Some Intercultural Roots of Purāṇic Mythological Cycle around Nārāyaṇa

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, I use the structural analysis of myth proposed by C. Lévi-Strauss to show that there is a structural similarity between two mythological cycles of dying(sleeping)-and-rising god: around Ba’al and around Nārāyaṇa. On the one hand, the West Semitic myth of Ba’al and the Purāṇic myth of Nārāyaṇa have different descriptions and assume different cults. On the other hand, we can detect a homotopy equivalence among mythemes of both cycles – i.e., a functional similarity in their characters and subordinations. As we know, the earliest Purāṇic texts are dated from the second century AD. The myth about Ba’al appeared not later than the fifteenth century among West Semitic peoples and was popular among the Hittites, too. From the structural similarity between Ba’al and Nārāyaṇa myths it follows that the Purāṇic myth of Nārāyaṇa is much older than it is dated now.