Editing Prajapati (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Daksha Prajapati Temple, Banapur , Odisha - 8.jpg|thumb|A Statue of Brahma as Prajapati at Daksha Prajapati Temple, Banapura, Odisha]]
[[File:An attempt to depict the creative activities of Prajapati.jpg|thumb|"An attempt to depict the creative activities of Prajapati", a steel engraving from the 1850s.]]
The origins of Prajapati are unclear. He appears late in the Vedic layer of texts, and the hymns that mention him provide different cosmological theories in different chapters.<ref name="Lochtefeld2002p518"/> He is missing from the [[Samhita]] layer of Vedic literature, conceived in the [[Brahmana]] layer, states [[Jan Gonda]].<ref name="Gonda1986p2"/> Prajapati is younger than [[Savitr]], and the word was originally an epithet for the sun.<ref name=gonda130>[[Jan Gonda]] (1982), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062566 The Popular Prajāpati] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215195110/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062566 |date=15 February 2020 }}, History of Religions, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Nov., 1982), University of Chicago Press, pp. 129-130</ref> His profile gradually rises in the Vedas, peaking within the [[Brahmana]]s.<ref name="Gonda1986p2">{{cite book|author=Jan Gonda|title=Prajāpatiʼs rise to higher rank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OIUAAAAIAAJ |year=1986|publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=90-04-07734-0|pages=2–5}}</ref> Scholars such as Renou, Keith and Bhattacharji posit Prajapati originated as an abstract or semi-abstract deity in the later Vedic milieu as speculations evolved from the archaic to more learned speculations.<ref name=gonda130/>

===Similar Deities ===
A similarity between Prajapati (and related figures in [[Hindu mythology]]) and [[Phanes]], also named as Protogonus ({{langx|grc|Πρωτογόνος}}, literally "first-born") of the [[Classical mythology|Greco-Roman mythology]] has been proposed:<ref>Martin West, ''Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient''. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971: 28-34</ref><ref name=alsobrook20>Kate Alsobrook (2008), "The Beginning of Time: Vedic and Orphic Theogonies and Poetics". M.A. Thesis, Reviewers: James Sickinger, Kathleen Erndl, John Marincola and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Florida State University, pages 20, 1-5, 24-25, 40-44</ref>

{{Blockquote|Phanes is the [[Greco-Roman mythology|Classical mythology]] equivalent of the Hindu god Brahma's Prajapati form in several ways: he is the first god born from a cosmic egg, he is the creator of the universe, and in the figure of [[Phanes]]— worshippers participate in his birth, death, rebirth, redeath.
|Kate Alsobrook|''The Beginning of Time: Hindu Greco-Roman Theogonies and Poetics''<ref name=alsobrook20/>}}

According to Robert Graves, the name of /PRA-JĀ[N]-pati/ ('progeny-potentate') is etymologically equivalent to that of the oracular god Phanes at [[Colophon (city)|Colophon]] (according to Macrobius<ref>Robert Graves : ''The Greek Myths''. 1955. vol. 1, p. 31, sec. 2.2</ref>), namely /prōtogonos/.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-08-12 |title=Protogonos Greek First Born From Prajapati Hinduism |url=https://ramanisblog.in/2020/08/12/protogonos-greek-first-born-from-prajapati-hinduism/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Ramanisblog |language=en}}</ref> The cosmic egg concept linked to Prajapati and Phanes is common in many parts of the world, states David Leeming, which appears in later Greco-Roman worship in Greece and Rome.<ref>{{cite book|author=David Adams Leeming|title=Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9I62BcuPxfYC |year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-174-9|pages=313–314}}</ref>