The Goddesses of Earth, River, Dawn and Speech in Vedic Hymns and Their Slavic Counterparts

Abstract

S obzirom na to da nam pri rekonstrukciji slavenskih mitova indoeuropska baština ima presudnu ulogu i predstavlja neku vrst provjere smisla slavenske građe, vrijedilo bi pogledati koliko možemo znati o glavnim božicama u Rksamhiti i Atharvasamhiti. Kao žena boga Neba javlja se tu Zemlja, Prthivī. Ona je Velika Majka i, premda se o njoj ne pjeva mnogo, vrijedi provjeriti je li usporediva s Mokoši. S druge strane, najviše se od božica u Vedama slavi Usas, Zora. Ona je kći Neba, žena ili draga Sunca i, gdjekada, majka blizanaca. Uz te dvije boginje još se dvije božice ističu u Rksamhiti: božica rijeke Sarasvatī i božica Riječi Vāc. A kao mati Āditya, bogova koji čuvaju ćudoređe, spominje se i uosobljena „nesputanost“ (grijehom) ili „nevinost“, božica Aditi. Možda je vrijedno usporediti vedske kultove božica Prthivī i Usas, pa i rijeke Sarasvatī, s kultovima božica u Slavena i srodnih kultura i utvrditi gdje se i s kojim božicama mogu naći usporedbe. Štovanje jedne od božica, Zore, vrijedi usporediti i sa štovanjem Majke Božje koje je u se preuzelo i dio pretkršćanskih tradicija.In order to reconstruct Slavic pre-Christian sacred texts and myths on the basis of Slavic oral folklore texts, comparison with Indo-European heritage is necessary. It would thus be of great importance to investigate how the main goddesses are conceived of and celebrated in the texts of the Rksamhitā and Atharvasamhitā, our most prominent „control corpora“, in order to ensure that our reconstructions of fomulae concerning Slavic goddesses are convincing. The Vedas celebrate the earth goddess Prthivī, wife of the sky god Dyaus. She is the Great Mother and, despite scant evidence, an examination of how comparable she is to the Slavic Mokoš is quite relevant. The most abundantly praised goddess in the Vedas is Usas, the Dawn, daughter of the Sky, consort or mistress of the Sun, and sometimes mother to two twin gods. Apart from these two divine figures, a river goddess Sarasvatī, and the goddess of speech, Vāc, are also prominent in the Rksamhitā. A goddess under the name of Aditi, the personification of innocence or absolution from sin, is also mentioned as mother of the Ādityas, gods who protect moral institutions. It will be quite instructive to compare the Vedic cults of the goddesses Prthivī, Usas, and the river Sarasvatī with the cults of Slavic goddesses, and to establish where and between which goddesses correspondences can be found. The cult of one of these goddesses, the Dawn, can be fruitfully compared to the cult of the Mother of God in Christianity, which has included a good deal of pre-Christian traditions

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