iranian, and can be reconstructed as an ethnonym either for an important part of the society (a charismatic clan?) or for the entire ethnic group during the spread. Together with their ethnonym, the Indo-Iranians evidently carried a distinctive and prestigious religion with elaborate ritual including poetic composition or recitation, so the Indo-Iranian spread was a simultaneous spread of language, religion and ethnic identity (Nichols 1998: 261).

Erdosy, however, provides a general understanding of the ‘Aryan’ as if it were unique to the Indo-Aryans. He explains that, “Aryan refers to the traditional linguistic and/or racial categorization of the authors of the R g Veda,” and that they referred to

88

themselves in their own language as arya, meaning the ‘noble,’ the ‘exalted one,’ to further distinguish themselves from other non-Aryan groups (1994: 223). He further clarifies that ‘Aryan,’ by contrast, has been defined as subscribing to a distinct ideology, rather than belonging to a distinct ethnic, racial, or linguistic group. In contrast to the explanations provided on the origin and meaning of the word arya, Szemerenyi adds that the word arya is not Indo-European in origin, but is rather of Ugaritic origin, meaning ‘kinsman, companion’ (1977: 125-49; also quoted in Mallory 1989: 276). It seems impossible to study the heritage of the Indo-Europeans “without first dispelling the specter o f the ‘Aryan Myth’” (Mallory 1989: 266-70). Mallory declares further: The world is all too familiar with how the concept of racial supremacy was implemented by the National Socialists in Germany, and we would be quite mistaken to imagine that this grotesque obsession with the Indo-Europeans or, as they were then more popularly known, the Aryans, was merely the creation of a handful of Nazi fanatics. A fascination with the ‘Aryans’ was, in fact, very much part of the intellectual environment of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries... Although Indo-European and Indo-Germanic had both been coined early in the nineteenth century, Max Muller, and other linguists, encouraged the use of Aryan to describe the ancient IndoEuropeans. Naturally, if these early Aryans were the ancestors of the Europeans, then they too must have been part of the superior white race... The myth of Aryan supremacy was neither a direct nor a necessary consequence o f the philological discoveries of the nineteenth century, but rather the misappropriation of a linguistic concept and its subsequent grafting onto an already existing framework of prejudices, speculations and political aspirations. The Indo-Europeans leave more than the legacy o f Aryan supremacy (1989: 276).

89

The scholarship devoted to the early nomads of the eastern steppes is dominated by the belief that these people were Indo-European, and most certainly of the IndoIranian group. As demonstrated, there have been archeological discoveries, including graves, temples, symbols, and images, that confirm an Indo-Iranian cultural basis.

Hi. Indo-Aryans: Migrations and Languages Models of Iranian origins and dispersions refer back to the steppe lands and presume that the difference between the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians is more a matter of geography o f dispersion than of cultural content. Their socio-cultural characteristics are described as those of the Indo-Iranians (Aryans), i.e., seminomadic, tribal, hierarchical, patriarchal, and patrilineal. Details of their religious ideologies are discussed in my Vedic Indian chapter (Ch. 6). The archeological evidence for the earliest Indo-Aryans in northwest India is either controversial or ambiguous, as it is difficult to define what precisely should be expected of an IndoAryan culture. Indo-Aryans, probably over a period of several centuries starting from the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE, moved through Central Asia and the Hindukush, and down into the Indus Valley. They were equipped with horse-drawn chariots, cattle, dogs, and bows and arrows. In the Indus Valley, they encountered indigenous dark-skinned people, whom they called dasas. The Indo-Aryans continued their tribal-warrior lifestyle, ruled as they were by a king. The king, maintaining harmony 90

with the gods and the cosmic order, brought prosperity, security, and wealth to his people. The Indo-Aryans, in keeping with their ancestral heritage, bestowed the highest social ranks to the priests, who often were more powerful than the king himself. The earliest religious hymns (both Vedic and Avestan) also reflect a geographical knowledge of the sapta-sindhava, the ‘seven rivers,’ or tributaries, of the Indus. Their distribution would cross with that of the Harappan culture of the Indus region, but from the results of research thus far, the latter culture would serve as a very poor candidate for early Indo-Aryans. Nevertheless, Fairservis, in search of IndoAryan identity, compares the archeological evidence with the religious texts. Referencing other researchers (Sarianidi 1990; Hiebert and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1992) Fairservis suggests that “it is to this Central Asian Bronze Age Complex, or BMAC, that we must turn if we are to recover evidence for its genesis” (Fairservis 1995: 206­ 7). Both the Andronovo culture as a staging area, and the BMAC as a cultural filtering center through which some of the Indo-Iranians must have moved southward to the Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley, are supported by the remains of the cemeteries and Painted Grey Ware cultures. In contrast, Renfrew presents his hypothesis (also noted by Mallory), in which he suggests that Indo-Aryans came from the west, i.e., Anatolia, crossing the Iranian plateau and arriving in West Pakistan with the spread of agriculture prior to 6000 BCE (1987: 178-97). The above argument, including others made by Burrow (1973a), are either linguistic or religious and never based on the archeological findings, which

91

testify to a southern migration from Central Asia into the subcontinent. However, in reviewing the various possibilities o f the migration routes suggested by various scholars, Mallory proposes two of these: either, “Indo-Aryans divided south of an earlier staging area with some moving east and others far to the west, or they actually immigrated in mass forming a broad continuum across Western Asia to the Indus and were later divided by the incursion of Iranian-speaking peoples” (1989: 42-43). As Aryan peoples gradually migrated into the Indus Valley of India in the 2nd millennium BCE, they encountered a culture there that is generally dated from around 2600-1800 BCE. Indus Valley culture, or Harappan and Mohenjo-daro, named after two of its major cities, extended from the borders of the Iranian plateau to the Ganges. The period of the Indus Valley civilization is generally regarded as the first chapter in the history of ancient India. Ardeleanu-Jansen and Jansen write that the ‘urban’ period of the Indus Valley, dated between 2500-2000 BCE is marked by large, planned settlements, with streets, buildings, and inter-urban water systems (1997: 6). Concerning comparative studies of Indo-Iranian art, archeology, and religion, the objects discovered from the Indus sites contain symbols and images, e.g., adorned animals, the bull, female goddess-like figurines, and pictographs similar to the Old European ones described by Gimbutas. The archeological artifacts from the Indus Valley, noted by their unique symbolic markings, particularly o f the ‘Goddesses,’ highlight the presence of similar figures found as far west as Europe. Accordingly, the goddess image of the Indus is associated with the tree of fertility and the bull, and she is depicted wearing the same headdress as figurines discovered in Mesopotamia from

92

the 3rd millennium BCE. Indus Valley motifs were present until the historical period of India, as is also the case in the neighboring countries (Nagar 1998: 85). Those Aryans who migrated into the area that today is called India are linguistically referred to as Indo-Aryan in order to distinguish them from other Aryans who moved elsewhere, either to Iran or Mesopotamia. Indo-Aryans settled as seminomadic pastoralists in the region of the Sapta-Sindhu (seven rivers) and the Doab (two rivers). They lived in tribal communities with an economy based on pastoralism and agriculture, in which cattle served as the main form of wealth. Their religious practices and early religious texts are reviewed later in detail. The Indo-Aryan languages, as a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, are derived from a single form of speech, which was introduced into India by the ‘Aryans.’ This form of speech is linguistically referred to as Indo-Aryan, and should be further distinguished from Iranian languages. “The classical form of Old IndoAryan eventually came to be designated by the term samskrta-, meaning ‘polished, cultivated, correct..

in contradiction to prakrta ..., which was the same Indo-Aryan

in origin, but was subject to a process of steady change and evolution” (Burrow 1973a: 1). The Indo-Aryans used the term mleccha- ‘barbarian’ for the locals to distinguish themselves, i.e., the aryas, from the non -aryans. The written form of this archaic language, Samskrta (Sanskrit) is to be found in the massive corpus of religious literature known as the Vedas. The Veda “knowledge” consists of a body of texts extending from the 15th to the 6th century BCE (Renou 1954: 7-8). The Vedas have

93

had a profound influence on the understanding and interpretation of the Indo-Iranian world. They contain the cultural products of the ancient Indo-Aryans. As previously mentioned, in addition to the Indo-Aryan languages, India also possesses another major linguistic group o f a non-Indo-European origin: the Dravidian language family, which dominates the southern third of India. Referring to the Dravidian language family, Fairservis suggests that evidence exists of “Indo-Aryan lexemes in the Dravidian languages” (1997: 65). The Middle Indie languages, or Prakrt [‘made before, natural, vernacular’], are the languages of early India that were spoken ca. 400 BCE to 1100 CE. During the earlier stages of the Middle Indie period, the Prakrt languages of the Buddhist scriptures, referred to as Pali, emerged. The modem Indo-Aryan languages began to emerge from Prakrt in the first millennium BCE. These provide the largest group of the spoken languages of India and Pakistan today (Masica 1991; Renou 1953; Burrow 1973a). Vedic Sanskrit represents the earliest stage, and the succeeding languages are known as Classical Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrt, Hindi, Sindhi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Panjabi, Rajasthani, Bihari, Oriya, Urdu, Nepali, etc. Thus, in the literary documents of India alone, “there is more than three thousand years of continuous Indo-Iranian linguistic history recorded in literary documents” (Burrow 1973a: 1-3). Although in India itself we cannot go earlier than the Vedas, nevertheless, researchers have claimed the earliest written evidence for an Indo-Aryan language from northern Syria, the empire of Mitanni (see Mallory 1989: 37-38). As referred to

94

in the Indo-European chapter, the Mitanni treaty, written in a cuneiform script in the non-IE language Hurrian, and dated to the middle of the second millennium BCE, contains the names of some gods and elements similar to the ones found in the early texts of India and Iran. Although the basic language of the Mitanni was non-IndoEuropean, there is, nevertheless, clear evidence of the use of Indo European vocabularies. Thieme, following a detailed linguistic analysis of the names of deities and cultural terms used in the treaty, refers to the contents of the treaty as ‘ProtoAryan,’ and objects to any other categorization, such as Indo-Aryan or Proto-Indian, based on the lack o f adequate cultural-historical data (1960: 301-17). Additionally, Deshpande suggests “Linguistic, biological and cultural identities must be kept separate for our analytical purposes” (1995: 81). The details of Indo-Aryan religious beliefs, which largely define their cultural identities, are reviewed in the following chapter. The Indo-Aryans are credited with the composition of the earliest religious texts, which have served as a foundation for the later development of other religious ideologies in India. This early-developed religion is often referred to as ‘Vedic religion,’ and is to be distinguished from its later offshoot, i.e., Hinduism.

iv.

Iranian Expansions and Contractions: Realms and Languages Various models o f Iranian origins and dispersions refer back to the steppe

lands, and to the fact that Iran (Iran) is derived from an earlier word, aryanam, 95

meaning the ‘[the country] o f the Aryans.’ The geographical descriptions, as presented in the earliest texts, confirm the archeological discoveries of the settlements and cemeteries of the steppes. They point to a semi-pastoral, tribal-communal society resembling the Andronovo cultures of Central Asia and Southern Siberia from the Bronze Age (Mallory 1989: 48-56). “The Iranian nation itself formed part of a wider grouping, the Indo-Iranians themselves forming but one member of the huge IndoEuropean family of nations” (Zaehner 1961: 20). It is generally assumed that the Indo-Iranians moved down from the north, i.e., from the Ural region. However, as to their exact migration route into the Iranian Plateau, there are two hypotheses. The first is from west of the Caspian Sea and over the Caucasus; and the other route is from east of the Caspian Sea (Mallory 1989: 48-56). O f course, the archeological results from Bactria and Margiana favor the eastern route migration (Sarianidi 1979). Additionally, there is another theory (Lamberg-Karlovsky 1987) suggesting two routes of migration into Iran, one from the northwestern areas, and the other from eastern Central Asia. The current distribution of Iranian differs greatly from its ancient expansion, which included a vast portion of the Eurasian steppe. The major Iron Age nomads of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans, expanded their immediate territories westward into Europe. The Alans and Sarmatians went as far as North Africa via Europe. Remnants of the Alans have survived in the modem Ossetes of the central Caucasus. Other Iranians farther to the east were the Parthians and the Bactrians. The Sogdians, the Khorasmians, the Khotanese Saka in China, and the

96

Tumshuqese were among the other Iranian-speaking peoples. The latter two languages are thought to be related to that of the Iron Age Scythians of the Old Iranian period. Nichols writes, “Throughout much of the first millennium BC speakers of Iranian languages, whose best-known representatives on the steppe were the Scythians, ruled the Eurasian steppe and the deserts of Central Asia” (1998: 221). Other Iranian languages in Central Asia, in the confines of China, and in the plains of South Russia continued to develop as well. All the above-mentioned languages are labeled by linguists as Northeastern and Eastern Iranian, to contrast them with the Persian language of Western Iran (Mallory 1989: 48-49). The languages that evolved in the Iranian plateau are Avestan (Old Iranian), Old and Middle Persian (Pahlavi), New Persian, Kurdish, Tajik, Dari, Pashto, and Baluchi. The primary language of Iran until the Arab conquest of 642 was Middle Persian or Pahlavi, which spread over the territory of many of the other Iranian dialects of Iran. New Persian emerged after the Arab conquest of Persia to become the state language of modem Iran. It is also spoken in other countries such as Afghanistan and in parts of Central Asia. The earliest document to mention Persians is from the middle of the ninth century BCE. This document mentions that the Assyrian King Shalmaneser received tribute from the twenty-seven tribes of the Parsuwas, which is generally thought to indicate the Persians as members of a western Iranian tribe (Mallory 1989: 49). The Medes (ca. 614-550 BCE), from a northwestern Iranian tribe, are also mentioned in the 8th century BCE under Tiglath-Pileser III. The Medes were the first Iranians to 97

make an impact on the West. Zaehner further states that the Persians “.. .swooped down upon the Mesopotamian plain and extinguished for ever the Assyrian power that had, among other things, carried Israel off into captivity” (Zaehner 1961:20). The first written monuments of the Persians, however, are the sixth century royal inscriptions of the Achaemenid Kings (550-330 BCE), primarily of Darius the Great (522-486 BCE), and Xerxes (486-465 BCE), which were carved into the face of a cliff at Behistun, in a specially invented cuneiform script. Moreover, during the reigns of Cyrus and Darius, the Persian territories extended westward to Africa and eastward to India, establishing satrapies, which included northern India, i.e., the Indus region. According to Renou, it was in this period that the Persians (6th and 5th centuries BCE), “opened the way on the material and spiritual planes” with the Greeks and Indians (1954: 2). The only written sources for the history of Iran before the Achaemenids are the Old Persian inscriptions (Darius’s inscriptions), Herodotus, and the Avesta. The Avesta is a liturgical text, originally transmitted orally like the Indie Vedas. Avestan

takes its name from the great body o f early religious scriptures known as Avesta , meaning probably “Authoritative Utterances” (Boyce 1979:3). The Avesta also provides enough geographical points of reference to indicate that its cultural milieu was east of the Caspian Sea (Mallory 1989: 49-50). The Avesta also mentions the airiianzm vaejo, meaning ‘the Aryan expanse,’ which is generally taken to be the

homeland of the Aryans (Boyce 1984: 8).

98

The Avestan corpus, having evolved orally over many centuries, began to emerge in the fifth century BCE. During the Sassanian period (224-651 CE), the Avesta became canonized; at this time, Zoroastrianism was institutionalized and

became the state religion. It was during this time that the Avesta was first committed to writing in a specially invented alphabet, i.e., ‘Avestan.’ This collection of hymns, displays much the same archaic nature as do the Indian Vedas (Boyce 1984: 1). It is this fact that has prompted linguists, such as Burrow, to reject the traditional dating of Zarathushtra to the sixth century BCE, and to propose a much older date, by possibly half a millennium or more. The most archaic portion of the Avesta , the Gathas ('GaOas), as noted earlier, closely resembles the Indie Vedas. The composition of the Gathas is credited to ZaraGustra (Zarathushtra)— later known by the Greeks as Zoroaster, a zaotar ‘priest’ belonging to the older tradition of Indo-Iranian who became a reformer of his ancestral religion. Zarathushtra’s later institutionalized religion, known as Zoroastrianism, is supported by a set of scriptures. Accordingly, Iranians who adhered to his tradition are called Zoroastrians. According to the rules of his tradition, Zarathushtra was trained for the priesthood from the age of seven. Even though he did not intend to abolish his father’s religion, nevertheless, by attempting to reform some aspects of it, he attracted the hostility of the conservative priests. Boyce describes the underlying social setting of the society of Zarathushtra as the ‘Heroic Ages,’ wherein war chariots played a large part. Boyce explains that the ‘Rathaeshtars,’ literally ‘chariot-standers,’ formed a new dominant group who sought wealth and fame for themselves and abandoned helping their tribes to protect the cattle

99

(1984: 11). References in the Gathas suggest a semi-pastoralist society, wherein cattle, horses, and camels were highly valued. There are varying views on when Zarathushtra lived; however, it is certain that by the time his ideologies reached Iran, they were already marked as ancient. Based on the later Greek calculations, Zarathushtra lived two hundred fifty-eight years before Alexander the Great, placing him in the middle of the 6th century BCE. The other theory, however, based on the comparative linguistic and archeological records, suggests a date even earlier than 1500 BCE. Boyce says that there is enough evidence to suggest that Zarathushtra flourished sometime “between 1400 and 1200 BC,” somewhere northeast or east of Iran (1984: 11). The Avesta contains two separate sets of texts, referred to as the Old and Young. The dating of the Avesta is another controversial subject; however, the composition of the Gathas, the Old materials, based on its archaic makeup, dates to 1700 BCE (Boyce 1979: 18). The younger Avesta dates from the 9th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. However, Humbach

suggests that Zarathushtra lived in 1080 BCE: “This is in approximate agreement with the linguistic evidence” (1994: 11). From the middle of the 1st millennium BCE until the 7th century CE, Zoroastrianism was the religion of the Iranian empires. In the mid-seventh century CE, Muslim-Arabs from Arabia overthrew the Sassanian Empire. A small group of Iranian Zoroastrians who escaped execution at the hands of Muslim Arabs took refuge in India during the 10th century CE. Today, a small community of surviving Zoroastrians lives largely in Iran and India, and in various countries. Zoroastrianism,

100

its texts, and its impact on the eschatological development of later religions, are discussed later.

101

CHAPTER V INDO-IRANIAN RELIGION

i.

Background: Religio-Cultural Perspectives Witzel proposes a new approach to the study of Vedic religion. Applied to the

broader spectrum of all Indo-Iranian beliefs, Witzel’s proposal would be significant for both Vedic and Avestan studies. Witzel suggests: Still, both due to increasing specialization and the fragmentary nature of our materials, it is not unusual to find statements indicating that there was no major overreaching Rgvedic world view yet. Instead of the many detailed but atomistic studies of the past century a new, fuller description would proceed in a concerted, systematic way (using metalinguistic terminology) and would indicate in how far and in which way the various deities, demi-gods, demonic powers and other forces make up a fairly coherent conceptual system. Close comparison with Iranian, Indo-European, Nostratic, Eurasian mythologies will greatly assist in establishing some o f the seemingly obscure but ultimately widespread common parameters and motifs that underlie Indo-Iranian mythology and ritual (2003: 1). In conclusion, Witzel suggests a comprehensive study, which would include the influences of the Pre-Vedic era: from the Urals to the Punjab, notably, the BMAC region, the Hindukush, and the Near East, via Elam, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and the Indus, all “involving comparison with Eurasian myth, from Iceland to Japan, and beyond” (2000). Similarly, the present research project is aimed at providing a broader understanding o f the Indian and Iranian religions. As we have already established in the previous sections, Indo-Iranian religion has a prehistory that dates back all the way to the Indo-European configurations and 102

even farther back. The Indo-Iranians were also influenced by the local beliefs that they encountered on their migration routes all the way through Central Asia. The archeological records, especially those from Central Asia (BMAC), testify to the cultural and religious diversity of their milieu. Moreover, what has come down to us in the Vedas and the Avesta is the culmination of their metamorphosis. Important to the study of Indo-Iranian religion, in addition to the cemeteries and graves discovered, are the archeological discoveries of Aryan temples, among which is the Togolok 21 temple. Concerning the discovery of an Indo-Iranian temple from the second millennium BCE in the Karakum, east of Turkmenistan, Sarianidi says, “At Togolok 21, as at temples of similar date in Bactria, there are elements of Indo-Iranian worship... o f particular interest in that they include both fire worship and the use of haoma libation” (Sarianidi 1990: 159). Sarianidi further describes the temple and its various cells, including altars “connecting with both the fire cult and cultic libations,” and phallic objects connected to the phallic cult, similar to the ones found in Bactrian and Harappan cultures. Another interesting cultic object is a marble head of a bull discovered in the Togolok 21 temple. Other images painted on the walls also include an eagle, a dog, a goat and two figures. Vessels used for pouring libations, with images of frogs and snakes crawling upward on the inside walls of the vessels, are similar to the Old European symbols. On the interior of a cultic vessel, there are figures of a woman and of a man, who is holding a child. Sarianidi connects this image to the cultic libation of haoma-soma, based on the Rgvedic myth where soma is referred to as the child of heaven and earth, both male and female. “One can 103

assume that the friezes of the cultic vessels reflect the Indo-Iranian myth in which father-heaven and mother-earth bear a child and offer it up to heaven for worship” (1990: 163-64). Sarianidi further compares this image to the Rgvedic Parjania, the thunder god, who also appears in the role of a father. It appears that the Indo-Iranians who lived in these parts of Central Asia in the second millennium BCE built temples with different layouts for different ritual practices. Although, nowhere in the Vedic and Avestan texts is there a mention of ‘temple,’ and based on the statements of Herodotus, it is generally accepted that the Aryans did not build temples, altars, and icons (Boyce I, 1975: 131), nevertheless, archeology has shown that the Aryans did build fire altars and temples. The Oxford Dictionary o f World Religions (Bowker 1997: 461) defines icon (Gk, eikon, ‘image’ or

‘picture’), “as a flat picture, painted on wood, metal, and other materials... they are found on the walls, ceilings and stands.” As such, there are various friezes, decorated cultic objects, engravings, and even statuettes with religious significance attached to them. They are excavated either as part of temples, cemeteries, shrines, or graves. It would appear only logical for a priestly religion, such as that of the Indo-Iranians, with so much importance and emphasis placed on ritual acts, including sacrifice, oblation, and offering, to have had designated locations for proper preparation and performance. In addition to the archeological records at hand, essentials of linguistics are important to the study of religion, in that they show clearly that Indo-Iranian religion developed in a state of cultural variety. As one approaches Indo-Iranian religion, one may be dealing with diverse phenomena developing according to various social 104

dispositions. Nevertheless, it appears that the cultural and religious qualities were held in common by the various tribes. We will demonstrate in the ensuing chapters that the underpinning of the Indo-Iranians’ religiosity remained unchanged in both cultures, Indian and Iranian. As to their particular views on life and afterlife, their respective convictions may have developed distinctively, but they were still rooted in their primeval creeds. The Aryans shared similar material and social cultural foundations to an extent, which influenced their religious construction. They were pastoralists who herded livestock, such as goats, sheep, and cattle. Cattle, as the most vital aspect for the Aryans’ lives, provided food, leather, urine for purification, and dung as fuel. As we have already demonstrated in the previous sections, the cow also held a chief position in Old European and Indo-European religion, symbolizing life and sustenance (Malandra 1983: 6-7). Aryans learned the use of wooden carts at first pulled by oxen, and then later by horses, after they learned to tame the wild horses of the steppes (Boyce 1979: 2-3). The importance of water, in the forms of rivers, springs, and rain, together with fire, both in the altar and in the form of the sun, are common motifs in Indo-Iranian religion. Indo-Iranians as herders and hunters lived in tribes (Avestan zantu, and various names in Vedic), which consisted of a group of extended families known as *wik (Avestan wis, Vedic vis). They also recognized all the Aryan tribes as one people, one nation called dahyu (Malandra 1983: 7). Aryans placed importance on the family, the tribe, and some form of social structure. Among the earliest attested Indo-European

105

social classes based on tripartition were the Aryan classes. In Vedic India, these are listed as brahmin ‘priest,’ ksatriya ‘warrior,’ and vaisya ‘herder-cultivators’ (Jamison 1991: 18). Social divisions among Iranians, as noted in the Avesta, were tripartite as well: athravan ‘priest,’ rathaestar ‘one who stands in the chariot, a warrior,’ and vastryo-jsuyant ‘husbandman, farmer.’ Among Indo-Iranians, the priests were

specialists in ritual and the performance of sacrifice. Moreover, Herodotus refers to the Median priests as the Magi (Boyce 1975a: 6; Malandra 1983: 8). As discussed earlier, sacrifices were performed in their most elaborate forms in order to maintain the cosmos. Therefore, priests were regularly enforcing the claim that without the proper performance o f the rituals, all existence would collapse back into chaos. Correspondingly, everyone, including warriors, kings, and lay people, were reliant on the priestly class.

ii.

Religious Practices: Cosmos, Gods, Demons, and Man Myths about how the world and the people in it came to have the form they

now have are numerous among Indo-Iranian traditions and are similar to IndoEuropean traditions. However, in all of these myths, one, if not all, of the following themes are shared: creation through the dismemberment of a primordial being; creation by an omnipotent being who places the cosmos in the void; creation by a hero who separates the earth and the heaven; the fashioning of the cosmos by an all-maker; and the hatching of the world and everything in it from the cosmic egg or seeds 106

(Malandra 1983: 10-11). The specifics of creation myths in Indian and Iranian religions are discussed later in their respective chapters. In addition, a natural law, which guaranteed the persistence of the cosmos and existence itself in an orderly manner, was posited by the Indo-Iranians. This law was known to Vedic Indians as ‘rta,’ and to Zoroastrians as ‘asa." Subsequently, rta has two basic meanings in Indo-Iranian: ‘truth’ and ‘cosmic order.’ All the nature gods, as well as the abstract gods and humans, were held in place by this cosmic law. This concept had ethical implications, to the extent in which it was thought of as having governance over human conduct. Honesty, devotion, and truth were proper virtues for humanity, hence, opposite behaviors such as dishonesty, falsehood, lies (Vedic druh, Avestan druj), and cheating in games were considered disorderly and untruthful, or sinful.. .In a religious system such as the Indo-Iranian one, where there is so much emphasis on rta, ‘orderly conduct,’ and a prohibition of anrta, ‘disorderly acts,’ there is bound to be a judgment for justice. Justice, as an abstract principle of order, is found in most ancient traditions, and the Indo-Iranian is no exception. Malandra explains that the Indo-Iranians divided the world into three parts: earth, atmosphere, and heaven. This tripartition of the world “provides the basic orientation of the religion,” He further explicates: Since the levels are ordered in ascending grades, they present to the human perspective an order of transcendence. The earth, though extremely holy herself, is the realm of human activity and therefore of immanence. The atmosphere touched the earth, surrounds man, and yet extends beyond to the vault of heaven. It is a realm of everchanging aspect, a seeming void traversed by the unpredictable wind... In short, the atmosphere is an arena for the constant activity of 107

awesome and often violent forces. Above the atmosphere is the vault of heaven, and beyond it is heaven itself. Whereas the atmosphere touches man, heaven is wholly beyond the sphere of ordinary human experience. Its very height provides a natural symbol of transcendence. (1983: 9) In the Indo-Iranian creation myth, the sky is made of stone and serves as the vault of heaven. In addition, a cosmic mountain reaches heaven from the center of earth, and a cosmic river pours down to earth from heaven and is the source of all waters. The source of the river is a cosmic sea or ocean into which the rivers flow (Malandra 1983: 12). The details of these cosmogonic myths, as developed in India and Iran, are reviewed in their respective chapters. As the world comes into existence in its three planes, so does the duality of orderly and disorderly worlds. The orderly existence, cosmos, is bom out of chaos. Malandra further explicates: [The] Cosmos is like a fortress surrounded by chaos, normally symbolized as the waters, sometimes as darkness. There also occurs a vertical differentiation in chaos; that is, the waters surrounding the heavens are the source of Truth, whereas those in the nether regions below and around the earth are shrouded in darkness and are the source of the anticosmic principle of Falsehood (1983: 11). Dualism was seen to arise from the two fundamental causal principles, chaos and order, underlying the existence of the world. In the previously discussed traditions, i.e., Old European and Indo-European, both of these exhibited recognition of the importance of this principle in the nature of existence. More clearly defined in the cosmological and anthropogonic myths, this principle is responsible for the genesis of the cosmos and humankind. Further, the ethical orientation of the Indo-Iranians was

108

also formed based on their conception of the duality of the cosmos. Dark chaos, home of the demonic forces, was continuously endangering the cosmic order. Night and darkness were associated with the netherworld of chaos - as light was associated with the orderly world. Since it was in the darkness of night that demons moved up into the world of humans, therefore nights were viewed as dangerous and vulnerable times for people. The orderly cosmos, corresponding to ‘existence/being,’ was recognized as the ‘real, true’ (Vedic satya, Avestan haithya); and all that existed in the nether region was chaos, untruth, and non-being. The Indo-Iranians offered their worship to a particular divinity or cultic god, such as Water, Fire, Soma/Haoma, Soul of the Bull, and to nature gods, such as sky/earth, sun/moon, and two gods o f the wind (Boyce 1979: 4-7). The performance of rituals, including sacrifices and offerings, was the responsibility of the priesthood. Fire (Latin ignis, Lithuanian ugnis, Vedic agni, Avestan atar) was a divine element with its own enduring cult. A cognate also appears in the Mitanni treaty found at Bogazkoy as Ak/gnis, identifying a god of destruction and annihilation. The archeological remains of fire altars, standing either by themselves or as part of a larger temple structure, are found throughout Central Asia and Iran. In the same regions, there are also remains of temples and shrines dedicated to the water goddess. The Proto-Indo-Iranians personified earth, rivers, and other waters as goddesses. Daily offerings, however, were made to the gods of fire and water. Juice from a pounded plant (Vedic ‘soma,’ Zoroastrian ‘haoma’) was offered as part of the ritual. This sacred drink, personified as a priest and a god, was used to heal and protect the people.

109

In addition to its use as an offering, warriors, sages, poets, and even gods consumed the juice for the enhancement of certain abilities and activities (Boyce 1979: 4-6; Nyberg 1995: 382-4; Lincoln 1989: 42). The Indo-Iranians used two names to refer to gods: one meant ‘the Immortals’ (Vedic 'amrla' and Avestan ^amasa’). Another name used was the ‘Shining One,’ in Vedic ‘deva,’ in Avestan ‘daeva.’ Both words are Indo-European in origin. Yet another term used by the Iranians was *baga (Vedic bhaga), ‘He who distributes [good things,]’ (Boyce 1979: 11). The tripartite division of the universe, accordingly, provided habitats for the gods based on their attributes. The sky gods, like Mitra, are creators and representatives of the code of ethics. The atmospheric gods, martial in nature, are described as traveling through the sky, often in chariots, or living in high mountains (often the cosmic one). Deities of the atmospheric region are occupied with wars and storms, e.g., the wind gods Vata and Vayu. The former is the bringer of clouds, and the latter is the “god of the breath o f life itself - beneficent while he sustains it, but terrible in the moment when he makes it depart” (Boyce 1979: 6-7). The earth deities, concerned with prosperity and fertility, are goddesses who also preside over the rivers, both earthly and cosmic. The god of fire resides in all levels as the messenger between humans and gods (Malandra 1983: 9-10). The Indo-European deities mentioned in the Mitanni treaty, Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and the Nasatyas or Asvins, continued their existence into both the Indian and Iranian religions. The pattern of dualism through paired deities continued its stronghold in the religion of the Indo-Iranians. Among these divinities, there were 110

gods with natures that were rooted in ethical concerns, and not just personified natural phenomena, as most scholars have assumed. These gods and some others are discussed further in the following Chapter. In Indo-Iranian religion, similar to the religions of their ancestors, the creation myth is inextricably connected to sacrifice, and therefore the importance of ritual action is reinforced. In addition to sacrificial ritual, verbal rituals, including those of vows and oaths, played a highly important part in the establishment and preservation of social bonds. The basic act of worship for the Indo-Iranians was the offering made to fire and water, “called by the Iranians the ‘Y a s n a by Indians the ‘yajna’ (from the verbal root yaz- ‘sacrifice, worship’)” (Boyce 1979: 4). The chief acts of worship of the gods, however, were performed through various rituals of sacrifice. Boyce explains that, “The Indo-Iranians felt a sense of awe and danger at taking life, and never did so without consecrating the act by prayer, whereby, they believed, the creature’s spirit was enabled to live on. There was a strong sense of kinship between man and beast...” (4). Boyce further clarifies that the Aryans did not kill domesticated animals for consumption; they did so only for sacrifices offered to the gods. The Aryans mainly hunted for their food, and even then, the hunter was required to consecrate the animal before killing (5-6). The central deity, Fire, was present at all rituals, often along with the sacred drink (haoma/soma). The fat and meat were offered through fire, with the sacred drink mixed with milk. As pointed out earlier, the residue from libations and fat stains from meat and fat offerings have been discovered in excavated Indo-Iranian temples.

Ill

As part of the sacrificial ritual, the hospitality rites were to be observed by the proper preparation of the area for the gods to sit on, and the same for the sacrificial animal. The purity and cleanness of the ritual areas for the gods, as a guard against evil, had the utmost importance. As a part of the functions associated with the three social divisions, Lyle adds that, “Purity is the value associated with the priesthood,” which is in charge of all rituals (1991: 42). The sacred area and tools were cleaned and disinfected by the urine of the cattle, which is high in ammonia content. “It is probable that the elaborate purification rites administered later by both Zoroastrians and Brahmans have their origin in simpler rituals already practiced by their Stone Age ancestors” (Boyce 1979: 6).

ii7. Death and Retribution: Funerary Geography In the lives of the Indo-Iranians, no end was forecasted as long as the collaboration between humans and gods continued (Boyce 1979). In the end, the gods were the determiners of the individual’s fate. However, people were given the alternative of living according to the ‘Orderly Law’ (asa/rta) or the ‘Chaotic Law’ (anrta) - they had the freedom of choice. Those lawless individuals who lived an untruthful, unrighteous life were damned for retribution in the dark subterranean kingdom of the dead; and individuals who lived righteously and dutifully were rewarded by a bright heavenly life among the gods. Similar to its earliest forms described in the previous chapters, the disembodied spirit/breath simply departed for 112

another world o f existence, which was ruled by the ‘first to die.’ As part of the afterlife journey, there is a concept of crossing over to another side, like that of the Old European cemetery painting of a ship crossing to the other side. The spirit of the dead had to pass through a dangerous place by means of a path, a ford, or ferry over a dark river (Boyce 1979: 12-13). The final destination was on the other side, a dark place for the sinful person, or a bright one for the virtuous. There were two paths through which the dead traveled from this world to the next. One path is characterized as “straight, and easy to travel, ascending to a pleasant celestial world, where one dwells happily, feasting in the company of the gods.” The other path is described as “dark, dreary, twisting, and treacherous, as it descends to a gloomy underworld marked by tedium, suffering, filth, and bad food” (Lincoln 1991: 119). In reviewing the concept of ‘crossing-over’ within various Indo-European traditions, Lincoln further adds, “This is the picture one finds in descriptions of the “God-way” (godvegr) and “Hell-way” (helvegr) of the Eddas.” The meaning and transformations of these paths in Vedic and Avestan texts will be reviewed later. Naturally, heavenly reward or un-heavenly retribution had to be the result of some form of ‘judgment’ based on the ethical (truthful) or unethical (sinful) conduct of individuals in this life. Subsequently, issues of justice gave rise to not only questions of judgment, punishment, and reward, but also to the intercession for the dead, either by relatives and the community, or by a divine being, i.e., a god. In IndoIranian tradition, it is the king of the dead—the first to die (Vedic Yama, Avestan Yima), who, with the help of some other abstract gods and beings, guides the dead.

113

The responsibility and the role of living people, in assisting the determination of the fate of the dead, range from providing a fitting burial, food offerings, and, as evident in the later texts, prayer offerings. Supported by the archeological excavations of cemeteries and graves, a belief in an afterlife involving a journey was certain; it was the responsibility and obligation of the living to provide amenities for the support of the journey o f the dead. The living made offerings and sacrifices for the dead ritually, in order to maintain the deceased’s existence in a similar manner to that of their earthly lives. The Indo-Iranian funeral rite, connected with the belief in another world, made the underworld the home of the dead. The burial rituals were also held to be essential for the protection of the soul from evil powers while it waited to depart and to give it the potency to reach the other world (Boyce 1979: 12-13). Furthermore, the consequences of not living righteously/truthfully were made visible in the present life on earth, through ordeals. As part of their judicial procedures, ordeals by fire and water were held by the Indo-Iranians. Ethical gods, often as judges and/or witnesses, oversaw the judicial proceedings and ruled accordingly. The survival or death of the person proved their innocence or guilt. In correspondence with these two ordeals, Varuna, who resided in water, and Mitra, the sun god, became not only the overseers of human conduct, but served a judicial role as well (Boyce 1979: 7-9). Along with the hope of reaching Paradise, there was also a belief in the resurrection of the body. It was obviously impossible to conceive of experiencing the heavenly pleasures only in spirit; therefore, it was understood that at one point the 114

physical body, in its earthly form, would also be raised up and be reunited with the soul in heaven to fully enjoy the heavenly delights (Boyce 1979: 12-16). The significance of the body as a continuing entity in the afterlife has been attested to in many traditions. Archeological discoveries of Indo-Iranian ossuaries, and the burial of bones, either after cremation or after defleshing, further support the existence of a belief in a resurrection. With the idea of receiving a body after death comes the notion of eschatology, which refers to the faith of the soul in the life after death. Details of such beliefs in Indian and Iranian traditions are discussed in the following chapters. In accordance with the beliefs o f life after death, Indo-Iranians placed a great deal of importance on the veneration o f the ancestors, the ones gone before us - the ones who have passed over to the other side. Since the ancestors had already reached the world beyond, it was believed that, subsequently, they acquired knowledge whereby they would possess some power, not only over the living, but also over the processes of life in this world. Accordingly, they were to be appeased by the regular performance of the rites of the dead, i.e., through offerings and prayers. They were also asked to assist humans during difficult times, e.g., during sickness or natural disaster. In continuum with Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Iranian ideology, the ordered cosmos continued to be threatened by chaos. The antagonism between gods and demons, and the tripartite world and its social divisions, were affected and influenced by rituals and offerings, which continued to form the religious systems of the Indians and Iranians. Gods and heroes continue to represent the ideal Aryan warrior, who is

115

able to smash the defenses of his opponents and defend the Aryans’ properties. Retribution for ‘orderly’ and ‘disorderly’ deeds continued to shape their afterlife beliefs. Similar to the drawings discovered at Old European burial sites, in which is depicted the journey into the afterlife on a ship over the water, the Indians and the Iranians also believe in a journey to another existence after death. In summary, the worldview in Indo-Iranian religion, including the concepts of birth, life, and death, does not differ significantly from its ancestral ideologies, and will continue, in a more or less similar fashion, into the Indian and Iranian religions. Views of the afterlife and of expectations concerning some form of survival after death have not been isolated from the totality of the understanding of the nature of creation, the nature of humankind, and the structure of reality. Death is not an absolute end to existence, and there are geographies of death, resurrection, and a life after death. The opposition of chaos and order brings about the genesis of life, and the antagonism of death that brings about an afterlife. In addition, it is merely otherness that provides existence for opposites: day and night, earth and sky, water and fire, man and woman, sacred and profane, life and death, life here and life hereafter. Belief in a rebirth after death might be labeled differently at different times. In the Old European, Indo-European, and Indo-Iranian religions, this belief is expressed as regeneration, resurrection, and/or reincarnation (metempsychosis or transmigration), with its possibilities for one or even a series of lives on earth or elsewhere. Nevertheless, all of these beliefs express human concerns, which arise from human fears and hopes within a given time and place.

116

CHAPTER VI VEDIC RELIGION: COSMOGONY AND ESCHATOLOGY

i.

Background and Religious Textual Corpus The Indo-Iranians, as the earliest branch o f Indo-Europeans who lived as one

people in the same region, speaking the same language, sharing similar beliefs and worldviews, and practicing the same customs, branched off into various communities, partitioned themselves into different countries, inhabited different lands even beyond Iran and India, spoke different languages, and adopted different habits of life. Among these people the Indians and Iranians, over millennia, developed and transformed their once-shared religions beyond recognition, conditioned by historical and ecological events. Yet when an attempt is made to study the fundamentals of their religious ethos and worldviews, typologically and not necessarily linguistically, and to move beyond their external variations, we arrive at countless similarities, if not identity. The Aryans, who moved in consecutive waves from the north into Central Asia, through the passages of the Hindu Kush, and down into the Indus valley, arrived over a period of several centuries, probably from the 2nd millennium BCE onwards. Groups of these Aryans, who branched off and gradually entered the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, brought with them not only their language, but also their religious practices. They were apparently well equipped with horse-drawn chariots, bows, arrows, and bronze axes, and had domesticated dogs, cattle, sheep and goats. They lived as tribal communities in the region that they referred to as the “Land 117

of the Seven Rivers,” and grouped themselves together socially as warriors, priests, and commoners (Oldenberg 1894: 1-2). The social organization that they inherited from the Indo-Europeans was to have great impact on the formation of social divisions and the caste system in later India. In the world of the Vedic Indians, victory in war, dominion, prosperity, and long life were gifts from the gods for living in harmony with the gods and with the cosmic order. Further, the virtuous were guaranteed a heavenly life in the company o f their ancestors and the gods after death. However, the offenders against the divinely appointed order and against the gods were destined for retribution, both in this life, through sickness, poverty, and a shortened life span, and in the afterlife in a perpetual ‘hellish’ existence in the netherworld. Apparently, the migrations and the subsequent transformations of some of the beliefs and symbols from the ancient European traditions continued persistently into the subsequent cultures, including the Vedic Indian and Avestan Iranian. Study of Vedic religion as a religious system with a history, like all other religions, would assist in clarifying some o f the motifs that underlie its myths. As the aim of this dissertation demands, the focus is directed, firstly, to the establishment of the cosmogony of the orderly, ethical, and moral world of the Vedic people, including the ethical gods as described in the Vedic texts, and secondly, to investigate the other worlds created for a life after death and to discover who goes there, how, and why. The brief account of Vedic religion, including the principal characters and their exploits, however, is not to provide a comprehensive treatment with detailed philosophical and esoteric explanations. This is merely an attempt to provide for Vedic religion something

118

analogous to other religions’ acknowledgments of the beliefs in the last four things: death, judgment, hell, and heaven, all of which are founded on an ethical religion. Vedic texts, from ca. 1500 to 500 BCE, are the primary sources concerning religion and ritual in “Vedic India” (Jamison 1991:1). Jamison adds that Vedic India is “the first India we know, at least verbally” (5). The Veda, literally meaning ‘knowledge,’ was heard and experienced by certain sages in a state of visionary ecstasy. With the insights into its hidden origins, sages provided magical techniques and rules for establishing contact with the gods (Witzel 1997: 258-88). The entire Vedic literature, religious in nature, was the only perfect manual for life. The Vedas were discovered by Europe in the early 19th century. From that time, they have proved to be essential, not only for the study o f Hinduism, but also for Indo-European studies, linguistics, and comparative religion. Vedic Sanskrit, the language of the Vedas, as the most archaic Indian language, represents the earliest stage, from which other Indie languages, such as the Classical Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrt, Hindi, Urdu, and many others branched off. The Vedas represent not only the language of the Aryans who entered India, but also their cultural, religious, economic, and social milieu. Before writing was known, the entire Vedic literature was transmitted orally for centuries before it was finally committed to any script. The mnemonic capacity developed by the sages guaranteed the uninterrupted survival of the Vedas, down to the present time. In addition, “with this concept o f the nature of their origin, the authoritativeness of the Vedas cannot be

119

questioned. The belief in the Vedas as ‘seen’ and not as ‘composed’ also shows the reverence with which they were learnt” (Merh 1996: 3). The Vedic scriptures are traditionally indexed into the Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas (and Upanisads), and Sutras. The first three collections are considered to be revealed, sruti, or ‘heard’ from the gods by the rsis, the seers, and not read or written (Jamison 1991: 9-10). Therefore, they are held to be apauruseya, i.e., not composed by men, and sanatana, i.e., eternal. “Because of the importance of the ritual in Rgvedic thinking, the holy Word came to be regarded as being in itself supremely efficacious. It is personified and deified as the goddess Vac, which means ‘speech, sound, word,’ .. .she is conceived as the creative power that produced and shaped the cosmos” (Brown 1966: 28). In RV 10.125, 3, 5, 7-8, Vac introduces herself, among many other things, as: I am the sovereign queen, the collectress of treasures, cognizant (of the Supreme Being), the chief of objects of worship; as such the gods have put me in many places, abiding in manifold conditions, entering into numerous (forms). I verily of myself declare this which is approved of by both gods and men; whomsoever I will. I render formidable, I make him a Brahma, a Rsi, or a sage. I bring forth the paternal (heaven) upon the brow of this (Supreme Being), my birthplace is in the midst of the waters; from thence I spread through all beings, and touch this heaven with my body. I breathe forth like the wind giving form to all the created world; beyond the heaven, beyond this earth (am I), so vast am I in greatness.

120

The other later Vedic texts, including the Sutras, are considered as smrti, i.e., ‘remembered’; therefore, they are not viewed as revealed (Renou 1954: 7-10; Jamison 1991: 10). In addition to these strictly Vedic compositions, a number of other texts became associated with the Veda, including the Vedanga, Upa Veda, Itihasa and Purana. The Vedas (ca. 1500-500 BCE) were organized into four collections, or ‘Samhita,’ consisting of the Rg Veda, containing 1,028 hymns (10,600 verses), Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. After the Rg Veda, Atharva and Yajur Vedas are linguistically the oldest (Jamison 1991: 6-11; Renou 1954; 1-23). The Samhitas, the most ancient of the documents, contain hymns, sacrificial formulas, and chants. The age of the Vedas is still a controversial subject; however, the Rg Veda is generally dated to 1500-1200 BCE on linguistic grounds (Kane IV, 1953: ix; Merh 1996: 3). Later compilations of non-Vedic Sanskrit texts, recorded before the common era and well rooted in the Vedas, are the epics (itihasa) of the Ramdyana (The exploits of Rama) and the Mahabharata (the great story of Bharata’s descendents), and the Puranas, i.e., the ‘ancient’ chronicles of the ancient mythological accounts. These texts along with the Samhitas are utilized in this dissertation as points of reference. The Mahabharata epic is said to have originated in the period of tribal warfare among the early Aryan settlers; it is seven times the Iliad and the Odyssey in length, “contains

121

106,000 verses, and is perhaps the most voluminous single literary product of mankind” (Kulke and Rothermund 1998: 34, 43). Based on the most recent archeological discoveries of those areas which are frequently mentioned in the Mahabharata, the text “could even be dated back to 1000 BCE” (Kulke and Rothermund 1998: 43-44). Among Vedic texts, the only written source of information about the Aryans in India is their earliest religious work, the Rg Veda. The Rg Veda sheds some light on Vedic beliefs and rituals. Since the compilation of the Rg Veda extends over a period of time, it represents the religious thought of that era, which is the earliest phase in the evolution of India’s religious consciousness (Merh 1996: 5-7). The Rg Veda consists of ten books, o f which the oldest six books (2-8) are referred to as the family books, and are credited to the earliest seven sages. The Rgvedic hymns include prayers and praises to the gods and their mighty creations (Witzel 1997: 261). The major translation of the Rg Veda utilized in this dissertation is that of H. H. Wilson, together with the commentary of Sayana [incorporation of other translators is noted accordingly]. From the events, metaphors, hints, and references, a clear worldview, including views on the life here and in the hereafter, is composed. The major characteristics of Vedic religion equivalent to the central focus of other religions, e.g., cosmogony, gods, and rituals, and allusions to death, reckoning, judgment, hell, and heaven, are

122

assembled in an attempt to form a coherent and palpable religious doctrine, which was most likely built upon the foundation o f older concepts. The circumstance within which the Vedic religion was fashioned was perhaps akin to the conditions that facilitated the creation of other religions. Oldenberg explains: “These conditions are equally true of the Veda. Not just evident here or there, but visible in a broad spectrum are other layers of concepts, much older than what the reader encounters at first in the Rgveda” (1894: 315). The Vedic hymns are addressed to the various deities with natural and ethical attributes, to name a few: Surya (Sun), Agni (Fire), Apah (Water), PrthivI (Earth), Vayu (Wind), Usas (Dawn), Savitr (Impeller), Mitra (Friend, Covenant), Varuna (AllEncompassing), Asvins (Horsemen), and Aryaman (Companion). Merh states that, “Though several gods are praised in the Rgvedic hymns, it is not hard to discern an undercurrent of their oneness which is well-expressed in the RV 1.164.46, according to which various gods are different manifestations of one Supreme Being (ekam sadvipra bahudha vadanti)” (1996: 6-7). That “One,” however, is interpreted by the commentators Sayana as the Sun, which is the one great spirit, and by Yaska as Agni, which is all the divinities together (Wilson I, 2001: 434). The Vedic religion in its widest sense can be described as the Vedic people’s perception of the divine and of the supernatural powers. These people also recognized their reciprocally efficacious relations with the higher powers. This conviction is 123

manifested in various forms of rituals and myths built around a divinity, which describe his attributes and exploits. Through ritual offerings, the Vedic people asked the gods for long life, good health, and prosperity in this life and a heavenly life in the life after death. Since the subsequent philosophies and practices of the Indo-Aryans were built upon earlier Vedic thought, a proper understanding of such thought is fundamental. The aim of this dissertation, however, is not to arrive at an exact demarcation of a divinity and a creed in the Vedic belief system, but to simply condense several associations and levels of meaning and references to provide fluidity in the reconstruction of a major principle, primarily that of afterlife and eschatology. By utilizing the multi-interpretable suggestions and allusions, instead of searching for explicit references, might provide us with some graspable meanings for the unexpressed elements. In ancient India, as in many other ancient civilizations, religious philosophers and mystics often devoted their thoughts to the explication o f the concepts of creation and life after death. What happens after death is a recurring question in most religions. However, there are certain related doctrines which are accepted by most known religions. Among such principles is the belief in an element encompassing the existence of a being that continues to survive, in some form or another, after the death of the physical body (Brown 1966: 6-10). As summarized in the previous chapters, the worldview, e.g., concepts of creation and destruction, life and death, of the IndoEuropean cultures, and their preceding tradition of the Old Europe, do not differ

124

greatly. Correspondingly, in the Vedic belief system, the sustenance of the world and everything in it is drawn from the body of the sacrificed, i.e., the dead person. Death is not an absolute end to existence; creation always follows death and the life cycle continues. Just as cosmogony alternates with anthropogony, so death alternates with renewal/resurrection.

li.

Sacrifice, Ritual and Gods In keeping with the role of sacrifice in the cosmogony of the Indo-Europeans

and Indo-Iranians, the Vedic gods also depended on sacrifices to receive nourishment and to maintain their immortality. Heaven, as the realm of the gods, and earth, as the human sphere, relied on each other for existence; they were two halves of a single whole. The whole survived because of the universal principle known as rta, ‘Cosmic Law/Order, the Truth,’ and the sacrifice was offered in order to strengthen rta, which is opposed to anrta, ‘disorderliness, untruth,’ that is to say enmity, evil, blunder. In Vedic culture, similar to other Indo-European traditions or even other ancient cultures such as Egyptian and Mesopotamian, sacrifice was the most powerful support of the cosmos. There are certain gods with a clear Indo-Iranian, if not Indo-European, background at the core of the Vedic rituals. The liturgical gods, Agni and Soma, along with Varuna and Mitra, oversaw the cosmic functions and order. The cosmic 125

sovereign gods, the warrior god Indra, and the twin horsemen, the Asvins, are concerned with, among other things, land and pasture. Accordingly, the three functions of the spiritual world are also applied to the three worldly Vedic social groupings of the brahmanas (priests), ksatriyas (warriors), and vaisyas (cultivators) (Dumezil 1958). In addition to the above-mentioned gods, there are other significant deities connected with the cosmogony and the eschatology that will be discussed below in more detail. In a ritualistic setting, the most important dual deities are Agni, ‘fire,’ and Soma, the deified sacred beverage. From a cosmic viewpoint, they represent the fiery and watery elements. In keeping with Old/Indo-European ancestral cult traditions, the Vedic people had fire present in all rituals, whether at home or elsewhere. Flames, in both domestic and sacrificial settings, were kept burning at all times; and offerings of milk and/or animal fat were made to fire on a daily basis. As previously reviewed, the archeological evidence of Central Asia in the 2nd millennium BCE attests, temples built by Indo-Iranians were used for conducting rituals. The residues of offerings and various instruments used in conducting the rituals were found among the remains of such temples (Parpola 1995; Sarianidi 1990). It would only be logical for a ritualistic tradition such as that of the Aryans to have had a designated place for the performance of consecrations, offerings, and sacrifices. There are various instructions and formulas in the Vedic texts for the different rituals dedicated to various occasions, which include the number and layout of the altars and technical instructions for the priests assigned to conduct each ritual 126

ceremony. The priests conducted sacrifices on behalf of a tribe, family, or individual. As explained in the liturgical text of the Brahmanas, the requirement for the presence of a priest at every ritual and his recompense shed more light on other forces behind the persistence o f the performance of the rituals by the priesthood. As individuals, including kings, became more prosperous, so did the priests who performed the rituals. The sacrifice, however, whether it was an animal or a plant, represented the sacrificer who was offering himself up, not the priest conducting the ritual. The sacrifice was then carried up to the gods in smoke. The triangle of reciprocity between individual who offered the sacrifice, priest, and god made the sacrifice efficacious for all parties involved (Jamison 1991: 17-19). The grounds for every specific ritual were cleaned and arranged accordingly with a specific seat, Vedi, made of dried grass, called barhis, which was spread near the fire for the visiting gods to sit on at the sacrifice, or yajna. The hosts were also seated with the gods. As a guest, the god was to enjoy the offered food and drink, and to return the hospitality by bestowing a favor upon his host (Keith 1925: 313-66). Above all other Vedic gods, there was an abundant interest in having two gods present, namely, Agni and Soma, who were interested in all rituals. Agni, in the form of fire, was to receive the sacrificial offerings and convey them to the gods through smoke. Soma was the divinized plant of amrta, i.e., ‘immortality.’ The juice ritually extracted from the soma plant was also a central feature of the sacrifice, and was consumed by the gods and the sages. Soma provided the unique vision, dhi, to the

127

Vedic poet-seers (kavi, rsi, or vipra), who translated the vision into sacred speech, or mantras. Vedic sacred utterances also were personified as the goddess of speech, Vac (Jamison 1991: 28-29). Revered from ancient times, fire became a god of protection in both the Vedic and Iranian traditions. Fire, Vedic Agni, is related to the Latin ignis. In the Rg Veda, Agni, with 200 hymns devoted to him, is second in importance after Indra, the warrior-god. Ever renewed in the ritual hearths, Agni is both the youngest and the oldest god. Various descriptions of Agni’s births place him ubiquitously; he is an omnipresent god. He is known primarily as the son of an Indo-European god Dyaus, the sky god, and PrthivI, or the earth goddess. Bom in heaven, Agni also has parents on earth, aranis, i.e., ‘fire sticks.’ According to the Rg Veda, Agni, as a primordial, paradoxically resides in the waters and is referred to as the child of waters, Apam Napat, and the bull of waters (Keith 1925: 154-58). The relationship between fire and water is represented by the cosmic waters, i.e., as feminine energy, and by fire, as a virile bull, i.e., as masculine energy. This masculine energy enters the water and impregnates her in order that she might give birth to fire repeatedly. Oldenberg presents a theory in which Apam Napat, based on his representation in the Veda, is also a ‘god of Waters,’ which juxtaposes him with the Indo-Iranian demon who also resides in the water. This water demon is also present in the Avestan Iranian religion as ‘a spirit of waters’ (1894: 67).

128

Agni as the cosmic power was present everywhere in the world and knows all that was happening. Present also in the sun, he extended light over the earth, bringing comfort and life energy. Feared as a manifestation of violent destruction, he was terrifying. Also as a wise, benevolent god, Agni protected people and their animals. “He is an essential element in the transmission of the sacrifice to the gods who cannot enjoy it without him... he brings the gods to the sacrifice... he bears the oblation to the gods in heaven” (Keith 1925: 159). Agni also consumed the offerings made over the fire on behalf o f all the gods. As a priest, he officiated at the sacrifice and invited all other gods to the offerings. Besides Agni, the highly prized oblation in Vedic ritual was soma, *sauma, haoma to the Iranians, which was used in the ritual ceremonies from the Indo-Iranian period. In the Veda, soma is often referred to as the drink of amrta, ‘immortality.’ The name soma is derived from “the root su, meaning to press, and since there is no parallel word in the Indo-European languages, therefore it must be recognized as IndoIranian” (Nyberg 1995: 382; Parpola 1995: 370). Nevertheless, the presence of a sacred drink is also found in both the Old European and Indo-European traditions (Keith 1925: 166-71; Watkins 2000: 42). The archeological discoveries of the Margiana temples (ca. 1900-1700 BCE, according to Parpola), as previously discussed, provide clear evidence not only for the cult of fire, but also for the cult of Soma. The botanical nature and the geographical origin of the *sauma plant, from which the drink was prepared, have been subjects of speculation and debate for a long 129

time, and the debate continues to this day. After a full analysis of all the possibilities suggested by various scholars identifying soma with ephedra, amanita muscaria, harmala, opium poppy, and hemp, Nyberg concludes that, without further archeological discoveries, the definite nature of the original soma cannot be determined (1995: 382-406). The Rg Veda (1.93.6) conveys that the soma plant had to be stolen or obtained from a far-away mountain: “Agni and Soma, the wind brought one of you from heaven, a hawk carried off the other by force from the summit of the mountain; growing vast by praise, you have made the world wide for sacrifice” (Wilson I, 2001: 225). There is also a reference to the descent of soma from heaven by an eagle: “The eagle was restrained by a hundred castles, but it none the less secured the Soma and fled with it from the sky” (Keith 1925: 169). In a religious ritual, priests prepared the soma drink by pressing the stems of the plant between two stones, extracting the juice, and then mixing it with milk. It was an invigorating drink, which both humans and gods drank to gain strength and vigor in order to revitalize themselves. The consumption of soma by the priests and poets resulted in revelations o f the unseen secrets of the universe. At the sacrifice, gods and priests drank soma together to fortify their ties. As the defender and friend of the gods, soma was personified as a god who would safeguard the gods’ well-being and demolish their enemies. As a god, Soma was referred to as the creator and the preserver of all existence (Oldenberg 1894: 90-93). Furthermore, the god Soma ruled over the cosmic waters and their circulation. In addition, the pressing of Soma, itself a form of sacrifice, took on a celestial significance. The sound of pressing represented 130

the thunder, the strainer symbolized the clouds, and the dripping juice was the rain. All three, thunder, clouds, and rain, provided moisture and water, which fostered life and regeneration. Life, as an everlasting process, was Soma’s realm, and was also present in semen; Soma ensured the continuance of the cyclical process and/or reproduction (Oldenberg 1894: 93-94). Soma was often associated with the moon. As a nuclear belief in the Old European tradition, the waxing and waning of the moon easily lent themselves to serve as an expression of the cosmic processes of growth, death, and renewal. Similarly viewed in the Vedic tradition, this cyclical process was presided over by Soma. The position of Soma, both as a sacred drink and as a god in the Vedic context, is discussed in the following pages.

iii.

Indra: the Warrior God As the most vividly realized god in the Rg Veda, more than one quarter o f the

hymns (250 hymns) are devoted to Indra. Although his origin and the etymology of his name are unclear, Indra is mentioned as the son of Mother Earth and Father Sky (Bergaigne 1897: 92-103; Brown 1966: 19-20), and it is clear that he was bom outside the primeval world. Indra is referred to as a ‘deva,' a ‘Shining One.’ In Avestan, the same word is ‘daeva’—both of these words are Indo-European in origin. His birth and nature are described in the Rgvedic hymn (2.12.1-15). Indra, embodying the supreme creative force, is said “to have been bom from valour itself, from the overwhelming power, from the creative energy” (Choudhuri 1981: 5), “You, Indra, were bom from 131

overpowering strength and energy” (RV 10.153.2). Nevertheless, “later commentary identifies the mother with Aditi and the father with Tvastr” - Indra was bom from the sky father and earth mother (O’Flaherty 1981: 141). Later in the Brahmanas and Upanisads, the idea of Indra as the creative force is presented in a philosophical form, where he is “categorically stated as symbolic of the force behind the Pinda (microcosm) as well as the Brahmanda (macrocosm)” (Choudhuri 1981: 5). In the Vedas, Indra is portrayed as the creator, ‘janita,’ of all the sentient and insentient, animate and inanimate. He is the progenitor of the earth and heaven, he is the “father of the fathers,” he is the pita, the father (Choudhuri 1981: 6-9). Even though there are references that allude to the creation of the world by Indra, nevertheless the world apparently was not created with the intervention of any god. Kuiper explains the creation process “as due to some internal forces, without the intervention of the god at all” (1983: 11). He adds further that Indra “starts a process in the primeval world of unformed matter, a process owing to which a world of mere potentiality became the world of reality, in which light has arisen and forms a contrast with darkness, in which life exists only with death, and in which good is counterbalanced by evil” (1983: 11). As a divine warrior, Indra is described anthropomorphically with mighty hands and arms, an insatiable mouth and throat, and an exceptional appetite. As a formidable warrior, he is often violent and cunning: “Offer fervently, my war-loving companions, true praise to Indra, if he truly exists” (RV 8.100.3). 132

Indra often drinks Soma to collect strength and to be victorious over the foes of the Aryans, smashing all obstacles using his vajra, his cudgel. His weapon, functioning like lightning, was made especially for him by his father, Tvastr, the artificer of the gods. He never misses his mark when he throws his thunderbolt (Brown 1966: 19-21). As a divinity protective of the Aryan people, all the tribes worshiped Indra. One o f the earliest Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rg Veda, supported by Indra, was known as the Bharata tribe. The Bharatas are also mentioned in the Iranian texts as the enemies of Iranian tribes and the raiders of their cattle. Indra even steals cattle and horses from others and gives them to the Indo-Aryans (Keith 1925: 125-33). He also helps his worshippers in subjugating a non-Aryan tribe referred to as the Dasas. The Dasyus, similar to Dasas, were another aboriginal tribe, described as noseless, ‘anasah,’’ with dark skin, with whom the Aryans collided, as they entered their newly discovered territories. On the subject of demonizations of the subjugated at the hands of the warriors, Lincoln (1991: 10-12; also see Oldenberg 1894: 78) tells of the IE myth of *trito, i.e., ‘Third,’ who conducted the first cattle raid. Another form of the same myth is found in the Rgveda, where cattle belonging to the Indo-Aryans were stolen and held captive by a three-headed serpent named Visvarupa, meaning the ‘universe-formed,’ who was a non-IE aborigine living in the land invaded by the Indo-Europeans. Trita Aptya, a hero, winning the assistance of the warrior-god Indra, kills the serpent and releases the cattle. The serpent, slightly modified, appears in other myths in the Vedas. The same 133

story also appears in Iranian myth, which is discussed later. Lincoln explains the Rgvedic warrior acts: Every warrior needed to act as “Third,” fearlessly raiding on all foreign enemies— who were seen as thieves and subhuman monsters like “Serpent”—whom they killed or subjugated, and whose wealth they ruthlessly seized, secure in the belief that no livestock could ever rightfully have belonged to any non-Indo-Europeans but must have been stolen by them (1991: 12).

Indra, however, is not just a warrior-god. Satiated with vitality and life generating energies, he is a benevolent deity who bequeaths fertility on the land and on women. The cosmogony was the first materialization of his beneficent power. In a distant cave, a demon called Vala, meaning ‘confinement,’ imprisoned herds of cows. The owners of the cows were demons, named Panis, ‘misers,’ who by failing to make proper offerings to the gods and to the priests had lost their cows to the Vala (Oldenberg 1894: 78-80). The demonized Panis were probably the native inhabitants of India, enemies of the Aryans. As the cornerstones of religion, the Indo-European traditions of ritual and sacrifice provide order and sustenance. Indra appears as a priest-king in this myth, guided by his dog Sarama. He also has the support of the god Brhaspati, ‘Lord o f the Song’ along with a host of heavenly priests. Rather than using his might and weapons, Indra instead makes offerings and sings sacred songs over the sacrificial fire. His proper priestly performance of the ritual releases the Cosmic Order, known as rta, and sets the cows free (Oldenberg 1894: 78-80). With the re-establishment of order 134

and the liberation of the cows - their red color symbolizing the dawn - the sun, once hidden in the dark, now shines forth again. Darkness is expelled and light permeates the orderly world (RV 4.3.11). In the Vedic culture, the cow had more than monetary worth; she also signified everything that was most dear to people. The sacredness of the cow is expressed in the imagery of a herd o f cows as rays of light at dawn, instilled in the sacrificial rituals. The well-being of gods and human beings, and the very survival of the ordered world, depended on the enactment of the sacrificial ritual (Brown 1966: 58­ 64). The word for ‘cow,’ or ‘cows,’ used as a figure of speech at the end of a sentence, designated the holiest of beings: “She who is the mother of the Rudra, the daughter of the Vasus the sister o f the adityas, the home of ambrosia,—I have spoken to men of understanding,—kill not her, the sinless inviolate cow” (RV 8.101.15-16). The sacredness of the cows, however, did not prevent Vedic people from killing and consuming them. The cow was the chief sacrificial offering to the gods. To prevent the orderly world from collapsing into the dark world of the demons, the gods received their needed nourishment and provisions from the people in the form o f sacrificial food and drink.

iv.

Man and Sacrificial Death Cosmogonic myth holds the key to an insight into the Vedic religion. This

135

myth is not only a story o f events that happened long ago, nor is it merely a coherent description of the genesis of the world. Nevertheless, it does explain that the “origin of the world constituted the sacred prototype of how, in an endless repeated process, life and this world renewed themselves again and again” (Kuiper 1983: 10). Subsequently, the significance o f the ritual performance of the sacrifice refers back to the Vedic myth of creation and the purusamedha, or the human sacrifice. This is similar to the previously described PIE cosmogonic myth of the priest, *manu i.e., the Man, sacrificing the king *yemo, ‘Twin’ (Lincoln 1991: 7). The Rg Veda, representing the earliest phase o f the evolution of religious consciousness in India, contains hymns that speculate on the ambiguity of the creation. Vedic cosmogony describes the creation of the universe from the different parts of the first sacrificial victim, the Cosmic Man (Purusa), who Sayana identifies with the “aggregate of all living beings... the universal spirit animating all creation,” and the supreme, embodied spirit (Wilson IV, 2001: 422-23). 1. Purusa who has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet, investing the earth in all directions, exceeds measuring ten fingers. 2. Purusa is verily all this (visible world), all that is, and all that is to be; he is also the lord of immortality; for he mounts beyond (his own condition) for the food (of living beings). 3. Such is his greatness; and Purusa is greater even than this; all beings are one-fourth of him; his other three-fourths, (being) immortal, (abide) in heaven.

136

4. Three-fourths of Purusa ascended; the other fourth that remained in this world proceeds repeatedly, and, diversified in various forms, went to all animated and inanimate creation (RV 10.90.1-16)

In a solemn ritual, Purusa, as the “lord o f immortality,” is voluntarily sacrificed, and from the dismemberment o f his body the entire cosmos, with all the elements and beings, as well as the orders of society, were created. The four social categories created from Purusa’s body include the three previously discussed divisions: the brahmanas (priests), ksatriya/rajanya (warriors and rulers), vaisyas (artisans, cultivators), as well as the fourth category of sudras (serfs). The hymn makes it clear that Purusa contains within himself all the raw material of the cosmos: inanimate, animate, mortal, and immortal beings. Here, the body of Purusa represents the undifferentiated cosmos and its dismemberment represents the sacrifice. In order to bring forth the manifest cosmos, the body must be divided up into specific parts: “By sacrifice the gods worshipped (him who is also) the sacrifice; those were the first duties” (RV 10.90.16). In a way, this hymn suggests the relationship between man and the world, the gross and the subtle, the body and the mind. In each sacrifice, the process of dismemberment and the distribution of the parts throughout the cosmos are re-enacted. The sacrifice assures the survival of the universe, and the cosmos depends on this sacrificial replenishment to avoid becoming exhausted. Sacrificial victims were taken from either animals or foods. Based on Kurgan archeological discoveries, human sacrifice was practiced among many Indo137

European peoples. Personal possessions, such as weapons, animals, servants, and wives, were sacrificed and buried with the dead. The ancient Hindu custom of sacrificing the wife, i.e., sati, where the widow joins her dead husband by burning herself in his funeral pyre, is perhaps a remainder from the IE tradition. However, sati was not practiced in the Vedic period. The only possible reference to it in the form of a ritualistic substitute is found in RV 10.18.8-9, where the dead man’s brother, addressing the mourning widow, advises her to leave the body of her husband, who is no longer here in this world, and to continue with her life: Rise, woman, (and go) to the world of living beings: come, this man near whom you sleep is lifeless: you have enjoyed this state of being the wife of your husband, the suitor who took you by the hand. Taking his bow from the hand of the dead man, for the sake of our vigour, energy and strength, (I say) you are there; may we (who are) here, blessed with male offspring, overcome all the enemies who assail us.

The sacrifice, as a cosmogonic process through which the materials from the microcosm were transferred to the macrocosm by way of a scheme of homological alloform, however, was not the only method (Lincoln 1986: 55-58). Bodewitz explains that, “The cosmogonic myth does not only live on in the ever repeated rituals, but also in the ideas on life and death, body and soul, and release from mundane existence” (1991: 10). In death, the same process occurs. In a Rgvedic funeral hymn, the dead are specifically instructed to do the same — to be distributed throughout the cosmos. RV 10.16.3 reads: “Let the eye repair to the sun; the breath to the wind; go

138

you to the heaven or to the earth, according to your merit; or go to the waters if it suits you there, or abide with your members in the plants.” This set of homologies is not only a direct inheritance from the IndoEuropeans to the Vedic people, via the Indo-Iranians, but is also inherited from the Old Europeans, whose entire principal dogma was that of regeneration and metempsychosis. Similar beliefs became prevalent in the Vedic and the later traditions of India, as well as in Iran. Based on the archeological discoveries from the Old European burials and the interpretations of their iconographic representations, the cyclical life, i.e., birth, death, and rebirth, was viewed as life’s natural cycle, in accordance with the cycles of the moon. In an agricultural society, such as that of Old Europe, the cyclicity of life was naturally recognized to be based on the agricultural rotations (Gimbutas 1989: 206-11). Recognizing the cycles of the body, moon and nature, a perception of existence, from birth to death and rebirth, became a replica of natural cycles. There could not be an absolute end, or annihilation, as long as there was a persistent process and life was preserved. The Indians and the Iranians both developed an awareness of life, death, and rebirth perhaps from an early faith in the cyclic nature of existence. Such a belief continued in India and it later matured under the name of karma, in relation with the process of transmigration (samsarar). In Iran, there arose a belief in the resurrection and renovation of the world. In searching for the Vedic roots of the doctrine of karma, Tull explains that the term karman, utilized in the Vedic tradition, was derived from the Sanskrit root kr, meaning to do, and explained the ‘doing’ of the sacrificial ritual. “However, over the 139

many centuries during which it represented India’s ‘culturally hegemonous’ system of belief and practice, the Vedic sacrifice developed into an entity of astounding complexity, and the ‘doing’ of the sacrifice became more than a matter of simple action” (Tull 1989: 6). Furthermore, in describing the doctrine of karma, scholars often use the prevalent agricultural imagery of rice, to elucidate their explanations of the karmic process. For instance, O’Flaherty notes, “Rice is planted twice, first the seed and then the seedling that is replanted; rice is also harvested over and over in a year, rather than at a single harvest season; hence it is a natural symbol for rebirth” (1980: xvii). Despite the fact that rice cultivation did not exist in the Indus Valley, the use of this analogy persists among the scholars who continue their debates over the concept o f karma as a religious phenomenon unique to India. The concept of karma will be discussed further in the ensuing examinations of the concept of afterlife.

v.

The Primordial World o f the Asuras In the beginning, there were no oppositions; there was no difference between

night and day, between the upper region and the netherworld. RV 10.129 describes how in the beginning, both the non-existent and existent did not exist—there existed only nothingness. Neither death nor immortality existed. Without involving any creator, or a being, it posits a single principle, which it calls tad ekam i.e., that ‘one’ or the ‘one thing,’ which existed before the non-existent, asat, and the existent sat, before the gods or before any being. The one was self-existent, it came into existence 140

through impulsive self-existence. Once it came into being, the first seed of mind, kama, desire, was experienced. 1. The non-existent was not, the existent was not; then the world was not, not the firmament, nor that which is above (the firmament). How could there be any investing envelope, and where? Of what (could there be) felicity? How (could there be) the deep unfathomable water? 2. Death was not nor at that period immortality, there was no indication of day or night; That One unbreathed upon, breathed of his own strength, other than That there was nothing else whatever. 3. There was darkness covered by darkness in the beginning, all this (world) was undistinguishable water; that empty united (world) which was covered by a mere nothing, was produced through the power of austerity. 4. In the beginning there was desire, which was the first seed of mind; sages having meditated in their hearts have discovered by their wisdom the connexion of the existent with the non-existent. 5. Their ray was stretched out, whether across, or below, or above; (some) were shedders of seed, (others) were mighty; food was inferior, the eater was superior. 6. Who really knows? Who in this world may declare it! Whence was this creation, whence was it engendered? The gods (were) subsequent to the (world’s) creation; so who knows whence it arose? 7. He from whom this creation arose, he may uphold it, or he may not (no one else can); he who is its superintendent in the highest heaven, he assuredly knows, or if he knows not (no one else does), (Wilson IV 2001: 516-19).

Similar depictions are also found in the Old Testament, Genesis 1:1-3: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Holy Bible,

141

NRSY trans. Metzger 1989: 1). In the Rg Veda, the god Indra brought about the dualism of the lightness and darkness, earth and heaven. Kuiper explains that in the beginning, the asuras were the gods who existed at a time before time, when the world was undifferentiated; there was no heaven or earth, no good and evil, and no oppositions. There, existed only ‘Apah,’ the water, These so called primeval waters bore in themselves the germ of life. From the bottom a small clod of earth rose to the surface, where it floated about. The clod spread on the surface and became a mountain, the beginning of the earth, but it continued to float on the waters... The primordial world itself was sacred, and for the process of this genesis to take place there was no need of a creator. Things were considered to exist, somehow, in their own right. There, the dualism and the opposition did not exist; the world was still undifferentiated. In this first stage, however, as presented by the mountain, the world was still undifferentiated unity. The poets sometimes speak of a darkness as the initial state, but this is clearly a mere attempt to express what could not properly be expressed in words. None of the contrasts which constitute our phenomenal world yet existed. There was no heaven or earth, no day or night or, properly speaking, darkness (Kuiper 1983: 10).

There was no separation o f the Real isat'>from the Unreal ‘asat.’ Nor was there ‘rta,’ the body of Cosmic Law or the Truth, governing the Real, sat. Neither were there men in existence. The only beings, however, were called asuras, the Lords, the living sentient entities possessed of will and mysterious supernatural power, known as maya. “The wise behold with their mind (seated) in their heart the Sun made manifest by the illusion (maya) of the asura; the sages look into the solar orb, the ordainers (of solar worship) desire the region of his ray” (RV 10. 177. 1).

142

Oldenberg suggests the asura might be dated back to the clash of a group of Aryans, mainly Vedic people, with the worshipers of Asura, whose gods were later demonized in the Vedic tradition. The same word appears among Iranians as Ahura, the name of the highest god and the creator. Oldenberg raised the question, “How is this to be explained, which appears to have turned the meaning ‘god’ into the meaning ‘devil’?” (1894: 85-87). Kuiper says, “Varuna and the other asuras are the ‘Older’ race of gods, i.e. the gods of that primordial world which precedes the partition into upper and nether world” (1983: 37). Kuiper also adds that the world of the asuras “is one of unformed, potential life—the material out of which the cosmos is shaped. The asuras are not fallen angels but potential gods” (1983: 16). The asuras were of two kinds. The creation myth called one aditya; the name means ‘a being who is devoted to release, expansion, growth, development.’ The other was called danava; the name means ‘a being who is devoted to bondage or restraint or non-expansion, committed to inertia.’ adityas, themselves being asuras, are described as human in form and in contrast to demonized asuras in all actions. The goddess Aditi, ‘freedom,’ is their mother. Called a milch cow, Aditi signified freedom and increase, qualities inherent in rta. In Vedic ritual, the cow symbolizes the goddess Aditi, mother of the adityas, who are the older gods of the primeval world. The waters were often called cows - viewed as sacred, they were a source of physical and moral healing. Goddesses, presiding over waters and the cow, were anthropomorphized in various forms. Both water and cow, recognized as two factors

143

in the process o f creation, procreation, and the sustenance of life, were also highly revered in Old European religion. Aditi is associated closely with nature, and represents the notion of freedom from all obstruction and restriction. She is the “World Mother” who gave birth to eight sons. The eighth son was Martanda, ‘mortal egg’ (Kuiper 1983: 100). Brown explains that the last son “bom of a dead egg,” who was thrown away by Aditi, became the “author o f our mortality” ( 1966: 20 - 1). Aditi rejected her son, thinking that the last son would not be able to produce other gods. The cast-away son became the sun, who is “not capable of being an immortal... bore him to be bom and then die again. Thus it was that mortality came into the world” (Brown 1966: 70). Every day the sun is bom and dies again, providing days and nights by which human life is measured. Aditi and adityas all support and foster the ongoing life. With respect to the creation of the world, the demonized asuras always acted in opposition to the adityas, and were against ordered life and freedom. The adityas were positive and benevolent—always standing for good and an orderly world. In the Vedic myth, some of the asuras go over to the side of the devas. The majority of the asuras, however, were driven to the netherworld by the devas. In the Rg Veda, the distinction between asuras and devas has been clearly preserved as devav asura, “asuras who have become devas,” and asura adevah, “asuras who are not devas” (Kuiper 1983: 14). The opposition of the devas, the newly arrived gods, and the asuras, utterly obvious in the Rg Veda, did not exist from the beginning of

144

time; it was created at one point. The one who promoted the emergence of a dual world of individualized forms from the undifferentiated asat was Indra. By causing this change, he also brought about the opposition of the asuras-devas and rent apart the cosmos into upper worlds and netherworlds.

vi.

Genesis'. Battle o f Forces The most important cosmogonic myth of the Rg Veda (1.32), the one most

often recounted or alluded to, the one that receives the most attention in the Rgvedic sacrifice and has the most influence in shaping its ritual, is the Indra-Vrtra myth. Even though there is not a complete hymn retelling the entire episode, the events can be restructured from its scattered references. In the myth, it is quite apparent that it was the involvement of Indra in the war that caused the orderly, differentiated world to come into existence. Kuiper points out that, “Not before the last few decades have scholars come to recognize the fact that the central myth of the Rg Veda, the fight of Indra with the dragon (vrtra/Vrtra) is a creation myth” (1983: 97). As already established, the Vedic world was divided between two opposite forces, the adityas, and the asuras. In the Rg Veda the asuras who wanted the world to come into existence and were assisted by Indra are referred to as the ‘devas,’ meaning the ‘shining ones’; and, naturally, the term devas is translated as ‘the gods.’ 145

The other asuras who remained in the undifferentiated world, however, are called asuras, which is translated as ‘demons.’ The chief of the adityas was an asura named Varuna, whose name is of uncertain origin (Bergaigne 1897: 92-103). When offered the position of rulership, Varuna willingly became a deva. Kuiper explains that, “an asura of his accord leaves his world and sides with the devas. In other cases he is ‘called forth’ (as the texts say) by the devas, who are unable to achieve their aim without the assistance of a certain asura” (1983: 16). The asuras are described as serpents, dragons, or sometimes, as boars, and are dedicated to obstructing, binding, and restraining. Their leader is the arch-demon serpent Vrtra, the son of the arch-demoness Danu, and derives from an Indo-Iranian origin; his name means ‘restrainer,’ ‘opposition,’ ‘blockage.’ The asuras were holding, enclosing the impetuses o f life, the waters and the sun (Oldenberg 1894: 74­ 78). Kuiper indicates, “It cannot be doubted that Danu is a term inherited from the Indo-Iranian religious language for ‘stream,’ with special reference to the primeval waters” (1983: 121). He further explains that in the Rg Veda, the term ‘the waters’ denotes the “primeval waters upon which the earth rested, and it can be proved that it was of these waters that Varuna became the ruler” (1983: 121). As god of the primordial world, Varuna “resided in the netherworld, at the roots of the world tree and near to (or in) the subterranean cosmic waters” (Kuiper 1983: 16). Scholars, including Ltiders and Hillebrandt, have offered different views on the associations of Varuna, either with the cosmic ocean, or the cosmic mountain, 146

respectively. Nevertheless, Varuna’s association with the waters endures (Kuiper 1983: 105). In RV 7.49.3, those waters referred to as goddesses have Varuna inside them: “Those in whose midst King Varuna moves, looking down upon the truth and falsehood of people, those pure and clear waters that drip honey - let the waters, who are goddesses, help me here and now” (O’Flaherty 1981: 232). Liiders (1951, 1959) presumed that a celestial ocean served as heaven and therefore as a home to Varuna. He believed that the waters, as the fourth classification of heaven, were lying above the third. Realizing the cosmogonic aspects of the Vrtra and Vala myths, Liiders also connected these with the celestial ocean. Commenting on the thorough and exhaustive works of Liiders on the subject of Varuna, Dandekar concludes that Liiders’s findings are not exceptional: “In the Vedic as well as the post-Vedic and the classical Sanskrit literature, Varuna’s dwelling place is said to be waters” (Dandekar 1979: 315). Varuna is associated with heaven, which is the proper home of the waters. “Indeed, the heavenly and the earthly waters are identical and Varuna is connected with both” (1979: 315). However, Kuiper “regards the celestial ocean as mythologically identical with the subterranean waters during the night-time, in which the whole situation is reversed and Varuna resides in heaven among waters at the roots of the inverted cosmic tree (Bodewitz 1998: 48-49). The creation myth starts with conditions before creation. The Aryans of the Rg Veda saw the ordered world cosmos as always imperfect and constantly threatened 147

by destructive forces. Nevertheless, world does survive indefinitely. The cosmos, however, has not always existed, but had been established at a particular moment in the past. When defining cosmology, Kuiper cites Mircea Eliade in his study, “Cosmogonic Myth and Sacred History,” where the latter states, “We can also say that any mythology that is still accessible in an appropriate form contains not only a beginning but also an end, determined by the last manifestation of the supernatural beings, the cultural heroes or the ancestors” (1983: 91). Cosmogony also tells us about the order of the cosmos and how people and the world communicate and relate to each other in an orderly manner. At the outset, the cosmic waters were enclosed, or covered over, by Vrtra who was depicted as an enormous snake, Ahi, lying on the primordial mountain. In certain places, the mountain, with the waters inside it, is depicted as contained within the snake. Nevertheless, Vrtra is the one containing the provisions of the world’s creation. In the Rg Veda, Vrtra, though demonized, is depicted as a primordial ancestor; a primordial being that had to be destroyed in order for the newly arrived younger gods, some of which were originally asuras, to take their proper place in the new age of the newly ordered world. Some of the greatest Vedic gods, e.g., Varuna, Soma, and Agni, went to the other side only at Indra’s command. The demon Vrtra was also imagined to be a boar lying on the waters (Bergaigne 1897: 194-208; Oldenberg 1894: 74-78). Vrtra, described as perilous and evil, resided at the boundary of darkness. 148

In the beginning, the sun, as an embryo, was also contained in the cosmic waters that were held by the serpent-demon Vrtra. As long as the waters were restrained, the sun would not be set free to roam the sky. By holding the waters captive, the orderly world was also detained by the ‘Father-Asura’; and only the undifferentiated world existed. However, the adityas, being asuras themselves, wanted the orderly world to come into existence by setting the waters and the sun free. Thus, the war between the dark forces and the guardians of light and life, i.e., the adityas, began. The adityas were apparently defeated, although there is not a direct reference to their setback in the Vedas. However, realizing their defeat, and that they were in need of a champion, they sought the help of Indra. When Indra was ready to fight the demons, he first extorted a promise that, if triumphant, he would become the king of the gods; this promise was granted. In preparing for the war, Indra took three great draughts of soma that transformed him into a figure of gigantic stature. Indra filled the sky and earth, which until then had been united, and divided them forever. Dividing the earth from the sky was the first stage of ordering the world. As the wielder of the thunderbolt and sender of rain, Indra is associated with, and aided in wars by, the storm gods, the Maruts. Indra was determined to defeat the demons, and created a horrifying storm, embodied in the god Rudra together with his entourage, the Maruts. Fortified with soma, and vajra, a supernatural thunderbolt made for him by the craftsman-god, Tvastr, and also aided by Agni, Indra commenced the war (Oldenberg 1894: 74-78). In a fierce fight, Indra hurled the vajra against Vrtra, killing him and his mother Danu; and as the text describes the scene, Indra 149

burst Vrtra’s belly, with the result that, “The Danu lies like a cow with her calf’ (Kuiper 1983: 121). With the unrestricted cosmic waters flowing freely out o f the belly of the demon, Indra, the king of gods, constructed the ordered world, and separated the existent, sat, from the non-existent, asat, that had always existed as the primordial chaos. This is depicted in the Rg Veda (10.72.3): “In the first age of the gods existence was bom of the non-existent.” The whole undifferentiated primordial chaos, the non-existent, is called asat, and it is stated that sat came from asat (see also Atharva Veda 17.1.19). Brown explains that in the Vedic concepts of asat and sat, Indian philosophers found “a dualism, which they resolved into a monism that comprised the undifferentiated primordial chaos... sometimes they gave it a new name, such as Skambha or Brahman” (1941: 80). By separating the sky above from the earth below, Indra divided the world; hence, the Vedic people considered the universe to consist o f two parts. Subsequently, Indra divided Vrtra and all other demons from all that existed above the earth, and gave them a new habitat in the netherworld, the two realms being separated by a chasm. The upper world was divided into three parts: sky, atmosphere, and earth, all of which became the roaming regions of the gods and humans. As part of the orderly world, a pathway was carved into the stone sky for the sun to move upon in an orderly fashion. In this world, the life generating waters, together with the sun, fostered existence. This upper part of the universe is called sat, meaning, “the Existence, the

150

Real.” The lower part, reached from the earth by a great chasm, was a place of dreadfulness, populated by demons. This he called asat, meaning anti-sal, the Nonexistent, the Unreal. The creatures of the two parts were in a natural state of enmity with each other, and the two regions themselves were adverse. In the later versions of the Brahmanas the slaying of Vrtra is viewed as the sacrificial death that brought about the creation of the world and the cosmos. Brown explains that in both cases Indra brought about the Existent from the Non-existent ‘asac ca san muhur acakrir Indraft (RV 6.24.5), i.e., he differentiated the two. “Thus chaos, by a dichotomy, became, on the one hand, the ordered universe of flat earth, atmosphere, and vaulted sky, and, on the other hand, the dark, cold space of dissolution lying below this universe” (Brown 1941: 79). Additionally, Kuiper explains, “the primordial world became the sacred earth, which together with heaven formed a pair o f cosmic moieties” (Kuiper 1983: 14). However, the earth was resting on primordial waters, which formed the subterranean world. As the result of the victory of Indra, separation came into existence. Therefore, the gods willed the creation o f the ordered universe and the phenomena of nature, which characterize the ordered universe (Kuiper 1983: 14). Those things that make up the existing universe, including the sun and the waters, had to be compelled to leave the great darkness of chaos in order to be created again. The greatest Vedic gods, Varuna, Agni, and Soma, were originally asuras who had lived inside Vrtra, whom they refer to as “the Father.” They only emerged by the demands and encouraging promises of Indra. 151

In RV 10.124.2, 4, Agni is first lured to abandon ‘the Father-Vrtra,’ with the promise of immortality, and then Soma. Agni says, “Secretly going away from the non-god, being a god and seeing ahead I go to immortality. Unkindly I desert him who was kind to me, as I go from my own friends to a foreign tribe.” Then Soma utters, “I have spent many years within him. Now I choose Indra, and desert the father. Agni, Soma, and Varuna all fall away. The power of kingship has turned around; therefore I have come to help” (O’Flaherty 1981: 110-11). After the killing of Vrtra in Indra’s victory, the rest of the asuras were chased to the underworld. In RV 7.104.1, their eternal enmity is expressed when Indra and Soma are fighting the demons: “destroy the raksasas', showerers (of benefits) cast down those who delight in darkness: put to flight the stupid (spirits); consume, slay, drive away, utterly exterminate the cannibals.” Indra and the devas had to fight the remaining asuras repeatedly as they returned to this world, especially during the time of crises preceding the New Year, when the asuras sought to disturb the orderly created world (Kuiper 1983: 1-2, 13). In the Rg Veda, the asuras are often referred to by the name of their particular species, such as raksas, yatu,pisaca, etc., instead of by their individual names. Keith explains that the demonic evil forces are divided into asuras, who oppose the gods, raksasas, who oppose men, andpisacas, who oppose the Fathers. Demons were also employed by sorcerers, as well as by wicked and corrupted people, in order to harm

152

others or interfere with the performance of a sacrifice. People could also become demons. In fact, a whole nation or a race could be viewed as demonic. The Rg Veda describes them as having no limit to their immoral and disruptive activities. The demons struggled to destroy the world, which they tried to prevent from coming into existence in the first place (1925: 73). Demons congregated in mobs or in pairs to endanger people’s lives, health, and property. The Rg Veda represents demons in a similar manner with the forms of the sacred and blessed goddesses within Old European tradition. Demons appeared in human forms, often as women, but sometimes distorted. Other times, they were described as animals, mostly as snakes, reptiles, dogs, vultures, and owls, i.e., the very same animals by which the goddesses of Old Europe became manifest. Being able to transform themselves at will, they changed their forms into bird-demons, who flew at night in the dark. It was also believed that people, at the moment of their vulnerability, e.g., when mourning the death of a loved one or after the birth of a child, fell victim to the tricks of these demons. The battle of the spiritual forces is described by O’Flaherty with the gods on one side and the demons on the other, all fighting for their rightful place in either the world of rta or anrta (1976: 78-79). Kuiper proposes that the key to understanding the basic concepts of Vedic religion is grasping the cosmogony (1983). He elucidates how the account of the beginning was not just a story: “It was the expression of a religious Mystery, based on an urgently felt need to get into a right relationship with the sacred world as the source of cosmic order, upon which early man felt his existence and survival to depend” 153

(Kuiper 1983: 1). Time was observed as being cyclical. The birth of the cosmos was regarded as the secret to the continuation of life, articulated by the return o f the sun, the seasons, and the germination of seeds. This provided a model for all regeneration, and in turn called for a re-enactment ritual to ensure continuation of the cosmic order. In India and Iran, the time of the New Year signified the changeover from the old to the new. Therefore, this moment of crisis called for a specific celebration ritual, which continues to this day (Kuiper 1983: 2). Kuiper explains that the central feature of Vedic cosmogony and of the created world is the division up of the undifferentiated primal waters into a dualistic cosmos. The asuras, associated with primeval affairs, were defeated and replaced by younger devas. The war between the old gods, the asuras, and the new gods, the devas, occurs periodically throughout the cycle of time, e.g., at the New Year (1983: 1-2).

vii.

Dualism'. Good and Evil Apparently, “the recorded history of speculative thought in India” (Brown

1966: 7) started with the Vedic myth of Indra killing Vrtra, thus releasing the waters and the sun and setting the stage for the creation of the cosmos and the establishment of order within it. This cosmogonic myth also gave birth to a special view concerning order and antagonism; such developments gave birth to eschatology. Out of this cosmological myth, the philosophy with a particular view of truth, and a belief in an afterlife, appears also to have subsequently developed (Brown 1966: 7). 154

Indra’s cosmogonic myth, representing the asuras as the evil, dark primordial chaos of nonexistence, and the life-generating waters and sun as the bright, orderly world of existence for gods and men, has much in common with the other Old European myths, and Iranian myths in particular. As a warrior-hero god, Indra is exalted over all other gods, who were powerless in the face of atrocious dark forces. By setting the world and everything in it into motion, in accordance with law and the good, Indra inaugurates a new age of the opposition of Good and Evil. Furthermore, Bodewitz explains that the Vedic “ethical-philosophical dualism” is composed of two conflicting and self-governing powers of good and evil (1991: 5). One power is connected with light and the other with darkness: “These powers are responsible for good and evil in this world. This opposition is also associated with spirit and matter, body and soul. Often this dualism has been explained as a theodicy, as a justification of God in a world full of evil and injustice” (1991: 5). Bodewitz further clarifies that the opposition of the asuras, as the dark force, and the devas, as the force of light, is merely based on their respective mythological roles. The asuras are the primeval, elder powers, and the devas are their younger brothers (6). Earlier, Bergaigne had also interpreted the Rgvedic data as a dual system, combining both ritualistic and naturalist approaches (1897). He classified the motifs into two parallel levels, the celestial and the atmospheric, which were further characterized by two opposing female and male elements—on one side as the celestial processes of light and darkness, and on the other side as atmospheric phenomena. In addition,

155

Oldenberg, building upon Bergaigne’s philological approach, attempted to draw nearer to gaining a translucent view o f the formulation o f the Rg Veda (1894). Once again, it is compulsory to refer back to the previously discussed concepts of dualism and opposition, which were also principal ideological concepts in the religions of Old/Indo-Europe. The structuralist approaches of Dumezil and Levi Strauss explained the systematic dualism, and the opposition seen in the IE treatments of right and left directions, and between genders and concepts, respectively: male = strength, female = weakness. When reviewing the concept of twins, Mallory proposes that, “We can go beyond the dualism expressed by twins to outright binary opposition as one of the underlying structures of Indo-European ideology” (1989: 141). The Old European dualistic and binary imagery and symbology display similar standpoints with those of the Indo-European and the Indo-Iranian (Gimbutas 1989, 1991). Duality, which was an essential condition in the process of the world’s creation—in both the traditions of Old Europe and Indo-Europe—becomes more evident in the Indra and Vrtra myth. In opposition to the qualities of Indra, e.g., goodness, virility, Vrtra’s traits are an antagonism to life and sterility. Indra’s qualities, i.e., creation and virility, are therefore in opposition to the hostility of Vrtra. In keeping with the history of the Indo-European migrations, and the subsequent IE collision with, and domination of, the Old Europeans, the victory of the IE storm-god over the snake-goddess and the birth of new gods into a new world and era become more transparent in the Indra-Vrtra episode. Indra becomes a creator god through the 156

destruction of the snake and its old world. It is only by killing the primordial ancestor that life continues with its new gods bom out o f ‘the Father,’ the snake Vrtra. This version of the antagonism and war between gods and demons, good and evil, and the eventual victory of good over evil, were not only passed down from the first Indo-Europeans to the Indo-Iranians, but were disseminated among the Semitic peoples in their contacts with the Persians in the first millennium BCE. However, it should be noted that other ancient cultures, such as Mesopotamian and Egyptian, also possessed similar myths. This is not to say that these myths had the same origins, but rather that they perhaps point to a human phenomenon, i.e., an expression of a universal set of memories and emotions, hopes and fears, and a conception of a world that is always threatened by chaos. Intersecting the above explanation is the opposition o f the devas and the asuras, both having an Indo-Iranian background. Asuras, as primordial rulers and possessors of the goods of life, hold a higher ranking. However, since the name asura is given the meaning o f demon, the opposition of deva-asura takes on a dualistic overtone. The antagonistic, wandering deva warriors, led by Indra, are triumphant over asuras, and bring this world into existence, making Indra the One Ruler (eka samrat). Man came into existence to provide nourishment for the gods through sacrifice and to support the cosmic order. Caught in the middle of the battle between gods and demons, man often allied himself with the gods against the demons, who maintained their existence in asat (Brown 1966: 21-22). However, there were men who did ally with the demons, and who were led by them to the lap of Nirrti, or 157

Destruction. In the Rg Veda (7.37.7), Nirrti is personified as the goddess of disorder and disintegration, and, subsequently, as the abode of the dead. Following the opposition of the created, ordered world of light, and the uncreated, disordered, dark place o f dissolution beneath it, there came another set of opposites: life and death. Aditi, the personification o f benevolent boundlessness, symbolized sat, or the world of Existence: Nirrti, the personification of malevolence and destruction, symbolized asat, or the non-existent. In this dualistic conception of asat and sat, the existent and the non-existent are often allusions to the worlds of the living and the dead. However, by viewing the ideas of life after death with a structuralist approach, Bodewitz declares that a possibility of life for the dead is alluded to in the Rg Veda. He states: “starting from the opposition of the upper and the nether world... the subterranean world would represent some form of primeval chaos and in this subterranean world we may expect the dead to ‘live’” (1994: 37).

viii.

The Vedic Ethical World: Law and Order The ethical world of the Rg Veda, with a unique view of Truth with its magical

power, is where the Indian history of speculative thought begins. It started with the cosmogonic battle of the opposites, a god, Indra, and a demon, Vrtra. The creation and the sustenance of the ordered world were possible only by the defeat and slaughter

158

of the demon. Thus, the separation o f the existent, sat, from the non-existent, asat. It appears that some o f the later philosophical developments in India have grown out of this myth (Brown 1966: 7). All that existed in sat world, including its operations and uses, was subject to a body o f universal Cosmic Law, or the Truth, called rta (Kuiper 1983: 11-19). It is impossible to define the concept of rta in one or two words. Nevertheless, it has been translated as ‘set in motion,’ ‘order,’ and ‘cosmic law and order.’ The world of the Vedic people existed because of this invincible, absolute law, or rta. Therefore, in the Rg Veda, the highest impersonal entity is rta, which is also closely associated with the sun. Bergaigne explains the root o f rta, ‘r,’ as meaning “to rise” and “to adapt oneself to” (Bergaigne 1897: 216-17). Further, following Grassmann’s explanation, Bergaigne provides a meaning for rta as ‘what is adapted.’ On the subject of the idea of ‘Law,’ Bergaigne notes that this is expressed in the Vedas by four principal words, dhaman, dharman, rta, and vrata. After an exhaustive and thorough linguistic explanation, he concludes that every term denotes the idea of law in three different aspects: “the laws o f nature, the laws of sacrifice and moral laws” (1897: 215-18). In the Vedic world, everyone, including the gods, has duties to perform in order to maintain rta. Duties, referred to as vrata, were to be fulfilled by the followers of the law, the rtavans. The word vrata, from the root vr (to choose, to desire), has been given many meanings, among which ‘will,’ ‘obedience,’ ‘obligation,’ ‘to cover,’ 159

‘to encompass,’ and ‘to envelope’ are the most commonly used (Bergaigne 1897: 219; Dandekar 1979: 32; Choudhuri 1981: 35). This concept, as the cornerstone of Vedic religion, has held an important place in Hinduism. Punishments for failure to perform vrata, according to rta, and the rewards for doing so, were held to be experienced in the afterlife. In Vedic religion, right and virtuous behavior is the duty and personal responsibility o f every individual. This understanding starts with a belief in the two opposite forces. One stands for the orderly and cooperative operation of the parts, and the other for the chaotic and destructive elements. The whole of existence, including the cosmos and everything in it, are held together by the force of a set of principles known as satya, or rta, i.e., cosmic truth/order. However, disorder, or anti-order, known as anrta, is ever threatening the universe, fighting to interrupt its orderly functions or to demolish it altogether. Every being, including the gods and human beings, is responsible for preventing this from happening, by shunning anrta in all aspects of life. Failing to do so would have drastic consequences. This duty/function of the individual is known as vrata (RV 9.112). Brown explains this duty, vrata: “so important is the concept that in postVedic times the word comes to mean a solemn vow, to be undertaken with great seriousness and observed with unflagging zeal” (1966: 11). The regular order, rta, which rules over the world, is an inheritance from the Indo-Iranian period. The same concept, known as asa, is formulated in the Iranian Avesta. Similar to its Vedic counterpart, asa also has three-way significance, 160

representing the ethical law, the physical order of the universe, and the proper order of the sacrifice. Keith adds, “We are doubtless justified in seeing in the word Arta as it appears in the names recorded in the Tell-el-Amama correspondence the same word, and in inferring that the sense was somewhat the same at that early period about 1400 B. C.” (1925: 83). Rta is expressed as not only a law enforced by the gods, but also as an independent cosmic force that binds all creation, including the gods, to obey its laws. The alternations of day and night, the cycle of the moon, of the seasons, and of human life - birth, death, and afterlife - are all part of rta. Other visible expressions of rta are the orderly movements of the sun and the stars, the revitalizing stream o f waters in the rivers, and the flow of milk from the cow. The ritual rubrics for how the oblations and sacrifices were to be performed and offered were also arranged according to rta. Above all, the ethical and moral behaviors of the people, including their relationships towards one another and to the gods, were laid down in accordance with rta. To think, speak, and act truthfully, honestly, righteously, and morally would bring prosperity within this world and eternal life after death in the bright world of the gods. However, those who lived their lives in lies, deceit, and cheating were cursed and destined to live in the dark netherworld full of misery. Whatever promoted and conserved life was ascribed to rta, and in opposition, that which brought death, deceit, and destruction was under the sway of anrta (Bergaigne 1897: 265-76). Subsequently, as Indra

161

created this world according to the values of rta, in the same way, he created the opposite world according to anrta for the demons, sorcerers, sinners, etc. Furthermore, Kane explains rta as having a “threefold aspect,” which signifies “the course of nature—the regular and general order in the cosmos... with reference to sacrifice it means the correct and ordered way of the cult of the Gods; and thirdly, it also means the moral conduct of man” (1953: 4). It is described in the RV (4.23.8-10) as having all three aspects: “Many are the waters of rta: the adoration of rta destroys iniquities... Many are the stable, sustaining, delightful forms of the embodied rta... The worshipper subjecting rta to his will verily enjoys rta” (46). Contrary to the comment that, “When we examine the eschatology of the Rg Veda we are confronted with an unethicized religion” (Obeyesekere 1980: 156), various scholars, including Oldenberg, Bergaigne, and Kuiper, explicitly identify the Vedic world as an ethical and morally driven one. Oldenberg argues that it was the law and order of rta that put the cosmos in orderly motion. Furthermore, rta included not only the physical but also the moral world order (Oldenberg 1894: 101-2). Subsequently, tasks were allocated to the gods in accordance with the law and with the gods’ own nature. Anrta was the law that maintained the world of asat, where there was no rta; there also was no life, sun, or moisture there, and it was marked with decay and death. The followers of anrta were destined for the dark world of asat:

162

“The asat and its inhabitants constitute the Rgvedic conception nearest the western notion of Hell and the Devil or devils” (Brown 1966: 18). As the occupants of the world of anrta, the demons, however, found their way into the ordered world through the chasm in the earth. These demons were steadfast in overthrowing the gods and developed ways to weaken rta in the world of sat. They often visited the world of the living in the dark of the night. Even today, Indians believe that it is during the night that spirits (bhut) and demons lurk around the world of the living. Demons persistently interfered with the performance of sacrifices and rituals. O’Flaherty verifies that if the rituals were not carried out, “natural disasters, as a sure manifestation of chaos, would occur. Demons would become happy and the cosmos would collapse into chaos” (1976: 79). As long as the demonic forces threatened the very existence of the orderly world, Indra had to fight and defeat them all. Sat, or orderly world, could not sink back into the chaotic world of asat. In order to maintain the function of the world according to the law of rta, humans had to perform sacrifice and make the proper ritual offerings to the gods. In addition, the human person had to perform his or her personal and social duties (vrata) in the world (Brown 1966: 18). When these two duties were performed, the Vedic man would be considered a Rtavam, an observer of rta. The outcome of living according to rta was life and prosperity for both humans and gods. Just as the gods were assigned their responsibilities according to rta and their own natures, it was Varuna, an asura bom from the belly of the demon Vrtra, who 163

had the closest connection with rta and was deeply concerned with its maintenance. In charge of ethical conduct, he punishes those who commit acts of violence and murder. Choudhuri explains that Varuna stands for both rta, the ‘Truth of Becoming,’ and for satya, the ‘Truth of Being’ (1981: 46). Although Varuna, like Indra, is also mentioned in the Rg Veda as the one who at the beginning fixed the sky and the sun in their proper places and measured out the earth, he is not portrayed as a warrior god involved with the various battles. As the protector and guardian of rta, Varuna watches over the entire creation, including human behavior and society (Thieme 1960: 301-17). In addition to being the promoter and enforcer of rta, Varuna is often referred to as rta itself. The people beseeched Indra to protect them in their battles against their enemies, and in the same way, they pleaded with Varuna for the maintenance o f their society (Oldenberg 1894: 101-4). Varuna is also related to maya, ‘craft, magic, illusion’ signifying occult power, which was also the creative power of the asuras, or demons. Varuna ordained rta through maya: “It is he who attacks the sinners, seizes them with violence, strikes them down, and punishes them severely... It is he who binds them with his snares or fetters from which the poets want to be delivered. It is he for fear of whom people take precautions” (Gonda 1972: 15). Varuna is also mentioned with the god Aryaman (‘Companion’), also an aditya; and he is a god to whom are ascribed formal 164

hospitality, nobility, and sovereignty. The Indo-Iranian gods, Aryaman (Varuna) and Mitra, the god o f intimate friendship, are referred to in the Rg Veda as “Kings” (Gonda 1972: 12). Varuna’s close partner in overseeing the functions of rta was Mitra, a sun god. Mitra-Varuna (mitra varunau) are often invoked together as adjudicators who bestow rewards or punishments according to the sinful or virtuous acts performed by people. Together, Mitra and Varuna are referred to as “the universal rulers (samrajy’ (Gonda 1972: 12).

ix.

Judgment: Reward and Punishment In the Vedic world, as previously discussed, the whole of existence, including

the cosmos and everything in it, is held together by the force of a set of principles known as satya or rta, i.e., cosmic truth/order. This concept is the cornerstone of Vedic religion, and it has maintained its importance in Hinduism. Punishments for failure to perform vrata, according to rta, and rewards for its performance, were held to be experienced in the afterlife. In the Vedic ethical system, that aspect of the living reason (called spirit or soul), migrates to another existence, where adjudicators bestow rewards or punishments accordingly. In describing the concept of karma in Hinduism, Goldman clarifies that the fact “that some spirit survives the death o f the body and that some

165

metaphysical mechanism ensures that we reap what we sow, are—far from being uniquely Indian—in reality virtually universals of human culture” (1985: 415). He further adds that “the notion that one’s condition in the life to come, whether that life is on earth or in another world, is dependent on the quality of one’s actions in the present life, is the very cornerstone of virtually every religious tradition the world has known” (1985: 415). In the Rg Veda, the Sanskrit term papa, translated as ‘evil act,’ often has a moral sense: people are evil-minded; adultery is evil; incest is evil” (O’Flaherty 1976: 7). Papa is also generally used to refer to the ‘sinner’ and to sinful and evil acts. Sin can be committed without the free will of the individual, by the force of a magic spell put on them by others; “there is the idea of fetters or knots in which the sinner is entangled” (Oldenberg 1894: 144). Sin can also be committed willingly. Either way, committing a sin is punishable by the wrath of god. In Rg Veda 1.121.13, people who do not perform sacrifices are also marked as sinners and therefore are to be punished by Indra: “having driven those who offer no sacrifices to the opposite bank of the ninety rivers, you compel them (to do) what is to be done.” Moreover, Bodewitz translates karta in the phrase “those who offer no sacrifice (api kartam avartayo 'yajyun)” as the abyss into which the sinful are cast (1999 b: 216).

Kane also explains several words that all signify ‘sin’ in the Rg Veda. The word anrta is often used to express sin; so are the words, ‘dgas,’ ‘enas,’ ‘arilhas,' and ‘durita’ (1953: 6-8). Erroneous performances of rituals and sacrifices, and reluctance 166

to worship the gods, were marked as sins, and therefore, became punishable offenses against rta. Drunkenness, anger, murder, cursing, and cheating at dice were all prohibited and labeled as anrta by the gods. Kane provides a list of sins and their subsequent punishments by the gods, as they appear in the Rg Veda (1953: 35-38). For instance, Indra is described as the punisher of sinners: You, Indra, who are wise, punish the guilt (of worshippers); you cut off their sins as a sword (cut off) the limbs (of victims); (you cut off) the people who (ignorantly) injure the supporting (function) of Mitra, and Varuna, (which is) as it were their close friend. Against those who sinfully offend against Mitra, Aryaman, your companions (the Maruts) and Varuna, against these your enemies sharpen, Indra, showerer (of benefits), your rapid showering radiant thunderbolt. (RV 10.89.8-9)

Highlighted as one of the Aryan ethical traits was the importance of a contract and the swearing of an oath, which is verified in the earliest Aryan document from the 2nd millennium BCE, that of the previously discussed Mitanni treaty. This trait found a continuity in the Vedic religious system. In the Mitanni treaty, there are five Aryan divinities mentioned along with the Hittite king Suppiluliumas, who is bound to a pact by the Hurrian ruler Mattiwaza. The divinities mentioned in the treaty, e.g., Mitra (miit-ra), Vanina (u-ru-ua), Indra (in-da-ra), and the twinNasatyas (na-sa-at-ti-ia) are

Asvins, who witness the binding of the contract between the two kings (Thieme 1960: 41). Entering into a contract was a holy act of order and integration, as opposed to chaos and separation. Mitra, a sun-god, is generally described as a divinity whose 167

name means ‘contract, covenant.’ He was the foundation of friendship that unified people in peace. The contract between people was the replication of its archetype, i.e., the original cosmic contract that reconciled the oppositions of day and night, light and dark, life and death. The principle of the contract was applicable to the processes of nature and human dealings, which were both subject to the same order, rta. Therefore, everything is tied to, and bounded by, the contract, including the relations between gods and humans. Consequently, Mitra, who is personally concerned with the operation of rita, serves also as the personification of the contract. With the understanding that speech and words carried supernatural force, swearing an oath was performed as a religious act with its own specific rites. To swear falsely was to act against rta, and thus to commit a sin. Also mentioned as an Indo-European moral trait was the performance of ordeals, by fire or water, as part of the judicial process. As the guardian of law and order, Varuna was also the god of the oath—breaking an oath was to commit a sin and therefore deemed fit for retribution (Oldenberg 1894: 223). Closely associated with the waters, Varuna was concerned with the control of the regular flow of water and rainfall, and oversaw the ordeal by water. Similarly, Agni oversaw fire ordeals. The accused individual either crossed a river, walked through fire, or, as indicated in the later Vedic and Avestan literatures, drank poison, in order to prove their innocence (Boyce 1975a: 34-35). On the subject of the performance of ordeals as a form of divine judgment in the Vedic tradition, Keith explains: 168

The idea is not that the deity would actually punish an accused person so much as that it should by its treatment of him show whether or not he is innocent of the charge made against him. But the analogy of the ordeal to the oath in which the swearer invokes a penalty on himself, if he is telling untruth, shows that the separation of the ideas of punishment and discrimination cannot be assumed to have been present to the Vedic mind: the form of ordeal recorded for early Vedic times shows the prevalence of punishment at the same time as the test of fact (1925: 392-93). Performing one’s social duty according to one’s social function was also part of the operation of rta and was supervised by Varuna. Varuna’s intimate association with the waters went beyond regulating their flow. According to the Rg Veda, it was out of this ocean that the whole cosmos was materialized. Based on Iranian and Indian records, the celestial name Apam Napat, ‘son of the waters,’ of Indo-Iranian origin, was perhaps an original epithet of Varuna, and not Agni (Oldenberg 1894: 67). Accordingly, Rg Veda 2.35.2 reads: “Let us address to him the prayer that is conceived in our hearts, and may he fully understand; for he, the lord, the grandson of the waters (Apam Napat) has generated all beings by the greatness of his might.” Since Varuna’s abode is the cosmic ocean located outside the orderly world, this makes him not only the guardian of cosmic law, but it also connects him with the darkness of the night; thus he is called god of the night. In the Rg Veda, as in most other known religious texts, the sinner is ultimately judged and punished by an ethical god: “As the impersonal physical and moral law of the world coincides with the ‘commands of Varuna,’ so also is sin the violation of 169

Varuna’s commands or order” (Oldenberg 1894: 146). The close affinity of Varuna with the ethical order is clearly visible in RV 7.86.5-6: “Relax the bonds imposed by the ill deeds... liberate, royal Varuna, like a calf from its fetter... It is not our own choice, Varuna, out of our condition; it is that which is intoxicating, wrath, gambling, ignorance; there is a senior in the proximity of the junior: even a dream is a provocative to sin.” Varuna’s decree was the foundation of all law and all morality, and he saw to it that gods and people acted in conformity with it. Ever vigilant with the assistance of his spies, Varuna watched over the conduct of everyone, and punished those who transgressed rta. In this life, Varuna punished the malefactors by casting them down, and bringing upon them poverty, sickness, and even death. After death, the dead were also judged based on their actions in life. Those who lived an unrighteous life according to anrta were sent down to the netherworld. The truthful and righteous were to enjoy the

paradisal life in heaven. Aware of their insufficiencies and fallibilities, the people prayed to Varuna to forgive them their involuntary transgressions. Among the various methods of punishment, Varuna also inflicted disease upon the sinner, in addition to catching the sinner with his snare, pasu, and dragging him/her to the netherworld. Rudra, the Pasupati, or ‘Lord of the Beasts, or Cattle’

(pasus), also catches the sinner with his snare. Indra and Yama also catch sinners with a noose (O’Flaherty 1976: 171). The dead would encounter both kings: Yama and 170

Varuna. Not only is Varuna at times identified with death (mrtyu), but his abode is also mentioned as the destination of the dead, who follow the same paths as their fathers. “This shows that, as a result of Varuna’s incorporation in the pantheon of the Devas, also Death and the ominous powers have been integrated with the cosmic order” (Kuiper 1979: 12). Varuna’s close colleague in overseeing the moral conduct of the people was Mitra. As Varuna was associated with water and the dark night, Mitra was connected with fire, daylight and the sun. In the Rg Veda, that which is said of Varuna is also mentioned in reference to Mitra. As the divine ‘intimate friend,’ Mitra is also a guardian of contracts and oaths. Both Mitra and Varuna are called the guardians of the world, the upholders of the three worlds and three heavens. Dandekar explains: “Mitra, as a friendly divinity, helps to bring about friendly bondage between man and man, and between god and man; he is particularly the guardian of human laws. Varuna, on the other hand, presides over an all-inclusive cosmic domain; his Law includes all laws” (1979: 63). The god Aryaman is generally mentioned in the Rgvedic prayers alongside of Mitra and Varuna. In these prayers, people ask for these gods’ safe guidance for their own journey to the other world, and for the gods’ forgiveness. For example, the Rgvedic hymn 2.27.6-8 reads: “Aryaman, Mitra and Varuna, easy is the path (you show us), and free from thorns, and pleasant... may Aryaman lead us by easy paths, 171

and attain the great happiness of Mitra and Varuna.” As a deity who cared for people and the social order, Mitra inspired friendship and elevated the importance of upholding the covenants, contracts and agreements. Mitra oversaw the practical operation of rta in the world, just as Varuna guarded the principle of rta (Gonda 1972: 91, 109-10). Mitra befriended and allied with those who lived according to rta. Mitra belonged to the day and Varuna to the night. Accordingly, a white-colored animal was offered to Mitra at the sacrifice, and a dark one to Varuna (Oldenberg 1894: 96­ 97). In charge of the maintenance and restoration of order, Mitra watches over everything and sees with never-closing eyes: “Mitra, when praised, animates men to exertion... Mitra looks upon men with unclosing eyes” (RV 3.59.1). Recognizing Mitra, essentially, as a sun god, Gonda follows his exploits from the Vedic era to the post-Vedic (1972). When discussing the portrayal of Mitra, Gonda objects to the “one-sided suggestion that Mitra’s main, central or most important function was to be ‘the guarantor of orderly international relations.’” He further argues that Mitra “may have been much more than a lord of the oath” (1972: 104). Mitra and Varuna are also associated with the idea of satya (the true, the real) and dharma (preserving power, inherent qualities). There has been much discussion over the nature of the relationship between Mitra and Varuna. In general, however, Mitra is typified as a “god of equilibrium and stabilization” (Gonda 1972: 62-64). 172

Bergaigne in 1897 argues that the Rg Veda contains many verses that portray Indra as a protector of rta. Like Varuna, who is depicted as one with kingship over all and the guardian of rta , Bergaigne clarifies, Indra, is also the maker and defender of rta , and a contender to the kingly splendor. The pairs Mitra Varuna and Indra Varuna

indicate the same function and purpose for both gods (139-69). In agreement with Bergaigne, Keith also refers to the Rg Veda, where Indra is mentioned as rta itself, who opened the ears of the morally deaf and motivated thoughts that averted transgression. By upholding the law, Indra established the world, regulated nature, made the sun and the stars to rotate, and brought light into this world. Fighting against the forces of chaos and the demons of the netherworld, Indra was the affirmation of the divine order (1925: 166-72). The ethical god Varuna is mentioned in almost all of the hymns devoted to him as the forgiver of the sins. People prayed to him for his forgiveness. Similarly, Savitr, meaning the ‘Impeller,’ or the god of the rising and setting sun, is referred to as the one who makes men sinless. In RV 4.54.3, the prayer reads, “If, Savita, through ignorance, through pride in feeble or powerful (dependants), or through human infirmity, we have committed (offence) against your divine person, or against gods or men, do you on this occasion hold us to be unoffending.” The great god Agni is often declared to be above all the gods, including Varuna and Mitra, and is worshipped by them. Similar to the roles of Varuna and 173

Mitra in upholding the Law and Order, Agni punishes those who digress. Oldenberg describes Agni thus: It is indeed true that the most powerful orders of the natural and cultic events are manifest in him; as the next divine companion of human life he, the supervisor of all statutes, looks through all the wrong-doing, he distinguishes the good from the evil, and the thing that is done intentionally from the one that is done thoughtlessly; as a friend of the dark, as one banishes and consumes in fire evil demons, he also bums alive the human evil-doers, the offenders of the orders of Varuna and Mitra; and as such he is the champion of law and order (1894: 103-4).

In addition, Usas, the ‘Dawn,’ an Indo-Iranian goddess and the relative of Varuna and a sister of Night, is both closely related with, and opposed to, Night and the netherworld; she repels the powers of Darkness and Evil. “The appearance of Usas represents the victory of Light over Darkness, of Life over Death. Her victory, like Indra’s and Agni’s, releases the goods of Life from the bonds of the nether world” (Kuiper 1983: 161). Eternally young and beautiful, Usas was the goddess of the dawn. Usas’s light vanquished the darkness and supplied welfare with her shining light. People prayed for her regular return of daylight. Since the darkness of night was reminiscent of chaos, anrta, therefore, each daybreak was viewed as a reinstatement of rta. The twin Asvins, ‘owners of horses,’ also known as Nasatyas, are comparable to Usas as the destroyers of darkness and the demons that prospered in darkness. Similar to Usas, the twins were associated with rta and the spreading light of

174

daybreak. As compassionate doctors who helped women in childbirth and sheltered warriors in battle, Nasatyas also protected rta. Vayu, the wind god, also fought the demons in order to restrain anrta within the world of the demons. Vayu was the breath—bom from the breath of Purusa, which leaves the body at the time of death. In the war against Vrtra, Vayu creates the Maruts to assist Indra. In the Rg Veda, Rudra is referenced as the father of the Maruts. If people did not make proper sacrifice and did not stay on the path of truth, Rudra hurled at them all that embodied chaos and disorderly existence. Bright as the sun, he is “the asura of heaven” (Keith 1925: 142). As the present study seeks to demonstrate, the Vedic deities who are presented with naturalistic associations, possess natures that are deeply rooted in ethical concerns.

x.

Death and the Journey o f the Spirit As the one definite occasion in the life of all beings, death is feared and

shunned by all humans from the moment of birth. Throughout the history of humanity, the belief in some mode of existence beyond death, whether referred to as spirit, ancestor, ghost, or saint, has persisted. Lincoln explains aging as an inevitable erosion process of the body with a definite ending (1986). He further clarifies: “For even if erosion is slowed and the threats posed by time, illness, and accidents are countered with proper nutrition and healing practices, still the end to human existence 175

may only be postponed a bit, never avoided altogether” (119). Therefore, since “all the erosion ends in total collapse or pulverization,” just the same “all life ends in death” (Lincoln 1986: 119). As reviewed in the previous chapters, Lincoln further defines the PIE verb *ger both as “to age” and “to fall apart.” In the Vedas, however, the verb *mer- (marate and mriyate) means “to die” (Avestan miryeit). The Vedic Indians’ understanding of death and the afterlife is rooted in the “animism which the Indo-European people brought with them from their primitive stages of development” (Oldenberg 1894: 307). Oldenberg adds: This concept finds expression in references to an air-shaped or shadowy being, namely the soul that dwells in the body. It can leave the body which then sinks into unconsciousness, whereas it itself roves about far and near. It parts permanently from the body in death and continues to lead its own existence for some time or for ever assuming visible or invisible shapes (1894: 307).

In accordance with the elementary commonalities of the Old European and the Indo-European traditions, as well as the Indo-Iranians’ funeral customs, it appears more likely that Vedic afterlife beliefs were also not entirely divergent from other ancient traditions. In light of this, the Vedic beginnings of the doctrine of life after death as a transmigratory process are also traceable to the birth of religion as a whole. In Vedic religion, the soul of the dead was believed to reside, temporarily or permanently, in animals, plants, etc. One characteristic that was very prominent among Indo-Iranian peoples is the innate correlation of the doctrine of the soul’s migration with the idea of moral retribution. The good and the evil that a person has

176

undertaken in this life will be returned to him/her, either in heavenly bliss, or in a dark torturous hell. In our review of the anthropology and religious history of the Vedic religion, a belief in life after death appears as the most common element in this tradition. Based on these views in life after death, which are present in other cultures as well, scholars now agree that there was a similar afterlife belief among the early Vedic people. Here, the information we have provided from the Rg Veda supports such a statement. In Vedic religion, as in other religions, the state of life after death for people depends on their earthly life. Although the rsis were often occupied in promising to their virtuous patrons such optimistic items as wealth, long life, and an immortal life in heaven, they frequently forewarned enemies and transgressors of an early death and an anticipated unpleasant afterlife. Bodewitz explicates that in the Rg Veda, the “cosmic myth does not only live on in the ever repeated rituals, but also in the ideas on life and death, body and soul, and release from mundane existence” (1991: 10). Though in the Rg Veda the evidence of the significance of the dead and of life after death is meager, nevertheless, there is enough material for an investigation. One of the most obvious ways this closure of life was envisioned was as a separation of body and soul. Other views go further and discuss the ways in which the body itself crumbles into smaller pieces after death. Just as the Indo-Europeans cast death as the disbanding of a compound unit, the Vedic peoples did likewise. Death only appears as an end. The body is reborn from the cosmos yet again, like a breath from the wind. 177

Lincoln explains: “After his dispersion to the elements, the dead man is said to be resting (Sanskrit ilayati), from which there is inevitably a reawakening” (1986: 124). Additionally, death is viewed as a repetitive ritual act, on par with the sacrifices. Each death repeats the first death, which was the first sacrifice that effected the creation of the universe. Therefore, as part of a cosmogonic act, death becomes the fate of all beings. It is through death that the universe is re-created and sustained. The frequent association of death with the moon points to a cyclical understanding of life and death. What happens to the moon and to the agricultural cycle proves that there is life in death (Gonda 1965, 1972; O’Flaherty 1980). The Vedic explanation, presented by Gonda, appears to be applicable also to the later developed transmigration doctrine in Hinduism. The homology of death, the moon, and the underworld forms a safe base for the Vedic approach to belief in an afterlife. Similar to other Indo-Europeans, the Vedic people also believed that the spirit was an intangible substance, like breath. Therefore, death was viewed as the spirit’s temporary separation from the physical body. On the subject of the nature of the dead and spirit in the Vedic literature, Keith explains: Of the spirit as distinct from the body we have two expressions which occur frequently enough to let us believe that their meaning was more or less definitely known: of these the first was what we would regard as physical, but what doubtless seemed just as physical to Vedic India as any other aspect of the spirit: it is the asu, life, which seems clearly to have been based on the conception of the breath of the man, which is the visible sign of life and intellect: later, but not in the Rgveda, the term Atman, the breath, is the most characteristic term for the self, and the breaths, Pranas, are a constant subject of investigation in the Upanisads, where often they appear as essentially representing the life and spirit of man. The identification of the breath and the asu is made 178

formally in the Qatapatha Brahmana, but this fact is much less important than the clear indications of the Rgveda (1925: 403). Moreover, on the subject of the early doctrine of transmigration as stated in the Upanisads, Butzenberger comments: “It is not the deceased in his entirety who

continues to exist after his individual death has occurred, but only the core of his atman/breath, which enlivens him and which has the macrocosmic wind as its natural analogue” (1998: 4). There are various references in the Rg Veda pointing to the journey of the ‘spirit’/‘sour after death. These references testify to beliefs in the ‘soul’ of the dead; the survival of this substance; its journey, which follows its separation from the body, to a temporary residence based on its own merits; and its final destination in immortal life. For example, RV 10.57.3-5 indicates: We call upon the spirit \manas] (of Subandhu) with Soma appropriated to the progenitors, with the praises of the Pitrs (forefathers). May (your) spirit [manah] (Subandhu) come back again to perform pious acts; to exercise strength; to live; and long to see the sun. May our progenitors, may the host of the gods, restore (your) spirit [manah]: may we obtain (for you) the aggregate of the functions of life.

Furthermore, after being separated from the body at death, the imperishable soul is said to have gone into the earth, the sun, plants, mountains, and waters (RV 10.58). Nevertheless, hymn 58 also states that these locations are not the final 179

destination, and the soul is promised an immortal life in another place (heaven): “Although your spirit has gone far away to what has been, or to what is to be, we bring back that (spirit) of yours to dwell here, to live (long)” (RV 10.58.11-12). In addition, a funerary hymn provides the necessary instructions for the dead: “Let the eye repair to the sun; the breath to the wind; go you to the heaven or to the earth, according to your merit; or go to the waters if it suits you (to be) there, or abide with your members in the plants” (RV 10.16.3). In both hymns there may perhaps be found the germ of the later doctrine of metempsychosis, since the soul (manas) is thought of as going into waters or plants. In later Indian philosophy, Keith explains manas, the ‘mind,’ “as the means of knowledge of all internal events, and a necessary link in the knowledge of external events en route from the senses” (1925: 403-4). Nonetheless, in the Rg Veda, asu, ‘spirit’/‘breath,’ is expressed as physical vitality, and the manas, ‘soul,’ as the seat of thought. The asu and manas together form the living person. Therefore, the Vedic term gatasu signifies the spirit leaving the body; it means ‘death.’ Oldenberg adds that, “Often, life and death appear to depend upon the remaining or the going out of asu, or manas, or at times of both” (1894: 308). In the previously discussed hymn (RV 10.58), the manas, or soul, has left the body of a dead person, who has gone to the world of the dead, to the world of Yama. RV 10.135.6-7 explains Yama’s world in the following manner: How restitution was made appeared from the (command given) at first; before that the depth was outstretched, afterwards a means of returning (from Yama) was provided. 180

This is the dwelling of Yama, which is called the fabric of the gods; this pipe is sounded for his (gratification), he is propitiated by hymns.

Yama is said to fetch the soul of people; his epithet, ‘asutrp,’ means the ‘robbing of the soul.’ In addition, Bodewitz further explains this reference, ‘asutrp,’ as signifying the “sorcerers who produce soul-loss through magic. Temporarily, one can live without the asu, but the continuing separation of body and asu produces death. Therefore the priests try to get back the asu which has already left the body during illness” (1991: 43). For example, RV 10.161.2 states: “If he be of wasted life, or already dead, or be come to the verge of death, I bring him back from the lap of Nirrti (death/destruction); I have made him strong enough to live for a hundred years.” There are various references to the survival of the soul, and, thus, the continuation of life after death. There are also references to the breath as being taken out of the body or brought back into it. In RV 1.32.10, the laying down or sleeping in the long darkness (dlrgha tamas dsayat), though this describes a dead enemy, implies that “death is not a total annihilation” (Bodewitz 2002: 214). In addition to the spirits that were embodied in the waters, mountains, forests, trees, and animals, various other spirits were also recognized in the Rg Veda, among which the spirits of the dead ancestors, the fathers, Lpitr,' who were worshiped like the gods, are referred to repeatedly. Since they could return to this world and act both maliciously and benevolently towards living people, the Vedic people kept them 181

pleased by offering them food, water, and prayers. The offerings intended for the benefit of'"pitrs at a proper time, in a proper place... in accordance with the prescribed procedure is called sraddhcT (Kane 1953: 334). Sraddha, however, must be offered with full sraddha i.e., faith, for the gratification of the pitrs. A Rg Vedic hymn (10.151.3) devoted to ‘faith’ marks its importance as a religious element: “As the gods established faith among the formidable asuras, so they establish what we have said among lavish sacrificers” (O’Flaherty 1981: 70). Here, the asuras are referred to as the ‘ancient gods,’ who are not yet demonized. Kane suggests that the word sraddha is perhaps derived from sraddha, which is “defined as the composure of the mind... confidence (in the efficacy) of religious acts... One who has no faith has no reason (or motive) for engaging in religious acts” (1953: 352). Kane further explains that, “what is offered at the sraddhas becomes transformed into that kind of food for the use of the pitrs who require food in the new bodies they might have assumed according to the doctrine of karma and punarjanma [reincarnation]” (Kane 1953: 352). The world of the fathers is referred to as the place where the one who has gone over, the preta, lives; preta also means ‘ghost,’ (Oldenberg 1894: 319; Merh: 1996: 25). Bodewitz suggests that Pitrloka, the world of the pitaras, or ‘fathers,’ may be the world belonging to the ‘fathers’; not the immediate ancestors, but a category of beings that people feared and to whom they made offerings. Bodewitz explains: “Depending on the texts and the contexts, the Pitrloka seems to be the second best world, above 182

this world but distinct from and lower than the Svarga or the second worst world, subterranean but perhaps distinct from and superior to the world of the sinners, the rivals, the demons, at least superior to hell” (2002: 222). The Vedic texts also refer to the pitrs, who represent a group, a category, rather than just one’s own ancestors. RV 10.15.1 also describes three main classes of pitrs, categorized by the degree of their merits: “Let the lower, the upper, the intermediate pitrs, rise up, accepting the Soma libation: may those progenitors who, unlike wolves,

acknowledging our offerings, have come to preserve our lives, protect us upon our invocations.” Kane explains that the word ip it f means ‘father’; however, the word ‘pitarah ’ means, “a man’s three immediate deceased ancestors,” and also refers to “the early or ancient ancestors of the human race that were supposed to inhabit a separate world (loka) by themselves” (1953: 340-41). It is said in the Rg Veda that pitrs are often in the company of the gods, Yama in particular. RV 7.76.4 reads: “Those ancient sages, our ancestors, observant of truth (rta), rejoicing together with the gods, discovered the hidden light, and, reciters of sincere prayers, they generated the Dawn”. The fate of the deceased may also be connected with funeral customs. In order for the spirit to enjoy the paradisal pleasures, the dead will participate in a resurrection, which requires an unharmed physical body. There are clear instructions about not harming the bones of the deceased in the process of either inhumation, disintegration or cremation. This concern about bodily injuries, for instance, is 183

expressed in RV 10.16.6: “Should the black crow, the ant, the snake, the wild beast, harm (a limb) of you, may Agni the all-devourer, and the Soma that has pervaded the brdhmanas, make it whole.” As a result, the bones of the dead are to be collected

carefully and put away, buried in the ground, or deposited into an ossuary. Of course, the deceased, being considered impure and therefore polluting for the survivors, were not to be touched for three or ten days, or even until the bones were ready to be collected (Oldenberg 1894: 328-31). In the Rg Veda, both burials and cremations are mentioned. The Vedic term, ‘House of Clay,’ mrnmaya grha, is often explained as a reference to the burial, i.e., a grave. However, in RV 7.89.1, it is only indicative of an undesirable place: “May I never go, royal Varuna, to a house made of clay, grant me happiness, possessor of wealth, grant me happiness.” What is translated as grave, mrnmaya grha, is also referred to as a house in which life continues. Another term used in the Rg Veda is the stone house (harmya) of Varuna, which is the nether world, in continuity with the dark primeval chaotic world of asat and anrta (Bodewitz 1994: 38). In support of Kuiper (1983: 68n.), Bodewitz agrees that the netherworld is also called the ‘stone house’ because it is the abode of Varuna, where “he dwells in the depth of the cosmic mountain” (1994: 38).

184

In addition to the spirits of the dead ancestors, the spirits of the raksasas, ‘demons,’ are also frequently mentioned in the Rg Veda as the malicious spirits who return only to interfere destructively with the lives of the living. Furthermore, Oldenberg points to a different set of spirits who reside in the stars. He comments: “Can we not consider as a vestige of the belief in the star-soul the naming of the Great Bear as seven Rsis, or the naming of the Pleiades as Arundhatl, the symbol of fidelity, or the concept of the Krttikas as the consorts of the heavenly Bears?” (1894: 323). The desire for an absence of a return for the demons from the underworld also points to an expected life, a survival after death. In RV 7.104.3, the raksasas are thrown into bottomless darkness, “so that not one of them may again issue from it.” Similarly, describing a heavenly life, often denoted by immortality ‘amrta’ for the departed ones, points to an expected life after death. Regarding immortality as stated in the Rg Veda, Bodewitz adds, “Reaching a positive, auspicious life after death in a heavenly sphere might also be denoted by terms denoting immortality. It has long been observed that terms like amrta and amrtatva in the RS [Rgveda Samhita] often or even mostly do not designate life in heaven when associated with mortals” (1994: 31). On the same page, Bodewitz (referencing Boyer 1901: 457n.) points to the term non­ dying, ‘amrtatva,’’ as it is used for rain, which signifies a continuation of life.

185

xi.

Yama: King o f the Dead The dead person, who is expected to join the fathers, the gods, and above all

mother earth, is to meet Yama, ‘twin,’ the king of the dead. Yama’s background is in the Indo-European tradition; however, his lineage is not quite clear. He is referred to as a god, the king of the dead, the first man to die, father of the human race, and the ruler of hell and the south region. Merh clarifies that all the hymns related to Yama, i.e., funerary rites, and the sacrifice for the fathers, the ancestors ‘pitrmedha ,’ appear in the tenth, the last, book of the Rg Veda: “[Nevertheless, this] does not necessarily suggest that they were composed at a later date. It is quite possible that at the time of the compilation of the RV, these hymns were brought together and placed in the Mandala X, same as all the Soma hymns were collected in the Mandala IX” (1996: 6). In RV 10.17.1-2, Yama is described as the twin of his sister, YamI, and son of Vivasvant, ‘the luminous,’ and Saranyu, ‘the swift.’ These two were also mentioned as the parents of the twin Asvins (Nasatyas), of Indo-European heritage. Nevertheless, the twins, Yama and YamI, are rooted in the Indo-Iranian tradition; their positions in the Avestan Iranian tradition will be discussed in the following chapter. Yama, as the head of the human race, provides both a beginning of human life and of the future life (Keith 1925: 406-8). Similar to the story of Adam and Eve, Yama and YamI became the progenitors of the human race, and Yama’s death marks the origin of sacrificial death. From this point on, Yama is identified with mrtyu, ‘death.’ As the first to die—like Purusa— 186

Yama discovered the path from earth to the other world. RV 10.14.1-4 describes how Yama, as the one who first discovered the path for people, conducts those who are virtuous from the earth, and opens to many the path to heaven. He provided a guide for the journey of the dead to heaven: “In the leafy tree where Yama drinks with the gods, there the progenitor, the lord of the house, invites us to join the men of old” (RV 10.135.1). As a solar god, Yama occupies the highest region of heaven, ‘dyu.’ In more than one reference, Yama’s abode is conceived to be situated in a very high region of dyu (Merh 1996: 27). RV 1.35.6 describes the three spheres and the path to the realm of Yama: “Three are the spheres: two are in the proximity of Savita, one leads men to the dwelling of Yama. The immortal (luminaries) depend upon Savita as a cart upon the pin of the axle; let him who knows (the greatness of Savita) declare it.” Sayana comments, “the intermediate loka, antariksa, or firmament, is described as the road to the realm of Yama, the ruler of the dead, by which the pretah, or ghosts travel” (Wilson I, 2001: 92). One member of the great pantheon of Vedic gods is Visnu, who later became a great god in Hinduism. As an ally of Indra, he assisted in the war against Vrtra. Visnu was also understood to be a benevolent creator god, who by taking three strides provided space for all beings: Visnu with his third step created heaven. In RV 10.14.8, Yama’s abode is located in parame vyoman, i.e., in the uppermost heaven. The highest step of Visnu is represented as his abode and is connected with ideas 187

concerning life after death. Moreover, Merh notes that Macdonell perceives the third step of Visnu as identical with the highest heaven (1996: 40). Providing rain and food, Visnu cultivated fertility and guarded conception. Pious men, after their death, live happily in the Yama-loka that is the favorite region of Visnu (RV 1.154.5). Yama is mentioned in the list of gods along with Varuna, Mitra, and Agni. In RV 10.14, Yama is exalted as a god, as a gatherer of men; he is even praised as a ‘rajan’ i.e., a king like Varuna. Nevertheless, in most hymns he is the punisher of men for evil deeds, and the one who, like Varuna, catches and fetters the sinner. In RV 10.97.16, the sage prays: “May they liberate me from the sin produced by curse, from the sin caused by Varuna, from the fetters O Yama, from all guilt caused by the gods”. In the journey to the other world, the soul of the dead is met by the assistants of Yama, the two dogs, Sarameyau. They are sons of Sarama, the messenger of Indra. In RV 10.15.10-12, the dead are forewarned concerning the dogs: Pass by a secure path beyond the two spotted four-eyed dogs, the progeny of Sarama, and join the wise pitrs who rejoice joyfully with Yama. Entrust him, O king, to your two dogs, which are your protectors, Yama, the four-eyed guardians of the road, renowned by men, and grant him prosperity and health. The messengers of Yama, broad-nosed, and of exceeding strength, and satiating themselves with the life (of mortals), hunt mankind; may they allow us this day a prosperous existence here, that we may look upon the sun.

188

Merh indicates that, “There is nothing in the RV showing directly that Sarama was a bitch” (1996: 49); nevertheless, in translation, Sarama is often referred to as the bitch of Indra. Yama’s dogs, described as a brindled one (sabala ) and a brown one, are to guard the gate of heaven, to select the ones who are to die, and to guide the dead in their upward journey to heaven (Merh 1996: 50-53). Like Varuna and Yama, the dogs assist the dead with their transition: “Two Dogs, the owl (uluka), the pigeon (kapota) as well as bad dreams and mrtyu are called Yama’s messengers” (Merh 1996: 49). The owl and the pigeon, also referred to as evil and destructive enemy forces, are to be driven out. As we have seen, the archeology of Old Europe has presented examples of dogs, pigeons, and owls as the revered symbols of the goddess of regeneration and, therefore, auspicious omens. The owl was recognized as a prophetic bird, a messenger of death, and an epiphany of the goddess of death; her images appear on stelae, in megalithic tombs, and on urns in South-Eastern Europe and Western Anatolia. Owls, as well as ravens and crows, were omens of death. The swan, goose, and duck stood for ‘Fate.’ The dog, however, was sacred to the Goddess of Death; her epiphany was both an omen of death and a guardian of life (Gimbutas 1989: 322-24). Nevertheless, in the Vedic religion, the dog came to be associated with destruction, death, and Yama: O gods, let us worship for that, desiring which the pigeon sent as Nirrti’s messenger, has come to this (ceremony); let us make atonement, may prosperity be given to our bipeds and quadrupeds. 189

May that which the owl shrieks be in vain, (and may it be in vain) that the pigeon takes his place upon the fire; may this reverence be paid to Yama, (the god of) Death, as whose messenger he is sent. (Praised) by our hymn, O gods, drive out the pigeon, who deserves to be driven out, exhilarated (by our oblation), bring us food and cattle, dissipating all our misfortunes; abandoning our food, may the swift (pigeon) fly away (RV 10.165.1, 4-5).

In addition to Yama and his two dogs and Varuna, there are also certain women who meet the soul of the dead. Two of these women are called ManasI (Lady Mind), and CaksusI (Lady Eye). Bodewitz describes them: “As a unity in duality... These two women are also said to weave the worlds; they produce the mental and visual conception of the world. The woman called ManasI is priya (dear) or perhaps even (own). This means that the deceased meets his own soul in the form of a beautiful woman” (1991: 26). In addition, Bodewitz points to the story of the sage Bhrgu, who is sent to the other world, where, among other things, he sees two women: “In the one version they guard a treasure, which obviously represents the good and bad works of man. The other version states that the one woman is beautiful, kalyana, and the other is atikalyana, probably to be interpreted as no more beautiful, ugly” (1991: 26). Similar female characters are also found in Avestan tradition. After a detailed analysis of Yama’s position in the Rg Veda, Kane states: “It has already been seen how Yama is said to have within his powers again and again foolish men who believe in the existence of this world alone and deny the existence of the next” (1953: 160). In the post-Vedic literature, however, Yama’s position is changed 190

to a negative one, from a lofty heavenly abode, he was degraded to the underworld or even to hell. He was no longer the benevolent ruler of humankind. “Thus from being a beneficent ruler of the departed soul in the very early Vedic times, Yama came gradually to be looked upon as a dreadful punisher of men” (Kane 1953: 160). Bodewitz also explains that, “It is unclear how a celestial, benevolent deity could become degraded to a dark god of the underworld. Rather we should assume that the darker side of Yama was original, that celestial transformation took place as a consequence of the discovery of heaven for human beings” (2002: 222). He also compares Yama’s situation to that of Varuna’s, who as a demon, resided both in heaven and in the underworld. Both Yama and Varuna were connected with death, the moon, the underworld and night, and were in charge of the moral conduct of the people.

xii.

Resurrection in Heaven Having departed for another world of existence, the full personality of the

departed, consisting of body (sarira), soul (asu) and spirit (manas), is preserved (Keith 1925: 401-6). The Rg Veda (9.113.9, 11) depicts this personality as: Where in the third heaven, in the third sphere, the sun wanders at will, where the regions are filled with light, there make me immortal; flow Indu, for Indra.

191

Where there is happiness, pleasures, joy, and enjoyment, where the wishes of the wishers are obtained, there make me immortal; flow, Indu, for Indra. In this world, once again possessing a physical body, only the virtuous dead enjoy heavenly physical pleasures, including hearing the sound of the flute, and eating and drinking the ‘spirit-food,’ i.e., the funeral offerings. In the Rg Veda, the nature of heaven, which is attained by the spirit, is described repeatedly. Heaven is described as a world already reached by the pious, e.g., the hero killed in battle, the asceticpitaras, and those people devoted to rta, all of which points not only to another existence after death, but also to judgment and belief in the heavenly life. The concept of judging one’s deeds and actions, although not specifically mentioned, are applied to the gods’ determination of humanity’s just reward. The Rg Veda further directs the dead to “go to those to whom the honey flows... to those who through penance have gone to heaven,” and to the “observers of truth, speakers of truth, and augmenters of truth” (RV 1.154.1-5). In the light of such imagery, it is not accurate to assume total annihilation as the prospect of the deceased. Keith declares: “It is probable that in the Indo-Iranian period there had already developed the conception of the distinction between the heavenly lot of the blessed dead and the dismal fate in hell of the evil” (Keith 1925: 413). Recent Vedic studies confirm such a probability. Bodewitz also argues that the Vedic people did recognize a life after death. He indicates that references to an immortal heavenly existence after death, in the earlier books, “are reserved for some mythical ancestors, the Angirasas 192

and the Rbhus” (1994: 36), and that it is only in the later hymns where everyone becomes a potential candidate. Nevertheless, the later hymns, including the hymn of the funeral rite where there are references to the world of the blessed dead, confirm that, “an institution like a ritual presupposes some tradition” (Bodewitz 1994: 37). As part of the cosmogony of the universe, and also of Visnu’s third stride, the heavens were created. In heaven, the dead continued a life in the company of the fathers gone before and Yama, the first man to die. Heaven is described in the Rg Veda as a blissful place of radiant light and joy. Liberated from the pestering of the

demons, the people there took pleasure in feeding on milk and honey and making love. Sounds of flute-playing and sweet singing are heard everywhere. There are also wishcows providing whatever is wished under the fig tree, Yama drinks with the gods (Keith 1925: 407). In short, the promised life in heaven was an improved replica of life on earth, with the familiar gifts of human pleasures. The idea of heaven in the Rg Veda is quite clear. The virtuous individual has gained immortality in the company of the gods Mitra and Varuna, in the joyful, bright heaven: “Imperial rulers of this world, you shine, Mitra and Varuna, at this sacrifice, the beholders of heaven: we ask of you the wealth (that is) rain, and immortality for your forms traverse earth and heaven” (RV 5.63.2). The blissful heavenly life is described in various locations as taking place in the center of heaven, on the lap of dawn, in the luminescent world, etc. Heaven is a sunny, bright world full of 193

enjoyment and pleasure. It is located in the sky, in the highest heaven, in the third heaven, in the highest step of Visnu. As the supreme knower of the guilty and the innocent, Varuna rules over the sunny world. Heaven is also where Yama resides. Among numerous Rg Vedic descriptions of heaven, hymn 10.135.6-7 expresses the following: How restitution was made appeared from the (command given) at first; before that the depth was outstretched, afterwards a means of returning (from Yama) was provided. This is the dwelling of Yama, which is called the fabric of the gods; this pipe is sounded for his (gratification), he is propitiated by hymns.

In Katha Upanisad (1.1.12), Yama describes heaven to Naciketas, who is inquisitive in the matters of death and afterlife. Yama says: “In heaven there is no fear—you (death) are not there, (and) nobody is struck with fears because of old age. Having transcended both hunger and thirst, and crossed over sorrow, one rejoices in the heavenly world (trans. GambhTrananda 1996: 16). Yama also tells Naciketas of the dhara, ‘bridge,’ or ‘path,’ over which one must cross in order to reach the afterlife destination (1.3.14), it operates as a system of reckoning and judgment: “Arise, awake, and learn by approaching the excellent ones. The wise ones describe that path to be as impassable as a razor’s edge, which, when sharpened, is difficult to tread on” (trans. GambhTrananda 1996: 79). Similar reference is made in the Rg Veda (9.41.2), where a clear distinction is made between the two paths: “We may think upon the bridge of bliss, leaving the bridge of woe behind” (Griffith 1973: 485). 194

Separated from the body at death, the honorable spirit journeyed to heaven, where it was reunited again with its physical form. Accordingly, the bones of the dead had to be collected carefully and put away, especially for the purpose of resurrection. Despite the various prevalent methods of disposing of the dead body, such as burial, cremation, and exposure to the elements, the body was restructured in the same form for the spirit to reenter and to live another life in the other world. The Vedic people further believed that the departed soul would receive a new body with which it would live in the company of Yama and the fathers. RV 10.14.7-8 is addressed to the spirit of a dying person, and points to a belief in the journey of the spirit and a resurrection in heaven: Depart, depart, by the former paths by which our forefathers have departed; there shall you behold the two monarchs Yama and the divine Varuna rejoicing in the Svadha. Be united with the pitrs, with Yama, and with the fulfillment of your wishes in the highest heaven; discarding iniquity, return to your abode, and unite yourself to a luminous body.

In the Indo-European and Indo-Iranian cosmological systems, there is not any movement without a counterpart, and no shift of matter without an opposite balancing movement. Therefore, we would expect to find numerous descriptions of the body’s resurrection at the end of the life cycle, when a new body similar to the earthly one is provided for the dead (Lincoln 1986: 126). RV 10.15.14 refers to the condition of the dead, who has departed the body, has made the journey, passing by Yama’s four-eyed guard dogs, and has arrived at his/her final destination. At this place, the “Supreme 195

Lord” is asked to “construct at your pleasure that body that is endowed with breath.” Since a soul cannot consume Soma, milk or honey, listen to the delightful sounds of singing and the flute, or delight in the joys of sex without a body, therefore, the soul and the body are joined together in heaven (Keith 1925: 407; Bodewitz 1999: 109). Bodewitz adds: “somewhere between death and the admission to heaven a so-called soul must be assumed acting apart from the body. This is also the case with seriously ill people who have consciousness and whose return to the body the Atharvanic magicians try to realize” (Bodewitz 1999: 109).

xiii.

Equivalent for Hell The Rgvedic hymns were composed by the privileged seer-poet-priests for

affiliates of the privileged class of society, mainly kings and warriors, who were expected to engage in proper rituals, perform their duties, and honor the gods. In light of this, there are more hymns that promise a happy and fortunate/heavenly life after death than there are words of admonition and reprimand, forewarning the other possible destination in opposition to heaven, i.e., that of hell. Although there are no specific Rgvedic words translated as ‘hell’ [like the Atharvavedic naraka, ‘hell,’ in contrast to svarga, i.e., heaven], nevertheless, there are clear descriptions of an unpleasant world to which transgressors are sent (Keith 1925: 409-10). In any case, it was not in the interest of either the poets or their audience to speak or hear of such a place (Bodewitz 1999a; 1999b; 2002). 196

As a natural complement to heaven, hell is a place of punishment in the Rg Veda. It is undeniably a place to where certain gods hurl the sinners in order to punish

them. Hell is in an endless abyss deep under the three earths, and is therefore a place of deep darkness and evil. Although the term ‘punishment’ is used against the sinner, this concept does not necessarily include torment by fire or other specific physical tortures. Moreover, Oldenberg affirms: It is not Yama or any other god who gifts life after death to the mortal; continuity of life is but a matter of course according to the concepts which go back to the most primitive times; one could only express the hope or fear that the gods would exercise their mercy or wrath respectively on the soul that lives on. Therefore, we must accept without hesitation the Vedic belief in hell (1894: 312). Similar to most other religions, including Christianity and Islam, Vedic beliefs in ‘hell’ are often expressed, in an indirect way, through references made to a dark, bottomless pit, an abyss, the abode of demons, etc. In the dualistic fashioning of the cosmos, the upper world was created for the gods and the earth was created for the mortals. The Rg Veda describes the earth, the sky and the heaven above the sky, as the ordered world operating according to rta. In contrast to this world, the Rg Veda describes the worlds of sat and asat. The world of sat was maintained by rta, for the residing of the ‘truthful’ and the ‘virtuous,’ wherein

they lived as immortals; and the chaotic dark netherworld of anrta was the abode of the sinners, enemies, and demons. The netherworld, situated outside the ordered world, is the realm of chaos; it is the lap of Nirrti, ‘destruction’ (Brown 1941: 76-80). 197

Opposed to heaven, where the righteous live, ‘hell’ is the place for the unrighteous evil-doer. “Once the concept of life after death had been developed with emphasis on other worldly rewards for earthly virtues, then the idea of punishment, meted out in the other world for earthly sin, had to surface. This was an unavoidable consequence” (Oldenberg 1894: 312). When describing the netherworld as a natural opposition to the heavenly world, Kuiper points to terms that denote the underworld: the deep pit, the abyss, darkness, the world under the cosmic mountain, Nirrti (destruction), Harmya (stone house), and the Paravat (distance) (1983:103-6). In his discussion of the Paravat, ‘distance,’ “as a non-heavenly yonder world which is far away,” Bodewitz explains that in most traditions, a distant, western place on the outer borders of the world serves as a designated place for the dead. However, in the Vedic texts, “death is associated with the South” (2000: 104). Since the West is where the sun sets, and Varuna, who is closely connected with death, is the deity who resides in the West, therefore, the West could be the entrance to the netherworld. The Rg Veda mentions the sun as emerging from a distance, paravat, and extending into

the underworld in the West. Commenting on RV 6.61.14 [ma tvat ksetrany aranani ganma “May we not go from you to distant fields”], Bodewitz points to Keith who,

“takes arana as ‘joyless,’ probably because he did not realize that distance and death belong to the same sphere” (2000a: 104). Citing RV 10.58, Bodewitz specifies that the term is used to indicate a “dying or soul-loss and a going far away (diirakam) of

198

the soul to various places including the parah paravatah ” (Bodewitz 2000a: 104). Further, he notes Renou (1955), who assumes that “paravat is the forerunner of terms denoting hell” (Bodewitz 2000a: 104). Both Agni and Soma, originally asuras, are brought to human beings from the paravat. Kuiper identifies Soma as being fetched not only from the paravat, but also

from the rock, which would denote the cosmic hill situated on top of the netherworld (1983: 219). Kuiper (1979: 98), like Renou (1955:12), notes Paravat as being the dwelling-place of the asuras and Usas, the goddess of the Dawn. Such terms not only, “denoted the totality of the dualistic cosmos,” but also demonstrated that Paravat “was not a dwelling-place of the devas” (Kuiper 1983: 225). This descending journey to the lower and faraway places was appointed for those who failed to perform sacrifices and/or lived according to falsehood, anrta. The general understandings of the notion of hell in the Rg Veda, thus far, are based on the descriptions of the afterlife as a gloomy, dark netherworld where all commoners go to live out a hopeless existence. Nevertheless, references to the netherworld, as a specific for sinners, are numerous throughout the Rg Veda. Life according to anrta belonged only to the world of asat, and those who did not live their lives according to rta did not receive any protection, neither from the gods, nor from Yama’s dogs. On their afterlife journey, they were snatched and dragged away by the demons that came up from asat. “The asat and its inhabitants constitute the Rgvedic 199

conception nearest the Western notion of Hell and the Devil or devils” (Brown 1966: 18). The netherworld was the permanent habitat of the demons. The Rg Veda describes the netherworld as a bottomless pit, an abyss covered in absolute darkness. Those individuals, who have gone against rta by performing anrta action or speech, or both, are judged, punished, slain, and sent there by the gods,

the guardians of rta. In RV 4.5.5, “the wicked, false (in thought), false (in speech), they give birth to this deep abyss (of hell).” Following the translation of this verse, Wilson points to Sayana’s comments on idath padam ajanata gabhiram, “they give birth to this deep abyss,” as the narakastnam, “place of hell,” and also Milton’s description of “Satan falling in chaos,” in reference to the same phrase (IV, 2002: 263). Frequently, Rgvedic hymns make reference to the punishment in hell for the sinner; and the deep place {padam gabhiram), bottomless darkness (alambanarahitor), or a pit (vavra) is emphasized.

In a brief article entitled “The Rigvedic Equivalent for Hell,” Brown suggests that “By piecing together bits of scattered information and pursuing more or less obscure clues, it is possible to get a general idea about the nature of the Vedic death and after life, and to give it a place in the Vedic cosmos” (Brown 1941: 76). Brown continues with an examination of two hymns, that of RV 7.104 and Atharva Veda 8.4, with which he equates other hymns that have allusions to the “equivalent for hell.” These hymns display a distinct group of beings who are being dispatched to this kind 200

of place. They are either those who have been caught in the fetters of Varuna for committing anrta acts (sins), or those who were simply missed by their guardian gods ( nrcaksas), who were supposed to protect them on their afterlife journey (Brown 1941: 78). In this investigation, following Brown’s suggestion, for the lack of a better word, the ‘hellish’ place described in the Rg Veda is referred to simply as ‘hell.’ Those who reach ‘hell’ are anti-rta people, they are the false worshipers similar to Asura-Vrtra, other asuras, Dasyus, and Dasas; they go to the deep darkness (iadhamam tamas). The sorcerers employing raksasas, whether yatudhanas or kimidins, are those who rob the pious of the “fruit of their good works,” and destroy

the sacrifice, and their punishment is to be sent to ‘hell.’ Although references to hell and punishment for enemies and sinners are found throughout the Rg Veda, for expediency, selected verses from the hymn 7.104 are specifically cited here: 1. O Indra-Soma, bum the demon; bear down on him; ye two bulls, thrust down those who prosper by (or, in) darkness. Crush away the impious (acitas), scorch them, slay, push, become sharp [so as to put] down (ni sisitarri) the atrins (devourers). 2. O Indra-Soma, let painful heat boil up, like a pot in a fire, against him who plots evil against [us]. Set inescapable hate against the Brahmanhating, flesh-devouring, evil-looking kimidin.

201

3. O Indra-Soma, pierce the evil-doers that they may fall into the chasm, the bottomless darkness, so that not a single one of them shall come up here again. Let this be your furious rage to overcome [them]. 4. O Indra-Soma, [like a yoked team] roll hither the weapon from the sky, roll hither the shattering weapon from the earth upon him who plots evil. Fashion from the mountains the whizzing bolt, with which you bum down the demon who has prospered [in the darkness]. 5. O Indra-Soma, roll it across the sky. With weapons of heat by fire (agni), that smite with stone, ageless, pierces the atrins (devourers) till they fall into the abyss. Let them go to silence. 6. O Indra-Soma, let my spell (mati) girdle you as a girth girdles a pair of vigorous horses. The invocation which I direct to you by my wisdom, these holy spells, do you hasten them, as the two Asvins [speed a chariot]. 7. Come swiftly and do counter magic [against our enemies]. Slay those who employ demons, who hate us, who would break us to bits. O Indra-Soma, let there be no happy state for him who does evil, who at any time so ever troubles me with hate. 8. Whoever, when I am acting with pure and single heart, works against me with charms that are counter to the rta (anrta), may be, O Indra, as he pronounces non-existence (asat), himself go to non-existence, like waters held in the fist. 9. They who with their swift courses distract him of pure and single heart or spoil the blessing with its heavenly rewards—let Soma deliver them over to the serpent, or let him set them in the lap of destruction (Nirrti). 12. There is a clear distinction for a man clever (in religion). True (s'