Reading notations on Cosmic and Ritual Order

本文作者通过阅读文章行列来个各的分析文章所包含的文化内容。下面就让我们来详细解读一下吧！

Lines 1-2: Agni, according to the above introduction, is the personification and deification of the sacrificial fire. If he is the one who sacrifice himself for the prosperity of human being, why is he extolled as the “minister” of the sacrifice? What’s the meaning of minister? By “minister”, people are normally referring to someone who is holding an official position or managing some affairs. However, if Agni is sacrificing himself, he is the one who is sacrificing rather than that who is in charge of other’s sacrificing.

Line5-6: What’s the role of fire or Agni played in people livelihood? Why would people gain wealth and welfare through fire? In the primitive time, it is said that fire changed people’s livelihood sharply in that it helped people to cook food, which was an obvious progress of human society.  However, according to Herodotus, there were four to three tribes of people in India at Aryan’s time, none of them were using fire to cook food, because all of them were eating raw finish, meat or vegetables. However, one possibility is that Herodotus document is not precise—people did use fire to cook. Another possibility is that, though people did not cook, they still use fire to light at night, to warm themselves in cold days (though Indian is hot all the year round), and to fight the ferocious wild animals, which means that fire was still playing important role in people’s life. Only by granting this possibility can we link fire with people wealth and welfare, if Herodotus is right.

Line 9: Why Agni, as the personification of fire, is also a sage? How could he be insightful at the same time? In the ancient Greek Mythology, different deities are responsible for different excellences or functions of human beings—they have divisions of labor. For instance, one of them is responsible for beauty, one of them is for wisdom, and one of them is for arts. It seems that Agni is a multi-functional god--he is responsible for not only fire, but also wisdom.

Line15-16: My hypothesis in line 9 seem to be proved, Agni is not a ‘specialist’, but rather a multi-functional god. He is not only responsible for fire and wisdom, but also a custodian of the cosmic.

Line26-30: It is a surprise to find that in Aryans’ time, such liquid as Ghee had been used as symbols of glory, wealth and blessing. It reminds me that in Christianity, ointment plays similar role. What are roles of these two kinds of liquid played in people’s ordinary life? I look them up in the dictionary, finding that while ointment is to heal wounds, Ghee is used for cooking. As a result, it makes sense to use them as one of the most important symbols in both religions, since them are good to human beings and might be precious and expensive in ancient time.

Line 28: What are differences between Varuna and Agni? While in line 15 Agni is the custodian of the cosmic order, in this line Varuna is the one who holds the cosmic law. It seems that they are playing the overlapping role.

34-36: Does it mean that it is sacrifice provided by mortals which make the reborn of Heaven and Earth? It seems that god and mortals are reciprocal: while gods provide people with wealth and welfare, people make the reborn of their gods possible. Combining this consideration, it seems that religion in Aryan’s time is quite different from later religions. For instance, god in Christianity is omnipotent, authoritative and independent: it is impossible to imagine that the god would die and reborn through people’s sacrifice.
Line 35: What is the meaning of “Bowl” in this context. If it refers to one object or container, it seems that it does make any sense here.

Line 38: It is a surprise to find that god has semen and use his semen to create manifold forms. By “manifold forms”, it is not sure whether it means human beings or different mutation of the god himself.

Line 43-45: Several points to notice. Firstly, another liquid, honey, appears in these lines. It reminds me that in Christian literature, honey is also the symbol of wealth and prosperity. For instance, it is said in Bible that some places is overflown with honey. In Rig Veda, honey seems to be one people’s rewards from Gods. However, secondly, in this context, it seems that Heaven and Earth are not gods themselves, but rather “agents” between Gods and people, since they “bring unto the gods sacrifice” and drop and dispense honey to people. Thirdly, one mindset of religion is obvious in these lines. People were “trading” with their gods. While bringing sacrifices to their gods, people pray for rewards from gods, such as honey, glory and strength.

Line 50-54: It is said that Varuna was born when he spread apart his parents, the Earth and the Heaven. However, in line 28, it is said that Varuna holds the cosmic laws, even his parents should obey their son’s laws. This logic seems to contradict our commonsense, since it is normal that it is parents who give law to their son—the word “Paternalism” is a concrete case in point, rather than the opposite.

Line 55-58: It seems that the prayer didn’t know his trouble until he asks someone, the knowing. Then, who is the knowing? Are they his fellows or some priests?

Line 60-64: Varuna, who is wholly self-sustaining, is impossible to deceive the prayer, but release the prayer from the deceits of the prayer’s ancestor. But why his ancestors deceive him? I guess his ancestors are those who are said to know whether someone has break the law given by god, since in ancient time the young were always counseling their seniors or ancestors. But the young were not sure whether their seniors or ancestors are giving right advice or whether the advice given are biased to their ancestors’ interests. Then the young they might doubt that their ancestors or seniors might deceive them.

  Line69-71: It seems that Varuna is so relentless that his people have to be to serve as a humble slave in order to please his gods. This mindset is also salient in other later religion. While sometimes god is benevolent and dropping honey or ointment to his prayer, sometimes he would be too relentless to punish his people.



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