@article{af Edholm_2021, title={Rudra Mahāvīra: Vrātya Elements in the Vedic Pravargya-Complex}, volume={9}, url={https://journal.fi/store/article/view/85398}, DOI={10.23993/store.85398}, abstractNote={<p>This study reviews the arguments of previous publications, and adds new ones, for establishing connections between the Vedic <em>pravargya</em>-complex (the rituals, stanzas, and mythology of the <em>pravargya</em>), the <em>vrātya</em>, and the deity Rudra. These connections include Rudra as Mahāvīra (the epithet given to a deity and a vessel in the<em> pravargya</em>), the <em>sattra</em> setting of the <em>pravargya</em>’s paradigm-myth, the motif of the unstrung bow, the theme of exclusion, and the divinisation of man as a goal of the ritual. It is argued that the superhuman status attributed to Mahāvīra is comparable with that of characters celebrated in the Ṛgveda and Atharvaveda, such as the <em>ekavrātya</em>, <em>brahmacārin</em>, and <em>keśin</em>. The affinity between these figures may be derived from a common ideology, with the roots of some of them to be sought in the Indo-European warrior-society and male <em>rites de passage</em>.</p>}, number={1}, journal={Studia Orientalia Electronica}, author={af Edholm, Kristoffer}, year={2021}, month={Sep.}, pages={1–30} }