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Concept
Kashyapa
Summary
Kashyapa (, ) is a revered Vedic sage of Hinduism. He is one of the Saptarishis, the seven ancient sages of the Rigveda. Kashyapa is the most ancient and venerated rishi, along with the other Saptarishis, listed in the colophon verse in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
Kashyapa is an ancient name, referring to many different personalities in the ancient Hindu and Buddhist texts. The place Kashmir is named after him, as well as numerous other Sanskrit texts and Indian scriptures.
Kashyapa means "turtle" in Sanskrit. According to Michael Witzel, it is related to Avestan kasiiapa, Sogdian kyšph, Kurdish kûsî, New Persian kašaf, kaš(a)p which mean "tortoise", after which Kashaf Rūd or a river in Turkmenistan and Khorasan is named. Other relations include to Tokarian B kaccāp ("brainpan"), Tokarian A kāccap ("turtle", "tortoise"). Frits Staal agrees that Kaśyapa means tortoise but believes that it is a non-Indo-European word.
Kashyapa is credited with composing a few hymns in the Rigveda, mainly in Mandala IX. He and his family of students are mainly composers of hymns for Soma Pavamāna ("self-purifying Soma"), which represents a single moment in the Soma sacrifice.
He is mentioned in verse 2.2.4 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, along with Atri, Vashistha, Vishvamitra, Jamadagni, Bharadwaja and Gotama. Kashyapa is also mentioned as the earliest rishi in colophon verse 6.5.3 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, one of the oldest Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism.
Kashyapa is mentioned in other Vedas and numerous other Vedic texts. For example, in one of several cosmology-related hymns of Atharvaveda (~1000 BCE), Kashyapa is mentioned in the allegory-filled Book XIX:
Undisturbed am I, undisturbed is my soul,
undisturbed mine eye, undisturbed mine ear,
undisturbed is mine in-breathing, undisturbed mine out-breathing,
undisturbed my diffusive breath, undisturbed the whole of me.
Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire the primal seed and germ of Spirit,
O Kama dwelling with the lofty Kama, give growth of riches to the sacrificer, (.
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