The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s5.33

v2.c39.s5.33

More interesting is the effort to express aspects of reality by the use of the word Tanū, 'body'. It denotes primarily simply the body of a person or his self regarded as corporeal, as in the reflexive use of the term and in its occasional exchange with Ātman,² which denotes the spiritual aspect of the self. But it is specially frequent in the plural to denote what may best be styled aspects;³ thus Agni has one aspect as bearing the oblations to the gods, another as carrying the offerings for the dead; he has auspicious and dread aspects. The aspects may be mortal or immortal; Prajāpati has five of either, mortal as hair, &c., immortal as mind, &c. Taken together they may make up the whole, or they may be set beside the self, Ātman, as members; or the whole may itself be styled a Tanū.⁴ Or the aspects may be in different places; even the Rigveda recognizes that Agni has such aspects. In any case the Tanūs give rise to indefinite possibilities of identification, since in respect of some one or other of them most things can be made similar.