Naaraaya.nasuuktam

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>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.

> From Apte's Skt. dictionary online -

meanings of "piGgala" [1] a.{a-stem} - 1.reddish-brown

meanings of "piGgala" [2] m.{a-stem} - 1.the tawny colour; 2.fire;
...

meanings of "piGgala" [3] n.{a-stem} - 1.brass; 2.yellow orpiment

meanings of "piGgala" [4] f.{a-stem} - 1.a kind of metal;
...

Agreed that Vishnu-Purushottama is depicted as dark colored in Indian
art, but the word that is translated as yellow is pingala, and not
purusha. The modern Swami's translation is on rather strong grounds.
Also, Urdhvaretas is a name more easily applied to Siva, the Yogi,
than to Vishnu/Krishna, and we know that virUpAksha definitely was
Siva, in temple-building times. There are many things going on in
this verse, not the least of which is the usage of the dative case
(vizvarUpAya) after a list of accusative cases, surely a very old
feature. The tatittirIya AraNyaka cannot be dated much later than the
zatapatha brAhmaNa of the Sukla YV.

Best regards,
Vidyasankar
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