<論文>古代インドにおける婚姻についての一考察 --ヴェーダ文献に見られる妊娠・出生の葛藤を巡る神話から--

Abstract

The period in ancient India when the primary texts of the religious literature known as the Vedas were composed (around the 15th century BCE to the 6th century BCE), marked a significant social transformation from a clan-based tribal society to urban city-states, during which societal structures gradually developed and took shape. While the Vedas, being religious texts, were not intended to describe society itself, we catch glimpses into the social norms of the time through the interpretation of myths. This paper focuses on the oldest Vedic literature, the R̥gveda (from the 15th century BCE to the 12th century BCE), and the oldest prose text, the Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā (from the 9th century BCE to the 7th century BCE), with the main objective of examining ancient Indian marriage and family structures through the analysis of myths, particularly those depicting scenes of pregnancy and childbirth. In the myths found in Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā 3.6.8 and 1.6.12, which revolve around the birth of Indra, conflicts between brothers are portrayed. The struggles between brothers with different fathers are discernible in these narratives. It is believed that these myths concerning the birth of Indra were interpretations of the enigmatic Indra's birth story narrated in R̥gveda 4.18. Both Maitrāyanī Saṁhitā 1.6.12 and R̥ gveda 4.18 also depict the conflicts from the mother's perspective. These mythological texts, which reveal the conflicts faced by women in childbirth and family matters, are of great importance as they shed light on aspects rarely spoken from a female perspective in the Vedic literature.