Wendy Doniger Rig Veda on Rudra and Visnu

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

RUDRA AND VISNU

RUDRA is a liminal figure in the Rig Veda, invoked with Vedic hymns but not invited to partake in the regular Vedic sacrifice; as the embodiment of wildness and unpredictable danger, he is addressed more with the hope of keeping him at bay than with the wish to bring him near (a form of worship that persists in Hinduism not in the cult of Rudra’s successor, Siva, but in the cult of the Goddess, who does not appear in the Rig Veda at all). Visnu is a far more typically Vedic god, vaguely solar, benevolent, and procreative (cf. 10.184), often associated with Indra and prayed to jointly with him, but appearing alone in several hymns. The two gods are significant not merely for their roles in the Rig Veda but for the far more important roles they were destined to play in later sectarian Hinduism.

2.33   Rudra, Father of the Maruts

Though only three entire hymns in the Rig Veda are addressed to Rudra, the rich ambivalence of his character is the basis of an important line of Indian theology that culminates in the Hindu god Siva. Rudra is fierce and destructive like a terrible beast, like a wild storm; the sage begs him to turn his malevolence elsewhere. Yet Rudra is not merely demonic, for he is the healer and cooler as well as the bringer of disease and destructive fever.

1 Father of the Maruts,¹ send your kindness here. Do not cut us off from the sight of the sun. Let the hero spare our horses.² O Rudra, let us be born again through our children.

2 By those most healing medicines that you give, Rudra, I would attain a hundred winters. Drive hatred far away from us, and anguish farther away; drive diseases away in all directions.

3 Of what is born, you, Rudra, are the most glorious in glory, the strongest of the strong, with the thunderbolt in your hand.¹ Carry us safely to the farther shore of anguish;³ ward off all attacks or injury.

4 We would not wish to anger you, Rudra the bull,¹ by acts of homage or ill praise,⁴ or by invoking you together with another god.⁵ Raise up our heroes with your healing medicines; I hear that of all healers you are the best healer.

5 If someone should call him with invocations and oblations, thinking, ‘I will appease Rudra with songs of praise’ – may the soft-hearted⁶ god who is easy to invoke, the tawny god whose lips are full⁷ – may he not suspect us of that and give us over into the power of his anger.⁸

6 The bull¹ with the Maruts inspired me with his vital energy when I was in need of help. I long to win the kindness of Rudra, as I would long to reach the shade unharmed in the heat of the sun.

7 Where is your merciful hand, Rudra, so healing and cooling, that removes the injury that comes from the gods? Have mercy on me, O bull.

8 I send high praise to the high bull, tawny and white. I bow low in homage to the radiant one. We praise the dreaded name of Rudra.

9 The fierce, tawny god of many forms has adorned his firm limbs with shimmering gold. Never let the Asura power⁹ draw away from Rudra, the ruler of this vast world.

10 Rightly you carry the arrows and bow; rightly you wear the precious golden necklace shaped with many forms and colours; rightly you extend this terrible power over everything.¹⁰ There is nothing more powerful than you, Rudra.

11 Praise him, the famous young god who sits on the high seat,¹¹ the fierce one who attacks like a ferocious wild beast. O Rudra, have mercy on the singer, now that you have been praised. Let your armies strike down someone other than us.

12 As a son bows to his father who greets him, so I bow to you, Rudra, as you approach. I sing to the giver of plenty, the true lord; being praised, give us healing medicines.

13 Your healing medicines, O Maruts, so pure, so strengthening, so comforting, that our father Manu¹² chose -I desire these, O bulls, and happiness and health from Rudra.

14 Let the weapon of Rudra veer from us; let the great malevolence of the dreaded god go past us. Loosen the taut bows for the sake of our generous patrons; O bountiful one, have mercy on our children and grandchildren.

15 O tawny and amazing bull, O God, do not become incensed or kill us. Be here for us, Rudra, and hear our call. Let us speak great words as men of power in the sacri cial gathering.

NOTES

1. This hymn transfers to Rudra several attributes usually associated with Indra, such as the companionship of the Maruts, the thunderbolt, and the bull.

2. This verse may also imply a wish that Rudra will spare the worshipper when he is. on horseback. Elsewhere in the Rig Veda (1.114.8), Rudra is asked not to harm horses.

3. For the image of crossing over danger, cf. 10.127.6 and 1.92.6.

4. The implication is that the worship may be given in an un satisfactory way.

5. Many gods are invoked in pairs or groups in the Rig Veda, but never Rudra, who is given offerings separately from all other gods. The worshipper may also fear that he might offend Rudra by pairing him with an inferior god.

6. A vain hope or an optimistic euphemism, like calling the Greek Furies the Eumenides or ‘well-disposed’.

7. The adjective, also applied to Indra, particularly indicates that his lips are ready to drink Soma.

8. The verse implies that the wrong-minded worshipper might think he could bribe Rudra and that such a man’s thought might provoke Rudra to anger. The poet asks Rudra not to suspect him of such blasphemy. The verse turns upon the multiple meanings of mona: thought (the blasphemy), suspicion (Rudra’s), and anger (also Rudra’s).

9. Here the term ‘asura’ still has its connotation of a class of divinities, though its later meaning, ‘demonic’, would also be appropriate to Rudra.

10. The power of chaos and darkness (abhvam). Cf. 1.185.

11. Probably the seat on a chariot, rather than a throne.

12. This may recall the time of original creation, when Manu, the father of mankind, first kindled the sacrificial fire and offered Soma to the gods; Soma may be the source of the ‘healing medicines’ given to Manu in return for sacrifice. For Rudra and Manu, cf. 1.114.2.

1.114   Have Mercy on Us, Rudra

1 We bring these thoughts to the mighty Rudra, the god with braided hair,¹ who rules over heroes, so that it will be well with our two-footed and four-footed creatures, and in this village all will flourish unharmed.

2 Have mercy on us, Rudra, and give us life-force. We wish to bow low in service to you who rule over heroes. Whatever happiness and health Manu the father² won by sacrifice, we wish to gain that with you to lead us forth.

3 We wish to gain your kindness, Rudra, through sacrifice to the gods, for you are generous. O ruler over heroes, come to our families with kindness. Let us offer the oblation to you with our heroes free from injury.

4 We call down for help the dreaded Rudra who completes the sacrifice, the sage who fies.³ Let him repel far from us the anger of the gods; it is his kindness that we choose to have.

5 Tawny boar of the sky, dreaded form with braided hair, we call you down and we bow low. Holding in his hand the healing medicines that we long for, let him grant us protection, shelter, refuge.

6 These words are spoken for Rudra, the father of the Maruts, words sweeter than sweet, to strengthen him. And grant us, O immortal, the food for mortals. Have mercy on us, and on our children and grandchildren.

7 Do not slaughter the great one among us or the small one among us, nor the growing or the grown. Rudra, do not kill our father or our mother, nor harm the bodies dear to us.⁴

8 Do not harm us in our children or grandchildren, nor in our life-span, nor in our cows or in our horses. Rudra, do not in fury slaughter our heroes. With oblations we call you

here for ever.

9 I have driven these praises to you as the herdsman drives his cattle. Grant us kindness, father of the Maruts, for your kindness brings blessings most merciful, and so it is your help that we choose to have.

10 Keep far away from us your cow-killing and man-killing power, O ruler of heroes. Have mercy on us and speak for us, O god, and grant us double protection.⁵ 11 Seeking help, we have spoken in homage to him. Let Rudra with the Maruts hear our call. Let Mitra, Varuna, Aditi, Sindhu,⁶ Earth and Sky grant this to us.

NOTES

1. Rudra’s long hair is braided or piled on top of his head in a chignon.

2. As the primeval ancestor of man, Manu performed the first sacrifice by mortals for immortals.

3. Cf. 10.136.4 and 10.136.7.

4. Either our own bodies or the bodies of people we love.

5. Probably protection from his own wrath as well as from that of the other gods (before whom he is asked to speak on behalf of the worshipper), or from the killing of men and the killing of cattle.

6. A river goddess.

1.154   The Three Strides of Visnu

Visnu, like Rudra, seems prominent in the Rig Veda only through Hindu hindsight; though he is often invoked in conjunction with Indra (with whom Rudra also has close ties), he is merely one of several similar gods of a generally solar and beneficial character. This hymn is the basis of the later myth of the dwarf avatar who takes three steps to win the world from the demons.

Visnu’s three space-creating steps prop apart and thereby make the basic two-part Universe: the earthly regions and the ‘upper dwelling-place’ (v. 1) or ‘highest footstep’ (vv. 5-6), the seat of the immortal gods (vv. 5-6), particularly of Visnu (or of Visnu with Indra). It is significant that three steps are needed to accomplish this split into two; the paradox becomes strikingly explicit in verse 4, where Visnu supports the threefold heaven and earth; the mediating third is Visnu himself, who embodies ‘all creatures’. The three steps suggest many metaphorical levels. In the solar symbolism, they may be dawn, noon, and sunset, or three phases of the year that Visnu ‘measures apart’ (vv. 1 and 3). These steps are called strides (vikrama, vv. 1-2 and 5) or steps (pada, vv. 3-6), the latter with many complex connotations that enlarge the metaphor. Its primary meaning is ‘foot’ (cognate with that word as with Latin pes, pedis); it then designates ‘step’ (the foot’s

action) and ‘footprint’ (the foot’s after-image), as well as ‘stand’ or ‘base’ in the sense of dwelling-place (later devotional Hinduism makes much of the fact that the lowest part of god is the highest part of the universe). In the final verses, pada refers both to the actual place where men and gods dwell and the footstep which marks the place, in which the honey-fountain springs as water lls the mark made by a cow’s hoof.¹

1 Let me now sing the heroic deeds² of Visnu, who has measured apart the realms of earth, who propped up³ the upper dwelling-place, striding far as he stepped forth three times.

2 They praise for his heroic deeds Visnu who lurks in the mountains, wandering like a ferocious wild beast,⁴ in whose three wide strides all creatures dwell.

3 Let this song of inspiration go forth to Visnu, the wide-striding bull who lives in the mountains, who alone with but three steps measured apart this long, far-reaching dwelling-place.⁵

4 His three footprints, inexhaustibly full of honey, rejoice⁶ in the sacrificial drink. Alone, he supports threefold the earth and the sky – all creatures.

5 Would that I might reach his dear place of refuge, where men who love the gods rejoice.⁶ For there one draws close to the wide-striding Visnu; there, in his highest footstep, is the fountain of honey.

6 We wish to go to your⁷ dwelling-places, where there are untiring, many-horned cattle.⁸ There the highest footstep of the wide-stepping bull shines brightly down.

NOTES

1. Cf. the various uses of pada in 1.164.

2. Cf. 1.32.1, which begins with the same phrase.

3. The verb (skambh) is related to the noun for ‘pillar’, the axis mundi that props heaven apart so that creation may take place. This pillar is also a measuring-stick for Visnu. Elsewhere this act is attributed to Varuna (5.85.5), who measures out the earth with the sun as with a measure.

4. The commentator suggests that this is a lion; this seems more likely, in view of the sinister characteristics attributed to Visnu here, than to interpret it as a reference to the bull who is about to appear (vv. 3 and 6). Indeed, as bulls do not usually live in mountains, this may merely be an instance of the use of the word (Vrsan) to denote any male full of seed, in this case a wild beast (as the Vedic gods are often said to be wild beasts).

5. This may refer to the entire triple world or to the earth as opposed to the upper dwelling-place.

6. The verb can be transitive or intransitive, to be or to make someone else happy or drunk. Here both meanings seem appropriate: the honey in the footprints acts like Soma, intoxicating the creatures who dwell there, the ‘men who love the gods’ specified in the next verse. The honey is in all three of his footsteps (v. 4), though the highest is the fountain of the nectar of immortality (v. 5).

7. The pronoun, in the dual, refers to both Indra and Visnu.

8. Here, as elsewhere, the cattle may simply symbolize cattle (and, by extension, the riches of life), or something more. The commentator identifies them as rays of light (extensions of Visnu as the sun); they may be stars. As cattle, they are untiring, as rays unfading; ‘many-horned’ would mean something like ‘twinkling’ (for stars) or ‘widely diffused’ (for sunbeams). (Cf. 1.163.11 for horns as rays.) But they may be just what the verse says, the cattle who abound in heaven.