Academic literature on the topic 'Vedic cosmogonies'

The topicality of the appeal to the language material of the “Rigveda” is conditioned by its significance for the study of the role of the archaic ritual in the formation of human communication. The point of issue of the paper is the questions contained in the cosmogonic hymn of the «Rigveda» bravavrttam where they are left unanswered. The work aims to throw light onto the illocutionary force of these questions against the background of a communicative in nature Vedic ritual practice. To achieve this aim the author deals not only with the meaning content of the hymn but also its pragmatics, the part it plays in the ritual communication as well as involved cognitive mechanism and traits of its phonetic, musical and poetic form. The research makes it possible to verify our ideas on the nature of the Vedic ritual and enhances the understanding of its texts. The work shows impossibility of an adequate interpretation of the Vedic text elements regardless to the pragmatics and communicative intents of the ritual speech. The main result of the research is the assumption of presumed by the Vedic mindset a divine verbal contribution to the magic practice of the ritual cosmogony.

The Upaniṣads (ca. 800 BCE) were composed during a transitional time period in Hinduism when Vedic ritual and cosmogonic ideas began to give way to new worldviews. The intriguing Upaniṣadic notions of time have received little attention in the scholarly literature compared to the elaborate models of cyclical time that develop in later texts. I propose, however, that the Upaniṣads represent a seminal reorientation in Hindu conceptions of time. We still find an older view of time in the Upaniṣads as something that marks the rhythms of the ritual year, but later Upaniṣadic texts begin to explore entirely new ways of thinking about time. I propose that the movement away from the more integrated view of the material and immaterial as one reality in the Vedas towards a radical dualism between the spiritual and the material in later Hindu thought informs many of the new ideas of time that emerge in the Upaniṣads, including that of time as an abstract construct. The authors of the Upaniṣads investigate—and ultimately reject—the notion of time itself as the cause of the visible world, ponder the idea that time is something that is created by a divine being in order to structure the world, speculate that time may be a mere intellectual construct, and postulate that the highest reality may be situated in a realm that is outside of time altogether.

When we intone the words ‘Unity in Diversity’, we know we are faced with a problem. At best these words express an aspiration rather than a reality — otherwise it would hardly be worthwhile to utter them. But most of all they seem to be an incantation meant to exorcize the threat of both disruptive diversity and oppressive unity. It is, in other words, a mantra that owes its expressiveness to the neatly concise formulation of an unresolved paradox. It is concerned with the cosmogonic conundrum of the One-and-the-Many that has exercised the mythopoeic imagination of the Vedic seers and their likes as well as the rational mind of present-day physicists. Our mantra, then, evokes the riddle of the cosmic order which must encompass its opposite, disorder, so as to be truly universal. It is not surprising, therefore, that we should encounter the same paradox on the more mundane level of the political order. The manyfold diversities undermine the integrity of the whole. Unity, in its turn, threatens to extinguish diversity and to replace it with deadening sameness. Between them, unity and diversity provide for an unpredictable dynamic, and it is a fitting tribute to the dangers involved that our mantra has been enshrined in its Indonesian form in the Republic's armorial motto: Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.

В работе текст памятника развитого жреческого политеистического культа рассматривается как манифестация ритуальной вербальной практики, сохранившей проявления архаической шаманской сакральной деятельности. Исследование осуществлялось на языковом материале «Ригведы» — корпуса древнейших текстов, генетически восходящих ко времени праиндоевропейского единства и в ряде черт типологически близких евразийскому шаманизму. В фокусе внимания оказывается коммуникативный характер речевой деятельности шамана — наделенного особыми способностями представителя сообщества, который вступает в вербальное взаимодействие с миром духов. Предмет исследования составляют вопросительные речевые акты, которые предстают одним из важных элементов шаманской обрядности. Актуальность исследования обусловлена существенным влиянием шаманизма на становление современной культуры. Достижению цели способствовало решение таких исследовательских задач, как описание и анализ разных типов вопросительных речевых актов «Ригведы», а также выявление их коммуникативных интенций в контексте гимна и связанной с ним ритуальной практики. В работе функциональный анализ вопросительных речевых актов продуктивно дополняется привлечением методов и данных таких дисциплин, как коммуникативистика, прагмалингвистика, история, этнография, религиоведение. Методы лингвистического наблюдения и описания, контекстуального и статистического анализа, фонематические, синтаксические и семантические наблюдения дополнены компаративистским анализом изданного обрядового материала сибирского шаманизма. В работе находит применение и историко-генетический анализ текста «Ригведы». Выявление разных по времени напластований памятника позволяет точнее установить прагматику принадлежащих им вопросов. Автор приходит к выводу о том, что как в шаманской практике, так и в ведийских гимнах вопросы выполняют основные функции коммуникации: сообщение, общение и воздействие. Исследование демонстрирует, что помимо неспецифической прагматики вопросы в ритуальной практике реализуют магико-заклинательную функцию речи. Устанавливаются происхождение и функции вопросов космогонических гимнов. Доказывается их поздний характер и переходное положение от магических вербальных действий к функциям компонента в структуре спекулятивных построений. The subject of the study is interrogative speech acts which appear to be one of the markers of the shamanic ritualism. The research work was carried out on the linguistic data of the Rigveda genetically traced to the times of Proto-Indo-European unity and in the range of traits typologically relevant to the Eurasian shamanism. The author raises the issue if the questions presented in the monuments of developed priestly cult refer to the shamanic verbal practice. The achievement of the outlined objective was provided by solving such research problems as description and analysis of different types of interrogative speech acts of the Rigveda, revealing their communicative intentions in the context of hymns and ritual practice. In the paper the functional analysis of interrogative speech acts is productively complemented with appealing to approaches and data of such scientific disciplines as communication studies, pragmalinguistics, history, ethnography, folklore and religion studies. In addition to the descriptive method as well as the contextual analysis and the statistical technology the author makes use of comparative analysis of the published ceremonial material of shamanism. Historical and genetic analysis of the text of the Rigveda also finds its application in the study. The author elicits that both in shamanic activity and in the Vedic hymns questions fulfil general functions of communication: message, interaction and impact. The paper demonstrates that apart from nonspecific pragmatic the questions in ceremonial practice objectivate the magical and invocatory speech function. Light is thrown upon the genesis and functions of questions of the cosmogonic hymns.

RESUMENEl artículo analiza las concepciones del espacio y del tiempo en el periodo védico tardío, utilizando como fuentes primarias el antiguo corpus de textos sánscritos conocido como upaniṣad. Para ello se estudian las diversas cosmogonías y las diferentes formas de legitimación de una gradual transformación del sacrificio público (dominante en la época védica temprana, caracterizada por las colecciones de himnos y una literatura de comentarios de carácter litúrgico) a la experiencia privada de la meditación y la especulación filosófica (característica de tradiciones ascéticas).PALABRAS CLAVECOSMOGONÍA, UPANIṣAD, ESPACIO, TIEMPOABSTRACTIn this article we analyse the conceptions of space and time in the later Vedic period, using as primary sources the old corpus of Sanskrit texts known as Upaniṣad. For this purpose we study the various cosmogonies and different forms of legitimation of a gradual transformation of the public sacrifice (dominant in early Vedic times, characterized by collections of hymns and a literature of comments of a liturgical nature) to the private meditation experience and philosophical speculation (characteristic of ascetic traditions).KEYWORDSCOSMOGONY, UPANIṣAD, SPACE, TIME