A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.747

c5.747

KA. The interrogative pronoun “who?” This word has been raised to the position of a deity. In the words of Max Müller, “The authors of the Brāhmaṇas had so completely broken with the past, that, forgetful of the poetical character of the hymns (of the Veda) and the yearning of the poets after the unknown god, they exalted the interrogative pronoun itself into a deity, and acknowledged a god Ka or Who? In the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, in the Kaushītaki Brāhmaṇa, in the Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇa, and in the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, wherever interrogative verses occur, the author states that Ka is Prajāpati, or the lord of creatures. Nor did they stop here. Some of the hymns in which the interrogative pronoun occurred were called Kadvat, i.e., having kad or quid. But soon a new adjective was formed, and not only the hymns but the sacrifice also offered to the god were called Kāya or Who-ish. . . . At the time of Pāṇini, this word had acquired such legitimacy as to call for a separate rule explaining its formation. The commentator here explains Ka by Brahman. After this we can hardly wonder that in the later Sanskrit literature of the Purāṇas Ka appears as a recognised god, as a supreme god, with a genealogy of his own, perhaps even with a wife; and that in the laws of Manu one of the recognised forms of marriage, generally known by the name of the Prajāpati marriage, occurs under the monstrous title of Kāya.” The Mahā-bhārata identifies Ka with Daksha, and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa applies the term to Kasyapa, no doubt in consequence of their great generative powers and similarity to Prajāpati.