Translation of RV 10.146.6

[Dominique.Thillaud]

At 15:00 +0200 6/08/97, Jan E.M. Houben wrote:
>Bodewitz (B.) discusses earlier views on this hymn and argues that
>Ara.nyaanii
>should not be seen as a female deity or even just as a forest-genius. It is
>rather a (poetic) personification.

	That could be an interresting subject to debate: what difference
between 'female deity', 'forest-genius' and '(poetic) personification' ?
	I'm not sure this distinctions are pertinent in eurindian religions
(I don't speak for others because I don't know them).
	1) 'genius' is a latin word very hard to understand.
	2) the literary expression of the religion is allways poetic.
	3) to understand the word 'personification' we must first
understand 'person'. The latin 'persona' is a theater mask, hence able to
be an authentic God.

	Being a pagan (worshipper of the greek Pantheon) I feel this
distinctions very 'monotheocentrist' and supposing the eurindian religions
inferior and primitive. Have the Hinduists of the list the same feeling ?
	Classifying AraNyAnI is really a problem ?
Dominique

PS: evidently, that's not an attack against Jan E.M. Houben nor B.
Bodewitz, just against some methods strongly influenced by the christianism
in the studies of religions.

Dominique THILLAUD
Universite' de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France