வேத இலக்கியத்தில் சூரியனின் ஏழு குதிரைகளும் சப்த சந்த மரபும்: காயத்ரியை மையமாகக் கொண்ட இந்திய அறிவு, மொழி மற்றும் பண்பாட்டுக் குறியீடுகளின் ஆய்வு
The Seven Horses of the Sun and the Sapta Chanda Tradition in Vedic Literature: A Study of Indian Knowledge,
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63300/tm10sp072026.01Keywords:
Rigveda, Sapta Chanda, Gayatri, Sun, seven horses, Vishnu Purana, Vedic prosodyAbstract
The Rigveda describes the Sun as travelling across the sky in a chariot drawn by seven horses (Rigveda 1.50.8–9). In the later Indian tradition, these seven horses are said to be called by the names of the seven Vedic metres — Gayatri, Ushnih, Anushtubh, Brihati, Pankti, Trishtubh and Jagati. This study primarily raises a historical-philological question: is this naming tradition truly found in the Rigveda itself, or did it emerge as an explanatory layer in later texts? On the basis of a comparison of the primary texts, the study establishes that the Rigveda mentions only seven unnamed horses/mares of the Sun’s chariot (1.50.8–9; 1.164); that the Atharvaveda (19.21.1) separately lists the seven metres; but that a clear statement directly linking the horses with the metre names is found only in the Vishnu Purana (2.8.7), the Bhagavata Purana (5.21.15) and the commentarial tradition on Mayura’s Suryashataka (Quackenbos, 1917). After clarifying this historical stratification, the study, centred on the Gayatri mantra (Rigveda 3.62.10), examines the phonetic/metrical structure of the seven-metre system, the broader Indo-European context of solar symbolism (Mallory & Adams, 1997; West, 2007), and the cultural symbolism of the number seven. Finally, it offers a typological comparison with the Tamil prosodic tradition — without claiming any direct historical connection.
Downloads
References
[1.] Arnold, E. V. (1905). Vedic metre in its historical development. Cambridge University Press.
[2.] Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, A. C. (1975). Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: Canto five, “The creative impetus and the departure of the demigods” (Vols. 1–2). Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
[3.] Griffith, R. T. H. (Trans.). (1895). The hymns of the Atharva-veda. E. J. Lazarus.
[4.] Griffith, R. T. H. (Trans.). (1896). The hymns of the Ṛigveda (2nd ed.). E. J. Lazarus.
[5.] Jamison, S. W., & Brereton, J. P. (Trans.). (2014). The Rigveda: The earliest religious poetry of India. Oxford University Press.
[6.] Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. Fitzroy Dearborn.
[7.] Quackenbos, G. P. (Trans.). (1917). The Sanskrit poems of Mayūra: Edited with a translation and notes and an introduction, together with the text and translation of Bāṇa’s Caṇḍīśataka (Columbia University Indo-Iranian Series, Vol. 9). Columbia University Press.
[8.] Sarup, L. (Ed. & Trans.). (1920). The Nighaṇṭu and the Nirukta: The oldest Indian treatise on etymology, philology, and semantics. Oxford University Press.
[9.] West, M. L. (2007). Indo-European poetry and myth. Oxford University Press.
[10.] Wilson, H. H. (Trans.). (1840). The Viṣṇu Purāṇa: A system of Hindu mythology and tradition (Vol. 2). John Murray.
[11.] Witzel, M. (1997). The development of the Vedic canon and its schools: The social and political milieu. In M. Witzel (Ed.), Inside the texts, beyond the texts: New approaches to the study of the Vedas (pp. 257–345). Harvard Oriental Series.
[12.] Zvelebil, K. V. (1973). The smile of Murugan: On Tamil literature of South India. Brill.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Our journal adopts CC BY License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://Creativecommons.org//license/by/4.0/ . It allows using, reusing, distributing and reproducing of the original work with proper citation.
