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
94 (of 112)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
** In connection with the observation that Nirrti originally meant the territory of the Rak峁ses, one remembers the R膩ksases, one remembers the later cognate n盲irrta which means a monster, raksasa. 256 Nirrti fills the mind of the people with fear by her iron
cord. She is beseeched to unfasten the bond-fetters of iron?
She has fastened the binding noose on the neck of the worshipper.
She is prayed to loosen and detach the iron band that binds the
worshipper; being unanimous with Yama and Yami she is invoked to
uplift him to the sublimest vault of heaven.
aven
. Oblations are offered
into her mouth for unloosening her strong fetters. Her presence
6 at a sacrifice is always feared. TS 2.2.65 enjoins that after
returning home from a business trip (according to Keith) or a
begging expedition (according to Sayana), a person throws the rope,
with which he drives the last of his cows against his enemies, that
is, by the act, he indeed casts misfortune, that is, Nirrti upon
them. Not only does she bind others of her own accord, she even
binds the enemies of any person who asks for her help. In AV III.6.5,
the performer prays to her "May Nirrti bind with unbreakable fetters
of death my enemies (of two kinds) whom I hate and who hate me.
3 AV VI.63.2.
4 VS XII : 65.
S
VS XII : 63.
6 VS XII : 64, AV VI.84.1.
