Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

Author(s): Rajendra I Nanavati
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 54

The Tales in Ramayana
of history, because of their shape, but also because "they represent power, virility, fierceness of the great god of fecundity worshipped by most early civilizations, the bull. Some less inhibited tribes like that of the Papuans wear them on their waists.60 “But usually they were worn on heads. However, the displacement does not change the born's symbolism. The terms of reference conscious or otherwise — have always been the same."
Apart from this phallic significance of the horn, the first part of the compound also has its implications. The word Rsya, spelt more accurately as Rsya, means a 'stag', its feminine form being 'Rohit'. "The procreative power of the stag (ārsya vr$nya) was celebrated."58 It is perhaps for this reason that Lord Prajāpati is almost always shown to have a close connection with deer in many of our mythical stories. There is a myth, for example, in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa53 which says : Prajāpati enjoyed his daughter's company from which the Mrga constellation was born. Another myth runs : Prajāpati and Uşas together were transformed into the Rohiņi (Doe) constellation. Another version of the former myth runs thus 54 Prajāpati desired his daughter Dyaus. To prevent him from this, the gods created from their fierce forms Raudra and asked him to cut off the head of Prajāpati. Raudra, being promised that he would be made Pasupati, did accordingly. The pierced Prajāpati rose to the sky as 'Mrga' constellation. This version, it will be remembered, comes quite near to that famous Purāṇic myth 55 wherein Lord Brahmă chased in the form of a deer his own daughter Sarasvati who, in order to escape her father's amorous advances, had taken the form of a doe. Lord Brahmã was in turn chased and pierced by Lord Mahādeva in the form of a hunter,
Another important point is that this sage Rşyaśộnga is said to be the son of sage Vibhāndaka, son of Kaśyapa. Now "Kaśyapa is the name of a sage who is mentioned only once in the Rigveda, but is a common figure in the later Samhitās. He is always of a mythical character, as belonging to the distant past."56 In the Purāṇas, this Kaśyapa is always mentioned as Prajāpati who is the progenitor of all the creatures.57
49 ibid p. 28. 50 Cf. ibid. “Papuans whose penises are sheathed in long, horn-like shields, tied to their waists
to resemble the erect phallus". p. 28. 51 ibid. 52 Vedic Index, under Rsya. 53 Aitareya Brahmana. 13.9. 54 ibid. 55 At many places in Purānas, e. g. Srimadbhāgavata III. 12. 28.
Vacam duhitaram tanvim svayambhur haratim manaḥ /
akāmām cakame saktaḥ sakāma iti naḥ śrutam // 56 Vedic Index, under 'Kasvapa'. 57 Cf. Purana-parisilana, Mm. Pt. Giridhar Sharma Chaturvedi, Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad,
Patna, 1970. pp. 31, 159, etc. ST. 6