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 1
140 (of 144)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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is reminded of vegetation issuing out of the body of the bull which Mithra slew or of vegetation coming out of Ymir's body in the Edda. 159 66 River-worship was prevalent even among the Homeric Greeks
as is vouchsafed by the following prayers of Juno : -
By Earth Iswear, and you broad Heav'n above, And
77 Stygian stream beneath.
There are Greek divinities called Nymphae, Naiades or
Niades corresponding to our river-divinities, though they
are said to be 'the nymphs of fresh water, whether of
rivers, lakes, brooks or springs' or nymphs presiding
over them.
78 Among the Romans, all springs and all rivers were deified.
The nymph Juturna or rather Diuturna was the goddess of still
waters and of rivers. As for the nymphs they were in a general
way water divinities like Egeria, Camenae, etc.
68 Egeria was regarded as a goddess of birth and possessed
the gift of prophecy qualities which are intimately
connected with the Mother, Goddess V膩k-Ir膩-Sarasvati and
779 other female divinities of water.
66 Agruvah means rivers in Nirukta II.24.4 - Are the two
words Egeria and Agruva岣� connected 17.10
7 S.K. Diksit, op. cit., p. 130.
8 S.K. Diksit, op. cit., p. 242.
9 Dr. Oskar Seyffort, op. cit., p. 207.
10 S. K. Diksit, op. cit., p. 242.
