N. Gopala Pillai, M. A
from the Proceedings of the All-India Oriental Conference
Vol. IX (Trivandrum: Government Press, 1937), pp. 955-997
Herodotus[51] speaks of Dionysus as a late addition to the Hellenic gods. “Whence the gods severally sprang, whether or no they had existed from all eternity, what forms they bore – these are questions of which the Greeks knew nothing until the other day, so to speak. For Homer and Hesiod were the first to compose theogonies and give the gods their epithets, to allot them their several offices and occupations, and describe their forms”.
The worship of Dionysus is said to be of Thracian origin. But the fundamental conceptions underlying the rites and ceremonies of Dionysiac worship are the common heritage of various nations. Yet there is no reason to doubt the veracity of Herodotus’s statement that the worship was new to Greece. New forms of ritual and new ideas might naturally have been grafted on to the old existent ones. And that is always the case with religion even when the new one appears to radically differ from the old. The residuum of old faiths remains and through a gradual process of osmosis, diffuses into the new.
The cardinal notions of the cult of Dionysus are evident from The Bacchae of Euripides (Prof. Gilbert Murray’s translation),
“Achelous’ roaming daughter,
Holy Dirce, virgin water,
Bathed he not of old in thee
The Babe of God, the Mystery?
When from out the fire immortal
To himself his God did take him,
To his own flesh and bespake him”.
In The Bacchae, Dionysus is fire-born and attended by the light of torches. He is Dithyrambos[52] the twice-born: born from fire and again from water. The water-rite or baptism is an ancient ritual. The baptism of fire and the baptism of water are meant for the magical acquisition of strength for the child. And it has survived in Christian ritual to the present day in one form or another.
“In fire is a great strength, and the child must be put in contact with this strength to catch its contagion and grow strong. The water-rite, baptism, has the same intent. Water too is full of sanctity, of force, of ‘mana’; through water comes the birth into a new life”.[53]
Now we could trace this Bacchic idea in unaltered form even in the Upanisads. The Katha Upanisad says,
“Ya imam madhvadam veda , Ātmānam Jīvam antikāt , Iśānam bhūtabhavyasya , Na tato vijugupsate – etad vai tat
Yah pūrvam tapaso jātam, Adbhyah pūrvam ajāyata, Guhām praviśya tisthantam, Yo bhūtebhir vyapaśysta – etad vai tat”.
Katha IV, 5 and 6
“He knows this mead-eater
as the living soul at hand,
Lord of what has been and what is to be,
He shrinks not from him. This verily is that.
He who first from the fire was born
From waters, of old, was born
Who in mystery entered stands,
Who was seen by creatures”.
Whatever be the metaphysical interpretation given, the fact remains that there is unmistakable parallelism between these passages from the Bacchae and the Katha Upanisad. The fire-born, water-born mead-eater who stands in mystery cannot escape our notice.
Later Sanskrit literature, particularly classical Sanskrit dramas, abound in descriptions of Vasantotsava or Madanotsava. The Vasantotsava was a regular Bacchanalian festival conforming in all essential details to the authentic western type. Compare the description in the Ratnāvali of Srī Harsa.
“Preksasva tāvad asya madhu matta kāminījana
Svayamgrāha grhīta srñgakajala prahāra nrtyan
nāgara jana janita kautūhalasya samantatah
śabdāyamāna mardaloddāma carcarī śabda mukhara
rathyā mukha śobhinah prakīrna patavāsa puñja
pinjarita daśa diśāmukhasya saśrīkatām madana
Mahotsavasya”.
Ratnavali, Act. 1
Skanda is frequently spoken of as the son of fire (Agnibhū - the son of the Ganges (Gangāsuta) and Mystery (Guha).
Dionysus us also described as the son of Semele, the Earth Mother.[54] “He is not only son of Semele, of Earth, but son of Semele as Keraunia, Earth the thunder-smitten”.[55] It was appropriate in her case as bride of Zeus, the god of thunder. Euripides has rendered the conception into immortal verse in his Hyoppolytus.
“O mouth of Dirce, O god-built wall
That Dirce’s well run under;
You know the Cyprian’s fleet foot-fall
Ye saw the heavens round her flare
When she lulled to her sleep that Mother fair
Of Twy-bron Bacchus and crowned her there.
The Bride of the bladed thunder:
For her breath is on all that hath life,
And she floats in the air,
Bee-like, death-like, a wonder”
In the prologue of the Bacchae, Dionysus himself is made to say
“Behold god’s son is come unto this land.
Of Thebes, even I, Dionysus, whom the brand
Of heavn’s splendour lit to life, when she
Who bore me Cadmus’ daughter Semele,
Died here. So, changed in shape from God to man,
I walk again by Dirce’s stream, and scan
[text corrupted]
Now the word Keraunia regularly sanskritized becomes saravana. Compare the analogy of Ionia which admittedly becomes yavana. Skanda is Śaravanabhava, born of Śaravana. But the usual Sanskrit etymology of Śaravana a “forest of reeds” seems quite natural, when this original signification was lost through the lapse of time. He is also referred to as Mahīsuta,[56] the son of the Earth.
According to Greek mythology, Dionysus, the son of Zeus, was nursed by the nymphs Hyades. They were originally twelve on number and five of them were placed among the stars as Hyades and seven of them under the name of Pleiades, out of gratitude for their services.[57]
And according to the Indian myth, the six stars Krttikās or Pleiades were the nurses of Skanda, and thus he acquired the name of Kārttikeya. This particular corroboration is worth noting. The myths are identical. The same star groups figure both in the capacity of nursing nymphs. It is an interesting fact.[58] The constellation of the Pleiades looms large in the imagination of all primitive peoples. The coincidence of the rising or the setting of the constellation with the commencement of the rainy season might have made the primitive man associate these stars with agriculture. This belief was current in both hemispheres. The aborigines of Australia, the Indians of Paraguey and Brazil, Peru and Mexico and North America, the Polynesians and Melanesians, the natives of New Guinea, the Indian Archipelago, and of Africa hold this star-group in veneration. Greeks and Romans and ancient Indians had noted the heliacal rising. Naturally enough, stars which were associated with the rains and the fertility of the crops were regarded as the nurses of the god of vegetation and fertility.
“Dionysus is a god of many names; he is Bacchos, Baccheus, Iacchos, Bassareus, Bromios, Euios, Sabzios, Zagreus, Thyoneus, Lenaios, Eleuthereus, and the list by no means exhausts his titles”.[59] Many of them are descriptive titles. “Certain names seem to cling to certain places. Sebazios is Thracian and Phryian, Zagreus Cretan, Bromios largely Theban, Iacchos Athenian.”
Zagreus or the Cretan Dionysus is the son of the Goddess Mountain Mother.[60] On the clay impression of a signet ring found at the palace of Cnossos, we come across the figure of the Mountain Mother. On the apex of the mountain, there she stands with two fierce mountain-ranging lions on either side, with an extended weapon, “imperious and dominant”.[61] Behind her is her shrine with columns, trident-shaped. The triśūla-shape is unmistakable. Now turn to India. Skanda is the son of Pārvatī Umā. I venture to suggest that Pārvatī Umā is an exact rendering of Mountain Mother. Of course, a curious etymology of Umā has been given by the Puranas, which we find is followed by the great poet, Kalidasa.
“Umeti mātrā tapaso nisiddhā
Pascād umākhyām sumukhī jagāma”
– Kumāra sambhava
“Forbidden by her mother from penance, with the words “U” “MĀ” (O don’t) the graceful girl later acquired the name of Umā.”
The ingenuity of the etymology is transparent. In fact, the word Umā seems to be related to the Semitic word ‘Umma’ which means mother; and Ambā and Ambikā are other names of Pārvatī.