Essay name: Goddesses from the Samhitas to the Sutras
Author:
Rajeshri Goswami
Affiliation: Jadavpur University / Department of Sanskrit
This essay studies the Goddesses from the Samhitas to the Sutras. In short, this thesis examines Vedic goddesses by analyzing their images, functions, and social positions. It further details how natural and abstract elements were personified as goddesses, whose characteristics evolved with societal changes.
Chapter 2
56 (of 112)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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She is supplicated to shape the great fire-pan with her power, 38 218 her arms and her intellect she prospers through the sacrificial
39 rites performed by her devotees. With her grace the worshippers
are able to discern the sacrifice.
40 In the simantonnayana ceremony for the pregnant woman, Aditi
41 42
is invoked.
In the Caula ceremony," she is entreated to give the
child happiness like a mother. The child is blessed so as to live
in her lap, and is blessed with a span of a hundred years These
bear out her mythical association with motherhood and her primary
characteristic as the Prima Dea Mater. In AV V.12.4, a rito
performed in her name is mentioned for warding off the misfortune
that had been caused by a barren cow. In this we notice her
association with fertility, an invariable concomitant of the
Mother-goddess. In AV V.2.6, she is invoked while occupying a new
house with a view to securing prosperity.
securing prosperity. It may be pointed ou
43 here that she is a household deity, especially as a mother who
dwells in the house, and le urged to come to one's house.
38 VS XI 1 57, & 59, TS IV, 115, 脡B III : 6:5:11,
39 III = 615:21.
RV VII : 82:10, TS IV : 719.
40 AB (RV) I : 217.
41 6828
42 43
CB I.5.2.
AV 11.28.4 & S.
RV IV.55.3.
89
