Cosmogonic myth through the eyes of a child in the story “Purusha” by Ilya Odegov

Abstract

This article examines Ilya Odegov’s short story “Purusha”. It compares the cosmogonic myths of proto-Turks and Hindus with the paradigms of monotheistic religions. As it happens in the genesis of man, it is in the nature of his psychology to be interested in the search for his origins and his creator. This same “quest” enables a different view of spiritual and artistic anthropology. The work masterfully portrays the perception of the world through the eyes of a child who believes in the fairy tale. From this perspective, the story represents the Hindu mythology of the cosmic prime mankind, which has been around since time immemorial in mountainous Nepal. This myth of Purusha is not applied in an illustrative way but in a profoundly functional way. The structure of the myth in the story makes it possible to expose the deep mental aspects of a holistic childhood worldview, spiritual in its core. This archetypal level is both nurtured and immanent. The child, rescuing Purusha (a giant-sized wounded man traumatized by a rockfall), displays a natural humanity. Such spontaneity hints that every child at this moral level is, in fact, Purusha. Another basis for theoretical constructions in the analysis was the history of systems thinking in biosphere theory and synergetic. By tracing the history of the emergence of different hypotheses, theories and ideas concerning systems of ecological thinking, the authors reveal the close ontological connection of these doctrines with this work of I. Odegov.