Wendy Doniger Rig Veda on Indra

Table Of Contents

CREATION
DEATH
THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE
THE HORSE SACRIFICE
GODS OF THE SACRIFICE: AGNI AND SOMA
SOMA
INDRA
GODS OF THE STORM
SOLAR GODS
SKY AND EARTH
VARUNA
RUDRA AND VISNU
REALIA
WOMEN
INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS

INDRA

INDRA, the king of the gods, is frequently mentioned in hymns to other gods. As the great Soma-drinker, he appears often in the Soma hymns (cf. 10.119), and it is he who lures Agni away from the waters or the demons (10.51, 10.124). He is central to hymns about the Maruts (1.165, 1.170-71), Atri (5.40), Apala (8.91), and Vrsakapi (10.86), and appears as a very important bit player in many others.

Indra’s family life is troubled in ways that remain unclear. His birth, like that of many great warriors and heroes, is unnatural; there are also strong hints that he may have killed his father (4.18). So, too, he is in turn challenged by his own son, whom he apparently overcomes (10.28). The incestuous implications in these relationships may have led the Vedic poet to append to one of the Indra hymns the tale of another incestuous birth and infancy, apparently that of Agni (3.31.1-3; cf. 5.2.1).

But the hymns return again and again to clearer and more straightforward stories: the heroic deeds of Indra. The killing of Vrtra(1.32) is frequently alluded to in other hymns, as is the freeing of the cows in the cave (3.31, 10.108), which shares much of the symbolism and significance of the battle with Vrtra. Other deeds, such as the beheading of the sacrifice (10.171), are mentioned without being fully explained in the Rig Veda, though later mythological texts often expand upon them.

Indra’s famous generosity – particularly when he is exultant from copious draughts of Soma – and his endearing anthropomorphism embolden the poet to imagine himself in Indra’s place (8.14). These same qualities, however, may have led worshippers even in Vedic times to devalue Indra, the beginning of a process that culminates in his total loss of worship in the Hindu period; in answer to these implicit expressions of doubt, the poet reaffirms his faith in Indra as the greatest of the Vedic warrior gods (2.12).

4.18 The Birth and Childhood Deeds of Indra

This obscure dialogue is partially illuminated by the recognition of its place in Indo- European mythology: it refers, in purposely mysterious tones, to the story of a male god concealed by his mother from a father who threatens to kill him, a father whom he himself then kills. The hymn alternates between narrative and direct discourse, the latter spoken by Indra and his mother, the former by the poet who questions them and elicits answers that attempt to vindicate and justify the actions of the two protagonists. None of the principals in the drama is named except Indra; later commentary identifies the mother with Aditi and the father with Tvastr(who appears in the hymn, though not explicitly as the father).

The hymn begins with the story of Indra’s birth: his mother kept him in the womb for many years (v. 4), not, she insists, in absence of maternal feeling but for Indra’s sake – i.e. to protect him; the hymn does not tell us why this was necessary, but it may well be

because his father was jealous of Indra’s great powers (v. 5), a suspicion ultimately proved valid when Indra kills his father (v. 12). As the dialogue begins, Indra is still inside the womb and wishes to break out through her side; she attempts to dissuade him (v. 1), but he insists on being born (v. 2). She then hides him (v. 3), presumably still in fear of his father. Again Indra refuses to be protected, but follows her to Tvastr’s house, where he drinks the Soma (v. 3). In response to the narrator’s accusations (vv. 4-5), she calls upon the waters to witness her good motives in treating Indra as she did (vv. 6-7), and speaks of being guiltless of the wounds Indra incurred in fighting the demon Vrtra(vv. 8-9), who is analogized with Indra’s father. The narrator then recapitulates the story of Indra’s birth (v. 10) and the slaying of Vrtra, in which Visnuu came to Indra’s aid (v. 11). Upon being questioned about killing his father (v. 12), Indra protests that he had no choice, being in terrible danger until the eagle brought him the Soma (v. 13).

1 [Indra’s mother:] ‘This¹ is the ancient, proven path by which all the gods were born and moved upward. By this very path he should be born when he has grown great. He should not make his mother perish in that way.’²

2 [Indra:] ‘I cannot come out by that path; these are bad places to go through. I will come out cross-wise, through the side. Many things yet undone must I do; one ³ I will fight, and one ⁴ I will question.’

3 [Narrator:] He watched his mother as she went away:⁵ ‘I cannot help following : I will follow.’ In Tvastr’s house Indra drank the Soma⁶ worth a hundred cows, pressed in the two bowls.

4 Why has she pushed him far away, whom she carried for a thousand months and many autumns? For there is no one his equal among those who are born and those who will be born.⁷

5 As if she thought he was flawed,⁸ his mother hid Indra though he abounded in manly strength. Then he stood up and put his garment on by himself; as he was born he filled the two world-halves.

6 [Indra’s mother:] ‘These waters⁹ flow happily, shouting “ Alala! “, waters that were screaming together like righteous women.¹⁰ Ask them what they are saying, what encircling mountain¹¹ the waters burst apart.

7 ‘Are they speaking words of praise and invitation¹² to him? Do the waters wish to take on themselves the flaw of Indra?¹³ With his great weapon my son killed Vrtra and set these rivers free.

8 ‘ Still a young woman, I did not throw you away for my sake; nor did Evil-childbirth¹⁴ swallow you up for my sake. But for my sake the waters were kind to the child,¹⁵ and for my sake Indra stood up at once.

9 ‘Not for my sake did the shoulderless one¹⁶ wound you, generous Indra, and strike away your two jaws;¹⁷ though wounded, you overpowered him, and with your weapon

you crushed the head of the Dasa.’¹⁸

10 [Narrator:] The heifer¹⁹ gave birth to the firm, strong, unassailable bull, the stout Indra. The mother let her calf wander unlicked,²⁰ to seek his own ways by himself.

11 And the mother turned to the buffalo:²¹ ‘My son, the gods here are deserting you.’²² Then Indra, wanting to kill Vrtra, said, ‘Visnu, my friend, stride as far as you can.’²³’

12 Who made your mother a widow?²⁴ Who wished to kill you when you were lying still or moving?²⁵ What god helped you when you grabbed your father by the foot and crushed him?²⁶

13 [Indra:] ‘Because I was in desperate straits, I cooked the entrails of a dog,²⁷ and I found no one among the gods to help me. I saw my woman²⁸ dishonoured. Then the eagle brought the honey to me.’²⁹

NOTES

1. The conventional birth passage through the womb; Indra, like so many folk heroes, refuses to be born in this way. Cf. Soma talking in the womb, 4.27.1.

2. She argues that he will kill her if he bursts out through her side. In fact, several Indian mythological heroes (including the Buddha) are conceived and/or born through the side without injury to the parent (as is about to be the case with Indra now), but some do indeed kill their mothers (or androgynous fathers) in this way.

3. Vrtra, who is alluded to several times in this hymn.

4. The verb ‘to question’ here contrasts with the verb ‘to fight’, and indicates that Indra will either speak to make a treaty (with Visnu) or speak before killing (Tvastr). The former seems more likely; the question that he asks of Visnu is the request to have him stride forward (v. 11).

5. The commentator says that she died, but the hymn makes this unlikely; she merely abandons him, as the true mother of the Indo- European hero usually does. Cf. 5.2.1-2, where Agni’s mother hides him from his father for many years in her womb.

6. According to later tradition, Indra killed Tvastr in order to get the Soma away from him.

7. The argument is either, Why did she try to kill him when she knew he was so powerful that he couldn’t be killed, or, Why did she try to kill him when she knew he was destined to be a great hero? In fact, she merely pushed him away in order to preserve him, but one is reminded of the mother of Martanda’, Aditi (who is traditionally identified as the mother of Indra as well), who pushed her son away to kill him (10.72.8).

8. The flaw may be a physical birth flaw such as Martanda’ had, the cause of Aditi’s rejection of him. Again, this suspicion is invalid: Indra is not physically flawed. But the

phrase may also foreshadow the moral flaw which is to be a problem to Indra, the guilt of the slaughter of Vrtra, alluded to in verse 7.

9. The waters set free when Vrtra was killed (1.32.1, 1.32.8, 1.32.11-12, etc.). Also, perhaps, the waters in which Indra was placed to hide him from danger (cf. 1.32.10 and 10.51).

10. At first the waters scream for help when Vrtra assaults them; then they chortle onomatopoetically when they are set free.

11. The cavern where Vrtra kept the waters penned up. Cf. 1.32.11 and 3.31.5.

12. A technical term for a formula of praise and laudatory epithets, used to call a god.

13. The flaw or stain is the sin incurred in killing Vrtra. Later myths narrate at great length the way in which Indra asked the waters (and other creatures) to take upon themselves a portion of this stain.

14. This may be the name of a demonness who swallows children, whose name indicates that she brings evil to those in childbirth (i.e. causes the death of the child or the mother or both) or brings forth evil. More likely, however, it is the name of the river who’swallows up’ Indra – not for the sake of his mother (i.e. not because she was a rejecting mother), but for his sake – to save him from danger.

15. The mercy of the waters may be their kindness in adopting him when his mother was forced to abandon him, or their willing ness to forgive him for the sin of killing the demon (for their benefit) and to take part of the sin upon them. Indra’s mother takes credit for persuading them to do this, and for letting Indra stand up at once, though earlier (v. 5) the poet emphasizes that Indra did this despite her efforts to hide him.

16. Vrtra. Cf. 1.32.5.

17. Elsewhere it is said that Vrtra wounded Indra in this way, shattering his jaws (1.32.12). Indra’s mother seems to be saying that it wasn’t her fault that Indra got into such trouble; she had tried to keep him safe in her womb.

18. The serpent is identified with the native enemy, or slave, of the conquering Aryan. See 1.32.11.

19. Indra’s mother is here called a cow who has not yet given birth to a calf. Indra is her first-born. Cf. the mothers of Agni as primaparas, 2.35.5.

20. That is, she did not hold him close to her after he was born, but pushed him away uncared for, like a cow who fails to eat the afterbirth and lick the calf. Moreover, as Indra was not born through the womb, there would be no afterbirth.

21. Indra.

22. A possible reference to the episode in which the Maruts left Indra to fight Vrtra all alone. This point is debated (by the Maruts) in 1.165.6-7.

23. Indra asks Visnu to stride forward to help him, but he also refers to Visnu’s famous talent for creating space (as Indra does by killing Vrtra) by striding. Cf. 1.154.

24. This might be a question put by Visnu to Indra, but is more likely asked by the narrator.

25. That is, while he was still lying in the womb or coming out of it. Indra himself tries to kill the Maruts when they are in the womb of their mother.

26. The same language is used to describe the killing of Vrtra and the killing of Indra’s father. This is not to imply that these are one and the same, but they are strangely linked: Tvastr is Vrtra’s father in later Indian tradition. In any case, the two deeds are closely parallel in this hymn : Indra’s father must be killed, just as the dragon must be killed, and Indra’s mother tries to prevent both slaughters at first (as Vrtra’s mother is said to participate in the battle with Indra, in 1.32.9) and finally acquiesces and takes Indra’s side, at least in the fight with Vrtra and perhaps, by implication, in the parricide. Cf. the way in which the mother of Agni holds Agni by the foot when she abandons him, 1.164.17.

27. This comes to be the quintessential polluting act in later Hinduism, an act that is particularly used in mythology as an example of what one is allowed to do in dire straits: one may even eat a dog. Indra seems to be arguing that, if this is so, one can surely kill one’s father under similar circumstances.

28. Indra’s wife has not yet been mentioned in this hymn, nor is it clear why she would be dishonoured: elsewhere (10.86.1. 1.86.4-5. 1.86.9) she is dishonoured when Indra loses power, and the gambler’s wife is dishonoured when he is ruined (10.34.11). It is possible that the ‘woman’ is Indra’s mother, whom he regards as dishonoured by the actions of her husband, Indra’s father, and therefore avenges by committing parricide.

29. This seems to contradict the statement that Indra took the Soma from Tvastr’s house (v. 3), as well as the implication that Indra accompanied the eagle on the journey to get the Soma (4.26.7, 4.27.3-4). Evidently what is meant is that once Indra had killed his father (Tvastr?), he had access to the Soma in all of its forms.

10.28   Indra Chastises His Son

This dialogue begins in medias fires, but the situation can be sketchily reconstructed from what follows : A son of Indra gave a sacrifice and invited the gods; all but Indra came to it, for Indra was angry with the son’s pretensions to be another Indra. The son’s wife worried about Indra’s absence, and Indra then appeared, responding to his son’s hasty offerings with a series of riddles intended to humble him. The son at first pretends to be too naïve to understand, but when Indra speaks more directly about the consequences of challenging the gods, the son asserts himself, and finally, overcome by the violence of Indra’s increasingly patent fables, praises the god his father.

1 [Sacrificer’s wife:] ‘All the rest of the band of my friends has come, but my husband’s father has not come. He would have eaten barley meal and drunk Soma and gone back home well fed.’

2 [Indra:] ‘ The sharp-horned bull bellowed as he stood over the height and breadth of the earth. In all combats I protect the man who presses Soma and fills my two bellies.’¹

3 [Sacrificer:] ‘They are pressing out the impetuous, exhilarating Soma juices with the pressing-stone, for you, Indra. Drink them! They are cooking bulls for you; you will eat them, generous Indra, when they summon you with food.’

4 [Indra:] ‘Singer, understand this that I say: The rivers carry their currents upstream. The fox crept up to the lion from behind. The jackal fell upon the wild boar out of an ambush.’²

5 [Sacrificer:] ‘How can I, a simpleton, understand what is said by you who are wise and powerful?³ You who know should tell us truly: towards which side is your peaceful chariot shaft going, generous one? ‘⁴

6 [Indra:] ‘They truly praise me as the powerful one; my chariot shaft is going straight up to the lofty sky. I crush down many thousands at once, for my begetter begot me to have no enemy to conquer me.’

7 [Sacrificer:] ‘The gods truly know me as the powerful one, a fierce bull in one action after another, Indra. Exhilarated by Soma, I killed Vrtra with my thunderbolt, and I opened up the cow-pen by force for the devout worshipper.’⁵

8 [Indra :] ‘ The gods went out and took their axes ; they cut down trees and came there with their servants. They laid the good wood in the boxes but burnt the scrub wood right there.’ ⁶

9 [Sacrificer:] ‘The rabbit swallowed up the knife as it came towards him; with a clod I split the mountain far away.⁷ I will put the great in the power of the small; the calf becomes strong and attacks the bull.’

10 [Indra:] ‘That is the way the eagle caught his talon and was trapped, like a lion caught in a foot-snare. Even the buffalo was caught when he got thirsty: a crocodile dragged him away by the foot.⁸

11 ‘In the same way let a crocodile drag away by the foot all those who oppose the feeding of priests. As they all eat the bulls that have been set free, they themselves destroy the powers of their body.⁹

12 [Sacrificer :] ‘Those who hastened in person to Soma with hymns of praise have become supreme in their sacrificial acts and devout rituals. Speaking like a man, measure out prizes for us. In heaven you have earned fame and the name of hero.’

NOTES

1. The imagery of the first two verses, including the references to Indra’s two bellies and the role of the sacrificer’s wife, is similar to that of the Vrsakapi hymn, 10.86.14-15. Indra implies that the son, like a fox or jackal, by trying to be

2. Indra, who is like a lion or wild boar, is both creating a topsy-turvy world (in which the rivers flow the wrong way and the cowardly animals attack the fierce) and foolishly taking on more than he can handle.

3. Cf. the young man who challenges his father in 4.5.2 and 6.9.2.

4. That is, are you on the side of simple mortals or wise immortals? The answer in the next verse seems to be that Indra is on his own side, or the side of the gods.

5. The son here explicitly claims credit for the deeds of Indra (1.32, 3.31), as other gods do from time to time; in offering the Soma that enables Indra to perform these deeds, the sacrificer to a certain extent participates in them.

6. Indra implies that the gods are able to distinguish the good (wood or Indras) from the worthless ; the former they take home in boxes on wagons, the latter they destroy – a thinly veiled threat to the pretender.

7. Another allusion to Indra’s splitting of the mountain in which the cows were trapped. Cf. 3.31.

8. Indra’s warning to anyone who takes on too great an opponent or becomes careless.

9. Indra threatens those who take to themselves praise due to the gods, Soma due to the gods, or food due to the gods or priests.

1.32   The Killing of Vrtra

The greatest of Indra’s heroic deeds was the slaying of the dragon Vrtra, an act which also symbolizes the releasing of the waters or rains which Vrtra had held back, the conquest of the enemies of the Aryans, and the creation of the world out of the body of the dragon.The thunderbolt of Indra is a club which, as a phallic symbol, is also a symbol of fertility, the source of seed as well as rain; sexual imagery also underlies the contrast between the castrated steer and the bull bursting with seed. Rain imagery is also prominent; Vrtra is a cloud pierced in his loins or in his bellies, for elsewhere he is said to have swallowed all the universe, which Indra must free from him; the cows to which the waters are compared are also rain-clouds. Vrtra may be imagined as a shoulderless serpent or as a dragon whose arms and legs Indra has just cut off ; he is primarily a symbol of danger, constriction, and loss. The battle is waged with magic as well as with weapons; Indra uses magic to make himself as thin as a horse’s hair, and Vrtra uses magic to create lightning and fog. Indra wins, of course, and verse 14 refers to a similar feat of rescue performed by the eagle,¹ but only as a simile in the context of another myth: Indra is said to have fled after killing Vrtra and to have been punished for the crime of murder. This hymn, however, ends on a note of affirmation for Indra’s victory.

1 Let me now sing the heroic deeds of Indra, the first that the thunderbolt-wielder performed. He killed the dragon and pierced an opening for the waters ; he split open the bellies of mountains.

2 He killed the dragon who lay upon the mountain; Tvastr² fashioned the roaring thunderbolt for him. Like lowing cows, the flowing waters rushed straight down to the sea.

3 Wildly excited like a bull, he took the Soma for himself and drank the extract from the three bowls in the three-day Soma ceremony.³ Indra the Generous seized his thunderbolt to hurl it as a weapon; he killed the first born of dragons.

4 Indra, when you killed the first-born of dragons and overcame by your own magic the magic of the magicians, at that very moment you brought forth the sun, the sky, and dawn. Since then you have found no enemy to conquer you.

5 With his great weapon , the thunderbolt, Indra killed the shoulderless Vrtra, his greatest enemy. Like the trunk of a tree whose branches have been lopped off by an axe, the dragon lies at upon the ground.

6 For, muddled by drunkenness like one who is no soldier, Vrtra challenged the great hero who had overcome the mighty and who drank Soma to the dregs. Unable to withstand the onslaught of his weapons, he found Indra an enemy to conquer him and was shattered, his nose crushed.

7 Without feet or hands he fought against Indra, who struck him on the nape of the neck with his thunderbolt. The steer who wished to become the equal of the bull bursting with seed, Vrtra lay broken in many places.

8 Over him as he lay there like a broken reed the swelling waters owed for man.⁴ Those waters that Vrtra had enclosed with his power – the dragon now lay at their feet.

9 The vital energy of Vrtra’s mother ebbed away, for Indra had hurled his deadly weapon at her. Above was the mother, below was the son; Danu⁵ lay down like a cow with her calf.

10 In the midst of the channels of the waters which never stood still or rested, the body was hidden. The waters flow over Vrtra’s secret place; he who found Indra an enemy to conquer him sank into long darkness.

11 The waters who had the Dasa⁵ for their husband, the dragon for their protector, were imprisoned like the cows imprisoned by the Panis.⁵ When he killed Vrtra he split open the outlet of the waters that had been closed.

12 Indra, you became a hair of a horse’s tail when Vrtra struck you on the corner of the mouth. You, the one god, the brave one, you won the cows; you won the Soma; you released the seven streams so that they could flow.

13 No use was the lightning and thunder, fog and hail that he⁶ had scattered about, when the dragon and Indra fought. Indra the Generous remained victorious for all time to

come.

14 What avenger of the dragon did you see, Indra, that fear entered your heart when you had killed him? Then you crossed the ninety-nine streams like the frightened eagle⁷ crossing the realms of earth and air.

15 Indra, who wields the thunderbolt in his hand, is the king of that which moves and that which rests, of the tame and of the horned.⁸ He rules the people as their king, encircling all this as a rim encircles spokes.

NOTES

1. Cf. 4.26-7.

2. Tvastr is the artisan of the gods, sometimes an enemy of Indra (cf. 4.18) but here his ally.

3. Cf. 10.14.16.

4. Manu was the eponymous ancestor of mankind; the verse may refer to the waters that flowed at the time of the great flood, when Manu alone was saved, or to the waters that flowed for the sake of mankind at the time of the piercing of Vrtra(cf. 1.165.8). The latter seems more likely – or both at once.

5. Danu is the mother of Vrtra and of other demons called Danavas; Dasa is another name for Vrtra and also, in the sense of ‘slave’, for other human and demonic enemies of Indra; the Panis are a group of such enemies, said to have stolen and penned up the cows until Indra released them (see 3.31 and 10.108).

6. ‘He’ is Vrtra, trying his magic in vain against Indra’s (cf. v. 4).

7. Possibly the eagle (Indra in disguise) that stole the Soma (4.26- 7).

8. According to Sayana, the ‘tame’ are animals that do not attack, such as horses and donkeys, while the ‘horned’ are fierce animals like buffaloes and bulls.

3.31   The Cows in the Cave

Indra split open the cave where the cows were pent up, releasing them and winning them. This myth expresses simultaneously the successful cattle raids of the Indo-Aryans against the people they conquered, the process of birth out of the womb, the releasing of the waters (symbolized by cows) pent up by the demons of drought, the finding (and hence creating) of the dawn rays of the sun (also symbolized by cows), and the poet’s discovery and release of his own inspirations. The martial level of the myth is fleshed out by references to Indra’s assistants, simultaneously the Angiras priests (who thus tie the myth to the fourth level, the poet’s inspiration) and the Maruts or storm-clouds (tying it to the second level, the end of the drought). The theme of finding and creating the sun is expanded in the first three verses of the hymn, which describe the birth of fire in an

obscure allegory of incest that also alludes to the winning of treasure (the wealth of cattle again).

1 The driver¹ wise in the Law came, speaking devoutly as he chastened his daughter’s daughter.² When the father strove to pour³ into his daughter, his heart eagerly consented.

2 The son of the body did not leave the inheritance to the sister; he made her womb a treasure-house for the winner.⁴ When the mothers ⁵ give birth to the driver,¹ one of the two who do good deeds is the maker, and the other derives the gain.

3 Trembling with his tongue, Agni was born to honour the sons of the great rosy one.⁶ Great was the embryo, great was their birth, and great the growth, through sacrifice, of the lord of bay horses.⁷

4 The conquerors surrounded the challenger ;⁸ they brought forth great light out of darkness. The dawns recognized him and came to meet him; Indra became the only lord of cows.

5 The wise ones ⁹ struck a path for those¹⁰ who were in the cave; the seven priests drove them oh with thoughts pressing forward. They found all the paths of the right way; the one who knew was the one who entered them, bowing low.

6 If Sarama ¹¹ finds the breach in the mountain, she will complete her earlier great path finding. The swift-footedone led out the head of the undying syllables;¹² knowing the way, she was the first to go towards the cry.

7 The most inspired one came, behaving like a friend.¹³ The mountain made ripe the fruit of its womb for the one who performed great deeds.¹⁴ The young hero, proving his generosity, won success with the youths; then Angiras right away became a singer of praise.¹⁵

8 The image of this creature and that creature, he knows all who are born. Standing in the forefront, he killed Susna.¹⁶ Knowing the path of the sky, longing for cows, he went before us, singing. The friend freed his friends from dishonour.

9 With a heart longing for cows they sat down while with their songs they made the road to immortality. This is their very seat, still often used now, the lawful way by which they wished to win the months.¹⁷

10 Glancing about, they rejoiced in their own possessions as they milked out the milk of the ancient seed.¹⁸ Their shout heated the two worlds. They arranged the off spring, dividing the cows among the men.¹⁹

11 He himself, Indra the killer of Vrtra, with songs released the rosy cows together with the off spring and the oblations. Stretching far, the cow was milked of the sweet honey- like butter that she had held for him.

12 They made a seat for him as for a father,²⁰ for these great deeds revealed a great, shining seat. They propped their two parents apart with a pillar; sitting down, they

raised the wild one²¹ high up.

13 When the abundant female²² determined to crush down the one who had grown great in a single day²³ and had pervaded the two world-halves, all irresistible powers came to Indra, in whom flawless praises come together.

14 I long for your great friendship, for your powerful help.²⁴ Many gifts go to the killer of Vrtra. Great is praise; we have come to the kindness of the lord. Generous Indra, be good to us as our shepherd.

15 He won great land and much wealth, and he sent the booty to his friends. Radiant with his men, Indra gave birth to the sun, the dawn, motion,²⁵ and fire.

16 This house-friend has loosed into a single channel even the wide dispersed waters that shine with many colours, the honeyed waters made clear by the inspired lters. Rushing along by day and night, they drive forward.²⁶

17 The two dark bearers of treasure, worthy of sacrifice,²⁷ follow the sun with his consent, when your beloved, impetuous friends²⁸ embrace your splendour to draw it to them.

18 Killer of Vrtra, be the lord of lovely gifts, the bull who gives life to songs of praise for a whole life-span. Come to us with kind and friendly favours, with great help, quickly, O great one.

19 Like Angiras I honour him and bow to him, making new for the ancient one a song that was born long ago.²⁹ Thwart the many godless lies, and let us win the sun, generous Indra.

20 The mists that were spread about have become transparent;³⁰ guide us safely across them. You, our charioteer, must protect us from injury. Soon, Indra, soon, make us winners of cows.

21 The killer of Vrtra as lord of cows has shown us cows ; he went among the dark ones with his rosy forms.³¹ Revealing lovely gifts in the right way, he has opened up all his own gates.

22 For success in this battle where there are prizes to be won, we will invoke the generous Indra, most manly and brawny, who listens and gives help in combat, who kills enemies and wins riches.

NOTES

1. Agni is here and in verse 2 referred to as the driver or transporter, the one who carries the oblation to the gods in his chariot. 2. The extended metaphor of the first three verses may represent the priest as the father, his daughter as the sacrificial butter held in the spoon, and the son as the fire ‘ begotten’ (kindled) by the priest.

3. The priest pours butter into the spoon, and the father pours seed into his daughter.

4. The winner is the son or brother, who apparently marries his sister so that her inheritance (the treasure) passes back through him to his heirs. For incest with brother and father, cf. Püsan with his mother and sister (6.55). In the ritual metaphor, the inheritance is the butter which falls from the spoon (her ‘womb’) into the fire.

5. The mothers of Agni are the kindling-sticks or the hands that hold them; the two who do good deeds, also regarded as the mothers of Agni, are the priest who ‘makes’ the fire and the sacrificer who derives the gain from it.

6. The Angiras priests, who tend Agni and own cows, are born of the rosy sky.

7. Indra is the lord of bay horses, ‘grown’ and aided in battle by the priests (Angirases) who feed him Soma in their sacrifices.

8. The Maruts and Angirases are the conquerors who closely surround Indra, the challenger not of them but of the cattle- thieves.

9. The priests again.

10. The noun is feminine, referring to the cows.

11. The bitch of Indra, the swift-footed one who finds the way to the cave. Cf. 10.108. The first part of this verse may be spoken by Indra.

12. Here the cows are explicitly identified with sacred speech. Cf. 1.164.

13. Indra or the leader of the Angirases (called Angiras) may be the inspired one, exalted by drinking Soma. Cf. 10.108.8. He feigns friendship as Sarama is tempted to do; cf. 10.108.9-10.

14. That is, the mountain yielded its contents, the cows, to Indra.

15. Angiras praises Indra in order to strengthen him. The song may be directly quoted in the next verse.

16. Susna is the demon of drought.

17. The Angirases sit down to perform the sacrifice that will give Indra the strength to win the cows who give the milk of immortality, and to acquire the power of the monthly sacrifices or the list of months in which the sacrifice was offered.

18. The milk of the cows is equated with seed and with rain.

19. They distributed the booty of calves and cows, the calves (as milk) being gifts for the priests.

20. Indra is like a father to the Angirases. The seat is both his resting-place and a term for the special sacrifice (sattra) performed by the Angirases on Indra’s behalf. The priests separate the worlds, making a place for the sacrifice to Indra by revealing the space of the realm between sky and earth.

21. The sun, created here, as usual, by the propping apart of sky and earth, as well as by being ‘discovered’ in the cave.

22. An obscure term (Dhisana) designating the bowl of Soma, the bowl of sky or of earth, or a goddess of abundance. Here she inspires Indra.

23. Indra’s deed of freeing the cows from the cave is assimilated to his deed of killing Vrtra(who grew great in one day) and releasing the waters.

24. The worshipper addresses Indra directly.

25. Perhaps the orbit of the sun, or the passing of time, or the course of the sacrifice.

26. That is, they drive (transitively) the horses who pull the chariots of the waters that mix with the Soma.

27. The dark ones are night and twilight.

28. The Maruts.

29. Cf. 1.1.2.

30. Cf. the dispersed mists of Vrtra, 1.32.13.

31. The dark ones are the aboriginal enemies of the Aryans, or the dark forces of evil, illuminated by the rosy lights of the dawns/ Maruts/priests, as in verse 17.

10.108   Sarama and the Panis

This conversation takes place in the midst of a myth told in later texts at some length. The Panis are demons who live in the sky on the other side of the river Rasa that separates the world of gods and men from the world of demons; the name also refers to tribal people who are the enemies of the Vedic people on earth. These Panis stole the cows of the Angirases and hid them in mountain caves; the sages joined with the gods – Indra, Soma, Agni, and Brhaspati – to get the cattle back.¹ They sent Sarama, the bitch of Indra, to follow the trail of the cows, which she succeeded in doing. Reaching the hiding- place, she engaged in the conversation recorded in this hymn, one in which the Panis appear at first secure and sarcastic but soon become worried and attempt, unsuccessfully, to bribe Sarama.

1 [The Panis:] ‘With what desire has Sarama come to this place? The road stretches far into distant lands. What is your mission to us? How did you find your way here? And how did you cross the waters of the Rasa?’

2 [Sarama:] ‘I have journeyed here, sent as the messenger of Indra, and I desire your great treasures, O Panis. Because they feared being jumped across, they² helped me to do it; thus I crossed the waters of the Rasa.’

3 [Panis: ‘What is Indra like, Sarama? What is the appearance of him who sent you here as his messenger from afar? If he comes here, we will make friends with him, and he will be the herdsman of our cattle.’

4 [Sarama] ‘I know him as one who cannot be tricked; he tricks others, he who sent me here as his messenger from afar. The deep streams do not hide him; ³ you Panis will lie there slain by Indra.’

5 [Panis:] ‘These are the cows which you desire, lovely Sarama, having own beyond the ends of the sky. Who would release them to you without a fight? And we have sharp weapons.’

6 [Sarama] ‘Your words, O Panis, are no armies. Your evil bodies may be proof against arrows, the path that goes to you may be impregnable, but Brhaspati will not spare you in either case.’

7 [Panis] ‘ Sarama, this treasure-room full of cows, horses, and riches is set firm in cliffs of rock. Panis who are good sentinels guard it. You have come in vain on this empty path.’

8 [Sarama:] ‘The sages – Ayasyas, Angirases, and Navagvas⁴ – roused by Soma will share this enclosed cave of cattle among them. Then the Panis will spit back these words.’

9 [Panis:] ‘Sarama, since you have come here, compelled by the force of the gods, we will make you our sister. Do not go back, fair one; we will give you a share of the cattle.’

10 [Sarama:] ‘I know no brotherhood, nor sisterhood; Indra and the Angirases, who inspire terror, know them. When I left them, they seemed to me to be desirous of cattle. Panis, run far away from here.

11 ‘Run far into the distance, Panis. Let the cattle come out by the right path and disappear, the cattle which Brhaspati, the inspired sages, the pressing-stones and Soma found when they had been hidden.’

NOTES

1. Cf. 3.3T.

2. The waters. At the critical moment of the journey, the river Rasa was worried about losing her reputation as a great river if a dog could jump across her; so she helped Sarama by building a ford.

3. A possible reference to Vrtra lying under the water, killed by Indra. Cf. 1.32.8, 1.32.10. For tricking the tricky, cf. 1.32.4.

4. Families of Vedic sages.

10.171   Indra Beheads the Sacrifice

1 You, Indra, helped forward the chariot of Itat, who pressed Soma; you heard the call of the man who offered Soma.

2 You severed from his skin the head of the rebellious Sacrifice¹ and went with it to the home of the man who offered Soma.

3 You, Indra, set loose in a moment the mortal Venya for Astrabudhna when he thought of it.²

4 You, Indra, should bring to the East the sun that is now in the West, even against the will of the gods.³

NOTES

1. An allusion to the myth, later expanded, that Indra in anger beheaded the sacrifice when it threatened the gods and became in carnate in human form.

2. Venya is known to the Rig Veda, but all else in this verse is obscure.

3. The sun was thought to travel from west to east by night, under the earth. Why the gods should oppose this is unclear.

8.14   ‘If I were Like You, Indra’

1 If I were like you, Indra, and all alone ruled over riches, the man who praised me would have the company of cows.

2 I would do my best for him, I would want to give things to the sage, O Husband of Power, if I were the lord of cattle.

3 For the one who sacrifices and presses Soma your opulence is a cow milked of the cattle and horses with which she swells to overflowing.

4 There is no one, neither god nor mortal, who obstructs your generosity, Indra, when you are praised and you wish to give rich gifts.

5 The sacrifice made Indra grow greater when he rolled back the earth and made the sky his own diadem.

6 We ask help from you Indra, you who have grown great and have won all treasures.

7 In the ecstasy of Soma, Indra spread out the middle realm of space and the lights, when he shattered Vala.¹

8 He drove out the cows for the Angirases, making visible those that had been hidden, and he hurled Vala down headlong.

9 The lights of the sky were made firm and fast by Indra, so that they cannot be pushed away from their fixed place.

10 Like the exhilarating wave of the waters, your praise, Indra, hastens along; your ecstasies have shone forth.

11 For the hymns of praise and the songs of praise make you grow great, Indra, and you bring happiness to the singer of praises..

12 Let the two long-maned bay horses bring Indra to drink Soma here at the sacrifice of the giver of rich gifts.

13 With the foam of the waters, Indra, you tore off the head of the demon who would not let go,² when you conquered all challengers.

14 You whirled down the Dasyus who wanted to climb up to the sky, Indra, when they had crept up by using their magic spells.³

15 You scattered to every side the ones that did not press Soma; as Soma-drinker you are supreme.

NOTES

1. Vala is the demon who pens up the cows, as in 3.31 (though he is not named in that hymn).

2. The demon Namuci.

3. Cf. 2.12.12.

2.12   ‘Who is Indra?’

As if to answer the challenges of the atheists, or at least of those who question the divinity of Indra (v. 5), the poet insists that Indra is indeed the god who did what he is said to have done. These concerns, and the verbal patterns used to express them, are repeated in a later hymn about the Creator (10.121).

1 The god who had insight the moment he was born, the first who protected the gods with his power of thought, before whose hot breath the two world-halves tremble at the greatness of his manly powers – he, my people, is Indra.

2 He who made fast the tottering earth, who made still the quaking mountains, who measured out and extended the expanse of the air, who propped up the sky – he, my people, is Indra

3 He who killed the serpent and loosed the seven rivers, who drove out the cows that had been pent up by Vala,¹ who gave birth to fire between two stones,² the winner of booty in combats – he, my people, is Indra.

4 He by whom all these changes were rung, who drove the race of Dasas³ down into obscurity, who took away the flourishing wealth of the enemy as a winning gambler takes the stake – he, my people, is Indra.

5 He about whom they ask, ‘ Where is he? ‘, or they say of him, the terrible one, ‘He does not exist’, he who diminishes the flourishing wealth of the enemy as gambling does – believe in him! He, my people, is Indra.

6 He who encourages the weary and the sick, and the poor priest who is in need, who helps the man who harnesses the stones to press Soma, he who has lips ne for drinking – he, my people, is Indra.

7 He under whose command are horses and cows and villages and all chariots, who gave birth to the sun and the dawn and led out the waters, he, my people, is Indra.

8 He who is invoked by both of two armies, enemies locked in combat, on this side and that side, he who is even invoked separately by each of two men standing on the very same chariot,⁴ he, my people, is Indra.

9 He without whom people do not conquer, he whom they call on for help when they are fighting, who became the image of everything, who shakes the unshakeable – he, my people, is Indra.

10 He who killed with his weapon all those who had committed a great sin, even when they did not know it, he who does not pardon the arrogant man for his arrogance, who is the slayer of the Dasyus, he, my people, is Indra.

11 He who in the fortieth autumn discovered Sambara living in the mountains,⁵ who killed the violent serpent, the Danu,⁶ as he lay there, he, my people, is Indra.

12 He, the mighty bull who with his seven reins let loose the seven rivers to flow, who with his thunderbolt in his hand hurled down Rauhina⁷ as he was climbing up to the sky, he, my people, is Indra

13 Even the sky and the earth bow low before him, and the mountains are terrified of his hot breath; he who is known as the Soma-drinker, with the thunderbolt in his hand, with the thunderbolt in his palm, he, my people, is Indra.

14 He who helps with his favour the one who presses and the one who cooks,⁸ the praiser and the preparer, he for whom prayer is nourishment, for whom Soma is the special gift, he, my people, is Indra.

15 You⁹ who furiously grasp the prize for the one who presses and the one who cooks, you are truly real. Let us be dear to you, Indra, all our days, and let us speak as men of power in the sacrificial gathering.

NOTES

1. Vala is an enemy, human or demonic, who kept the cows from Indra. See 8.14.7-8 and 3.31.

2. The fire kindled by flints, or the sun or lightning between the two worlds. Cf. 3.31.1-

3. Dasas (also called Dasyus, as in v. 10) are the enemies of the Aryans, called ‘slaves’ and enslaved.

4. The image of the two armies is expanded in the corresponding hymn, 10.121.6. The two men on the same chariot are the charioteer/priest and the warrior/king.

5. Sambara was a demon who kept the Soma from Indra In mountain fortresses; cf. 4.26.3.

6. Vrtra. Cf. 1.32.9.

7. A more obscure enemy, about whom nothing but this is known. Cf. 8.14.14.

8. The one who presses and the one who cooks the Soma.

9. Here the poet addresses Indra directly, closing with traditional phrases.