We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
VRATÁ DEVINE AND HUMAN IN THE EARLY VEDA.
- Authors
Lubin, Timothy
- Abstract
The relationship between Rigvedic and post-Rigvedic usages of the word vratá has not been adequately explained, despite several studies of the concept. This paper distinguishes three aspects of the word's meaning in the *[These characters cannot be converted to ASCII text] Veda and in the “mantra-period” texts: (1) ‘rule’ in the general sense of a fixed articulation of will or authority; (2) as the attribute of a god, it denotes the distinctive natural and social laws that the god ordains and maintains; (3) in verses in which the god's vratá is closely linked with specific rites (the morning and evening offerings, the three soma pressings) it acquires the sense of ‘rule of ritual observance’. In these contexts, this rule of ritual performance is an obligation to be fulfilled by “descendants of Manu,” who may be called vratyàs of the god. *[These characters cannot be converted to ASCII text] 7.103.1 and AV 4.11 foreshadow the narrower, technical application of the word in the prose yajus texts, the *[These characters cannot be converted to ASCII text], and the ritual *[These characters cannot be converted to ASCII text], viz., an ascetical regimen undertaken by a *[These characters cannot be converted to ASCII text] or student, under the superintendence of Agni Vratapati.
- Subjects
VRATAS; HINDU literature; DHARMA; AGNI (Hindu deity)
- Publication
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2001, Vol 121, Issue 4, p565
- ISSN
0003-0279
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/606499