RIDDLES AND RITUALS IN VEDIC TEXTS In this presentation I will analyse the methodological basis for interpreting difficult

statements in the Vedic hymns, and especially explore their relationship with Vedic rituals. The latter can clarify hymns which seem open to various interpretation. The examples in our discussion will be RV 1.164, the so-called riddle-hymn, and the Pravargya ritual which is associated with a special intitiation ceremony, the Avntaradk . We will have to start with and overview of Vedic texts and the rituals that are associated with them, even if we do not know them all in detail. : Text 1700-1300 B.C.E. 1300-1000 B.C.E. 1200-800 B.C.E. 500 B.C.E. - Early Rgveda (esp. RV 2-7) : prayers Late Rgveda (esp. RV 1, 10) : prayers Yajurveda : M, T, prires et indic. du rituel Vedic Ritual Soma, fire, gharma; in details often uncertain Soma, fire, gharma and vrata; in details often uncertain CLASSICAL: Soma, fire, Pravargya + Avantaradiksa

Stra for each branch: descr. CLASSICAL: Soma, fire, Pravargya + of ritual Avantaradiksa

The relationship between the Rgveda and Vedic ritual will be analysed in a few slides. There are many links with classical Vedic ritual, which we know well on the basis of classical sources, esp. the Sutras (Baudhayana, Apastamba, etc.) The correspondence is much less perfect than for the Samhitas of the Yajur- and Sama-veda (see the studies of Bergaigne, Oldenberg, Renou, Gonda ... ) If the Rgveda does not correspond very well with the classical ritual, it is either because it has a literary character (Renou in Les Ecoles Vdiques ) or because it was linked with a pre-classical, Rgvedic ritual Whatever its role or importance, some Rgvedic ritual must have existed The Rgveda gives only the prayers (mantras) : how to reconstruct the ritual of the time of the Rgveda ? This will be analysed in a few diagrams.

1.164, Pravargya, Av ntarad k V

 The riddle hymn, RV 1.164, exceptionnally long (52 stanzas), has been considered as a more or less amorphous collection of riddles (cp. Thieme 1949 : 55-73 and 1987, Brown 1968 and Deussen 1920 : 105-119). A small number of stanzas is known in recitations of the classical Pravargya ritual. Pravargya: introductory ritual of the great Soma sacrifice; description in central Yajurvedic texts, and in the Srauta Sutras; must be performed by priests. Avntaradk: procedures and observances linked to the study of mantras of the Pravargya by the student of the Veda; description is found in passages of central Yajurvedic texts, in the Grhya Sutras AND in the Srauta Sutra. Structure of the Pravargya ritual: Stage I : a pot is prepared from clay indicated by a horse, smoked in the smoke of smouldering horse dung, baked, and kept aside.

Stage II : episode A:
the pot is ointed and filled with ghee (clarified butter), heated on a fire that is fanned with fans identified with the pranas, the vital breaths or powers; the pot is adressed with prayers (mantra) to the lord of the mind, lord of speech, embryo of the gods, father of hymns, thought of the inspired poets; the pot is the cowherd (gopa) who does not lay down, who moves around in all living beings (or in all worlds) ; the herdsman is identified at once with the sun and with the prana, vital breath or power. episode B: the cow and the goat are milked; the milk of the cow and the milk of the goat are poured into the heated pot that contains boiling ghee ; a sudden flash of light appears ; the accompanying mantra speaks of the ray of the sun. the central offering is made from the pot; the cakes are placed on plates in the shape of horses ;

episode C:

episode D:

Stage III :
pot is taken away. Structure of RV 1.164 in the light of the Rgvedic Pravargya (reconstructed):

Liturgy I (A) 1-22 : context : fanning and heating of the Pravargya pot ; vision at heating of the pot ; Pravargya in solar interpretation 23-25 : sacred Speech (B) 26-28: context : invitation and milking of the cow (C) 29: context : the milk is added, column of fire appears ; thunder and lightning indicated. Liturgy II (A) 30-39: context : fanning and heating of the Pravargya pot ; vision at the heated pot, Pravargya in the interpretation of vital principle breath speech (B) 40-41: context : invitation and milking of the cow (C) 41bcd, 42: context : the milk is added, column of fire appears ; rain cloud indicated. Liturgy III (A) 43-48: context : fanning and heating of the Pravargya pot ; vision at the heated pot, Pravargya in solar interpretation, and Pravargya as speech ; (B) 49: context : invitation and milking of the cow (called Sarasvat) (C) 50-52: a column of fire and rain cloud appear ; relation rain sacrificial fires, the sun (Sarasvat) as dispenser of rain.

Avntaradk of classical Vedic ritual: procedures and observances for the study of a section of the Veda; to be followed by the teacher and the student during the study of the mantras of the Pravargya: they must stay in contact with the soleil : interdiction to use an umbrella, to study when there are clouds or rain ; to eat in the night in the preceding years the student has already studied most of his Veda (f.i. the Taittirya); consecration (dk) at the beginning of special studies : teacher and student go to a waste land ; the teacher blindfolds the student and the student remains silent during the night, must not lay down ; the next day the teacher builds a fire, takes of the blindfold from the student and shows him the fire, the sun, a cow or calf, a naked woman ; after his long silence, the student is now made to recite a verse in praise of the sun which speaks of the removal of the darkness from the eyes (Rgveda 10.73.11). Conclusion: gvedic Pravargya and Avntaradk(reconstructed) : a ritual of trans-formation in two steps

 The Rgvedic Pravargya and Avntaradk appear in the form of a ritual (in two steps) of trans-formation in which riddles and enigmatic expressions play a crucial role. The ritual and the riddles in the hymne form snares for thought snares of words and meanings which trap the participants in the logic of processes of trans-formation (Handelman 1996 : 38). If enigma is taken in the large sense of Peterson (1987) according to which also the pipe of the medicine man Lame Deer is an enigma, it is not only V 1.164 which is full of enigmas, but also the Pravargya: the earthenware pot, the heating, the sudden flash of the column of fire, etc.