Lexicon of Rig Veda

Lexicon

of Rig Veda

The number, which is constantly found and of great importance for understanding the Veda, is used in a variety of figures: ten sisters (daśa svasāraḥ, 3.29.13, 9.1.7, 9.71.5, 9.91.1, 9.93.1), ten virgins (yoṣaṇaḥ, 1.95.2. 9.1.7. 9.6.5. 9.56.3. 9.68.7), ten fingers (daśa kṣipaḥ, 3.23.3. 5.43.4. 9.8.4. 9.15.8. 9.46.6. 9.61.7. 9.80.4. 9.80.5. 9.85.7. 9.97.12. 9.97.57), ten hands (bāhuṣu, 8.101.13), ten comrades (jāmibhiḥ, 9.28.4), ten rays (raśmibhiḥ, 9.97.23), ten branches (śākhābhyām, 10.137.7), ten thin ones (aṇvīḥ, 9.1.7), ten thoughts (pramat.7) dhītayo daśa vriśo, ten thought-fingers grabbing), ten maya-s, creative knowledge (daśamāyam, 6.20.8 “with ten Maya-s, ten-handed”). Despite this diversity, the number ten constantly implies the same Vedic concept, the key to which is the number five, while the ten is a doubling of five: “We rejoice in ten times drinking when two by five go bearing food” (1.122.13). We assumed (see. Five) that number five represents five Vedic “rivers”, or modes of action of consciousness (physical, vital, mental, overmental, supramental), in that case, as through each of three regions (Earth, Antariksha, the Heaven) all Vedic rivers, including these five flow, ten expresses the idea of five rivers-consciousnesses flowing through the region of Earth, and five rivers-consciousnesses flowing through the region of the Heaven. And since Veda calls these tirelessly flowing rivers the Mothers, giving rise to all Existence, the meaning of many passages becomes clear to us, for example, that ten tireless young ones gave birth to Agni, to everywhere born (1.95.2), which corresponds to the concept of a twice born Agni, having a house both on Earth and in Heaven.

The number nine (see Navagwa and Dashagwa) is associated with the idea that one of the ten rivers has not yet been liberated and remains inaccessible to a human being. Most likely, this is a supramental consciousness that remains latent in the worlds of the Earth.