Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 8, Part 1 (1966)
35 (of 340)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Jan. 1966] MEGASTHENES AND THE INDIAN CHRONOLOGY 27 as her husband becomes by implication a bull. And the bull,
ever since the Rigveda, has been a symbol of generation, inward
or outward, spiritual or physical. Hence Prithu joins up on one
side to the bull-form that went with the worship of Dionysus and
on the other to the bull-vehicle that is Shiva's. And since Shiva
with his phallus-emblem was a fertility god like Dionysus, Prithu
by his connection with the vegetable world and even more as a
vegetable deity gets assimilated with equal ease to both. The
Greeks would find little difficulty in making their Dionysus a
composite of Shiva and Prithu.
The Sanskrit for the Name "Dionysus"
Our special formula of Dionysus-Prithu and our broad one
of Dionysus = Shiva Prithu would receive the finishing touch
if in regard to Shiva and Prithu we could light upon an Indian
equivalent of the name "Dionysus". This name as a whole has
had various explanations: the terminal component has been taken
as "Nusos" (Thracian for "son") or "Nusa" tree or "Nysa"
(proper name of a mountain or a nurse). The only thing certain
is the initial component "Dio" from "Dios" (God).
Now, it is well-known that the Indian "Deva" for the Greek
"Dios" is particularly linked with Shiva e.g. "Mah膩deva" Great
God. It is also evident from the story in Pura峁嘺s and the
Mahabharata that the concept of King as Divinity derives from
the consecration of Prithu is the first king to be considered Deva :
the appellation Bhudeva ("Earth-God") which is common in
Indian literature for a king may be traced to the legend of his
anointment. So we have for both Shiva and Prithu an Indian
equivalent to the initial component of "Dionysus". The terminal
component can find too its Indian equivalent with regard to them
if we remember how first the, companion of Alexander related the
cult of Dionysus to India. They did so on reaching the town in
the Hindu Kush, which they called Nysa after the name heard
by them on its occupants' lips. They enthusiastically conjecured
that Dionysus had given this town its name in honour of his
nurse or of his mountain.' Naturally then they would expect the
1. Arrian, Anabasis, V. 1; Indica, I. 1.
