pictured as a bellowing bull who deposits his semen in the plants (RV 5. 83. 1;
- 6). But he is also a thunderer (5. 83. 2–9; 10. 66. 10) and dispenser of
lightning (5. 83. 4; AV 19. 30. 5, TS 3. 4. 7. 2). In a simile in the Ra ̄ma ̄yan
̇
- 6). But he is also a thunderer (5. 83. 2–9; 10. 66. 10) and dispenser of
a
(6. 45. 28) a drum-roll is compared to Parjanya’s roaring. He smites demons
and evildoers (RV 5. 83. 2, 9). In another hymn he is implored to direct his
thunder and lightning at the snake or snakes, not at mankind.^25
His name has long been felt to belong in the company of Perkunas,
Fio ̨ rgynn, and the others. But Perkwu ̄ ̆n(y)o- would have come out in Vedic as
Parku ̄ ̆n(y)a-. The -jan- that we actually have should come from *-g
an- or
*g
en- or *-g
on-. The comparativists’ response has been to postulate *per-g
as
another variant of the ‘strike’ root beside per and per-kw. An Armenian
form is cited in support. The extended root is then furnished with a deverba-
tive suffix -áni-, which makes an adjective ‘striking’ or an abstract noun, and
finally we postulate conversion from an -i-stem into a -yo-stem.^26 Bravo! But
even if we allow the concurrence of per, perkw, and *perg
, all meaning the
same thing, the upshot is that Perkunas, Perun, and Parjanya are independent
creations on this root, each fashioned with a different formant, and we fail
to reconstruct a single prototype as the name of the Indo-European god. To
achieve that, we have to invoke taboo deformation, a valid tactic in principle
but unfortunately subject to no philological control.
We should not on this account abandon the idea of an Indo-European
storm-god. There are sufficient common features among the historical storm-
gods, whether or not they have related names, for that to remain a probable
hypothesis. Let us move on to the ones whose names clearly have other
origins, working our way back from India to Iceland.
Firstly Indra, an Indo-Iranian deity who goes back at least to the first half
of the second millennium. His name is perhaps related to Slavonic *je ̨dru ̆
‘virile, vigorous’. He is one of the gods named in Suppiluliuma’s treaty with
Mitanni, and the most prominent of all the deities of the Rigveda.
He is sometimes made a son of Dyaus (RV 4. 17. 4, cf. 10. 120. 1), some-
times of Tvas
̇
t
̇r
̇. He is king of the gods (1. 174. 1, AV 19. 46. 4). Men pray to
him in battle (RV 1. 63. 6, 81. 1, 100. 1, etc.). As god of the storm, he is ‘equal
in strength to the rain-bringing Parjanya’ (8. 6. 1). However, there is a notable
difference in the treatment of the two deities. Parjanya’s operations are
described with altogether more direct naturalism than Indra’s.^27 There is
pictorial imagery, he travels in a car, pours the water out of a skin bag, and so
(^25) AV Paipp. 2. 70. 1–3, quoted and translated by Watkins (1995), 543.
(^26) Nagy (1974), 115 f. ≈ (1990), 185 f. G. E. Dunkel, Die Sprache 34 (1988–90), 3 f., analyses
as *per-g-n
̊
nyo-.
(^27) Oldenberg (1917), 137 f.; Nagy (1990), 192. On Indra generally see Macdonell (1898),
54–66.
- Storm and Stream 245