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 2
75 (of 112)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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艢RADDHA 237 Sraddha is defined as 1
Cl
faith, trust, confidence, trustfulness, faithfulness,
belief in (loc or comp; Sraddhay膩 Vgam 'to believe
in', with gen Divya V), loyalty, Faith or faithful-
ness is often personified, and in RV X.151 invoked
as a deity, in TB she is the daughter of Prajapati, and in
1 SB, of the sun.
It is seen sometimes that the concept of 艢raddha or trust
There are a few
or faith or loyalty is deified as a goddess.
instances in the Roveda, Vajasaney1 Samhita, Taittiriya Brahmana
and Satapatha Brahmana where she is conceived of and worshipped
as an independent divinity.
She is beseeched to come to the sacrifice of her devotees.
She is invoked in the forenoon, in the afternoon and in the evening
by her worshippers 3 She is worshipped by her followers with oblation?
She is approached to grant the desired fruit to the devotee who is
a giver of a kind of pot in which a particular oblation i.e, a
sacrificial cake is cooked; she is supplicated to give the same
to those who are liberal, and have completed the sacrifice properly.
1 M. Monier Williams, Sanskrit-English dictionary,
Oxford, 1872, p. 1095.
2 TB III : 3:12:2.
3 RV X # 151:5.
4 TB III : 3:12:2, II # 3:12:2.
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TB III : 3:12:2, II: 2:88, RV X : 151:2.
