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Chaptertwo
CreationoftheworldintheNdsadtya
(RV10.129)1
TheNdsadtyaisappreciatedforitsabstractconceptofcosmogonyexpressed
ingenerallanguage.Atthesametime,thehymnisarepositoryofearlierÇgvedic
thoughtaboutcreation.Itslinguisticconstructionisnotonlygeneralbutalsoprompts
thelearnedrecipienttoevokethecontextoftheearliermandalasandunfoldthe
richnessoftheirthought.ItsactivationfillstheabstractconceptofCreator’sactivity
withtheactualityofeverydayhumanexperienceandofmetaphoricimagery.
Iwillusetheterm‘formulaicexpressions’todenotetheexpressionsinthe
Ndsadtyawhich,inmyopinion,evokeearlierthinkingaboutcosmogony.Theyare
notrealformulasbecausetheydonotrecurthroughoutthestanzasoftheRVin
afixedposition.Infact,inmostcasestheyareunique.However,theyareformulaic
inthattheytriggerconventionalisedmentaloperationsandactivateconceptsstored
inthelong-termmemoryofthelinguisticcommunity.Atthesametime,theyare
novelinthattheyareusedinaparticularversewhichenablestherecipienttocreate
anewuniquemeaning.
1
ThischapterisarevisedversionofmyarticlepublishedinJurewicz1995a,1995b.Ihave
hadagreatsatisfactiontoobservetheappearanceofasimilarinterpretationofNdsadtyato
mine(Brereton1999).Thebasicdifferencebetweentheauthor’spropositionandmineishis
assumptionthatNdsadtyaexpressesdoubtconcerningtheultimateprincipleofcreation(Brereton
goesasfarastocallNdsadtya‘anti-cosmogony’).Ontheotherhand,ourideasconvergeon
threeveryimportantissues:1.Thehymnisdirectlyaddressedtoitsactualrecipient;2.The
hymns’recipientplaysbackcosmogonyinhisownmind;3.Theprocessofcreationisoneof
cognitionguidedbythethought.Moreover,theconvergenceisdisplayedin:4.Themanner
ofunderstandingcertainsymbolsemployedinthehymn(mostnotablyindarknesscovering
darknessanddbhú/dbhú);5.Intheassumptionthattheformofthehymnisalsoamediumof
meaning(whichisexpandedbyBreretonandputinmoredetail).Alltheseissuesbreaknew
interpretativeground,cf.Maurer1975.
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