04

Appendix 4

It is as yet too early in the day to deal with “Uncle Kamsa,” whom lexicographers make a “mūra-deva,” allegedly a “venerator of roots” (mūla/mūra = root). In his Kleine Beiträge (p. 11), Jarl Charpentier earnestly wishes us to accept as that “among the Indian natives fighting against the invading Aryans there were such,” namely, “venerators of roots” (and venerators of worms as well). Although we do not doubt that the species Homo sapiens is capable of any “belief,” we cannot perceive any cogent reason for subscribing to Charpentier’s view. Mūla/mūra, the “root,” is a Nakshatra, a lunar mansion woven around with tales: it is the sting of Scorpius, serving as Marduk’s weapon in: the “Babylonian Genesis” and as Polynesian Maui’s fishhook; with the Copts it is “statio translationis Caniculae . . . unde et Siôt vocatur,” i.e., the Coptic table of lunar stations takes lambda upsilon Scorpii as the precise opposite of Sirius/Sothis, as we are informed by Athanasius Kircher, whereas Indian tables ascribe the role of exact opposition to Betelgeuse, ruled by “Rudra-the-destroying-archer.” Although we cannot pursue these and other tales further here, we think it at least appropriate to mention the concrete problems arising with such characters as “Uncle Kamsa,” instead of accusing a true Asura of “veneration of roots.”