Balinese Vedic Heritages (1)

The Balinese Hindus today didn’t have the
complete Samhita of Catur Veda. But some
palm-leaf manuscripts we called Catur Veda
Sirah, The Head of Four Vedas, was available
under some hereditary Brahmin’s custody and
government library. The Rik, Yajus, and Sama’s
“heads” full of clearly Vaishnavite meaning
and established Lord Sriman Narayana’s
supremacy above other deities. The Atharva
Sirah invokes other divine names such as Siva,
Brahma, or even Skanda, Kumara, and
Ganapati. But from careful analysis, we also can
conclude them finally as glorifying hymns for
Lord Sriman Narayana. The different names
actually don’t refer to various deities but The
Supreme Lord Narayana.
This is the text of Balinese Caturveda Sirah (I
have tried my best to read the computer
scanned leaves with not so clear ancient
Balinese scripts. They used to rewriting the
manuscripts for preservation, but if you have
bad eyesight and bad knowledge about
Sanskrit, then there’s always possibility to
missed any part of the writing or lost some
words)
Atha puruso ha vai narayano kaumayata prajaha
srijeyeti| narayanat prano jayate manaha
sarvendriyani ca kham vayur jyotir apah pruthvi
visvasya dharani| narayanad brahma jayate|
narayanad rudra jayate|narayanad indro jayate|
narayanat prajapatih prajayate|narayanad
dvadasa-aditya rudra vasavah sarvani chandansi|
narayanadeva samutpadyante| narayanat
pravartante|narayane praliyante| etad rigveda
sirodhite||
Then The Supreme Person Narayana fastened
the wish: May I create! From Narayana the life
force is created. Narayana created mind, all
senses, and also the sky, air, light (or fire),
water, earth, and Narayana is the sustainer of
everything (or the whole universe). From
Narayana Brahma is born. Narayana created
Rudra, Indra, and Prajapati. From Narayana the
twelve Adityas, eleven Rudras, eight Vasus,
and all Vedic metres are born. They originate
from Narayana, they act by Narayana’s energy,
and they finally dissolve in Narayana. Thus the
head meaning of Rigveda has been studied.
Note: In this Sirah, we try to comprehend
Sriman Narayana by His unlimited opulence. At
beginning the Sirah considered many material
forces, then their great presiding deities (the
abhimani-devatas ). Finally, the supremacy of
Lord Narayana was established, by identifying
Him as the original cause of everything. Remind
us with the aphorism janmadhyasya yatah of
Brahmasutra. This thought reminds me with
the way of Poygai-azhvar presenting the truths
(tattvas ) in his Mudal Thiruvanthadi.