Subject: [Abhinava msg #3108]

 Is Nick Allen's 'fourth' function really independent of the other three? Problematizing Dumézil's 'Indo-European' tripartite (social) ideology

From: Sunthar Visuvalingam

Date: Sat Apr 23, 2005  5:54 am

Indra is the king as yajamana (sacrificer) par excellence, forming a couple in this regard with the purohita (officiating brahmin) who directs him through the rituals of sacrifice. In offering himself to the divinity through [<146-147>] the intermediary of a victim tied to the sacrificial post, the Vedic king renewed his kingdom through his own rebirth. It is through this sacrificial violence, assimilated to a brahmanicidal killing of his purohita Vishvarupa, that the warrior-god of Dumézil’s second function universalises himself ritually so as to annex not only the third function (fertility) but also the first function (sovereignty). [...] Pachali Bhairava, coming from Benaras, represents above all the kingship of death to whom everybody, without exception, is a condemned subject. As the Bhuteshvara (Lord of Spirits), he renews the power of the Indo-Nepalese king who, through the exchange of swords, appropriates the regenerative strength of the death of the Brahmanical sacrificer. The Indra statuette, put to death at the transposition of the Vedic sacrificial post at Bhaktapur, is explicitly called Yama Deo by the Newars. Nick Allen has proposed completing the "Indo-European" ideology of Georges Dumézil with a "fourth function," incarnated by Yama, that would represent the Other both as a devalorised and excluded group and as a [<149-150>] central transcendent principle. If Bhairava, as Yamantaka, vanquishes this sovereign god of profane death to reign in his place on the mahashmashana (great cremation-ground) that is the holy city par excellence of Varanasi, it is because Bhairava, this Absolute of "Kashmir Shaivism," is realised through an initiatory death that Yama himself would have represented in the Vedic religion. [150>] Nick Allen’s talk, presented in Paris in 1989 to the same seminar series conducted by G. Toffin where the original French version of my own paper was delivered, also highlighted the "interferences" between this "fourth" and the (representations of the) remaining three functions. Visuvalingam pointed out that the would-be "fourth" was in fact not a (social) "function" at all but rather a reflection of (the effects of the dialectic of) transgressive sacrality within the operation of the other functions. Yama has been generally taken for an "Aryan " divinity related to the divine twins, the most recent argument being that of Asko Parpola, who attributes him to an "Iranian" (more specifically "Scythian" = Saka ) cult that would have invaded the subcontinent from Afghanistan (BMAC). Without being able to develop the argument here, we hold rather that this whole complex — of kingship, death, judgment, solar symbolism and royal incest — may be traced back to a pre-"Indo-European" (para) Elamite cult. Charles Malamoud’s interpretation of the Yama cult within the sacrificial and funerary paradigm is based on the assumption that the twin-incest did not take place (simply because of the incest taboo prevalent in all societies?). Not only does this do violence to the "studied" ambiguity of the Vedic myth in this regard, it also ignores the fact that among the Newars, for example, twins of opposed sex are ritually married before they separate to lead their independent lives (we owe this information to Nutan Sharma). What is vital from the perspective of transgressive sacrality is the very ambivalence of the incest.] [... Note 29:>] [151>] So too, the deformity of the clown of the Sanskrit drama, prolonging that of the Varuna-jumbaka (Kuiper, Varuna and Vidushaka 213-22, cf. 208-10), translates the transgressive dimension of the purohita, with whom the king formed an indissociable pair (see note 14). Dumézil (Flamen-Brahman 28-9) had already suggested that the purohita may have originally functioned as the scapegoat of the Vedic king. [<151]

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3115]

 Re: Is Nick Allen's 'fourth' function really independent of the other three?

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Sat May 7, 2005; 10:58 am

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, Sunthar Visuvalingam wrote:  

I think we have to look back here to Loga's NKSD and my own Nusantao convergence in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze period.

The water buffalo vahana, of course, should be linked with the migration of the domesticated water buffalo from the region of wild water buffaloes in tropical southern Asia.

The water buffalo is closely linked with funerary traditions in these cultures as brought out by Francesco Brighenti and also with the royal family. The buffalo horns may be considered the prime symbol of royalty in this region.

http://sambali.blogspot.com/2004/12/water-buffalo.html

http://sambali.blogspot.com/2004/12/king-of-east.html

In ancient Vedic tradition, the royal water buffalo symbolism is found Yama's vahana and in the Mahisi ritual of the asvamedha sacrifice.

The dog as the totem or animal twin of Bhairava is natural as the dog is perceived as the natural lord of the burial ground, and hence of the underworld. We see this in Kemetic cultures in the deities Anpu (Anubis) and Wepwawet. In Vedic culture, Yama has special dogs.

In Southeast Asia, the dog is the also lord of or guide to the realm of the dead. And in both Kemet and Southeast Asia, the dog has special links with the tradition of ruling families.

http://asiapacificuniverse.com/pkm/dogstory.htm http://sambali.blogspot.com/2004/12/dog-lineage.html

On the latter connections of the Sun especially with the beaches of Orissa, see:

http://sambali.blogspot.com/2005_02_02_sambali_archive.html

The first and ideal king is, of course, linked with the Land of the Dead, the realm of which everyone, pauper and king alike, eventually becomes a citizen.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3117]

 Water buffalo in Mesopotamia (attn.: PKM)

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Sat May 7, 2005; 7:57 pm

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, [Paul Kekai Manansala] wrote:

Dear Paul,

The two blogspot pages you posted contain a lot of useful information. As you may recall, I have a special concern for the water-buffalo symbolism in protohistoric and ancient Asia as reflexed in myths and rituals (the first message posted to your Austric List, three years back, was mine, and it dealt with this very subject). In my article abstract at

http://www.svabhinava.org/friends/FrancescoBrighenti/BuffaloSacrifice-frame.html

which is an abridged version of my original, much longer Italian essay dedicated to this subject available at

http://www.svabhinava.org/friends/FrancescoBrighenti/SacrificioBovini-frame.html

I also 'speculate' on the possibility that a cultural connection existed between the Southern Chinese and N. Indo-Chinese mythic image of the water-buffalo, connected with both death rituals and clan/village leadership (maybe not yet 'royalty'...) THROUGH FIGURES OF DEIFIED FOUNDING ANCESTORS, and the mythic image of Yama riding on a water buffalo found in Vedic texts. Then, yes, there was also the mahiSI, the 'buffalo queen' united in a sacred marriage to a 'horse god-king' at the azvamedha sacrifice. Was she originally ritually united to a buffalo, as her name may signify? Was that Parpola's hypothesized Harappan buffalo-god? If he was, could he have been the Harappan god presiding over death DUE TO DIFFUSION OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS ASSOCIATING BUFFALO WITH DEATH FROM THE EAST VIA THE MUNDAS?

What a fascinating subject... Nobody could give me an answer so far - - and I have inquired many! I initially took a cue here from Prof. Alf Hiltebeitel, who, while discussing the origin of the durgA- mahiSa myth in an article of his, points to the mortuary observances of certain Munda-speaking tribes (= buffalo sacrifice) as modern South Asian survivals of some prehistoric traditions of buffalo sacrifice associated with funeral and memorial rites that would have contributed to form the mythic image of Yama's buffalo-vAhana.

I once discussed the matter with Prof. Hiltebeitel himself when he came to Venice for a lecture, and he told me he had found "particularly intriguing" my map of bovine sacrifices in S. and S.E. Asia...

I have an observation as to your blogspot page at

http://sambali.blogspot.com/2004/12/water-buffalo.html

The picture you label as "A Mesopotamian seal with swamp buffalo, humans with buffalo horns, peacock, rhinos, sea-goats and the 'Master of the Animals' motif" , which you present in the context of the water-buffalo in Sumerian iconography, is clearly a Harappan-style artifact, yet this information is not provided in the text. At p. 184 of _Deciphering the Indus Script_, Parpola suggests that "If this seal of foreign provenence were the only one to contain such a motif, its validity for the Indus religion and script could be called in question. But in a moulded triangular terracotta prism from Mohenjo-daro the same deity, squatting in the same 'yogic' posture as the famous 'Proto-Ziva', is flanked on either side by a fish, an alligator and a snake (fig. 10.11)." Like in the Louvre example shown in your photo, the 'god' is here (buffalo?-)horned an seated on a low throne with hoofed legs.

As to your statement that "the water buffalo in Sumer is none other than the Southeast Asian swamp buffalo", well, I am not that much convinced... True, the buffalo depicted on the seal of Sharkalisharri have very peculiar horns, quite big and arcuate and more akin to those of the S.E. Asian swamp buffalo than those of the S. Asian river buffalo (whose shape is, on the contrary, apparently reproduced on Harappan seal imagery); but that seems to be a spurious example. I have seen some other Akkadian cylinder seals depicting water buffalo, and in all cases the horns are smaller and less arcuate than they are on the depiction of buffalo as seen in the seal of Sharkalisharri.

The water-buffalo is not native to Mesopotamia, but it is difficult to maintain it was imported there as swamp buffalo directly from S.E. Asia. According to Parpola, this bovine species first appears in Mesopotamia in the last third of the reign of Sargon the Great (early 23rd century BCE). Starting from that period water buffalo, as is known from cuneiform texts, were kept in royal parks and used as sacrificial animals (in imitation of a Harappan sacrificial tradition??). Some cylinder seals dating from after the reign of Sargon represent the familiar 'contest' scene with opposing a buffalo, alternatively, to a lion or a hero. The buffalo, thus, started to act as a substitute for the the bull or bison in that very archaic Near Eastern mythological scene. In the subsequent centuries, the buffalo became associated with the Mesopotamian water- god Enki; so was also the hero who subdues it in the man-buffalo contest scenes represented in late Akkadian glyptics. The hero, it must be noted, places his foot on the head of the buffalo, a motif which is unknown in earlier Mesopotamian man-bovine contest scenes, but is, on the contrary, characteristic of the Harappan seals and tablets where a man spears a water-buffalo to death -- a sacrificial scene echoed by the Akkadian seal imagery?? Around 2000 BC the buffalo disappears from Mesopotamian art, apparently because no new buffaloes were imported from the Indus Valley after the decline of trans-maritime trade (Parpola, op. cit., pp. 248, 252 and 254).

 Finally, re: the link you posit between the symbolism of buffalo(- horns) in Miao/Hmong cultural traditions and the (putative) water- buffalo (or bull/ox) totem of ancient peoples of S.China and N. Indo- China who may have spoken Austro-Asiatic, Hmong-Mien and Daic languages. That's very interesting because of its connections with funerary ritual and ancestor worship. The Hmong highlanders of northern Vietnam sacrifice a buffalo or, alternatively, an ox at their funeral ceremonies. Buffaloes are immolated on the occasion of funerals by the Miao of Sichuan too. The Long-Horn Miao of Guizhou, on the contrary, just sacrifice cows at their funerals. Moreover, the Miao tribes of Guizhou celebrate, generally every thirteen years, a great buffalo-sacrifice festival meant to celebrate a series of good crops and, at one time, to honor the ancestors. The buffalo may in some cases be replaced by a bull or an ox. The donor's family members take away the head of the slain animal, which is fixed on the top of a ceremonial post. Later on the horns of the sacrificed bovines are heaped up in a special room of the house meant for ancestor-worship. Generally speaking, all the Miao/Hmong tribes conceive bovines as the best suited zoomorphic symbols of their ancestral heroes. The myths of the Miao of Guizhou preserve the memory of legendary buffalo-sacrifices offered in by-gone days by the assembly of the householders to their ancestral spirits. In this class of myths the ancestors are represented by a large sacred wooden drum identified as the Great Ancestor.

Best regards,

Francesco

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3119]

 Bruce Lincoln on the proto-Indo-European (cosmic) sacrifice - should we trace the Ur-Heimat to sub-Saharan Africa?

From: Sunthar Visuvalingam

Date: Sun May 8, 2005; 5:58 am

Paola E. Rafaetta, "On the Creation of Domestic Animals in Proto-Indo-European Mythology" (abstract)

"Pecus: Man and Animal in Antiquity" conference, Swedish Institute, Rome, September 2002.

Hello Paola,

I just got back from 3 days in Crete (spent at Knossos and the National Archeological Museum at Heraklion) and 7 days in Greece (Mycenae, National Archeological Museum at Athens, etc.) after spending much time scrutinizing various figurations of the (horns of) the bull. It seems pretty clear that, like the (water-) buffalo (in the East, see below), this sacred bovine belongs to the (western extension of the) prehistoric Mediterranean belt. The Mycenaean adoption of the (Egypto-) Minoan bull and its juxtaposition to the newly introduced horse is quite apparent, and (like the dog) the former is not entirely eclipsed even during the classical Greek period (as evidenced by funerary steles, myths, etc.).

The "proto-Indo-European" mythical Ur-scenario you have abstracted (from Bruce Lincoln) strikes me as not only valid but highly significant. However, practically every one (and not just the bull) of these elements has a universal extension (e.g., twins in the Americas) but the complex plays an even more central role in the archaic Mediterranean belt and could be traced back to Africa: divine kingship, the valorized/sacrificed twin, renewal through sacrifice, dismemberment and reunification of the cosmos. So is the PIE Ur-Heimat to be found in sub-Saharan Africa?

With best wishes for your researches,

Sunthar

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3121]

 Re: Bruce Lincoln on the proto-Indo-European (cosmic) sacrifice - should we trac

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Sun May 8, 2005  10:53 am

--- In akandabaratam@yahoogroups.com, "Sunthar Visuvalingam" wrote:

>

> ...like the (water-) buffalo (in the East, see below), this sacred bovine

> belongs to the (western extension of the) prehistoric Mediterranean belt.

> The Mycenaean adoption of the (Egypto-) Minoan bull and its juxtaposition to

> the newly introduced horse is quite apparent, and (like the dog) the former

> is not entirely eclipsed even during the classical Greek period (as

> evidenced by funerary steles, myths, etc.).

>

> The "proto-Indo-European" mythical Ur-scenario you have abstracted (from

> Bruce Lincoln) strikes me as not only valid but highly significant. However,

> practically every one (and not just the bull) of these elements has a

> universal extension (e.g., twins in the Americas) but the complex plays an

> even more central role in the archaic Mediterranean belt and could be traced

> back to Africa: divine kingship, the valorized/sacrificed twin, renewal

> through sacrifice, dismemberment and reunification of the cosmos. So is the

> PIE Ur-Heimat to be found in sub-Saharan Africa?

The same myths are found in Asia and the Pacific. Stephen Oppenheimer discusses them rather extensively in his book _Eden in the East_.

He takes a lot of the information included in Frazier's _Golden Bough_ and adds some interesting additional data and analysis.

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Francesco Brighenti

> Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 2:58 AM

> To: Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com

> Subject: [Abhinavagupta] Water buffalo in Mesopotamia (attn.: PKM)

>

>

> Dear Paul,

>

>

> I also 'speculate' on the possibility that a cultural connection existed

> between the Southern Chinese and N. Indo-Chinese mythic image of the

> water-buffalo, connected with both death rituals and clan/village leadership

> (maybe not yet 'royalty'....) THROUGH FIGURES OF DEIFIED FOUNDING ANCESTORS,

The Chinese and Hmong-Mien do connect the buffalo (sometimes ox) imagery with the "emperor" Chiyou of Juili confederacy mentioned in some of the earliest Chinese historical texts.  The Juili included the contemporary Dong-Yi tribes of the Shandong region.  >

> 

> I have an observation as to your blogspot page at

>

>

> http://sambali.blogspot.com/2004/12/water-buffalo.html

>

> The picture you label as "A Mesopotamian seal with swamp buffalo, humans

> with buffalo horns, peacock, rhinos, sea-goats and the 'Master of the

> Animals' motif" , which you present in the context of the water-buffalo in

> Sumerian iconography, is clearly a Harappan-style artifact, yet this

> information is not provided in the text.

It does have Harappan qualities, although some beleive the oldest appearance fo the "master of the beasts" motif comes from Mesopotamia or Elam.

Obviously many of the animals in this artifact are not Mesopotamian or Elamite, so it possibly could be an example of influence rather than an actual Harappan piece.

> As to your statement that "the water buffalo in Sumer is none other than the

> Southeast Asian swamp buffalo", well, I am not that much convinced.... True,

> the buffalo depicted on the seal of Sharkalisharri have very peculiar horns,

> quite big and arcuate and more akin to those of the S.E. Asian swamp buffalo

> than those of the S. Asian river buffalo (whose shape is, on the contrary,

> apparently reproduced on Harappan seal imagery); but that seems to be a

> spurious example. I have seen some other Akkadian cylinder seals depicting

> water buffalo, and in all cases the horns are smaller and less arcuate than

> they are on the depiction of buffalo as seen in the seal of Sharkalisharri.

I have also studied many Mesopotamian seals and I believe undoubtedly that the swamp buffalo is portrayed. It's not just the horns but the physique and skull shape.

For example, the swamp buffalo has a proportionally much shorter and rounder (in profile) body than the river buffalo.

Also Wooley (_Ur of the Chaldees_) found a swamp buffalo skull at Ur. In constrast I have seen at least one clear example of a river buffalo from Sumer.

In fact, even in Syro-Palestine, the gud-alim motif faithfully preserves and accurate depiction of the swamp buffalo.

A river buffalo from 3rd millennium BCE Sumer, notice horn shape and high head carriage.

>

> The water-buffalo is not native to Mesopotamia, but it is difficult to

> maintain it was imported there as swamp buffalo directly from S.E. Asia.

> According to Parpola, this bovine species first appears in Mesopotamia in

> the last third of the reign of Sargon the Great (early 23rd century BCE).

> Starting from that period water buffalo, as is known from cuneiform texts,

> were kept in royal parks and used as sacrificial animals (in imitation of a

> Harappan sacrificial tradition??). Some cylinder seals dating from after the

> reign of Sargon represent the familiar 'contest' scene with opposing a

> buffalo, alternatively, to a lion or a hero. The buffalo, thus, started to

> act as a substitute for the the bull or bison in that very archaic Near

I'm not sure one can state this with any confidence. The term _gud-alim_ appears to refer specifically to the water buffalo in Sumerian texts meaning that it predates the Akkadian period. The word obviously is a modification of _alim_ which refers generally to horned animals. In Akkadian times, the water buffalo is generally used to depict what is called gud-alim in Sumerian texts.

> That's very interesting because of its connections with funerary ritual and ancestor worship.

Many Hmong-Mien peoples do consider Chiyou as an ancestor although the great ancestor of these peoples is generally seen as a dog (totemic reference?) who marries the daughter of the Chinese emperor.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3122]

 Refs on Sumerian water buffaloes

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Sun May 8, 2005  2:40 pm

The buffalo used now in the marshes of Iraq have some traits of both the swamp and river buffalo:

Marsh buffaloes from Iraq

Swamp buffaloes

Murrah river buffalo

Here are some references on water buffalo remains from Lagash:

Ochsenschlager, Edward and Bonnie Gustav, Ethnographic evidence for Water buffalo and the disposal of animal bones in Southern Iraq: Ethnoarchaeology at Al-Hiba. Domestic Animals of Mesopotamia Part II. Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture Vol. III. pages 1-9, 1995.

Maxwell, Gavin (with Bonnie Gustav). "Water Buffalo and Garbage Pits: Ethnoarchaeology at alHiba." BOSA 8:1-9, 1995.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3127]

 More on water buffalo as royal animal

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Mon May 9, 2005; 5:54 pm

Some more examples of the use of the water buffalo in royal ritual and regalia

From Shaman, Saiva and Sufi

THE SHAMAN'S SACRIFICE AT "the primitive annual nocturnal rite" of feasting the spirits of the regalia and State of Perak the head of a pink buffalo was set on the topmost tier of the altar, the royal princesses held bits of the sacrifice on their laps, and there was a feast on the spot while drink was being poured upon the royal drums and trumpets.

In Negri Sembilan a newly elected chief invites all his people, men, women and children, "the cocks that lay not eggs, the hens that cackle and the chicks that chirp," to a public feast called "the sprinkling of the broken grain." He sprinkles the grain as a symbol of gathering them under his wing, and the bond of tribal unity is acknowledged in old-world sentences:-"Together we skin the heart of the elephant; together dip the heart of the louse. What we drop is common loss: what we gain is common profit." No one can slaughter a buffalo without permission of the tribal chief. No tribal chief can refuse to be present at a feast for which a buffalo is slaughtered: the heart, the liver, and a slice off the rump are his perquisites.

A buffalo (never an Indian bull or cow) is slaughtered at all big Malay feasts, secular, magical or Muslim.

The Yamtuan or overlord of Negri Sembilan used to claim all buffaloes with abnormal horns as perquisites of royalty.

In Kelantan a similar ceremony took seven days and seven nights, pink buffaloes were sacrificed, and the shaman conducted the séance called "the play of the princess."

On the buffalo lancing (Mahesa Lawung) in Java:

http://www.joglosemar.co.id/mn_lawung.html

Rajawedha

According to books of Pustaka Raja and Wita Radya, since ancient time that kind of ritual was called Rajawedha. Every new year, the Kings of Java made this ritual, wishing for the safety and welfare of the Kingdom and its people.

In the year 387, king Sitawaka of Gilingaya Kingdom performed the royal Slametan (ritual meal) at the beginning of each year. A priest, by the name of Raddi upon King’s instruction asked all population of every hamlet to make also offering at the beginning of the year and that was called Gramawedha (sacrifice for village well-being), a ritual meal for village purification.

The King Sri Prabu Ajipamasa of Pengging Kingdom renamed the Rajawedha to Mahesa Lawung. He could safe his country and his people from his enemies. He was helped by Batari Kalayuwati of Krendawahana, the daughter of Bathari Durga-a very strong goddess. The King had sacrificed a buffalo Lawung. This tradition was also continued in Demak, Kartasura and Surakarta. Since Sri Pakoeboewono II, the time of Mahesa Lawung was changed to Javanese month of Rabingulakir. Bakda Mulud on the last ‘service’ (Pisowanan) day.

From the Bronze Age Aegean:

Gold buffalo heads with double axe symbol from Royal Grave A of Mycenae

Minoan seal showing buffalo horns mounted with double axe and two-winged dogs.

Mycenaean chamber tomb seal

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3129]

 Re: More on water buffalo as royal animal

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Tue May 10, 2005  4:42 am

Dear Paul,

I had already seen the drawings of Minoan and Mycenaean seals and the picture of Mycenaean miniature gold bovine heads, all supposedly representing water buffaloes, which you probably took from

 http://www.greecetravel.com/archaeology/mitsopoulou/zulu/photos2.htm ,

but I am not convinced at all they represent this animal. As far as my knowledge goes, in the ancient world neither wild nor domestic water buffalo were known further west than the geographic quadrant formed by Persia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Armenia. Water buffalo spread over Anatolia before the fifth century AD, and was probably brought to the Balkans by the Avars about 560 AD. From there, the Bulgars subsequently hastened its diffusion from Italy to Bohemia. Between 1000 and 1200 AD the buffalo is frequently mentioned by the Crusaders in Palestine, who introduced new breeds of this species into Europe (U. Duerst quoted in W. Koppers and L. Jungblutt, "The Water Buffalo and the Zebu in Central India", _Anthropos_ 37-40 [1942-45], p. 662). What is the evidence for the presence of water buffalo in Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece?

Thanks, and best regards,

Francesco  

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3130]

 Re: More on water buffalo as royal animal

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Tue May 10, 2005  9:56 am

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, Francesco Brighenti wrote:

There is none. However, that does not preclude the possibility that these are buffalo representations.

Note that Greek and Roman coins portray elephants, which were not present in Europe. Dynastic China adopted the lion from India, even though there were no lions in China.

Buffalo horns are often interchangeable with an inverted crescent Moon, or a ship with upturned ends in ancient symbology.

Many see the double axe as a Neolithic symbol of thunder/lightning. As a sky symbol. The inverted crescent is often shown carrying sky symbols like the Sun, stars, crosses, squares, etc.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3132]

 Re: Bruce Lincoln on the proto-Indo-European (cosmic) sacrifice - should we trace the Ur-Heimat to sub-Saharan Africa?

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Wed May 11, 2005; 6:27 am

Dear Sunthar,

I found the following critique of Bruce Lincoln's reconstructed PIE myth about *Manu and *Yemo in the "Indo-European Religion" entry of the Harper Collins Dictionary of Religion (edited by Jonathan Z. Smith and William Scott Green, San Francisco, Harper, 1995):

Regards,

Francesco

[Response to Sunthar's post (May 8, 2005) at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Abhinavagupta/message/3119 ]

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3134]

 Re: Bruce Lincoln on the proto-Indo-European (cosmic) sacrifice - should we trace the Ur-Heimat to sub-Saharan Africa?

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Wed May 11, 2005; 11:43 am

I would say the process here looks more like conversion than inheritance.

A borrowed motif of the creation of the world/universe from the parts of a divine sacrifice is converted and plastered on to existing mythology.

Many scholars have recognized as essential parts of the original myth -- the separation of Heaven and Earth and the cosmic egg. These motifs are present in different linked combinations with that body > earth motif in diverse regions.

Original message:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Abhinavagupta/message/3132

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3136]

 Re: More on water buffalo as royal animal

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Wed May 11, 2005  12:18 pm

--- In austric@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Parker" wrote:

Never heard of the "horns of the crescent moon." The phrase is quite ancient, for example, it appears in Indian astronomical texts (srnga = "horns").

The inverted crescent Moon, with the horns pointing "upward" does resemble the crescentic horns of the swamp and wild water buffalo.

In ancient Egypt, the "crescent Sun" or the sun showing as a crescent while eclipsed by the Moon, evolves into the horn and disc crown found on the goddess Isis.

Response to posting: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austric/message/869

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3144]

 Re: More on water buffalo as royal animal

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Fri May 13, 2005; 9:39 am

--- In austric@yahoogroups.com, Francesco Brighenti wrote:

----quote---

----quote---

Yes, I meant mainly the obvious bovines in the Kot Diji and Sankalia artifacts.

However, I'd like to show some seals from the private collection of Leroy Golf

http://www.antiquesatoz.com/golf/index.htm

Both are Akkadian period, but they use the same Sumerian crescent and star symbol placed beside the classic Enki and the water buffalo image.

Erich Zehren in The crescent and the bull examines the relationship of the crescent and bull's horns (not necessarily buffalo).

Response to posting: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austric/message/876

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3145]

 Re: More on water buffalo as royal animal

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Fri May 13, 2005; 10:26 am

I'd like to note again on the seals referenced in my last message. These are artifacts in private collections described by an antiquities dealer.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject:

 Re: entrances to the Underworld

From: K. Loganathan

Date: Tue May 17, 2005; 8:15 pm

To: [Akandabaratam msg #17404]

Dear Paul      

Yes the 'cosmogonic dive' which goes well with the essence of VaishNavism where Varaha avatar is celebrated may in fact be a dive into the Unconscious the hidden and concealed metaphysical realms.

Now let me add also information that may interest you. I few days ago I saw an interesting documentary about the Jirai (?)  people in Cambodia who devasted by the Khmer Rouge ran away to the hills to preserve their culture. The central elements of the culture was the sacrifice of Buffalo and if not affordable then pigs.

They experienced the death of two members of their community and to prevent further deaths they decided to sacrifice two buffaloes that they bought from the farmers in the valleys.

But before the sacrifice they built a tall Totem that represents all the divine forces. Now an innovation was that they included the airplanes that bombed their native territories and destroyed it. The Americans were responsible for this. They put up a model of the airplane on their totem so that the divine forces will fight as well such air raids by the Americans.

On the day of the sacrifice they dance around this totem and then beating the buffaloes torture them as if torturing the evil forces that bring death and calamities to the people. After killing the buffaloes and cutting them up to pieces, they hang them on the totem before cooking and eating.

They believe that once the buffalo sacrifice is done, the spirits of the dead will not hang around and will depart away from them pacified.

Now sometimes the buffalo is replaced with pigs and this is done by those who cannot afford to purchase a pig large enough.

Such sacrifices are also widely present among the aborigines in Sumatra

Loga

Subject:

 Re: entrances to the Underworld

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Wed May 18, 2005; 5:46 am

To: [Akandabaratam msg #17409]

Dear Dr. Loganathan,

Thanks for the informative piece. I have studied for some time the Jarai buffalo-sacrifices associated with death rites, but I was unaware of the 'tortures' being inflicted in some cases (like the one you cite) on the poor animals. This reminds me of similar 'cruel' fashions of buffalo (or mithun) sacrifice in vogue among the Kondh tribes of the Eastern Ghats and the Naga tribes of N.E. India.

The Austronesian-speaking Jarai, one of the so-called (by the French colonizers) 'Montagnard' tribes of the Annamite Plateau, sacrifice buffaloes on a mass scale during their funeral ceremonies. Each dead person is buried under a profusely decorated hut burial of his own, which is surrounded by a fence having wooden sculptures fixed on it. Outside the fence, at the time of celebration of funerary rites, many forked (Y-shaped or V-shaped) poles are planted, which are used to tie up the sacrificial buffaloes. The animals is generally speared to death. The heads and hooves of the slain animals are finally nailed to the hut burial.

The Mon-Khmer-speaking Bahnar, whose settlement area borders on that of the Jarai, observe funeral rites nearly identical to the Jarai ones. It is, however, not clear whether on such occasions they use to offer buffaloes in sacrifice on a mass scale like the Jarai do.

Yet another Mon-Khmer-speaking tribe of Vietnam and Cambodia, the Mnong, erect hut burials where the dead are disposed of, which closely resemble the Jarai hut burials. No information is available to me as to their eventual performance of buffalo-sacrifice at funeral ceremonies. Yet, it is reported that the dead bodies of the members of this tribe are placed in a buffalo-shaped wooden coffin, which is thereafter installed in the hut burial.

The Gie Trieng, another Mon-Khmer-speaking tribe of the Annamite Plateau, place the bodies of the dead in boat-shaped wooden coffins on which buffalo figures are carved. Their characteristic burials are surmounted by a buffalo-head carved out of wood.

Throughout the mountain areas of Annam, water-buffalo are also sacrificed at great harvest and/or sowing festivals having a communal character. Buffaloes are killed with the use of spears, daggers or blades. This class of socio-religious festivals is, in many cases, part of the annual ancestor-worship cycle: for instance, at the Hua Psat, the harvest festival of the Jarai, the sacrificial offering of a buffalo is dedicated to the ancestors. See the link:

http://www.thespecialforce.com/Montagnard/hua_psat.htm

Kindest regards,

Francesco Brighenti

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3156]

 [Indo-Eurasia] Re: entrances to the Underworld

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Thu May 19, 2005; 10:56 am

Response to posting:

Dr. Loga, I wonder if the cruelty toward the animal, and sometimes rarely the human victim might have a bit of revenge as the motive.

The animals -- buffalo, bull, pig, etc -- are linked with or manifestations of death or the lord of death.

Might there be some resentment here at our own mortality or the loss of loved ones to the grim reaper?

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

 --- In akandabaratam@yahoogroups.com, K. Loganathan wrote:

> Dear FB and Paul

> 

> Thank-you. It seems the torturing of tha sacrificial animals is part of the animosity in which they see the poor animals whether buffalos or pigs. They cease to be just simple animals - there comes to prevail a kind of projection upon these animals as sources of death or symbolizing a connection with the death bringing elemets in nature.

> 

> Analytical Psychology such as that Freud or Jung may hel us here.

> 

> Let me narrate another documentary over the discovery channel and which was an eye-opener to me, This was about some tribes in Papua New Guinea where cannibalaism is still practiced. The documentary also showed a warrior who just a few months ago killed a man and ate him up.

> 

> From the accounts it appears such individuals are seen as sorcerers who bring about the non-natural deaths of some individuals in the tribe. One young woman, 18 yrs old lost her husband because of some sickness. While dying the man seems to have named one of his friends as the sorcerer responsible for his death. This makes the wife claim that the men of the tribe should kill the sorcerer and eat him up!

> 

> In the documetary we see the named sorcerer escaping, running way to some distant place. The elders of the tribe do not go after him because of the tribal war it may bring about and hence more deaths. The wife and rest of the women  acquiese with this decision and just continue lamenting, mourning  and cursing.

> 

> The important thing here is the shift in the semantics - from being a friend he becomes a sorcerer and hence someone who can be hunted and killed. The skulls and bones of such victims are held up in poles nearby as a protection of the community.

> 

> These people are otherwise very loving and kind and become cannibals only when someone dies an nonnatural death. There is a FEAR of death and this appears to be a way in which they make sense of it.

> 

> Eating up the man-sorcer may be a permanent way of getting rid of the cause of death so that such events are prevented from happening in the future.

> 

> By the way eating the flesh of the dead is still practiced by some clandestine Saiva groups in India. I have also seen documentaries recording such practices.

> 

> Loga

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3149]

 Bull sports across the Mediterranean: from Austric buffalo-sacrifice to Indo-European war-horse

From: Sunthar Visuvalingam

Date: Wed May 18, 2005; 5:25 am

Bull sports across the Mediterranean, Between Athens and Benares

From Austric buffalo-sacrifice to Indo-European war-horse, Between Athens and Benares

Friends,

It might be some time before I'm able to pick up these two threads again and weave them together within more 'philosophical' reflections on the relationship between 'play' (both sports and theater), sacrifice, and war. In the meantime, you might want to 'digest' these conversations.

Enjoy!

Sunthar

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3150]

 Re: Bull sports across the Mediterranean: from Austric buffalo-sacrifice to Indo-European war-horse

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Wed May 18, 2005; 10:16 am

Sunthar Visuvalingam wrote:

I'd like to suggest the following:

A royal or chiefly ritual sacrifice of a buffalo or other bovine. Sometimes a horse or pig is used instead.

The sacrificial animal is chosen because of its connection with the Underworld and/or its relationship as a totem of some sort.

In some of the sacrifices there is an obvious sexual symbolism, as in the Mahisi ritual or the "play of the princess" in Indonesia. Francesco suggested that the sacrificed animal may represent the king himself. Another possibility is the sacrificed animal symbolizes divinity, the lord of the Underworld, the first king/chief, in a type of "divine marriage" ceremony. The buffalo, for example, is the vâhana (vehicle) of Yama.

Dogs, apparently through their connection with the Underworld, are also part of the symbolism as with the dogs of Yama and Bhairava. A dog is sacrificed at the beginning of the Asvamedha ritual.

The sacrifice appears aimed at promoting the prosperity of the land and the fertility of the royal family.

There is an underlying astronomical symbolism, particularly with relation to the Sun. The water buffalo, horse and dog are all important as solar or other astronomical symbols. In many cases, the sacrifice is annual occurring at particular times in the solar year.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3152]

 The mahiSI and Parpola's 'royal' buffalo-sacrifice

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Wed May 18, 2005; 7:19 pm

Dear Paul (and Sunthar),

Since you have touched upon a cluster of topics I am very much concerned with—the mahiSI's function in the azvamedha sacrifice, the supposed Harappan 'royal' buffalo-sacrifice etc.—I want to respond to your message with an excerpt from an unpublished paper of mine (on human sacrifice in ancient and tribal India) where I discuss some 'Parpolisms' about the above interrelated topics. Highly speculative, no doubt, but... fascinating!

Here it goes:

http://www.svabhinava.org/friends/FrancescoBrighenti/HumaSacrifice-frame.html

Kindest regards,

Francesco

Hello Francesco,

Given that it is a long and self-standing extract from a book-in-progress, rather than dialogue proper, I have posted it to your section at svAbhinava Friends and substituted the link here.

The relation between azvamedha and puruSamedha, in this context, is also discussed in Charles Malamoud, Le jumeau solaire (“The Solar Twin”), with the focus being on sacrificial thought rather than priority of a particular form over another, speculative chronologies, and directions of diffusion.

Regards,

Sunthar

[Response to Paul Kekai Manansala's post (May 18, 2005) at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Abhinavagupta/message/3150]

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3154]

 Re: The mahiSî and Parpola's 'royal' buffalo-sacrifice

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Thu May 19, 2005; 8:56 am

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, [Sunthar Visuvalingam wrote:

>

Did he also suggest the same idea with regard to the royal brahmanicide? Was the brahmin a latter substitute for the buffalo/bovine also?

I remember that it has been suggested that the human victim of puruSamedha may symbolize the god PuruSa (Prajapati/Brahma), the peculiar god of Brahmins.

Also the horse victim of the azvamedha sacrifice has likewise been compared to the cosmic sacrifice of PuruSa.

Even the Mahisi ritual may have a real-life counterpart in the sanctified sexual relations for the purpose of rearing children between the queen and a brahmin priest mentioned in a number of instances.

As for the "murderous bride," there is also the case of Kali's slaying of Siva. It may or may not be connected but Siva (Mahakala) in the form of Yamantaka Vajrabhairava has a buffalo head as the main one of his nine heads.

According to one story, Yama, the god of death has a buffalo head, and in order to conquer Yama, Yama(antaka) assumes the same form.

Does this indicate also the psychological aspect of the quest for immortality?

Although separated by quite a bit of time, the buffalo-headed Yama of Tibetan Buddhism could have some indirect link to the buffalo-horned image of the Harappans.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Response to posting: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Abhinavagupta/message/3152

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3155]

 Re: The mahiSî and Parpola's 'royal' buffalo-sacrifice

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Thu May 19, 2005; 9:03 am

Right after I sent my last message, I thought of the brahmin Ravana's abduction of Sita, the royal wife of Rama.

Of course, in the end Rama commits royal brahmanicide himself, as we have discussed here before.

Is the "abduction" maybe an honorable allusion to a Mahisi type ritual?

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3157]

 Re: The mahiSI and Parpola's 'royal' buffalo-sacrifice

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Thu May 19, 2005; 2:29 pm

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, Paul Kekai Manansala wrote:

It is stated in one Purâna—I presently can't remember which one—that after Durga cut off the head of the buffalo-demon, the Mahisha, a jyotir-linga (linga of light, a manifestation of Shiva) sprang out of the decapitated buffalo-carcass. This is a clear instance of the identification, worked out by some Purânic schools, of the Mahisha with the Great Goddes' consort, Shiva.

http://faculty.sxu.edu/~rabe/durga/durga10.htm

On D. Shulman's thesis on the "murderous brides", see:

David Dean Shulman, "The Murderous Bride: Tamil Versions of the Myth of Devi and the Buffalo-demon," History of Religions 16 (1976), pp. 120-46.

David Dean Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1980.

Kindest regards,

Francesco

 [Response to Paul Kekai Manansala's post (May 19, 2005) at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Abhinavagupta/message/3154 ]

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3158]

 Re: The mahiSI and Parpola's 'royal' buffalo-sacrifice

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Fri May 20, 2005; 10:41 am

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, Francesco Brighenti wrote:

The murderous bride theme is in contrast with the relationship between Yama and his doting twin sister Yami, who is also sometimes said to be his consort especially in Tantric tradition.  Yet Siva and Yama are especially linked in Tantra after the former commits brahmanicide:  

http://www.tantraworks.com/yama.html  

The eight forms of Bhairava also have their eight twin-sister consorts.

Tibetan thanka showing horned Yama Dharmaraja with necklace of human skulls

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3162]

 Buffalo-horned, buffalo-headed gods in eastern Asia

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Sat May 21, 2005; 12:01 pm

Two deities/ancestors in eastern Asia may be of interest with regard to the recent discussion.

Both are associated in early Chinese tradition with pre-Xia history.

Shennong, also known as Yandi Shennongshi, was a Neolithic age culture hero credited with inventing farming and herbal medicine.

Yandi means "Emperor of Fire" and Shennong was the leader of some of the enemies of Huangdi, the "emperor" of the Xia peoples of the Upper Yellow River region.

Stone statue of buffalo-horned Shennong at Shennongjia, Hubei province.

Shennong was generally portrayed as having leaf-clothing and buffalo-horns or a bull's head. At sites like Hemudu and Pengtoushan on the Yangtze River in South China the remains of some of the earliest known domesticated water buffalo have been found.

These water buffalo are associated with rice agriculture.

The other horned ancestor/deity from this period was also a foe of Huangdi and is known as Chiyou, the "emperor" of the Juili confederacy.

The present-day Hmong-Mien peoples know Chiyou as "Nine Buffalo Chiyou" referring to the nine Juili tribes that were further divided into nine subtribes.

Chiyou was based in the coastal province of Shandong, the home of the Dong Yi peoples. A number of researchers have suggested that the Dong Yi were a Nusantao-dominated people.

Chiyou seems to be closely related to Shennong, and some believe the Juili may represent an alliance between the Shennong's people of Shaanxi and/or Hubei province with the Dong Yi of Chiyou.

In Chinese tradition, Chiyou is credited with introducing bronze and particularly bronze weapons.

Although demonized to some extent for his opposition to Huangdi, Chiyou in some Chinese traditions becomes a respected god of war. Among the Hmong-Mien, he is widely seen as the first king and one of many important ancestors.

Shennong became known as the Divine Farmer, and the founder of important medical tradition.

The Hemudu and Pengtoushan sites are about 8,000 to 7,000 years old are are related to excavations further south that are about 10,000 years old.

These legends link the water buffalo with the earliest rulers connected with agriculture, medicine and metal technology.

However, it was Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, who is apparently originally the Lord of the Underworld, although the actual location of this place becomes Fengdu on the Yangtze.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3172]

 A query and a request from Francesco

From: Francesco Brighenti

Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:38 PM

To: Sunthar Visuvalingam

Dear Sunthar,

Thank you very much for including some of my recent cross-list postings in your new Web digest "From Austric buffalo-sacrifice to Indo-European war-horse" and for permanently archiving my Abhinavagupta post on the mahiSI at the svAbhinava Friends Web pages. I like your way of compiling and uploading digests on cross- cultural topics.

I have a personal query for you: when you have time, could you kindly further elaborate for me on the "(non-) 'Indo-European' (= Elamite) origins of the Yama-cult in Indo-Iranian culture"? I didn't get your point. Is your idea based on something you read on Malamoud's book on Yama (which I cannot read as it is written in French), or what?

The cult of Yama is central to my provisional thesis about the religio-cultural meaning(s) of buffalo sacrifice in the IVC epoch. Indeed, only a divine figure constituting a prototype for the Vedic Yama, the buffalo-rider, can have then functioned as a recipient of the tradition(s) of buffalo sacrifice associated with death rites, which I have been trying to show to have come to S. Asia from the East in the Neolithic period (via the Mundas and the Tibeto-Burmans) on the one side, and the tradition(s) of bull/buffalo sacrifice-cum-worship the Harappans may have been shared with their western neighbors (Mesopotamia, Greater Iran) on the other. I am here speaking of (the proto-) Yama's possible role as a religio-cultural 'hinge' between the East and the West, an idea I would like to elaborate on in the future.

Secondly, I have a request for you (not a new one!): what about giving me the possibility to update my Web directory on the AIT vs.

OIT debate at last? I've been asking you for that for a long time now, is there any obstacle to this updating? (Maybe you are simply too busy…).

My heart-felt regards to you and Elizabeth.

Francesco

Subject:

"The twin, the two, the brother and the sister" (Malamoud) - did the (Elamo-) Vedic Yama/î consummate the (royal) incest?

From: Sunthar Visuvalingam

Date: Wed May 25, 2005; 4:54 am

Dear Francesco,

I was planning to offer a coherent explanation of the figure of Yama only after a series of preparatory posts relating to buffalo, bull, and horse sacrifices in relation to kingship. However, having listened to and interacted with Charles Malamoud this Monday evening around the subject heading of this post, I have decided to put the (Austric? bullock-) cart before the (Indo-European?) horse. Our long-time friend from Benares, Prof. Rada Ivekovic, had invited him to speak at her ongoing seminar at the Collège International de Philosophie (on Saturday it was Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak...) on "Le partage de la raison" that seeks to explore the (radically?) different manner in which Oriental thought deals with that which is excluded by the Western ratio (what some might prefer to label cant about Kant...). Since Vedic sacrificial thought precedes (and not just chronologically...) the philosophical systems proper, Malamoud was invoked to provide a backdrop as to how ritual thought might have already transcended such oppositional (e.g., between subject and object) duality by dissolving it into a larger unity (as in later advaita).

Having posed a most pertinent question (that had been also very much on my mind...) as to what might be the Indian equivalent, if any, of 'Reason' (and Rada was at a loss to provide a satisfactory answer...), he proceeded to expound the sacrificial worldview that he opposed, in this way, to the soteriological (mokSa, nirvâNa, kaivalya, advaita, etc.) preoccupations of subsequent philosophical thought, whose leitmotif is: "multiplicity is illusory, unity alone is real." The Zatapatha BrâhmaNa defines 'Man' (puruSa) quite explicitly as the only animal, among all those qualifying as potential victims (pazu), that is capable of itself assuming the role of sacrificer. The underlying principle is that it is himself that man sacrifices through the mediation of the (substituted) victim, and much of the 'contradictory' (symbo-) logic of the ritual procedures consists in simultaneously identifying and separating the (surviving) sacrificer with/from the (immolated) victim - we are at the antipodes here from Western 'humanism'! Moreover, the identification here is with the (plurality of the) sacrificial mechanisms rather than with some undifferentiated absolute Unity. For example, on entering the sacrificial arena during the ritual preliminaries, the sacrificer declares: "I now quit the illusory (anRta) to enter the real (satya) world," and on leaving: "I now quit the real world to be merely that which I am" (which he tended to interpret rather as a return to the mundane pre-sacrificial condition). The idea is that the sacrificer constitutes himself as another self (âtman = 'body') composed of speech (vâg-maya) and hymn (chando-maya) through an "operation of sublimation." Through a play of disjunctions and identifications, the sacrificer becomes the (Speech of the) Veda, and even at the moment of real birth was whispered into the ear of the brahmin child: "You are the Veda!"

The Vedic hymn, in the rare form of a dialogue, opposes Yama's reluctance at transgressing the Law to Yamî's insistence that he satisfy her personal desire so as to become the progenitors of the human race. However, it leaves in obscurity whether their incestuous union was actually consummated or, otherwise, how the rest of us could have come into being. Though Malamoud dwelt upon this (mytho-) logical dilemma early on in Le jumeau solaire, the interpretations of Hindu (funerary, marriage, etc.) rituals in the rest of the book simply take the incest-taboo for granted. During Monday's talk however, - perhaps feeling freer to express his hesitations in the face of these inherent ambiguities - he underlined the sexual ambiguity that hovers around (not just Hindu...) twins of opposed sex: OTOH their degree of consanguinity is much stronger than that shared by an ordinary brother and sister suggesting that the taboo should be even more absolute, OTOH it also seems to be weaker (he introduced at this point the term 'transgression' that otherwise figures rarely in his printed vocabulary....) in that the couple is labeled mithuna, i.e., , eligible (and even destined) to not only unite sexually but also in a fecund and procreative manner. The name of the astrological sign of the Twins (Gemini - related to Sanskrit jam = yam) in India is Mithuna. After all, Yamî's justification of her incestuous desire towards the hesitant Yama is that they had been already united (even despite themselves) in the womb. Malamoud, therefore, concluded with the paradox that, within the Vedic worldview, humanity is characterized by "non-creation" and this would be its "founding myth" not in an etiological sense but rather through the (quasi-) 'psychoanalytic' insight that it is this interdiction that founds and continues to govern our own (contemporary, and not just Hindu) being. For Yáma is also the Lord of the socio-cosmic order (Vedic Rta), who gives it its coherence, and yamá (accent now on last syllable) also derives from the root yam meaning 'to constrain' - even 'restrain' as in the role of  (ni-) yama as moral pillar of the eight-fold (aSTânga) Yoga - such that he is also the Dharmarâja who punishes us for our transgressions.  He nevertheless concluded by confessing that he remains stumped by the intimate association, within this circle of related ideas, between the figure of the twins and death.

What Malamoud has failed to take into consideration is that this Vedic "founding myth" has its roots in the obligatory (not just fraternal) incest (typical of Egyptian Pharaohs) so characteristic of divine kingship. The African king (generalizing from ethnographic data provided by a variety of tribes) had to unite with his next-of-kin, characteristically his mother, and would be immolated (and replaced) when the latter reported his loss of fertility (so much so that René Girard would have us believe that the sexual transgression was primarily a pretext for justifying his sacrifice....if you recall the Vedic myth of Prajâpati's punishment at the hands of Rudra). If many wholly unconnected (including Amerindian, per Lévi-Strauss) languages have the same word for twin and incest, this is because the very figure of the twins (even in the absence of such polysemy and linguistic considerations proper) can signify incest and, by extension, transgression (Makarius). Hence, twins are often the object of contradictory attitudes, even among neighboring (African) tribes: either put to death (as an aberration of the natural order) or so highly valorized as to be surrendered to (and identified with) the king (as his property). This transgressive dimension is also indirectly apparent in some of the notations that Hindu astrology attributes to the zodiacal sign Mithuna such as "gluttonous" (prabhakSaNa-ruci), which is universally the dietary equivalent (sarva-bhakSaka) of incest, and "joker" (hâsya-kRt), both of which might well have been used to describe the (royal) VidûSaka (whom we now know to be the institutionalized violator of brahmanical taboos). If so many radically 'left-handed' Tantras later come to bear the title of (Rudra-, Brahma-, Jayadratha-, etc.) Yâmala, this is not because they were intended for twins but because they were centered around (not just sexual) transgression. The preferred heir to the Elamite throne was, among all the king's offspring, his own "sister's son" (Yamî's lost progeny?). The ambiguity of the Rig-Vedic myth is attributable to the public force of the incest taboo in the new 'Indo-Iranian' cultural context.

As there was little time left after Malamoud's exposition and as everyone else remained silent, I made the only comment addressing (not the Yama myth, which I've done here instead, but) the sharp opposition he made between Rada's soteriology of the 'philosophical schools' (darzana) and the sacrificial Weltanschauung. I simply gave the first 3 examples of such superposition of the two perspectives that came to my mind:

1.       The Kâpâlika Ugra-Bhairava obliges the brahmin Zankarâcârya, by turning the latter's own philosophy of non-action against him, to surrender his head for the former's gruesome Tantric ritual. Only when the decapitated head is subsequently restituted (which goes back to Heesterman's Vedic "mystery of the severed head"...), does the great expounder of Brahman come to realize fully the true nature of non-duality (Elizabeth).

2.       In response to the charge (by outsiders such as the Buddhists, etc.) that they were "murdering" the victim, the systematic theoreticians (Pûrva Mîmâmsâ) of the sacrifice insisted, rather, that the sacrificed animal was actually not killed but 'liberated' (mucyate), which is the same term (mokSa) that (even the heterodox) renouncers use to refer to spiritual deliverance. Had I the time, I could have demonstrated that this superposition of the two 'worldviews' is very self-consciously elaborated and played upon in Sanskrit theater, e.g., Act X of the MrcchakaTikâ.

3.      The theological dilemma posed by (the possibility of) sinners dying in the sacred city of Benares being assured of instant spiritual deliverance (mokSa) is 'resolved' by having them undergo the intense and purifying 'punishment of Bhairava' (bhairavî-yâtanâ) at the moment of death. Elizabeth has conclusively demonstrated that this 'theologeme' is largely a ('juridical' transposition of the) sacrificial decapitation (of criminals).

Though Malamoud objected that we don't see such a soterio-sacrificial synthesis being elaborated in conceptual terms by the philosophical schools proper, he agreed with me completely that the two worlds often coincided in the subsequent Hindu Weltanschauung. I could adduce several arguments to support my claim that both perspectives are rooted in a common underlying principle: the same brahmins were often involved with both the ritual and gnostic exegesis of the Veda (and theoreticians of Tantric ritual were often of Mîmâmsaka background); Abhinavagupta himself had one foot in non-dual pratyabhijñâ gnosis and the other in radical left-handed 'sacrifice' (kula-yâga); Liliane Silburn, in her Instant et Cause, derives the opposed conceptualizations of UpaniSadic (ontology of the Self) and Buddhist (deconstruction of Self) soteriology, both from the dynamic representations of the brahmanical sacrifice. Becoming "that which I (already) am" upon returning to the profane world, for example, is ambiguous enough to be understood rather that the sacrificial process has tended to restore my true self through its structuring effect on me. Instead of comparing Indian to Western 'philosophy' and opposing them to mythico-ritual 'worldview' of the sacrifice, as described by Malamoud, it seems to me that Rada's problematic would be better served by extending the term 'rationality' - in the sense of one among many possible ways of ordering or structuring experience - to cover both the conceptual and symbolic modes of representing the world. Only certain aspects and properties of this more encompassing symbolic order have been systematically abstracted out in the 'clear and distinct' ideas of conceptual thought. Indian 'public' philosophy, including the crowning achievement of Pratyabhijñâ, has till now simply jumped - through a sort of intellectual shortcut - from systematic analysis of everyday experience to spiritual liberation, whereas the underlying 'technology' of self has been encoded rather in ritual and myth. Anthropology, psychoanalysis, and semiotics offer us missing conceptual tools for recovering, formalizing, and integrating the hitherto unfamiliar 'logics' of transgressive sacrality that had lain beyond the purview of Reason.

http://www.svabhinava.org/EsotericPhilosophy/Dialogues/PrimitivismRationality/Rationality1-frame.htm

How does the Yama complex encapsulate the essence of the sacrificial logic? Being both identical and distinct, the (solar) twin (in the singular!) is the ideal embodiment of the sacrificer-victim as simultaneously Self and Other (Romulus and Remus); Yama is the first of mortals precisely because natural death is itself conceived on the model of the sacrifice (as is evident in the funerary rites performed in Benares). There is hence nothing intrinsically 'Indo-European' (no horsing around here!) about Bruce Lincoln's Ur-myth of Manu/Yemo (it's all bull....), which rather represents a ('Freudian') 'primal scene' underlying endless possible permutations, where the victim could have been a man (Yemo), a bull (not just as a human substitute...), or even a Minotaur. As a pair of opposed sex, the incestuous twins also express the desire for the primordial unity (via the womb that Yamî invokes) that is, even metaphysically speaking, a transgression of the differentiated order of Dharma and yet intrinsic to and even the (non-) 'foundation' of the latter (which is, again, why Newar twins of opposed sex are ritually married before they go their separate ways). The 'consecrated' (dîkSitâ) sacrificer undergoes a regressus ad uterum (Kuiper), 'conceived' in the mode of a sexual union, which is why the participation of the sacrificer's wife is not only indispensable but she forms an indivisible unit (dampatî) with her husband. This inherently 'incestuous' nature of the mithuna is perhaps best epitomized by its definition as the 'productive' union of Ritual Action (Prajâpati) and Speech (Sarasvatî). It is precisely this sacrificial union—which also underlies the (relationship between the hero-vidûSaka and the heroine of the) Sanskrit theater—that renders its behavior semiotic (as opposed to merely performative) and its speech creative (as opposed to merely communicative). The (substitutive) opposition between sacrificer and victim is itself subsumed within a larger sexual unity, and Yama was the first mortal because he was sacrificed to Yamî, as is the buffalo (mahiSâsura) immolated for/by the Goddess (a paradigm that is worked out elaborately in MRcchakaTikâ X, and in the Tamil folk-cult of Kâttavarâyan, to mention only two examples that I have studied very closely...). The figure of the twin does not so much embody—through its various permutations and transformations—the inability of (Amer-Indian) 'binary thinking' to definitively resolve its inherent (logical or moral) contradictions (Lévi-Strauss, Wendy Doniger), but rather the (often overtly violent) 'sacrificial' dynamics (of self and other) that (secretly) determines the construction of all human identity ('Man' as serial killer?).

Coming back to your acculturation thesis of Harappan bovine sacrifice, the Austric buffalo from the East would have already represented the original dead ancestor and sacrificial animal par excellence (funerary rites in Hinduism are conceived on the model of the sacrifice with the deceased assuming the role of victim, see e.g., Jonathan Parry). Though the bull from the West seems to have been the choice victim for the Harappan elite, the figure of the unicorn is no doubt a highly aestheticized synthesis of the traits of several sacrificial animals (including rhino and deer). The problem with regard to an Austric Yama as king of the dead, as you have rightly pointed out, is that there is no (palatial, etc.) evidence for a royal institution (unlike Knossos) in Harappa, and even the figurine of the so-called 'priest-king' has been attributed (by Possehl) to a late BMAC-influenced layer. This is precisely why I consider the 'Indo-Iranian' Yama/Yima to be of para-Elamite origin, fusing traits of African-type kingship (bull) and Austric ancestor worship (buffalo) within a newly emerging Vedic religion that was less obsessed with death.  For all we know, the tribal buffalo may not even have had a divine rider, and its association with a separate Yama simply a later 'Hindu' reflex.

Please excuse me for responding to Abhinava (and other relevant lists) but I wanted to share these (time-consuming) thoughts more widely!

With best wishes for your researches,

Sunthar

P.S. I'll write back before long to suggest some workable arrangement for regular updating of your digests at svAbhinava.

[Rest of this thread at Sunthar V. (May 8, 2005)

"Bruce Lincoln on the proto-Indo-European (cosmic) sacrifice - should we trace the Ur-Heimat to sub-Saharan Africa?"

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3173]

 Re: "The twin, the two, the brother and the sister" (Malamoud) - did the (Elamo-) Vedic Yama/î consummate the (royal) incest?

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Wed May 25, 2005; 10:08 am

Sunthar Visuvalingam wrote:

In Vedic tradition, does not Yama refuse claiming that the gods see everything? His act is seen as one of the classic examples of his own moral uprightness, hence "Dharmaraja" from which he becomes a model of the ideal king and signifies self-discipline and leadership.

Indian astrology relates Sani (Saturn) with Yama. They are generally seen as brothers, both as progeny of the Sun. Sani/Yama represents at one time the king and dîkSita through the qualities of moral discipline, self-restraint, etc., but also the most extreme sexual left-handed rites. These latter qualities are especially associated with Saturn among Tantric adherents.

It has been a while since I looked at the seals, but I seem to remember two main themes of possible sacrifice.  One shows the killing of human, possibly sacrificial, victims, the other is the famous spearing of the water buffalo with the sacrificer's foot on the head of the buffalo.  Unfortunately, little archaeological evidence, as far as I know, has been uncovered revealing such practices among the Harappans. I don't recall any instances, for example, of sacrificed animals in elite burials, something quite common in many other cultures.

I would rather make the meeting ground further East, as we already have indications in the "Proto-Harappan" images of Kot Diji and associated sites.  Interesting that you mention the "priest-king" because this is the type of kingship that I believe the Yama prototype represented but which is lost in the latter varna system.  Indeed many of the symbols like the crescent and double axe which I have endeavored to show were associated with the buffalo and with royal/chiefly power also represent the sacrifice. And in many areas where the buffalo is sacrificed we find the chief or king indeed initiates the sacrifice. The buffalo-headed Chiyou, the king of the Juili, is said to have "invented" religious ritual.  With regard to incestuous twins, I recommend:

Errington, S. 1987. Incestuous Twins and the House Societies of Insular Southeast Asia. Cultural Anthropology 2(4):403-444.

They are the progeny often of a fiery relationship between the Sun and Moon and intimately connected with nobility.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3187]

 Re: "The twin, the two, the brother and the sister" (Malamoud) - did the (Elamo-) Vedic Yama/î consummate the (royal) incest?

From: Francesco Brighenti

Date: Mon May 30, 2005; 5:52 am

Dear Sunthar,

The more I read your report of (and comments on) Charles Malamoud's lecture in depth, the more I become convinced that your (and Malamoud's) arguments offer a perfectly coherent explanation of the Yama-Yamî myth from the (Vedic) sacrificial viewpoint. Let me just add two marginal comments to your most valuable synthesis.

You write:

This "African" form of ritual legitimization of socio-political leadership (agreed, not still of "kingship"...) does not seem to me to differ at its core from Asko Parpola's hypothesis about the two equinoctial hierogamies that would have been celebrated every year by the pre-Vedic inhabitants of the Indus and Ganges valleys, and would have been later transfigured by the Vedic Indians into the two (?) mahAvrAta feasts. Parpola opines that human sacrifices were symmetrically performed on the occasion of either mahAvrAta feast at the two turning points of the sun. At the "sacred-marriage-cum-human- sacrifice" celebrated on the Vishuvat day (the vernal equinox), an 'exhausted' Earth Goddess (the 'Barren Mother', the later mahishî of the Vedic azvamedha) would have been incestuously married to his handsome young virgin son, who had reached warrior's age and sexual maturity but had not yet had sexual intercourse. According to Parpola, this god could have been the prototype of the Hindu god Skanda/Kumâra (whom he unconvincingly identifies with Rudra-Ziva). Further parallels can be traced to figures of dying (and lamented) young solar gods such as the Near Eastern Dumuzi, Attis, and Adonis (or Inanna/Ishtar's Bull of Heaven, killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu and mourned by the goddess and her retinue…).

You further write:

If by the term "para-Elamite" you mean here to designate a religio- cultural strain common to prehistoric populations ranging from Africa to the Indus Valley, including among them the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations, and not something originating from the Elamite civilization proper to the exclusion of the other great ancient civilizations of the Middle East and N. Africa, I cannot but fully agree with you. OTOH, the component of the Yama complex represented, according to "our" view, by the "Austric" (also—why not?—Tibeto-Burman, Hmong-Mien, etc.) ancestor-worship-cum-buffalo- sacrifice complex, must necessarily have come to the IVC from areas populated by the (Austroasiatic-speaking) Mundas. That's why one of the ethnogenetical prerequisites of such a hypothesis is the presence of Munda (as per Kuiper) or "para-Munda" (as per Witzel) speakers in Greater Punjab in (pre-)Harappan times.

Thanks and best wishes.

Francesco

Subject: [Abhinava msg #3189]

 Re: "The twin, the two, the brother and the sister" (Malamoud) - did the (Elamo-) Vedic Yama/î consummate the (royal) incest?

From: Paul Kekai Manansala

Date: Mon May 30, 2005; 10:16 pm

--- In Abhinavagupta@yahoogroups.com, Francesco Brighenti wrote:

I agree with you Francesco and would add that there could have also been others from the same tropical or semi-tropical cultural complex from the East that you mention. The obvious candidates would be Himalayan and other Tibeto-Burman speakers, or even Hmong-Mien and yes, sea-faring Austronesians.

And obviously one has to consider Dravidians. I personally don't think much of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis. The evidence points to Dravidian genesis in southern India where the greatest diversity of that family is squarely located.

Regards,

Paul Kekai Manansala