What connects a huge snake, a dead sorcerer, the progenitor of mankind, the size of the volume, a park in Peru? And also a male name, the Academy of Sciences and the airport in Novosibirsk? They all have similar names - Man, Manu, MAN. Let's look into the history and definitions of this unusual word for modern hearing.
What could be the meaning of the word "man"?
Not many words have as many meanings as the word man. More than a dozen definitions can be found in different dictionaries.
No one uses these terms these days, although the history of the word is very rich. So mana is:
- Volume value equal to 850 grams. It measures bulk and liquid substances.
- Male name for Muslims, denoting benefit or benefit.
- The Slavs called the evil spirit that moved into the dead sorcerer.
- For the Chinese, this is a big scary snake or dragon.
Besides, today's youth is familiar with the derivative of this word in computer games. They refer to the reserves of magical powers as mana.
"Man" as part ofwords
Man is often not a complete word, but only a part of it. Moreover, it is usually found at the end: music lover, kleptomaniac, film lover, graphomaniac.
A compound word can have both a more neutral connotation, naming a lover of something (balletist), or a negative connotation, showing a painful craving for something (drug addict).
In this case, it is the Greek root "man", which means "passion, attraction or madness" (from the Greek mania).
In English there is a similar sounding word - man. It translates as "human". Often also becomes part of a two-part term: businessman, superman.
Man in Slavic mythology
In fairy tales and epics of different countries and cultures there are characters with this name. For example, in Slavic mythology, man is an evil spirit. Our ancestors believed that the earth “did not accept” one sorcerer after death, then evil spirits moved into him. Then the former sorcerer settled on the bell tower and began to frighten passers-by. Often seen at night. He rang the bells and did not let them into the bell tower. The former sorcerer wore a white cap. The brave men tried to overcome him and tear off the headdress, but after that everyone died. Man strangled the thieves, not paying attention to who was in front of him: a girl or a boy.
According to another version, Man is the son of the god Barma, one of the oldest Slavic gods of prayer. His mother Tarusa once tried to kill her son in order to calmly cheat on Barma with an earthlyhandsome. Tarusa pretended to be ill and asked Man to bring her fruits from the tree of life from the Irian garden. She thought that other gods would not let him go to the apple trees and kill him, but the brave young man brought fruit to his mother. Then Tarusa, together with her lover, threw Man into the volcano, but even then the gods saved him. Subsequently, Barma burned the unfaithful wife. The Mansi people went from Mana.
Chinese Dragon Man
The Chinese believed that Man is none other than a large and formidable serpent. Already in the oldest Chinese explanatory dictionary "Er Ya", that is, in the III-II centuries BC. e., you could meet this word. There Man was called the king of all snakes. He was described as the largest of his relatives. At least that's what people in the southern provinces believed.
Closer to the Middle Ages, the serpent was transformed into a dragon. He began to be depicted with four claws, in rare cases with five. Only the highest dignitaries, including the emperor, were allowed to wear clothes with an embroidered dragon. Then the prefix "wuzhua" was added to the name of the dragon Mang, which meant "five claws".
Later, another character appeared in Chinese legends - Gou-Man. So the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire called the spirit of the trees, which protects their country from misfortunes, diseases and strangers. Gou-Man was like a bird with a human face. He watched over his possessions, sitting on two dragons.
The first man on earth - Manu, or Another myth
Indian Vedas also did not bypass this unique word and used it in their legends. Only instead of mana they had Manu. The meaning can be read in the Vedas. Withthe ancient Indian translates as "man, thinker".
Indians believed that this is the progenitor of the human race. He is the son of the god of light Vivasvat and the brother of the ruler of the underworld, Yama.
The Vedas state that Manu was the first person who lived on earth, its first king and the first who died on earth. At the same time, judging by the epic, there were several Manu, or rather, 14. Seven of them have already lived, seven more are yet to appear. Moreover, each Manu is the progenitor of people. We, according to the Vedas, live in the period of Manu, the son of Vivasvat. But there were already six other Manus on earth, and seven more are expected after the disappearance of modern people.
According to legend, Vishnu sent a terrible flood on humanity. But shortly before that, Manu caught a small fish, which promised to save him from trouble if he took her to him and raised her. When the fish grew up, she told Manu to build a ship. On this ship, the future king sailed to the mountain. There he made a sacrifice to the gods, and they rewarded him with his wife, Ila. Together they became the progenitors of new people. Manu was a very wise king and left behind a set of laws by which people should live.
The meaning of the laws of Manu
The set of rules allegedly left behind by the first king is a collection of prescriptions. It deals with the behavior of the Hindus, the concepts of honor and duty, as well as decrees on how to govern the state. On behalf of Manu, the collection was written for several centuries by brahmins (the highest members of Hindu society). The laws were written by the 2nd century AD. Sources and Brahmins who made upcollection, there were many, so some laws contradict others or are repeated.
The laws of Manu include 12 books. They are written in verse. At the same time, it is quite difficult to understand them. There is no clear structure: next to market prices, you can find dogmas about faith and the torments of hell, advice on housekeeping and worldly aphorisms.
Researcher of the 19th century Bohlen studied the laws and came to the conclusion that there is order in the collection. Conditionally the structure looks like this:
- creation of the world;
- rules of education;
- about marriage;
- how to run a household;
- posts;
- laws;
- how to trade;
- division into castes;
- about the afterlife.
The Brahmins failed to make the Laws of Manu universally recognized throughout India. The rules in the less developed areas of the country were not recognized, which means that people did not follow them.
What other definitions does the word have?
Besides the fabulous and legendary definitions, man is an abbreviation for (MAN). Moreover, it is decrypted in at least three ways:
- Novosibirsk International Airport.
- International Academy of Science of Science.
- Small Academy of Sciences.
In addition, this is the name of some rivers, islands and other objects. Same story with mana derivatives.
For example, the meaning of the word mana (in the understanding of a lover of playing games) is the amount of magical powers and energy. However, this is the name of an island in New Zealand and a river in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Manu -these are also rivers and mountains. But plus everything is an amazing park in Peru. It is home to more than 15 thousand plants and a tenth of all bird species. This is even more than in Russia. Manu Park is a UNESCO heritage site.
