Prajapati
Prajapati ( Sanskrit प्रजापति prajāpatī "lord of creatures") is the androgynous creator god in Vedic mythology, the first of all beings and lord of creatures from whom the empirical world emerges as an emanation. He created countless children on his own, including Ushas , the dawn. He is the masculine world principle that mates with Vac , the goddess of language and the feminine principle. In his role as creator god and cosmic architect, he is also often called Vishvakarman . Prajapati's name appears in numerous well-known myths of other popular Vedic and Hindu gods and figures such as Indra , Soma , Shiva , Garuda , Krishna and Manu . Prajapati's name already appears in the Rig Veda , in which numerous hymns are dedicated to his invocation, as well as in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads .
The ten wise men from which mankind is said to have descended are also called Prajapatis and so are the seven, or 10 or 21 great seers or rishis , including Narada , Daksha and Marichi .
mythology
In his myths, Prajapati is particularly associated with theogony and cosmogony .
By pronouncing the syllables, Bhu , Bhuva and Svah , Prajapati brought forth earth, air space and heaven one after another . He is also the creator of the devas and their opponents, the asuras , which he brought forth from his breath or his life force ( asu ), hence the name of the latter. He gave them two gifts, truth and lie, to choose between. The devas chose the truth while the asuras chose the lie.
Another version tells us that Prajapati emerged from the primeval ocean weeping . The tears that fell into the water became earth, but those that God wiped away became heaven and ether . Then Prajapati created night and day, the seasons, death, animals and in the end - out of loneliness - people. According to RV 10.121 it developed from a golden embryo ( Hiranyagarbha ).
He sacrifices himself to the gods to a myth that connects him with the primordial being Purusha , in the Purusha-Sukta, in order to allow the world to emerge from his body or body parts (RV 10,121). Before that, the gods sacrificed themselves to him, from which sun, moon, gods, heaven, earth and the cardinal points arose.
This myth also explains the origins of the various castes . His mouth became the priestly caste , his arms became the warrior caste , his legs became the caste of farmers and traders and his feet became the lowest caste of workers and servants . In an alternative version of the same legend, it is reported how a bull emerged from his breath, a person from his soul, a horse from his eyes, a sheep from his ears and a goat from his voice.
The myth also tells of how Prajapati tried to commit incest with Usha, but she turned into a deer and fled. Then he became a roebuck whose seeds fell to the ground and gave birth to the first humans. Another version tells that Prajapati united with Ushas in the various forms and thus created all beings with her. For this he is later punished by the god Rudra , who only gave up on him when the god promised him to make him the master of the animals Pashupati .
Later development
In the Hindu epic Mahabharata , Prajapati is considered to be the protector of the sexual organ. In Brahmanic times he became the original god and personification of the priesthood as well as the creator of rituals. Brahma is often understood as a further development of Prajapati and associated with myths that were later transferred to Prajapati. Today Prajapati is still an epithet of the creator god and world ruler Brahma. Nevertheless, Prajapati is one of the great climbers of the Vedic epoch, who seems to have successfully survived the transition to Hinduism in the merger with Brahma. In today's Hinduism, Prajapati no longer plays a role in worship and belief. The term Prajapati today only refers to the Hindu year.
See also
literature
- Rachel Storm: Encyclopedia of Eastern Mythology ; Reichelsheim 2000. ( Prajapati )
- Ulf Diederichs: Indian fairy tales and legends of gods ; German Paperback Publisher 2006 ( Prajapati )
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard J. Bellinger, Knaurs Lexikon der Mythologie, Knaur 1999, Prajapati
- ^ Gerhard J. Bellinger, Knaurs Lexikon der Mythologie , Knaur 1999, Prajapati