Apam Napat

For other uses, see Apam Napat (disambiguation).

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 (see also Burz).

Apām Napāt in Sanskrit and Apąm Napāt in Avestan mean "son of waters" (see Ap (water)). 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

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). There is a conjecture that the word "naphtha" came (via Greek, where it meant any sort of petroleum) from the name "Apam Napat".

References

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

External links

• Apâm. Napât, Dîrghatamas and the Construction of the Brick Altar. Analysis of RV 1.143 in the homepage of Laszlo Forizs