Soul Body And Person In Ancient India

Author(s): Karin Preisendanz
Publisher: Karin Preisendanz

Page 15

Following this discussion of asu, I would again like to take up and continue with the term prdu and some passages in which the word does not refer to mere concrete physical breath, but rather to a "vital soul" based on or identical with breath. An early important occurrence may be found within the context of the macrocosmic-microcosmic correlations stated in a well-known cosmogonic hymn of the Rgveda, the hymn about Puruşa, the primordial cosmic man. In an act of creative self-sacrifice, the various physical and psychical constituent elements of this gigantic Purusa turn into the basic components - physical, cultural and social- of this world. In describing this cosmogony the poet connects in alia the mind (manas) of Puruşa with the moon and his prdna with the macrocosmic element of wind: the latter arises from the former, respectively. The mind or thinking, the most comprehensive among the psychical vital faculties, and the breath-like "vital soul" prdna would thus be mentioned here as a pair of fundamental importance. prana in this crucial role of the "vital soul" is impressively praised in an Atharvavedic hymn which extols it as an all-powerful generative and vitalizing macrocosmic entity, (metaphorically?) connected with wind, storm and rain, while microcosmically it is the breath-like "vital soul manifested as breath. Alternatively, the hymn about Puruşa may present us with the
different notion of präna as the breathing-soul," i.e., as one among the several variously grouped specialized vital forces, as addressed already above with
special reference to the Athartapeda. 2) The term could even refer to the vital faculty of respiration if one considers that in later Vedic literature the fluctuating group of specialized vital forces develops into a rather standard group of five essential vital faculties comprising respiration (prana) - the most vital among them thinking (manas), speech (ude), sight (cakşus) and hearing (frotra) (literally: "ear").125 The two latter faculties are correlated with the sun and the directional quarters in microcosmic-macrocosmic correspondence: they arise out of Puruşa's sight and hearing, respectively. The poet's description thus results in the following relationships: (6) manas (thinking/"mental soul" / thinking)
prana ("vital soul" / "breathing-soul" / respiration) > wind cakşus (sight/"perceptive soul"12/ sight) >sun frotra (hearing)
> directional quarters
Already in the ritualistic treatises, the Brāhmaṇas, and especially in the subsequent Upanişads, the four vital faculties prana, manas, cakesus and frotra, sometimes supplemented by speech and other additional faculties, become an important issue because (wo)man with her/his psycho-physical organism is moving more and more into the focus of interest of the priestly thinkers and early philosophers.12 For example, in the Taittirfy-Brahmana, in an extensive and broadly conceived list of thirteen constituent elements of (wo)man which also includes some bodily limbs and numerous other physical components, we find prdna as an indwelling vital faculty next to the faculties of speech, sight, thinking and hearing in the following correlations:
11 Cf. Zysk 1993: 200-203. 119 Cl. also Horsch 1971: 113, who-speaking in a very general manner about this pneumatic
soul ("Hauchseele") - considers this notion to be of comparatively late date. Bodewitz (1991: 40) assigns the notion of prdna to the priestly circles whose concepts prepared the way for the philosophical speculations of the Upanisads, in cultural contradistinction to the notion of as (as a "free soul, not in the sense of life also considered by him) which Bodewitz associates with shamanistic practices as documented in the Atharibede. Admit tedly, the speculations on different prana-s are of a priestly flavour; however, the simple notion of a vital soul identified with breath is certainly also part of popular, non-learned culture (cf. also Arbman 1927a:7). - In the case of prdna, the etymological derivation from
the verbal root Van, meaning "to breathe," is not disputed. 120 Cf. RV 10.90.13. 121 This interpretation is implied in the translations of Renou 1956: 99 ("souffle," to be under
stood as "souffle de vie, cf. n. 103) and O'Flaherty (1981:31, "vital breath"); cf. also Arbman 1927: 14 ("Lebenshauch"). Lommel's rendering as "Geist reflects the under
standing of praña as a unitary soul (Lommel 1955: 115). 122 Cl. AV 11.4 (translated in Renou 1956: 175-180; although not identified, verses 5-6 are
rendered in Oldenberg 1915: 53; cf. also Bodewitz 1992: 51 and Zysk 1993: 200); cf. also AV 5.30.10 and 7.3.11 where prdna possibly fulfils the function of the 'vital soul" as such, conceived as a "breath-soul."
123 CE. AV 8.1.3 (passage [3]), 8.1.15 (passage [5]), 5.30.13–14 (cf. p. 138 above) and RV
10.59.5-6 (cf. p. 141 above). Cf. also AV 8.2.3 where prana, casus and mands are listed as
vital forces, followed by the limbs. 124 Cf. Strauss 1925: 37-38 ("Atmen") and, eg, Oberlies 1998: 503 who translates prdna-with
"Atemkraft" (cf., however, Oberlies 1998: 382 where "Atem indicates an interpretation as physical breath). Maurer's rendition as "breath shows that he understood the term to refer to concrete breath (cf. Maurer 1986: 272); cf. also Mus 1962: 167, Brown 1965: 32, Lincoln
1975: 127 and Zysk 1993: 200. 135 Bodewitz uses the term 'vital powers with respect to the five entities mentioned in RV
10.90.13 (cf. Bodewitz 1992: 51) with the intention to refer to the vital faculties, as be
comes clear later on in Bodewitz 1992. 126 Cf. the corresponding fourfold (exclusive of speech) quarter of brahman in Chandog
Upanised (ChUp) (ed. V.P. Limaye and R.D. Vadekar, Pune 1958) 4.8.3. The correlation of prdna with the wind and cakes with the sun occurs also in AV 8.2.3 (cf. nn. 85 and 123
above; cf. also Zysk 1993: 200). 127 Cl. n. 85 above. 121 C. Strauss 1925: 38. 129 Cf. Taittiry-Brahmana (ed. V.G. Apte, Pune 1938) 3.10.8.4-5 ( 16-17): "Wind rests in
my 'breath.' [My) 'breath' [rests) in (my) heart. (My heart rests in myself (cf. also Sankhayana-Aranyaka (ed. Bhim Dev, Hoshiarpur 1980) 11.6). I Crest) in That which is with out death. That which is without death (rests) in brahman. Because of the context of vital
1927. 14 (Lebens
oul (Lommel
ehough not identisco
200); cf. also
146