Apam Napat

Apam Napat is an eminent figure of the Indo-Iranian pantheon. In the Rig Veda, Apām Napāt is the supreme god of creation. Apam Napat created all existential beings (Rig Veda 2.35.2)[2] . In Zoroastrianism, Apąm Napāt is a divinity of water (water vapour) (see also Burz).

Apām Napāt in Sanskrit and Apąm Napāt in Avestan mean "son of waters" (see Ap (water)(liquid) and grandson of Apah (water)(solid) ). Sanskrit and Avestan napāt ("grandson") are cognate to Latin nepōs and English nephew, but the name Apām Napāt has also been compared to Etruscan Nethuns and Celtic Nechtan and Roman Neptune^[1]

In Yasht 19 of the Avesta Apąm Napāt appears as the Creator of mankind. Here, there is an evident link between the glory of sovereignty (Khvarenah) and Apąm Napāt who protects Khvarenah as the royal glory of Iranian kings. Apām Napāt is sometimes, for example in Rigveda book 2 hymn 35 verse 2, described as the supreme creator deity who originates in the cosmic waters (see: Agni). Apam Napat has a golden splendour and is said to be kindled by the cosmic waters. The reference to fire may have originally referred to flames from natural gas or oil seepages surfacing through water, as in a fire temple at Surakhany near Baku in Azerbaijan (Jivanji Jamshedji Modi 1926). This Will-o'-the-wisp-like phenomenon would explain the otherwise puzzling concept of fire arising in water (fire and water being usually conceived of as opposing elements, with water the natural quencher of fire, rather than its engenderer). In this connection, there is a suggestive conjecture that the word "naphtha" came (via Greek, where it meant any sort of petroleum) from the name "Apam Napat".^[2][3]

References

1. Philibert, Myriam, Les Mythes préceltiques. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 1997, pp. 244-247.
2. Studies in ancient technology by R. J. Forbes (page 12)
3. Dumézil,Georges, Mythe et Epopée I. II. III. Quarto Gallimard, pub. Éditions Gallimard 1995 ISBN 2-07-073656-3.

3 http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv02035.htm

External links

• "APĄM NAPĀT". Encyclopædia Iranica.
• Apâm. Napât, Dîrghatamas and the Construction of the Brick Altar. Analysis of RV 1.143 in the homepage of Laszlo Forizs