The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c9.52

c9.52

Indra is said to have killed a three-headed and six-eyed monster. It might be contended that the explanation is not satisfactory, inasmuch as the head of Mriga is here supposed to be again conceived as a dog, while there is no authority in the Vedic works expressly describing Mriga as a dog. But if Orthros has become a dog in the Greek mythology, while it is a Mriga in the Vedas, I see no reason why Kerberos should not get his three heads from the Trishîrshan of the Vedas. The difficulty is not at all a serious one. In bringing together the traditions of the three Aryan races after thousands of years, we must make some allowances, and be satisfied with a general similarity of the stories. The asterism of Mrigashiras and the dogs are so close, that one might be easily mistaken for the other, when all the knowledge of the original traditions was lost. It is thus that we can account for the fact that out of the three beings that were represented in this portion of the heavens, Rudra (the hunter) Mriga (the antelope), and Shvâ (the dog), the Greeks retained in the sky only the hunter (Orion), and the dog (Kuon*, Canis), with nothing to hunt, while the Hindus have not only forgotten, but condemned, the dog.