a Vedic reference to Siva

[witzel at HUSC3.HARVARD.EDU]

On Thu, 26 Oct 1995, Michael Rabe wrote:

> An undocumented eText[http://www.utexas.edu/students/amso/ror/hindu-d.html]
> cites this passage as from a Vedic hymn to Siva:
> 
> "We invoke with obeisance, the ruddy of the sky, with spiral braided hair,
> a brilliant form. Far be thy cow slaying and man slaying weapon."


The answer is easy if one knows the word for "spiral braided hair" = 
kapardin.

The first part of the quotation is Rgveda 1.114.5, from a hymn to Rudra, 
the Vedic predecessor of Shiva:

                 divo' varaaha'm aruSa'm kapardi'nam 
                 tveSa'M  ruupa'M na'masaa ni' hvayaamahe |


The second part is from some other hymn, and takes much more time to 
identify. It is not part of this hymn or the other Rgvedic one (6.5.52) with 
the rare word kapardin in the accusative (also not in later Vedic texts as a 
brief survey of Vishwa Bandhu's Vedic Word Concordance easily allows to 
say.NB that the hymn or verse is not quoted later one...).

Also not found in the Rudra chapters of the Yajurveda, e.g. 
Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.5.1 sqq. --- TS 4.5.10 gives a good list of such wishes, 
including the standard one: not to hurt bidpeds and quadrupeds which somes 
close to the above.


MW