Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.4937

c9.4937

(ii) It was Prajāpati Tvaṣṭā who created Vṛtra to kill Indra. He had sufficient reasons for it. From the very beginning Indra and Tvaṣṭā were enemies. Tvaṣṭā begot a son named Triśiras otherwise called Viśvarūpa, for the purpose of killing Indra. This Viśvarūpa had three heads. One was meant for drinking Surā (a liquor), the second for drinking Soma (liquor) and the third for eating food. Viśvarūpa was a Brāhmaṇa. Still, as his mother was an asura, he loved the asuras and mingled with them. Indra knew about the behaviour of Viśvarūpa. He concluded that it was blasphemy and wickedness. Indra who was afraid of Viśvarūpa, got angry and cut off his heads. Of the heads of Viśvarūpa, that which drank Soma became a bird called Kapiñjala, that which drank Surā became a bird called Kalapiṅga, and that which ate food became the bird Tittiri (partridge). Brahmahatyā (the sin of killing Brahmin) took shape and went against Indra. Though Indra could have destroyed it, he joined his hands and received it. At the end of the year he cut it into four pieces and divided them among earth, water, tree and woman. The earth received it with the boon that depressions will be filled. That sin is now seen as salt beds. Water got it with the boon, "Will be swollen when joined". That sin is foam and bubbles. The tree got it with the boon, "Will not die even if cut into pieces". That sin is the sap of the tree. Women got it with the boon, "Amour will last without break". That sin is the menstruation of women.