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Prajāpati, who is then put on a par with Indra and the sacrifice. Later, between the 7th and the 5th century B.C., the idea of religious single-handed fighter comes up among the descendants of the non-Vedic Aryans in Magadha, possibly beside the long-haired, perhaps sivaitic muni who overcomes attachment to this world. For this reason, Jains and Buddhists confer on him the title Mahāvīra or Vira. To use Hertha Krick's (1982: 5) definition, a vīra originally is a traditionally educated young Aryan who is entitled to the status of a priest and a warrior, has been admitted into the society of the Āhitâgnis, is allowed to partake of the Soma drink, is married and has a son. In the following I should like to deal especially with Jaina conceptions, compare them with and supplement them by the approximately synchronous data provided by Pāli literature, and outline their possible historical development. First some remarks about the name Mahāvīra.
According to Visvabandhu's Vedic Word-concordance, vira and sūra are mainly epithets of Indra, much less frequently of Agni and Soma. Furthermore, vīra is used with regard to groups of deities (sons of Aditi, the Angiras and the Maruts); sometimes it also designates demons. Once Rudra is called a vīra. The karmadhāraya compound mahāvīra is in Vedic literature first used with regard to Indra: (Vrtró) á hi juhvé maha-vīrám (Indram), in the late Sarabhôpanisat 61 regarding Rudra and, in YV texts like VS 19,14 and Kaths 21,2,3, as well as in the Brāhmanas, in connection with the Pravargya. I shall summarize these references here after Van Buitenen's study. 12 According to tradition, the Pravargya arose out of the deity Rudra's crushed head in the same way as, up to the present day, in oral tradition Mahārāstrian heroes must first lose their heads before they can be reborn. Günther Sontheimer referred to this phaenomenon in his introduction to the present series of lectures, and Heidrun Brückner mentioned comparable facts from Tulunāļu last week.13 The pravargya designates a Vedic ritual which can precede certain Soma sacrifices. At this ritual, originally in the early morning, later on also in the evening, the Aśvins were offered freshly milked warm cow's milk. In Ř V times, for this purpose the milk was heated in a pot (gharma) made of non-precious metal (ayas, RV
8TB 1,2,2,5.
ŚB 1,7,4,4. 10 RV 1,32,6 and AV Paipp 13,6,6. 11 Upanisatsamgraha I 355: krpayā Bhagavan Vişnum vidadāra nakhaiḥ kharaih
carmambaro maha-viro vira-bhadro babhüva ha. 12 Buitenen, Van 1968. 13 Brückner (see earlier in the present volume); Id. 1991, chapter 10, 1b; see also
Roghair 1982: 297 (I am obliged to Heidrun Brückner for this reference); Krick 1982: 499 et passim and Filliozat 1967: 74 sqq.