The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s1.47

v1.c17.s1.47

Other Dāsas are certainly not real men; such are Vyaṁsa, whose jaws Indra struck off, and Namuci, who is the hero of a strange tale;⁶ Indra, it seems, made a compact with him not to slay him by any weapon, by wet or dry, by day or night, and, true to this compact, when he did slay him it was with the foam of the sea at the twilight on the margin of the sea, and the head, struck off, follows him, reproaching him with treachery. The story is especially interesting because of its clear reference to the idea of the external soul: doubtless that of Namuci was deemed to be placed in the sea foam. Noteworthy also is Indra’s consciousness of guilt in slaying.¹ A further curious tale tells how Indra as the result of over-indulgence in his favourite Soma became ill, and how he was cured by drinking with Namuci, or by extracting in some way from his body, a curious mixture of Soma and Surā. The Sautrāmaṇī rite of the Brāhmaṇas is clearly a case of a rite founded on the strange and unedifying myth. In the Rigveda² Indra twists off the head of Namuci, which suggests the natural phenomenon of a waterspout amidst a storm.