Rgvedic RbIsa

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 10:51 AM 2/2/98 -0800, you wrote:
>The postings of Jan Houben and Harry Falk remind me of an account I heard
>from a scientist friend of mine, Professor Emeritus Vinod Modi, who on a
>visit to the southern part of the former Soviet Union, just outside Baku
>near the Caspian Sea, photographed a shrine to ;Siva, built by Indian
>pilgrims/travellers in the 18th or early 19th century with the permission
>of some Czar. The shrine was built at the place because a natural gas flame
>was coming out of the ground. On an inscription at the shrine, a part of
>which I translated for Prof. Modi, as I recall, the word jvaalaa-mukha was
>used. If .rbiisa does not have to be a cave, it could stand for ground or
>pits out of which such flames come. If the flame is held to be evidence of
>divine presence, householders will naturally be discouraged from eating the
>meat cooked on it. (Isn't there an account somewhere of Zarathustra having
>been inspired by such a flame to give prominence to fire in Zoroastrian
>religious life?)
>
>As I do not have the time to check the contexts of the occurrences of
>.rbiisa, I am mentioning this simply as a possibility that occurred to me
>after reading the messages of Houben and Falk.
>
>The word agni-ku.n.da should also be investigated in this context. 'Pan
>with live coals' does not seem to be the older or only meaning of the term.
>
>
>Another natural phenomenon with a possible connection is that of hot springs.
>
>

In vEda we have the word jvala linga. Perhaps it refers to such natural
phenomena.( jvalAya namaH jvalalingAya namaH - mahAnArAyaNOpanishat)

regards,

sarma.