MISLAV JEŽIĆ
University of Zagreb jezic.mislav@gmail.com
AN ATTEMPT TO SEARCH FOR THE MEANING OF THE MYTHICAL STORY OF THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN
This year the proposed theme for DICSEP 11 is Forests and Waters. The Churning of the Ocean involves the Waters. This mythical narrative is very complex since it includes the reason for the churning of the Ocean, the need for the cooperation of the Devas and Asuras, the various cosmic instruments for the undertaking, the various divinities who play important roles in it, usually starting with Viṣṇu, and a number of precious objects created by the churning. This story is attested in the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa, and a series of Purāṇas like the Viṣṇu-, Matsya-, Agni-, Padma-, Skanda– and Bhāgavata–purāṇa, as analysed by V. M. Bedekar (1967), or, following the approach of Klaus Rüping (1970), additionally in the Harivaṃśa, Viṣṇudharmottara-, Brahmavaivarta-, Liṅga-, Śiva– and Devībhāgavata–purāṇa. The churning of the Ocean is alluded to already in the Purāṇa-pañcalakṣana (as reconstructed by W. Kirfel), thus it is presupposed by the reconstructed text, but is not narrated in it. The authors who have analysed this mythical story have tried to reconstruct the phases of its development, its adoption and adaptation by the cults of various deities or by various religious communities, and, as far as possible, the chronology of different phases. The narrative use and accumulation of terms symbolizing cosmic elements by the epic singers, without a living knowledge of their meaning, makes it difficult to find a meaningful interpretation of the story. Moreover, there is no Vedic hieratic version of this mythical narrative although some elements may be recognized in Vedic texts. However, it is worth trying to search for the meaning of the mythical riddles woven into the story of the churning of the Ocean, following the interpretative method of recognizing traces of hieratic myths in epic stories (Ježić, DICSEP 8).