Soul Body And Person In Ancient India

Author(s): Karin Preisendanz
Publisher: Karin Preisendanz

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the 4s (asuni) after death would also assume a much more dramatic, person ally dooming character for the person who has passed away if his/her "free soul" would be meant in these passages," rather than the "vital soul" which does not possess individualized personal features. Furthermore, the request that the
two dogs of Yama "should return to us, here and now, the blessed asu" makes better sense if it refers to the "free soul" which may leave the body for certain periods of time, e.g, during deep sleep or death-like swooning, and be caught by the two canine creatures at this dangerous time; the "vital soul" as an entity which is responsible for all or the most essential vital functions can probably not be restored again to the body once it has really left it.
Similar to the case of the multitude of "vital souls" in AV 8.1.3 (cf. above, passage (3]), we find reference to the mind (manas), the full life-span (@yus), the "eye" (cakesus) and "breath" (prāna) in the context of supplications to the personified Asunīti:" the "eye" and "breath," i.c., the "breathing) soul," should be returned, the mind sustained the full life-span prolonged. In the same context,
bymn (
RV 10.14.12. thense of concrete Villemnatively, Art
verbal root Viry with the meaning to refresh/comfort oneself with, enjoy, be satisfied" (cf. also Weber 1895: 850 on asutp in AV 18.2.13) (cf. Werba 1997: 192), as opposed to Votrp., ** to steal, rob," which may result from an early semantic specification of Verp" (cf. Werba 1997: 427, on the lack of evidence for a verb trp apart from the compounds ASIP and pafutrp ("stealing cattle"), cf. Arbman 1927a: 59-60, n. 2). O'Flaherty's second alternative involves a problematic understanding of as as "life" in the sense of a specific life-style ("high life of luxury ... bought with their undeserved fees"). Her first alternative amounts to Renou's interpretation of the occurrence of the expression in this cosmogonic hymn (glutted with the life ... stolen from the sacrificial beast'); similarly Arbman 1927 58 on asutrp in RV 10.14.12: the canine servants of Yama fill themselves up with concrete life, are greedy for life in the sense of concrete vital strength, or "satisfy their desire for life" in a more general sense" (Arbman 1927a: 59). Alternatively, Arbman suggests that the two dogs are greedy for the (free) "souls of the dead, grabbing them and tearing them apart; this would be the ancient belief that is at the basis of later beliefs in hellish monsters (cf. Arbman 1927a: 58-59): the improbability of both suggestions in view of other Vedic passages on the two dogs and later materials is demonstrated by Bodewitz (cf. Bodewitz 1991: 44) who refers to Schlerath's similar interpretation of itp said of the canine mes sengers of Yama: there are no indications that the two dogs were imagined to kill or de stroy (i.e., by devouring them) the ASH-s of the dead. However, how else could they "sat. isfy their desire for life" According to Arbman, the two alternatives (ie, as as equated with concrete or general life in (wo)man or understood as the/a "free soul" in the expres. sion aswirp) may also be applied to an interpretation of the expression de typ under the as sumption of a meaning to steal" for Verp i.e., Verp", as opposed to a different verbal root with this meaning), this assumption being possible if one takes Vip to mean to satisfy one's desire for something (cf. Arbman 19272: 59-60) - which latter point I consider rather doubtful. Both alternatives as to the understanding of the term as in the expression Astrp are in a way found or implied in Maurer 1986: Maurer translates the compound asutrp in RV 10.14.12 as "life-stealing" which he explains "because they [i.e., the two dogs of Yama) seek out the souls of the deceased" (cf. Maurer 1986: 250 with note 12 on p.
252).-On "robbing someone's psyche cf. Arbman 1926: 193. 91 Cf. also Arbman 1927a: 33f.
Similarly Arbman 1927:56. For a rejection of the position that the word as in the compound anti refers to life as a state as later on assumed, e., by Schlerath, cf. n. 104) cf. Arbman 1927a: 29-33, for Arbman's rejection of an understanding of as a vital force in this context (see, e.g. Horsch 1971: 112) cf. 1927a: 33. - It is interesting to note that although elsewhere the word as is translated by Lommel as "life" or "vital force" ("Leben," "Lebenskraft"), in the context of the assumes a general meaning of soul" (cf. Lommel. 1955: 107). - Further passages in Rueda. Yajured and Athar de which contain
the expression w e are discussed in Arbman 1927:36-54. » The request that the sw-s of men should not go to Yama (AV 18.3.62; cf. also Weber 1896:
274; Oldenberg 1916: 528; Arbman 1927: 15, n. 3; Schlerath 1968: 148; Oberlies 1998: 505, n. 220, who translates the term as as "Lebenskraft although he adduces the passage, together with the following one, to argue for us as a "free soul") also points at a concept of individualized entities, as does the statement that Yama's messenger (the personified funeral fire?) has made the aw go to the Fathers (AV 18.2.27, cf. Weber 1895: 854, Olden
bere loc. cit., Arbman 1927: 51 and 56-57, and Schlerath, loc. cit. who abandons his in terpretation of the term as as referring to "unspecified life in this rather pregnant context and instead speaks here - much more meaningfully - of representations of the individual; Oberlies 1998: 505). In the latter passage, reference is made to the remote past, not to the present situation of a funeral in which the plural number would not make sense (for an other plural occurrence of the word as cf. below p. 144 on AV 8.2.26); Renou (1942: 78). who presupposes the notion of vital breath or a "vital soul" here ("souffle de vie) has disregarded the plural number. In view of the mentioned passages, the expression one whose as has gone ( de) as well may be understood as an abbreviation for one whose individuating free soul' has gone to the Fathers" (cf. RV 10.18.8). Renou (1956: 64) para phrases as "le défunt," whereas in Renou 1942: 76 he clarifies his interpretation of the word ASN as referring to breath: "dont le souffle est parti" (cf. also n. 103 below), similar to O'Flaherty's "whose life's breath has gone" (1981: 52); in Lommel's free translation (1955: 109) "Sein Leben ist dahin, an abstract notion of "life" may again be involved (cf. also Dange 1995-1996:22).
Pace Arbman 1927a: 16,58 and 63. 1 "The One to whom the leading away of the 'free souls' (ie, dead) pertains"; cf.
Arbman 1927a: 33-34, with n. 2 on p. 34. Cf. also Arbman 1927a: 47 and 52. * C. RV 10.59.5-6 (cf. also Tuxen according to Arbman 1927a: 151 and 157: Arbman 1927:
157, Bodewitz 1991: 45). The supplication is supposed to have taken place after a has been restored to Subandhu. Cf. the story about Subandhu in the Jaiminys-Brahman (3.167-169) referred to by Bodewitz (1991: 44) which forms the background of RV 10.5760, the Gauplyana-hymns (cf. Oertel 1897: 41-45; cf. also Maurer 1986: 263 on The Spirit"). Subandhu's ai is taken away by sorcerers and later restored to him, something which is difficult to imagine if asu would be the "vital soul" here (pace Horsch 1971: 130 who takes as to be the vital breath here) - the victim is not lifeless while he is without his as but rather out of his mind" or unconscious, as in deep sleep. Cf. also Artman 1927 20-29 on w in the Subandhu-story according to the Gauplyana-hymns of the Rgveda; cf. however Arbman's subsequent addition of the meaning of concrete) lifes-force) (ue,"vie tal soul") to this meaning of the term as in the present context (Arbman 1927: 63). On Tuxen's interpretation of these hymns and his understanding of the term manas as (ab stract) consciousness" in this context, cf. Arbman 1927a: 148-151. Cl. also pp. 137-138 above on Arbman's own interpretation of the term manas. The employment of the term mand, next to d, to refer to the/a "free soul seems indeed demonstrable in RV 10.57-60 (cf. Arbman 1927a: 166-169 and 170-171; cf. also Maurer 1986: 265 on RV 10.58) although for the reasons given above I hesitate to transfer this concept to all other usages of the
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