Sanskrit Kabairas or Kubairas and Greek Kabeiros.1 By E. W. HOPKINS, Professor in Yale University. The phonetic equivalence of the Greek and earlier Sanskrit forms is patent and has already been noted by Professor Wackernagel (KZ. 41, p. 314 ff.), who explains the labialization in the later Sanskrit form as due to the proximity of the labial consonant. The difficulty in the identification has lain in the apparently incongruous character of the two spirits. In preparing a manual of Hindu mythology I have recently been impressed with the fact that the incongruity is more apparent than real. The variant Ko-beiros, which Hesychius identifies with the kobalt or gobelinus ordinarily called Kobālos was originally one with the form Ka-beiros. That is to say, the house-spirit full of tricks was at first not differentiated from the gnome of the mountain-caves, kyběla. The chthonic mountain-mother abstracted from the caves is Kybělē (Kybēlē). I shall give no analysis of the character of the Greek spirit. The tricky troll of the Athenian home, the mysterious gnome of the mountain caves, with his phallic characteristics, hist affinity with the worker in iron and fire, the hoarder of treasure connected with the god of luck, finally the mystery and revelling of the Kabeiros-these need only to be mentioned to be recalled. But as for Kabairas or Kuberas, who would think of him as capable of being interpreted in the same way, I venture to add even described with the same words? The fact is, however, that Sanskrit scholars are obliged to depend in large part for their understanding of Hindu gods upon statements made in comparatively late literature, and when these statements are united in the current mythological handbooks with other data drawn at random from Vedic and 1 This paper was read at the Meeting of the Oriental Congress-Athens. April, 1912. epic literature, the result is such a hodge-podge of truth and error that the god depicted represents neither the Vedic, epic, nor Puranic conception, but a fearful mixture of notions drawn from different millenniums. Thus the latest and least authoritative native authors furnish the data which give the outline. of Kubēra as pictured in the standard mythology. He is a god having several wives, none of whom is known to any ancient writer; he possesses only eight teeth and has three legs, characteristics opposed to his earlier conception, though perhaps in part retained from traits not formally acknowledged, he has several sons, only one of whom is really known as such; he "receives no worship", whereas he is worshipped in earlier literature; and finally, most of his characteristic traits are ignored altogether. A closer study of the Kubēra (Kabairas) of early literature will show that this "god" wins his high title late in life and that he is no bad representative on Hindu soil of the Greek Kabeiros-Kobeiros (Kobālos). In regard to the form of the name, it appears as Kubēra for earlier (*Kabera) Kābēraka (the ending -ka is secondary and is found also in the epic Kuberaka), in which ē = ăi. Native authorities enlist the form with other words in -ēra, guhēra, godhēra, kaṭhēra, kuṭēra, gaḍēra, guḍēra, etc., a formation which begins early and till late remains active enough to produce fresh combinations of the same sort, such as śrāmaṇēra and Samgamanera, the Buddhistic tinge of which, together with the marked linguality of the earlier group, may suggest that forms in -era were felt to be vulgar rather than acceptable Sanskrit. Professor Wackernagel also explains the form in u as a "mundartliche oder plebeische Form" (loc. cit. p. 316). Yet the era words stand in close connection with -ēru forms, and these again (madēru, sanēru, etc.) are merely variants of older or perhaps more elegant forms in -ara, -aru, and -ru (cf. patēra patara pataru; also satera śatru). Other variations also occur, muhēra muhira, etc. Some of these are not found in the extant literature, but there is no reason for supposing, for example, that a native scholar made out of whole cloth such words as gadera, "cloud" or dansēra, "harmful". It is with these forms that the word Kubēra is = 1 The three-legged Kubēra is doubtless a phallic conception parallel to the τρισκελὲς ξόανον of Theocritus. grouped, which stands to Kuberaka as the similar guḍēra stands to guḍēraka.1 But if Kubēra has a vulgar form it is no more than he deserves. For he begins as a vulgar little fellow. His name probably comes from kub (as dansera from dans, guhera from guh, etc.), to which native authorities assign the word kubra, "cover" as hole (cave) and as forest, kub itself being explained as "cover over" (kub, kumb, ācchadane). Possibly kubja, "bent" may be from the same root. Kubēra then is etymologically a spirit of cover, of hiding. Hence his character as chief Guhyaka (guh, "hide"), allied etymologically again with guhēra as "blacksmith", with that association of smith and secrecy seen in the case of the Kabirs and other gnomes. Our Kubēra is primarily and above all a Guhyaka-Yakṣa, "hiding-spirit". Kubera has a son Kübara (related in ending as patēra to patara "flyer", bird) to which is prefixed nala, as I think for nara, sprite, the Naras being spirits belonging especially to the court of Kubera and associated with him as a peculiar kind of Gandharva-spirit distinct from the Kim-naras. The nara anyway is a spirit (Naraka, "place of spirits"), of water particularly. There is a body of water underground where these water-spirits abound, the noise of running water being the "singing" of the Kimnaras, which accompanies the "dancing" of these spirits of cloud and waterfall. Nala is identical with nara and means a water-plant (cf. nalina) or water-sprite (cf. Nalasetu). Nārāyaṇa means the place of water (spirits).2 The form Kāubēra is used of the followers of Kubēra or of his other belongings, or of the drama concerned with his daughter-in-law (Rambhābhisāra, H. 8694), but not of his son (as patronymic). 1 The AV. form Kāuvēraka (Kashmir) is not so original as Kābēraka (v. 1. Kāvēraka). It is due to an attempt to make a regular patronymic of Kubera, like Bhāuvāyana and Dhrauva from Bhuva and Dhruva. Kābēraka reverts to *Kabēra as Sabara to Śabara, Haleya to Hali, etc. Compare dāśēra-ka and daśēra, the creature that bites (camel or fish). 2 Activity connotes energy and bravery, hence the tertium that connects water and bravery (puruşa, a brave man, purīșa, water, purisya, of fire as energetic); hence too the (vital) spirit, as an active energy and the hero (Nero, Neria, ȧvýp) on the one hand and Nēreus, waterspirit, on the other. Virtue, activity, is nerve (cf. guna, sinew and virtue). Nart, "dance" is only a special form of activity and is related to the water-idea as salto and saliva come from sar "go", "flow". The group of beings over whom Kubera is lord are, as has been said, "hiders", and his most characteristic name in all periods is "lord of the Guhyakas", who are also called the "other people", the old euphemistic designation (equivalent to "good people") of sprites, gnomes, and ghosts. His father is a doubtful personality, who is represented as a great seer or as the son of the Creator-god. His mother is the earth, represented as a cow, whence he is called "son of the cow": yet another tradition, which had as yet scarcely obtained foothold in the epics, but appears in the subsequent Puranic literature, assigns him a nymph-mother called Ilavila. He is primarily lord of the spirits who hide (and find) treasure in the mountains. The one son he has lives with him in the hill-country in the North, where, with them, bands of Guhyas or Guhyakas watch all gold and wealth hidden in the hills. Kubēra and his troops are under the patronage of the phallic mountain-god Śiva, to whom Kubēra stands in somewhat the same relation as that occupied in relation to Kubēra himself by his own underling, the great "Jewel"-spirit, whose name appears in full as Mani- (or Mani-) bhadra (or -vara), and whose father is declared in the later part of the epic to be "he of the silver navel". It is Siva who is the mighty god of the North and as such, though the especial friend of Kubera, as the Mountain-goddess was also his friend (despite the fact that their anger was not restrained when Kubera was indiscreet), he was historically the cause of Kubera's remaining an inferior spirit. So rapid is the growth of Kubera's reputation that, as patron spirit of wealth and treasure, he would undoubtedly have become to the North what Agni became to the East; but in fact he was scarcely able to attain the position. of world-protector, and Śiva overshadowed him completely. He is first represented as a sprite of concealment, living on that as his sustenance and associated with similar spirits the "good people", who also are thus nourished by their earth-mother. Earth the shining goddess is their mother, earth (the soil) is their "dish", as contrasted with the "silver" dish (the moon) of the Manes. This is expressed in the following passages of 1 This epithet is applied to the greater and lesser spirits; probably at first to Śiva and then transfered to Kubera (cf. triśīrṣan and triśiras, of Śiva and Kubēra). Cf. Guha as son of Śiva. the Atharva Veda and the Great Epic, identical passages in variant forms.1 AV. 8, 10, 28, so 'dakrāmat se 'tarajanān āgacchat tām itarajana upahvayanta tirodha ehi 'ti; tasyaḥ Kubero Vaisravano vatsa āsīd, āmapātram pātram; tāṁ Rajatanābhiḥ Kābērako 'dhok, tām tirodhām eva 'dhok; tām tirodhām itarajanā upa jīvanti, tiro dhatte sarvam pāpmānam upajīvaniyo bhavati ya evam veda (v. 1. punya for itara°). Mbha. 7, 69, 24: antardhānam că 'mapātre dugdhā punyajanair Virāţ, Harivansa, 382 f.: Yakṣāiś ca śrūyate rājan punar dugdhā vasuṁdharā, āmapātre mahārāja purā 'ntardhānam akṣayam; vatsaṁ Vaisravaṇaṁ kṛtvā Yakṣāiḥ punyajanāis tadā, dogdha Rajatanābhas tu pită Manivarasya yaḥ, Yakṣatmajo mahātejās trisīrṣaḥ sumahātapāḥ; tena te vartayanti 'ti paramarṣir uvāca ha. About the same time probably as that of the first of these passages is that of the Brahmana which describes Kubera as lord of Rakṣasas (ŚB. 13, 4, 3, 10) and (or?) selagas (serabha "snake"?). Rakṣasas the Hindus regard as brothers or cousins of the Yaksas, the former being prevailingly evil but sometimes good, the latter prevailingly good but sometimes evil. The Guhyakas are often identified with the Yaksas, although they occasionally appear as a separate band. In fact, however, Yaksas are the genus and Guhyakas are the species, as Kimnaras are a species of Gandharvas. All these spirits, of hiding, helping, singing and dancing, together with serpents, dwarfs, personified gem- and jewel-spirits, and "wizard"-spirits, are under Kubera. Kubera's association with Siva rests on a deeper basis than the hills where they live together. Both are genii of productivity. This is the reason why Kubera and Isana (Śiva) are invoked together and especially "for the husband" at the marriage-ceremony (Sankh. GS. 1, 11, 7). Kubera is god of increase, both of children and wealth. His wife is thus Rddhi, Prosperity, who is recognized as such in the later parts of 1 Here and in the following I omit the macron over e, not usually written in Sanskrit words. |