Topic: Murukan in the Indus script & the origin of the Vajra

[Yeshu]

https://murugan.org/research/mahadevan.htm

The two sets of etyma in (c) and (d) taken together indicate that the original name of the deity was something like * mur/mur-V and that his essential traits were those of a fierce god, destroyer or hunter.

3.4 The legends and myths surrounding the deity have become inextricably mixed up and both sets of etyma in groups (a) to (d) apply to him. In short, the deity was both ‘a departed soul or demon' as indicated by his skeletal body and contracted posture, and also ‘a fierce killer or hunter' as indicated by the Dr. etyma. Furthermore, the linguistic data in (e) can be interpreted to mean that the deity was considered to be ‘ancient' even in Harappan times.

Dadhyanca (Dadhica) is mentioned as a divinity in the Rgveda and as a teacher or rshi in the later Vedic literature and the Mahābhārata.19 Two famous myths associated with him are relevant to our study:

(a) Dadhyanca's gift of his own ribs or bones to the gods for making the vajra with which Indra slew ninety-nine Vrtras.

(b) Dadhyanca getting a horse's head by the power of the Asvins. His name and his horse-head connect Dadhyanca with Dadhikra (van), the famous divine steed presented by Mitra-Varuna to the Purus. The etymology of the two names seemingly derived from dadhi ‘curds, buttermilk' has remained inexplicable.

The myths appear to have evolved from the iconography of the Harappan Skeletal Deity remembered as a religious symbol long after its linguistic context was forgotten:

(a) ‘ribs': Dadhyanca's inseperable identification with ‘ribs and bones' suggests that he had a ‘skeletal' body.

(b) ‘horse-head': This myth must have arisen when the symbol of the Harappan Skeletal Deity was later re-interpreted as a ‘horse' with a large ‘head', four ‘legs' (though the actual number varied) and a ‘raised tail'. This interpretation is seemingly plausible when the symbol is viewed in the horizontal position. It is interesting that some modern scholars studying the Indus Script have also interpreted Sign 48 as a ‘horse' (Meriggi: ‘horse'; Misra: ‘Dadhikravan').20 The Soviet scholars have also interpreted the sign as a quadruped, but as the‘buffalo'(presumably because there is no place for the ‘horse' in their theory of the Dravidian origin of the Indus Civilization!)21

(a) A deity conceived to be human in form (as seen in the pictorial representations) is more likely to be depicted by an anthropomorphic ideogram than by syllabic writing.

(b) The ideogram will occur with high frequency, and with especially higher relative frequency in dedicatory inscriptions on votive objects found in religious contexts.

(c) The ideogram is likely to occur repetitively as part of fixed formulas possibly representing religious incantations.

1.2 Signs 1-48 in the Indus Script are classified as ‘anthropomorphic' on the basis of their iconography 2. There are two near-identical signs in this group, Nos. 47 and 48 (Fig.1) depicting seated personages reminiscent of very similar representations of deities in the Egyptian hieroglyphic script, in which a seated figure functions as the determinative for ‘god' (Fig.2), and similar ideograms, modified by the addition of distinctive attributes, represent specific deities3. On the basis of this analogy from a contemporary ideographic script, we may assume, as a working hypothesis to begin with, that Sign 47 of the Indus Script is the ideogram for ‘deity' and that Sign 48, its modified form occurring with a much higher frequency, represents a particular ‘Deity'characterised by the distinctive attribute added to the basic sign.4 This identification receives some support from the pairing of these two signs in either order in the texts, probably to be read as ‘the deity X' or ‘X, the deity'.5

The Buddha Vairochana sits at the center of this mandalic diagram of the heavens, framed by the four directional cosmic Buddhas, each with its own distinctive color. The most important of these heavens is the western pure land, at the top, where Amitabha presides and where pious devotees hope to be reborn. The square section takes the form of a multi-tiered palace, inhabited by one thousand bodhisattvas, that encloses the five Buddhas set within circles. Gateways in the form of pronged vajras (lightning bolts) stand at the four directions and, as they cross under the image of Vairochana, mark a point of perfect stability at the center. Along the top register are Buddhist deities, Mahasiddhas (enlightened tantric practitioners), and monastic patriarchs, and along the base is a row of powerful protectors and auspicious gods. At the bottom left, a monk sits before an altar, eternally consecrating the mandala.

According to Asko Parpola, the Sanskrit vajra- (वज्र-) and its Avestan cognate vazra- are possibly ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *weg'- which means "to be(come) powerful". The related Proto-West-Uralic *vaśara ("axe, mace", (later) "hammer"; whence Ukonvasara, "Ukko's hammer") is an early loanword from the Proto-Indo-Aryan *vaj’ra- but not from Proto-Iranian, state Parpola and Carpelan, because its palatalized sibilant is not consistent with the depalatalization which occurred in Proto-Iranian.[4][5]

Primarily because the Avestan adjective verethragnan ('victorious') had a corresponding #Vedic term vrtrahan where it appeared "preponderantly as a qualification of Indra", both #Zoroastrians and #Hindus accept that in Indo-Iranian times there existed the warrior god Indra and that the Avestan Verethragna might be analogous to that divine figure. The #Sanskrit cognate of #Verethragna is Vritraghna, which is an epithet for Indra in Vedic literature, and he too is the destroyer of "Vritra", an #Asura serpent or dragon whose name literally means "cover, obstacle", in reference of him holding back the waters.

But western scholars oppose this identification: In the Avesta, it is the hero warrior-priest #Fereydun who battles the serpent Aži Dahāka ('Azi' being cognate with Sanskrit 'Ahi', or 'snake', which is therefore also associated with Vedic Vritra). One Western scholar claims that, in the Vedas, the epithet 'hero' (sura) is itself almost exclusively reserved for Indra, while in the #Avesta it is applied to Thraetaona and other non-divine figures. The term "victorious" is not restricted to Verethragna, but is also a property of a number of other figures, both divine and mortal, including Thraetaona. While in the Vedas it is Indra who discovers #Soma - in the Avesta, it is humans who first press Haoma, and #Thraetaona is attributed with being the "inventor of medicine". In the Vedas, #Indra strikes his enemies with the #Vajra - but in the Avesta, the #Vazra is Mithra's weapon.