Naaraaya.nasuuktam

[N. Ganesan]

Thanks to S. Vidyasankar for giving the suuktam URL:
http://sanskrit.gde.to/doc_vishhnu/doc_vishhnu.html.

SV>Perhaps the above interpretation comes from virUpAksha. It is a
SV>stretch to read the color red into this word, but there are those
SV>who think that Urdhvaretas implies red (bloodshot) eyes, and hence
SV>virUpAksha.

The saivaite who recited this sUktam sung in all southern Shiva and
Vishnu temples right after purushasuuktam, interpreted thinks like
that.

Is the taittiriiya aara.nyaka part of krishna YV? What are the likely
century(s) for composition? First some centuries BC?


--------------------------------------------------

For the nArAyaNasUkta shlokam,
  R^itam satyaM paraM brahma purushhaM kR^ishhNa pi~Ngalam.h |
  UrdhvaretaM virUpaakshaM vishvarUaaya vai namo namaH ||

the modern Swami Krishnananda on the webpage interprets "purusham
krishNa piGgalam" as "the purusha of blue-decked yellow hue". It is a
stretch to call Purusha as "yellow".

Purusha is always painted black/blue-black in India, and never yellow.
Two examples that I have:
a) Narayana's vishvaruupam in his all emcompassing Purusha form
painted "black", see the Bikaner painting, p. 217, B. N. Goswamy,
Essence of Indian art.
b) For an 18-19th cent. painting showing dark blue Narayana in his all
embracing Purusha form, see p. 59, The eternal cycle: Indian myth,
Time-Life, 1998.

Old paintings depict Narayana floating on a fig leaf in the ocean
depict him as deep blue using lapis lazuli and soot. Naaraaya.na
murdering the Madhu and Kai.tabha asuras disturbing him from
'aRituyil'(yoganidra) is always painted black. See the paintings
published where Narayana is painted pure "black" in the Marakandeya
puraNa series.

In the famous hymn, Naaraaya.nasuuktam, an appendix to Purushasuuktam,
Purusha is equated with Naaraaya.na everywhere. Both Purusha and
Naaraayana are "black" or "green-black" or "blue-black". Like
Naaraaya.na's tejas in the Naaraaya.niiyam section of MBh. being
compared with "aaditya var.nam", Purusha/Naaraaya.na both of whom are
black (blue/green-black) in this hymn, but their energy and radiance
is likened to lightning or gold or brilliant/gold like awn of paddy.
Compare with the common black bee description in sangam poems,-
"maNi niRat tumpi". Can we ever call 'tumpi' as yellow? Alvars sing
Narayana sleeping on the serpent as "karu maNi". Of course, "nAraNan2"
(=s. nArAyaNa) the tamil deity mentioned in ancient tamil works means
"the Black God" who protects all the world. And, in India white is
inauspicious and widows wear them.
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0012&L=indology&P=39408
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0012&L=indology&P=20237

While this theme dominates in Indian culture in post-Rgvedic and
medieval India, the Aryan ingression into India around 1200 BCE after
the IVC decline and the earliest memories recorded in the RV portray
a scene just the opposite. Memory? In the RV as well as Avestan gathic
texts, black is a hated color and white is eulogized. And this theme,
possibly a metaphor with anthropological happenings on the ground,
gets into the Bible from Persia. Let me quote Joseph Campbell, The
Power of Myth, p. 65
<---
Bill Moyers: What about this idea of good and evil in mythology, of
life as a conflict between the forces of darkness and the forces of
light?
Joe Campbell: That is a *Zoroastrian* idea, which has come over into
Judaism and Christianity. In other traditions, good and evil are
relative to the position in which you are standing. What is good for
one is evil for the other. And you play your part, not withdrawing
from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but seeing that
this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder: a mysterium
tremendum et fascinans. "
--->

This black versus white dyadism, metaphorically merged with darkness
versus light, is an Indo-Iranian heritage in the Bible. But Indians
survived over time, and acculturated to transform themselves into
Aryans. Still the clear distinction between evil versus good or black
versus white is absent in India. The prime example that comes to my
mind is the MahesamUrti image in Elephanta caves. Of the two focal
points to the structural plan (the other being the creative power
symbolized by the lingam) of Elephanta, the colossal Shiva Mahadeva
has three faces: a) the gracious, almost feminine vAma face to the
right b) the evil, destructive ghora face to the left and c) facing
the devotee is the calm, meditating Lord's face. The message is evil
and good are part of life/Shiva, and the duality is not played out
loud in Indian art.

Taking black which sometimes look green or blue as God cannot be part
of the IE heritage. Not in the RV (a Vedicist told me: in some senses,
the RV is the least Indian of Skt. texts). Greeks did not use green or
blue at all in their arts!
"How different nature must have appeared to the Greeks if,
as we have to admit, their eyes were blind to blue and
green, ... (Blue and green dehumanize nature more than
anything else:) ..." (p. 182, Nietzsche, Daybreak: thoughts
on the prejudices of morality, 1982).

Merry Christmas to all,
N. Ganesan



_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com