Lord Hayagriva in Sanskrit Literature

by Anindita Adhikari | 2019 | 56,368 words

This page relates ‘Brahmana (2): Severed head of Vishnu’ 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 (2): Severed head of Viṣṇu

In case of Viṣṇu’s severed head and transplantation with a horse head we come across in different Vedic texts, the earliest element of the myth can be traced back in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā[1] of Kṛṣṇayajurveda. It found expression in different versions of the different Vedic texts such as, the Āraṇyaka[2] Brāhmaṇa[3] and others. The essence of the myth found in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa is described in this way—once upon a time the gods Agni, Indra, Soma, Makha, Viṣṇu and Viśvadevas wanted to perform a sacrifice and agreed to share the credit of the result of performance among them. Viṣṇu first became glorious with the fame and carried away the whole credit. Viṣṇu with his bow stepped forth and stood resting his head at the end of the bow. The gods dared not to attack him but gave assurance to the ants about constant enjoyment of food; ants gnawed the bow string of Viṣṇu. When the bow string was cut, the end of the bow springing assunder cut off Viṣṇu’s head.[4] After having fallen, the head of Viṣṇu became the yonder sun and the rest of his body stretched out over top towards east.[5] The gods felt that it is necessary to transplant the head of Yajña Viṣṇu and then requested to Aśvins to do this work. For performing this job Aśvins, supposed to be impure, were blessed with a pot full of soma juice or graha pātra as their share in the sacrifice which was still impermissible for them. Taking this assurance from the gods Aśvins then fixed the horse head to Yajña Viṣṇu’s trunk.

It is important to notice that not only in the above mentioned Brāhmaṇic myth of reference like “yajña vai Viṣṇu,” but also from other texts we come across to note that Yajña itself is Viṣṇu and the head of Yajña that is cut off, is the solar itself. It is well expressed in the reference “asāvā ādityo bhabatu,” and thus the head of Viṣṇu became Āditya. In another place Āditya is associated with aśva as in the account “asau vā ādityo vṛṣāśvaḥ” and this idea is very clearly expressed in the account “aśvasya niṣpadasi.” Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā refers to the same story where Sāyaṇa brings the concept of Yajñapuruṣa, meaning of that could be understood as Yajña Viṣṇu in a personified anthropomorphic form.[6] The myth of the severed head of Yajña Viṣṇu in the Vedic Ākhyānas became a source of inspiration for the later purāṇic myth that should not be understood merely for its story value but for its symbolic significance.

Therefore, this perplexing account of Yajñā-Viṣṇu’s beheading is interlinked with pravargya[7] . In the previous section Viṣṇu appears as a solar deity in the early Vedic age. One should understand the subtle dissimilation within Yajña or Makha as a process of ritualistic performance, and also Yajña or Makha’s personification with Viṣṇu. Yajña is not only identified as Viṣṇu, whereas it also a particular process to any ritual performed in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras.[8] The compatible antecedent of Yajña as a process and as a deity is a requisite to comprehend the symbolic significance of the pravargya ritual. Moreover, Viṣṇu’s identification with Yajña or Makha is not mislaid his associations with the sun. Therefore, when Viṣṇu’s head is cut off, it fell with the sound ‘ghrīn’, and on declining the head became yonder sun. This alliance of horse with the sun systematizes the myth with the concept of replacement of Viṣṇu’s severed head with Horse. This reflects link between the myth about the severed head of Viṣṇu and the pravargya ritual.

In this sacrificial process the fallen head of Viṣṇu stands as a symbol for the mahāvīra pot which is supposed to be the primary part of the sacrificial performance like the head which is most important part in the whole body. While Viṣṇu, the great hero lost his head, the vital sap flowed from him. Among the gods Indra reached him first and applied the sap to the limbs of his own body and became possesser of the glory of Viṣṇu.[9] Being possessed of Makha, Indra became makhavat. [10] Then the gods went on worshipping with that headless sacrifice.[11] The secret of pure essence which Indra has possessed, is interconnected with the idea of madhuvidyā, through which the head of Yajña could be again put on and this Yajña became completely known to Dadhyañc Ātharvan.[12] Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa links both of these stories like the story of Dadhyañc and the story of MakhaViṣṇu or Yajña-Viṣṇu in an interesting manner. In the subsequent passage of the text we see that Indra, aware of the sacrificial mystery, wanted to keep it secret. He warned Dadhyañc, that he would lose his head if he revealed the secret doctrine of the headless sacrifice.[13] However, Aśvin brothers convinced Dadhyañc to reveal the secret wisdom or madhuvidyā and upon being told about Indra’s warning. They removed Dadhyañc’s original head, hid it, and temporarily replaced it with the head of a horse to get the secret knowledge madhuvidyā. [14] Later, when Indra cut off Dadhyañc’s head as he had warned, the clever Aśvins replaced it with Dadhyañc’s original head.[15]

The above mentioned mythical account confers some valuable points:

  • Viṣṇu is identified with Yajña, which in its twist is related to the yonder sun.
  • The Yajña Viṣṇu’s head been mislaid and regained by the sacrificial rite pravargya.
  • Without head, the sacrifice would stay unfinished. Thus the rite is essential to regain the mislaid head.

J.C Heesterman, to turn to the Vedic ritual-texts pointed out that the standard components and practices of the ritual allude to the head of the sacrifice, and its execution signifies the severing and restoration of the head. He also states that:

“It will be clear that the severing and restoration of the head in the language of the ritual system can only be an abstract expression. At first sight though, one would be inclined to think of the head of the sacrificial victim. But it is exactly here that the abstract nature of the expression stands out clearest. There cannot be any question of the victim’s head, the victim is not explicitly beheaded, it is even forbidden to make offerings of the victim’s head.”[16]

However, in another place he is fairly pointed out that “it can hardly be doubted that originally the animal was beheaded at the sacrificial post.”[17]

Heesterman has dealt with this topic in his two long articles. But as he has stated in one of his articles, “... one might perhaps expect a full-scale treatment of the symbolism of the severed head...Such a treatment is not expected here.”[18] He has not dealt with the symbolism of the severed head. But S. Sindhu Dange thinks that it is indeed a later stage, when the accessories of the ritual are metaphorically said to be the head of the sacrifice. There lurks the idea of the actual severed head of the victim in all these details. To unravel the mystery of the severed head, it will be worthwhile to turn to the myths regarding the severed head, as found in the Vedic ritual-texts, as also in the later literature.[19] Thus to turn to the original position, the concept of the severed head of a sacrificial victim, or an asura, or a god or a sage or a human being or an image of a goddess, has a cluster of beliefs around it, which has made it assume symbolic significance in myth, literature as well as actual ritual practice.[20] O’Flaherty Wendy Doniger, identifies the beheading sacrifices of Viṣṇu and the placement of the horse’s head on the sage Dadhyañc as the Vedic antecedent to the Hayagrīva myth, based on the fact that the horse head contains the secret wisdom.[21]

Some think that the performance and action of the sacrificial ritual, aim at the atonement of an initial wrong and at reintegration. In the present myth conceitedly broken covenant is the first wrong; way out from integrity is broken promise out of self-centred ungenerous pride. This initial differentiation that warrants Makha-Viṣṇu, the sacrifice, to lose its head, wants to be unfinished by a reintegration, which is the purpose of the rites of the sacrifice.[22]

The transplantation of horse head on the trunk of Viṣṇu’s headless body is indirectly highlighted in the Vedic literature. The ritualistic viewpoint of it is much concentrating on the symbolic way of expression that the fact of headless sacrifice is completed with the performance of pravargya. The identification of pravargya with the head of Yajña Viṣṇu and in addition to its identification with the horse head is the basis of the concept that Lord Viṣṇu became a horse headed one.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taittirīya Saṃhitā, 4.4.9.

[2]:

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, 4 & 5.

[3]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, 14.1.1; Pañcaviṃsa Brāhmaṇa, 7.5.6.

[4]:

ibid.,14.1.1.7.

[5]:

ibid.,14.1.1.10.

[6]:

Babu, Sridhara: Hayagrīva the Horse Headed Deity in Indian Culture, p.7.

[7]:

The pravargya is a vedic ritual that is performed just before or at the beginning of the Soma sacrifice. The central object in this ritual is an earthenware pot or mahāvīra vessel placed on a fire until it’s burning hot. Here the mahāvīra vessel is a symbol and also identified with the sun. The pot also other names such as ‘gharma’—‘heat’ and ‘mahāvīra’—‘great hero’. The etymologies of the words Gharma, Pravargya, Mahāvīra and Samrāj are given here by the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, 14.1.1.10, 11.

[8]:

Nigal,S.G: Axiological Approach to the Vedas, pp.80-81.

[9]:

ibid.,14.1.1.12.

[10]:

ibid, 14.1.1.13.

[11]:

ibid.,14.1.1.17.

[12]:

ibid.,14.1.1.18. cf.4.1.5.18.

[13]:

ibid.,14.1.1.19.

[14]:

“Dadhyañc hayanmdhvāthārvaṇo vām aśvasya śīrṣṇā pradīmuvācA//” Ṛgveda, 1.116.12b. “Ātharvaṇāyāśvinā dadhīce’śvyaṃ śīraḥ pratairayatam/
Sa vāṃ madhu pravocadṛtāyaṃ tvāṣṭrṃ yaddasrāvapikakṣyaḥ vām//” ibid.,1.117.22.

[15]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, 14.1.1.20-25.

[16]:

Dange, Sindhu S: The Severed Head in Myth and Ritual. In: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 72/73, No. 1/4, (1991-1992), p.492.

[17]:

Dange, Sindhu S: ibid., ‘loc. cit.’p.492.

[18]:

Dange, Sindhu S: ibid., p.487.

[19]:

Dange, Sindhu S: ibid., ‘loc. cit.’p.487.

[20]:

Dange, Sindhu S: ibid., p.496.

[21]:

O’Flaherthy, Wendy Doniger: Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, pp.218-219.

[22]:

Kramrisch, Stella: The Mahāvīra Vessel and the Plant Pūtika. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 95, No. 2 (1975), pp.223.

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