The symbolism of the underwear shirt in the Russian folk tradition

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The symbolism of the underwear shirt in the Russian folk tradition is deep and interesting. In everyday life, the shirt was the main form of clothing; both men's and women's shirts were sewn from linen, decorating them with woven ornaments and embroidery. Old Russian rubs were straight cut, tunic-shaped and cut from a cloth bent in half. The sleeves were made narrow and long; in women's shirts, they were gathered in folds at the wrist and fastened with bracelets (handrails). During ritual dances, in ritual actions, the sleeves were unraveled and served as an instrument of witchcraft.

This, by the way, is the story of the Russian folk tale about the Frog Princess. The description of a foreigner (late 17th century) says: “They (Russians - S. Zh.) Wear shirts woven with gold on all sides, their sleeves, folded into folds with amazing art, often exceed 8 or 10 cubits, sleeve assemblies, continuing in interlocking folds to the end of the hand, are adorned with exquisite and expensive wrists. " Shirts decorated with embroidery and weaving are also mentioned in "The Lay of Igor's Host" - a remarkable monument of medieval Russian culture. In her tears, Yaroslavna would like to fly like a cuckoo on the Danube, moisten the "be bryan sleeve" (that is, decorated with a branded ornament) in the Kajala River and wipe the bloody wounds of her husband, Prince Igor, with it. The magical power, concentrated in the sleeves of a shirt, in scarlet ornaments, should heal, heal wounds, fill the body with strength, bring health and good luck. A long-sleeved shirt is depicted on ritual bracelets with a niello pattern, intended for dancing on mermaids, found in different parts of Russia (Kiev, Staraya Ryazan, Tver). Relating to the XII-XIII centuries, these bracelets depict those ritual actions about which the church said: “Sin is dancing in mermaids,” “but the essence of evil and bad deeds is dancing, gusli … - the lover of the devil … the bride of sotonin. " B. A. Rybakov notes that: “The bracelets were not intended for ceremonial attire, which provided for the appearance of a princess or boyar in the church, and not for simple everyday attire, but for the celebration of a different, but, obviously, secret participation in great-grandfather's rituals.”

The ritual significance of the ornamented long sleeves is emphasized on the bracelet from Staraya Ryazan by the fact that the woman depicted here, drinking a ritual cup at a pagan Rusal festival, takes it through the deflated long sleeve, while the man holds the cup with an open palm. Until the end of the 19th century, the Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Olonets and Moscow provinces retained the tradition of using long-sleeved shirts with sleeves up to two meters with slots-"windows" for hands as festive and wedding clothes. Returning again to the fairy tale about the Frog Princess, it is worth remembering that it is at the real wedding of her and Ivan Tsarevich, where the Frog Princess first appears before her husband and his relatives in her real appearance as Vasilisa the Beautiful, that she performs a ritual witchcraft dance. After the sweep of the loose right sleeve, a lake appears, after the sweep of the left, a bird of swans appears. Thus, the heroine of the fairy tale performs the act of creating the world. She, like the woman on the bracelet of the 12th-12th centuries, dances the dance of water and life. And this is quite natural, since since Vedic times a wedding has been perceived as a cosmic act - the union of the sun and the month. It is interesting that in the Vedic wedding ceremony the groom, bringing the bride's undershirt, said: “Live long, wear clothes, be the protector of the human tribe from the curse. Live a hundred years, full of strength, dress for wealth and children, blessed with the life invested in these clothes. " Such a text is logical, because, as noted earlier, the ornament of the fabric was perceived in this tradition as a sacred speech, a song of praise, as a way to comprehend the universal law. NR Guseva notes that in "Atharvaveda" there is an appeal to the gods "with a request to dress the donor in a kind of symbolic garment in which the gods dress each other and which gives longevity, power, wealth and prosperity." The fact that this is a shirt is evidenced by the lines of the Rig Veda, which say "about beautiful, well-made outfits", as well as about a woman ripping open a seam, about a wedding shirt and a wedding dress. NR Guseva believes that “the mentions of a seam and a shirt are, of course, especially valuable here, since, in contrast to the substratum population of Hindustan - the Dravids, who wore unstitched clothes, the Aryans wore sewn clothes7. She also emphasizes that: “In the Rig Veda there is also such a name for clothes as“atka”-“shirt”, formed from the verbal root“at”-“to constantly move, reach out, go”. From the same root comes the word "atasi" - "flax" and "atasa" - "linen clothes". This is a valuable indication that the Aryans knew flax. This is also indicated by the injunction of the Laws of Manu, which commands the chaste disciples of the brahmanas to wear clothes made of linen, hemp and sheep's wool. The profession of a tailor is also mentioned here, which speaks of the existence of tailored clothes”8. Based on the published Rig Veda, we can assume that it was in the ornament that the shirt could "bestow longevity, power, wealth and prosperity."

The fact that in Ancient India there was ornamentation of fabrics is evidenced by the presence of masters in embroidery, printed fabric, patterned weaving and applique work in ancient lists of the middle and end of the 1st millennium BC. e. ("Arthashastra"). And also the fact that Indian embroidery in the chikan technique, where many different stitches are used: double-sided darning, flat and convex satin stitch, stalked and overcast seams, made on white fabric with white threads, is absolutely identical to the North Russian embroidery “chase”, so characteristic of the Olonets province. “In northern India, chikan embroidery covers men's white shirts of local cut - long without a collar, with a straight fastener, with long straight sleeves and with pockets sewn into the side seams. The embroidery is usually applied around the neckline and fastening of the shirt, sometimes on the edges of the sleeves and along the edges of the pockets. Chikan embroidery is used to decorate women's pajamas and shirts, as well as tablecloths, napkins, pillowcases, sheets, thin window curtains, corners of handkerchiefs, etc.,”writes NR Guseva. In the Russian North, embroidery was used to decorate the valances of wedding sheets, the ends of towels, the so-called. "Groom's fees", etc. The technique of the flat surface from Gujarat is surprisingly similar to the North Russian flat surface, widespread in the Olonets province. These examples can be continued for a long time, since there is a huge number of compositional schemes of embroidered and woven ornament, absolutely identical in India and in the Russian North: these are goddesses with their hands raised up, these are all kinds of ducks and peas, and sung by the Rig Veda:

"With one, two on the horses of the pilgrims, two wander together"

these are constantly repeating compositions of four swastikas, which correspond to the concept of "austerity of five fires," that is, the standing of the priest between four bonfires in the form of swastikas under the rays of the sun (the fifth fire).

THREAD OF KNOWLEDGE

The Russian North is an amazing, fabulous land. He is sung in our ancient songs, epics, traditions and legends. And not only in them. The most ancient myths of Greece tell about the distant northern side of Hyperborea, which lies near the coast of the cold Cronian Ocean. They told us that it was here, behind the harsh northeastern wind of Boreas, that there is a land where a wonderful tree with golden apples of eternal youth grows. At the foot of this tree, nourishing its roots, gushes a spring of living water - the water of immortality. Here, for the golden apples of the maiden-birds of the Hesperides, the hero Hercules once went. In the far north, in Hyperborea, at Tartessa - "the city where the wonders of the whole world sleep until the time comes for them to be born and go out to mortals on earth", the golden boat of the Sun was waiting for Hercules. And this is not surprising, because Hyperborea is the birthplace of the solar Apollo and here, according to the ancient Greek myth, snow-white winged swan horses brought him here every summer.

But not only the ancient Greeks glorified the distant northern land in their legends. From the depths of millennia, this hymn to the land lying at the northern border of the world, near the shores of the Milky (White) Sea, sounds: “That country rises above evil, and therefore it is called Ascended! It is believed that it is in the middle between east and west … This is the ascended Golden Bucket road … In this vast northern land, a cruel, insensitive and lawless person does not live … There is a murava and a wonderful tree of gods … Here the Pole Star was strengthened by the Great Ancestor … The northern land is reputed to be "ascended" for he is exalted in all respects. " With such heartfelt words, the ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata" tells about the far circumpolar north.

The Russian North - its forests and fields were not trampled by hordes of conquerors, its free and proud people, for the most part, did not know serfdom, and it is here that the oldest songs, fairy tales, and epics of Russia have been preserved in purity and inviolability. It is here, in the opinion of many researchers, that such archaic rituals, rituals, traditions have been preserved that are older than not only the ancient Greek ones, but even those recorded in the Vedas, the most ancient cultural monument of all Indo-European peoples.

WHITE INDIA

The great god Indra - a mighty warrior-thunderer - divided heaven and earth with his power, putting them on an invisible axle like two wheels. And since then the stars have been circling above the earth in circles, and this axis in the sky has been strengthened by the Pole Star (Dhruva - "indestructible, unshakable"). Such astronomical representations, of course, could not have arisen in India. Only in polar latitudes during the polar night is it possible to see how the stars describe their diurnal circles near the stationary Pole Star, creating the illusion of a circle of the sky above the circle of the earth, fastened, like wheels, by a fixed axis.

The hymns of the Rig Veda and the Avesta say that in the homeland of the Aryans six months lasts a day and six months - a night, and "a human year is one day and one night of the gods." Naturally, life far from the North Pole could not give rise to the idea of a long polar night and a day lasting six months. How could not people living far from the north sing the dawn with these words:

“In truth, it was many days, During which, before sunrise, You, O dawn, were visible to us! Many dawns were not fully enlightened, Oh, let Varuna, we live the dawn until the light."

Here the singer of the ancient Aryan hymn appeals to the powerful lord of the heavenly ocean, the keeper of cosmic law and truth on earth, the god Varuna (Paruna), with a request to help survive the long thirty-day dawn and live Till the day. He asks:

"Oh, give us, long dark night, See your end, oh night!"

Interestingly, both the Vedas and the Avesta retain memories of the polar night, which lasts no more than 100 days a year. So, in the Indian divine service there is a ritual of reinforcing the warrior god and thunderer Indra with the ritual intoxicating drink "soma" during his struggle to free the sun from captivity, which lasts a hundred days. In the ancient Iranian holy book Avesta, which also tells about the struggle of the warrior god Tishtrya for the sun, the priests reinforce it with drinking for a hundred nights. It must be said that the legend about the struggle for the liberation of the sun from a long captivity, the idea of which could only be instilled in the polar night, is one of the leading in the entire mythology of the Vedas.

Among the amazing phenomena of the land of the Aryans, described in the Vedas and Avesta, there is one, extremely important, which for almost a century has attracted the closest attention of researchers - these are the sacred mountains of the ancestral home of the Aryans: Meru - in Indian legends, Hara - in Iranian legends. Here is what ancient legends told about them.

In the north, where there is a "pure, beautiful, meek, desired world", in that part of the earth that is "more beautiful, purer than all others", there are great gods: Kubera - the god of wealth, the seven sons of the creator god Brahma, incarnated in seven stars Ursa Major, and, finally, the ruler of the Universe Rudra-Hara himself - "wearing light braids", "reed-haired, light-bearded, lotus-blue-eyed, Ancestor of all creatures" 8. In order to reach the world of gods and ancestors, one must overcome the great and endless mountains, which stretch from west to east. Around their golden peaks, the sun makes its annual journey, the seven stars of the Big Dipper sparkle above them in the darkness and the Pole Star located motionless in the center of the universe.

All the great earthly rivers rush down from these mountains, only some of them flow to the south, to the warm sea, and others to the north, to the white-foam ocean. On the tops of these mountains forests rustle, wonderful birds sing, wonderful animals live. But it was not given to mere mortals to ascend them, only the wisest and bravest crossed this limit and went forever to the blessed land of their ancestors, the shores of which were washed by the waters of the Ocean of Milk.

The mountains that separate the north and the white-foam sea from all other lands are called in the Vedic hymns the Meru ridges, and the greatest of them is Mandara. In the Avesta, these are the Khara mountains with their main peak, Mount Khukairya. And just like over the mountains of Meru, over the High Hara, the seven stars of the Big Dipper and the Pole Star, placed in the center of the universe, sparkle. From here, from the golden peaks of the High Khara, all earthly rivers originate, and the greatest of them is the pure Ardvi River, falling noisily into the white-foam sea of Vurukasha, which means “having wide bays”. Above the mountains of Vysokaya Khara, the "Bys-Trokonnoe" sun is always circling, half a day here lasts, and half a year - night. And only the brave and the strong in spirit can pass these mountains and get to the happy land of the blessed, washed by the waters of the white-foam sea-ocean.

The question of where these mountains are was not resolved for a long time. It has been suggested that the creators of the Avesta and Rig Veda sang the ridges of the Urals in their hymns. Yes, indeed, the Ural Mountains are in the north in relation to India and Iran. Yes, the Urals are rich in gold and gems; it stretches far to the freezing northern sea. But only the Avesta, and the Rig Veda, and ancient historians constantly repeated that the sacred Khara and Meru, the Ripean mountains stretched from west to east, and the Urals were oriented strictly from south to north. All - and the Avesta, and the Vedas, and Herodotus, and Aristotle - argued that the great northern mountains divide the land into north and south, and the Urals - the border of the west and east. And, finally, neither the Don, nor the Dnieper, nor the Volga originate from the Urals; the spurs of the Urals are not the boundary where the earth's waters are divided into flowing into the white-foam northern sea and flowing into the southern sea. So the Urals, apparently, did not solve the ancient riddle. However, not everything is so simple here. The fact is that the common Ural ridge, which is familiar to us today, began to be called that way only from the middle of the 18th century (from the Bashkir name of the Southern Urals - Uraltau).

The northern part of the Ural Mountains has long been called "Stone" or "Earth Belt". Unlike the Southern Urals, which stretches from north to south in the meridian direction, the Subpolar Urals (Kamen) is the most elevated and widest part of the Urals, where individual peaks rise more than 1800 m above sea level, and the total width of the mountain strip reaches 150 km … (at 65 "n. lat.), has a northeastern latitudinal direction. From the so-called" three stones "the Tian Ridge departs, which lies at the same latitude and - which is extremely important here - unites with the Northern Uvals - another a hill stretching from west to east. It is here, on the Northern Uvals, that the main watershed of the basins of the northern and southern seas is located.

The outstanding Soviet scientist Yu. A. Meshcheryakov called the Northern Uvaly "an anomaly of the Russian Plain" and, speaking of the fact that the higher elevations (Central Russian, Volga) give them the role of the main watershed boundary, he made the following conclusion: “The Central Russian and Volga Uplands arose only in modern times (Neo-Quaternary), when the Northern Uvaly already existed and were the watershed of the basins of the North and South Seas”. And even more, even during the Carboniferous period, when an ancient sea splashed in the place of the Urals, the Northern Uvaly were already mountains. " II century AD), the Hyperborean (or Ripean) mountains are placed, from which the Volga originates on this map, called by the ancient Avestan name Ra or Rha.

Author: S. V. Zharnikova

Books:

S. V. Zharnikova "Golden thread" 2003.pdf S. V. Zharnikova The world of images of the Russian spinning wheel. 2000.pdf S. V. Zharnikova Archaic roots of the traditional culture of the Russian North - 2003.pdf Zharnikova S. V., Vinogradov A. - Eastern Europe as the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans.pdf Zharnikova S. V. Who are we in this old Europe.docx Svetlana Zharnikova Ancient secrets of the Russian North.docx