Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Vedic Mythology c7.s4: § 62. The Goat &c.

Vedic Mythology c7.s4

Language
English

§ 62. The Goat &c.

c7.s4.1

— In the RV. the goat is specially connected with Pūṣan as drawing his car (p. 35). It also appears there as a divine being in the form of Aja ekapād, the one-footed Goat (§ 27)¹. In the the later Vedic literature the goat is several times connected or identified with Agni².

c7.s4.2

The ass appears in Vedic mythology mainly as drawing the car of the Aśvins (p. 50)³.

c7.s4.3

The dog⁴ is found in the RV. mythologically in the form of the two brindled hounds of Yama, called Sārameya (p. 173). This name indicates that they were regarded as descendants⁵ of Saramā⁶ (p. 63), the messenger of Indra. There is nothing in the RV. directly showing that Saramā was there conceived as a bitch, though in the later Vedic literature she is regarded as such and by Yāska (Nir. 11, 25) is described as the ‘bitch of the gods’ (*devaśunī*).

c7.s4.4

The boar occurs in the RV. as a figurative designation of Rudra, the Maruts, and Vṛtra⁷. In the TS. and TB. this animal appears in a cosmogonic character as the form assumed by the Creator Prajāpati when he raised the earth out of the waters. A later development of it is the boar incarnation of Viṣṇu⁸.

c7.s4.5

In the later Saṃhitās the tortoise is raised to a semi-divine position as ‘lord of waters’ (VS. 13, 31)⁹, or, as Kaśyapa, often appears beside or identical with Prajāpati in the AV., where he receives the epithet *svayambhū*, ‘self-existent’ (AV. 19, 53¹⁰)¹⁰. In the AB. (8, 21¹⁰) the earth is said to have been promised to Kaśyapa by Viśvakarman. In the ŚB. Prajāpati is described as changing himself into a tortoise (7, 4, 3⁵), in which form he produced all creatures (7, 5, 1¹)¹¹. This assumed form of the creator became in post-Vedic mythology the tortoise incarnation of Viṣṇu¹². In the TS. (2, 6, 3³) the sacrificial cake (*puroḍāśa*) is said to become a tortoise.

c7.s4.6

A monkey appears in a late hymn of the RV. (10, 86) as Indra’s favourite, who is expelled for his mischievousness by Indrāṇī, but is finally restored to favour (§ 22, p. 64).

c7.s4.7

Frogs awakened by the rains are in RV. 7, 103 the objects of a panegyric as bestowing cows and long life, and seem to be conceived as possessing magical powers¹³. This hymn has, however, been interpreted by Max Müller¹⁴ as a satire on Brahmans. Bergaigne interprets the frogs as meteorological phenomena¹⁵.

Linked texts (8)