Living in Benares a long time I finally decided to delve into the history and spirit of this city which I have mentioned several times in my books. I, for example, called "the holy city and unhealthy, in my A garden of Eden," where Hindus hope to die for the last time. " addition to some reading I decided to interview Mark Dyczkowski, residing in Benares for about 40 years and considered a world authority on diTantra and Kashmiri Shaivism. Mark is the author of several books and many articles but rather to present it briefly here, I prefer to refer to its website certainly molto più eloquente al suo riguardo.
Di seguito la prima sezione di una lunga intervista che gli ho fatto, nella sua casa di Narada Ghat, con bella vista sulle celeberrime albe di Benares.
Benares è la città vivente più antica del mondo. Da un punto di vista storico e storiografico è difficile stabilirne un’origine precisa, in un tempo preciso. Da un punto di vista mitico si sostiene sia stata fondata da Shiva. Tu sei un grande esperto di shivaismo dunque potremmo iniziare a considerare questa figura. Chi era Shiva? Un uomo successivamente divinizzato?
Intanto io consiglio di leggere due libri: The presence of Shiva , di Stella Kramrisch, l’altro è Siva the erotic ascetic .
What do you think of Shiva and Dionysus by Alain Daniélou?
It 's all imagination. How can you write a book claiming that the religion of Shiva and Dionysus was 30,000 years ago, the religion of the Indo-European base? Where is the data, the evidence? On what do you base such a statement? Also because the archaeologists, the archeo-feminist, as Gimbutas, speaking of old Europe, they set themselves with symbols of women and when they see the fouls because there are many, she calls them "pillars". Alain Daniélou
there is talking about 3000 BC, when there were already writing forms. He was very, very gay and had gay perspective, had an idea of \u200b\u200bcreation by God of a homosexual. He lived in Benares a long time, has gone before us all, is left in the early '60s. He has written books very beautiful, important, on the Indian music. He made many recordings of Indian music and so we can see who did important things and then, later, has set up some ideas that for the academic world is a little 'crazy'.
In Italy Ubaldini is published by a publishing house that is known to be serious ...
He was an important figure, then the authority as a scholar who has had his early work also allowed him to publish things like that. This is my opinion but if you ask Bettina Bäumer [still living in Benares for several decades and author of several texts of Indology] is probably yours, is a general opinion.
Okay, back to Shiva
There are two very important deity, also known in the Vedas and cults which are developed in the later period of the Rigveda and therefore have value even in the Brahmanas and so on. Let's talk about Rudra and Vishnu, both figures give the impression of being new or have been accepted in Vedic. We can therefore read as heterodox figures. That said, figures also very important in the context of Vedic religion, but I would say that their importance can be felt much more when they have become the two most important male gods of the post-Vedic Hindu religion. If this development had not occurred we would focus less on the importance of these deities in Vedic. In the case of Vishnu we see that there is a very important myth that he wants the head of the sacrifice, and the best part is to get three important steps which covers the three worlds: the earth, and the spaces between the heavens and come the "pit of honey." This theme is also reflected in Hinduism classical mythology, the Vamana avatara, incarnation di Vishnu come nano. Viene rappresentato in questo modo anche nella prima iconografia. Da questo mito si può capire che era una divinità che si stava introducendo, stava acquisendo grande popolarità ed aveva grandi ambizioni di crescita. Il nome Shiva non appare nel RigVeda, appare piuttosto quello di Rudra. Esiste l’inno ai cento Rudra, in cui vengono dati alla divinità 100 nomi tra cui quello di Shiva. Nel RigVeda, Rudra è una divinità delle foreste. I vedici avevano una particolare dicotomia: vedevano il mondo, la cultura, le divinità del villaggio e poi c’era il mondo delle divinità e delle realtà della foresta che era selvaggia, piena di incertezze e c’era costantemente il tentativo di mediare, di accomodare, di smorzare la forza intrusiva della foresta, del selvaggio, delle forze incontrollate, indomite. Questo è molto rilevante per capire la figura di Rudra. Generalmente, nel mondo umano, c’è una parte tranquilla, sotto controllo cui si affiancano, più o meno frequentemente, irruzioni di caos: le malattie, le calamità naturali, le carestie e poi…la pazzia. Tutto questo l’uomo vedico lo sentiva come l’irruzione, nel suo villaggio, nell’area cosmizzata, di forze aliene, non domate, caotiche, della foresta. Loro difatti vivevano in tanti piccoli villaggi, sui fiumi, circondati dall’immensa foresta.
Rudra come si presenta, nel RigVeda? Non è un dio della montagna, come Shiva in classical mythology. It 's a hunter who turns into the forest. And 'Lord of the wild beasts. In Vedic ritual is part of a blood sacrifice. It is of two kinds: that of domestic animals and the wild beasts to quell the forces irruptive beings who live in the forest and could disturb the sacrifice. Rudra is the lord of these forces, therefore, it wears a tiger skin, running with bow and arrows and brings with it a swarm of beings like himself. Symbolically, there are ten in the ten directions. So one hundred, but in fact, there are numerous everywhere, and are like him: furious hunters. In a well-known hymn, recited the linga regularly throughout India, Please Rudra (Rudra many) not to shoot the arrow in its direction, which is lenient because his arrows carry diseases, disasters, epidemics, crazy animals and people. So he's not hurting, it's good. Please god can have a very strong but is also highly destabilizing gracious, favored in the right way, and can prevent disasters. E 'Rudra then a wild, traced figures who lived on the fringes of Vedic society, in the forest. We sense that Rudra was living in the world of supernatural beings who were not in Vedic. It 's normal, in religion, that my gods are your demons and vice versa. The Vedic had a kind of religion "walking", not located anywhere. The deities of the Vedas, the 33 so-called gods are not gods of the place, as they are now. They lived in the constellations and were invoked in the sacrifice that was also walking. Was sufficient to clean a piece of land, give us a hut which was then burned along with many tools of wood. It offered the blood of sacrificed beast, invoking Vayu. The beast was slaughtered and then suffocated. The blood was collected, and paid over unclean because the boundary of the sacrificial offering to the gods and the earth, the Rakshasa nowadays means "demons" but the word comes from the root meaning Raksha "Protect." The Rakshasa are invoked as protectors of the sacrifice. They are given their share because they eat unclean things, and therefore for the Vedic sacrifice instead of breaking into protect him. There are formulas that we see throughout Asia, the relax of all forms of Indian religions like Buddhism. The local deities are demons, in Buddhism, they become "protectors". Rudra is an especially propitiated, seen as a "demon". In the Vedas we give it the epithets that fit much more like a demon than a god - "furious", "possessed" - but because it is part of his personality.
Rudra, however, also appears as Death. See one of the ways in which the world is created is through incest. There is incense between brother and sister (Yama and Yami), which introduces the creation and there is the death of his father incest with his daughter introducing sexuality as a means to reproduction. In this case, the Lord of the Worlds looks at his daughter who is a hypostasis of his power, his wisdom, his power. So the want to but she does not want this attention from her father and begins to run. He chases her and takes more forms to hide and takes different forms in accordance with his father. When he finally reached her in the shape of the horse and he takes the form Stallion (a very important figure in the Aryan). Rudra sees this scene "wild" outside the rules. It 's very outrageous and sinful. Then Rudra, faced with this primal scene, before the creation, on the verge of becoming, in time nell'irrompere being marked by sin, is outraged and then shoots an arrow and castrates his father. It therefore forms a large lake of semen sexed creatures from which they arise. An important variant of this myth within the Puranic, when you want to Brahma's daughter Sarasvati. Shiva in this case cut off his head. So, in this version, there is copulation, Brahma is castrated, it creates the lake sperm, but there is no way to create it because it is only for men. So Shiva is prayed that he was the actor in creating, producing sperm from the lake and then dips it, takes the form of the linga (phallus) and the strength of his contemplation generate gendered creatures. A variant very significant because it gives more space to the figure of Shiva as a creator god who creates so superior to its predecessor. We speak of a god, basic (Rudra), was destructive, but also compassionate and nefarious that now rises to the role of creator, because of its phallic shape. Consider now the worship of the Vedic times when the Aryans were nomads and the cult was still in a fire Walking through which they were made as offerings to the gods who were present as was said, in the constellations, were also used as a "compass". Although it is repugnant to the Hindu nationalists - from their predecessor Vivekananda - the old idea of \u200b\u200ban India, the Vedic times, multicultural, you can not explain certain facts such as those in Shiva and Vishnu are examples of a culture Vedic meets with others and then, going further, it has maintained its prestige and dominance but still has had to adapt to being a minority in relation to a far wider area. Shaivism is a great example of this. In the Vedas the Daisu were indigenous and were worshipers dei falli (per quanto si sappia molto bene che i falli erano adorati in tutto il mondo preistorico). Dunque da una parte noi sappiamo che Shiva diventa uno dei grandi dèi dell’induismo classico. I Purana sono pieni di miti legati a Shiva, dove è il dio di rivelazioni tantriche, inizia ad apparire anche in alcune Upanishad, a partire dal terzo secolo dopo Cristo. I Purana di cui stiamo parlando iniziano anche intorno al terzo quarto secolo dopo Cristo. Abbiamo tuttavia dei precedenti, ad esempio una citazione da Panini che è del terzo secolo a.C. in cui parla dei seguaci di Baghwan(termine che oggi si usa soprattutto in ambito vishnuita), gli Shiva Baghawata di cui Patanjali, il commentatore, diceva girassero nudi con delle lance di ferro. Da questo We can therefore infer that as early as the third century BC there were devotees of Shiva who presented themselves as ascetics.
entering in the first centuries of our era, we have an inscription of the third century AD, we have an inscription which gives us a lineage of teachers paśupata , followers of Shiva Paśupati. He points to the existence of a reformer in this movement, which makes us think that they are pre-existing at this time and could be the descendants of Shiva Baghawata. We know of the worship of these paśupata - which are very important in the evolution of the cult of Shiva - the so-called Paśupata Sutra, with commentaries by a Brahmin (Konvinya) of the fifth century AD
Li looks like naked ascetics, covered with ashes, which are worshipers of linga clockwise circumambulation. They want to be insulted, treated badly because they believe, in this way, to gain merit. They are therefore a kind of ascetic practices which are cornerstones of many different forms of Shaivism later. 5 repeat their mantra that must be recited in front of the linga as constant repetition. Are taken from the innate to the 100 Rudra I mentioned above and are dedicated to five forms of Rudra / Shiva. 5 are therefore forms or names of Shiva with 5 Vedic mantras chanted hymn to Rudra and 100 become in the future, the 5 faces of Shiva, which are the five faces of Shiva linga and will be the great god of tantra Shiva, from fifth to sixth century AD The
paśupata were therefore worship the linga and were great communicators of Saivism in India. It appears that where they went or fix the linga or discovered them and some of their meeting places became places of interest. An example is Elephanta, Mumbai. Elephanta is a great center paśupata and its relief sculptures date from the fifth sixth century AD. What was most convincing on the allocation to the sculptures of Elephanta paśupata seeing is that the sequence of the mountains, go counterclockwise from the central linga, which is very strange and unusual (in general, follows the path of ritual sun, which is clockwise). Inventories of
paśupata extend to India, going further south. Importantly, Rudra is the god of paśupata . Rudra Visheka
Today, the anthem to 100 Rudra, the liturgy of the primary linga, is all over India in acting purely Vedic and this is very significant. You can not try but for now, makes me think that the worship of the linga, much earlier than the Puranas and the Tantras, is a great bridge between the Vedas and the subsequent literature. The figure of Shiva can thus be viewed as that of a large party (like in the case of Vishnu) and this will be very important in the analysis of Benares, which is considered the most important place related to Shiva.
Now, what I want to say in conclusion of the interview, it is my personal observation, just about Benares. The extent of the territory ( aryavata , the country of the Aryans) in which the Vedic sacrifice himself as the excellent form of worship is a process that continues until the early fifth century AD by the Party Pakistan, the Indus River and around , through the Punjab, moves in the direction of the Delhi. At the time of the first Brahmin Aryans were in an area called Kurukshetra, a first proto-states (at the time of Buddha there were 16 of proto-states). In the Brahmanas, the area east of Delhi (and therefore also in Benares) becomes an area of \u200b\u200bextension of the territory in which the Vedic sacrifice is regarded as excellent. It was forbidden to go south, the direction of death was considered as the march of the Aryans to the south will start to become solid around the fourth to fifth century AD
Varanasi at the time of Buddha was thus already a fairly important place and there are some stories in Jataka in which the Buddha in previous lives, is presented as a merchant's son. We know that Buddha gave his first speech here, in the Sarnath, a few miles from the center of Benares. So what was the religion of the people of Varanasi (the name most antico che troviamo anche nel Canone Pali e deriva dal nome dell’affluente del Gange nell’area più a nord della città, dove se ne è sviluppata la sezione più antica) mentre Kashi viene un po’ dopo e deriva dal nome di una tribù che governava quest’area (il nome sarebbe poi stato interpretato come “la città della luce”, dalla radice kash : brillare).
Qui la religione vedica, a quel tempo, non era dominante. Esiste la teoria per cui per primi vennero qui i paśupata che nel tempo, con l’avvento del tantrismo, sono stati sostituiti da tantrici del tipo del sud dell’India.
Ha senso pensare che ci fosse un culto generale, in più forms, centered on the linga. In any case, Varanasi since then was a very important center. Shiva is most important here and it is the Shiva linga of collecting this importance. The Rudra of the Vedas has nothing to do with the linga, and is not a god of the mountain. It is therefore to think that the worship of the linga is adapted and resumed at a time, quite large over time, which sought adjustments Vedic forms that could be applicable to reality the most popular. The problem with the Vedas was that the cult had become so complex that a Vedic sacrifice to cost a lot of money and could afford only the rich. They did it for the people, giving up the fruits that were, in fact, given to the people and if crops, as a result of the sacrifice, was good all right otherwise the people could also retaliate. At first, as I said, when the Aryans were nomads, the cult was relatively simple, while domestic vedic religion over time lost its size "popular." Even today, after all, some sacrifices may be made only from some narrow elite Brahmins. It was thus arisen the need for a new "vulgate" of the Vedic religion. In the commentary of Shankara Brahmasutra is written that if a woman or a man Brahmin hear the sound of the Vedas should be condemned to having molten lead dropped into the ear. So I figured: have here a recital of the Benares Vedic songs in front of a linga, accessible to all ears, it was a great opening and was also a way to keep better control of the Brahmins. Here the gods have started to "live in trees", with performances at the root of the same. Then they started to be created that first stone temples were probably made of wood and host of the linga. Then, since there is still the Tantra cult was that? They were probably Vedic cults. What comes to mind is that the Rudra Visheka is part of a very ancient liturgy, prior to Tantra in a way that reflects the kind of liturgy that was Shaiva temples in the early centuries. Moreover, this hypothesis is consistent with il fatto che i paśupata recitano sezioni proprio da quell’inno. Questa è un’inquadratura generale che può essere, poi, ulteriormente sviluppata.
