Right so I got bored being unproductive.

So here’s an excerpt that I excised out of a work I’m currently producing, because it was too much of a digression.

Main area of interest for most will be the progression of theonymics from a sector of the Sri Rudram.

Jai Sri Rudra

“Indeed, whilst not a Brick of the Altar, the ‘Āśmana’ [Titus has ‘ áśmanā’] evoked at AV-S XIII 1 32 is also most pertinent here. The Hymnal in question is, overall, addressed to Rohita, the ‘Red’ Sun [Bloomfield rather pleasingly renders the title as ‘Prayer for sovereign power addressed to the God Rohita and His Female Rohinî.’; Griffith, ever more restrained, goes for ‘The glorification of Rohita, a form of Fire and of the Sun’; Whitney, merely ‘To Rohita (the Sun, as Ruddy One).’] – with longer-term readers instantly grasping just Who one would think to encounter hailed along with Rohini, of a ‘Ruddy’ aspect, and also co-identified with Agni … handily, Sri Rudram II 8 [c.f. TS IV 5 2 i / VS XVI 19] hails Him quite directly by this ‘Rohita’ appellation.

As a brief digression in relation to this – the relevant ‘Rohita’ mantra for Rudra occurs amidst quite … ‘familiar’ conceptry. The next parts to the mantra have Him extolled as Lord of the Post and Wood / Trees (‘Sthapataye’ and ‘Vrksanam Pataye’, respectively), elements of clear Sky Father resonancy [others take ‘Sthapataye’ as ‘Architect’, or Ruler, or ‘Ruler/Leader of Men’).

We then hear of Him as the ‘Mantrine’ – either Counsellor of assemblies (Rajagopala Aiyar, whose translation of various commentaries we shall be quoting from in that which follows, rather charmingly invokes Odysseus / Ulysses at the outset of the Iliad via way of explication) or the ‘Lord of Mantras’ (per Bhatta Bhaskara – “Rudra Who is in [the] form [of Mantras] […] hidden and esoteric speech is Mantra […] He Who stands in the form of the seven crores of mystic Mantras.”) or “Lord of whatever other object is hidden, guarded, recondite, and mysterious”, per Abinava Sankara; ‘Vanijaya’ – either as ‘Trader’ (the frequent colloquial sense to ‘Vanija’) and ‘Lord of Merchants’ (per Sayana), the ‘Bringer of Valuables’ as R.L. Kashyap imputes it … or if the sense is ‘Vāṇī’, then it is ‘Eloquent Speech’ and the Power as to the Voice (ref. Vāṇī as an epithet of Saraswati and Agni, for example – Rajagopala Aiyar deliberately makes mention of Vak, for reasons that ought prove readily apparent).

And thence, as ‘Kaksanam Pataye’, whether we interpret this as ‘Lord of Thickets and Bushes’ (per Sayana); or Bhatta Bhaskara’s Lord of ‘Impenetrable Portions’, the ‘difficult and impenetrable’ of ‘language and Dharma’, and ‘Inaccessible Places’ (and Protector of those beings who dwell therein [we would note that Mantras, too, are Alive – ref. Ganapati , Gana-Esha hailings for Brihaspati and, of course, Ganesha .. the Ganas (‘Tribes’) of Prayer]), with both he and Abinav Sankara hailing Rudra as Guide to His Devotees through such; or, as R.L. Kashyap presents it – ‘Lord of Secrets’ (‘Lord of the Mystic’ ?) … or, of course, all at once (something that makes the ‘Bringer of Valuables’ interpretation for Vanijaya quite reasonable – bringing from such inaccessible and obscured spheres to our insight : per R.L. Kashyap – “just as a trader makes accessible the valuable things from remote places Rudra makes the secret knowledge accessible to human beings.” Thus making it an eminently logical hailing to encounter equidistant between ‘Mantrine’ and what That represents and speaks to, and ‘Kaksanam’, for reasons aforementioned).

But to return to the ‘Rohitaya’ hailing directly – Bhatta Bhaskara’s commentary identifies this ‘Rohita’ of the Sri Rudram esoterically with the Potency of Speech (indeed, bestowing the power in question to those adroit with Her – and “liv[ing] [with]in their forms”), something fitting rather well with our overarching thrust of conceptry for the Sky Father in this context.

And which is also pertinent in direct fashion viz. Brihaspati (and, of course, Odin – and I am sure that Apollo and Others might also be hailed here, likewise) … as well as the pointed thrust of recurrent exhorting the Rohita of AV-S XIII 1 as ‘Vachas Pati’ [‘Lord of (Divine) Speech’, ‘Husband of Vak’ – a title one might use for a (human-or-otherwise) Priest as well as being a literal descriptor in that regard for the relevant God; and also, per the famed Rudrabhishek Stotram of the MahaBharata (V 80 62), Rudra Himself ; c.f., as well, ‘Vakheion Anakta’ (‘Βακχεῖον ἄνακτα’ – the Beta as a ‘V’ sound at least as far back as Koine Greek), ‘Ruler of Vakkhos’, as hailing for Dionysus in the Orphic Hymnaic Canon]. “