that the Druidic tradition may go back to at least the
second millennium B.C. since it has much in common
with the Indo-European language and ideology, especial y
the Sanskritic and Hittite.20 However, it is quite possible
that the Druids were settled in Europe even earlier than
the Āryans, perhaps as early as the third millennium
B.C. The three-headed god attributable to the Druids in
the Marne and the Côte d’Or is possibly related to the
three (or four) headed god21 of the Indus Valley of the
third millennium B.C.22 Hence it is not surprising that
Clement of Alexandria believed that the Pythagorean and
Greek philosophers derived their wisdom from the Gauls
and other barbarians,23 by which he no doubt meant the
Druidic priestly core of these tribes. Dio Chrysostom (1st
c. A.D.) considered the Druids as being similar to the
Persian Magi, Egyptian priests, and Indian Brāhmans. It
may be recalled that F.E. Pargiter once maintained that
Brāhmanism itself may not have been original y Āryan
19 The Druidic type is perhaps most evident today among the Welsh.
20 See S. Piggott, op.cit. , p.74.
21 The fourth head of the god is invisible since it is turned backwards.
22 See, for instance, M. Jansen, Die Indus-Zivilisation:
Wiederentdeckung einer frühen Hochkultur, Köln: DuMont, 1986.
23 See S. Piggott, op.cit., p.81.
22
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but adopted into Indo-Āryan religion from Dravidian.24
However, Pargiter did not consider the possibility that
both Āryan and later Dravidian may have been derived
from a proto-Dravidian/Hurrian spiritual culture.
The religion of the Druids was clearly cosmological, as
is attested in the commentaries of Caesar, who attributed
to them much knowledge of the stars and their motion,
and of the size of the world.25 Ammianus Marcellinus
declared that they investigated “problems of things secret
and sublime”.26 Diodorus Siculus, following Posidonius,
maintained that they held that “the souls of men are
immortal, and that after a definite number of years they
have a second life when the soul passes to another body”,27
which is also the doctrine of the proto-Dravidians who
formulated the original tenets of Indian religion.
Although the Celtic religion included sacrifices, even
human, there is no evidence however of fire-worship
among the Druids such as became characteristic of the
Indo-Āryans and Iranians. However, the veneration of
fire among the ancient Celts may be dimly detected in the
relative frequency of the appel ation “Áed” (fire) among
the legendary and early historical high-kings of Ireland.28
It is only among the proto-Aryans that the Indo-European
religious rituals become centred on fire-worship, which
entails an external dramatisation of cosmic events
and particularly the birth of the sun within the sacred
sacrificial fire, Agni.
However, with the rise of the later Hamitic cultures
of Sumer and Egypt, the adoration of the cosmic forces
24 See F.E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, London: Milford, 1922, Ch.26.
25 Ibid.
26 See S. Piggott, op.cit. , p.101.
27 Ibid., p.102.
28 For instance, Áed Rúad (see the Lebor Gabála Érenn).
23
indo-european mythology and religion
assumed anthropomorphic forms and idolatrous temple-
worship became the rule, as it did in later Hinduism as
wel . At the same time, it should be noted that the temples
of the ancient Indo-Europeans, as well as the fire-rituals of
the Āryans, are both equal y built on a sacred ground-plan
(mandala) of the Purusha who is revived, through the
various rituals performed therein, to his original cosmic
solar splendour. In the Indo-Aryan sacrifices the sacrificer
undergoes a ritual death and rebirth as the sun, whereas in
the Hamitic temple worship, the sacred idol is adored as a
Both these forms of worship are natural y related to the
Tantric yogic exercises that employ the correspondences
between macrocosm and microcosm to divinise the adept
himself.29
The gods of the various cultures that emerged from
the original homeland of the Indo-Europeans symbolise
the various vital aspects of the macroanthropomorphic
Purusha. Thus Enlil, Vāyu, Wotan, representing the divine
breath or life-force, are chief gods among the Sumerians,
Indians, and Germans; Zeus, Indra, Perun represent
the storm-force, among the Germans, Greeks, Indians,
and Slavs; and Atum, An, Brahman, Mithra, Helios, Sol
are worshipped by the Egyptians, Sumerians, Indians,
Zoroastrians, Greeks and Mithraists as the cosmic Light.
While the fire-sacrifices and temple-rituals of the ancient
Indo-European religions were considered necessary for
the well-being of the Purusha and the proper functioning
of the universe, the aim of the truly enlightened sage,
however, was to transcend the cosmic incarnation
altogether through yogic ascesis.
29 For a more detailed examination of the rituals of the ancient Indo-Europeans see A. Jacob, Brahman: A Study of the Solar Rituals of the Indo-Europeans, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2012.
24
II. Pralaya
Cosmic Floods, the Sun
and the First Man
In surveying the origins of the Indo-Europeans as
well as its cosmological myths and religious rituals we
may do well to start with the Indo-European accounts
of the creation of the cosmos itself.
Naimittika Pralaya
The story of the Deluge which we are familiar with from the
account in Genesis 6-9 is indeed a popular representation
of the cosmic floods which usher in the recreation of
the material universe after the col apse of the cosmos at
the end of a cosmic age. The first flood that engulfs the
cosmos at the end of a kalpa, or ‘day’ of Brahman is called
Naimittika Pralaya (periodic dissolution) and the second
that precedes the formation of our universe and our sun is
called Chākshusha Pralaya (dissolution of the Chākshusha
Manvantara).
The prehistory of the cosmos is presented in greatest
detail in the Indic Purānic literature,30 where we get a
glimpse not only of the cosmic events that marked the
creation but also of their psychological significance. In
30 The Flood stories are to be found also in the Tamil Purānams.
25
indo-european mythology and religion
the Bhāgavata Purāna31 III,xi,18-22, a day of the supreme Lord is calculated as equalling 1000 Chaturyugas, each
Chaturyuga32 being 12,000 divine years long (that is, years
as prevalent in the realm of the gods),33 or 4,380,000,000
terrestrial years.34 After creating and sustaining the
cosmos for this extraordinarily vast period of time, comes
the night in which the Lord “sleeps”. This night is equal y
as lo
ng as the day of the Lord and is the period when the
cosmos is dissolved into its original subtle constituents in
the flood called Naimittika Pralaya ( BP XII,4,3).
Each kalpa is divided into fourteen “manvantaras” or
ages of Manu, a Manu being a prototype of enlightened
mankind. Each Manvantara lasts for 71 odd Chaturyugas,
or 310,980,000 years ( BP III,11,24). A lifetime of Brahma lasts hundred years totalling around 155,520,000,000,000
terrestrial years. The first kalpa of the first half (parārdha)
of Brahma’s life was called Brahma Kalpa ( BP III,11,33ff.), since it was marked by the perfect light of Brahma, and
the last of the same half was called Padma Kalpa (the
age of the lotus), since it was in this kalpa that Earth was
formed in the shape of a lotus. We live in the first kalpa of
the second half of Brahma’s life, called Varāha Kalpa (the
age of the Boar) in which the divine light is transferred to
the material universe.35
31 The following abbreviations are used in this essay: BP= Bhāgavata Purāna, BrdP= Brahmānda Purāna, RV=Rgveda, SB= Shatapatha Brāhmana, W=Warka, W.B.=Weld-Blundell Collection (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).
32 A chaturyuga is made up of four ages, Krita, Treta, Dvāpara and Kali, corresponding to a Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron Age, in the course of which the divine virtue is gradual y diminished. We now live in the fourth, degenerate, age (Kaliyuga) of the Varāha Kalpa.
34 A terrestrial year is the period taken by the sun to revolve through the twelve constel ations of the zodiac ( BP III,11,13; V,22,5).
35 Current astrophysical theories suggest that the cosmos is roughly 26
alexander jacob
The Naimittika Pralaya which occurred at the end
of the previous Padma Kalpa is described in some
detail in the Brahmānda Purāna. In the Brahmānda
Purāna III,iv,132, the cosmic cataclysm is said to have
begun with a drought in which the sun burnt everything
up with his “seven rays”, while the “Samvartaka” fire36 burnt
the four worlds of Earth, the Mid-Region, Heaven and
“Mahar” (the supracelestial realm):
Seven rays of the sun that blazes in the sky sucking
water, drink water from the great ocean. Being
il uminated with that intake, seven suns are evolved.
Then those rays that have become suns, burn the four
worlds in the four directions. Those fires burn up the
entire universe.
The Earth is thus enveloped in flames until the seven
suns merge into one, and then the samvartaka fire
burns up the underworld, Rasatala, as well (153). The
three worlds as well as the superior, Maharloka, are
thus burnt up entirely and the universe “assumes the
form of a huge block of iron and shines thus” (159).
All the creatures of the universe are reduced to the state
of the “mahābhūtas” (principal elements) (231). Brahman
himself as the sustainer of the creation gets merged into
the Mahat (the principle of manifestation),37 which in turn
14 billion years old whereas, according to the BP, the cosmos is approximately 13,140,000,000 years old (the first day and night of the Lord plus half of the second day). The latter is likely to be more accurate since it is not based on fallible empirical observation but on spiritual intuition.
36 The burning of the universe at the end of a cosmic age is called
“kalpadaha” in BrdP I,i,5,122.
37 See
BrdP III,iv,2,115: “The manifest part evolving out of the unmanifest one is gross and it is called Mahan (Mahat)”.
27
indo-european mythology and religion
becomes Avyakta (the unmanifest) and the three gunas, or
energies (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) are restored to their initial
perfect balance. Thereafter arise Samvartaka “clouds”
which also “group themselves in seven, identifying
themselves with the suns” and these clouds succeed in
extinguishing the fire when they shower as torrential rains.
Through these torrential rains, everything mobile and
immobile is dissolved into one undifferentiated ocean of
water in which the supreme deity Brahman “sleeps”
during his long “night”.
In the Shiva Purāna, the endless ocean into which the
universe is dissolved at the end of the process of cosmic
destruction is also called Mahādeva, that is, Shiva himself,
since he is the destructive aspect of Brahman.38 A little
earlier the same ocean is called the “ocean of mundane
existence” since it is the inchoate source of the life that will
infuse the new universe.39
It is in this universal water (ambhas) called Ekarnava,
Salila or Naras ( BrdP,III,iv, 174-8) that the deity, gradual y waking, begins to recreate the cosmos, first assuming the
form of the macroanthropos, Purusha. Then he extracts,
in the form of a Cosmic Boar, the material substance of the
universe called Earth, which lies sunken, from the previous
cosmos, in the Ocean. This Brahman is interestingly also
called Kāla (185ff.), who is the same as Shiva, for it is the
latter who, at the end of the divine “night” is the secret
impetus to the recreation of the universe. Kāla/Chronos/
Kumarbi, representing Time, features prominently in the
Hurrian-Greek cosmogonies as wel , as the producer of
the Cosmic Egg and its light.40
38 See S. Shastri, The Flood Legend in Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: S.
Chand and Co., 1950, p.91.
39 Ibid., p.66.
40 See p.224.
28
alexander jacob
The process of the formation of the macroanthropos
is described in detail in the Brahmānda Purāna. The
initial unmanifest form of the deity in the waters is that
of the supreme Soul, Ātman: “This entire dark world
was pervaded by his Ātman” (I,i,3,12), with its three
essential energies, Tāmas, Rajas, and Sattva, maintained
in perfect balance. This unmanifest deity begins to be
gradual y manifested when one of the energies begins to
predominate over the others. The first and highest, sattvic,
form of the deity is as Vishnu, the ideal macroanthropos,
while the rājasic is Brahman, who creates the material
universe, and the tāmasic is Rudra, who will destroy the
universe at the end of a cosmic age.
The transformation of Vishnu first into Brahman, the
self-conscious, enlightened form of the supreme deity,
is accomplished by virtue of intense Yogic meditation
(I,i,5,6). The first act of the macroanthropos is to recover
Earth through the force of his “breath” which emerges
from his nostrils in the form of the wind-god Vāyu
assuming the shape of a “Boar”. This is followed by the
intelligible creation beginning with the lower tāmasic
and proceeding to the sattvic, the creation of the gods,
of the “sages” who are intellectual creations of the deity,
and, final y, of human life (I,i,5). Then Brahman manifests
himself material y as the Light of the universe. The close
union of the Light with Earth is destroyed by Time,
Chronos, who is, in Hesiod’s Theogony, 170ff, s
aid to have castrated his father ‘Heaven’. This castration results in the
development of a Cosmic Egg which develops within the
ideal macroanthropos, Purusha. The light of Brahman
then constitutes the upper half of this egg while the lower
half is constituted of the newly recovered Earth in the
form of a lotus. The development of the egg is given in
more scientific detail in the Vishnu Purāna I:
29
indo-european mythology and religion
Then (the elements) ether, air, light, water and earth,
several y united with the properties of sound, and
the rest existed as distinguishable according to their
qualities as soothing, terrific, or stupefying; but
possessing various energies, and being unconnected,
they could not without combination create living
beings, not having blended with each other. Having
combined, therefore, with one another, they assumed,
through their mutual association, the character of one
mass of entire unity; and from the direction of spirit,
with the acquiescence of the indiscreet principle,
intellect, and the rest, to the gross elements inclusive,
formed an egg, which gradual y expanded like a
bubble of water.41
It must be remembered that the earlier cosmic age (Padma
Kalpa) was also marked by the creation of a universe or
universes, since the Naimittika Pralaya begins with a
conflagration due to the “suns”. However, it is possible that
there was no human life in it, since that is mentioned only
in our cosmic age (Varāha Kalpa), whose seventh Manu,
Manu Vaivasvata, is responsible for the transmission
of the seeds of life to earth as well as for the mortality
of the forms that spring from these seeds.42 According
to BrdP I,ii,6, the natural destruction of the earlier cosmos was followed by the intermediate period (pratisandhi)
between two kalpas when the deity returned anew to
his task of creation. However, this time it is clear that he
proceeded farther in his material manifestation than in
the previous cosmic age.
In the Padma Purāna I,39,48ff. , Vishnu (the form of the supreme lord as macroanthropos) is said to have taken
41 See W.J. Wilkins,
Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic,
London: Thacker, Spink & Company, 1882, p.348.
42 See p.40.
30
alexander jacob
four forms in the process of destroying the universe. First,