The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.  Music provided by Joseph McDade.  Here’s your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to the ancient tradition.  I’m your host,  Jack Logan.

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Great to have you with me today. It’s another beautiful day, another wonderful day to talk about comparative religion, which is exactly what we’re going to do. Before I jump in though, I wanted to encourage you if you’re a visual learner to check out our companion website, the ancienttradition.com. Cause if you go into show notes and you scroll down a little bit, you’ll find that there is a webpage that’s dedicated to every single episode. And on there we put a lot of pictures of the artifacts and the things that we’ve been talking about.

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Sometimes we even put in diagrams to help better explain some of the things that we’re talking about. So I highly recommend that you check it out at least once. I think you’ll be surprised by the great resource that’s there for you. With that, let’s jump in. For the past couple of episodes, we’ve been talking about the Hindu marriage ritual and how it’s so intimately connected to the sacred center. For example, we’ve seen that the marriage ritual itself takes place under the mandap.

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To most people, the Mundap might just look like a beautiful  wedding canopy, but we know that symbolically there’s so much more there. It’s like the baldachin in Western churches or the cella, the inner sanctum of ancient temples. The architectural design of the Mundap with its four-pillared canopy seated on an elevated platform signals that this is the place where God dwells.

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architecture of the Mundapa tests that the wedding itself is to be understood as taking place at least symbolically  in the very heart of the cosmos, the holiest place in the cosmos, the sacred center.  And the symbolism doesn’t stop with the structure itself. know, every detail matters, like the symbols that are used during the wedding ritual, like the royal umbrella that

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marks the groom as a prince or a king who like the sacred tree grows in the sacred center. Or the sacred swastika that the priest draws beneath the mandop. It’s a geometric design that serves as a microcosmic depiction  of the sacred center. Or the ritual gestures that are performed like when the bride and groom remove their shoes before they enter the mandop. Or the veil, the antarapot.

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which is physically held between the Hindu groom who stands inside the Mundap and the Hindu bride who stands outside the Mundap. The veil marks the Mundap  as  sacred space. It acts as a visual reminder that the sacred center, which is holy ground, is protected from the profane world and that direct access to the divine presence is restricted.

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But since the bride and groom have completed all of the necessary pre-marriage purification rituals, like the sacred bath, called the mungala sonum, the application of holy water called the Pani Grana, and the Haldi anointing ceremony, the couple is deemed fit to enter the sacred center itself, where the actual union will take place.

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Today we’re gonna follow the bride and groom through the rest of the Hindu wedding ritual to see how everything they do is done in and connected to the sacred center. So before I jump in, I wanna start with a little bit of background on how marriage itself is understood in the Vedic tradition. So to do this, I’m gonna quote directly from an article titled, What the Vedas Say About Marriage. Now remember the Vedas are the oldest and the most authoritative of all Hindu scripture.

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This article was published February 29th, 2024. So just a year ago in India’s largest English language newspaper, The Times of India, which is also one of the oldest newspapers in India. So what I’m going to read to you is not my interpretation of Hindu marriage. This is Hindus explaining what the Vedas, their scriptures have to say about marriage. Okay, first they tell us that according to the Vedas,

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marriage, which is called vivaha, is considered sacred and constitutes an important samskara, the most important samskara. A samskara is  somewhat comparable to a sacrament in Christianity. In Sanskrit, some means  well or completely, and kara means action, making or doing. So when we put them together, samskara means to be made complete.

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or to be made perfect  or the action needed to become refined or complete. In Hinduism, samskaras are  rites  and these are rites that are considered necessary if one is to become complete or perfected. Samskaras are believed to sanctify the person or persons involved  and to guide them  through the process of spiritual transformation. These rites are meant to make an

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indelible impression or imprint on the consciousness of the individual or the individuals involved. And marriage is also considered a sacrament that’s performed in alignment with cosmic order, which is pretty interesting. The article says, quote, According to the Vedas, marriage is considered as one of the important samskaras. Second,

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According to the Vedas, the union between a male and female is believed to endure beyond this life. The article states,  marriage is considered a sacred union between two people for eternity. According to the Vedas, it is considered as a divine bond between the bride and groom for their earthly journey and spiritual growth together as a couple. It’s quite striking here.

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that Hindus believe that marriage between a man and a woman endures beyond this life. Because in the Vedas, eternity is not used casually. It refers to timelessness, changelessness, or the ultimate reality that exists beyond birth, death, and rebirth. When we think about it, it’s not that surprising, especially when you consider that all of the major gods in Hinduism like Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are married.

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know, Brahma’s married to Saraswati, Vishnu’s married to Lakshmi, Shiva’s married to Shakti. The article says, quote, as per the Vedas, it considers the bond between a husband and wife as a divine union of Shiva and Shakti. So here we see the notion  as above, so below. The young Hindu couple is to consider their marriage bond

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like the divine union between the god Shiva and his wife Shakti. Hindus believe marriage  is of divine origin, that it was established by the gods to maintain Dharma, which is righteousness. Marriage is portrayed as a sacred union ordained by the gods and connected to the establishment of cosmic order,  which gives a lot of depth  to marriage.

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And this brings me to number three. The Vedas connect marriage directly to Dharma, which if you’ll recall  is the upholding of Vrida, the cosmic law. The article states,  the Vedas also consider marriage to be deeply rooted in Dharma or one’s duty to be righteous in life. The Vedas emphasize the importance of living a righteous life while fulfilling one’s marital duties.

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So in Hinduism, marriage is a sacred union that ensures the divine order, rita, is upheld via dharma, righteousness.  Hindus believe that dharma or righteousness cannot be fully realized without the marital bond. In Hindu marriage, the husband and wife work together to uphold dharma. In fact, in Vedic ritual language, the wife is sometimes referred to  as uh Sahadharma Charini.

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which means she who walks with her husband on the path of Dharma, which is righteousness. The couple themselves is seen as co-participants in preserving harmony, not just in their home, but in the greater cosmic order.  This spiritual purpose, as you can imagine, gives marriage a transcendent value. As you’re going to see in a couple of minutes, as part of the marriage ritual, the couple commits  to pursue Dharma together.

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According to the Vedas,  one of the main purposes of marriage is spiritual growth. The article states, as per the Vedas, the main purpose of marriage is not just procreation or companionship, but the attainment of spiritual growth  and ultimate liberation,  moksha.  In Hinduism, moksha is the attainment of spiritual freedom.

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from the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. It’s regarded as the highest goal of this life, attaining eternal bliss, self-realization, and complete  union with the divine. Marriage is understood as ultimately being an  aid to the pursuit of moksha. If we take all of this together, Hindu marriage is regarded as a divine institution, eternal,  sacred,

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and a samskara or a sacrament that’s indispensable to upholding Dharma and progressing along the spiritual path toward being made complete or perfect, a spiritual state that’s required to achieve moksha, eternal bliss and complete union with the divine. All right, with that background, let’s pick up where we left off. So, so far we’ve seen that the Hindu marriage ritual isn’t

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just a single event, it’s actually a sequence of interconnected rituals. Now it’s important to recognize that the exact order or the specific details or even some of the rites themselves can vary and they can vary depending on the region or some of the cultural practices. And even different texts like the Vedas, the Sutras and the Puranas highlight different aspects of the ceremony,  which means that  the priests will adapt

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the ritual to reflect whichever text that they’re following. But know that the sequence of rituals that I presented in episode number 59, Royal Marriage in the Sacred Center and episode number 60, Symbols of the Sacred Center, the Sacred Swastika and the rest of the rituals that I’m going to present today, they actually represent the most central and the most widely recognized Hindu marriage rituals. In episode 60, we left off just as the bride made her entrance at the wedding venue.

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She was carried, if you remember, under a canopy or a doli. She moves forward to the antarput, the veil, which is then lifted. So the groom sees her for the first time. And then from there, the groom helps her step into the mandap where the Pani Granah or the taking of the hand ritual is performed. Okay, so once this is complete, the couple then watches the priest and the priest lights a fire

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on what’s usually a square tapering three-tiered altar  in the center of the Mondop. And this fire represents God in the divine center who stands as a witness to their marriage. Now keep in mind that this fire  is symbolic of God, because remember the entire ancient world  is unanimous in declaring that God is a glorious corporeal being of light.

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So fire is being used here to symbolize God’s transcendent, radiant glory. And since God resides in the heart of the cosmos, we can also surmise that the constitution of the sacred center itself is also a place of transcendent, radiant glory, which is represented by the Mundap. So at this point, the bride and groom recite mantras.

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to show honor and respect to God, who in this case is the God Agni. And they do this by making sacred offerings of things like ghee and grain into the fire. And it’s right here where we stopped. So  what happens next? Well, at this point, a very important ritual takes place. In fact, it’s considered the most important and the most sacred rite in  the Hindu marriage ritual. And this rite is called the Saptapadi.

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In Sanskrit, supta means seven and padi means steps. So suptapadi means  seven steps.  So pay close attention to the fact that we’re seeing the number seven here, because it’s important. As I mentioned in the last episode, in the ancient world, the number seven is almost always connected to conquering the dragon,  or as we saw in the last episode, in Buddhism conquering Mara.

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It’s going to be a while on the podcast before I can go into  a full explanation for why this is. Just note that the number seven is being emphasized in this Saptapati ritual. Now, generally speaking in this ritual, the couple stands facing the Northeast and they place  seven mounds of uncooked rice in a line and it’s spaced out evenly. And this represents the path that they’re to follow. And the couple takes

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seven steps together and they always lead with the right foot. Now,  this is just the general format. You could find lots of variations of this on the internet and some are  really elaborate and some are very simple, but they all express the same general idea. At each step, they step on a mound of rice and the priest recites an oath and then the couple makes the oath.  Oaths that are made before the sacred fire

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which again represents God and are witnessed therefore by God, are considered by Hindus to be unbreakable. So each one of the seven steps corresponds to a specific oath. In the first step, the bride and groom promise to provide each other physical  and emotional nourishment. In the second step, they promise to look after each other’s physical and mental wellbeing. In the third step, they promise

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to share their happiness and wealth. In the fourth step, they promise to be lifelong companions who will seek knowledge and harmony through love and trust. In the fifth step, they promise to grow together in thought and action. In the sixth step, they promise to look after their family and society. In the seventh step, they promise to quote, adopt a noble bent of mind

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leading a sacred and spiritual life, which is Dharma. So if we take all of these oaths together, they constitute promises of nourishment and strength, prosperity and happiness and progeny, long life and harmony. Now, according to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, section 7.2, no couple is considered traditionally or legally married

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until the couple performs these seven steps and makes these seven oaths. This is what the act says, quote, where such rites and ceremonies include the subtopity, that is taking of seven steps by the bridegroom and the bride jointly before the sacred fire, the marriage becomes complete and binding  when the seventh step is taken. So simply put,

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that marriage in India is only available to those who are willing to make the seven oaths.  I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit on the podcast, but take note here how marriage is authorized only after the seven oaths have been made. For the purposes of the podcast, note that the number seven here  is directly tied to the making of  oaths. Tuck that away in your back pocket, because we’re gonna come back to that down the line.

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If you’d like to see a couple of videos of Hindu couples performing the seven steps, you can find them on the webpage for this episode. So now that the couple is officially married, the couple do something very interesting. The groom takes the bride by the hand and together they circumambulate the fire altar. And they do this either three or four or seven times. And this just depends on the region. By doing this, the couple is of course  making a circle around the altar.

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In effect, they’re making a ritual circumpunk, which of course we know is a symbol of the sacred center. In the Vedic tradition, the fire altar is the center of ritual space. And the couple makes a circle around the fire, the divine center, to show their respect and honor and devotion and reverence for the fire god Agni, who Hindus believe blesses and sanctifies their marriage. A scholar by the name of Nilaqshisengub,

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He’s out of the University of London and he wrote the evolution of Hindu marriage with special reference to rituals. And he tells us on page 9091 that according to the Manava Griha Sutra, which is a Hindu text that details Vedic rituals,  the following happens during the circumambulation. Pay close attention to what the priest says to the couple here. This comes from the Manava

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Grihaya Sutra, Book 1, Section 17. Quote,  four times they, and they refers to the couple here, are led round the fire. At each circle, the Brahmana, the Brahmana is the priest, says the following, be  united, be harmonious, being friendly to each other,  radiant with kind thoughts. So here we see that the priest ties

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the circling of the altar to the building of unity and harmony  and quote, kind thoughts. Now I bring this up because if we travel halfway around the world to the Hopi Indians of Northeastern Arizona, we find that they too tie the circling of the altar to unity, harmony and kind thoughts. In the Hopi rite that I’m referring to, the chiefs of the four major clans,

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the chief of the bear clan, the chief of the eagle clan, the chief of the badger clan, and the chief of the parrot clan build a medicine altar. They place a hollowed out gourd in the center of the altar. So take note that a gourd is placed in the center, because this should remind you of the Chinese hollowed out gourd, the hulu, which we talked about in episode number 36. The gourd that the Chinese used as a symbol, kind of like the cosmic egg for the sacred center.

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So here the Hopi are using the hollowed out gourd in the same way. They’re placing it in the center of the altar to mark the sacred center. And then the chiefs place ears of corn on the altar. They place one radiating to the north and one radiating to the south. And this is to mark the zenith and nadir. And then they place four ears of colored corn on the altar, one that’s yellow, white,  red, and blue.

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and they place them so they’re radiating to each of the four inner cardinal points, where together you’ve got six ears of corn that look like spokes of a wheel radiating out of the gourd in the center. Then the chiefs of the four major clans sit around the altar in a circle.  Sometimes it’s a semicircle, but they stay in the same order of the cardinal points, so it still conveys the notion of a circle. Each of the chiefs

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represent one of the cardinal or inter-cardinal points. The chief of the Badger clan sits to the north of the altar and he represents the north. Chief of the Bear clan sits to the west of the altar and he represents the west. The chief of the Parrot clan sits to the south of the altar and he represents the south. And then the chief of the Eagle clan sits to the east of the altar and he represents the east. So take note here how the Hopi clan chiefs mark the cardinal points around the gourd, which

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designates the Sacred Center. And you know this far into the program that the Hopi Chiefs are marking the cardinal points precisely for the purpose of drawing our attention to and designating the location of the Sacred Center. So all of this is in keeping with ancient tradition cosmology. I have to stop here for a minute and point out how astonishingly similar what the Hopi Chiefs are doing here is to what Yahweh

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commands the Israelites to do in Numbers chapter two. If you remember in Numbers chapter two, Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament commands the Israelites to set up their entire camp around the tabernacle, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, the throne of God in the Holy of Holies. According to this  same pattern Numbers chapter two reads starting in verse one, quote,

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This is Yahweh, spake unto Moses and Aaron saying, verse three, on the east side toward the rising of the sun, shall they have the standard of the camp of Judah pitch their tents. Verse 10, on the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben. Verse 18, on the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim. Verse 25, the standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side.

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So here Yahweh gives very specific instructions.  Four of the 12 tribes of Israel are to camp at the cardinal points positioned around the sacred center, which of course is marked by the tabernacle. And if you remember back in episode number 60, symbols of the sacred center, the sacred swastika, we saw that the remaining eight tribes were also stationed in relation to those points, you two tribes to each direction. In that episode, I argued,

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based off of the 12 stones that Joshua erected in Gilgal and the definition of Gilgal as circle in Hebrew that the Israelite tribes camped in a circle around the Tabernacle where the tribes of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim and Dan  marked the cardinal points effectively creating an  equilateral cross inside a circle. And this is actually known as the circled equilateral cross.

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And this is really interesting because the circled equilateral cross also happens to be the symbol that astronomers have used for centuries to symbolize the Earth. As amazing as this is, the astronomical symbol for the Earth is a circled equilateral cross. And this is amazing because we’ve discussed several times on the program,  in the ancient world, the cardinal points represented geographic totality. So,

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This makes complete sense that astronomers would use the circled equilateral cross as a symbol for the geographic totality of the entire Earth. Now, picture this in your mind. Picture in your mind the sacred swastika, an equilateral cross with four arms bent at right angles  in the same rotational direction. Now,  rotate or spin that swastika in your mind.

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because that’s what the bent arms imply, rotational motion.  What geographical shape does it make? Yes,  it makes a circle. And if you were to preserve the equilateral cross to designate how we find the sacred center, what geographical shape would you get? You’d get a circled equilateral cross. Yes.

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the exact same symbol that Yahweh commanded the Israelites to make in the Sinai desert with their camp. Now if you spun the sacred swashbucka as fast as you could, what geometrical shape would it make? Well, kind of like a wheel spinning at high speed, the equilateral cross or the spokes would blur, but your eye would be able to make out the center or the hub, and it would also be able to make out the circular shape of the spin,  thereby creating

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Yes,  a circum-punct, a circle around the sacred center.  Or, in terms of today’s episode, a circle around the altar, which is also a symbol of the sacred center, which will definitely develop  in detail down the line. I hope that you’re beginning to see how the circum-punct, the equilateral cross, the sacred swastika, and the circled equilateral cross

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aren’t just isolated symbols. They’re actually derived from each other. Each is expressing the same profound cosmological and theological concepts. And as I’ve pointed out, there’s more to these symbols than I’ve yet mentioned, but we’re gonna cover those in the coming months. Okay, so how is all of this connected to what we see among the Hopi? Well, just like Yahweh commands, four of the tribes of Israel,

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Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan to occupy the cardinal points around the tabernacle in the Sacred Center. The Hopi instruct four of the clan chiefs, Eagle, Parrot, Bear, and Badger, to occupy the cardinal points around the hollowed out gourd in the Sacred Center of the altar. On page 53 of Frank Waters, it’s pretty famous ethnographic narrative, the Book of the Hopi, Waters writes,

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quote, during the Neman Kachina. Now the Neman Kachina is actually another ritual that they do this in. It’s not quite the same, but they perform the same actions. On the morning after the home dance, when a member of each of the four most important clans takes a position about the Kiva to represent one of the four cardinal directions, a badger always stands to the north. If you aren’t familiar with  what a Kiva is, a Kiva is a circular

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underground chamber where the Hopi hold their sacred rituals. On page 58 Waters reiterates the order of the clan chiefs, quote, so it is that the eagle clan represents the east with the bear clan standing to the west, the parrot clan to the south, and the badger clan to the north. These are the four most important Hopi clans today.

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So what’s interesting is that these four cardinal chiefs are actually given a name. And the name is, and I hope I don’t mispronounce this too much, is Nalon Nang Mamwit, which in English means four religious chiefs  united together. So notice how the name that’s given to the chief emphasizes unity, the four religious chiefs united together. These four clan chiefs are important because

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They represent the direction from which their own clan entered and settled Hopi land in Northeastern Arizona, which is known among the Hopi as the location of Tuanasavi. It’s the most important place in the whole world because  it’s the location of the center of the universe. In English, Tuanasavi actually means center of the universe. And the Hopi tell us that under the command of the god Maasau,

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They migrated  all over North America in search of Tuwan Asavi, the center place. They wanted to find it  and they eventually found it in Northeastern Arizona. And when they found it, they tell us that the god Massau appeared to them in the form of a man and gave them permission to settle their clans around Tuwan Asavi, the center place. Now I mention this because we aren’t just talking about the Hopi performing rituals that look

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cosmetically similar to the Israelites. Because it’s much, much greater than that. Because we’re talking about the Hopis performing rituals that are informed by the exact same cosmological background as the Israelites. That’s what’s astonishing. It doesn’t just look like the Hopi and the Israelites are forming a circle around an equilateral cross that looks like the Sacred Center. They are forming a circle around an equilateral cross that does

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designate the cosmological sacred center and they tell us themselves this when they call the center Tuva Nasavi. And that’s what’s astonishing. And it’s not just the Hopi and the Israelites that are doing this. We’re going to see in the coming months that this pattern  is all over the world. When we find different religious traditions that are seemingly worlds apart, performing rituals that are shaped by the same underlying cosmological and

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theological ideas, which we have demonstrated time and time again on the program, then we can confidently argue that we’re not talking about random coincidence here or shallow parallelism or lucky correspondences. Cause what we’re looking at is a systematic, coherent set of cosmological and theological beliefs that has shaped nearly every religious tradition of the ancient world.

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and it still pulses through the religious traditions of today. What we’re seeing and the extent to which we’re seeing it is compelling evidence that the religious traditions of the world emerged from a common source, a single  formative religious tradition that the ancients themselves tell us was imparted to them in the very beginning.

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The connection between the Israelites and the Hopis gets a little more interesting too when we consider that among the Israelites, there weren’t just four tribes. There were 12 tribes.  And among the Hopi, there aren’t just four clans. There are multiple clans out of which four were chosen to represent the cardinal points. Interestingly, according to the Hopi Cultural Center, which is a nonprofit that’s owned by the Hopi tribe, the Hopi nation itself is made up of 12  self-governing autonomous villages.

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and these 12 villages are comprised of 34 living clans. And according to Access Genealogy, these 34 clans are traditionally organized into 12 fratries  or groups of clans. Now for the main purposes of today’s episode, we’re looking at the circle that the Badger, Eagle, Bear, and Parrot clan chiefs created around the Medicine Bowl, because

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We’re going to see that the chiefs teach a similar thing about the constitution of the circle. As we see the Brahmana, the priest emphasized to the Hindu wedding couple when they circumambulate the altar. Just as a quick reminder, the Hindu priest tells the couple, quote,  be united, be harmonious, being friendly to each other,  radiant with kind thoughts. So again, the priest ties the circling of the altar to the building of unity and harmony.

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and good thoughts. Now, one of the primary reasons why the Hopi clan chiefs form a circle around the altar is to pray. And they do this by ritually smoking. And this is similar to Israel as well, because in the Mosaic Tabernacle, when the smoke of incense rises, the smoke symbolizes the prayers of the priest or the people ascending to God. In Psalm 141, 1-2,

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David says the following,  Lord, I cry unto thee, make haste unto me, give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense,  and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. So like this, the smoke of the tobacco pipe among the Hopi rises with the elders’ prayers.

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Now listen to what John D. Lofton, who used to teach in the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University  and the author of Religion and Hopi Life, published by Indiana University Press, says about the significance of the Hopi prayers that are performed as the chiefs sit in a circle. On page 38, he writes, quote, to begin the priests go to Akiva, an underground ceremonial chamber to smoke.

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Ritual smoking is perhaps the most common mode of prayer for Hopi men. It involves the smoking of Hopi wild tobacco mixed with rain tobacco or spruce, pine, and aspen in a variety of clay pipes with reed stems. The participants sit in a semicircle and each one drinks four puffs of the smoke from the pipe, which is then passed to the next person.

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As the pipe changes hands, the men involved exchange kinship terms, for example, from my father to my son, or my uncle to my nephew, thus demonstrating the unity of their hearts  in requesting material blessings from the sacred. The Hopi feel that prayers are effective  only if the participants are united in their thoughts and feelings.

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which should be focused on harmony and fertility for all the world. They also think that one participant with bad feelings, such as anger, greed, or arrogance, can ruin the efficacy of Hopi prayer. So here we see, like we see when the Hindu wedding couple circle the fire altar, that the Hopi make similar connections between the circle, in this case a formation of prayer,

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and the importance  of quote, the unity of their hearts, harmony and good thoughts and feelings. This suggests that there was likely an ancient association between the circle that was formed around the altar  and the importance of having  united hearts. And keep in mind that this circle of united hearts is formed around the sacred center, which suggests that to truly approach the sacred center or God,

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It’s not enough to go through the motions.  One must be united in heart. And since we’re talking primarily about marriage rituals here, this means that the royal couple, the husband and wife themselves, must, as the Hindu priest instructs, quote, be united, be harmonious, being friendly to each other, radiant with kind thoughts. One cannot approach the center or God without having kind thoughts  about one’s spouse. Yes.

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thoughts about one spouse. And this also implies that one’s heart must not only be united with one spouse but also with God. So if you weren’t already convinced that the Hindu wedding ceremony is meant to be understood as taking place in the heart of the cosmos, then the ritual formation of the circumcum punctured put those doubts to rest. And add to that the significant symbolism stacking that we see in the Hindu wedding ritual.

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all of which symbolize the sacred center,  like the four-pillared mandop, the altar in the center of the mandop, the fire on top of the altar, the number seven, which is also connected to the center, and the ritual circumcimpunked. And there’s really no other way to interpret the Hindu marriage ritual other than a royal couple getting married symbolically in the sacred center,  or as the Hebrews called it,

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the holy of holies, where their hearts must be knitted to God and to each other. I think it’s important to kind of let the theology and cosmology here digest a little bit, because like we discussed in episode number 58, Who is God? A Married Being, part three, we learned that the Hindu high God Brahma is depicted in all of the Hindu scriptures, in the vidas, the Brahmanas, the panchads and the pranas as married. He’s married to the goddess Saraswati.

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If you recall, we read in chapter three, line 35 of the Matsya Purana that as part of the marriage ritual, the goddess Saraswati quote, began to circumambulate him in reverence, know, him being the high God Brahma. So in this Purana, we can see that the circumambulation right, at least in part, is meant to symbolize reverence for Brahma.

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who, if you’ll recall, sprouted four heads, which of course is symbolic, and each head pointed to one of the cardinal directions, which we know because we’re talking about the cardinal points here, signifies  that Brahma himself sits  where the cardinal points intersect, marking him as a king of the four corners or a cosmic king. According to the Matsya Purana, chapter three, line 43, after Brahma and Saraswati were married,

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They quote, lived inside a lotus. The lotus referred to here is the Brahma Loka, which is the highest heavenly realm in Hinduism. It’s described as a beautiful realm of lotus flowers and divine energy and a grand palace, the Brahmapura, at its center, the palace where Brahma resides. It’s also regarded as the ultimate spiritual realm associated with moksha, which we talked about earlier on the program.

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the liberation from the cycle of rebirth. So it was in this heaven that Brahma is believed to have married the beautiful Saraswati. I hope you see where I’m going with this.  As Saraswati circles Brahma, so the young Hindu couple circles the fire altar. See, the marriage ritual that was performed in the heavens between Brahma and Saraswati serves as the model for human beings. The earthly marriage ritual is modeled.

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after the heavenly marriage ritual as above, so below. Now, in terms of the premise of this podcast, what’s remarkable about the circumambulation rite that’s found in the Hindu marriage ritual  is that it’s not just found in Hinduism. It’s actually found in several other marriage rites around the world. Now, it doesn’t occur to the level of what I call a stubborn bit.  And that’s in part because we just don’t have enough detailed information about the marriage rituals

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that were performed in much of the ancient Near East, like in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. So we just don’t know if it was performed there or not. But circumambulation does occur in enough marriage rites that we ought to take notice, especially considering how it directly ties marriage to the sacred center. So I want to give you a couple examples of this. According to J.J. Modi, who wrote the marriage customs among the Farsi’s, which are the Persians,

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which he presented before the Anthropological Society of Bombay  in 1899, wrote the following about the Zoroastrian marriage ritual on pages 29 and 31. Quote,  the bride and bridegroom are at first made to sit opposite each other,  separated by a piece of cloth held between them by two persons as a curtain so that they may not see each other.

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Their hands are joined and the curtain is held over the hands. It is dropped  after the hand fastening ceremony. This part of the ritual signifies that the separation which hitherto existed between them no longer exists now and that they are now united in the bond of matrimony. This is similar to the veil ritual that’s performed as part of the Hindu wedding ceremony.

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It’s a little bit different because the hand fastening ceremony is done while the veil is still in place. If you’d like to see pictures of this, you can find them on the webpage for this episode. At this point, instead of circling the burning fire, which is held by a servant, the priest ties a cord around the couple and closing them in a circle. Pages 31 and 32 reads, quote, after fastening the hands, the raw twist, which is a cord,

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is passed round the pair seven times. So note how the cord is circled around them seven times. During all of this process, the sacred prayer is recited. The putting on of raw twist, the cord, round the couple seven times also indicates union. The author goes on to refer to the circle of cord that encloses the couple as the quote, tie of unity.

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So here again, we see the circle associated with unity. If you’re interested in reading this book on Persian wedding rituals, it’s available on Internet Archive. In volume two, chapter 25 of the history of human marriage, it’s actually three volumes, it’s massive, the author  Edward Westermark lays out a huge laundry list of all of the marriage rights around the world that include some type of circumambulation.

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So I’m gonna read directly from his research, starting on page 512, where he writes,  quote, in ancient Rome, after the ceremony of the dextrarum junction, a sacrifice was made and bride and bridegroom walked around the sacrificial altar, likewise from left to right. Among the Croats, the bridesmen leads the bride three times around the hearth on which a fire is burning.

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and each time the bride bows before it. In many parts of Germany, the bride is led three times round the fire by the bridegroom. Page 514. Among the southern Slavs, the bride is taken three times round the church before she is allowed to enter it. In the Isle of Man, when the bridal company arrived at the churchyard, they walked three times around the church before entering. In Perthshire, they walked around the church after leaving it.

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keeping the church walls upon the right hand. In Sweden, it was the custom for the bridal procession before entering the church to walk three times around a certain stone outside it, which was therefore called the bridal stone. In modern Greece, the bride and groom were led three times around the altar. Dr. Winternitz, he also wrote a lot on marriage rituals.

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has no doubt that the circumambulation rite of the church is a survival of an older custom of leading the bride round the sacrificial fire. And the great antiquity of this rite, together with its prevalence among so many Indo-European peoples, certainly speaks in favor of this suggestion. Among the poles, again, the bridal pair walk three times round the table in the bridegroom’s house. On page 515.

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Among the great Russians, the bride is taken round it. But among the last mentioned people, the bridegroom is also taken three times round it before he mounts the carriage by which he is gonna fetch the bride. And among the little Russians, both bride and bridegroom before leaving for the house of the latter are taken three times round a bread trough covered with a blanket with bread and salt on the top of it. In Morocco, the bride on her arrival at the bridegroom’s village

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is in some cases taken three or seven times from right to left, round the mosque of the place. In other cases, round the whole village or more often round the bridegroom’s house or tent. Among the Berber tribe near Fez, the bride is not allowed to enter the village until she has been taken three times around it. Page 516, among the Bedouins of Mount Sinai, the bride mounted on a camel is taken three times round the bridegroom’s tent. Among the Kababish,

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an Arabic speaking nomad tribe of the Kordofan-Darfur border, the slave or slaves who bring the bride to the tent where she’s gonna meet the bridegroom, carry her three times around the outside of it. Among the Tundra Yukager on reaching the tent of the bridegroom’s parents, the bridal pair makes three rounds about the tent. In some parts of Denmark, when the bridal company come from the church to the place where the wedding is held,

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the bridegroom rides three times round it before he dismounts. Among the Kilmene tribe of High Albania, the bride is led three times round the bridegroom’s house and subsequently round the hearth. In this passage, we can see quite a few  versions of the circumambulation rite connected to the marriage ritual, but it’s also noticeably absent in other parts of the world.

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which is why we can’t conclusively argue for its status  as a stubborn bit. And just as a reminder, we also found it in the Japanese Kojiki in episode number 58, Who is God, a Married Being, part three, when the god and goddess Izanami and Izanagi are married  and they walk around the heavenly pillar they’ve erected in their great palace. One of the most well-known examples of the circumambulation rite is found

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in Jewish weddings. Among some Ashkenazi Jews, when the bride enters the Chuppah, which is a four-pillared wedding canopy that creates a sanctuary or an inner sanctum like the Hindu mandop or the Christian baldachin or the Greek cella, the bride performs what’s called a chukufa, which means  circling or going around, where she circumambulates the groom three or seven times.

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And note again, the number seven here. Now in the modern day, some couples modify this and the groom circles the bride an equal number of times  in the opposite direction. And then they join together and they circle together symbolizing unity and partnership. We can see from these examples that it appears that there’s been  extensive alteration or modification  of the original right. But these examples still speak to the broader association. Like we see in Hinduism.

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between the royal marriage ritual, the ritual circum-punked, the circumambulation rite,  and the sacred center. Well, that wraps up our discussion on the Hindu marriage ritual. If there’s anything that we’ve learned from today’s episode, it’s that the circle that surrounds God’s throne  is a circle of those whose hearts are knit in unity.

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So with that, I’m gonna leave you with the words of William Shakespeare found in Henry VI, part one, act five, scene five, lines 62 to 65. Quote, for what is wedlock forced but a hell? An age of discord and continual strife? Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss and is a pattern

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of celestial  peace.  So true, William.  So true.  I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.