Lotus symbolism in old India

[Guest guest]

I found two references that may be of interest to

scholars with an interest in Indian flower symbolism.

 

1) Enrica Garzilli, "Flowers of Consciousness in Tantric

Texts: The Sacred Lotus" in Pandanus 2000. Flowers, Nature,

Semiotics - Kavya and Sangam, ed. by Vacek, Jaroslav

and Knotková-Kapková, Prague: Signeta, 2001, pp. 73-102.

Haven't seen this yet, and this deals only with Indic

texts.

 

2) Stella Kramrisch, 1956, An image of Aditi-UttAnapad,

p. 148-158, in B. S. Miller (ed.), Exploring India's

sacred art: Selected writings of S. Kramrisch, UPennP, 1983

The images found in late centuries BCE "represents

a majestic maternal body. It lies in the birth position.

The broadly spread out legs are drawn up laterally and

bent at the knees. The soles of the feet are turned upward."

 

These love-ready images, with heads chopped off, are

covered with lotuses as heads. And, they have a connection

with ParazurAma and his mother reNukA/ellammA/mAri myths.

Sangam texts (akam 220) allude to the ParazurAma myth,

a foundational story for the India's west coast.

Maari temples have a stone, said in stalapurANas,

to represnt only the brahmin head and hence worshippable.

The "earth-mother" sculptures with lotuses as heads,

and red lotus standing for vezyAs in sangam texts

can be linked.

 

In images from the royal city Susa kept at the Louvre museum,

ithyphallic bull-man representations playing lute, and

there is a monkey sitting on his shoulders hugging his head.

Early texts from India represent monkeys as promiscuous

and white. vAlin, the taker of married woman, and

'pAl' = milk in tamil. Arjuna, who marries several times,

has a monkey banner.

 

There is a seal that Prof. A. Parpola uses to analyze

the IVC religion in his publications. It is the

'fig-deity seal' from Mohenjo-daro (M-1186).

A. Parpola, Deciphering the Indus script, fig 14.35.

In trying to read the last 3 logographs, Prof. Parpola

suggests rohiNI for "fish-with-dot", "aa" (bull)

for a "rimmed jar" sign, and the last one as "aaL"

(man, servant (of a deity)). There are two more

logographs that explain the religion further.

They are two lotus flowers, right above the markhor

goat's head. Each lotus have three petals.

Making a total of 6 mothers caring for the baby

Murukan-Skanda. KumAra/Skanda/Rudra is represented

as a drop/bindu at the second lotus' bottom.

The six mothers are Pleiades in Karttikeya birth

legends, - the unchaste rishipatnIs (harlots).

And, the arundhatI-rohiNi star is the only mother

who is chaste. In that seal there are 7 women also,

(Ezu kannimAr in Tamil legends).

 

Will write in detail on the bullman dancer/bard gifted

with golden lotuses, and wearing them on the head/forehead

in sangam texts. Also, in IVC (and probably from IVC into

Mesopotamia), bull figurines have been found with

eye/lotus/yoni on the bull foreheads. These represent

proto-tantra-zAkta religion of IVC that becomes prominent

as indigenous elements assert in the history of Hinduism.

There is another important IVC seal that explains

further the Dravidian religion. In Karnataka, basava

is a "bull" and also a man of the devadasi caste,

a wanderer leading shameful life. This is the male

equivalent of basavi devadasi (basavi in kannaDa

is equivalently viRali in sangam texts). The bull-man and

devadasi is represented in an IVC seal, where a bull mates

with a sacred priestess. See Fig. 14.32 on p. 256 in

A. Parpola, Deciphering the Indus script, 1994.

Its legend reads: "A bison bull (Bos gaurus) about to

have intercourse with a priestess lying on the ground.

Impression of a seal from Chanjuho-daro. After Mackay

1943: pl. 51:13." Probably this was transformed into

azvamedha ritual when the horse riding Aryans arrived.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, naga_ganesan@h... wrote:

[...]

> There is a seal that Prof. A. Parpola uses to analyze

> the IVC religion in his publications. It is the

> 'fig-deity seal' from Mohenjo-daro (M-1186).

> A. Parpola, Deciphering the Indus script, fig 14.35.

> In trying to read the last 3 logographs, Prof. Parpola

> suggests rohiNI for "fish-with-dot", "aa" (bull)

> for a "rimmed jar" sign, and the last one as "aaL"

> (man, servant (of a deity)). There are two more

> logographs that explain the religion further.

> They are two lotus flowers, right above the markhor

> goat's head. Each lotus have three petals.

> Making a total of 6 mothers caring for the baby

> Murukan-Skanda. KumAra/Skanda/Rudra is represented

> as a drop/bindu at the second lotus' bottom.

> The six mothers are Pleiades in Karttikeya birth

> legends, - the unchaste rishipatnIs (harlots).

> And, the arundhatI-rohiNi star is the only mother

> who is chaste. In that seal there are 7 women also,

> (Ezu kannimAr in Tamil legends).

>

 

The 'fig-deity' seal is tretaed in

Asko Parpola, SAvitrI and Resurrection: The Ideal of

Devoted Wife, Her Forehead mark, SatI, and Human Sacrifice

in Epic-PurANic, Vedic, Harappan-Dravidian and Near Eastern

Perspectives. in Changing patterns of Family and Kinship

in South Asia, Helsinki, 1998, p.167-312.

 

1. The ideal of wife fully devoted to her husband

2. The SAvitrI legend

3. The vaTa-sAvitrI-vrata

(a) Ritualistic descriptions

(b) The vaDasAvittImahUsava in RAjazekhara's KarpUramaJjarI

4. The brahma-sAvitrI-vrata

5. BrahmA's sacrifice and his two wives SAvitrI and GAyatrI

6. The theme of death and resurrection and the ancient

Near East

7. CilappatikAram and the cult of Goddess Patti_ni

'(faithful) wife'

8. SAvitrI verse as the `mother' of the `twice-born'

Vedic student

9. SAvitrI and the twlight adoration

10. Sacrifice to Brahman at sunrise

11. SAvitrI verse, the sacred syllable om, and the

`mystical utterences'

12. The `utterences' bhUr bhuvaH svaH and the beginnings

of Brahmanism

13. Formation of the middle Vedic culture of the BrAhmaNa

texts and rituals

14. The historical and geographical background of the

SAvitrI legend

15. Inanna-Ishtar and SAvitrI/RohiNI as the light of

early morning

16. Agnihotra at sunset and sunrise: fire and night,

sun and day

17. Decapitation of God BrahmA and his resurrection through

SAvitrI

18. Vedic creator god PrajApati as the dying and revived

primeval man

19. `Asura' origin of beheading and ritual

20. SAvitrI, the Vedic marriage hymn, and resurrection of

the moon

21. SItA SAvitrI, the moon, and the forehead mark of

married women

22. RohiNI and the moon

23. RohiNI and the rising sun (Rohita)

24. The red forehead mark, the sun, and RohiNI

25. RohiNI as the star of Goddess Durga

26. Harappan and Dravidian origin of the red forehead mark

27. The banyan tree and its association with Yama and VaruNa

28. Dravidian vaTa `banyan tree' and vaTa-mIn 'north star'

29. ArundhatI, cem-mI_n, and RohiNI

30. Pole star and the heavenly banyan tree

31. 'Siva's castration at the hermitage of seven sages

32. The death and resurrection of KAma

33. SItA and RAma, and SIta SAvitrI and Bala-RAma

34. SAvitrI and 'SraddhA as the elder and younger wives

of the moon

35. SAvitrI as protypal satI

36. AkSaya-vaTa: Death in a sacred banyan tree

37. Human sacrifice beneath the banyan tree in the

VetAla-PaJcaviM'satikA

38. The sacred victim and the sun

39. Shattered heads VidyAdharas and Gandharvas

40. Sacred trees, caityas, citis and stUpas

41. Consummation of marriage and human sacrifice

under a fig tree

42. Rohita, Rudra and the human sacrifice

43. Severed heads and rituals of revival

44. Sprouting of grains and the `Adonis garden'

45. Conclusion

References.