Lectures on the Vedic Irina: 1 of 3

Описание: In this 3-part online lecture series, Prof. R.N. Iyengar will take us through a journey of his studies in Vedas to a place called Irina (known as Raṇ-of- Kachh today).

Abstract:
Vedic Iriṇa (इरिणम्): What is it; dice board or place name or a landform?

Reference to Iriṇa occurs in the Rgveda and also in other Vedic texts and the epics. In RV this appears as a locale frequented by an animal called Gaura. With the passage of time, in the Yajurveda, orthodox people were asked not to live in Iriṇa. In the ritualistic context Iriṇa got associated with disaster and misfortune. The geographical features associated with Iriṇa, as described in the Vedic texts, will be discussed in these talks, to identify its location as being contiguous or very near or overlapping with the present day Raṇ-of-Kachh, which is a land formed by receding of the sea, probably due to neotectonic activity. Vedic Brāhmaṇa texts explain the animal Gaura as a demented horse (as against the meanings given in the RV-Bhāshya and modern dictionaries) which is most likely the whitish wild ass locally called Gaur-kur, still surviving in the Raṇ region. The Mahābhārata knows Iriṇa as the place where innumerable ground openings existed and the sea receded making the River Sarasvati to shift westwards. This broad region must have been central to not only the Vedic but also to the Harappan people. In RV (1.51.6), Indra is said to have trod mighty Arbuda under his foot. This hymn is in a sequence of lauds praising Indra for his heroic acts. In the past, scholars have interpreted Indra and his acts in a variety of ways ranging from the mystical to the trivial. But the conspicuous act of Indra hitting the mountain Arbuda cannot be overlooked. RV (1.55.3) is quite specific when it says: ‘you bend, as it were, even that famed mountain down’. RV (8.3.19) lauds Indra as the highest God and also mentions his above deeds as most ancient. RV (8.32.3) extolls Indra as having brought down the height of the lofty Arbuda. The geographical constraints as dictated by modern scientific investigations about the River Sarasvatī, match with the Ṛgvedic description of the decrease in height of Arbuda as a real topographical change (Valdiya 2002). This seems to have happened at an unknown period during 4th-5th millennium BCE. This was also the period of River proto-Yamuna, initially flowing south-westerly, taking an eastern course. This is attributed to the subsidence or down sagging of the northern limbs of the Aravalli Mountains and consequent flattening of the region. The subsequent period up to 1000 BCE saw the slow disappearance of rivers Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvatī. Relation of Arbuda to the Aravalli mountain range is straightforward. The consecutive hymns (8.3) and (8.4) citing Arbuda, Iriṇa and Gaura are by the same seer Medhātithi Kāṇva. While the hitting of Arbuda was already an ancient episode, Iriṇa was still frequented for water by Gaura (RV 8.4.10). Thus, it is logical to infer that the original Vedic Iriṇa should have been close to Aravallis on the north-eastern coast of Raṇ-of- Kachh, when it was still a navigable sea. My approach is to read the originals as much as possible taking help from the Nirukta, Brhaddevatā, Skāndapurāṇa, commentaries and some translations to see what broad geographical picture emerges and to infer how such a picture correlates with present day understanding in Earth Sciences.