Naman-, l'acquoreo scorrere del pensiero, e momenti della creazione verbale vedica

Abstract

Nāman, the water-like flow of thought, and moments of verbal vedic creation. After having outlined the ontological and gnosiological roles of the Vedic lexeme nāman-, we will attempt to demonstrate the intersection of the dimension of verbalization with that of ‘its aqueous nature’ by means of textual clues (for instance in AV XVII, 1, 29 or in RV X, 129, 7) and through the characterization of Sarasvati, of Diṣhana (and similar figures), of Indra as liberator of the Waters and as Wortfuhrer, of the storm deities Maruts, who are bound both to water and to the word. Moreover, we will draw a comparison between Viśvāmitra and Odysseus. Among the various lexical clues, we have chosen to concentrate on ṛṣi- and rasa-. In conclusion, we suggest a possible etymology for nāman-, which would be consistent with the connotation of the ‘aqueous nature’ of the Vedic word meaning the ‘water-like flow of thought’. This allows us to insert the nāman- into the dynamic of verbal Vedic creation consisting in ulterior phases such as sāman-, dhāman- and brahman-. Finally we will examine RV I, 164, 45, which provides a suggestive confirmation of our reconstruction of the four phases of Vedic verbalization.