SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOLUME 94. NUMBER 1 THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN BY ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY and for Research in Indian. Persian Muhammadan Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Publication 3304) CITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION APRIL 17, 1935 C6e Botb (^afftmore (press 0. 8. A. BALTIMORE, MD., THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN By an an da K. COOMARASWAMY INTRODUCTION Students of theology and mythology are well aware that the concept of deity presents itself to us under a clouble aspect ; on the one hand In the as gracious, on the other as awful. He evokes both love and fear. He is both a light and a darkness, a revelation and a mystery. and darkness are round about him. The Light is Life, the Darkness Death. The one corresponds to our concept of Good, the other to our concept of Evil, within the recognized definitions of good as " that which all creatures desire ", and of evil as " that which all creatures would avoid." A majority of religions in their exoteric formulation treat these contrasted aspects in outward operation as distinct and opposed forces, divine and satanic, celestial and chthonic. Satan is commonly thought of as a Serpent or Dragon and is often so represented, upon the stage or in art. Yet the Solar hero and the Dragon, at war on the open stage, are blood brothers in the green room. From the Christian point of view, the fallen Angels are " fallen in grace, but not in nature " and from the Islamic, Iblis in other words Satan becomes again is restored at the end of time Lucifer. The same deity, Zeus for example in Greek mythology, may be worshipped and represented both in anthropomorphic and in snake forms. Serpent worship and its iconography, despite their outwardly " primitive " appearance, have profound metaphysical foundations. latter and awful aspect, clouds ; ; Metaphysical religion envisages a " Supreme Identity " (in the Rg which the outwardly opposing forces are one impartible principle the lion and the lamb lying down together. The contrasted powers are separated only by the very nature in ; Veda tad ckaiii, " That One ") of reason, which sees things apart as subject and object, affirmation and negation, act and potentiality. Heaven and Earth. Contemplative practice alike in East and West seeks to approach divinity in both aspects, avoiding a one-sided vision of the Unity willing to know Him both as being and non-being, life and death, God and Godhead. ; The contcmplatio of deity ; in caligine, for to the example, is directed to the dark side and corresponds Indian cult of Siva-Rudra. for the 94, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. No. 1 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 Up.,\, 2). Evidence can be assembled from the Rg Veda and other sources to show that the deity in the darkness, unmanifested, in his ground, not proceeding, or as in it is technically expressed, ab intra, is ; conceived of forms that are not human-angelic, but theriomorphic and typically in that of a brooding serpent or fiery dragon, inhabiting a cave or lying on a mountain, where he guards a treasure against all comers, and above all restrains the Rivers of Life from flowing. The creative act involves a maiming, division, or transformation of the girdling serpent, often thought of as " footless and headless ", that is with tail in its its mouth. The contraction and identification of this priis mordial and impartite Unity life-desirous envisaged on the one hand as a volun- tary sacrifice, or on the other as affected by violence, exercised by the Powers of Light. The the Serpent by the Powers of Light celebration of the conquest of is a basic theme of the Vedic hymns an ; Devas and Asuras ("Angels " and " Titans ") for the possession of the worlds of light. It is the battle between St. George and the Dragon. At the same time there can be no question that the Powers of Light and Powers of Darkness are the same and only Power. Devas and Asuras are alike aspect of the Great Battle between the Prajapati's or Tvastr's children ; the Serpents are the Suns. It is entirely a question of " orientation ". At the end of an Aeon the Powers of Darkness are in turn victorious. The Powers of Darkness are also at home as Water-snakes ( Indian naga) or Merfolk in the Sea that represents the maternal possibility of being. The first assumption in Godhead, Death, is being. Life and Death, God and Godhead, Mitra and Varuna, apam and para Brahman, are related from this point of view as a progenitive pair (Indian mithiina) The determinative, paternal principle accomplishes in conjunction with the passive maternal principle " the act of fecundation . latent in eternity " (Eckhart). The generation of the operation from a conjoint principle begets a.2, is .... that Son " is a vital by which the Father the divine nature " (St. q.41, a.5). and The Father Thomas, Siimma Theologica, I, q.27, is Intellect, the Mother Word, the I, Child Life {Brhaddranyaka Upanisad, 5, 7). Just as the Father " works through the Son, so the human ceived in his intellect" (St. Thomas, artist works by a word conIn this loc. cit., I, q.45, a.6). way every ontological formulation affirms the duality of the It will Unity as well as the unity of the Duality. be evident that whatever holds for the masculine will hold also for the feminine aspect of the L'nity ; in the following essay it is primarily the \'edic concept of the is ab intra form of the feminine principle that discussed. NO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN- — COOMARASWAMY 3 For many readers the the of interest and value, not so ontological principles outlined above will be much by first intention as " traces " of Way, but rather and only as providing a logical explanation for of forms of the creation myth that is a common property " Regarded, however, even from this purely " scientific point of view, the student of mythology, folklore, and fairy tale will find in these principles a valuable means of recognizing and correlating the varying forms that the world myth assumes. The story is not only of a time before history began, but was already told in a time before history was recorded. We may be sure that the pseudo-historical aspects that the story has assumed, for example in the Volsunga Saga, in Beowulf, or the Mahiibharata, are later developments and certain typical all cultures. partial rationalizations. Fragments of the story ; will be recognized in the dogmatic life of every Messiah in the miracles, for example, at- tributed to Cuchullain, Buddha, Moses, and Christ. Other fragments survive in fairy tales and even in nursery rhymes ; in the story, for ex- ample of the human hero who crosses water or climbs a tree and thus returns to the magical otherworld, where he rescues or carries off the imprisoned daughter of a giant or magician and in the stories of mermaids or Undines, who fall in love with a mortal, acquire a ; soul, and feet in place of their scaly tails. trusts that the foregoing remarks will serve to introduce, however inadequately, the theme of the Darker Side of Dawn, the real sense of which may not be immediately apparent to the general reader. For the professed student of the Rg Veda the actual evidences of the texts are assembled in the accustomed and more technical manner the thesis, although it might have been expanded at much greater The author ; length, may be taken to be complete in itself. THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN In an article due to appear in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, but of which the pubUcation has been delayed for lack of space, I have discussed the relation of the masculine Angels (devuh) on the one hand with the Titans (asumh) and Serpents (sarpuh) on the other, showing that the former are to be regarded as sacrificial conversions or transformations of the to latter. By way of introduction what follows, and for the sake of the parallel wordings, the gen- eral nature of the evidence for the transformation of the Serpents in this sense may be indicated. The evidence is primarily Rg Vedic, 15, but is conveniently resumed in Pancaviiiisa BrdJimana, XXV, where the Serpents, by means of a sacrificial session, are enabled to 4 cast SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS their inveterated ' VOL. 94 * skins {hitvd j'lrnan tacain) and to glide forward (ati-srp), changing their forms, and thus " the Serpents are the Adityas " (sarpya va aditydh) of. Satapatha Brahmana, VII, 3, " crept up 2, 14, where Agni is found upon the lotus leaf, having out of the Waters" (adbhya upddsrptani). The evidence for the identification of Agni ab extra W\\h. Ahi Budhnya ah intra need not be presented in detail, but it may be noted that in IV, i, 11,^ Agni, ; " footless and headless, hiding both that in the his ends " {apad asirso guhamano its anta) in its is clearly thought of as a coiled snake, perhaps with ; tail same way the Sun is originally " footless ", but is given feet by Varuna that he may proceed (apadc padd prati dhdtave, I, 24, 8) in other passages. Indra, Agni, Soma, and Varuna mouth and ; are similarly described as " footed " (padav'ih, m.) as footprint, vestigium pedi^ in I, ; cf. padavl (f.) and similarly pada, passim. Apdd, on the other hand, is a natural kenning for " snake " in III, 30, 8, the demons Kunaru and Vrtra are handless and footless {ahastam, apadam), and Vrtra similarly in I, 2,2, 7. The 72. 2 71, 3, ; and X, Satapatha Brahmana, of Soma, is I, 6, 3, 9, in connection with the transformation ; explicit " In that he was footless, rolling, he became Vrtra in that he became Ahi " (yad apdt samahhavat tasmad ahis). he was In the following shorter discussion, complete in nine principles. itself, there is as- sembled a part of the corresponding evidence on the side of the femi- We mind, now proceed to consider the case of are so familiar to every student of the that Night Dawn {iisas), whose lauds Rg Veda. It is well known of like " and Day or Dawn {naktosasd du. f.) are sisters, who move successively upon a common path, Night (I, when to she hath conceived for Savitr's quickening yielding the womb Devi Dawn" (I, 113, 1-3). it " Sister to mightier sister yields the is womb" re- 124, 8; is the younger sister that cf. victorious, the placing the Asurl, MahdbMrata XII, " 35, 25, The Asuras are the elder brothers, the Devas indeed the younger"). "Successively they nurse the Yearling Calf " (T, 95, i), i. e. Agni, who has thus two mothers {ubhe sa mat r or abhavat putra, sim) " ; III, 2, 2, and dinindtd, pas- variant is One mother holds the Calf, the other rests (kseti) Ye, pair, have made yourselves twin beauties (vapiimsi), one that 2). black (krsnajii) and one that shines " (III, 55, 4 and 11, cf. V, 2, In the same way the Bambino, whether Sun or Fire, has two 4), * aspects corresponding to those of the sister Dawns (usasd virupe, V, i, " with one of whom is he glaucous (Jiari). with the other bright For Notes, see p. 12 f. Y NO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN ; COOM ARASWAM 5 and shining (sHvarca)", I, 95, i as Pusan he is of two difDay and Night, one bright, one dark (\ I, 58, i) Hke the Dawns, he " goes back and forth ", I, 164, 38, " now becometh sterile (stanli), now begets (silte, tantamount to smnfa bJiovati, 'becomes Savitr'), he shapes his aspect as he will", VII, loi, 3; cf. (siikra) ferent aspects, like ; Atharva Veda, VI, 72, i, "As the black snake displays himself, assuming such forms (vapfuUsi) as he will, by titan magic " " Immortal, ; uterine-brother (sayonih) versely, of the mortal, they move eternally con- men mark the one and fail to mark the other ". I, 164. 38/ Night and Day (usasa, the " sister dawns ") have carried him, Agni is born " full strong and white, in the beginning of days " (V. i, 4) " the use of usasa (du. f .) here to mean Night and Day is paralleled by " days of diverse hue " (visiirilpe ahanl, I, 123, 7 and VI, 58, i), When ; VI. and " black day and white day " (alms ca krsnam ahar arjiinam ca, 9, i).° These sister Dawns are not only thought of as mothers of the Sun or Agni, but are brides of the Sun, as in I, 123, 10 where Dawn is desired by the Sun to be his maiden {yosa), IV, 5, 13 where the Dawns (pi.) are called the consorts {patmh) of the immortal Sun, VII, 75, 5 where the generous Dawn (maghoul ttsa) is called the maiden of the Sun (sftryasya yosd) in VII, 69, 4, she is again the Sun-maiden {silryasya yosa), and in AV., VIII, 9, 12, the sister ; .... silrya-patu'i). The Bhaga and kinswoman {jami) of Varuna In VII, 69, 4, (I, 123, 5); and is "Heaven's daughter", passim. she is the daughter of the Sun (yosd .... silro duhitd), involving the incest motif more familiar in connection with Prajapati, cf. also Dawns are called the Sun's consorts (M^a.y.a also a sister of Dawn is V, 55, 6, where Piisan is called the second husband of his mother and the seducer of his sister (nmtur didisuni .... svastir jdrah) ; "incest" being inevitable because of the kinship (jdmifva) of all the manifested principles, ab infra. Piisan is Surya's lover in VI, 58, 3. The identity of Dawn (usas) with Siirya is thus evident, as is also that of the sister Dawns (usasa) with Saranyu and her savarm.'' In Vdjasaneyi Samhitd, III, 10, Night (rdtrl), and Dawn (usas) or Day (ahas) Sun. are Indra's consorts (indravati), Indra representing the That Usas may thus denote as well the Night as renders intelligible certain neglected passages of Dawn in is, or Day RV. which the essentially, Dawn is referred to as a sinister power ; sinister, that and not merely accidentally in that the passing days shorten the span of life (I, 92, 11) whence Usas is called jarayantl (VII, 75, 4) from In IV, 30, 8-1 1, Indra is praised as having jr. "to inveterate".* " struck down Heaven's daughter, that ill-designing woman " (striyam 6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 yad dtirhanayuvani .... diihitaram divah) ,^ who is described as " flowing away " (sarat) from her ruined chariot viz. that chariot that she, " the Daughter of Heaven, and Mistress of the Universe, yokes afar {pardkat, i. e. ah intra) and straightway visits the Five Homes, to look upon the restless ways of the Kindreds " (VH, 75, 4); Similarly, in X, 138, 5, Usas is afraid of Indra's bolt, and goes her way {akramat), abandoning her lovely chariot, cf. H, 15, 6. Agni " ravisher " or " spoiler " of Dawn {iiso na is commonly called ; jarah) jar a, ; this has usually been rendered as " lover of Dawn ", but from jr " to inveterate ", even when it means " lover ", has always a somewhat sinister significance, and in the passages referred to, Yaska's and Sayana's equations of jdra with jarayitr are certainly correct, in this sense, that with the rising of the Sun, the Dawns are always thought of as retiring and departing, to join the former In VH, 6, 5, Agni, "driving olt the e. g. in I, 113, 10. Nights (nirudhya nahitsah), makes the Dawns to be consorts of the Arya " {aryapatmr usasas cakdra; Sayana equates arya with si'irya).'"' Dawns, In I, 123, I, "rises from the dark night as herself an arya), where it Daksina, synonymous with Usas in the same hymn, Arya" {krsudd ttd asthdt is, of course, to be understood that she had been is Indra's mother by Yajna and that Daksina is Vac, whose anaryd; in it may is be noted that Daksina i, Taittmya Samhitd, VI, notorious. 3, 6, asura origin Dawn precedes the actual day, and must not delay, lest the Sun scorch her like a thief or thirty parts of the enemy (V, 79, 9). It is not until the whole twenty-four hours have elapsed that she becomes again an auspicious power, meanwhile as in VI, 59, 6, b, " moving headless, with babbling tongue, she descends thirty grades " {hitvl siro jilivyd vavadac carat trUhsat padd ny akraiiut; hitvl siro combined with ih., a, apdd, cited below, giving us the analogy to Agni, in IV, to i, apad aslrso guhamdno antd where the sisters are said yojandni), alternately" for the " ancient ii) ; and similarly in I, 123, 8, "traverse thirty leagues {trinisataiii due course, paritakmydydui, born again and again (punah punar jdyamana purdni) decking herself with the selfsame hue " (saindnaui varnam^^ abhi smiibJiamdnd, I, 92, 10). Meanwhile the Sun, throughto reappear in — Dawn is out the thirty stations of her decline, rules supreme {triiiisad vi raijati, dhdma X, is 189, 3). What then the status of the Dawn ab intra, in the Night, as Night, , and especially at the end of the Night's course (parifakniydydui) as in V, 30, 14, where " Night at the end of her course shines-forth-asDawn (auccJwf) at the coming of the Debt-collector " king of the Glit- Y NO. I THE DARKER ", SIDE OF DAWN COOMARASWAM "J tering-folk and in the Daughter of the sion of VII, 69, 4, where " at the end of her wandering, Sun chooses his glory (sriyam) "? The proces- is in fact described in terms exactly parallel to those 8 cited above with respect to the procession of the Sun in I, 152, 3, "The footless-maid proceeds as first of footed things" (apad eti prathanui padvatlnam), and this is nearly identical with " VT, 59, 6 " This footless-maid came earliest forth to footed things (apad lyaui piirva a agat padvat'ibhyah apad in both passages repre- Usas of I, 24, : . senting apad'i). That " serpent ", plied who had been a now assumes an angelic-human form. The same is imwhen it is said that " Our Lady puts off her dark robe " (apa is as much as to say that she, krsnan nirnijam devl avarityavah, it is I, 113, 14, cf. VIII, 41, 10. where makes the black robes white ", svetan adhi nirnijas for this is the same as putting off desuetude and cakrc krsnan) impotence (I, 140, 8 jaram pra niuncan, Pancavimsa Brdhiimnan, XXV, 17, 3 jaram apahat, etc.), it is really the snake-skin, the old skin, jtrndn tacam as in Pancavimsa Brahmana, XXV, 15, Varuna that " ; that is taken off. It is similarly that Urvasi and her sisters, in X, " evade Puriiruvas like snakes " (tarasantl na hhujyiih), 95, 8-9, but when they yield " display themselves as swans " (dtayo na tanvah snmbhata), or "with swan-skins", for tanu "' is often tantamount to skin ". I, In 185. where Day and Night (ahanl) are it if not absolutely identified with, at least very closely assimilated to Heaven and Earth (dyavaprfhivl. or rodas'i), is said, in the second verse, that "The twain (unspecified),'' though not proceeding (acarantl) and footless {apad'i), yet support a mighty Germ {garhha = Agn\) that proceeds and hath 22, 14, " feet " (carantam padvantam) . This is closely related to X, Thou i. smotest Susna to the right for sake of Universal-Life for Agni), that Earth (ksah) that apad'i, cf. Ill, 30, 8, cited {visvdyavc, e. had neither hands nor feet {ahastd yad (vardliata), above) might feet wax ". " and III, 55, 14 where "As having (padyd) beauties she standeth up erect {urddhvd tasfhau), adorned with many We when can now compare all of the foregoing matter with a part of the account of the marriage of Surya in X, 85, 28-30. Here, immediately before her actual wedding, Surya is called Krtya," and it is only this krtya nature that is like a clinging garment (asakti) is put off that she comes to her husband " Krtya that clingeth close is taken off (vyajydte) .... this Krtya hath come to be with feet and : consorts with her husband as a bride" (krtya esd padvati hhutvd jdyCi visatc patim).^' aspect of the The text goes on to Sun himself when united with describe the inauspicious this same Krtya. ab intra: ; 5 " Inglorious SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 (aJrim) becomes his form when it ghtters in (rusatl) (papaya amuyd, as in X, 135, 2 with reference to the evil way of Yama), what time the husband wraps his body in the garment this evil of his wife ", which is, of course, the " robe of Night " of I, 115, 4. Analogous to yiivate patim) this is the allusion in I, 105, 2, Trita's " complaint that ; "the wife holds fast where it is a part of her husband" (a jaya it is in fact only " when the parents that cohabit in the dark are separated that they pass over the Babe " (krsnaprutati vemje asya saksitau ublid tarete ahhi matara sisian, I, 140, 3) " In the Angel's mansion were the First, from their diremption rose the others" (krntatrad esdin upara itdayan, X, 27, 23) it is when the sacrificer makes his Soma offering that mighty Father Heaven breaks from the embrace, I, 71, 6; and this separation of Heaven and Earth, : ; effected (e. g., by the sacrifice, is the essential act of creation, R\'\ is passim VII, 80, i) for thereby there made that *' space ", antariksa, which the desirous principles are destined to find a home and line, as in a promised land. If the husband is inglorious when he wears the woman's robe, that is in fact a snake-skin, she herself becomes glorious when she puts off the dark robe (I, 113, 4 cited above), and shines forth radiant in in prolong their robes of light (sukravasah, I, 113, 7), when as in I. 92, 11 wakes, uncovers Heaven's ends " and drives her sister far away "She .... shines out in the bright-eye of her seducer " (jdrasya caksasa vl bhati, X, 189, 2, antas carati vocandsya) That is indeed her marriage she becomes a woman clothed with the Sun. when as in VII, 81, 2, " The rising Sun, refulgent Star, pours out his beams in company with hers; and then, O Dawn, may we partake together of thy ct. , when and her death, for expires " (asya pranad apdnatl, X, 189, shining and the Sun's " ; when he 2, called suspires then she the hymn of the Serpent Queen ", Sarpavajni). story of Apala, Another version of the Dawn's procession can be recognized in the whose name means " unprotected ", i. e., husbandless and free woman. In VIII, 91, where Indra represents the Sun and is described in terms appropriate to the Sun, the maiden (kanya), who is at enmity with her (former) husband (patidvisah) ^* reflects, " What if we go and wed with Indra? " " She gives him Soma, that is, virtually performs a sacrifice to him, and asks him to raise up hair upon her father's (bald) head, his field, and upon her own body, " here below the waist ", that is, to restore the fertility of the universe ^° the reference to her own body indicating her extreme youth. Indra draws her through the three apertures (kha) "' of his (solar) chariot, and so cleansing (putvi) her makes for her a " sunny skin " (snrya- Y ; XO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN COOMARASWAM 9 tvacani). According to the quite intelligible legend cited by Sayana, Apfda, daughter of Atri, had in fact suffered from a skin-disease, and the three skins that Indra Jaiiiiin'iya removed from her became reptiles. In the BraJiuiana version (I, 220) we are told that Apala desired ; to be rid of her " evil colour " (papaiii varnam) with the two first cleansings she becomes successively a lizard (godhd) and a chameleon (krkalasa), with the third cleansing she becomes saiiisvistikd (evidently " whitened " the Safapatha Brdhmana version has samsUstikd, ; apparently "fit to be fondled") and her form beautiful of all is called the "most forms 2, ". In the nearly identical version of Pancavimsa Brdhmmia, IX, 14, the woman's name ", it is Akupara she (in literal sigis nificance identical with "Aditi ''In-finite"), an ArigirasT " (thus of Agni's kin), and like a lizard's" is expressly stated that her is skin was (godhS), that Surya's cast off garment samala. " foul ", than any In X, 85, 34, (sdiiiulyaiii, to be connected rather with reptilian scaly. and word implying " woollen ") is significantly described as " rasping, coarse, prickly, poisonous, and inedible " the ; curious expression "inedible" {na Atliarva Veda, I, .... attave) corresponding to said to be " for 11, 4, where the chorion or after-birth {jardyu, a snake in ib. I. term applied the to the slough of a 27, i ) is eat" (sime .... attave). In any case, it is clear that the old skins are removed, and a glorious skin revealed, making Apala dog to fit to be Indra's bride,^ cf. tvacam above (sfoya-tvak) sacrificers i. e.. Surya to be the Sun's. With silryaAtharva Veda, II, 2, i. where the Gandharva Vis- vavasu (=:Vena, the Sun, ; ih. II, i) is himself " sim-skinned " 16, 5, . . . . in Pancavimsa Brdhmana, XXIII, where the "make a skin for themselves" (tvacani eva kiirute) a " sun-skin " is to be understood like that of those who are sunskinned " in Vdjasaneyi Samhitd, X, ^r' ; We sires a have long suspected that Apala becomes in the Buddha legend Sujata, who in the Jataka (I, 69) is the daughter of a farmer, de- husband, and brings an offering of milk to the Bodhisattva, seated beneath the Bodhi tree, on the eve of the Great Awakening. Sujata, in fact, becomes the consort of Indra. occurs in Jataka No. 31. text I. p. 205. The fullest account Here Sujata is the fourth three having died are re- of Indra's handmaidens (pddaparicdrikd) ; same status, according to their virtue, but Sujata, " because she had performed no deed of virtue " (kusalakamassa akatattd, cf. " akrtyd" discussed in Note 13) is reborn as a crane. Indra seeks her, finds, and instructs her, and proves by a trial that she has experienced a change of heart. She is next reborn in a potter's family Indra seeks her out. and makes her a gift in acknowledgment of born in the 10 her virtue. Vepacittiya SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS She is VOL. 94 reborn a third time as the daughter of the Asura not be overlooked that the three births correspond of Apala)/^ and because of her virtue ; (it will to the three cleansings is very beautiful (abhirupa) in the her father (who corresponds to Tvastr Surya versions) arrays her for marriage, and summons an may choose a husband for herself. Indra assumes the "Asura colour, or appearance" {asiiravanmm = asurya-varnam, and this corresponds to X, 85, 30 quoted above) and takes his place in the assembly (really a svayauivara) where Sujata chooses him to be her husband, and he makes her his chief queen. Indra in this story represents a previous incarnation of the Buddha. In the last incarnation where the Bodhisattva is no longer identified with Indra (in the sense of the Vedic dual Indragni) the requirement of the narrative makes it impossible for Sujata to become the Buddha's wife, and she remains Indra's, though we may suspect that the Bodhisattva's actual wife Yasodhara is really the alter ego assembly of Asuras so that she of Sujata. Given the other once in duhitar as " Sujata " (I, parallels, it is worth noting that Usas if is more than name, RV. addressed as " well-born ", or we treat this as a 123, 3, nso devl ; .... itsah sujate) this VII, yy, 6. d'lvo merely confirmatory evidence was siijate ; .... remarked only after the identification had already been in mind for some years. Conversely, the designation of Usas as Maghoni in VII, 75, 5, is already suggestive of Maghavan. i. e. Indra. We are also inclined to identify the kanyd and sujata of our texts with the siikanyd, daughter of Saryata, who becomes the wife of Cyavana in Satapatha Brdhmana. IV, 1,5; but as this involves a discussion of the identity of Cyavilna, Atri, and others, the possibility must remain to be taken up on another occasion. the " It may, however, be pointed out that just as the guise of Krtya, so in Sai, Sun is inglorious when he wears i, tapafha Brdhmana, IV, 5, the inveterated (jtrnah) ; Cyavana is of Krtya's aspect " (krtyd-rupah) that jahe, " he was left behind ", corresponds to X, 53, 8, " leave we there the impotent " (atra jahdnia jahdmi) " I leave behind the Father " (pitaraiii 4, and that the name Cyavana or Cyavana, " fallen away "', cor" responds to X, 124, 4 where "Agni, X'aruna, and Soma fall away {cyavantc). Cf. too the "five-fold offering " made by Sunrta to Brahmanaspati " in RV. I, 40, 3. Atharva l^eda I, 27 ofifers unmistakably a condensed account of .... asevah) and X, 124, ; Indrani's procession and marriage. Verse i opens, " On yonder shore to {amuh pdre) are thrice seven adders (prddkvah) that have cast their All that the cast skins are skins "(nirjardyavah).'* good for is NO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN COOMARASWAMY II blindfold the vicious beings that beset the paths, the {paripaniJiinah) highwaymen who is are inimical to the proceeding principles. Verses readily comprehensible, " Let the 2 and 3 are apotropaic in the same sense. language which Verse 4 continues in a two feet go forward, let them visibly proceed; bear (her) to the homes of Prna (vahafam prnatah grhdn) let Indrani go forth foremost, uncon- now ; quered, unrobbed, to the East nical expression ". implying " lead Here vahatarh grhdn is a quite techhome the bride ". Prna is a designaBrdhmana, VIII, 7, 2, i tion either of the Sun, cf. Satapatha where the " " world-filling " {lokaih-prna) brick represents the ; Sun, fills the worlds " (lokaiii pfirayqti) or of Indra as the Sun, cf. who RV. IV, 19, 7, where Indra " fills of Agni who " fills the waste-lands ", apruak dhanvdni; or the regions " (a rajas'i aprnat, III, 2, 7, prnaksi 2, rodasl ubhe, X, 140, and passim). In any case, the evidence assembled above suffices to show that the procession of the " Serpents " on the male side, (ati sarpante) who " creep further " and become Adityas, as related in the Pahcavimsa Brdhmana, XXV, 15, ample support for which can be cited from the Rg Veda, is paralleled on the female side. Apart from their ontological interest, the general conclusion provides a sound basis for the interpretation of many peculiarities of the later Indian iconography ."" SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 NOTES 1. The Angels (devCih) in RV., although from one point of view, that is to say throughout the duration of their (ajara, a jury a, amrta, amartya), aeviternity (anirfattva), to incorruptible at are subject nevertheless inveteration ; the end, and resurrection at the beginning, of every aeon (ytiga) for example, Agni, the very principle of ated, is life (ay its, visvayus, forthwith born youthful" (jujiir^'an yo RV. passim) " Being invetermuhur a yxiva bhiit, II, 4, 5), and with respect to the aeviternity of his manifestation is also said to be "of unaging youth" (yiivd ajarah, V, 44, 3), and called "Life-universal, deathless amongst them that die" (visvaynr yo aiiirto martesu, VI, 4, 2). Similarly in X, 124, 4 "Agni, Varuna, and Soma decline" (cyavante), in IV, 19, 2 the in\eterated deities are re-emanated {ai'asrjanta jivrayo na dcvah) and in V, 74, 5, " From him that hath declined (cyavaiiat) ye (Asvins) loosed the covering cloak, when ye made him young (yuva) again, and stirred the bride's desire". , 2. 3. All references unspecified are to the Rg Veda Satiihita. For the significance of the vestigium pedi in Vedic. Zen. and Christian tradition see my Elements of Buddhist iconography, 1935, p. 16 and Note 146. {dve rfipe) of 4. These two forms of his are the same as the two forms Brahman, "immortal, imageless " {amrta, amftrta) and "mortal, in a likeness" {martya, mftrta) of Brhadaranyaka Up., II, 3. i, cf. Maitri Up., VI, 3, 15. and 22. The immortal form is that of Varuna, Death, the para- and nirguijaBrahman: the mortal that Martanda (=Vivasvan, Surya) whom "Aditi bore hitherward unto repeated birth and death ", RV.. X, 72, 9 Pururavas " when in altered aspect I kept with mortals", X, 95. 16; Purusa, whom the Angels sacrificed, X, 9; Agni as the sacrifice, X, 88, 9; Brhaspati as the sacrifice, Yama "who gave up his own dear body", X, 13, 4; Yama, "the sole mortal", X. ID, 3; Vasistha of the "only birth", VII, 33, 10; the "only son" (ekaiii putram) of Varuna, Mitra, and Aryaman, VIII, loi, 6; the apara- and saguna- Brahman of the Upanisads. " Mitra is the Day and Varuna the Night ", ; Paiicavinisa Brahiiiana, 5. The Vedic hymns cf. I, to XXV, 10, 10. Dawn are primarily concerned with her first appear- ance at the beginning of the aeon, and analogically with her constant reappearance, 123, 9, of the first day's name where Dawn, coming forth day after day, " hath knowledge ". In the same way the " Days " are primarily periods of supernal time, and only analogically the human days, cf. I, " 164, 51 Day after Day Waters rise and fall ", and II, 30, i, " Day after Day the sparkling of the Waters moves ". Another version of the hesitation before the battle occurs in the Kulavake Jataka, No. 31, Jafaka, text I, pp. 202-203, where Indra (Sakra) corresponds to Arjuna and Matali to Krsna Indra's words "Let me not for the sake of empire (issaram^=aisvaryam) destroy life, rather would I for their sake sacrifice my own life to the Asuras ", very closely parallel those of Arjuna in the Bhagavad G'lta, I, 33-35, though the detail of the motivation is brought ; out in a slightly different manner. 6. The concatenation is is but corresponds to that of Great Fight whose name by no means fortuitous, Malmbharata, where the nothing else but the Vedic conflict of Devas and Asuras. Krsna, significant of his descent, comes over from the other side to aid of krsna and arjuna here is Krsna and Arjuna in the V NO. the I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN COOM ARASWAM I3 Aryan Pandavas, is just as does Vibhisana in the is Ramdyaua, and Usanas Kavya, who over to the side of the Devas. in Pancavimsa Brahmana, VII, 5, 20 Bandh. Sr. S., XVIII, 46, and Jaiminlya Brahviana, I, 125-126; cf. Visvarupa, Vrtra's brother, called "priest of the the priest of the Asuras but won Devas " in Taittirlya It is Samhita, II, 5, i and Indra's guru in Bhagavata Purana, VI, 7-13. that Arjuna, in and teachers " ; because of the intimate relationships of the Devas and Asuras Bhagairad Gita, I, 28 ff., shrinks from the slaughter of "kinsmen cf. Satapatha Brahmana, IV, 7-8, i, 4, 8, dislikes to take part in the slaying of Soma, while where Mitra (= " Arjuna ") in the same way Taittiriya where Namuci reproaches Indra as the " betrayer of a and Pancavimsa Brahmana, XII, 6, where Namuci reviles him as "guilty hero-slayer of the guiltless" {znrahann adruho druha), provide a literal prototype for Bhagavad Gtta, I, 38, where Arjuna shrinks from the "sin of the betrayal of a friend" (dosam mitra-droheh). Arjuna, in fact, shrinks from taking upon himself what in RV. are Indra's typical kilbisani. It is also very significant, though the implications are ton many to be followed up here, that of the two original brothers of the lunar stock, Dhrtarastra is blind, while Pandu means the " son of a eunuch ", the former corresponding to the form of deity ab intra, the latter to his generated aspect ab extra, as son of him that had been impotent ab intra; "blindness" and "impotence" being Brahmana, friend" I, 7, i, (mitra-dhrnk) , typical of the interior operation (giihya zrata) in RV. passim, as may be seen by an analysis of those verses in which are found the words andha, and vadhri or stari (it may be noted in this connection also that srona, "halt", generally coupled with andha, " blind " in the texts alluded to, corresponds to apad, Can we not indeed identify Pandu Sun) whom the Asvins gave to her "whose consort was unmanned" (I, 117, 24)? The victory of the Pandavas corresponds to RV., X, 124, 4, where Agni. Varuna, and Soma decline (cya"footless", as cited in the present article). with the " golden-handed son " (the z'antc) and the "kingdom is reversed" (pary avart rasfram). The Epic Pandavas to Heaven, their " disappearance ab intra, accompanied by Draupadi, whose alter nomcn " Krsna confesses her Asura origin, and who as the wife of the five Pandava brothers may be compared to Usas or Surya, successively the wife of Soma, Gandharva, (sc. Vivasvan, Pururavas, Yama), X, 85, 40, and .A.gni, and a "mortal" elsewhere also referred to as the consort of the Asvins or may be compared naturally concludes with the final return of the ; by the Five Kindreds (pafica ja)ia). spondences outlined above could be followed up in great detail. with Vac, as participated in 7. The corre- For some of these equivalents see Bloomfield in Jonrn. Amer. Oriental Soc, 172, iT. It should be added that the whole concept of the two wives and two mothers survives in the nativities of Buddha, Mahavira, and Krsna. Apart from the more obvious parallels, it will be remarked that Mayadevi, the Buddha's mother who does not survive, derives by her name itself from the Asura side, while the co-wife Pajapati, called in the Buddhacarita, II, 19, her samaprabhava, tantamount to savarna, lives and that Devaki, the mother of Krsna, is the sister of the Asura Kaiiisa, in whose realm both parents are imprisoned, while the child is taken over water (the Yamuna, although in flood, becoming fordable for him, like the Sarasvati in RV. passim) to the human-angelic world where he is fostered by another mother. In the case of Mahavira, the circumstances of whose nativity are so exactly paralleled in RV., I, 113, 2 and I, 124, 8 cited above, the choice of the Ksatriya womb (and similarly in Buddhism, the XV, ; : 14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 Brahman) by no means necessarily reflects a contemporary social conflict of values, but can be better understood in the light of the whole Vedic concept of the contrasted relations and functions of the spiritual (brahma) and temporal (ksatra) powers, the former being primarily Brahman, the latter those of Indragnl. Nor need we be those of Varuna confused by the fact that when the relation of Agni to Indra is considered per se, and ab extra, this is again that of the spiritual to the temporal power for just as Agni delegates the temporal power to Indra (VIII, 100, 1-2, X, 52, 5 and 124, 4, etc., cf. Satapatlia Brahmana V, 4, 4, 15) though sometimes playing an active part, so the Buddha (who for the most part corresponds to Agni, " Gautama Buddha " for example reflecting Agni usar-budh) declines the temporal power and as an actual teacher plays the Brahman part, although in the conflicts with Mara (^ Mrtyu Vrtra, etc.) and the "Ahi-naga " (sic opposition of Ksatriya to = = Mahavagga, I, 15, 7) of the Jatila shrine, he takes that part which more often by Indra than by Agni or BHiaspati in person. in 8. " Sinister " also in a literal sense : is played for the act of creation and procession an extroversion, as appears in innumerable texts, e. g. X, 124, 4 "the kingdom was reversed" (pary avart rastram), IV, i, 2 " O Agni, turn thy brother Varuna round about" (bhrataram z'arumm agne a vavrtsva), cf. Aitareya Brahmana, IV, 5 where, the Angels and Titans being of equal heroism, "there is was a delay in turning back" {na vyavartanta) the latter; and this extroversion is a right hand or sunwise turn, as in III, 19, 2= IV, 6, 3, "Agni, choosing (pradaksinit dcvatatim tiranah), or X, 22, 14. (Indra) smotest Susna to the right {pradaksinit) for Visvayu " (i. e. Agni). Cf. SatapaUia Brahmana, III, 2, i, 13 and VII, 5, i, t^j. rightwise the angelic office" "Thou Remembering Samhita, spell III, that Night and Dawn it are the two wives of Indra {Vajasancyi 10, cited above) is obvious that RV. X, 145 directed against a co-wife {sapatntbadhanam) — — in application a is by first intention an imprecation launched by IndranI herself, to whom the hymn is attributed, against her rival sister Night; while X, 129, attributed to SacI PaulomI (Indrani) is her song of triumph (cf. X, 125, attributed to Vac). Atharva Veda I, 14, is RV. X, 145. hymns illustrates very well the basic principle of magical incantation; the recital of what was done in the beginning is held to be effective in particular application here and now. In the same way, for example, RV. V, 78, the immediate reference of which is to Agni's or the Sun's nativity, is employed as a birth rune. The application is by analogy, and takes for granted the correspondence of macrocosm and microcosm. apotropaic in the same sense as The application of these 9. of Heaven" Night and Day (itsasanakta) are both favorably regarded in X, 70, 6, but this is as being seated together is " at Daughters the altar (yonau), that analogically ab intra, for yoni as altar corresponds to 13, "navel" (ndbhi) "where Aditi confirms our kinship" (jamitva) X, 64, the "navel of Order" (rtasya nabhan) that "I throughly and it is at purify" {sain punami, X, 10. 13, 3). The word nahusah contrasts with usasah, both fern. pi. ace. Nahusa (m.), from a root nah implying "bondage", is a designation of Agni's father in I, 31, II and V, 12, 6; in fem. pi. it may therefore appropriately designate at the same time " nights ", (as rendered also by Fay in Joiirn. Amer. Oriental Soc., XXVII, p. 411, q. V.) and the recessive "false dawns" that have been Agni's " first mothers " in his successive manifestations, but are set back yielding 5" NO. I THE DARKER dawns SIDE OF DAWN COOMARASWAMY 1 place to the true It is that are the Suns' brides and Agni's " second mothers ". further noteworthy that in some later texts Nahusa is or becomes a serpent. In literal significance and as an essential rather than personal name, nahusa may be compared to varuna and zfrtra, as derivates of zr. 11. The samanam varncm daily put on is of course the aryaih varnam of III, 34. 9 as distinguished from the asuryaih varnam of IX, 71, 2 (=^ papam vaniam in Jaimin'iya Brdhmana, I, 220, with reference to Apala) and being in fact the " cast(e)" of the Sun, the Dawns are described virtually as becoming ; (Vivasvant) in every morning savarna in Bloomfield's second sense of character or class" (Journ. Amcr. Oriental Soc, XVI, p. 178). 12. Rnancaya, lit. "debt-collector": either Brhaspati-Brahmanaspati, as in II, " like 23, II and 17 {rnaya, rnacid rnaya), toll or Indra himself (rnacid .... rnayd, IV, 23, 7), the being exacted in either case from the fiend (druli). Monier-Williams, for rnancaya, has nothing better to offer than "name of a man", and it is in this fashion that essential names have generally been treated by translators of the Vedas. How many needless obscurities and complications have been introduced into Vedic studies by a persistent neglect of the warning "Even as He seemeth, so is He called" (V, 44, 6) it would be hard to tell. Katha Up., IV, 14 can be pertinently cited: "He who sees the principles separately, pursues 13; them separately ". Heaven and Earth, as being the ib.). as parents of Agni, lap, Eternal Germ" (garbham .... upasthe, This nityani, incidentally, recurs The son within his parents' nityant na sunum pitror in Katha Up., V, 13, "Eternal " mid the transient" (nityo' nifyanam). done", is per14. Krtya as feminine personification of krtya, "that to be spicuous in the present context; where that which should be, but is not yet done, and merely in potentia, procedure from potentiality to is as such evil. The putting ofif of krtya is act, nonbeing to being, privation to abundance, For the conception, typical also in Christian Scholastic philosophy, be compared in connection with Indra's procession " Many a thing not yet done I have to do" (bahtlni me akrta kartvani, IV, 18, 2, cf. "Wot ye in connection not that I must be about my Father's business?", Luke II, 49) with Usas, "Delay not to go about thy labour" (ma ciram taimtha apah, V, death to there life. may ; 79, 9) ; again in connection with Indra, I, "Do what thou hast to do" {karisya indeed "does what must be done" (cakrih yat karisyan, VII, 20, i), i. e. in Christian formulation "Those things which God must will of necessity" (St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., I, q. 45, a. 2 c), who is also described krnulii, 165, 9), who as being " wholly in act III, 2, Brhaddranyaka Up., was Action (karma)", and the doctrine regarding karma yoga in the Bhagavad G'ltd. Cf. also knsalamassa akatatta (= kusalasya akartatvat) in Jataka, text, I, 205; akarya as "sin" in Mrcchakatika, VIII, 22, 4; and akaranasamvaram as "sins of omission" in Sadha". The principle involved underlies 13, "What they praised nainala No. 98 (Gaekwad's Oriental Series, XXVI, respect p. 201). to The following verse is apotropaic with the " consumptions (yaksma) which may be transmitted from the bride's stock (yanti janat ami), and which the Angels are besought to return to the place of their origin. Yaksma is, of course, a disease always thought of as proceeding from Varuna Following words derived from RV., X, 17, i rein his unfriendly aspect. ferring to Tvastr's gift of his daughter Surya in marriage, the Atha>rva Veda, III, 31, 5 similarly expresses the wish "May I be separated from evil " l6 ipapmana) SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS and consumption 59, VOL. 94 (yaksmcija) RV. VII, (ba)idliaimt 2 " Release us from the niiikslya and united to life (aynsa)". cf. bonds of death, not those of life is mrtyor na amrtat), that in efifect also ". "May we pass over from Varuna, from Death, to Agni Vaisvanara, to Life 16. 17. I. e. Agni, ab intra, and eager (icchan, in etc.) to proceed. Converse of githamano anta IV, I, 35, Winter and Spring, the two ends of the Year or, indeed, any pair of contrasted and limiting concepts which are united ab intra and divided ab extra. The distinction of the limits is temporal and spatial their indistinction eternal. (pati) with whom she is at variance is no doubt the 18. The husband Gandharva, the jealous protector of unwedded maidens, cf. X, 85, 21-22. " Rise up from hence, Visvavasu; this maiden hath a husband .... Seek in her father's home another willing maid ". Compare also X, 95, 2, where Urvasi (who corresponds to Usas, Surya, and Apala, as does Pururavas to Surj'a and Indra) deserting Puriiravas says "like the first of Dawns I leave thee". From the Brahmana and other versions of the legend (knowledge of which is taken for granted in X, 95) we know that Urvasi is in fact taken back into the Gandharva world (the "Assumption of the Virgin"), and that it is only when the sacrifices of the Year have been completed that Pururavas himself recovers his Gandharva status and is reunited to his immortal bride. Pururavas is " mortal ", not as man is mortal by contrast with the devas, but as the devas are mortal when contrasted with the asiiras, as Mitra is mortal by contrast with Varuna (I. 164, 38 and X, 85, 17-18) he is the "dying god", the Year, the halting places of the Sun, or as in The "ends" are Jaimimya Up. Brahmana, i, 11. either as here ; ; ; the father of " Life " (ayus). 19. Apala's uninhibited procedure corresponds to the shamelessness of passim, where she is Dawn. RV. referred to as like a dancer, as unbaring her bosom, (I, or unveiling her charms rising as if 92, 4; I, 124, 3-4; VI, 64, 2), or described as from a bath (V, 80, 5-6; Apala's meeting with Indra also taking place beside the river, where, as Sayana takes it, she has gone to take her morning bath). Urvasi and her sister apsarases are similarly described in X, " Youthful and shameless she 95, 9. Cf. RV., VII, 80, 2 speaking of Dawn, goeth forward, having come to know of Sun, and sacrifice, and Agni ", and also Jaimimya Up. Brahmana, I, 56, " In the beginning, the woman went about in the flood, desirously seeking a husband (strl .... sanicarantl icchantl saJilc patim, perhaps a reflection of RV. V, 37, 3, vadhur iyaiii patim icchaufi, "This woman desiring a husband", whom Indra makes his chief queen). The woman's boldness, of which the memory survives in the later rhetorical allusions to the inconstancy of SrI-LaksmI, is admirably illustrated in the early Indian representations of apsarases, best perhaps in the Alathura Museum example. J 2. 20. Cf. Atharva Veda, III, 17, 5, " Tvastr made a marriage for his daughter, bhuvanam vi ydti), where in Amcr. Oriental Soc, XVI, p. 183, I venture to think that vi ydti is intransitive and has visvam bhuvanam as subject. It is in the same way that Urvasi " bestows upon her husband's father wealth, when her lover (iisah, m.) woos her from the nearby home" (X, 95, 4), i. e. from in the Gandharva world, from within, cf. the reference to the origin of \^ac and all this universe went forth" {idam visvam spite of Bloomfield, Journ. " another's house 21. Apala is ", RV. X, 109, 4. drawn three times "through the opening of " the chariot, the opening of the wain, the opening of the team {khc rathasya, khc anasah. . ; NO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN COOMARASWAMY I, I7 khe yugasya). In Jaimimya Up. Brahmana, 3, the kha anasah and kha rathasya are identified with the divas chidra or " hole in heaven ", which is " all covered over by rays ", and is the Sun through the midst of which the Comprehensor "utterly escapes" (atimucyate) cf. Chandogya Up., VIII, 6, 6, ; where the Sun is called the "portal of the worlds" (lokadi'ara) and RV. V, 81, 2 where it is the Sun that "lets out the forms of all things" (7nh