195 See A. Jacob, Brahman, Ch.X. 84
alexander jacob
the permanence of the soul (ātman) as a hindrance to
moral conduct and liberation. Indeed, moral conduct, and
not rituals, are the only means of liberation according to
Buddhism. In the consideration of asceticism, it prefers
self-discipline to self-mortification. It not only opposes
the theistic and past-life determinism of Brāhmanism
but also the quasi-biological determinism of Jainism and
posits moral action as the sole determinant of individual
destiny. It thus represents a moralistic middle path
between the extreme anti-corporealism of Jainism and the
immanentist and sublimational doctrines of Tantra and
Tantric Buddhists
Indeed, Buddhism did incorporate various Tantric
practices from the 7th century A.D. onwards especial y
in its Vajrayāna branch, which, unlike the Mahāyāna
and Hīnayāna schools, emphasises the importance of
ritual rather than mere meditation. Scholars such as A.
Sanderson and S. Hatley have suggested that Tantric
practices may have penetrated Buddhism already in
the 5th century from Shaivaite sources.196 The Manjushri
Mūlakalpa text attributed to the Boddhisattva Manjushri
of the Mahāyāna tradition, and dating from the 6th century
A.D., is, for example, based on Shaiva as well as Vaishnava
Tantric texts.
***
The Shramana tradition is thus general y an ascetic one. It
focuses on the cycle of births and deaths and the liberation
(moksha) from it that may be achieved through asceticism
and non-violence. Asceticism was more severely practiced
196 See, for instance, S. Hatley, “Converting the Dākini: Goddess Cults and Tantras of the Yoginis between Buddhism and Saivism” in Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation, (ed.) D.B. Gray and R.R.
Overbey, N.Y., NY: Oxford University Press, 2016, Ch.2.
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indo-european mythology and religion
by the Jains than by the Buddhists and one of the major
Jain sects, the Digambara, to this day renounces even
clothing as an earthly attachment and as a source of
violence against the minute organisms present in one's
environment.
II. Brāhmana
The Vedas
When we turn to the spiritual traditions of Brāhmanism
and Tantra we find that they are much less world-abjuring
than the Yogic and Shramana traditions. The Indo-Āryan
Brāhmanical tradition venerates the Vedas as the font
of its spiritual knowledge. The Vedas are considered to
be divinely revealed scriptures that emerged from the
original cosmic sacrifice of the Purusha, or Primordial
Man, the form in which the divine Soul first imagined
itself in the manifest universe.197 Thus in the Rigveda, X,90
(Purusha Sūkta), we learn that
9. From that great general sacrifice, Ṛcas and Sāma-
hymns were born: Therefrom were spel s and charms
produced;198 the Yajus had its birth from it.
According to the Manusmriti, I,23, the Vedas, as liturgical texts to be chanted during sacrifices, were created by the
Supreme Soul original y for the performance of the cosmic
sacrifice of the Purusha itself:
197 For a full account of the mythology of the Purusha and its
significance for an understanding of the Āryan as well as Hamitic religions, see A. Jacob, Brahman, and Ch.V below.
198 This would refer to the contents of the Atharvaveda.
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22. He, the Lord, also created the class of the gods, who
are endowed with life, and whose nature is action; and
the subtile class of the sādhyas [lower celestial beings],
and the eternal sacrifice.
But from fire, wind, and the sun he drew forth the
threefold eternal Veda, called Rik, Yagus, and Saman,
for the due performance of the sacrifice.
In BP III,12, the Vedas accompany the physical creation
of the universe guiding its formation through sacrificial as
well as ethical rules:
34. When the creator of all worlds one day wondered
how he should create the three worlds the way they
were before, the Vedic literature manifested itself from
his four mouths.
35. Thus the four functions of [sacrificial] action [the
offer, the performer, the fire and the offering] and the
supplements of the Veda with their logical conclusions
became manifest, as also the four principles of religion
[truth, purity, austerity and compassion] and the
spiritual stages [ âshramas] and vocational divisions
[ varnas].199
26th Chaturyuga, Dvāpara Yuga
The editing of the Vedas in their present form was
undertaken by the sage Vyāsa. Though Vyāsa is mentioned
in BP I,3, as an avatār of Vishnu in the Treta Yuga, the Vishnu Purāna, III,3, declares that the Vedas are edited
in every Dvāpara Yuga and the editor of the Vedas that
199 However, we may remember the attribution of the institution of the āshramas to Kapila by the Sāmkhya-Yoga school and that of the caste system to Rishabha by the Jain.
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indo-european mythology and religion
we possess appeared in the Dvāpara Yuga of the twenty-
sixth Chaturyuga. The Vedas as we have them are divided
into four texts, Rigveda, Sāmaveda, Yajurveda and
Atharvaveda. The first three are sacrificial liturgies for the
use of the Hotr priest, the Udgātr and the Adhvaryu priest
respectively. The Atharvaveda is older in its contents and
is meant for the supervising Brahman priest, or Atharvan,
a name that is clearly of Indo-Iranian rather than Indo-
Āryan origin.
28th Chaturyuga, Treta Yuga
Brāhmanism
Brāhmanism itself traces its origins to the Treta Yuga of
the 28th Chaturyuga and the mythic figure of the first man,
Manu. A brief account of the beginning of our humanity
with Manu may be in order here.
According to the Bhāgavata Purāna, the cosmos is
said to be ever recreated after a periodic devastation by
a “flood”, when the supreme deity in the manifest form
of Vishnu descends into a deep sleep within the cosmic
ocean. Gradual y waking, he begins to reproduce the
cosmos. The antediluvian epoch, or kalpa, was called
Brahmakalpa ( BP III,11,33ff.), since it was marked by the perfect light of Brahma,200 and the second, after the cosmic
cataclysm, is the present one, called Padmakalpa (the
Lotus epoch),201 in which the divine light is transferred to
the material universe. Each kalpa is divided into fourteen
“manvantaras” or ages of Manu, a Manu being the type of
200 Brahma is the Purānic form of Brahman.
201 According to VP, I,27-28, however, the first kalpa was called Padmakalpa (the kalpa of the Lotus) and the present one is called Varāhakalpa (the kalpa of the Boar).
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enlightened mankind. Each manvantara lasts for 71 odd
Chaturyugas, or 310,980,000 years ( BP III,11,24) and is
followed by a deluge lasting as long as a Krita Yuga, or
&nbs
p; 1,728,000 years ( Sūrya Siddhāntha, I,18).
According to the Sūrya Siddhānta, Ch.I, 22, the
Manu of our cosmic cycle is said to have appeared in
the 28th Chaturyuga of the [Padma] Kalpa. And, in the
Mahābhārata, Shantiparva, it is said that Manu manifested himself in the Treta Yuga. This Manu is the seventh and
called Manu Vaivaswata [of Vivasvant, the sun]. He is
responsible for the transmission of the seeds of life to earth
as well as for the mortality (Yama) of the forms that spring
from these seeds. BP VIII,14,3, informs us that the role of a
“Manu” is to maintain the cosmic order at the time of the
creation of the universe and in BP VIII,24,13 the seventh Manu is called also Satyavrata, and King of Drāvida. So we
may assume that Drāvida and its king Satyavrata represent
the first ful y enlightened post-diluvian mankind. As
regards the proto-Dravidians, we may rely on Lahovary’s
pioneering research into the Mediterranean race, which he
identified with the Dravidian, and considered as being the
original inhabitants of the ancient Near East “in its largest
meaning”, that is, including “Anatolia, Syria, Palestine,
Caucasia, Persia, Mesopotamia with its extensions towards
India, as well as Arabia and the African regions facing
Arabia, i.e. from the Nile valley to the high tablelands of
East Africa”.202
Manu is warned of a deluge by a fish (representing
Prajāpati in his piscine incarnation Matsya).203 In the
MBh, the divine identity of the fish is revealed to be that of Prajāpati/Brahman (the name of the supreme god in his
luminous, creative aspect), since the fish declares to the
“seven sages”—who accompany Manu in the ship—“I am
202 See N. Lahovary, tr. K.A. Nilakantan, Dravidian Origins, p.2.
203 See the list of Vishnu avatārs. 89
indo-european mythology and religion
Brahma, lord of progeny [Prajāpati] … I in the form of
a fish have delivered you from this peril”.204 The fish goes
on to state that Manu should create all creatures including
“gods, asuras, and men and all the worlds and what moves
and what does not move [i.e. animal and vegetable life].”
Manu saves himself in a ship which is tied to the
“horn” of the fish205 and is borne by the latter to the heights
of “the northern mountain”, which, not being specified
as a Himalayan one, may well be Mt. Ararat, which is
general y identified as the mountain on which the “ark”
of Noah/Manu rested after the deluge.206 It is important to
note that Manu is the divine ancestor of the race that is to
inhabit the earth. In the SB, Manu is described as offering a sacrifice after the flood recedes, and from this sacrifice
arises, first, a “daughter” Idā [a variant of Ilā],207 and then
a son Ikshvāku, from whom the human race is derived.208
The Indic Manu is identifiable with the Noah of the
Hebrew Bible, and Noah is said to be a descendant of Seth,
the son of Adam [Man], who is the same of the Vedic
Purusha, or Primordial Man. In the the Ethiopian version
of Pseudo-Callisthenes, the brāhmans are said to be the
sons of Seth. Josephus identifies the land of Seth as located
around “Seiris”, which is also the land of Noah, who is said
to have preserved the wisdom of Seth.209 In the Christian
Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum of Pseudo-Chrysostom,
the books of Seth were supposed to have been hidden
204 MBh II,187,2ff.
205 See
SB I,viii,1,5.
206 For the identification of Manu with Noah see below; cf. A. Jacob, Ātman , Ch.I; A. Jacob, Brahman, Ch.IV.
207 Ilā and Idā are interchangeable in the BP (Ilā: IX,16,22) and other Purānas (Idā: BrdP III,60,11, VP 85,7).
208 We have noted the Edda (‘The Deluding of Gylfi’) records the first human beings as a girl called Embla and a boy called Ask.
209 See Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, I:70-1.
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by Noah in the land of Šir, and the so-called “cave of
treasures” in which they were hidden is identifiable with
Mt. Ararat.210 In Genesis 14:6, the Horites, or Hurrians, are particularly identified with Mt. Seir, and we note here a
close identification of the proto-Hurrians with the proto-
Dravidians of BP, according to which Manu is King of
Drāvida. Since Manu/Noah is a Dravidian “king” in BP,
it seems that Vedic religion itself derives from a proto-
Dravidian origin. It may be significant, in this context, that,
in the Mahābhārata, Āranyakaparva (IX,45, 87ff.), the title
“Yogeshvara” (Lord of Yoga) is applied particularly to the
chief god of the Dravidians, Muruga/Skanda. F.E. Pargiter
maintained that Brāhmanism was not original y Āryan
but adopted into Indo-Āryan religion from Dravidian.211
However, Pargiter did not consider the possibility that
both Āryan and later Dravidian may have been derived
from a proto-Dravidian/Hurrian212 spiritual culture.213
Manu's daughter Ila, according to the Purānas is
the originator of the Lunar Aila dynasty of kshatriyas.
According to Rāmāyana, Uttarakanda, 100, Ila was the
son, rather than daughter, of the Manu Kardama, king of
Bāhlika (Bactria). We have already noted the identification
of Manu's son with Kapila, the founder of the Sāmkhya-
with the possible origin of the Shramana sects, we will see
that Bactria is equal y associated with Brāhmanical fire-
210 See G.G. Stroumsa, Another Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology, Leiden: E.J. Bril , 1984, p.117.
211 See F.E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, London: Milford, 1922, Ch.26.
212 For a good account of the Hurrians see G. Wilhelm, Grundzüge der Geschichte und Kultur der Hurriter, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesel schaft, 1982; G. Wilhelm, The Hurrians, tr. J. Barnes, Warminster: Aris and Phillips Ltd., 1989.
213 For a detailed discussion of the proto-Dravidian/Druidic origins of Brāhmanism see A. Jacob, Brahman, Ch.VI.
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indo-european mythology and religion
worship. In ancient West Asia, the kingdom of Elam in
the western part of Iran may well correspond to the Aila
dynasty, while the Akshak dynasty of Sumer may represent
the Ikshvāku. If so, the entire region from western Iran to
Bactria was inhabited by the Aila dynasty. In general, we
may assume that the Aila dynasty represents an eastern
branch of the same race that is represented in West Asia
by the Sumerian/Akkadian Ikshvākus.
Purūravas, a grandson of Chandra and Ila, is said
to have acquired the sacred fires of the Āryans from the
Gandharvas (Gandharva being a term for heaven as well
as for a particular tribe). Purūravas is said to have lived
at the end of the Treta Yuga, at the end of which age too
there was another flood when the earth was submerged
under the waters. However, with the assistance of the sage
Agastya the earth was recovered from the depths and life
revived on it. The Aila dynasty thus is clearly associated
with th
e Indo-Āryan fire-worshipping peoples, while
Agastya represents the transmission of the Vedic religion
to the Hamitic peoples of Sumer, Egypt, and India..
Of the Solar Ikshāvku line, Rāma, the famous son of
Dasharatha, is said to have been born in the Treta Yuga
( Rāmāyana, Uttara Kanda, 44). His kingdom is said to
be Kosala, which is identified as being a part of present-
day Uttar Pradesh, but this might just be a transference
of a more westerly original location, perhaps Kish.214
Although—as we shall see below—the fire-worshipping
Āryan tradition is associated specifical y with the Aila
dynasty of Purūravas and is first evidenced in the Bactria-
Margiana Archaeological Complex, the veneration of the
Ikshvāku Rāma in Brāhmanical terms in India suggests
that his story was equal y Brāhmanised by the people
who brought the mythological story of Manu and his
descendants to the sub-continent.
214 See below p.112.
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Both the Brāhmanical religion, which may have had a
northerly Indo-Āryan origin in the Pontic Steppe, and the
Hamitic religions which begin in eastern Anatolia, around
Mt. Ararat – are characterised by a concentration on the
Purusha form of the divine Soul in the macrocosmos as
well as in the microcosm The fire rituals of the Āryans
are magical dramatisations of the cosmic sacrifice of the
Purusha and aim at reviving the latter through the force
of the ritual fire. The Agnicayana ritual, for instance, is
an elaborate example of Vedic ritual conducted for the
purpose of reviving the Purusha.215 These rituals also serve
to sustain the entire cosmos through an identification of
the chief participants, that is, the sacrificer guided by the
brahman priest, with the solar force.
The Vedas in their present form are thus primarily
sacrificial liturgies aimed at restoring the creation to its
ideal status as the Primordial Man. However, the ethical
aspects of Vedic sacrifice too may be gleaned through
the description of the evolution of religion provided in
the Manusmrithi. The aim of all Vedic enlightenment,
whether it be through Āryan fire-worship or the later
Tantra, is indeed the attainment of the ultimate identity
of the individual soul, ātman, with the primal light of the