Pravargya and Grail, Moscow, 18-26 May 2008 VEDIC AND INDO-EUROPEAN MYTHS AND RITUALS : THE PRAVARGYA

AND THE HOLY GRAIL 1. Introduction This study is a sequel to an earlier explorative study in which I have compared the Vedic Pravargya ritual1 and the Holy Grail. It will be necessary to recapitulate my findings of this study and add the new points at appropriate places. The Pravargya occupies a specific position in the complex system of Vedic rituals, and the Holy Grail is an important theme in Christian literature of the Middle Ages. The Pravargya ritual as unique development in the indo-aryan world, without any parallel in Iran or among other indo-european peoples, can be traced back to about 1500 before common era (cf. Houben 2000a et b). In this ritual a pot that is heated red-hot is central. According to the mantras (verses) used in this ritual, the pot is identified with the sun but also with the inner light of the inspired vedic poet. While the ritual is uniquely Indian, the myths that accompany the Pravargya nevertheless overlap with indo-european mythic themes regarding a magical pot or cauldron. The Vedic Pravargya has apparently offered the ritual context for a tradition of esoteric knowledge which one could not express otherwise than in the form of enigmatic statements which show the world to be a unitary system. In Celtic stories on the magical cauldron and in the related Christian theme of the Holy Grail, the magical characteristics, and, for most people, the inaccessibility of the pot or of the grail are central. In contrast with this, in the Vedic Pravargya the presence and accessibility are celebrated of the sacred pot to those who participate in the ritual and who are ready for the ideas expressed in its recitations. The theme of the Holy Grail has become the theme of the search for an ideal which one can never realise in its totality. This theme has left traces in several centuries of european literature, and it can be recognised in the idealisation of the scientific researcher who searches perpetually, who finds only a part of what he searches but arrives never at a complete and final understanding: the researcher of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who follows the ideal of Karl Popper of falsifiable formulations and crucial experiments. Classical Indian literature, on the contrary, is impregnated with gods and men who have achieved, who incarnate, final and liberating insights. Moreover, succesful disciplines (for instance, grammar) are caracterised by an idealisation of an omniscient founder, and by the fact that the fundamental theses of the discipline are unchangeable. Its basic theses can at the most be developed, applied and defended, one way or the other, by future generations. The comparison of the Pravargya ritual and the Holy Grail thus appears as a key to a comprehensive comparison of occidental and indian literature and culture. However, I will focus here strictly on the Pravargya and the Holy Grail without being to much disturbed by possible further implications. The comparison suggests a link between two extremes of the Indo-European world, namely the ancient Indians and the ancient Celts. The linguistic link between these two groups of people is already well known and undeniable. Links in ritual and myth have not been explored and established with the same systematicity. I will here pay special attention to earlier explorations that came close to revealing the parallelism between the Pravargya and the Holy Grail. Three earlier studies have contributed significantly to the exploration of parallellisms between Vedic rituals including the Pravargya, and Celtic stories and Graal myths. These are
1

See www.jyotistoma.nl for an introduction and overview.

Leopold von Schroeders essay on the roots of the tale of the Holy Grail (1910), his paper on the Aryan nature cult as basis of the tale of the Holy Grail (1911) and an article by Anand K. Coomaraswamy on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Indra and Namuci (1944). In his 1911 paper, von Schroeder recapitulates his own results of the 1910 essay, but integrates the findings of the meticulous study of Jessie L. Weston on the legend of Sir Perceval (1906-1909). The Westons study the focus is on the Celtic background of the Grail myths, Vedic texts and rituals play no role. Coomaraswamy tries to compare Celtic and Grail stories with Indian myths and rituals, but has no good knowledge of the latter. An enumeration of the contributions and shortcoming of each of these studies will give a quite boring story, so I will give here an integrated account with reference to the available sources and with passing remarks on the previous studies.

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