"Persian Urdu" Words.
And Mitra, the Universal God.
Shrikant G. Talageri
This article is about two issues:
1 "Persian Urdu" Words.
2. Mitra, the Universal God.
I. "Persian Urdu" Words
I just came across an example of the casual way in which words (like many other things in India) are given a "Persian" origin (often through the medium of Mughal Rule) in popular belief, which then extends to the internet where people usually end up searching for their information. So this part of the article is about a single word yaar (yār) = friend, which is alleged to be of Persian origin. Yes, the word is a Persian word, very commonly used in modern speech in Hindi and Marathi (and probably other languages as well) − the phrase "arey yaar!" being a common modern equivalent of the English exclamation "Oh God!" or "Oh, come on!" expressing exasperation. But Hindi/Urdu/India did not get this word from Persian. It is one of the words common to Sanskrit and Persian (through Avestan) which is used in India since ancient times. Many modern Indian (Indo-Aryan) words often resemble Persian words because some linguistic changes from Sanskrit to modern Indo-Aryan languages are similar to the parallel changes from Avestan to modern Persian. Thus the Sanskrit dvi/dvā/dve/dvau/etc. is or has become do in Hindi, don in Marathi, dui in Bengali and be in Gujarati. The Avestan dvā has become do in modern Persian. Clearly Hindi has not borrowed this word from Persian any more than Persian has borrowed the word from Hindi.
The word yaar (yār) in India is derived from the Sanskrit, and in fact the Vedic Sanskrit, word jāra, found in the Rigveda, and meaning friend or lover. It is found in four hymns in the Old Rigveda and then more commonly in the newest parts of the New Rigveda:
VI.55.4,5;
VII.9.1; 10.1; 76.3.
V.64.2 (jārya).
I.46.2; 66.8; 69.1,5; 92.11; 117.18; 134.3; 152.4.
IX.32.5; 38.4; 56.3; 96.23; 101.14.
X.3.3; 7.5; 10.7 (jāriṇī); 11.6; 34.5; 42.2; 106.7; 111.10; 123.5; 162.5.
While I am a strong supporter of language purity and admire languages which create vocabulary out of their own internal sources, I am also a supporter of language richness which is a result of historic influences, and while the two seem contradictory to each other, they are not really so: it merely requires viveka-buddhi and honesty to decide, in the case of each particular word or phrase, whether it is language purity or language richness which deserves priority in the particular case. This of course does not apply to words which are not "borrowed" words at all in the first case, such as the word yaar; but even in the case of actually borrowed words, discretion is to be preferred.
Interestingly, it is not Hindu ideologues but Islamic fundamentalists who put up the most concerted fight against "impure" or "borrowed" words. In the history of Islam in India, it was Persian rather than Arabic which played a greater role in fashioning the Muslim vocabulary, to the extent that even some of the most fundamental religious aspects of Indian Islam are more commonly referred to by their Persian rather than their Arabic names; and there are increasingly strident attempts by more fundamentalist groups and sects to insist on replacing the Persian words by their Arabic equivalents.
Thus to take just three examples, what seem to the normal observer to be typically Islamic words, like khudā (God), namāz (the daily 5-times-a-day prayer ritual of Islam), and rozā (the fasting in the month of Ramzan) are anathema to these people. Which is why we see the older Muslim farewell greeting khudā hāfiz (familiar through old Bollywood Muslim films) being increasingly replaced by allāh hāfiz (see for example Pakistani news channels). The effort to replace namāz with salāt, and rozā with sawm, is also on.
All the three Persian Muslim words are cognate to Sanskrit:
a) If we look up "etymology of khuda" on google, we get: "As Old Persian and Sanskrit are believed to have originated from the same source, some believe 'khuda' has its roots in Sanskrit and it is made up of 'sva' (self) and 'daata' (one who gives or bestows). Hence, 'khuda' means 'self-created'. Aside from etymology, the word 'khuda' means 'owner, master, ruler, lord'".
b) The word namāz is from the same common Rigvedic-Avestan root as Sanskrit namas.
c) And the word rozā is from the Persian word roz ("day") − referring to the days of fasting during Ramzan − and is derived from the Avestan root cognate to the Vedic root word ruc ("to shine brightly").
II. Mitra, the Universal God
Many people are not aware that the one religious term/concept which spread into all the major religions of the world in different ways, and is therefore found represented in practically every major religion, is the name of the Rigvedic God Mitra, who was a Solar Deity representing one of the phases of the Sun, and also the God of Contracts, treaties and Alliances:
1. Vedic Hinduism: Mitra's earliest presence is in the Rigveda, where he is found referred to in the following hymns and verses (in all the ten books, and in 295 out of the 1028 hymns in the Rigveda) in the sense of a Solar Deity, the God of Contracts, treaties and Alliances, or in the sense of "friend":
I. 2.7-9; 14.3,10; 15.6; 21.3; 23.4-6; 26.4; 35.1; 36.4,17; 38.13; 40.5; 41.1,7; 43.3; 44.12,13; 50.11; 58.6,8; 63.2,5; 67.1; 71.9; 73.3; 75.4,5; 77.3; 79.3; 89.3; 90.1,9; 91.3,12; 94.12,13,16; 95.11; 96.1,9; 98.3; 100.5,19; 101.11; 102.11; 103.8; 105.19; 106.1,7; 107.3; 108.13; 109.8; 110.9; 111.4,5; 112.25; 113.20; 114.11; 115.1,5,6; 117.20; 120.8,9; 122.6,7,9,15; 129,3,10; 131.7; 133.1; 136.2-7; 137.1-3; 139.2; 141.9; 143.7; 151.1,2,6; 152.1,3-5.7; 153.1-3; 156.1; 162.1; 164.46; 167.8; 170.5; 173.10; 174.6; 178.4; 186.2,8; 190.6.
II. 1.4,5; 2.3; 4.1,3; 6.7; 11.14; 12.8; 23.3; 27.1,2,5-8,14; 29.1,3; 31.1; 34.4; 38.9; 41.4.
III. 4.2,6; 5.3,4,9; 14.4; 18.2; 20.5; 29.15; 30.16; 54.10; 55.6,21; 56.7; 58.4; 59.1-9; 61.7; 62.16.
IV. 1.18; 2.4; 3.5; 4.4,15; 5.4; 6.7; 12.2; 13.2; 15.4; 33.10; 39.2-5; 55.1,5,7,10; 56.7.
V. 3.1,2; 9.7; 10.2; 16.1; 26.9; 35.5; 40.7; 41.1,2; 42.1,2; 46.2,3,5; 47.7; 49.3,5; 51.9,14; 52.14; 62.2,3,5,8,9; 63.1-7; 64.1,3,4,5; 65.1,4-6; 66.6; 67.2,3,5; 68.1,2; 69.1-4; 70.1; 71.1-3; 72.1,3; 81.4; 85.7.
VI. 2.1,11; 3.1,6; 5.4; 8.3; 11.1; 13.2; 14.6; 15.2; 17.1; 21.9; 24.5; 25.2; 28.3; 33.1,3; 44.7,17; 45.14; 46.6,8; 47.28; 48.1; 49.1; 50.1; 51.1,3,10; 52.11; 62.9; 67.1-3,9,11; 73.2,3; 75.4,7,16.
VII. 5.6; 9.3; 12.3; 18.9,10,15; 25.2; 28.4; 32.5; 33.10; 34.25; 35.4; 36.2, 38.4; 39.5,7; 40.2,4,7; 41.1; 42.5; 50.1; 51.2; 52.1,2; 56.25; 59.1; 56.1-6,8; 60.12; 61.2-4,6,7; 62.2-6; 63.1,5,6; 64.1-5; 65.1-5; 66.1,3,4,7,9,11,12,17-19; 77.4; 82.5,10; 83.10; 85.2; 92.4; 93.7.
VIII. 12.12; 15.9; 16.10; 18.3,20,21; 19.4,8,16,25,35; 23.8,30; 25.2,4,13.17; 26.11; 27.6,15,17; 28.2; 31.3,13,14; 35.12,13; 44.14; 46.4; 47.1,9; 52.3; 60.7; 67.2,4; 72.17; 74.2; 75.10; 83.2; 84.1; 94.5; 96.6; 101.1,3,5; 102.12.
IX. 2.6; 7.8; 11.7; 61.9,20; 64.2; 70.8; 77.5; 81.4; 85.6; 86.11; 88.8; 90.5; 96.12; 97.30,42,49,54,58; 100.5; 101.10; 104.3; 107.15; 108.14,16; 109.1.
X. 7.5; 8.4; 10.6; 12.5,8; 20.2; 22.1,2,8; 27.12; 29.4; 30.1; 31.9; 33.7; 34.14; 35.10; 36.1,3,12,13; 37.1,7; 39.7; 51.2; 61.17; 63.9; 64.5,12; 65.1,3,5,9; 68.2; 69.1,3,5,7,8; 79.7; 83.3; 85.17; 87.1; 89.8,9,12,14,15; 92.4,6; 93.4,6; 98.1; 100.4; 103.4,12; 105.11; 106.5; 108.3; 109.2; 110.1; 113.5; 115.7; 125.1; 126.1-7; 130.5; 131.1; 132.2,5; 134.3; 147.5; 152.1,3; 170.2; 180.3; 185.1.
From India, this God of Contracts, treaties and Alliances, Mitra, was already taken to West Asia by the mid-second millennium BCE by the Mitanni Indo-Aryan emigrants from India during the period of composition of the New Rigveda, and he appears in this identity along with Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya (Ashvins) in two treaties around 1380 BCE between the Mitanni king Sattiwaza and the Hittite king Suppiluliuma.
In Indian languages, the God Mitra is no more worshipped as such (although his name is a part of the Vedic mantras which are regularly chanted in vedic rituals), but his name mitra remains the common and ubiquitous Indian word for "friend".
2. Zoroastrianism: The Vedic Mitra is found in the Avesta as Miθra, the God of covenants, oaths, contracts, friendship and the Sun. He is considered as one of the Ahuric Triad (along with Ahura Mazda and Apām Napāt), and is also one of Three Judges (along with Rashnu and Sraosha) at the Chinvat bridge which all souls have to cross after death.
Modern Iranian speakers (most of them being Muslims) of course do not worship Miθra anymore. But his name, in its altered form mehr/meher/mihr remains the common Iranian word for kindness, benevolence and friendliness, as also in the common derived words meherbān (friendly, kind, benevolent) and meherbānī (kindness).
3. The Roman Religion: The Iranian contacts with West Asia and Rome in ancient times led to the spread of the worship of the Iranian God Mithra (Miθra) in his capacity as a Solar Deity, and led to the formation of what became known as the Cult of Mithras, which was found in many parts of West Asia and became a part of the religion of the Roman Empire. The God was referred to by the Romans as both Mehr and Mithras.
4. Buddhism: Maitreya, a derived form of the name Mitra, became a very important name in Buddhism, and in this capacity, the Buddha as Maitreya is worshipped in the Buddhist regions all over North, Central, East and Southeast Asia (and in the past in West Asia as well where Buddhism had spread at the time). According to Buddhist eschatology, Buddha will appear at the End of Time in the form of Maitreya., somehat akin to the Kalki of Hindu mythology.
5. Islam: While it is impossible that any Pagan God could possibly be worshipped in Islam, nevertheless, the spread of Mitra in different forms (Mitanni, Zoroastrianism, the Roman Religion) into West Asia right from 1380 BCE at the least led to his name becoming the common word in most Semitic languages of West Asia (including Syriac and Hebrew) as the name for "contract" in general and the "marriage contract" in particular, and even more particularly for the "bridal dower" pledged at the time of the marriage contract.
This word and custom carried forward into Islam, and the mahr or the "bridal dower" is emphasized in the Quran itself as a fixed and unalterable part of the marriage contract in Islam.
6. Christianity: Again, there is no question of Mitra being worshipped in Christianity; or so one would assume. But surprisingly, Mitra plays a very important, even if indirect and little-known, role in Christianity as it is most commonly practiced today: i.e. in the celebration of December 25th as the birthday of Jesus Christ!
In the early days of Christianity, no-one knew (and obviously no-one knows even today) the exact "birth day" of Jesus. Various sects and churches celebrated the birthday at different points of time in the year. This led to disunity and chaos, and therefore, in the 4th century CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine officially declared December 25th as the "consensus" day for celebrating the birth day of Jesus.
Here is why the consensus settled on December 25th: "The celebration of the birthday of Mithras, the sun god of the Persians whose mystery religion was popular among soldiers in the Roman army, was also celebrated on 25 December. Mithras was often perceived as a rival to Jesus Christ, and Christians took advantage of the popularity of the 25 December date to celebrate the birth of their own influential religious figure".
How many people know that Mitra is the only God in the world who has left his mark on every major world religion?
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