My pendant came in today from the Ukraine.

[Toxikmynd]

BEAUTIFUL is the best way to describe it. I'm going to be changing the rawhide strip for a chain I have at home but boy is it gorgeous.

 

[Aupmanyav]

What does it denote? Tell us something about it.

 

[Jainarayan]

BEAUTIFUL is the best way to describe it. I'm going to be changing the rawhide strip for a chain I have at home but boy is it gorgeous.

Beautiful, I love it.

I took mine off the leather lanyards they were on. I put my bronze hammer on a gold rope chain, and the silver one on a silver rope chain, but I think I'll put it back on the black leather lanyard. It is braided and has a silver clasp. The silver pendant is really chunky and has black antiquing, which I think is done justice better by the black leather. But enough about mine... may you wear yours for many years in good health and under protection of the Gods.

 

[Aupmanyav]

So it is Mjölnir.

 

[Jainarayan]

I don't mean to steal @Toxikmynd's thunder (no pun intended), it's the ax of the Balto-Slavic God Perun or Perkūnas, the God of thunder and weather. He is a very close analogue of Thor, and may indeed be the same God seen by the two different peoples. There was a lot of contact between the Balto-Slavs and Norse.

 

[Jainarayan]

So it is Mjölnir.

Very close to it, a combination hammer and ax. I don't know if the ax has a name.

 

[Aupmanyav]

The Hindu God with an ax - Parashurama. He was the sixth avatara of Lord Vishnu; before Rama, Krishna and Buddha. The bow in his hand was given to him by Lord Shiva. It was this bow which Mother Sita's father asked kings to string to marry her. The bow broke when Rama attempted to string it causing Parashurama to get hugely angry. Parashu means an ax - So, Parashurama is the Rama with an ax. Parashurama trained a dalit, Karna, in archery, so that he became better in archery than even Arjuna.

 

[Toxikmynd]

Exactly what Thorbjorn said plus I've been told I started as being half ax and half hammer but when the nose and Balto-Slavoc people's broke off so did the ax so to speak. I enjoy your story Aupmanyav, I might half to remember that one!

 

[Aupmanyav]

I don't mean to steal @Toxikmynd's thunder (no pun intended), it's the ax of the Balto-Slavic God Perun or Perkūnas, the God of thunder and weather. He is a very close analogue of Thor, and may indeed be the same God seen by the two different peoples. There was a lot of contact between the Balto-Slavs and Norse.

Thorbjorn, Toxicmynd, I do not know if you know about the Indo-Aryan God, Parjanya. At one time Indra was known by this name. Thunder and rain were associated with Parjanya. Like YHWH in Abrahamic religions, the Gods and Goddesses of Indo-European Aryans are the same, whether in Norway or in India.

"This deity occupies quite a subordinate position, being celebrated in only three hymns. His name often means 'rain-cloud' in the literal sense but in most passages it represents the personification, the cloud then becoming an udder, a pail, or a water-skin. Parjanya is frequently described as a bull that quickens the plants and the earth. The shedding of rain is his most prominent characteristic. He flies around with a watery car, and loosens the water-skin; he sheds rain-water as our divine (ásura) father. In this activity he is associated with thunder and lightning. He is in a special degree the producer and nourisher of vegetation. He also produces fertility in cows, mares, and women. He is several times referred to as a father. By implication his wife is the Earth, and he is once called the son of Dyaus.

Thus asura, 'divine being', is variously rendered by him as 'expeller of foes', 'giver of strength', 'giver of life', 'hurler away of what is undesired', 'giver of breath or water', 'thrower of oblations, priest', 'taker away of breath', 'expeller of water, Parjanya', 'impeller', 'strong', 'wise', and 'rain-water' or 'a water-discharging cloud'!" A Vedic Reader (Excerpts)
(Aup. adds: He was not a subordinate deity but reigned (people worshiped him) for a short period of time, and then moved on to Indra).

"THEY who lay quiet for a year, the Brahmans who fulfil their vows,
The Frogs have lifted up their voice, the voice Parjanya hath inspired." Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 7: HYMN CIII. Frogs.
Nice RigVedic humor.
"INDRA, great in his power and might, and like Parjanya rich in rain,
Is magnified by Vatsa's lauds." Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 8: HYMN VI Indra

"1 SING forth and laud Parjanya, son of Heaven, who sends the gift of rain
May he provide our pasturage.
2 Parjanya is the God who forms in kine, in mares, in plants of earth,
And womankind, the germ of life.
3 Offer and pour into his mouth oblation rich in savoury juice:
May he for ever give us food." Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 7: HYMN CII Parjanya.
(Aup.: I have selected the shortest hymn. The others are longer)
Also: Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 7: HYMN CI. Parjanya. and Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 5: HYMN LXXXIII. Parjanya.

"Parjanya was also one of the Saptarishi (Seven Great Sages Rishi) in the fifth Manvantara. He is one of the 12 Adityas (Gods, sons of God Mother, Aditi) and according to the Vishnu Purana, the guardian of the month of Kartik, a Gandharva and a Rishi in the Harivamsa. The name may be cognate with Lithuanian Perkūnas "god of thunder", Finnish Perkele "god of thunder", Gothic fairguni "mountain", Mordvin language Pur’ginepaz, see Perkwunos."
Parjanya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Perkwunos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Considering how far in time and distance the European Aryans and the Indo-Iranian Aryans moved, the difference in name is understandable.

 

[Jainarayan]

Thorbjorn, Toxicmynd, I do not know if you know about the Indo-Aryan God, Parjanya. At one time Indra was known by this name. Thunder and rain were associated with Parjanya. Like YHWH in Abrahamic religions, the Gods and Goddesses of Indo-European Aryans are the same, whether in Norway or in India.

Yes, Parjanya is mentioned in the Pushpam Mantra (I love that one ):

parjanyovā apām āyathanam
āyathanavān bhavathi
ya parjanyasya āyathanam veda
āyathanavān bhavathi
āpo vai parjanyasya āyathanam
āyathanavān bhavathi
ya evam veda yo ‘pām āyathanam veda
āyathanavān bhavathi

Clouds are the source of water
He who knows this
Becomes established in himself
Water is the source of clouds
He who knows this
Becomes established in himself
He who knows the source of water
Becomes established in himself

Krishna mentions him in the Bhagavad Gita. I believe there is a mixture of indigenous deities and the same deity with different names in the Indo-European pantheons. I think Saraswati, Ganesha and Hanuman are uniquely Indian, I'm not sure about Shiva and Parvati, and Vishnu and Lakshmi. I've read about Lakshmi equated with Laima. It seems the Vedic deities are more closely related to the other IE pantheons.

 

[Aupmanyav]

- Nice to read about Laima, perhaps there is a connection. Surprised me in the same way when I was told that Serbs called their Supreme God as Vishney, the one who envelopes, the same meaning that we ascribe to Vishnu.
- Parjanya, Vishnu, Rudra and Saraswati are purely Vedic Gods and Goddess. Saraswati is known among Zoroastrians as Harahvaiti. At one time River Hari-Rud in Afghanistan (Herat province) was known as Saraswati.
- Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Ganesha and Hanuman are indigenous Indian Gods.
- Kartikeya might be an Aryan God though later associated with indigenous Murugan; in the way Vishnu became associated with Rama and Krishna and Shiva became associated with Rudra. Kartikeya worship may have started some 4,500 years ago when the beginning of the year and was changed from Orion to Pleiades. This was necessitated by precession of equinoxes.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Mantra Pushpam: "Samvastaro Va Apamayatanam, ayatavan bhavati .."

Samvatsara is variously translated as the year, the God, the seasons, or the fire-sacrfice (yajna), because for Aryans all of them were related and water was important for greening the steppes where the Aryans roamed. So, I would read it as 'one who knows the relationship between the yajna and water, becomes established in his self (becomes wise).' The mantra is emphasizing the observance of rituals correctly.
The flower of Vedic Chants - Mantra Pushpam (with audio)

Parjanya, Vishnu, Rudra, and Saraswati are purely Aryan deities (mentioned in RigVeda) who were incorporated in Hinduism later.