Brooke Sullivan Dr.

Sames HONR210A 6 October 2011 The Rig-Vda: A Hymn of Fire The Rig-Vda is a work of Ancient India, a series of praises and hymns made to appease the gods and beg for blessings and prosperity. The first Vda, or The Samhit, is one of a series of Vdas, each originally scribed in Sanskrit. Before being written, these Vdas were memorized painstakingly by Vedic priests and passed down orally. One could call it the bible for the Aryans, but embedded in the hymns are also bits and pieces of what life may have been like for the ancient Harappans and Mohenjo-Darans, passed down and eventually recorded. If you were to ask a modern Hindu where the Vdas came from, the common belief is that they are eternal and existed in the mind of the Diety before the beginning of time, pouring from the four mouths of the modern Hindu deity, Brahma. In ancient times, however, it is said the Vdas were produced by the mysterious victim, Purusha ( ya a). It is important to note that the

Vdas are not necessarily the beliefs of modern-day Hinduism, but the beliefs of the Ancient Aryans who settled in the Indus River Valley. Gods such as Shiva, Kali, Durga, and Rama do not occur in the original texts of the Vdas, but are later adaptations of the Hindus notions of the many aspects of God. Though the eight hundred pages are a continuous stream of prayer, this paper seeks to extract the content that portrays life for the Ancient Aryans.

Between the mntras, or prayers, of the Samhita one can discover not only hymns and praises, but also find phrases and stories that elaborate of life during the time when the Vdas were first created. It is said that this occurred when Vedic priests meditated while drinking the hallucinogenic juice of the Soma plant, becoming enlightened. The first word in the whole Vda is the name Agni, who is the god of fire, the perpetual illuminator of truth. The other god is Indra, the wielder of the thunderbolt. Continually offered to these gods is the oma-Juice, later explained in a ritual the Aryans performed to honor these two deities. The language used in speaking to these gods is rich and laden with adoration, showing the devotion of the Indus people. For example, in ukta VII, I offer the most desirable laudation to the most bountiful and stately Indra, whose irresistible impetuosity is like the rush of waters down a precipice, and by whom widely-diffused wealth is laid open. According to Dr. Joseph Conti, theologian of California State University, these poetic compliments were requests for mercy, bowing at the feet of their almighty deities. We can find within the Vda that an activity of the Ancient Aryans was meditation (we meditatelet us repeat a prayer..), not so different from the modern. The Ancient Aryans were among the early religions which made abstractions and even bipolarity of God, noticing the transition from darkness to light, when the intermingling of both produces that inseparable duality expressed by the twin nature of these dualities. This complex analysis and analogy shows the very high level of academia of these Hindu-predecessors, along with their poeticism in writing their hymns. Speaking of night and day, it is evident that the Aryans studied astronomy: (Night and dawn), of various complexion, repeatedly born, but ever youthful, have traversed in their revolutions alternately. There are even signs of the Ancient Aryans belief in astrology, or the believed influences of celestial bodies and their positions and their effect on mankind. These beliefs and superstitions are carried down to modern times and

are nearly always used in testing a potential marriage match. The Vedic Aryans did not merely worship the natural phenomena, says ya a, but the Energy underlying them all. All this,

for the Aryans, was created by Agni before the un was in the sky. The first Mandala also shows the Aryans conception of the gods entertainment in irony such as a story of a raja who worshipped the god Varuna wanting to obtain a son, and offers to sacrifice the first-born child. In consequence, Varuna accepts this offer and gives the monarch a first-born son, which he is then expected to sacrifice to Varuna. The gods also despise false piousness and ignorance, saying to Indra, thou hast blown away the robbers with the hymns which are repeated [by] those who do not understand their meaning, referring mantras being improperly used. What seemed most interesting was the portrait of gender relations and expectations found in the Rig-Vda, depicting what these attitudes were thousands of years ago. In translation, the word for manliness and energy are the same, showing perhaps, their ideals of masculinity. The wives of the gods Indr ni, Verunani, and Agnyi, are basically given their corresponding male gods nameIndr , Veruna, and Agnand the phrase, wives of Dsa, makes it clear that polygamy was practiced with the ancient Vedics. They also had notions of sin and heaven in which the Maruts exchanged their perishable bodies for immortal ones. Another piece of daily life were three diurnal sacrifices at dawn, midday, and sunset representing the deities passing through the heavens, the firmament, and the Earth (Sayani), and also, they played diceall found within the scripture. The Ancient Aryans left within their Sanskrit Vdas not only their religion, but also aspects of their life. Some of these, including the dice, are things that have been passed throughout the world, not to mention to later religions.

Works Cited

Conti, Joseph. "Comparative Religion 110: World Religions." California State Universty, Fullerton, Fullerton. Spring 2011. Lecture.

Macdonald, Kenneth Somerled. The Vedic Religion: Or, The Creed and Practice of the Indo-Aryans Three Thousand Years Ago" Google Books. The Library of the University of California. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=wYpLAAAAIAAJ>.

ya a, and Manmatha Nath. Dutt. Rig-veda Text with Sayana's Commentary and a Literal Prose English Translation. Calcutta: Society for the Resuscitation of Indian Literature, 1906. Print.