Apam Napat

For other uses, see Apam Napat (disambiguation).

Apam Napat is an eminent figure of the Indo-Iranian pantheon. In Hinduism, Apām Napāt is the god of fresh water, such as in rivers and lakes. In Zoroastrianism, Apąm Napāt is also a divinity of water, see also Burz.

Apām Napat in Sanskrit and Apąm Napāt in Avestan mean "grandson of waters" (see Ap (water)). Sanskrit and Old Persian napat as well as 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 Apam Napāt appears as the Creator of mankind. Here, there is an evident link between the glory of sovereignty (Khvarenah) and Apam Napāt who protects Khvarenah as the royal glory of Iranian kings. Apām Napat is sometimes, for example in Rigveda book 2 hymn 35 verse 3, described as a fire-god who originates in water (see: Agni). 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).^{[dubious – discuss]} There is a conjecture that the word "naphtha" came (via Greek, where it meant any sort of petroleum) from the name "Apam Napat".^[1]

References

1. ^ Studies in ancient technology by R. J. Forbes (page 12)

External links

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