indrAdayaH surAH

[Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat]

>
>        Thanks. That seems a good explanation but open an other request.
>The MMW dictionary (s.v. lokapAla) gives, refering to Mn.V,96, the list:
>E: indra
>SE: agni
>S: yama
>SW: sUrya
>W: varuNa
>NW: pavana or vAyu
>N: kubera
>NE: soma or candra
>and he gives the variants nirRti for SW and IzAnI or pRthivI for NE.
>        This list seems without any structure. How it is theologically
>explained? I can't believe the choice was randomly made!
>        Best,
>Dominique
>
>Dominique THILLAUD
>Universite' de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France

The theological diagram connecting regions of the world and deities,
appears ready-made in Manu and MahAbhArata, and then remains unchanged
except for the variants given above. Its origin may be in the Upanishadic
meditations (upAsana) on homologies between different levels of entities.
The most ancient homology between cardinal points and deities I know is in
ChAndogya-Upanishad (prapA.thaka 3), in the context of a metaphor of Sun
and honey, sky and beehive, directions and parts of the beehive, gods and
mouths eating the nectar etc., with a distribution which is different from
the classical one, but could be a fore-runner of it:
south: Indra
west: Varu.na
north: Soma
zenith: Brahman
The logic of the diagram is the very poetical metaphor. It has to be read
in full to be understood and appreciated.
Best regards,

Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat