Prajapati's Relations With Brahman Brhaspati And Brahma (verhandelingen Der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie Van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde)

The ancient Indian God Prajāpati probably originated as a popular deity presiding over procreation, and gradually rose to a higher rank. Handbooks on the history of Indian religion give only very meagre and sometimes even inexact or incorrect information over his relations with other philosophical concepts and divine figures. In this book, the author discusses the numerous relevant references and tries to describe and, within the limits of possibility, to explain the relations that existed between Prajāpati, the Brahman concept and the personal gods Brhaspati and Brahmā.Tracing the historical development is shown to be difficult, due to the considerable variety of data, complicated interrelationships, numerous contradictions and the unavoidable differences of opinion of the Vedic authorities. Paperback. The ancient Indian God Prajpati probably originated as a popular deity presiding over procreation, and gradually rose to a higher rank. Handbooks on the history of Indian religion give only very meagre and sometimes even inexact or incorrect information over his relations with other philosophical concepts and divine figures. In this book, the author discusses the numerous relevant references and tries to describe and, within the limits of possibility, to explain the relations that existed between Prajpati, the Brhman concept and the personal gods Brhaspati and Brahm. Tracing the historical development is shown to be difficult, due to the considerable variety of data, complicated interrelationships, numerous contradictions and the unavoidable differences of opinion of the Vedic authorities. I. Introduction 1 II. Visvakarman and Vayu 3 III. Svayambhu 6 IV. Prajapati and Brhaspati II V. Bráhman and Brahma 36 VI. Prajäpati and Bráhman 38 VII. Prajapati and the Brahmán priest 50 VIII. Prajapati and the God Brahma 57 IX. Purusa 61 X. Epilogue 65 Abbreviations 67 Indices 71 J. Gonda. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References.