[Advaita-l] Narayana - Word

[kalyan chakravarthy]

(Response to Nomadeva Sharma)

>When you say 'At that time', do you believe that all
>vedas are not apaurusheya, that they have their own
>time-periods when they are valid, that the vedas are
>based on the popular theories floating around at that
>time?

Indologists have reasonably established the relative chronology of the 
vedas. But since I am not asking you to believe them, you should not be 
having any problem. (The Rg Veda samhita for instance is itself not 
simulataneous in occurence, if the Indologists are to be believed. They 
suppose the 10th mandala to be later than the others.)

My reply was more in response to a question posed earlier in the list. It 
would be wise to keep that in mind before assuming too many things.

If your intend to find proofs for the relative chronology of vedas, Indology 
books and lists would be of a better help than this list.


>Though the word, 'Narayana' might be missing in the
>RV, the text does refer to a being on the Ocean who is
>seen as the creator of all ('mama yoni apsu antaH
>samudre', 'ambhasya pAre bhuvanasya reto'
>ityAdeshcha).


You might be doing a better job explaining this to indologists. But they may 
not accept such tenuous evidence.


>And several purANas (Brahma purana,
>1.38, for instance), smritis (see Manu 1.10, for
>example) and itihAsa (umpteen places in Mahabharata
>and Harivamsha) say that it is the etymological
>meaning of the word 'nArAyaNa'.


The Indologist would say - *The purANas or the itihAsAs are written at a 
latter date when the identifiction was well established.*


>This also suggests that statistical study of deities
>in the Vedas based on the occurrence of names is a
>flawed one.


Once again it would be better to explain this to the modern scholars and see 
what response you get. The topic is not reasonably suited for discussion in 
this list. You might find the Indology list a better place, if you want to 
prove such analysis to be false.


I think it would be a pointless exercise to continue this reply. My original 
mail was intended as a reply to a specific question. You would be doing 
yourself a lot of good if you visit the Indology list and try to refute the 
views of the other scholars over there.

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