Vaitarini

[Michael Witzel]

Y.Vassilkov about:   The Vaitara.nii:

> As it seems to me,...
>        One is more obvious: at a certain period the VaitaraNI
>constituted a natural border between the world of Vedic/Brahmanic culture
>and the
>tribal world.

As so often, I find myself agreeing 100% with Y. Vassilkov, and would just
like to point to a similar case, published quite a while ago:

Salomon, Richard. The Three Cursed Rivers of the East, and their
Significance for the Historical Geography of Ancient India.  Adyar Library
Bulletin 42, 1978, 31-60

where  the Sadaaniiraa (in Satapatha Brahm. )  ~~ mod.Gandak(ii),
the later Karmanaazaa (s. of Ganges, W. border of  Magadha /S. Bihar
play similar roles as 'cultural boundaries'.

And, YV's  note on
>Religions of some Eastern and Central
>Indian tribes are focused on the cult of the dead (see, e.g., Piers
>Vitebsky's excellent book ....

is very well taken, too.
Note birds/ the peacock in such complexes of ideas, since early Vedic (KS!)
and since the burial urns in the early post-Indus "Cemetery H" graves, with
peacock & homunculus motives....

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Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)
home page:  http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies:  http://www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs