Hayagrīva In Different Purāṇas

The purāṇas^[1] occupy a unique position in Indian literature, both sacred and secular, preserve the vast cultural history of ancient India with historical legends, traditions, sacred rituals, ceremonies and various diverse arts and sciences. They aim at glorifying the great divinities of Brahmā, Viṣṇu or Śiva and their several forms; but to apotheosize their own specific deity as superior to others, they turn sectarian.

Prof. Sukumari Bhattacherji comments,

“Purāṇas are sectarian scriptures, each magnifying the cult and character of Śiva, Brahmā or one or other of the incarnations of Viṣṇu.”^[2]

Viṣṇu, a major god of Indian pantheon originated in the Ṛgveda, and there is a vast mythological elaboration of Viṣṇu in the post Vedic texts like the

Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas. In the post Vedic age, Lord Viṣṇu gradually emerged as a prominent and independent deity; a trend of combining both human and animal forms as incarnations of Viṣṇu is often seen. The incarnation of the half-horse & half-man Viṣṇu variously known as Hayagrīva, Hayaśiras or Hayaśirṣa, Hayāsya finds mention in the Mahābhārata and in some purāṇas. Hayagrīva is mentioned in the śānti parva of the Mahābhārata where we learn how the Horse-headed Viṣṇu brings back the stolen Vedas and how He kills the demons Madhu and Kaitabha. The story of the ̣ Mahābhārata symbolizes the triumph of the supreme knowledge being guided by the god over the demons of passion and darkness. The accounts found in the Mahābhārata and the purāṇas are conflicting, but they provide us with valuable materials regarding the origin of Hayagrīva concept and extent of the cult in ancient India.

The purāṇas belong to the religious literature which culminates in the worship of Viṣṇu and Śiva, they are approximately what the Veda is for the oldest religion, the Brāhmaṇism. The purāṇas are closely connected with the epic. They go back undoubtedly to a very distant past and have their roots in the Vedic texts. We come across numerous legends previously noted in the Ṛgvedic hymns and the Brāhmaṇas, again in the purāṇas.

Purāṇas have generated the concept of trinity, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara. However, though ancient purāṇas are identified with five characteristic features, the sectarian approach, although prominent is not a feature of the purāṇas.

Winternitz states that,

“What is especially significant of almost all our purāṇas, their sectarian character, i.e., their being dedicated to the cult of some god or other, of Viṣṇu and Śiva, is completely ignored by the old definitions.”^[3]

Even though there is no mention of such feature, the purāṇas themselves have recognized that feature. Eighteen purāṇas have been divided into three categories known as sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa, depending upon the three guṇas like sattva, rajas and tamas. But here instead of these three categories of sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa, we take them as Vaiṣṇava, Śākta and Śaiva, the religio-sectarian purāṇas divided among religious communities to progress our discussion about the presence of Hayagrīva.

In this chapter we have tried to highlight a point as to how Hayagrīva appears in different purāṇas and then we have shown different contradictory observations about Hayagrīva in several sectarian purāṇas.

In the post epic purāṇa literature, the prominent purāṇas which give an insight into Hayagrīva are, the Viṣṇupurāṇa, Bhāgavatapurāṇa, Agnipurāṇa, Devībhāgabatapurāṇa etc. The tradition of incarnations of Viṣṇu conceived in ancient times, crystallized into form and conception of the ten incarnations subsequently, but the list varies from text to text. An effort to analyse the

Hayagrīva concept reflected in different purāṇas, has been made from four different angles which are as follows:

1. Establishment of Hayagrīva in different purāṇas as an avatāra.
2. Mythological aspect of the Hayagrīva in different purāṇas.
3. Iconographical descriptions of Hayagrīva in different purāṇas.
4. Mode of worship of Hayagrīva.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The word purāṇa meant originally nothing but ‘Purāṇam Akhyānam’ i.e. ‘old story’. In the Kauṭilyīya Arthaśāstra I, 5 in its definition of itihāsa enumerates purāṇa and itivṛtta as belonging to the content of itihāsa. As itivṛtta can only mean a “Historical event”, purāṇa probably means “mythological and legendary lore.”

[2]:

Sukumari Bhattacherji: The Indian Theogony. A comparative Study of the Indian Mythology from the Vedas to Purāṇas, p.19.

[3]:

M, Winternitz: History of Indian Literature,Vol. I, p. 522.