From conquering the sun to conquering heaven: spatio-temporal cosmographies and sovereignty in the Ṛgvedic and Atharvavedic collections

In the Vedic corpus a chronotopic phraseology is recursively mentioned from the Atharvavedic collection onwards, and an extremely articulated and multilayer cosmography is outlined especially in the ritualistic textual repertoire. It would mean that a science of spatio-temporal cosmographies came to be carried out in relation to the process of cosmicisation belonging to Brahmanical ritualism. However, traces of earlier very semplifed chronotopes are found also in the Ṛgvedic collection and in both the Atharvavedic recensions, particularly in relation to the figure of Indra and the mythical motif of conquering the sun. Furthermore, in the Atharvavedic collection the more complex chronotopic phrases refer to the ritual of royal consecration (rājasūya), which ratifes the paradigm of sovereignty promoted by the Kuru hegemony. Therefore, it is assumable that in the proto-Vedic cultural stage a sort of chronotopic science might pertain to lordship, that is a form of proto-Kuru lordship, in compliance with the Indo-European traditions. It must be especially embodied by the Indraic model of warrior/cowherd, kaví and ‘maker of paths’, who, rhythmically moving in front and behind together with the sunlight, tracking it, thus rises to heaven. The paradigm of Kuru sovereignty is relied on a solar imagery which is borrowed from the pre-Kuru cultural phase, even in connection with the vrātya culture; however, Indraic lordship is reproduced in a sort of ‘tridimensional format’ in the Kuru paradigm of sovereignty: sovereign as such is not only one who rises to heaven (svargá), but also attains immortality (svargaloká).