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Adla SandnessTradition

''In the footprint of I?a'' : An EarIy Image of Sacrificial Cosmology in Vedic

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Article

In the footprint of Ila :An Early Image ofSacrificial Cosmologyin Vedic Tradition

Adela SandnessSt. Francis Xavier University

Abstract: The poets of the Rg-Veda speak of the navel of the earth, which is the

footprint of Ila. It is among the oldest expressions available which describe a place

of ritual offering to the gods. In this case, it is an impression in the ground thought tohave been the footprint of a cow, into which was poured milk and butter. The word

pada names the footprint in the Indo-Iranian expression in the footprint of Ila. Yet padaalso means word and the etymologically related term pada means a stanza of thesacred poetry sung by the ancient visionary poets as they sang their world into being.The footprints are thus also those of the cow Speech whose supreme place is parallelto the place of offering which is the footprint of Il

a. This paper will track the footprints of

Ila and those of the cow Speech in the R

g-Veda.

Resume : Les poetes du Rg-Veda parlent du nombril de la terre qui est lempreinte

Ila . Cest lune des expressions les plus anciennes pour decrire le lieu du rite doffrande

aux dieux. Ce lieu etait une empreinte de vache dans laquelle on versait du lait etdu beurre. Le mot pada qui designe lempreinte dans lexpression Indo-Iranienne lempreinte dIl

a signifie aussi mot et le terme pada qui lui est relie etimologique-

ment veut dire strophe dune poesie sacree chantee par les anciens visionnaires.Ainsi, les empreintes sont celles de la vache Parole dont la supreme place est paralleleau lieu du rite doffrande nomme lempreinte dIl

a. Ce texte va retracer les empreintes

Ila et celles de la vache Parole dans le R

g-Veda.

Corresponding author / Adresse de correspondance :

Adela Sandness

Department of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada

Email: [email protected]

Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses39(4) 509521

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Keywords

Vedic, myth, sacrifice, goddess, poetry, Sanskrit, footprint, offering, cosmology, Ila, Manu

Mots clesVedique, le mythe, le sacrifice, la deesse, la poesie, le sanscrit, lempreinte, loffrande, lacosmologie, Il

a, Manu

I have set you down in this most excellent part of the earth, in the footprint of Il on this most

beautiful day of days. On the [river] Drsadvat, among the descendants of Manu, on the

[river] pay. On the [river] Srasvat, shine, O Agn, (so as to yield) riches.

The Vedic goddess Il

is one of a group of three Vedic goddesses found most frequentlyin the series of Vedic verses known as the prs verses. These three goddesses symbolicallyrepresent the three regions of the Vedic cosmos: the heaven, the earth and the atmosphericrealm in-between, which is characterized by the movement of the sacrificial offering sub-stances as they flow, or are carried, from humans to the gods. One of the earliest sites of thesacrificial offerings is the footprint of a cow, in which dairy products were poured. Such aplace is named in the Vedic expression in the footprint of Il

(l

ys pad) where the fire

god Agn is placed, for example, in the above cited passage, Rg-Veda (R

V) 3.23.4. The

expression in the footprint of Il (l

ys pad) is one of a series of parallel expressions

in the R

g-Veda. The text knows, also, the footprint of the cow Speech (pad gh

) and the

footprint or place ofr

t (r

tsya pad). This paper proffers the argument that Ils footprint,

like Il herself, is a container of an offering substance which takes the form appropriate to

the region of the cosmos in which it is found. On the earth, it is a footprint of a cow contain-ing l

, physical dairy products used as offerings. In the dimension of the atmospheric or

intermediate realm, it is the footprint of the cow Speech, the offering substance that iswords, as containers of the milk or essence of speech. In the celestial realm, it is the foot-print, place or conduit of the milk ofr

t, the flow of abundance which is the consequence of

cosmic order; that flow in turn manifests as the source of offering substances in the physicalworld. The footprint of Il

, as the location of sacrifice, thus provides the means of commu-

nion between humans, the ancestors and the gods; both triple and one, although differing inform, it is the same in essence as it appears in parallel dimensions of the Vedic world. Thefootprints of Il

, of the cow Speech and ofr

t may be tracked by the Vedic poets because

they are the signs or indicators of the same cow.Il is one of a fixed group of goddesses in the Vedic tradition known as the three god-

desses (tisr devh

). She appears as the second in this triad along with Bhrat andSarasvat. The three goddesses would remain a fixed intellectual construct in ancientIndian and Hindu traditions. Sarasvat, Gyatr and Svitr appear as three consorts ofBrahm in the Matsya (3.44) and Vis

n

u (1.7) Purn

as. The Dev-Mhtmya of the

Mrkandeya-Purna celebrates Sarasvat, Laksm and Prvat (or Kl) as thethree aspects of the Mahdev, the Great Goddess. In contemporary Hindu devotional-ism, the Mahdevis worshipped in the fall festival known as Navartr, ornine nights.During this festival, the Great Goddess of the Dev-Mhtmya is worshipped in threethree-day cycles of offerings to her three forms: Laks

m, Prvatand Sarasvat.

510 Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 39(4)



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The three goddesses of ancient Indian tradition represent the three regions of theVedic cosmos. While the Vedic cosmos is also divisible in terms of five, seven, or multi-ples of three, the principal landscape of the Vedic cosmos is tripartite. The primary divi-

sions are earth and sky. The sky is perceived either as everything above the earth, or asonly the blue arch that covers the earth. Above the arch, beyond the limitations of normalhuman perception, is the invisible world that is the place of the gods (devalok). The skyor upper region is thus also the lower limit of the place of things hidden, mysterious andinvisible. Between the sky and the earth is the third region, the antriks

am

. This inter-mediate space both separates and connects the sky and the earth. It is the visible sky,as opposed to the invisible sky beyond the blue arch. To this tripartite division is addedan invisible fourth world: there are the three visible spaces of the sky and earth and spacein-between as well as the additional hidden, invisible world of mystery beyond. Theinfinite, one world of the invisible both transcends and pervades the three visible worlds.

The three goddesses are, in middle Vedic literature, expressly identified with the threevisible cosmic sub-divisions. atapatha-Brhman

a 4.2.1.32 names Bhratas represent-

ing the celestial region and the hotr

, the hotr

being a group of sacrificial officials whoconvey the sacrifice to the gods. In atapatha-Brhman

a 2.1.1.3, Il

is associated with

food and thus with the realm of the earth. Sarasvat is ascribed the intermediate space.In Vjasaneyi-Sam

hit 19.18, Sarasvatis identified with the gndra, the place where the

sacrificial fire is kindled, which is, in turn, identified with the middle region of the cosmosin atapatha-Brhman

a 9.2.3.15. Sarasvatis also praised as being of the middle regions

in Br

had-Devat 4.85 and Nighan

t

u 5.4 (cf. Gonda, 1985a: 25f.).

While the explicit identification of the three goddesses with the three cosmic regions isreserved for middle Vedic tradition, the three goddesses are also affiliated with the threedivisions of the cosmos in the R

g-Veda. In the repeating series ofR

gvedic verses known

as the prs verses, the three goddesses are asked to be seated on the grass orbarhs. Thebarhs is a bed made ofdarbh grass that forms both a seat for the gods who are invited tothe sacrifice and a place on which oblations are offered to them (Renou, 1954: 118). Thebarhs is threefold. Its three divisions also correspond to the three regions of the cosmos(cf. Bergaigne, I: 289). Taittirya-Sam

hit 1.3.1d and atapatha-Brhman

a 3.6.1.12 indi-

cate that the priest endows the three worlds with strength or vigor (rj), and vital essence

(rasa), by spreading the barhs (cf. Gonda, 1985b: 147f.).In the R

g-Veda, the three goddesses are three mothers of a single son, the fire god Agn,

born in a different form in each of the three worlds. In his celestial form, Agn is identifiedwith the sun. In the intermediate space, Agn is identified with lightning. As child of thewaters, Agn enters the womb of plants, by means of which he is reborn as earthly fire thatshines even at night. Agn of the earth is known especially as the sacrificial flame, andthus as both Poet and Priest: these three forms, because they span the three worlds, permitAgn to perform his priestly role as conveyor of the sacrifice and his poetic role as mes-senger between the worlds of humans and of the gods.

That Agn, single son of the three goddesses, is both triple and one, is much empha-sized. Agn has three forms with three essences found in three places. He has threetongues, three heads, three births in three places, and three bodies dear to the gods.Middle Vedic tradition tells us that Agni chose to give himself three bodies as he cameinto the three worlds. atapatha-Brhman

a 2.2.1.1315 recounts: When Agni passed

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from the world of the gods to the world of men, he said to himself: I must not pass into theworld of men with all of my person. He divided his three bodies as here into the threeworlds the r

s

i saw this and offered these (three) oblations. Thus men, when they

solemnly instal their sacrificial fires, ensure for themselves that they have put Agni inplace in a form that is complete and un-mutilated. Agni is able to create such forms forhimself as a result ofmy, understood in the Vedic context as the power to generatemultiplicity. Malamoud (1989: 267f.) observes that these forms of Agni are not mereillusion; each is a distinct person. So separate are these persons of Agni that they arguewith one another, and the poet must ask them to reconcile their differences and livetogether peacefully.

The triple barhs is a tripartite expression of the grass as such. The triple Agnexpresses three forms of a single god. The three goddesses are forms of the femininedivine corresponding to three regions of the single Vedic cosmos. Any grouping of threebecomes, in Vedic tradition, representative of the three worlds of the Vedic cosmos, theirseparation and their connection, such that the three form parts of a whole.

Each unit in the grouping of three can also represent the entirety of the manifest finitetripartite group and, additionally, the transcending infinite aspect. The three goddesses, forexample, not only pervade the three parts of the cosmos. They also represent three aspectsof the goddess Vc, or Speech, who herself, triple and one, pervades the three worlds. Inthe Br

had-Devat, Vc is said to be composed of three lights. The earthly form is Il

, who

is found there with terrestrial Agni; the middle form is Sarasvat, who occupies this regionwith middle Agni; the celestial form of Vc is Bhrat, associated with Agnis celestial

form (1.90, 97; 3.12f.; 1.112; 2.76; cf. 2.79; 1.74; 3.14; 8.91; 6.121; 7.107; 4.39;2.51). In Br

had-Devat 2.40, Vc, truth and the whole world are defined as identical

with Brahman.Vc, however, is also considered an element that extends beyond these limitations into

the fourth world. The three goddesses in relation to V c are part of the consistent Vedicpattern whereby three perceptible and finite elements give way to an additional fourth,which itself provides a gateway to infinity. As presented by Malamoud (1989: 141142), other examples of this pattern are found in relation to other elements or parts ofspeech. The Gyatrmeter, for example, consists of three quarters (pda); a fourth is said

to shine resplendent in the atmosphere (Br had-Arnyaka-Upanis ad 5.14.45). Just asthere are three worlds plus the non-world (cf. Taittirya-Sam

hit 2.6.4.2), there are threesacred speeches plus silence (Renou, 1978: 73). To the three mystical utterances bhuh

,

bhuvah

, and svah

, whose reduced but literal translation may be understood as earth,space, and sky, is added the syllable OM

as a fourth element that completes, encom-

passes or transcends the first three. The theological grammarians, playing on numbers andwords, also relate the three syllables of the word for manifest speech, aks

ara, to the single-

syllable word for speech itself, vc (atapatha-Brhman

a 6.3.1.43). The manifest aspectsof speech, its phonemes, syllables, words and verses, are finite, like the three manifest

aspects of the Vedic world, but Speech itself, these thinkers suggest, remains a goal tobe attained by those who would seek the hidden world beyond, and within, manifest form(cf. Aitareya-Brhman

a 5.3; Malamoud, 1989: 289f.).

So it is that Il is one of three goddesses perceived as a unit which represents the three

worlds. Each of the three goddesses is not only part of the triad but also equal to the




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entirety of these parts of the cosmos and of speech.1 Il appears as the second in this triad

along with Bhrat and Srasvat in the series of R

gvedic verses known as the prsverses.2 They are relatively fixed formulae, considered by Bloomfield and Gonda, among

others, to be examples of ancient formulae inherited by the R gvedic poets from muchearlier times.3 Gonda suggests that the prs formulae date from a period when thedomestic offerings to the fire god Agn were simple and without accompanying animalsacrifice (1974: 135f., 1975: 104, 1985a: 17).

The expression l

s pad or lys pad names an early place of offering which is

remarkable in its simplicity and anterior in its origins to the complex brick altars of thebrahmanic period with their multiple layers of meaning and form. The word pad meansfootstep, trace, mark, or track. Like its etymological equivalents, howeverthe Avestanpada, Greek pdon and Hittite pedan the Vedic pad also has the sense of place orground. While the cognate Greek pdon has lost any meaning as track and has cometo mean only place, site or ground, it is nevertheless frequently found in identical syn-tactical constructions with the genitive of a gods name. We find, for example, Znseuthals pdon (the flourishing ground of Zeus; Bacchylides 8.5), Krisaon pedon(the ground of Krisis; Sophocles, Electra 730), Loxou pdon (the ground of Apollo;Aeschylos, Choephori 1036) and Palldos pdon (the ground of Athena; Aristophanes,Plutus 772). Pre-Christian Lithuanian folklore, a related Indo-European tradition, tellsus of the footprints of Velinas (Velnio pedos); so powerful is Velinas that when he stopson a rock his footprints remain. The rainwater that falls in these footprints acquires magicalproperties, and women come to the rock seeking fertility (Thompson, 1995: 1617).

The most widely known Vedic footprint is the footprint of Vsnu (vs

n

oh

pad). Vsnu

is famous for taking three strides or steps that span the three regions of the Vedic world(cf. Kuiper). In R

g-Veda 1.154 (trans. Doniger, 1981: 226), the poet sings:

Let me now sing the heroic deeds of Visnu, who has measured apart the realms of earth,

who propped up the upper dwelling-place, striding far as he stepped forth three times.Let this song of inspiration go forth to Vis

nu, the wide-striding bull who lives in the

mountains, who alone with but three steps measured apart this long, far-reaching dwelling-place.

His three footprints, inexhaustibly full of honey, rejoice in the sacrificial drink. Alone, hesupports threefold the earth and the sky all creatures.Would that I might reach his dear place of refuge, where men who love the gods rejoice.

For there, one draws close to the wide-striding Visnu; there, in his highest footstep is the

fountain of honey.

The footsteps of Vsnu result in footprints. They are containers of sweetness and abun-

dance. Even today in India the footprints of Visnu, like the footprints of the Buddha, are

places of worship. Temples are built around them, that is, places of sacrificial offering.The Vedic formula in the footprint of Il

has a direct Avestan correlate (padit

frasrt iaii) which refers to the practice of pouring oblations of milk and butter intothe footprints of cows. Says Thompson (1995: 1617):

From this practice derives the use of the Indo-Iranian term *pada to refer metaphorically,it would appear, to an altar, i.e. to a place of worship onto which oblations are poured. The

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frequently suggested etymology of Vedic vdi as *(a)va-zd-i (i.e. from ava-sad-) would seemto support that view that the phrase footprint of milk refers to an altar All of thiswould suggest that the archaic Indo-Iranian priest poured libations of milk and butter (i.e.cow products) into something called

*pada, the footprint of a sacred or sacrificial cow

perhaps, or perhaps rather, an altar or oblation-place conceived as the footprint of a god.We should recall that the vdi was not a raised altar, but was a shallow depression in theground, to which the gods were expected to come and sit.

Il personifies the oblation materials which, as a common noun, carry the same name.

The word l is an enlargement of the noun roots

to stream out, pour out, incite, animate

or promote, to grow, to make to grow, to nourish or fortify (cf. Minard, II: 606a). Thetechnical sense that the word l

would come to have in middle Vedic literature is: the

part taken from all (principal) offering substance, divided into four, or more often five,

and, having been sprinkled with the jya, that is the clarified butter or ghee, it is consumedcommunally by the participants in the sacrifice (pastamba-rauta-Stra 3.1.1; Renou,1954: 34). It is a solemn offering consisting of four dairy products: butter, whey, sourcream and soft cheese (Lvi, 1966: 115; cf. Malamoud, 1989: 50 n. 43). The l

thus is

a common source of nourishment, invigoration and pleasure (cf. R

V3.53.1, 3.59.3) forboth gods and men who come together to participate communally in the sacrifice andto take of this life-giving essence.

Il does, in fact, have a foot. In her goddess form, she has hands and feet that drip with

butter (R

V7.16.8a, 10.70.8d). Her foot leaves footprints (cf. Gonda, 1969: 176). As the

embodiment of oblation materials derived from dairy products, she also has a body as acow (cf. Gonda, 1985a: 4143). The word appears as a synonym of cow in Nighant

u2.11. Il

s footprints are visible in the footprints left in the ground, which are footprints

of a cow. They are the location of sacrifice.The cow Il

, however, is a celestial cow. Her udder is swollen with the milk ofr

t, that

is the milk of cosmic Order, and through this udder passes or is manifest a full spectrum ofliquid offering substances that move between humans and gods: water, butter, milk andspeech. R

g-Veda 3.55.1213 tells us, for example:

There where the mother and the daughter [Sky and Earth], the two Cows miraculouslygood to milk let themselves be suckled [by their single calf, Agni as Sun], both of them inthe seat of Order [or r

t]: I invoke them here. Great is the asuryan power of the gods, the

only power.(One of them), licking the calf of the other, has lowed. Across what existence has the cow

hidden her udder? It is there the liquid offering [il] has swollen with the milk ofr

t. Great is

the asuryan power of the gods, the only power.

The first wave of the Waters is called the wave of l (R

V7.47.1). The clouds drip with

Il (R

V 3.54.20). Parjnya, whose name means cloud, produces l

(R

V 7.102.3,

6.52.16); rain itself is called rich in l (l vat) (RV9.97.17; cf. 7.65.4b).Parallel to the footprint of Il (l

ys pad) is the footprint of the cow (pad gh

).

These are parallel in their syntactical construction. They are also parallel in location in theVedic cosmos. They provide a means of communication between regions of the Vedicworld because they are footprints of a single cow.




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The footprint of Il is the earthly location where dairy products are given as

offerings. At the place of offering, that is, in the footprint of Il, is Agn the fire god,

as priest and sacrificial flame (R

V1.128.1). He instals himself there (R

V6.1.2), is born

there (RV10.1.6), is lighted there (RV2.10.1), and is placed at the footprint of Il, thisnavel of the earth, in order to carry the offering to the world of the gods (R

V3.29.4).

Awakened by the sacrificial officiate, Agn hastens to the footprint of Il (R

V10.91.1).

He is born of Il and is called son of Il

(R

V3.29.2). The relationship is reciprocal: Agn,

in turn, is accompanied by Il (R

V 5.4.4), is son and father of hymns (R

V 3.26.9 and

3.15.2) and gives birth to Il (R

V6.52.16).

Yet we have seen that Il is also a cow. She is a celestial cow. Her milk is that ofr

t. As

a goddess, she is one of the three goddesses who are aspects of Speech. These aspects, orparts, of Speech are identifiable with her and relate to her as three finite aspects in relationto an additional infinite one. Il

is thus identifiable with, and distinct from, Vc or Speech.So also is her footprint. The place of the cow (pad gh

) is that of the cow Speech (R

g-

Veda 3.55.1):

When the first dawns shone, the great (thing), the Verb (aks

ra) was born from the placeof the Cow; corroborating thus the wishes of the gods (I proclaim): Great is the gods asur-yan power, the one (power)!

Hymns in the Rg-Veda are frequently referred to as cows for they contain oblation

materials as does the goddess Speech herself. Rg-Veda 8.100.1011 tells us:

When uttering inscrutable things, Vc [the goddess Speech], the stimulating queen of thegods, settled down.

She let flow milk, fourfold, nourishment, streams of milk! Where has the supreme (part)of Her gone?

The gods have given birth to the goddess Vc. Beasts of all forms utter Her. Thisstimulating

Milk-cow, letting flow nourishment and strength Highly praised may Vc come to us!

As the footprint or place of the cow Speech, pad comes to mean word. In later con-

texts pad would also carry the meaning of

syllable

and the related term pda wouldcome to mean a stanza of poetry. We find in Br

had-ran

yaka-Upanis

ad5.14.7:

Gayatri you are one-footed, two-footed, three-footed, four-footed. You are also footless sinceyou do not go about (on foot). Homage to you, the fourth, the beautiful foot-print that isabove space. (trans. Thompson, 1995: 9)

A word is perceived by the Vedic poets as a container of the offering substance that thepoet-priest offers to the gods, in the same way that the footprint of Il

is a container of the

offering substance, oril, poured out at the place of offering.

The footprint of the cow Speech, like the footprint of Il, is a means by which theancient poet-priest traced a pathway to the gods. The word is a hidden track or sign thatthe poet seeks, a track that one follows in order to find hidden realities (R

V9.96.6, 18; cf.

Renou, 1958: 22). Its path leads from the place of sacrifice to the place of the gods wherethe offering substance will be received. It thus traces the way from the visible manifest

Sandness 515



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world to the invisible, or hidden, infinite world beyond and provides a means of commu-nication between them. We are told (R

V1.72.6):

The Sages discovered (inside Agn) the three times seven pad hidden, and found there thesecret laws of sacred Speech.

We hear:

Speech was divided into four tracks. The Brahmins who have insight know this. The threethat are hidden, people do not set in motion. They speak (only) the fourth track of Speech.(trans. Thompson, 1995: 6)

The poet knows that the hidden place or footprint of Speech, that is the word, is to betracked by following the visible footprint of Il

from the place of Offering. The singersings (R

V10.71.3):

Through the sacrifice they traced the path of Speech and found it inside the sages. They heldit and portioned it out to many; together the seven singers praised it.

The footprint of Il leads to that of the cow Speech. They are connected because they

are the footprint of the same cow. This cow simply takes the form, and name, appropriateto the region, or dimension, of the cosmos in which it is found.

The milk of this same cow flows from r

tsya pad, the track, trace, footprint or seat ofr t. We are told (

RV10.177.2):

The bird carries in his heart Speech that the divine youth spoke of inside the womb. The poetsguard this revelation that shines like the sun in the footprint ofr

t.

Silburn (1955: 12) presents r

t as the agencement exact or exact alignment of cosmicparts.

R

ta, the harmonized cosmos which is well-done (sukr

ta), where the days and nights are well-constructed (sumeka), is the opposite ofanr

ta, the non-aligned cosmos where only dissolu-

tion and chaos (nirr ti) reign. In this primordial non-alignment, the yet undivided worldsform, according to some texts, the primordial androgyne [R

V1.160.3]. There was thus nei-

ther space, nor time, nor movement then, as the pathway of r

ta was blocked [atapatha-Brhman

a 1.4.1.2223]. The son of the worlds, the poet of space, had not yet separated the

two worlds by measuring them; he had not yet then gathered them back together and orga-nized them [R

V1.160.4].

This son, which is the sun, props up the sky and is the most frequently invoked witness to thisalignment, to this proper placement whose perfection is the wonder of the r

s

i [R

V4.13.5].This propping up does not only consist of the lifting up of a mass, or its increase (R

V2.11);

it is also, and especially, the circulating that serves in the manner of a prop; the sun, by circling in

the sky, holds up the luminous arch as it goes along its celestial path while conferring on allbeings duration [Atharva-Veda 13.1.18, 10.8.4, 10.7.11 and 12; R

V3.55.7].

No other idea has, as much as r

ta, incited such a luxury of metaphors which are all imagesof continuity: stream (dhra) ofr

ta, yoke or harness ofr

ta, path ofr

ta, net (prasiti) ofr

ta,

web ofr

ta, wheel ofr

ta, etc. (trans. Sandness)




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This continuity of circulation ensures the continuity of life. For the R

gvedic poet, lifedepended on the alignment of days and nights, filled with a vital energy. As this vital force(yus) was susceptible to being prolonged day after day, the word yus finished by sig-

nifying the duration of life. In this regard, Silburn (1955: 2) cites Benveniste:

The two neuter words yu and yus name the vital force as an individual [R

V 1.89.9] oruniversal [yur vivyuh

, R

V10.89.8] principle this concept develops from a human andquasi-physical representation: the force which animates the being and gives it life, a force

both unique and double, transient and permanent, exhausting itself and being reborn in thecourse of the generations, abolishing itself in its own renewal and forever subsisting by itsfinitude always renewed. The life force implies incessant re-creation of the principle thatnourishes it

The constancy in the movement of the animating essence perceived as the stream of r tmanifests, in the finite worlds of the Vedic cosmos, in the continuity that is the uninter-rupted flow of oblation materials. Malamoud (1989: 73) observes that:

The sacrifice without gap, the world without fault, this is the r

ta, the precise alignment: thecorrect performance of the ritual work is at once the image and cause of the harmonious alter-nation of days and nights, of the succession of the seasons, of the rain that falls at the rightmoment, of the ordered meeting of eater and eaten [Aitareya-ran

yaka 2.1.2]. System of sys-

tems of pieces joined: cosmic order, ritual efficacy, truth as perfect, such are the principalcomponents of the notion ofr

ta. So it is thatr

ta, the supreme principle in Vedic ideology,is defined as the absence of lack: the word is derived from the same root as the adverb aram,sufficiently.

Abundance is assured in the Vedic cosmos by means of the articulate and exact precisionof the sacrificial ritual. This ritual is itself in alignment with, a microcosmic representationof, and a physical conduit of, the uninterrupted flow of the life-giving stream ofr

t into

the manifest world of humans.This is the milk ofr

t which flows from the place ofr

t by means of Speech and the

cosmic cow Il, container, like her footprint, of sacrificial offerings. Agn is born in the

birthplace ofr t, which is the birthplace of food (RV5.21.4). Milk-cows rise up from r twith their udders swollen with milk (R

V1.73.6). When set in motion, this milk streamsfrom the infinite and invisible into the created and finite world. In return, it will be offeredto the gods, contained in the worldly form of offerings of dairy substances poured in thefootprint of Il

.

This series of footprints of a single cow thus transcends the finite world and leads to theinvisible. They are hidden in the mysterious (cf. Thompson, 1995: 1112) and hard tofind. The poet seeks them out, and having found them, tracks the way to a greater know-ing of the sacred mystery. The poets speak of themselves as knowers of the track

(padaj) ortrack seekers (padav) (cf. Thompson, 1995: 20). Just as one can infer andtrack the presence of the gods, and the source of the life-force, by means of footprints, soalso do the poets communicate by means of signs, the words, their own footprints,which serve as tracks to be traced by their descendants, the poets who will follow them(R

V4.5.89, trans. Doniger, 1981: 114).

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What of this speech of mine should I proclaim? They murmur about the sacred hidden in thedepths: when they have opened the mystery of the cows of dawn, like a door upon a flood,[Agn] protects the beloved head of the earth-cow, the place of the bird.

This is that great face of the great gods, that the cow of dawn followed as it went in front.I found it shining in the place of the r

t, moving swiftly, swiftly.

Il and Agn together are sources of life. They are paired at the place of sacrifice. There

foodisofferedtothegods.Havingreceivedthisoffering,thegodsinturncontinuetocirculatethis essence, ormilk, of life by giving to humans those blessings, such as physical cows,which permit humans to continue to give ofthe source of life in offering at the place of Il

.

This relationship between Il and the priestly fire god Agn is paralleled in the middle

Vedic relationship between Manu, he who sacrifices, and Il, that which is given.

Vedic tradition knows the Indo-Iranian deity Yma, god of death, who is king of

the ancestors and a founder of the human race (cf. Malamoud, 2002: 8). Yma has a brothernamed Mnu who is, like Yma, son of the sun. The sun in the sky is, as we know, thecelestial form of Agn, the fire god who is placed in the footprint of Il

and prop which

is, and which permits, the circulation of the luminous source of life between the Vedicparallel cosmic worlds. Mnu, in the stories, is known as he who sacrifices. All of usare descended from Mnu and Il

. The story is told in the atapatha-Brhman

a 1.8.1:

Manu was brought water in the morning for the washing of hands. As he was washing, a fishcame into his hands and said, Care for me and I will save you. From what will you saveme? A flood will carry away all these creatures; I will save you from it. How should you

be cared for? As long as we are tiny, said the fish, our destruction is great, for fish swal-lows fish. Care for me at first in a pot, and when I outgrow it, dig a trench and care for me init. And when I outgrow that, then take me down to the ocean, for then I will be beyonddestruction. So the fish grew steadily, and it said, In a certain year, the flood will come.Then you will build a ship and come to me, and when the flood has risen you will enter theship, and I will save you from the flood. So Manu cared for the fish, and built the ship, andthe day came when the floods arose, and the fish swam up to Manu, and he fastened the ropeof the ship to the horn of the fish, and with it he sailed through to the northern mountain the flood swept away all other creatures, and Manu alone remained here.

Yet Manu became lonely in his solitude. Desiring offspring he began to engage in per-forming sacrifice. He offered in the waters clarified butter, sour milk, whey and curds. Fromthese a woman arose, quite solid, although clarified butter gathered in her footprint. Manusaid to her, Who are you? Your daughter, she replied. How, O illustrious one, are youmy daughter? he asked. She said, Those offerings of clarified butter, sour milk, whey andcurds, which you made in the waters, with them you have begotten me. I am the blessing, the

benediction, make use of me at the sacrifice With her, Manu went on worshipping andperforming austerities, wishing for offspring. Through her he generated this race, which is therace of Manu; and whatever blessing he invoked through her, all that was granted to him.

The daughter of Manu, he who sacrifices, is I l. Il is personified. Most anthropo-morphic of the three goddesses, she has hands and feet; she lives one hundred winters,the duration of human life.4 In the ritual, the word il

is the name given to an offering

substance consisting of four products derived from milk. The offering is simple but is con-sidered the perfect symbol of faith. (Cf. Lvi, 1966: 115)




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Il is the common meal between humans and gods. It is in this common food, the sacri-

ficial offering substance, that humans and gods become one, for humans are descendantsof Manu: they are the product of he who sacrificed and that which is sacrificed; only

humans are able to give and also be that which is given.We can track the footprint of Il back to early stages in the development of Indian

tradition. Here we find the human experience, human relationships with gods, the ances-tors and one another, defined in terms of offering: it is offering that defines our humanity;it is offering that delineates our cosmos. The footprint of Il

, as all humans descended

from her, is a container of the life-giving substance that is oblation material: only humansare able to sacrifice and to be sacrificed. (Cf. Malamoud, 1989: 1333)

A footprint is a trace, a track or sign by means of which one has visible evidence of aninvisible presence. It indicates the presence of a bodily container and is the means bywhich one infers the existence of the unseen. Il

has such a footprint. As one of the threegoddesses, she is an aspect of Speech. Like Speech, she is a cow, and hers is the milk ofr

t. She spans the worlds simultaneously and takes the form that is most appropriate to theworld in which she is found. So does her footprint. The footprint in question is both thecontainer and the contained. It is the sacrificial offering substance and the vessel intowhich it is poured. What is offered? It is the source of life, invisible and manifest, whichappears in the form appropriate to the dimension of the Vedic cosmos in which it is found.What is this vessel in which it is poured? It is the place of sacrifice, which is present in andextends throughout the cosmos. It is also the place of union between the subject and objectof offering, the place where humans, the ancestors and the gods come together and their

life-force conjoins as one. Yet if the poet can trace these footprints to the ancestor poetsand the gods, if the poet can track the footprints of Il

and the cow Speech to the place of

r

t, it is because they are footprints of a single animal, the cow, whose four feet, whilethey appear in various parallel forms, represent parts of a whole. As a container of life,and an altar, the place of Il

is arguably both internal and external. The story of Il

, sub-

stance of offering, as an ancestor of humanity, seems to suggest that there is a relationshipbetween the perception of this animating principle which gives life to humans, ancestorsand gods alike, and the animating life principle, simultaneously many and one, that wouldbe articulated in the late Vedic period as tman. Baudhyana-Dharma-Stra 2.18.9 and

10 will tell us, for example, that the sam nysin, or ascetic renouncer, seeks to internalizethe ritual sacrifice by placing inside himself the sacrificial flames, such that he offers him-self to his Self in Its form as tman.

Once, the gods and men, as well as the ancestors,drank together (at the sacrifice); it was their common banquet.Then we saw them (when they came to the banquet);today they still come but are invisible.

atapatha-Brhmana 3.6.2.26

Notes

1. Cf. Bergaigne, I: 322f. Note that Dumzil associates Sarasvatwith the second of the three func-tions but suggests that she is active at the three levels. Cf. Dumzil, 151, and Lommel, 405413.

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2. The prs verses are recited in conjunction with the ten preliminary offerings (prayj) of theanimal sacrifice. This use of the verses is noted, for example, in Pacavim

a-Brhman

a

15.8.2: Prajpati created the creatures; he thought himself milked out and emptied out; he saw

thesepr

s (verses) as

jya (lauds) and, by means of these, he gratified (apr

n

t) himself. Milkedout, as it were, and emptied out is he who has lauded with the ten days (who has performed asChanter the ten-day rite). In that the prs (verses) are these jya (lauds), thereby he gratifieshimself (cf. Renou, 1954: 28; Minard, II: 553; Potdar, 131).

3. Bloomfield (17) notes, for example, at least six shared verses between the prhymns 1.13 and1.142. On the subject of the prhymns generally, see also Renou, 19551969, EVPII: 11 and37; Macdonell, 1963: 154; Gonda, 1975: 102, 187, 215; Gonda, 1985a: 22, 74, 160 note 56;Gonda, 1974: 56sq., 129, 199.

4. This expression athima occurs on four occasions in the Rg-Veda (9.74.8d, 1.79.9d, 6.4.8d, in

addition to this verse). On each occasion apart from this verse it refers explicitly to the durationof human life. Regarding one hundred years as a human life span, see Kt

haka-Sam

hit 22.8,

64.19; Taittirya-Sam

hit 5.7.1.3; pastamba-rauta-Stra 17.23.5 and Gonda, 1991: 166.Regarding the request for a life of a hundred years, see Taittirya-Brhman

a 1.2.1.7;

pastamba-rauta-Stra 5.2.1ff.; Kauitaki-Brhmam

a 25.7 and Gonda, 1966: 32.

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