The Indo-European

prehistory

of yoga

N.J.Allen

Everyone

of the Sanskrit language is agrees that a historical understanding the framework without comparative impossible provided by Indo-European linguistics, but when we turn to Sanskritic culture, the picture is less clear. Ever

Jones, attempts have been made to develop a field of study that and to situate Hinduism might be called Indo-European cultural comparativism, within it, but how far have we got? Compared to linguists, students of culture since William and even less little consensus among themselves relatively cultural most eminent Indo-European comparativist of acceptance by others. The recent times has been Georges Dum?zil, but, in spite of Books like Fr?d?ric Blaise's Introduction ? la mythologie indo-europ?ens compar?e des peuples have achieved (1997), his work remains Sergent's Gen?se de rinde No wonder so many accounts relatively little known and definitely controversial. of Hindu religion, if they deal with the Indo-European dimension at all, do so in (1995) and Bernard in 1986,1 wonder if there is any individual equipped with sufficient cultural and linguistic knowl not myself. Even in edge to tackle the whole field with confidence?certainly the best case a comparativist will seldom know as much about any field he touches on as does a specialist in that field. One can easily go astray and waste is meant to be a time. Nevertheless, for all the risks, anthropology everyone's can we comparative discipline, and I have found the challenge irresistible. What learn about Hindu culture and religion by looking at it within an Indo-European framework? To explore this question, I have been, over the last ten years, pursuing two notion of the Indo interlinked ideas. One is that we need to expand Dum?zil's European 'brackets' manifested a bifid fourth function that ideology by recognizing the classical three, so that the ideology is most simply and typically in five-element lists and structures. Based on this idea, previous trifunctional International ? Journal of Hindu Studies 2, 1 (April 1998): 1-20 1998 by theWorld Heritage Press Inc. a couple of paragraphs on the Vedas or in passing footnotes. Clearly the field is a risky one. Since the death of Dum?zil

/ N.J. Alien

from Nuristan and papers (Allen 1991, 1996c, n.d.) have examined materials from early Roman pseudo-history. The functions may possibly be relevant to some of the five-element lists that will be encountered below, but I shall say no more about them here. idea is that much can be learned by comparing Sanskrit and Greek more and the Odyssey (Allen 1996a, 1996b). epics, precisely the Mah?bh?rata As regards the decision to focus on theMah?bh?rata, I am indebted particularly toMadeleine Biardeau (1981), who showed the centrality ofthat vast and aston ishing work for an anthropological understanding of classical Hinduism, and to me who convinced that many of the themes and structures of the 'Fifth Dum?zil, Veda' were rooted in the Indo-European heritage. From a comparativist point of view adopted here, the processes by which and the dates at which different parts of the epic were written down (say between 300 BCE and CE 400) are not the central questions. narrative content Working The written texts, in greater or lesser degree, derive their from an oral heritage to which comparison may give access. can from reconstructed past towards attested present, a comparativist a body of proto- or early Indo-European narrative material being The second

envisage transmitted

the Vedas orally throughout the Indo-Iranian period, bypassing now and we which read it. the in form proper, only relatively recently reaching As regards the Greek epic, it is a topic on which Dum?zil himself worked relatively little, believing that the Homeric narratives (first given written form in the eighth-seventh century BCE) had already largely escaped the straitjacket of Indo-European ideology. Here, as over the number of functions, I disagree with the great scholar. As I have argued elsewhere (Allen 1995, 1996a, 1996b), in of their and show similarities so numerous and careers, Arjuna parts Odysseus detailed that they must be cognate figures, sharing an origin in the proto-hero of an oral proto-narrative. For present purposes many questions about this proto narrative can be left unanswered. Was it told in prose or in verse or in amixture of the two? Was it told in the Urheimat or original homeland (whatever the location and date of that logically necessary zone of space-time), or did it diffuse somewhat after the dispersal began? It does not matter. The similarities cannot

be explained either by chance, or by Jungian archetypes, or by diffusion of the Homeric epics from Greece to India; and if they are as striking as I think then, one way or another, they must be due to common origin in a proto-narrative. I can now explain the aim of the paper. While looking for similarities between the plots of the two epics, I found that, roughly speaking, Books 5-6 of the to part of Book 3 of the Mah?bh?rata. In both cases the Odyssey correspond hero undertakes a journey. The relevant part of Book 3 describes the journey of the abode of the gods, and Arjuna from the Gangetic forests to the Himalayas, then by celestial chariot to the heavenly city of his father Indra, king of the gods.

The Indo-European Books

prehistory

of yoga

/ 3

5-6 of the Odyssey describe the journey of Odysseus isle from Calypso's of Ogygia to the capital of the blissful land of Scheria. Not only are the two heroes cognate, so are the two journeys (Allen 1996b); in other words, I proposed, journey But Arjuna's they reflect a single episode in the proto-narrative. is in several senses a yogic undertaking?for a start, the hero is explicitly 'yoked to Indra's yoga.' In ancient Greece one finds hints of yoga-like in religiosity, especially but there is nothing obviously about yogic or Pythagorean are a if stories both descend there from journey. So, proto-narrative,

Pythagoreanism,1 Odysseus' two possibilities.

Either the proto-journey was like the Greek and contained nothing relating to yoga, in which case the yogic aspect of the Sanskrit story was an innovation that developed in the Indian branch of the tradition. Or the proto was like the Sanskrit and was quasi-yogic or proto-yogic in character, in journey which case Greek epic tradition largely or wholly eliminated that aspect of the story. I shall argue for the second scenario, claiming both that the proto-narrative

shared certain features with yoga and that the telling of such a story makes it likely that there already existed ritual practices ancestral to yoga. I shall not spend long discussing views on the history of yoga based on other methods of study. In brief, the fundamental philosophical and didactic text, the is often dated to around the third century CE the roots of yoga lie much further back, and However, (though opinions vary). most accounts of itmention the references to yoga as such, and to related ideas, in the Upanisads (from around 500 BCE). Some suppose that yoga was elabo rated around that period, perhaps on the basis of quasi-scientific medical ideas as (Filliozat 1991: 299-303), while others have wished to go further back still, either rather vaguely to Indo-European or Asiatic shamanism or more precisely to to the pre-?ryan (that is, pie-Indo-European) Mohenjodaro, Indus Valley civilization (McEvilley 1981). A complex institution like yoga may draw on multiple roots, and I do not wish to oversimplify. However, I argue that some significant and fairly precisely identifiable features of yoga go back to the culture of those who told the proto-narrative?who, though I do not argue the well have been point here, may proto-Indo-European speakers. Structure of the argument found in Ayurveda s?tras or aphorisms of Pata?jali,

Essentially

I limit myself to four main sources: the two epic narratives, Pata?jali and the ?veta?vatara Upanisad. No doubt, in a fuller study, plus commentaries, other Sanskrit texts could be brought into the argument. Nothing is more so to more at than texts two the six than all once, confusing compare trying comparisons will be binary.

/ N.J.Allen

Mah?bh?rata

Svet?svatara

Upanisad

The sequence of the comparisons is shown in the diagram. To justify the notion of a proto-journey, I have first to compare the two epics. To show in what sense Arjuna's journey is yogic, I concentrate next on the Sanskrit texts, comparing the epic with Pata?jali, and then, moving backwards within comparing Pata?jali with the Upanisad and the latter with the yoga tradition, the Mah?bh?rata. first to the later

Only then can we return to the Greek and compare the Odyssey and then to the earlier of the philosophico-ritual texts.

ODYSSEY-MAH?BH?RATA

I begin by contextualizing the two epic journeys and providing rapid overviews. Mah?bh?rata. As is well known, the main plot recounts the conflict between P?ndavas (roughly, the goodies) and Kauravas (the baddies). Arjuna is by birth of the five P?ndava brothers and inmany ways the central character of the epic. Although all the brothers have divine fathers, Arjuna's is Indra, king of the gods. In Book 3 the Kauravas have succeeded in exiling the P?ndavas to the jungle for twelve years, and it is now that Vy?sa the sage arrives with instructions for Arjuna to undertake his journey: the hero will thereby acquire the weapons he needs in order to defeat the Kauravas. He is to receive them from a series of deities culminating in Indra himself.2 Arjuna leaves his four brothers and DraupadT and sets out on his journey. First he goes to the Himalayas and practices severe austerities (tapas) directed to ?iva. The great sages are worried and visit the god. Siva descends to earth, takes After the form of a mountain-dwelling tribal hunter, and picks a quarrel with Arjuna. a duel Arjuna receives a weapon from the god. The four Lokap?las (deities of the cardinal points) come to visit him, and three of them give him further the middle

Indra now sends his own chariot to take the hero up to heaven. After weapons. various adventures, Arjuna receives a thunderbolt. He returns to his brothers,

The Indo-European and eventually the P?ndavas regain their throne. Odyssey. their exile,

prehistory

of yoga

/ 5

complete

defeat

the Kauravas,

and

After ensuring the fall of Troy by means of the Wooden Horse, sets off for Ithaca. He meets with various delays and ten years later is Odysseus still languishing on Ogygia. Athene speaks up for him in the Council of the Gods, and Hermes is sent to start him on the final leg of his return journey, a solo voyage by raft. It is fated that on reaching Scheria he will be safe, but the transit is far from easy. Poseidon, still angry at the blinding of his son Poly a raises storm which wrecks the raft, and it is with great difficulty, phemus, a helped by kindly but unnamed river god, that the hero at last staggers ashore, naked and exhausted. After a night sleeping in a thicket, he accosts Princess Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous king of Scheria, who guides him to the royal city. At first sight Arjuna's journey by land and air will probably appear unrelated to Odysseus' sea and land, but I shall now quickly work through the journey by two stories and list twenty-three a longer points of similarity, summarizing analysis still in draft.1 The rapprochements vary in scale from the very macro scopic (such as the first) to quite small details of the narrative, but such variation has no obvious bearing on the validity of the comparison. 1. Larger journey. For both heroes, as we know, the transit in question is part of a much longer round trip. The P?ndavas set off from their royal capital before their exile and will return there. Odysseus sets off from Ithaca before the Trojan War and will likewise return. Before the transit both heroes are, as it were, becalmed. The have spent thirteen months in Dvaita Forest and show no signs of moving. Odysseus has spent seven years in Ogygia, and Calypso hopes to keep him there indefinitely. P?ndavas 3. Depression. The P?ndavas are deeply depressed and lament their situation at length. Odysseus spends his days weeping on the shore of Ogygia. 4. Visitor with instructions. Vy?sa arrives unexpectedly with instructions for the whole Hermes party to move on and for Arjuna himself to go to heaven arrives unexpectedly with Zeus' instructions for Odysseus (3.37.20). to depart 2. Stasis.

(5.77).4 5. Intermediary. Neither visitor speaks directly to the hero. Vy?sa deals only with Yudhisthira (Arjuna's eldest brother), Hermes with Calypso. 6. Female's farewell. Draupad? and Calypso both make touching good-bye
speeches.

7. Uneventful

fast until he is well

start. Arjuna goes north to the Himalayas, traveling alone and into the mountains. Odysseus alone sails before a favorable

/ N.J.Allen

wind for seventeen

days until he comes in sight of Scheria. 8. Unwearied. Arjuna travels night and day without fatigue. Odysseus sleep for the seventeen days. 9. A

does not

complex ordeal (we shall come back to its detailed structure later). Arjuna undertakes four months of tapas. Following a change of scene while the sages visit Siva, the story returns to earth for the fight, after which god and hero are reconciled. As for Odysseus, his raft is progressively destroyed by the storm. Then a lull. The hero's sufferings resume as he faces the problems of until his final success at the river mouth. landing, 10. Emaciation. Though most manuscripts ignore it, some refer, reasonably the tapas. The sages worry, but the enough, to Arjuna's emaciation following reassures and them, rejoices, and his god they rejoice. During the lull Odysseus comes joy is compared to that of a group of sons worried about their father. The father has suffered a long emaciating illness, and when, at last, the gods relent and the like some others (e.g., 13), father mends, the sons rejoice. This rapprochement, a is between the Sanskrit main story and Homeric simile. enemy and supporter. When Siva comes to earth, he initially treats he as were an enemy. When Poseidon becomes aware of Odysseus, if he Arjuna is balanced treats him as his enemy. However, divine in both cases, the enemy 11. Divine by a divine friend, for during his ordeal Arjuna receives support from Indra receives a Br?hmana and when Poseidon has departed Odysseus as disguised from Athene. help 12. Painful bodily contact. Arjuna's battle with Siva starts with an exchange of arrows and progresses to wrestling. Odysseus is thrown by a wave against a as wave rushes of the rock and hold it past. rough clasps 13. Lump of flesh with injured extremities. Siva reduces Arjuna to what looks like a lump of organic matter, a pinda (cf. Scheuer 1982: 232ff.), with damaged limbs. The wave which throws Odysseus against the rock rebounds from the cliffs and plucks him off again, stripping the skin from his hands. He is like an octopus dragged from its hole with pebbles adhering to its tentacles. in front of Siva. 14. Unconscious. Arjuna falls to the ground unconscious on to falls unconscious the Odysseus landing. ground Just 15. Prayer. Arjuna revives and prays to Siva, begging for forgiveness. kindness. his before he lands, Odysseus prays to the river god, begging for 16. Offering. Arjuna makes a clay image of Siva and offers to it a garland, which the god takes and puts on.5 Odysseus gives to the river god the veil of the goddess Ino, which he has been using as buoyancy who duly takes it in her hands. 17. Restoration. is physically aid. The god returns it to Ino,

Arjuna is physically restored by the touch of Siva. Odysseus restored by Athene's hypnotherapy.

The Indo-European 18. Cardinal Lokap?las. Notos,

prehistory

o/yoga

/ 7

the four points. After his encounter with Siva, Arjuna meets is buffeted by the four wind gods, Euros, During the storm, Odysseus Zephyr, and Boreus, who are linked with east, south, west, and north,

structure (a point we shall come back to). The four include but the king of the gods stands apart from the other Indra, Lokap?las three in various particulars. Among the four winds, Boreus, who is 'king of the winds' stands apart, for when Athene calms the other three (Pindar 4.181), winds she lets Boreus continue blowing until the lull. 20. City with park. Indra's heaven contains a divine city Amar?vat?, inhabited trees and a park. The Scherian city (unnamed) belongs by gods, with blossoming to the Phaeacians, who are near kin to the gods (agkhitheoi gegaasi; 5.35), and it contains Alcinous' park and his ever-fruitful trees. 21. Wheeled its king. Odysseus walks from her royal father. vehicle. Arjuna goes to the city in a chariot belonging to Indra, to the city behind the mule-cart that Nausicaa borrowed

respectively. 19. Three-plus-one

22. Throne. Arjuna shares his divine father's throne in his palace. Odysseus is seated next to the king on a throne which has just been vacated by Alcinous'
favorite son.

23. Disappointed nymph. In heaven the Apsaras Urvas? is misled by Indra into thinking that she will enjoy sex with Arjuna, which indeed she wants to do.6 Nausicaa is misled by Athene into thinking that she will very soon be getting married; and when she meets Odysseus, she hopes itwill be to him.

scope for elaboration of the argument, I hope that this of suffices to show that the two stories straightforward listing rapprochements are cognate. The full force of the argument will not be appreciated unless an effort ismade to envisage the individual items structurally, that is, as interrelated Although both sequentially and hierarchically. One needs to compare not only items n and N but also n with its neighbors and N with its neighbors and n regarded as (say) a pre-ordeal feature of a journey within a journey and N regarded similarly. individual Though parallel innovations are always a theoretical possibility, probably
form

there ismuch

all the twenty-three

shared features or motifs

were

present

in some

in the proto-narrative.

MAH?BH?RATA-PATANJALl

In what sense is Arjuna's

journey yogic? At its start the hero is said to be 'yoked

/ N.J.Allen

to Indra's yoga' (aindrena yogena; 3.38.27), but what does that mean?7 Indra yoga is not a recognized category in the philosophico-ritual literature, but the context suggests that it refers here to the whole of Arjuna's journey from the sorrows of forest exile to the delights of his father's heaven. The journey offers a to the spiritual progression rough typological resemblance mundane world of suffering to a condition of transcendence, of a yogin from the but how close is the

similarity? Before detailing yogic practice, Pata?jali describes the yogin the obstacles must overcome. These include languor and listlessness, accompanied by pain and despondency a 1989: 45-46; Woods 1988: 63-65), (1.30-31; Feuerstein state of mind which recalls the condition of the P?ndavas before Vy?sa's arrival (see especially 3.28.1; comparison 3 above). Yogic practice under eight headings called anga, 'parts, limbs,* which sequence. The group of eight limbs is split into the five outer three inner or direct. Let us work through the list, asking in the item in question relates to Arjuna's 2.29-35) journey. itself is presented come in a fixed or indirect and the each case whether

The outer anga (Pata?jali

or abstentions. Before he sets off, Arjuna is in 'disciplined speech, body, and mind' (yata-v?k-k?ya-m?nasa, root shares its with 3.38.14; yata y?m?). 2. Niyama, the five observances (positive activities, as distinct from the initial negative group, but the same verb root). The list includes contentment (santosa) said to be at finding a ramam?na) by tapas. Arjuna is happy (pritam?nasa, in the forest for his tapas. pleasant place 3. ?sana, posture. As we shall see, Arjuna adopts a particular ?sana for his fourth month of tapas. breath control. The description of Arjuna's posture is followed a In this particular context the word reference to his pr?na. by immediately seems to mean strength rather than breath, but the choice of the term is sugges
tive.

1. Yama. five forms of self-control

followed

4. Pr?n?y?ma,

5. Praty?h?ra, withdrawal of senses from the outer world. At the end of the fight Arjuna becomes samm?dha, unconscious or stupefied. This is not the same thing as voluntary sensory withdrawal, but the similarity is again suggestive. So, of the five outer limbs, Arjuna's behavior certainly relates to the first three and possibly to the last two as well. In the epic the motifs are not placed in list, but the order in which they occur is the parallel so as to form a recognizable same as in Pata?jali.

77?^ Indo-European The inner anga and the overall structure The

prehistory 3J-7)

of yoga

/ 9

(Pata?jali

'fixation of thought, three inner limbs, dh?ran?, dhy?na, and sam?dhi, activities or states difficult to charac meditation, and ecstasy,' are psychological terize in words. They in turn lead on to kaivalya, 'isolation,' the ultimate goal. not such mental does stages in the course of his go through any Though Arjuna journey to heaven, comparison is possible at a more abstract level. The sequence then three inner limbs, then ultimate consisting of psycho-physical preliminaries, then to Arjuna?Siva, goal parallels the sequence of gods who give weapons as a we outer limbs the treat then Indra. In other words, if three Lokap?las, single element, Pata?jali and the epic share the abstract structure of initial element, triad, and final element or one-plus-three-plus-one. The comparison would be more striking if the epic structure were five-plus outer three-pius-one, with an initial fivefold element corresponding to Pata?jali's the hints of the five outer limbs in the epic do not form a list, they of such an element, but there is another sense in fivefold. The interaction which Arjuna's dealings with Siva are unambiguously month under a differ to each with four months the of directed tapas god, begins the regimes are, ent regime. According to one of the two versions (3.163.14-16), limbs. Since cannot be used as evidence respectively, roots and fruit; water alone; total fast; and, for month four, standing on tiptoe with arms raised (the ?sana mentioned earlier). The four months of which constitutes the encounter severe in the austerities culminate increasingly fifth phase of the interaction. Thus, the epic journey does three-plus-one pattern present in Pata?jali. The final element show the five-plus

in this pattern is represented on the one hand by Arjuna in to Pata?jali's final s?tra, on the other by kaivalya. According heaven with Indra, isolation can be conceived either as the involution of the components of nature in itself or as 'the power of awareness grounded (gun?n?m pratiprasava) citisakti). The comparison is with Arjuna, earthly incarnation (svar?pa-pratisth? of Indra, who has returned to his origin, being taken into his father's lap and sitting on the supreme throne 'like a second Indra' (3.44.21-22).

Siddhis
Before or reaching isolation, the yogin may acquire magical powers (siddhi for not are recommended vibh?ti), which, although they are signs of success, those who truly seek salvation. Is this feature of yoga present in the story? When Vy?sa brings instructions for the journey, he also provides a mysterious as being 'like siddhi entity that seems to be a spell, but which is described (3.37.26). With itArjuna will obtain success, sadhayisyatU the verb personified'

10

/ N.J.Allen

containing the same root as the noun. More specifically, account of siddhis (3.16-18) includes invisi Pata?jali's of and of the cosmic bility (3.21), knowledge space (3.26) arrangement and movement of stars (3.27-28), or the sight of Siddhas Perfecti (3.32), and upward In the flight (3.39). All of these motifs relate to Arjuna's journey (3.43.26-28). course of his upward flight to heaven, the hero becomes invisible to mortals; that he will be able to see the entire having been told beforehand by Yudhisthira universe, he sees the stars in their thousands and is told about them by M?tali; he is driven along the roadway of the Siddhas, and on arrival those who greet him include Siddhas. (3.51) Pata?jali refers, somewhat oddly, invitations which should not arouse those in high places,' or attachment in the is clarified by Vy?sa's commen The pride yogin. meaning (a century tary (from around CE 750?) and V?caspati Misra's subcommentary later). Those in high places are the gods, 'like the great Indra,' whose invitations to 'invitations from instance, may in effect tempt the yogin to deviate from his true purpose?for when they offer 'maidens who are not prudish' (in James Woods' translation? literally 'who are compliant,' anuk?l?). But this is just what happens to Arjuna. Soon after his arrival (cf. comparison the temptation is rejected. Thus, there are connections and the undertaking in heaven, Indra arranges for a seductive nymph Urvas? to visit the hero one evening, got up in all her finery?but 23) of many different types between Arjuna's journey Towards the end of the same section

of the yogin.

?VETASVATARA UPANI$AD-VATA?JALl

Any account of the history of yoga mention this latish Upanisad, which

S?nkhya. After raising some of section describes the individual soul, which is whirled along in life with five can be saved by appropriate knowledge and discipline. An types of suffering but invocation of the Vedic god Savitar (2.1-7) leads on to the well-known passage

1980; Hauer 1958) will (e.g., Feuerstein is also important in the early history of the first the basic philosophical questions,

giving brief but explicit instructions on how to perform yoga, where to perform it, and the apparitions (such as mist and smoke) that itwill initially produce. The next section begins with a vision of the god Rudra (3.1-6), who remains funda mental in the soteriological reflections that dominate the remainder of the text. The Upanisad lacks Pata?jali's to what in classical yoga would structure, but it refers five-plus-three-plus-one be four of the limbs (2.8-9). The practitioner

77?^ Indo-European

prehistory

of yoga

11

should keep head, neck, and chest erect (?sand)\ draw his senses into his heart and restrain his mind (praty?h?ra); control his breathing (pr?n?y?ma); (dh?ran?). The two yogic texts are usually presented in historical order, but the connec tion between them is so well recognized that I can pass on it quickly. However, is perhaps worth noting their shared theistic orientation. to Is vara, Pata?jali gives the Lord, a significant place in the yogin9s undertaking, for instance, by making devotion to him the fifth of the niyama. On the other hand, he does not associate Isvara with any other theonym, and it would be risky to assimilate the Lord to MaheSvara (Siva) and thereby claim a link with the Rudra of the Upanisad.

?VET??VATARAUPANISAD-MAH?BH?RATA

We

can skip past features that the epic and Upanisad share with Pata?jali?the initial situation of suffering, the explicit reference to yoga, and the four limbs concentrate on rapprochements (see the preceding section)?and involving only the first two.

1. The section concerning Savitar is interesting. The god's name, which appears in five of the seven verses, comes from s?, 'set inmotion, impel, vivify,' and is three times linked with other derivatives of the verb (as is common in the 1974: 34). In the present context the god is apparently Rg Veda; Macdonell in motion setting journeys to heaven (suvargey?ya sakty?, suvaryato) and the whole yogic undertaking. But this is just the role of Vy?sa, without whose impulsion Arjuna would presumably never have made his journey. 2. The first five verses of the Upanisadic passage all begin with forms of the verb same root occurs five times in the (uncompounded) yuj, 'yoke,' and connection with the start of the epic journey (3.38.9-11, the first 3.38.27-28; two instances being compounded). One also notes that the spell or knowledge once is as referred to an provided by Vy?sa by Yudhisthira upanisad (3.38.9), as well as being called a vidy? and a brahman (neuter). 3. The Upanisadic yogin is to restrain his mind as if it were a chariot yoked with vicious horses (2.9). The image of the person or soul as chariot is quite well known (some Indian instances are collected by Teun Goudriaan 1990), but the comparison here is with the chariot of Indra, yoked with its ten thousand bay from Mount horses, and driven by M?tali, which carries Arjuna heavenwards Mandara. Arjuna is of course not restraining the horses?the rapprochement bears only on the occurrence of the image at just this point in both texts.8

12

/ N.J.Alien is not the same as in the epic where, in is clearly Indra and the link between

4. As

regards deities, context,

the present Rudra-Siva

the configuration the supreme deity

and the hero's

Upanisad does resemble features tain-dweller (3.5-6),

is spelled out. On the other hand, the undertaking the epic in presenting Rudra as a bowman and moun

to Hermann Oldenberg (1988: that, according as the to Rudra. the Vedic Moreover, Upanisadic 113), belonged just original so poet prays that Rudra will show himself in a body that is kindly (Siva; 3.5), after he has been defeated in the duel.

Arjuna prays to the god for mercy

If we only had the three Sanskrit texts, we might here be tempted to pause and think about their relations. Does the soteriological darsana derive from the epic; or has the epic been molded by the soteriology; or should we think of a two-way traffic? But given that this part of the epic story goes back to the proto-narrative, the deeper question is whether the latter was in any sense yogic. Now we know the sort ofthing to look for, are there any hints of yoga in the Greek?

ODYSSEV-PATANJALI

As Poseidon decreed

his ultimate

voluntarily austerities

fate has once Odysseus reaches Scheria, the hero's to a Thus, up point, sufferings. s the sea at resembles ordeal lonely undertaken, lengthy, solo yogin9 lead to salvation. But the on land: both experiences ultimately realizes (5.288-89), release from recalling that the yogin9s to the five stages the storm sent by from this

similarity is too general to be very interesting. Let us look instead at the structure of the ordeal, undertaking starts with the five of Arjuna's dealings with Siva. Poseidon, and if we look at his point onwards, we find precisely 1.The 2. The steering. 3. The

outer anga which correspond ordeal opens with Odysseus' or modes of progression conveyances five of them.

threatened raft. Poseidon

hulk. The first great wave

has seen the raft and gathers the storm. strikes, and the raft loses mast, sail, and

strikes and shatters the hulk, the next great wave plank. When a Odysseus bestrides single plank. 4. The veil. During stage 2 the goddess Ino gave Odysseus her veil. The hero now strips, dives from the plank with arms stretched out, and swims buoyed up by the veil. 5. Walk on earth. On landing he returns the veil and staggers up a hillock on

The Indo-European
foot.

prehistory

of yoga

13

four stages on water comfortably on a well-made

Starting off raft, generously supplied by Calypso with food, drink, and fine clothes, the hero is progressively stripped of all such external supports and reduced in the end to his naked humanity.9 If the five stages in the hero's ordeal correspond in number to the five outer organized sequence.

The

form a clearly

to the three inner ones plus kaivalyal The limbs, does anything correspond answer was foreshadowed in comparison 19. In the Sanskrit epic the three-plus one structure was provided by the three subordinate Lokap?las plus Indra, and in the Greek this corresponded to the three wind gods who were quieted plus Boreus, three-plus-one wind gods enter the than the Lokap?las and differ also in their minimal stage individualization; moreover, Boreus lacks a role in Scheria corresponding to that of Indra in heaven. Nevertheless, the abstract pattern is present. There are also more concrete similarities. story at an earlier the north wind, who was not. The

1. When the first wave strikes, Odysseus is thrown into the sea, and it is only with difficulty that he surfaces and regains the hulk of his raft. The latter is tossed hither and thither like thistle plants (akanthas) 'which an autumnal north wind blows across a plain, and they adhere to each other in a ball' (5.328-29). For the yogin who masters the ud?na or upward breath, there is 'no adhesion to water, mud, thorns (kantaka), or the like' (3.39). The notion of adhesion is worth noting, even though it is expressed and used quite differently in the two cases. Somewhat later the wave sent by Poseidon shatters the hulk 'as when a strong wind tosses a heap of dry chafF (5.368). As for the yogin, 'either by controlling the relations between his body and ether (?k?Sa) or by the coincidence (of with light (objects) such as cotton (tula),9 he is able to traverse consciousness) the ether (3.42). In both passages that can seem to float in the air. Taken a simile refers to dry light vegetable matter

individually, the resemblances are slight, but they need to be seen as a neither text offers more than two such images): the Greek thistles and (and pair chaff parallel the Sanskrit thorns and cotton fibers. 2. On Nausicaa's encouragement Odysseus washes the brine from his shoul ders and back and the foam from his head, and Athene then makes him taller, stronger, and more admirable; his head and shoulders radiate beauty and grace (6.230-32). Similarly, the yogin who masters sam?na (one of the five breaths) becomes radiant, gaining beauty, grace, and power (3.40, 3.46). Surprisingly,
perhaps the Sanskrit for grace, l?vanya, comes from lavana, 'salt.'

3. Odysseus

makes

the last part of his journey

to the palace

enveloped

in a

14

/ N.J.Allen

In the (akhlus, 7.41; air, 7.143), so that he is invisible to the populace. context of sam?dhi, very close to the end of the yogic undertaking, Pata?jali of dharma here the meaning the dharma-megha mentions (4.29). Whatever recall the yogin''s means a also cloud. One might (Feuerstein 1980: 100), megha mist invisibility (3.21).10

ODYSSEY-?VET??VATARA UPANI?AD

The following

four points bear on successive crosses

verses of the Sanskrit

(2.8-11).

1. Raft. Odysseus construction makes crossover

the lonely ocean on a raft (even if the account of its tells the wise man to it sound like a boat). The Upanisad streams in brahman-rail his (some translators render fear-bringing that Nausicaa have already compared the mule-cart the celestial chariot that M?tali drives on behalf of to the chariot 21), but we now see that it also corresponds with lands seems to him excellent (aristos) It must be

udupa as boat). 2. Wheeled vehicle. We borrows from Alcinous Indra (comparison image in the Upanisad

essentially Nausicaa's

(5.442-43). the same spot as the idyllic water meadow close to the shore, where and maidens wash the clothes in abundant fresh water (6.85-95), where Odysseus washes in fresh water, sheltered from the wind (6.210). But the place recommended for the practice of yoga is pure and level; free from pebbles and gravel; agreeable for its running water and other reasons; sheltered from the
wind.

(2.9).n 3. Location. The place where Odysseus since it is smooth of stones and sheltered

from the wind

4. Mist. yogin

travels in a mist Odysseus sees a mist (nth?ra).12 the rapprochements like those between

(cf. point 3 in the preceding

section);

the

Presumably Sanskrit texts,

proto-narrative.

between

the two epics,

and the non-epic the Odyssey features of the indicate also

CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

A minimal

and conservative

conclusion

would

be that the proto-narrative

lying

The Indo-European behind

prehistory

of yoga

15

the two epics contained a good number of the features that were taken up and elaborated into the ritual and philosophy of yoga when the Indo-European speakers reached India. But the argument can be taken further. Apart from the proto-narrative, ing journeys. That of Odysseus, we have discussed three typologically contrast it involved the gods, was presumably

although understood by Homer and his audience primarily as one of a series of adventures such as a hero of old might be expected to undergo?a story that, even if it was was in no sense a charter for perhaps open toreligious or spiritual interpretation, under a current ritual practice. The yogin9s 'journey,' in contrast, is spiritual human current beings. taking that is presented as lying within the scope of one hand, it is an epic the On is intermediate. Arjuna's journey typologically adventure set towards the end of the era immediately preceding our own, and it that ordinary humanity could or should is not presented as an undertaking is akin to other yogic attempt to emulate. On the other hand, as Indra-yoga, it the as in are such recommended epic for those with undertakings constantly and the saw in the 'Mah?bh?rata-Palanjali9 spiritual ambitions, and as we common in "Svet?Svatara Upanisad-Mah?bh?rata9 sections, it has much else with those undertakings. The problem journey, namely, that of the proto-hero. Let us return to the two scenarios is how to relate this typology sketched to a fourth

is that the proto-narrative was more an adventure story, a sailor's yarn, albeit one in which gods ?essentially intervened from time to time (comparisons 11, 15-19, 23). It would follow that, in the East, the story was sucked into the ambiance of one among the various movements later codified as darSanas and that it acquired philosophico-religious its yogic aspects in the process. In short, the proto-narrative was spiritualized by possibility the Sanskrit speakers or their ancestors. was typologically closer According to the other hypothesis, the proto-narrative hero was a (fictional) of to the Sanskrit. In that case the physical journey out by acted conceived as a spiritual ascent within the cosmos such as could be in a ritual journey of some kind. Such a journey would more contemporaries itwould have been shamanic than yogic since (like Arjuna's) called naturally be the traveler and for than undertaken primarily for the benefit of others rather since it would have been thought of as traversing the external space of the cosmos rather than the inner mental space of the yogin. This second hypothesis assumes that, in the absence of adequate support from mainstream religious institutions,
more

at the start of the paper. One like the Greek than the Sanskrit

the narrative
and more

tradition
secular.

leading to the Greek

In short, the

epic

tended to become
was despiri

earth-bound

proto-narrative

tualized. A compromise hypothesis is logically possible (a half-way spiritual proto

16

/ N.J.Allen in the other by the by the Greeks, it. The second hypothesis?secular seem to most readers intuitively more

in one direction narrative was developed Indians), but I see nothing to recommend

ization by the Greeks?will probably plausible, but it is not clear to me how best to formulate or weight the explicit arguments that are needed to prove it.What follows is a first attempt.

into atomistic and global. to the question might be distinguished Approaches Atomistic arguments focus on particular narrative motifs, which themselves may or may not be demonstrably part of the proto-narrative. Let us take one of the former types: at the end of his journey the hero sits on or by a royal throne Is the motif well (comparison 22). One can now ask three sorts of question. motivated make better sense or would it integrated in the Greek narrative as it stands, in a less secular story? Similarly for the Sanskrit: is the motif or problematic as it stands, or would it make better sense in a more and well

puzzling like the Greek secular story? And, thirdly, is it easier to imagine something or In this versa? vice like case, into the Sanskrit, firstly, it is a something turning to displace his favorite son in favor of a complete little odd for Alcinous stranger, secondly, itmakes perfect sense for Indra to share his throne with his own son, whose does seem more

journey was from the start directed towards him; and, thirdly, it likely that the king of the gods should be naturalized to a proto than that the latter should be promoted to cosmic supremacy. Similarly Alcinous ?to take other examples?is it not more likely that a bout of wrestling with a 12) than vice god should be naturalized into grappling with a rock (comparison to a mule-cart versa? That the supreme god's chariot should be demoted oral narratives can about how All than the converse? judgments (comparison 21) but the change are liable to the charge of being tendentious and subjective, towards a cosmic and exemplary atomistic arguments seem to point collectively
character for the proto-narrative.

on arguments too come in various forms. One line of thought focuses as wholes. The the structure and degree of integration of the two narratives taken has a clear overall structure Sanskrit, in spite of various minor discrepancies, Global to the sequence of five gods with whom the hero has dealings, all of are in advance by Vy?sa in his instructions for the journey. whom mentioned less integrated. One thing after another The Greek is in this respect definitely befalls the hero, and although the reader expects him to arrive safely, no outline named of the trip is given in advance. Instead of a neat set of five well-known linked male the four wind gods, the rela gods, the hero has dealings with Poseidon, more likely that tively obscure Ino, Athene, and the nameless river god. Is it not Greek tradition has seen the clear structure of the proto-narrative give way to a less structured sequence than that India has forced a disorganized string of adventures into its favored fivefold framework?

The Indo-European Another

prehistory

of yoga

I M

on the yogic tradition. global argument focuses not on the epic but Sanskrit that from scratch (or Indo-Iranian) among yoga developed Suppose with the proto speakers and lacked any relevant precursor contemporary and 'Svet?svatara of 'Mahabharata-Patanjal? narrative. The rapprochements of yoga on the to influence the due be then would Upanisad-Mah?bh?rata9 of Sanskrit epic. But what about the rapprochements 'Odyssey-PatanjaYi9 and Upanisad9! They would have to be due to borrowings by 'Odyssey-Svet?Svatara the yogic tradition from the epic. In other words, we have to postulate that the tradition both borrowed from the epic and gave to it. Some philosophico-ritual such process of give and take is not impossible, but it is much simpler to a ritual and spiritual suppose that the proto-narrative was already linked with
praxis.

be in line too with general anthropological expectation. The proto narrative involved gods and could well be called a myth, but myth and ritual are a ritual very often seems to be the raison intertwined?indeed very commonly This would d'?tre of a myth. Thus, independent of all the other arguments, it is a priori quite as a myth explaining likely that the account of the proto-hero's journey served and justifying ritual practices ancestral to yoga as we know it. If it did so then the journey becomes comparable with those other stretches of the proto-narrative for different types of marriage that served, I think, as charters, respectively, ritual and for the horse sacrifice (Allen 1995, 1996a).13

Notes

1. 'By practices of asceticism and exercises of spiritual concentration, connected of respiration, they [the perhaps with bodily techniques, especially with the cessation scattered to the and unite collect claimed throughout the whole up psychic powers Magi] been isolated and had that the soul the to from individual, body deliberately separate recentered in this way, to return it for a moment to its original home so that it could recover its divine nature, and, finally, tomake it descend again and chain itself anew with the bonds of the body* (Vemant 1990: 368-69, cf. 388-89; my translation). Since this
paper focuses specifically on yoga, I avoid discussion of Greek and Indian shamanism.

so fascinating. Jeffrey Gold (1996) explicitly avoids the historical questions that I find 37-45 is edition). 2. The relevant section of narrative chapters (critical 3. A few of the comparisons have already appeared inAllen 1996b, of which this paper
is in a sense a development.

4. Precise references will not usually be given since they can readily be found by
following each story as it unwinds.

5. This detail of the story is omitted from themain text of the critical edition. 6. This episode too is omitted from themain text of the critical edition (cf. comparison 16).

18

/ N.J.Allen

7. The passage is not discussed in the substantial article by Edward Hopkins (1901). J. Van Buitenen (1973-78, 2: 822) suggests plausibly that Tndra's yoga' is the spell or secret knowledge thatVy?sa leaves for Arjuna at the same time as he leaves instructions. 8. M?tali congratulates Arjuna on the astonishing firmness with which he withstands the shock of takeoff (3.164.37-38), a motif thatmay relate to the term dh?ran? (from dhr; cf. dhrtu 'firmness, resolution*). Compare also the stability (sthairyam) included in Pata?jali's account of siddhis (2.31).
9. An alternative analysis, focusing less on conveyances than on denudation, would

identify the fifth phase with the brief period when the hero grapples with the rock and is stripped even of part of his skin. 10.Comparisons can also be made between theGreek epic and the didactic accounts of yoga in the Sanskrit epic. Odysseus remains sleepless for seventeen nights (comparison 8), and patient meditation can enable one to abandon sleep (Mah?bh?rata 12.232.5). The simile of the octopus with damaged tentacles (comparison 13)might recall the compari son of the yogin with the tortoise who retracts his limbs (Bhagavad G?ta 2.58).
11. The chariot simile also occurs in didactic epic: 'As a heedful charioteer, having

yoked good steeds, quickly takes the warrior to the spot he wishes,
in dh?ran?, 12. One stream soon might yoga. attains also the highest compare spot* (Mah?bh?rata with pile ascetics of 12.289.36-37). from Odysseus

so the yogin, heedful

other hero than main to a

traditions

Hindu

When

he sleeps

in his

leaves,

the Greek

is likened

firebrand (dalon) carefully kept alight under a heap of ashes (5.487).

Svet?mbara and is likened Jaina to scriptural 'a fire stories a king-turned-ascetic within a heap of ashes,* undertakes huy?sane confined viva

In a series of
austerities bh?sa-r?si

intense

palicchanne
rapprochement

(Barnett 1907: 57,118,

bears on the history of

133, cited inDundas

the notion of tapas

1992: 142). If it is accepted, the

(literally 'heat').

13. This paper, which reflects an old interest (Allen 1974), has benefited from presentation in several forums, including the Oriental Institute, Oxford (1993) and the Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions (1997). I also thank Joanna Pfaff for critical
comments.

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