"Semitic religions"?

[Guest guest]

Dualism - sharp focusing and differentiating between

good and evil, light vs. darkness, is seen in RV and Avestan

gathas. Many academic books have been published about

the entry of the "duality" idea in the Bible from the Near East.

The last chapter on apocalypse is said to be an influence

from this aspect of Zoroasterism, and many books detailing this

are available.

 

The duality of black vs. white equated with evil vs. good

is absent in old Tamil literature. For the duality entering

from Near East into the Bible, I, among others, have given

references

in a series, "Black as Evil" and so on from INDOLOGy at Liverpool

website.

 

What I find interesting is that the growth of Indo-Aryan

languages in India was accompanied by emphasizing the

Duality aspects. Just as Black vs. White dualism,

there are two more: 1) the Indus valley tantra aspects

put down vs. Ascetism and 2) the bull-man cult of NE/IVC

submerged vs. Cow venerated in the RV. Contrast this

with the fact that no cows are represented in Indus seals.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

indictraditions, Michael Witzel <witzel@f...> wrote:

> SEMITIC RELIGIONS?

>

> On this and on some other related lists, the view has been uttered

> repeatedly that it was the Semitic (or 'Semetic' or even 'Semtic'!!)

> religions that have formed the European (Christian) world view, a

> view that was increasingly introduced in India by the educational

>changes instigated and institutionalized by Macaulay in the 1830s.

>

> Forgetting, for the moment, the heated contemporary debates inside

>the British colonial service (of the E. India Company) and beyond, it

>must be pointed out that there is nothing specifically "Semitic"

>about the European point of view. The Semites, in case the ancient

>Hebrews and later on the Arabs, took over much of their view of the

>world directly or indirectly ...from the Aryans.

>

> I am speaking of course of Zarathustra. Being a Eastern Iranian, he

>is as good an Arya as any Rigvedic poet. The Avesta and the Old

>Persian inscriptions call their own peoples "Ariia, Ariya," just as

>the Rigvedic and later Vedic peoples call themselves "Arya" and as

>they all call their speech "Aryan speech."

>

> To begin with, if one reads the Gathas of Zoroaster even just a

>little bit, one will discover that they contain much of the same

>language, religion and ritual as the Rigvedic hymns: there is god

> Ahura (the still *positive* Asura of the Rigveda), Airyaman

>(Aryaman), there are the Haoma (Soma) and Fire rituals, there is

>the Zaotar (Hotar) priest such as Zoroaster himself,

> there is Asha (from *arta, = Rta 'active Truth'), etc. etc.

>

> What is new in Zarathustra's teaching is his insistence on the

>INDIVIDUAL CHOICE his followers have to make between 'good' and

>'evil'. Asha (Rta, active Truth) and Druj (Druh, active Untruth,

>Deceit) are of course prominent Rigvedic concepts as well, but

>Rigvedic people were not as pressed by their poets/priests to adjust

>as the early Zoroastrians were. And they were not as condemned if

>they did not always follow the path of Rta. Vasistha himself

>suspects that he did not (RV 7.88-89) and he asks

> Varuna for forgiveness and release from druh/anrta-induced illness.

>

> But Zarathustra says, quoting Helmt Humbach's translation of

>Zarathustra's Gathas, Yasna 30.3-4 :

>

> "(3) There are the two spirits (present) in the primal (stage of

one's

> existence), twins who had become famed (manifesting themselves as)

the two

> (kinds of) dreams, the two (kinds of) thoughts and words, (and the

two

> kinds of) actions, the better and the evil.

> And between these two, the munificent discriminate rightly, (but)

not the

> miserly.

> (4) And when these two spirits confront each other (to vie for a

person),

> then (that person) decides (of what nature will be) the primal

(stage of

> his existence):

> vitality and lack of vitality, and (on the other hand) of what

nature (his)

> existence will be in the end:

> that of the deceitful (will be) the worst, but best thought will (be

in

> store) for the truthful one....

> (31.20) He who may approach the truthful one, splendor will be his

> (reward), (as contrasted) with weeping.

> A long life in darkness, foul food (and ) the word 'woe": to that

> existence (your) religious view will lead, O you deceitful, on

account of

> your own actions" ... " etc. etc.

>

> Sounds familiar?

>

> If the whole of the Avestan corpus would be compared, we would

discover :

> the good Spirit and the evil Spirit, the future Savior from the East

(Hamum

> lake), the guardian spirits, the final judgment, the falling into

molten

> iron of the wicked at the time of judgment, the reaching of

paradise -- an

> Iranian word anyhow: pari-daeza 'the enclosed (park)' etc. etc.

>

> In other words, it was not a Semitic perspective, it rather was the

Eastern

> Iranian, Aryan Zarathustra who 'invented' this "Semitic" religion

by

> emphasizing certain aspects of traditional Aryan religion and

deemphasizing

> others.

>

> The ancient Hebrews copied a lot of it under the late Mesopotamian

and

> early Persian kingfs in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, so that the

> Essenes, contemporaries of Jesus, often sound more Iranian than

Jewish (a

> fact usually overlooked by most Christians, or PBS for that matter!)

>

> Fact is, that the whole of the Near East was a huge hotchpotch at

that

> time, with ideas being copied left and right by all people involved,

--

> incidentally, just as is happening today. Nobody then thought that

the

> quasi-Essenic, budding Christian sect of Judaism would come out on

top.

> Nor do we know today about next centuries' religion(s). My own best

guess

> is: similar syncretism(s), attractive to our time, zeitgeist and

location.

>

> Anyhow, my point is that the extreme dichotomy between "good" and

"evil"

> and the very personal choice with all its consequences, now decried

by

> Hindus, is due to a reform within Aryan religion itself.

>

> If blame must be put, it ought be sought with the Aryan "prophet"

> Zarathustra --- whose precepts, incidentally, still are followed

closely by

> the Indian Parsis and their Iranian brethren in Yazd and Kerman.

>

> Judaism and Christianity would have looked quite differently without

this

> Aryan influence. I wonder whether we would even speak of an immortal

soul

> today...

>

>

> (PS.

> It is another topic altogether that --ironically-- much of the

current

> rhetoric of 'staunch' Hindutvavadins is just -- a(n unintended)

"Semitic"

> version of Hinduism, where your speech be "yes" or "no", nothing

in

> between...)

>

>

> In the end, we'd better speak, as I always have done facetiously,

of the

> four similar "Near Eastern desert religions" -- that would cover

> Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

>

>

> MW

 

>

> ========================================================

> Michael Witzel

> Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University

> 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

>

> ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)

> home page: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

>

> Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies: http://www1.shore.net/~india/ej