Apam Napat

Apam Napat is a deity in the Indo-Iranian pantheon associated with water. His names in the Vedas, Apām Napāt, and in Zoroastrianism, Apąm Napāt, mean "child of the waters" in Sanskrit and Avestan respectively. Napāt ("grandson", "progeny") is cognate with Latin nepos and English nephew.[note 1] In the Rig Veda, he is described as the creator of all things.[3]

In the Vedas it is often apparent that "Apām Napāt" is being used as a title, not a proper name. This is most commonly applied to Agni, god of fire, and occasionally to Savitr, god of the sun. A correspondence has also been posited by Mary Boyce between both the Vedic and Avestic traditions of Apam Napat, and Varuna, who is also addressed as “Child of the Waters”, and is considered a god of the sea.[4][5] In the Iranian tradition, he is also called Burz ("high one," Persian: برز‎) and is a yazad.[6]

Role

In Yasht 19 of the Zoroastrian Avesta Apąm Napāt appears as the creator of mankind. However, since in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazdā is venerated as supreme creator, this function of Apąm Napāt has become reduced. This is one reason Apąm Napāt is no longer widely worshipped, though he is still honoured daily through the Zoroastrian liturgies. The creator-god status is also seen in a hymn in honour of the Vedic Apām Napāt.[3]

Alongside Mithra, Apąm Napāt maintains order in society, as well as Khvarenah, by which legitimate rule is maintained among the Iranian peoples. It is his duty to distribute water from the sea to all regions.[7][5]

Fire and water

In one Vedic hymn Apām Napāt is described as emerging from the water, golden, and "clothed in lightning", which has been speculated as referring to fire.[3] His regular identification with Agni, who is described a number of times as hiding or residing in water,[8][9][10] and comparison with other Indo-European texts, has led some to speculate about the existence of a Proto-Indo-European myth featuring a fire deity born from water.[11] Such texts include a ninth-century Norwegian poem that uses the name sǣvar niþr, meaning "grandson of the sea," as a kenning for fire, and an old Armenian poem in which a reed in the middle of the sea spontaneously catches fire, from which springs the hero Vahagn, with fiery hair and eyes that blaze like sun.

Whether fire was an original part of Apam Napat's nature remains a matter of debate, especially since this connection is absent from the Iranian version. Hermann Oldenberg believed Apam Napat was originally an independent water deity who later came to be associated with Agni, in part because of an ancient Indian belief that water contained fire within itself,[5] fire appearing to "enter into" water when quenched by it.[12][13] Similarly, associations with Savitr could be understood as deriving from an image of the setting sun sinking into the ocean. Another theory explains the connection between fire and water through lightning, "the flash of fire born from the rainbearing clouds".[14]

Based on the idea that this fire-from-water image was inspired by flaming seepage natural gas, attempts have been made to connect the name "Apam Napat" to the word "naphtha", which passed into Greek—and thence English—from an Iranian language. However, there is no recorded evidence of a link between sacred fires of Iranian religion and petroleum or natural gas, and the origin of "naphtha" is likely Akkadian napṭu, "petroleum".[15]

Notes
  1. Georges Dumézil and others have suggested an alternative origin for the name, which ties it etymologically to other Indo-European deities such as Etruscan Nethuns, Celtic Nechtan and Roman Neptune (see etymology of Neptune).[1][2]

References
  1. Philibert, Myriam, Les Mythes préceltiques. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 1997, pp. 244-247.
  2. Dumézil, Georges, Mythe et Epopée III. Quarto Gallimard, pub. Éditions Gallimard 1995 ISBN 2-07-073656-3, p. 40.
  3. Rig Veda 2.35.2 'Son of Waters', tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1896], at sacred-texts.com
  4. Mary Boyce (1989). A History of Zoroastrianism: The Early Period. BRILL. pp. 47–8. ISBN 90-04-08847-4.
  5. "APĄM NAPĀT". Encyclopædia Iranica.
  6. Boyce, p. 42–3
  7. Yasht 8.34 Translated by James Darmesteter, From Sacred Books of the East, American Edition, 1898.
  8. Satapatha Brahmana Part 1 (SBE12), Julius Eggeling tr. [1882], at sacred-texts.com, 1:2:3:1
  9. Rig Veda 7.49.4
  10. Rig Veda 3.1
  11. M. L. West (24 May 2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. OUP Oxford. pp. 270–272. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.
  12. Boyce, p. 45
  13. H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda (in German) (1894) pp. 100–19 (translation: Hermann Oldenberg (1988). The Religion of the Veda. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 51–68. ISBN 978-81-208-0392-3.)
  14. Findly, Ellison Banks (1979). "The 'Child of the Waters': A Revaluation of Vedic Apāṃ Napāt". Numen. 26 (2): 164–184. doi:10.2307/3269717. JSTOR 3269717.
  15. R. J. Forbes (1966). Studies in Ancient Technology. Brill Archive. p. 13. GGKEY:YDBU5XT36QD.

Further reading
  • Magoun, Herbert W. "Apāṁ Napāt in the Rig-Veda." Journal of the American Oriental Society 19 (1898): 137-44. doi:10.2307/592476.
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