Nāman, 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 Vediclexeme nāman-, we will attempt to demonstrate the intersection of thedimension of verbalization with that of ‘its aqueous nature’ by meansof textual clues (for instance in AV XVII, 1, 29 or in RV X, 129, 7) andthrough the characterization of Sarasvati, of Diṣhana (and similar figures),of Indra as liberator of the Waters and as Wortführer, of the stormdeities Maruts, who are bound both to water and to the word. Moreover,we will draw a comparison between Viśvāmitra and Odysseus. Amongthe various lexical clues, we have chosen to concentrate on ṛṣi- and rasa-.In conclusion, we suggest a possible etymology for nāman-, which wouldbe consistent with the connotation of the ‘aqueous nature’ of the Vedicword meaning the ‘water-like flow of thought’. This allows us to insertthe nāman- into the dynamic of verbal Vedic creation consisting in ulteriorphases such as sāman-, dhāman- and brahman-. Finally we willexamine RV I, 164, 45, which provides a suggestive confirmation of ourreconstruction of the four phases of Vedic verbalization.