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The Origins of the Aryan Gods
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
It is inevitable that efforts should constantly be made to arrive at results regarding the origin of the gods who appear in developed form in the Vedic literature and the A vesta. It is true that for many purposes inquiries of this kind are unimportant. It matters comparatively little for the understanding of the religion of a people to be able to trace its evolution, for what is essential is to know what views the worshippers of a defined period had of their gods, and these may be very different from the opinions to which they should logically have advanced. But it is always possible that a new theory of origins may cast some light on features of religion which remain obscure, and the many divine epithets of the Veda which are still unexplained encourage efforts at further elucidation. It is therefore not unsatisfactory that Professor Rudolph Otto should have worked in detail at his effort to clear up the picture of the Vedic pantheon by endeavouring to apply to it the speculations on the origin of religion which have attracted of late years considerable attention in their attractive presentation in Das Heilige and Das Gefühl des Überweltlichen.
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References
page 813 note 1 Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, pp. 1–15.
page 814 note 1 Ibid., p. 82.
page 814 note 2 Ibid., pp. 39, 40.
page 814 note 3 Ibid., pp. 12, 107.
page 815 note 1 Ibid., pp. 22–4; cf. SirLyall, Alfred, Asiatic Studies, i, 18Google Scholar; RV. x, 146 (Araijyānī).
page 815 note 2 Ibid., pp. 83–91.
page 816 note 1 More normally the name is derived from viṣ “be active”, used of the sun; Keith, , Religion and Philosophy of the Veda, p. 109Google Scholar.
page 816 note 2 Professor Otto connects this word with the idea of “height” as elevation, a characteristic of the numen. The sense is, however, quite uncertain.
page 816 note 3 See Das Gefühl des Überweltlichen, pp. 124 ff.
page 817 note 1 Gottheit und Gottheiten des Arier, pp. 31, 103–5.
page 817 note 2 RV., x, 133, 5. See also x, 132, 4.
page 817 note 3 RV., viii, 80, 10.
page 817 note 4 Das Gefühl des Überiueltlichen, p. 191.
page 817 note 5 Gottheit und Gottheiten des Arier, pp. 73–6. For a different view, see Keith, op. cit., pp. 189, 190; for the agent affix -van, see Macdonell, , Vedic Grammar, § 177Google Scholar.
page 818 note 1 Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, pp. 76–81.
page 818 note 2 Ibid., p. 80; RV., i, 119, 2. For the formation see Macdonell, op. cit., § 193.
page 818 note 3 Mahābhārata, xii, 348, 39.
page 818 note 4 Ibid., xiii, 150, 17.
page 819 note 1 Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, p. 30.
page 819 note 2 Op. cit., p. 29. The compound is held to contain āśaṁsa, but this is unlikely.
page 819 note 3 Ibid., p. 31. For vasu “good”, see Walde, , Vergleichendes Wörterbuch, i, 310Google Scholar.
page 819 note 4 Keith, op. cit., p. 75. See RV., vii, 104, 24; x, 87, 2, 14.
page 819 note 5 Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, p. 54, n. 1. It is not clear to what term reference is meant.
page 819 note 6 Ibid., p. 57.
That the idea is non-Aryan is not certain; see Keith, op. cit., pp. 619, 620. That it is old Dravidian is unproved, and that Mohenjo-daro reveals Dravidian civilization is purely speculative.
page 820 note 1 The view (Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, p. 103) that Dyaus Asura means “Gott” and “Gottherr”, not “Heaven, the lord”, is very implausible.
page 820 note 2 The myth may be due to a confusion of the relations of Dyaus and Uṣas with those of Dyaus and Pṛthivī; cf. Macdonell, , Vedic Mythology, p. 119Google Scholar; Oldenberg, , SBE., xlvi, 78Google Scholar; notes on RV., i, 71, 5; x, 61, 5–8.
page 820 note 3 Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, p. 64; TS., iv, 5, 10, 1; VS., xvi, 47. The word seems to be a -i agent noun from the causative of drā-; cf. kắrṣi (VS.); Macdonell, , Vedic Grammar, § 131 (2)Google Scholar.
page 820 note 4 Op. cit., pp. 137–149. The late character of the litany is shown by the ascription of the god, Śiva, of the epithet śipviṣṭa which is clearly a style of Viṣṇu. Professor Otto tries a new derivation, the numen immanent in the organ of generation (cf. śepa), but this has no special plausibility. The sense was probably lost even to the earliest Vedic seers.
page 820 note 5 The treatment of such ideas as tviṣi in A V., vi, 38 (Gottheit und Gottheiten der Arier, pp. 147–9) suggests a conscious philosophy rather than primitive thought.