On Ta and Brahman - Visions of Existence in The Gveda

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
ON ṚTÁ AND BRÁHMAN: VISIONS OF EXISTENCE IN THE ṚG-VEDA

Author(s): A. Sandness
Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 88 (2007), pp. 61-80
Published by: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41692085
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ON RTÁ AND BRAHMAN : VISIONS OF EXISTENCE
IN THE RG-VEDA
By
A. Sandness
Abstract
The word brãhman has often been perceived as one refering
to an abstract concept of the principle of existence known to
philosophers of the Upanisads and to postUpanisadic thinkers
but unknown to the much earlier visionary and poetic text, the
Rg Veda. The Rgvedic bráhman, meaning "embodiment of truth"
or "poetic formula", has not previous to this work been
understood in terms of the life-giving principle as such. The Rg -
Veda has tended to name the nature of existence rather in relation
to the concept of rtá. This paper will show that rtá and bráhman
are both aspects of a single image portrayed in the Rgvedic vision
of the cosmic principle of life.
We drank the soma ; we became immortal; we reached the
light ; we found the gods .... 1
Liiders in his commentary on Rg-Veda 7.95.6b2 understands dvãrãv

rtásya, "the double-doors of rtá'' as the doors whose opening makes the poem
accessible to the poet. Because in 7.95.6 it is the poem that allows Vásistha
to open the doors of rtá for Sárasvati, Liiders suggests that this expression is
therefore equivalent to that of "the door of poems" (dvãrã matinãm) found
in 9.10.6a. Liiders thus here identifies rtá with the hymn itself inasmuch as
the hymn is an embodiment of truth.
Instances in the Rg-Veda where rtá may be understood as "hymn" in

its manifest aspect are found on occasions when rtá is used in the plural. "Rtás"
may be understood as offerings of sacred Speech in such verses as 10.10 4b,
1 Rg-Veda ( RV) 8.48.3, translation by Doniger, The Rig Veda (New York: Penguin Books,
1981), 134.
2 Liiders, Varuna und das Rta (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959), 441.
62 Annals BORI , LXXXVIII ( 2007 )
1. 179.2b and, more directly, on the two occasions where rtá is used in the
genitive plural. In 1.165.13c-d, for example, the Maruts are witnesses to the
manifestations of rtá composed by the poet (mánmãni citrã apivãtãyanta esã
bhüta návedã ma rtãnãm)?
Yet the Vedic poets do not typically understand rtá as being plural in
character. The plural of the term is found in only thirteen of the five hundred
seventy, or in only 2%, of the Rgvedic occurrences of rtá. Rtá is perceived
as singular in nature. Three hundred forty-seven, or 61%, of the Rgvedic
occasions of rtá are linguistically singular; in the remaining two hundred ten
occurrences, rtá is the first member of a compound term.
Neither is rtá typically perceived as something that can be directly

named. In the two cases where the term appears in the nominative singular,
it does so only in order that it may be identified with something else . In 8 .60 .5 ,
for example, Agni is identified as Poet, Protector and rtá incarnate; in 9.62.30,
Sóma is addressed as Pávamãna, rtá incarnate and Poet, rtá is thus not itself
subject of an action in its singular form; because it is not in its singular form
subject of a verb, it is not perceived by the poet as acting independently in the
manifest world.
Typically rtá occurs in the genitive. One hundred ninety-seven, or 57% ,

of its occurrences in the singular, and 35% of its total occurrences, are in the
genitive singular. When rtá appears as first member of a compound, this
compound is generally a genitive tatpurusa. Taking these cases into account,
rtá has a genitive sense on more than 70% of its occurrences. Rtá thus tends
to be perceived by the poets as a unique and "unnameable" entity , as something
which must be qualified rather than identified and described only in terms of
that which relates to it.
This difficulty of naming or identifying rtá is experienced by those

who translate Rgvedic literature.4 Exhaustive studies have examined
details of the term. Renou, for example, most often chose to translate the term
3 1.165.13d. Cf. 4.23.4c; 9.70.1d; 9.97.37a.

4 See, for example, Bergaigne, La Religion védique ďaprěs les hymnes du Rig-Veda. [Paris:
Honore Champion (1883), 1963], 111:210-271 who furnishes an exhaustive comparative
analysis of the term. See also Apte,"Rta in the Rgveda", Annals of the Bhandakar Oriental
Research Institute XXIII (1942): 55-60 and Renou, Études védiques et paninéennes {Paris:
E. de Boccard), IX (1961): 119, III (1957) : 50, 73 as subject of expressions based on
(Continued on the next page)
A. Sandness : On Rtá and Bráhman : Visions of Existence in the Rg-Veda 63
by "Order" 5 in contrast to Lüders who preferred "Truth". 6 For Thieme it was

the "formation" either of an embryo or of a poem.7 Renou recognised that rtá
might combine such qualities so as to communicate the idea of "'loť poétique"
or "poetic 'law'". 8
A synchronistic understanding of rtá has also elsewhere been affirmed.

Elizarenkova, for example, enumerates definitions of the term given by
Grassmann, including, among others, "divine order", "eternal truth", "justice",
"sanctity", "a pious deed", "sacrifice" 9 and suggests :
.... it seems most probable that all the "separate meanings"
are really context-bound variants of a single syncretic invariant
meaning which , in this particular case could be conventionalized
as "cosmic law". On the speculative level it can manifest
itself as "eternal truth", but on the ritual level as "sacrifice".
Similarly, the various adjectival meanings of the word -
"appropriate;" "good," "sacred;" "truthful, pious" - could be
rather easily reduced to a single invariant: "conforming to the
law of rtá'." 10
(Continued from p. 28)

subject of expressions based on the term rtá, see also Gonda, Loka: World and Heaven
in the Veda (Amsterdam: N.V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij , 1966), 142;
Gonda, The Vision of the Vedic Poets (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1963), 48, 97, 125f.;
Gonda, The Dual Deities in the Religion of the Veda (Amsterdam: North-Holland
Publishing Company, 1974), 148, 161 , 175, 176, 183, 186, 190, 198, 206f., 229; Gonda,
Rice and Barley Offerings in the Veda (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987), 55; Gonda, PrajãpatVs
Rise to Higher Rank (Leiden: E J. Brill, 1986), 1 1 , 96; Gonda, Some Observations on the
Relations between "Gods" and " Powers " in the Veda, A Propos of the Phrase Sünuh.
Sahasah (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1957), 27, 93; Gonda, Vedic Literature ( Samhitãs
and Brãhmanas) (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975), 72, 99; Gonda, The Functions
and Significance of Gold in the Veda (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991), 139; Gonda, Epithets in
the Rg Veda, Disputationes Rheno-Trajectinae 4 (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1959), 104.
On Sóma as the "tongue of rtá", see Gonda The Vision of the Vedic Poets (The Hague:
Mouton & Co., 1963), 74.
5 Cf. Renou, "Les pouvoirs de la parole dans le Rgveda", Etudes védiques et pãninéennes,
I (1955): 21-22 and Renou, "Les pouvoirs de la parole dans les hymnes védiques", in
Louis Renou, L'Inde fondamentale, Etudes d'indianisme réunies et présentées par Ch.
Malamoud [Paris: Hermann (collection "Savoir"), 1978], 44-57.
6 Cf. Lüders, 403-642.
7 Thieme, "Bráhman," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 102 (Neue
Folge 27), 1952: 91-129.
8 Renou, "Les pouvoirs de la parole dans le Rgveda", 21.
9 Elizarenkova, Language and Style of the Vedic Rsis (New York: State University of New
York Press, 1995), 29-30. See Grassmann, Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda (Leipzig: F.A.
Brockhaus, 1873), 282-283.
10 Elizarenkova, Language and Style of the Vedic Rsis, 29-30; see also 17.
The poets speak of rtá as an eternal principle that underlies all

existence.11 This is, for example, the meaning in 9.1 10.4b. Gonda describes
this meaning as follows :
Rtá, the fundamental Order, Law, Truth, which is the basis
- or at the basis - of all diversity, which manifests itself in all
normal and regular phenomena of nature, in our physical and
psychical faculties, moral obligations, social and ritual
institutions, is conceived of as one, homogenous, indivisible.12
Rtá is both one and many . Silburn in her work Instant et Cause describes
in visual terms aspects of the poets' perception of rtá as the "agencement
exact" or the single precise alignment of many cosmic parts.
Rta , the harmonized cosmos which is well-done (sukrta), where the

days and nights are well-constructed (sumeka), is the oppostite of anrta, the
non-aligned cosmos where only dissolution and chaos (nirrti) reign. In this
primordial non-alignment, the yet undivided worlds form, according to some
texts, the primordial androgyne.13 There was thus neither space, nor time, nor
movement then, as the pathway of rta was blocked.14 The 'son of the worlds,
the poet of space, had not yet separated the two worlds by measuring them;
he had not yet then gathered them back together and organized them' ( samrac-
R.V.1.160.4).
This son, which is the sun, props up the sky and is the most frequently
invoked witness to this alignment, to this proper placement whose perfection
is the wonder of the rsi ... 15
This propping up does not only consist of the lifting up a mass or its
increase (R.V. II. 1 1); it is also, and especially, the circulating that serves in
1 1 Cf. Louis, Renou, "Les pouvoirs de la parole dans le Rgveda", 22 and, for example, Rg-
Veda9.''0Ab.
12 Gonda, The Dual Deities in the Religion of the Veda , 206. Gonda opposes this essential
cosmic unity to the duality which the Veda presents as characteristic as the manifest world.
He adds: "The phenomenal world, which is based on it, dependent on it, determined and
regulated by it, is, on the other hand, largely viewed as being characterized by duality (day:
night; expiration: inspiration; man's two arms, the natural and the artificial, inventiveness
and adroitness, the brahmanical order and nobility etc.)".
13 Silburn, Instant et Cause refers to 1.160.3.
14 Silburn directs the reader to Satapatha-Brãhmana 1.4.1.22-23.
15 The reference cited is Rg- Veda 4.13.5.
the manner of the prop of the sun which, by circling the sky, holds up the
luminous arch as it goes along its celestial path while conferring on all beings
duration .... 16
No other idea has as much as rta incited such a luxury of metaphors

which are all images of continuity: stream (dhãrã) of rta, yoke or harness of
rta , path of rta, net (prasiti) of rta, web of rta, wheel of rta, etc. 17
Rtá as sustenance of our cosmos and hence of our existence is stable
and fixed . Rtá, not naturally perceived as subject of a verb, never appears as
the subject of a verb of movement. Yet it is both characterised by and that
which characterises continuity. This continuity includes that continuity par
excellence, the continuity of life made possible by the exact alignment, or
"agencement exact", of time.
The abstract idea of time (kãla) was not known to the Rg-Veda .
Time, like space, was not homogenous for the poet. For him, life
depended on the alignment of days and nights filled with a vital energy.
As this* vital force (¿yus) was susceptible to being prolonged day after
day , the word ¿yus came to signify the duration of life.18 In this regard, Silburn
cites Benveniste :
The two neuter words ãyu and ãyus name the vital
force as an individual (R.V. 1 .89.9) or universal (ãyur visvãyuh,
R.V. X.89.8) principle .... The story of ãyu ... teaches us that
this concept develops from a human and quasi-physical
representation: the force which animates the being and gives
it life, a force both unique and double, transient and
permanent, exhausting itself and being reborn in the course
of the generations, abolishing itself in its own renewal and
forever subsisting by its finitude always renewed. The life
force implies incessant re-creation of the principle which
nourishes it .... 19
16 Silburn continues and refers the reader to Atharva-Veda 13.1 .18; 10.8.4; 10.7.1 1 and 12;
Rg-Veda 3.55.7.
17 Silburn, Instant et Cause: Le Discontinu dans la Pensée Philosophique de Vinde (Paris:
Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1955), 12-13.
18 Renou, Etudes védiques et pãninéennes, II (1956): 102; Silburn, 2.
19 Benveniste "Expressions Indo-Européenne de l'éternité", 105. and 111, cited by Silburn, 2.
66 Annals BORI, LXXXVIII ( 2007 )
Life is dependent on the continuity of rtá . It is a continuity characterised

by both stability and movement. In this way, it is like a river which is fixed
in the stability of its physical alignment and yet also in the constancy of its
motion. For Gonda:
... the idea underlying the expression [rtasya dhãrã] seems

rather to be that of the breaking through of a stream of the great
and fundamental power called rta-, of a sudden influx of
sacredness, of an extraordinary insight into the reality beyond the
phenomena of this world.20
The constancy in the movement of the animating essence perceived as

the stream of rtá manifests in the continuity of the uninterupted flow of oblation
materials. Malamoud observes that :
The sacrifice without gap, the world without fault, this is

the rta, the "precise alignment": the correct performance of the
ritual work is at once the image and cause of the harmonious
alternation of days and nights, of the succession of the seasons,
of the rain that falls at the right moment, of the ordered meeting
of eater and eaten.21 System of systems of pieces joined: cosmic
order, ritual efficacy, truth as perfect, such are the principal
components of the notion of rta.22 So it is that rta, the supreme
principle in Vedic ideology, is defined as the absence of lack: the
word is derived from the same root as the adverb aram,
"sufficiently". 23
Sufficiency, and abundance, is assured in the Vedic cosmos by means

of the articulate and exact precision of the enactement of sacrificial ritual which
is itself in alignment with, a microcosmic representation of, and hence a
20 Gonda, The Vision of the Vedic Poets , 173.

21 Malamoud here cites Aitareya-Aranyaka 2.1.2.
22 Malamoud cites Renou, "Les pouvoirs de la parole dans les hymnes védiques", in Renou,
L'Inde fondamentale , Études d'indianisme réunies et présentées par Ch. Malamoud. [Paris:
Hermann (collection "Savoir "), 1978], 55 and Lüders, 403-642 noted above.
23 Malamoud, "La brique percée", Cuire le monde: rite et pensée dans Vinde ancienne (Paris:
Éditions de la découverte, 1989), 73. See also Malamoud, "Les dieux n'ont pas d'ombre",
Cuire le monde: rite et pensée dans l'inde ancienne (Paris: Éditions de la découverte,
1989), 243, note 4.
physical conduit of the uninterrupted flow of the life-giving stream of rtá into
the manifest world of humans.24
The gods receive and personify elements of the sacrifice including

sacrificial offering materials. The gods themselves also therefore exist within
this flow of existence :
The gods , who do not have fixed residence , are also without
a corporal envelope. They are, in fact, contained in their dhãman,
their "most dear dhãman" .... The god is situated in the institutions
which he institutes. His power, his nature, his place, his essence,
his structure (so many translations are possible for [the word
dhãman 25]): one need search no further than in his law, that is to
say, the manner in which he manifests cosmic order (rtá). 26
The Vedic poets use pictoral images in order to communicate their

vision of the animating essence which surrounds, underlies, permeates
and manifests itself in our world of humans and that of the sacrifice and
24 This idea is further developed by Malamoud in his first appendix to the article "Cuire le
monde" [Cuire le monde: rite et pensée dans l'inde ancienne (Paris: Éditions de la
découverte, 1989), 66-67] as follows: "Besides the explicit symbolism of the sacrificial
gesture (feeding the gods, assisting them in their fight against the Asuras and the raksas,
placing them in such as state and so obliged as to accord to the sacrificer the goods he
desires), there is also a more immediate symbolism which is more difficult to perceive:
the comings and going, the cooking and the carving, the filtering and the pressings, the
piling-up and the adjustments, the divisions and the reunifications, all these elemental
gestures which constitute the sacrifice are, independent of the particular "translation"
given by the texts, the very image of rta, this rta that they signify above all and by this
favour, this rta which is the exact articulation of all the parts of the universe."
25 Here Malamoud cites Renou, Études védiques et pãninéennes IX (1961): 1 1 , note 1 , and
refers the reader to Renou, "Les elements védiques dans le vocabulaire du Sanskrit
classique", Journal Asiatique 231, no. 2 (1939): 363 ff. and Gonda, The Meaning of the
Sanskrit Term dhãman [Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij (Verh.
Kon. Ned. Wet. Letterkunde LXXIII, no. 2), 1967].
26 "Briques et mots", Cuire le monde: rite et pensée dans Vinde ancienne (Paris: Éditions
de la découverte, 1989), 270-271. Malamoud continues to note (in 271, note 89) that:
"Words also have their 'most dear dhãman' So it is for the ritual exclamation vasat, for
example: by itself it signifies nothing. It must be "perfected" and delimited by giving it
a semantic field which will be its dhãman; to do this, it must be placed between two words
whose meaning is 'strength' and 'power', and which are themselves 'the two most dear
bodies' of vasat. On this subject, Malamoud refers to Aitar eya-Brãhmana 3.8 and Gonda,
The Meaning of the Sanskrit Term dhãman [Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers
Maatschappij (Verh. Kon. Ned. Wet. Letterkunde LXXIII, no. 2, 1967), 68.
of the gods. In their images, the vital force which enters our world through
the vehicle of the stream of rtá moves into the created cosmos, with its
structure and its form, from the primordial non-alignment represented in
their songs by the Waters.
Thus Agni is the new-born of the Waters, born in his birthplace at

the breast of rtá (1.65.4b). Agni rests in the birthplace of rtá , and the
Waters come together to Agni. 27 The Waters are the place where rtá is born
and where rtá gives birth: Agni moves in this context as charioteer driving
the will of ría 28 Called the eye and guardian of rtá , Agni activates himself
for rtá as the son of the Waters and the messenger for men.29 The gods have
Agni as tongue sitting at the place of rtá where the waters gave birth to the
sacrifice.30
The gods manifest the vital essence communicated in the stream rtá by
means of nourishing food which is the stuff of offering. Agni is born in the
birthplace of rtá which is the birthplace of food.31 Milk-cows rise up from rtá
with their breasts swollen with milk.32 The wave of sóma flows like the rivers
from the birthplace of rtá 33 and food flows from Sóma. Soma, full of life,
allows to be milked from himself clarified butter and milk according to the
immortal principle; 34 he is the navel of rtá?5
Sóma, in particular, manifests rtá in the form of creative speech, that

food which nourishes the poets and which, in turn, feeds the gods as offering.
Sóma is the tongue of rtá . He purifies himself in the form of honey 36 Called
Poet and animator of the capacity for thought, Sóma is the new-born of rtá?1
27 3.1.11c. Cf. 9.32.4c.

28 4.10.2d. Cf. 10.8.3d.
29 10.8.5a.
30 10.65.7b.
31 5.21.4d.
32 1.73.6a-b.
33 9.64.11c.
34 See 9.2.
35 y./4.4D.
36 9.73.2a. See also 9. 62 .30 and Kenou, ttudes védiques et paninéennes Vlil (19òl):94 who
cites in this regard 9.62.30; 9.56.1; 9.66.24; 9.107.15.
37 9.68.5b.
Hymns go to Sóma lowing like cows going to their master; cows go to the
birthplace of rtá where Soma is re-born.38 Seven milk-cows acclaim the Poet
Sóma who streams to the birthplace of rtá.39 Lowing cows born of rtá and easy
to milk go to sóma who is rich in honey.40 King Sóma, who sees the light of
the sun, contains the speech of rtá and is the father of hymns.41 Soma sets in
motion the vision of rtá 42 He receives his vital strength from the triple cows
in the place of the song where he cleanses himself with intuitions of rtá.43
The eternal rtá is thus portrayed in the picture-language of the poets as

primordial Waters. When set in motion, it streams out into the created world.
The stream of rtá manifests in the well-ordered and harmonised world by
means of the gods and in the stream of those life-giving offering substances
including speech. The purifying Waters incite ritual speech by providing the
yoke of rtá ; 44 the eternal rtá, which contains a variety of food, flows like a
river with hymns.45 It is this stream of rtá, the animating foundation and
fountain of existence, that the poet of 7.95.6 releases by opening rtá' s double
doors.
***
In the verse immediately following 7.95.6, that is 7.96.1. Hymns 7.95

and 7.96 are part of a series of eight hymns (7.90-98) dedicated to double
divinities. In the case of 7.95 and 7.96, the double deities in question are
Sárasvati and Sárasvant. The verse which makes the conjunction between these
two hymns, which are paired together and conjoined as are the deities
themselves, is 7.96.1. In this verse, the hymn is described as brhát and thus
as particularly powerful. Brhát qualifies vácas in 7.96.1a. MonierWilliams46
defines brhát as "high, tall, great, strong, loud, solid, vast or abundant."
38 9.72.6d.
39 9.86.25d. See also 9.77.1c, 9.73.1b and 9.107.4c.
40 9.77.1c.
41 9.76.4b.
42 9.102.1 b=9 .102. 8c.
43 9.111.2c.
44 10.30.11c.
45 4.23.8b.
46 Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary Etymologically and Philologically

Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages [Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, (1899) 1994], 735.
Boehtlingk and Roth, Stchoupak, Nitti, Renou and Capèller, MacDonell and
Geldner accept this definition of brhát which is founded on the place of brhát
in a family of words of Indo-European origin whose general meaning is "high"
and on works of Indian lexicographers.47 Gonda48 and Renou, however, have
frequently studied the adjective brhát . Renou, like Gonda, identifies the term
as an echo, as a reduced form of the Vedic noun brahman 49 a word which is,
Renou observes, one of the most studied terms of the Vedic lexicon. 50
In post-Rgvedic literature, the word bráhman (nt.) names the absolute

and eternal principle which, according to Vedic thinkers, underlies, animates,
penetrates and sustains the created worlds.51 Bráhman thus comes to signify
in middle and late Vedic literature a foundational principle - at once non-
manifest and manifest, at once one and many which is comparable to the
meaning ascribed to the Rgvedic rtá. While the stream of rtá is defined by a
continuity which contains the seed of movement or the potential for life,
bráhman is that seed and potential for life non-manifest and also manifest in
the created, multi-fold world: bráhman is thus both object and subject, animator
and animated.
There are two hundred sixty-two occurrences of the word bráhman in

the RgVeda . Typically bráhman is in the accusative case. In 21% of its total
47 Gonda [Notes on bráhman (Utrecht: J.L. Beyers, 1950), 31-32] describes this Indo
European family which includes barjr ("high") arménien, the middle-Irish bri
("mountain") and the Hittite parkus ("high"). Cf. Mayrhofer, Kurzgefasstes
etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitä-
tsverlag), II (1963): 445 and Minard, Trois énigmes sur les cent chemins (Paris: Les Belles
Lettres, "Annales de l'Université de Lyon", 1949), I: 51 (145).
48 Cf. Gonda, Notes on bráhman (Utrecht: J.L. Beyers, 1950), 31-39.
49 Renou, Études védiques et pãnináennes 1(1955): 12 note 2, II (1956): 55, 111(1957): 14.
Cf. VIII (1961): 103.
50 Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman " in Louis Renou, UInde fondamentale, Études
d'indianisme reunies et présentées par Ch. Malamoud [Paris: Hermann (collection
"Savoir"), 1 978] , 83 . Cf. Renou with Silburn, "Un hymne réunies" in Louis Renou . L'Inde
fondamentale, Études d'indianisme reunies et présentées par Ch. Malamoud. [Paris:
Hermann (collection "Savoir"), 1978], 58-65.
5 1 On the subject of brahman as the foundation of the manifest worlds , see also Gonda , Notes
on bráhman, 43-48 who cites Taittiriya-Samhitã 1 .5.4.3; Taittiriya-Brãhmana 2.8.9.6-7;
Atharva - Veda 9.3 . 19; 10.7 and 10.8 ; Šatapatha Brãhmana 6. 1 . 1 .8 and 10.2.4.6; Aitareya-
Brãhmana 4.11.1 and 7.19.3; Pañcavimsa-Brahmana 13.3.2; Brhad-ÄranyakaUpanisad
.3.8.
A. Sandness : On Rtá and Bráhman : Visions of Existence in the Rg-Veda 1 1
occurrences, bráhman is both accusative and plural; bráhman is also

characterized by the accusative singular form. In 8 .5% of occurrences, brahman
is in the instrumental singular. More rarely, the word appears in the singular
and plural of the nominative case. The conception of bráhman in the Rg-Veda
is therefore primarily as object, yet also as instrument and subject, of action
in the manifest created world. 52 This action is the giving and receiving of
speech used in offering to the gods.53
In the Rg-Veda, bráhman can mean "hymn" or "poetic formula". 54 For

the poet, the poetic formulae called bráhman contain a specific power. They
are powerful because they are enigmatic: Renou calls them "riddles",
" devinettes ". 55 They conceal and contain an element which is mysterious.
This mystery symbolizes for the poet the hidden potential life-giving power
contained within the silence56 of the primordial non-alignment of the undivided,
uncreated world which is symbolically represented by the Waters. Just as Agni
(fire) is hidden in his mothers the plants, 57 just as Soma (plant and juice) is
hidden in his mothers the Waters,58 that which is "hidden"59 is, for the poet,
a seed with potential to manifest.
Within their mystery, the bráhman contain and conceal the hidden,
primordial, life-giving power which streams in the stream of rtá and manifests
52 As we have observed, the linguistic case typical of rtá is the genitive singular. In contrast,
while bráhman appears in the Rg-Veda in the genitive case on forty-one, or 16%, of
occasions, it is used in each of these cases as part of the expression bráhmanas pati, or
Lord of bráhman, in reference to the god so named.
53 See 1 .152.7 c, for example: " ... may our bráhman triumph in the poetic competitions";
10.80.7a: "For Agni the artisans have fashioned this bráhman ... "; 7.61 .6d: " ... may these
bráhman, once completed, be pleasing to you ... 10.66. 1 2d: " ...enliven these bráhman
being recited .... "; 1 .162.17d: " ... I make all things well again for you by means of the
bráhman
54 Cf. Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 83 ff .

55 Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 91 ff. defines bráhman as "the energy which uses
speech in order to communicate, by means of the enigma, the inexpressible"; he cites
Jaiminïya-Upanisad-Brâhmana 1.40.3 and 4.18.3.
56 Regarding bráhman as Mystery, see Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 87. Regarding
the relation between bráhman and silence, see Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 90
ff. including 1 13 and Renou, "La valeur du Silence dans le Culte Védique", 66-80.
57 4.7.6; 3.55.4; 5.11.6.
58 9.70.2; 9.68.5; 3.39.6.
59 On the relation of the "hidden" and the invisible, non-manifest world, see Bergaigne II:
76ff.
in the poetic formulae of the poet's song. Because they contain at once both
silence and sound, both the nonmanifest and manifest, bráhman move and
form the bridge between the non-differentiated primordial world of Mystery
and the multi-form, propped-up created worlds . The human priests or bráhman
who contain these formulae, are described as the living cords or bándhu,60
which link humans to the divine mystery; bráhman connect.
Renou observes that, unlike similar terms, bráhman is a gift from the
gods to the poet.61 These poetic formulae, however, also enliven or give power
to the gods . The word is very frequently , for example , object of the verb VRDH,
to strengthen or to grow, where the subject is a god such as Indra.62 There is
thus an exchange of power by means of bráhman which is cyclical: bráhman
is an animating or strengthening power moving continuously from gods to
humans to gods manifest in the poetic formulae. 63
In fact, bráhman pervades and connects the worlds within which it moves
by being both one and many. This is illustrated above by the use of the term
in the Rg-Veda. Vãkyapadiya 1.4 tells us directly :
This One [ Bráhman ] which contains the seed of all things
and which presents itself in multiple forms: that of the subject
who experiences, that of the object experienced, and that of the
experience itself ... 64
60 In making this remark, Renou ["Sur la notion de bráhman ", 92] cites Atharva- Veda
10.7.24: " ... he who knows the gods, themselves connaisseurs of the brahman, becomes
a bráhman ". See also Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 88 note 1 . Regarding bráhman
as the bridge to immortality, see Gonda, Loka: World and Heaven in the Veda, 147 who
cites Mundaka- Upanisad 1 .2 . 1 2 ; 2 .2; 1 -2 and 5 ; 3 .2 .6 and 9 . See also Renou , "Les pouvoirs
de la parole dans les hymnes védiques", 44-57 and Renou, "Les pouvoirs de la parole
dans le Rg-Veda ", 16-17.
61 Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 85.
62 Bráhman is derived from a verbal root with an analogue meaning: BRH-, meaning "to
grow", "to develop", "to extend" and "to expand" as, for example, the expansion of the
spirit or soul [Mayrhofer, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen
(Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag), II (1963): 454]. The substantive derived
from VRDH-, várdhana or "growth", appears identical in its sense to the etymological
meaning of bráhman in such verses as 1.52.7, 2.12.14, 6.23.5, 7.22.7, 8.1.3, 8.51.4, and
10.49.1 , where the speech is identified as the means by which Indra expands himself or
grows.
63 See Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman " in Renou, 90.
64 Based on Biardeau 's Vãkyapadiya Brahmakãnda avec la vrtti de Harivrsabha, translation,
introduction and notes by M Biardeau , [Publications de l'Institut de Civilisation Indienne,
Série IN-8, fascicule 24 (Paris: Editions E. de Boccard, 1964): 31.
In the ritual manuals, bráhman is identified with Sacrifice and again as

object and subject, both many and one. Gonda65 cites Satapatha-Brãhmana
7.3.1.42 :
... that Agni (fire-altar) is Prajãpati and Prajãpati is the

whole Bráhman. Now that sand is (put) in (the place of) the lost
part of the Bráhman; and that part of it which has not been lost
is this fire-altar which is now being built: thus when he scatters
sand he restores to him that lost part of the Bráhman. That (sand
which) he scatters is unnumbered, unlimited; for who knows how
great is that lost part of the Bráhman? And verily he who , knowing
this, scatters and, restores the whole, complete Prajãpati.66
Bráhman is identified with Speech , the one indivisible Syllable (< aksára ) .
Both Renou67 and Gonda,68 for example, cite Brhad . Äranyaka-Upansiad 3 .8 .8
and 1 1 , where the worlds are said to be woven together on this aksára or
Syllable which is bráhman 69 Yet Chãndogya-Upanisad 3.18.3 tells us that,
identified with Speech, bráhman is multiform. Like the cow Speech, bráhman
has four feet :
Speech is indeed the fourth foot of Bráhman. That foot

shines with Agni (fire) as its light, and warms. He who knows
this shines and warms through his celebrity, fame, and glory of
countenance. 70
Like the milk which flows from the cow Speech, the bráhman , or poetic
formulae, are in the Rg- Veda oblation materials set in motion at the place of
sacrifice.71 Bráhman is nourishment and manifests in the created worlds as
65 Gonda, Notes on bráhman (Utrecht: J.L. Beyers, 1950), 63.

66 Eggeling, trad. Satapatha-Brãhmna According to the Text of the Mãdhy andina. (Oxford
University Press, 1894; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1963) Part III, Vol. XLI:353. See also
Gonda, Prajãpati' s Rise to Higher Rank (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986), 1617. Regarding later
development of the term bráhman in Indian philosophy, and in particular the concept of
šabdha brahman see, for example, Ruegg, Contributions à l'Histoire de la Philosophie
Linguistique Indienne (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1959), in particular page 50, note 3.
67 Renou, "Sur la notion de brahman 113.
68 Gonda, Notes on bráhman, 48.
69 Aksára and bráhman are also identified in Bhagavad Gita 8 .3 . Cf Minard, Trois énigmes
sur les cent chemins (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, "Annales de l'Université de Lyon", 1949)
I :51 (145), 119 (334a) and 152 (420). See also van Buitenen, "Aksara", Journal of the
American Oriental Society 79 (1959): 176-187.
70 Cf. Rg-Veda 1.164.45.
71 Cf. Satapatha-Brãhmana 4. 6.9. 21.
strengthening food. 72 Bráhman nourish, make to grow and vivify. In 1 .52.7,

we are told: "For as waves fill a piece of water, so the bráhman , which cause
you to increase, fill you, O Indra" In 1.80.1 we hear: " ... for ... the bráhman
has in the intoxication produced by sóma made a means of increasing or
strengthening."73 In 2.12.14 the poet sings to the gods: " ... whom the bráhman ,
whom sóma, whom this gift strengthens." The poetic formulae called bráhman
thus have the effect of stimulating or animating the gods: bráhman contains
the power to inebriate in a way comparable to sóma 74
One that is many, many that are one, non-manifest and manifest,
streaming cyclically through the cosmos and nourishing as oblation and food,
brahman shares qualities with rtá. Bráhman distinguishes itself from rtá in the
Rg- Veda by being the object and subject of verbs and so both present and in
motion in the manifest worlds of gods, sacrifice and humans.
Bráhman is animator and animated. The animating power of bráhman

is expressed in the pictoral language of the poet as light, as fire, and as the
sun which props up the sky and cycles through the cosmos allowing the
stream of ría to flow. The Vedic poets see bráhman , expressed as light,
being transported by fire from the womb of rtá. In Rg-Veda 6.16.35-36,
it is said:
72 Malamoud observes that the gods have a taste for the mysterious which they express in
language: the gods, it seems, like riddles. See Malamoud, "Briques et mots", Cuire le
monde: rite et pensée dans Vinde ancienne (Paris: Éditions de la découverte, 1989), 254.
73 As cited by Gonda, The Vision of the Vedic Poets (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1963), 121.
See also: Gonda, The Functions and Significance of Gold in the Veda (Leiden: E .J. Brill.
1991), 117; Gonda, Vedic Literature (Samhitãs and Brãhmanas) (Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1975), 80; Gonda, Püsán andSarasvatï (Amsterdam Academy. Amsterdam:
North-Holland Publishing Company, 1985), 34; and Elizarenkova, Language and Style
of the Vedic Rsis, 97.
74 Regarding what we know of the sóma plants and its possible physiological effects on
humans and gods, see Elizarenkova, "The problem of Soma in the light of language and
style of the Rgveda", Langue , style et structure dans le monde indien: centenaire de Louis
Renou: actes du Colloque international (Paris, 25-27 janvier 1996), 17-20. See also
Malamoud, "Le Soma et sa contrepartie: remarques sur les stupéfiants et les spiritueux
dans les rites de linde ancienne", Féminité de la Parole: Études sur l'Inde Ancienne
(Paris: Albin Michel , 2005), 205-223 and Wasson, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1968). Cf. Parpóla, "The problem of the
Aryans and the Soma: Textual-linguistic and archaeological evidence" in The Indo- Aryans
of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity , George Erdosy, ed.
(Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995), 353-381.
In the womb of his mother, (himself being) the Father of

the Father, shining from afar in the inexhaustible (space), seated
in the womb of rtá. (35)
(Agni) bring us the bráhman rich in offspring (or which

gives the capacity to procreate), 0 Jütá vedas who (reigns) from
afar over the populations , 0 Agni (the bráhman ) which illuminates
the sky. (36)75
The relationship which the Vedic poets identify between bráhman, this
power to animate, and the fire or light, becomes explicit in middle Vedic
literature. Renou remarks that "certain Vedic authors have not hesitated to
hear bráhman as 'fire'" and cites several passages on this subject. In
Vãjasaneyi-Samhitã 23.48, it is said that:
The bráhman is light comparable to the sun; the sky is the
lake comparable to the ocean. Indra is more vast than the earth,
and the Cow is beyond measure. 76
In Satapatha-Brãhmana 2.1.4.10 we learn the identification of

bráhman with fire and, at the same time, the identification of bráhman
and Speech :
Here now they say, 'If the fire is not set up with either a
rg-verse, or a sãman, or a yájus, wherewith then it is set up?'
Verily, that (fire) is of the brahman: with the bráhman it is set
up. The bráhman is speech: of that speech it is. The bráhman is
the truth, and the truth consists in those same (three) mystic
utterances: hence his (fire) is established by means of the truth.77
Further, brhát, understood, as we have said above, as being an echo or

representation of bráhman, is identified with the Sun, that is with celestial fire,
75 Cited by Gonda, Rice and Barley Offerings in the Veda (Leiden: E .J. Brill, 1987), 195.
In this regard, Gonda continues to cite Rg-Veda 10.4.7: " bráhman (the sacred hymns,
stanzas and formulae) and námas (reverential salutation) and this eulogy will always
fortify thee ... ".
76 Cited by Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman 98. See also Brhad-Ãranyaka-Upanisád
2.1 .2; Atharva-Veda 4.1.1. Regarding conception of the classical philosophical Brahman
as universal light, and "light of lights" see Gonda, The Vision of the Vedic Poets , 271.
77 1. Eggeling,l trans. Satapatha-Brãhmna According to the Text of the Mãdhyandina.
(Oxford University Press, 1882; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1963), Part I, Vol. XII:296.
and so called an aquatic bird or hamsá (m.). Just as the poets view Agni and
Sóma as a child of the waters who drinks the milk of these his mothers (Apãm
Nápãt), so also do the poets see Agni in his celestial form, the Sun, as a water-
bird {hamsá) who drinks water from the celestial ocean or sky. We hear the
identification of the hamsá with the sun in Rg-Veda 4.40.5, for example :
The bird (hamsá) sitting in the clear (sky) , the V ásu sitting
in the intermediate-space, the Hotar sitting at the altar, the host
sitting in the house, the god sitting in the wide-expanse, sitting
according to ( rtá ), sitting in the firmament, born in the waters,
born in the cows, born of Order (rtá), born of the mountain,
(it is) Order (rtá) itself. 78
In Vãjasaneyi-Samhitã 19.74 we hear: "the hamsá that resides in the

shining (sky) drank up sóma from the waters by means of a metrical text
(chándas)" .79 In Saunaka-AtharvaVeda-Samhitã 10.8.19, 80 we learn that the
hamsá shines in the sky by means of sátya (truth) and looks here by means
of bráhman. In Katha-Upanisad 5.2 we learn that the Sun, called hamsá
"represents the supreme energy which is also the ãtman, the Universal Order
(rtam) and ... brhat ... which (Gonda suggests) ... stands for brahman." 81
***
Bráhman is the animating, nourishing and life-giving power contained

within the stream of rtá. It is the seed of movement, visually represented as
the sun, which both props apart and gathers together the segments of the created
world. It is the child of the waters, contained within and born of the undivided
primordial existence.
The word bráhman has often been perceived as one refering to an

abstract concept of the principle of existence known to philosophers of the
Upanisads and to post Upanisadic thinkers but unknown to the Rg-Veda. The
Rgvedic bráhman, meaning "hymn" or "poetic formula", has not previous to
this work been understood in terms of the life-giving principle as such. It was
78 Based on the translation by Renou; see the related note; Etudes védiques et pãninéennes
XV (1966): 166. See also Aitareya-Brãhmana 4.20.5.
79 As presented by Gonda, The Functions and Significance of Gold in the Veda, 185.
80 This verse is found in the Paippalãda-Atharva- Veda-Samhitã 18.24.7.
81 As presented in Gonda, The Functions and Significance of Gold in the Veda, 187.
thought that the Rg-Veda tended to name the nature of existence rather in
relation to the concept of rtá. This paper proffers the argument that rtá and
bráhman are both aspects of a single image the visionary Rgvedic poets or rsis
saw and portrayed in the Rgvedic conception of the cosmic principle of life.
The Upanisadic bráhman is thus an extension or development of a principle
known to, and accepted by, the Rg-Veda.
The post-Rgvedic perception of bráhman is not the consequence of a

development from the concept of "word" to the concept of "eternal principle".
Rather, bráhman as the eternal principle is already well established in the
context of the Rg-Veda itself. In the Rg-Veda , the eternal principle that is rtá
and the bráhman within it form a single cognitive unit, a single image seen
by the visionary poet. The stream of rtá flows with and as a consequence of
bráhman making these aspects of a foundation of existence merely parts of
a whole.
Within the stream of rtá, animated and set in motion by the power of
bráhman , offering substances flow forth from the Waters manifesting the
foundation of existence which enlivens both gods and men. Bráhman as the
seed of that movement, the seed of fire contained within the life-giving flow,
is expressed by and in the food given to the gods as offering and received from
the gods as abundance. Bráhman , identified with the sun, is the prop that
provides the cosmic alignment which is rtá. Yet bráhman also contains within
the non-manifest mystery hidden symbolically in the aspect of these poetic
formulae which is enigmatic: "We drank the sóma; we became immortal; we
reached the light; we found the gods .... ." 82
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ON ṚTÁ AND BRÁHMAN: VISIONS OF EXISTENCE IN THE ṚG-VEDA

Liiders in his commentary on Rg-Veda 7.95.6b2 understands dvãrãv

Instances in the Rg-Veda where rtá may be understood as "hymn" in

Neither is rtá typically perceived as something that can be directly

Typically rtá occurs in the genitive. One hundred ninety-seven, or 57% ,

This difficulty of naming or identifying rtá is experienced by those

3 1.165.13d. Cf. 4.23.4c; 9.70.1d; 9.97.37a.

by "Order" 5 in contrast to Lüders who preferred "Truth". 6 For Thieme it was

A synchronistic understanding of rtá has also elsewhere been affirmed.

(Continued from p. 28)

The poets speak of rtá as an eternal principle that underlies all

Rta , the harmonized cosmos which is well-done (sukrta), where the

No other idea has as much as rta incited such a luxury of metaphors

Rtá as sustenance of our cosmos and hence of our existence is stable

Life is dependent on the continuity of rtá . It is a continuity characterised

... the idea underlying the expression [rtasya dhãrã] seems

The constancy in the movement of the animating essence perceived as

The sacrifice without gap, the world without fault, this is

Sufficiency, and abundance, is assured in the Vedic cosmos by means

20 Gonda, The Vision of the Vedic Poets , 173.

The gods receive and personify elements of the sacrifice including

The Vedic poets use pictoral images in order to communicate their

Thus Agni is the new-born of the Waters, born in his birthplace at

Sóma, in particular, manifests rtá in the form of creative speech, that

27 3.1.11c. Cf. 9.32.4c.

The eternal rtá is thus portrayed in the picture-language of the poets as

In the verse immediately following 7.95.6, that is 7.96.1. Hymns 7.95

46 Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary Etymologically and Philologically

In post-Rgvedic literature, the word bráhman (nt.) names the absolute

There are two hundred sixty-two occurrences of the word bráhman in

occurrences, bráhman is both accusative and plural; bráhman is also

In the Rg-Veda, bráhman can mean "hymn" or "poetic formula". 54 For

54 Cf. Renou, "Sur la notion de bráhman ", 83 ff .

In the ritual manuals, bráhman is identified with Sacrifice and again as

... that Agni (fire-altar) is Prajãpati and Prajãpati is the

Speech is indeed the fourth foot of Bráhman. That foot

65 Gonda, Notes on bráhman (Utrecht: J.L. Beyers, 1950), 63.

strengthening food. 72 Bráhman nourish, make to grow and vivify. In 1 .52.7,

Bráhman is animator and animated. The animating power of bráhman

In the womb of his mother, (himself being) the Father of

(Agni) bring us the bráhman rich in offspring (or which

In Satapatha-Brãhmana 2.1.4.10 we learn the identification of

Further, brhát, understood, as we have said above, as being an echo or

In Vãjasaneyi-Samhitã 19.74 we hear: "the hamsá that resides in the

Bráhman is the animating, nourishing and life-giving power contained

The word bráhman has often been perceived as one refering to an

The post-Rgvedic perception of bráhman is not the consequence of a

Secondary Sources Cited

Biardeau, Madeleine. " Vãkyapadiya ", Brahmakãnda avec la vrtti de

Lüders, Heinrich. Varuna , Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht I, Varuna

Renou, Louis. "Sur la notion de bráhman " in Louis Renou, L'Inde

Ruegg, David Seyfort. Contributions à l'Histoire de la Philosophie

Sandness, Adéla. La voix de la rivière de l'être: Études sur la mythologie

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