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ISAVASYA UPANISHAD
THE DATE OF THE PALI CANON BY L. A. WADDELL, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1914.07.15, p. 661
So what we are interested in is whether the word Isa occur in the prechristian Buddhist documentation either in the edicts of Asoka or somewhere in that area. I have checked the edict and could not find it.
We know that whenever they wanted to discus Supreme god they used the concept of great to make Deva --- → Maha Deva Brahmanan - Brahman --→ Maha Brahman or Brahma In the Zoarastrian Avestan it was as Asura --→ Ahura --→ Ahura Mazda
So there were words that could theologically deal with the Yahweh like supreme God. Can we find the word Isa to denote the same concept in the prechristian literature? Dr. A.P.Stone points out the following:
"In the Tevijja Sutta (D.i.244) Isa is mentioned with Indra, Soma, Varuna, Pajápati and Brahma, as being invoked by the Brahmins.
"Bhuridatta Jataka of the 13th C. A.D uses the word "issaro" as Pali for Creator.
"From Ummadanati Jataka, 3422 Dhata vidhata ... [perhaps not as divine names] From Bhuridatta Jataka, 5208 Dhata Vidhata Varu_o Kuvero Somo Yamo Candima Vayu Sariyo [read Suriyo, "sun"]
These are all Vedic divine names, the first two meaning "Creator". So the Digha Nikaya could have used these words for Creator, but chose Issara."
We can be certain that by that time Isa as Iswaran - supreme God was established in all Indian languages.
We were not able to find "Isa" or its phonetic equivalents anywhere to mean Supreme God before the Christian Era.
Isa in Tantric Literature
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