Lord Hayagriva in Sanskrit Literature

by Anindita Adhikari | 2019 | 56,368 words

This page relates ‘Brahmana (1): Ashvamedha or Horse sacrifice’ of the study on Lord Hayagriva as found in Sanskrit Literature such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Puranas and Tantras. Hayagriva as an incarnation of Vishnu is worshipped as the supreme Lord of knowledge and wisdom but also symbolizes power and intelligence. His name means “the horse-headed one”.

Brāhmaṇa (1): Aśvamedha or Horse sacrifice

The horse symbolising sovereignty and power is used as the sacrificial animal in a royal ritual. Yet it is not considered as an asset of royalty. The horse stood for material gains and military strength, indifferent to the mystical traditions of the Vedic time. Later on the aśva or horse occupied a cosmological significance in ancient Sanskrit literature.

The word aśva is derived from the root as which means to pervade, to grasp or to eat. As in the Nirukta the word means “aśnute adhvānam, mahāsano bhavatīti vā.”[1]

The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad begins with the description of the horse of aśvamedha sacrifice. This sacrifice as described in the Upaniṣad is thoroughly a symbolic one. There is an impressive depiction of the aśva that symbolises the whole universe.[2] Here the extensive imagination with an infinite expansion that symbolizes the entire range of existence under an all subsuming of a horse. The essentials of time, space and energy, are immersed in the ‘Horse’.[3]

Nevertheless, there are four probable meaning of the word aśva—firstly it indicates the ordinary horse sacrificed at the altar. Secondly it may signify the cosmic horse that equates with Prajāpati.[4] Thirdly it may mean the entity, who is to be immolated to eternity in a symbolic manner. Fourthly it symbolise the sun that is a symbol of horse in the Vedic texts.

In ancient Vedic tradition Aśvamedha or sacrificial killing of a horse was one of the four most important rites. The word sacrifice or ‘Yajña’, at the time of the Ṛgveda, had a very symbolic meaning, as it is understood from hymns of the Puruṣa Sukta (Ṛgveda, 10.90). The hymns describe the process of creation as explicit great sacrifice. When the puruṣa overpassed the entire earth, the devas performed the sacrifice with the puruṣa himself as the ritual oblation.[5]

However, as the term literally means ‘horse sacrifice’ as evident in the ritual. It was a royal ritual to assure the wealth and good fortune of the king and his kingdom. The associate ceremonies were complex and elaborate rituals that lasted for a full year.[6] Its culmination was the sacrifice of a horse, where the king was the sacrificer.[7] It was a military celebration as stated Aśvamedha is the Kṣatriya’s sacrifice.[8]

The Aśvamedha as described in the Śatapatha Brāmaṇa is a very complex ritual with full of symbolism. At first appearance the source may impression of being inconsistent in their association of various deities, symbol and the meaning of the ritual. Hence the Aśvamedha poses serious difficulties due to the complexity of this symbolic ritual.

The Ṛgveda (1.163.2) says that the horse is a symbol of the Sun. Here aśva had a highly symbolic meaning. The seer praises the aśva as one given by Yama, harnessed by Trita, and first ascended by lndra. It was created out of Surya by the Vasus and its reins were held by Gandharva.[9] Yāṣka explains that as aśva was created from the sun,[10] a mantra to glorify Āditya can also be used for praising aśva.[11]

Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā it is says,

“In heaven is your highest birth, in air your navel, on earth your home.”[12]

Here the horse is being symbolized by the sacrificial fire. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa says that Aśvamedha is the sun,[13] and that it is to be done year after year. This is how the Taittirīya Saṃhitā describes the sacrificial horse of the Aśvamedha. [14] The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad also starts with the portrayal of the horse in Aśvamedha sacrifice.[15] A symbolic description of the sacrifice can be found in the Upaniṣad.

The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa elaborately discusses the horse sacrifice where it is to be left unobstructed and viewed as the sun itself. The Brāhmaṇa emphasises his indomitable nature.[16] The Bṛhadāraṇyaka, follows this explanation and associates the sacrifice with the sun.[17] It is evident from this analysis that Aśvamedha has its basis in the Vedic sun-worship.

According to the Vedic hymns, the unhindered movement of the sun and its symbolic representation in the form of horse indicates the sovereignty of the performer of the sacrifice. This is why the horse is left to go around for an entire year and is sacrificed at the end.[18] Therefore the end of a year has a symbolic connection with the offering of horse at the end. This is depicted as having saṃvatsara as it is the ātman. The sacrifice of the horse actually might have also started with man’s greed for the horse’s flesh from the preVedic times. S.P. Singh suggest that as the concept of horse-sacrifice implies the link with sovereignty, it is to be rendered by the royals only and others such as the Brāhmins and sages could only practise it in a symbolic way.[19]

In this context Hillebranth suggests that:

“in so far as it is clear that the horse at the horse sacrifice was addressed in terms appropriate to divinity: it cannot seriously be doubted that for the time being the horse was considered as being a sense divine, nor that in the offering the horse represented the embodiment of the sun.”[20]

He also thinks that the horse of the horse-sacrifice is a sun fetish, which supports the theory that Dadhikrāvan is the sun in horse shape but does not support Dadhikrāvan to be the horse. He indicates that the theriomorphic form of the sun is represented by a real horse in the horse sacrifice.[21]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nir, 2.27.

[2]:

“Om uṣā vā aśvasya medhasya śraḥ sūryaścakṣurvvātaḥ prāṇo vyāttamagnirvvaiśvānaraḥ saṃvatsara ātmā aśvasya medhyasya/ Dyauḥ pṛṣṭhamantarīkṣamudaraṃ pṛthivī pājasyāṃ diśaḥ pārśve avāntaradiśaḥ parśava ṛtavo’ṅgāni māsāścārddhamāsāśca parvvāṇyahorātrāṇi pratiṣṭhā nakṣatrāṇyasthīni nabho māṃsāni/ Ūvdhyaṅskitāḥ sindhavo gudā yakṛcca klomānaśca parvvatā oṣadhayaśca vanaspatayaśca lomāni udyan pūrvvārddho nimlocñ jaghānārddho yadvijṛmbhate tadvidyotate yadvidhūnute tat stanayati yanmehati tad varṣati vāgevāsya vāk//” BU, 1.1.1

[3]:

Sri Aurobindo describes the horse that fills up the regions by its being, pervades time, hurtles through space, and bears on its speed men, gods and titans. It is the Horse of the Worlds -and yet the Horse sacrificial. Sri Aurobindo: The Upaniṣads. p.400

[4]:

In the BU, here it is mentioned that—“Hayo bhūtvā devānava’d ganddharvvānarvvā’surānaśvo manuśvān, samudra evāsya bandhuḥ samudro yoniḥ.” ‘Samudra’ is said to be the bandhu and yoni of this aśva which primarily signifies the sea. It may here signify the vast unbound reality from where this horse has come into existence. Regarding this context Śaṅkara in his commentary noted that—“Samudra eveti paramātmā;vandhurvvanddhanaṃ vadhyate’sminniti/ Samudro yoniḥ kāraṇamutpattiṃ prati/ Evamasau śuddhayoniḥ śuddhasthitiriti stūyate; ‘apsu yonirvā aśvaḥ’ iti śruteḥ/ prasiddha eva vā samudro yoniḥ//” Śaṅkara relying upon etymology renders it as paramātman from where all beings come into existence–“samutpadya dravanti bhūtāni asmin”. As rendered by Śaṅkara, the word bandhu here means bandhana which is befitting for horse. Brahman, the unbound reality is the tie-post of this horse. It is as well its origin. Thus, this horse seems to signify the manifest form Prajāpati of the unmanifest Brahman. BU, pp.30-31.

[5]:

“Yat puruṣeṇa haviṣā devā yajñamanvata/ Vasanto asyāsīdājyaṃ grīṣma idhmaḥ śaraddhaviḥ//
Taṃ yajñaṃ vahirṣi praukṣan puruṣaṃ jātamagrataḥ/
Tena devā ayajanta sādhyā ṛṣyaśca ye//
Tasmādyajñāt sarvahutaḥ sambhṛtaṃ pṛṣadājyaṃ/
Paśuntāṃścakre vāyavyānārāyaṇyān grāmyāśva ye//” Ṛgveda, 10.90.6-8.

[6]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, 11.2.5.4.

[7]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, 13 For the preparation and the rites of Aśvamedha.

[8]:

ibid., 12.4.1.

[9]:

Yamena dattaṃ tritta enamāṣūnagindra eṇaṃ prathamo adhyatiṣṭhat/
Gandharvo asya raśanāmagṛbhṇāt sūrādaśvaṃ vasavo nirataṣṭa//”Ṛgveda, 1.163.2.

[10]:

Īrmāntāsaḥ silikamadhyamāsaḥ sat śūraṇāso divyāso atyaḥ/
Haṃsā iva śreṇiśo yatante yadākṣiṣurdivyamaṅmamaśvāḥ//” Ṛgveda, 1.163.10.

[11]:

Nir, 4.13.

[12]:

VS, 11.12.

[13]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, XIII.3.3.3.

[14]:

The head of the sacrificial horse is the dawn, the eye the sun, the breath the wind, the ear the moon, the feet the quarters, the ribs the intermediate quarters, the winking the day and night, the joints the half-months, the joining the months, the limbs the seasons, the trunk the year, the hair the rays of the sun, the form the Nakṣatra, the bones the stars, the ash the mist, the hair the plants, the tail hairs the tress, the mouth agni, the open mouth Vaiśvānara, the belly the sea, the anus the atmosphere, the testicles the sky and the earth, the membrum virile the pressing-stone, the seed the soma. Taittirīya Saṃhitā, 7.5.25.

[15]:

BU, 1.1.

[16]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, XIII.4.2.16.

[17]:

BU, 1.2.7.

[18]:

Singh, Satya: Upanisadic Symbolism, p.320.

[19]:

Singh, Satya: ibid., Op. cit. p.334.

[20]:

Keith, A.B: The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, Part 2. p.190

[21]:

Keith, A.B: ibid.,‘loc. cit.’p.190.

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