( ISSN 2277 - 9809 (online) ISSN 2348 - 9359 (Print) ) New DOI : 10.32804/IRJMSH

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THE IDEA OF PROCREATION IN THE VEDIC BRĀHMAṆAS: A STUDY IN GENDER RELATIONS

    1 Author(s):  DIPANKAR DAS

Vol -  6, Issue- 7 ,         Page(s) : 279 - 289  (2015 ) DOI : https://doi.org/10.32804/IRJMSH

Abstract

Sacrifice (yajña) was of central importance in the Vedas, a vast corpus of religious texts orally composed, compiled, preserved and transmitted across generations by families of male poets-cum-priests/ritualists in north-western and northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Of particular significance to the study of sacrificial rituals is a genre of later Vedic texts, the Brāhmaṇas, prose texts attached to the Saṃhitās or collections of verse hymns that were deployed as sacred formula (mantra) in the rituals. The Brāhmaṇas describe and comment on the sacrificial rituals in exhaustive detail: they contain an elaborate repertoire of myths, metaphors, symbols, etymologies, largely devoted to explaining the use and significance of mantras and rites. In these texts, sacrificial ritual was conceived of as a perfectly ordered mechanism, mediating between the human and transcendental realms and purported to dominate and regulate the cosmic processes, both as regards the individual’s life and world at large. Speculation on procreation and creation are abundant in these ritualistic texts and are hinged on the perceived potency of sacrifice as a perfect means of orchestrating ‘paradigmatic’ cosmic creation and human procreation.

  1.  J. C. Heesterman, ‘Vedism and Brahmanism’, in Lindsay Jones (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Religion, 2nd edn, vol. 14, Thomson Gale, 2005[1987], pp. 9566; J. C. Heesterman, ‘Vedic Sacrifice and Transcendence’, in J. C. Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Indian Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship and Society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985, p. 81.
  2.  Brian K. Smith, Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual and Religion, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 51ff. 
  3.   The list of primary sources consulted are as follows: Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (hereafter ŚB), Aitareya Brāhmaṇa  (hereafter AB), Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa (hereafter TB), Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa (hereafter PVB), Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa (hereafter JB) and Kauṣītakī Brāhmaṇa (hereafter KB).
  4.   ŚB 1.9.1.27.
  5.   ŚB 2.1.4.9, 2.2.3.1, 2.2.3.6, 3.1.4.19.
  6.   ŚB 2.1.4.9, 2.1.2.8, 1.8.1.36, 2.2.3.6, 2.4.4.2,4, 1.2.2.3.
  7.   ŚB 2.1.4.28.
  8.   ŚB 2.2.1.8; AB 2.17.
  9.   ŚB 2.2.1.6, 2.1.4.20, 22; AB 2.29.
  10.   ŚB 2.2.2.19; AB 2.1, 2.4, 2.17.
  11.   ŚB 2.3.1.31, 4.1.1.14; AB 2.1, 2.4.
  12.   AB 2.17.
  13.   ŚB 1.9.1.14, 4.2.3.11.
  14.   ŚB 2.2.3.5, 2.4.4.5.
  15.   AB 2.17.
  16.   ŚB 1.9.1.13.
  17.   ŚB 2.1.3.5, 2.1.4.9.
  18.   AB 2.21, 2.30, 3.8.
  19.   ŚB 1.9.1.16, 4.3.4.6, 4.3.4.8, 4.3.4.20; AB 1.9, 2.1, 2.3, 2.11, 2.17, 2.32.
  20.   ŚB 6.5.2.3.
  21.   ŚB 2.2.2.14, AB 2.13.
  22.   ŚB 2.2.2.14.
  23.   ŚB 2.1.4.9,2.1.3.5.
  24.   ŚB 2.2.2.19.
  25.   ŚB 4.5.4.13.
  26.   AB 2.1, 2.22, 2.24.
  27.   ŚB 1.9.1.15.
  28.   ŚB 2.1.2.17, 2.2.2.14, 7.4.2.34; AB 2.35.
  29.   ŚB 2.2.3.1, 2.4.4.8.
  30.   ŚB 1.9.1.4, 1.2.2.3, 2.2.1.7. 
  31.   ŚB 4.5.7.8, 3.1.4.19, 6.5.2.3,5,6; AB 2.2.
  32.   ŚB 3.1.4.19, AB 2.1.
  33.   ŚB 2.3.1.13.
  34.   ŚB 2.1.3.8, 2.1.2.6, 1.9.1.14, 4.1.1.15; AB 2.1, 2.17, 2.30, 2.33, 3.7.
  35.  Kumkum Roy, The Emergence of Monarchy in North India Eighth–Fourth Centuries B.C. as Reflected in the Brahmanical Tradition, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 39,156.

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