Hinduism: A Short History (12 page)

In the
Śāntiparvan
we find two separate and different accounts of the Vṛtra-Indra battle. In the first
⁵⁸
Vṛtra himself speaks as a
jñāni
, comparing his present condition as devotee of Viṣṇu with his former days when he had practiced severe self-mortification and had tried to defeat Indra. The frame of the story is rather complex: Vṛtra, the great ascetic, has earned a vision of Viṣṇu. It certainly is a problem to explain how such a great saint could be vanquished by Indra. Vṛtra himself explains that, instructed about the way of salvation through Viṣṇu, he had accepted death and thus attained the highest abode. The narration of the battle itself seems strangely unconnected with the introduction. First Vṛtra seems to win a victory over Indra by his physical strength, then by
māyā
. Indra retreats, but through Yoga he dispels Vṛtra’s tricks. Bṛhaspati appeals to Mahādeva (Śiva) to destroy Vṛtra. Śiva enters Vṛtra as a fierce fever. Viṣṇu enters the thunderbolt of Indra. The
ṛṣis
, led by Bṛhaspati and Vasiṣṭha, implore Indra to kill Vṛtra, transferring to him their own powers. The effect of the Śiva-fever is disastrous – it weakens Vṛtra to such an extent that Indra can easily kill him with his
vajra
. When Indra enters Viṣṇu’s realm, the sin of Brāhmaṇa-murder issues out from Vṛtra in the form of an ugly old woman, persecuting Indra. She seizes him and Indra is deprived of all his energies. Indra then lives for a long time in a lotus stalk. Brahman argues with Brahmanicide to set Indra free. Brahmanicide subsequently is divided into four portions assigned to plants, young women, water, and fire.
⁵⁹
Thus Indra becomes again pure.

The other version of the Vṛtra-Indra story in
Śāntiparvan
follows closely the first version.
⁶⁰
There are some significant minor differences. The first slain by Indra’s
vajra
is not Vṛtra but Viśvarūpa, out of whose lifeless body comes Vṛtra. The story of the fight is not narrated: Vṛtra’s death is simply reported. The main emphasis in this version seems to lie in showing how Indra could get rid of his sin of Brahman-murder. Indra practices Yoga; through the
siddbi
(secret power) of
aṇimā
(diminution) he is able to enter the fibers of a lotus stalk in Mānasasarovara.

The consequence of the disappearance of Indra is chaos. “The universe became lordless. The attributes of
rajas
and
tamas
assailed the
devas
. The
mantras
uttered by the great
ṛṣis
lost all efficacy.
Rākṣasas
appeared everywhere. The Vedas were about to disappear. The inhabitants of all the worlds, being destitute of a king, lost their strength and began to fall an easy prey to
Rākṣasas
and other evil beings.”

Nahuṣa is elected to become king in Indra’s place – his infatuation for Saci, Indra’s wife, is the cause of his downfall. Asked by the
devas
to restore Indra to his previous position, Viṣṇu replies: “Let Śakra perform a horse-sacrifice in honour of Viṣṇu. He will then be restored to his former position.” The
devas
first cannot find Indra in Mānasasarovara; then Śacī goes and succeeds. Bṛhaspati arranges for the sacrifice, “substituting a black antelope for a good steed every way fit to be offered up in sacrifice.” Indra “continued to rule in heaven, cleansed of the sin of Brahmanicide which was divided into four portions and ordained to reside in woman, fire, trees, and kine.”
⁶¹

A fifth version is narrated in
A
vamedhaparvan.
⁶²
Pṛthivī, (earth) encompassed by Vṛtra, loses her proper qualities and begins to omit bad odours. Indra hurls his
vajra
at Vṛtra and hurts him. Vṛtra successively enters the waters,
jyotis
(light),
vāyu
(air),
akāśa
(ether), and destroys their proper qualities. Indra persecutes him incessantly. Finally Vṛtra enters Indra’s body, robbing him of his senses. In his own body Indra slays Vṛtra by means of his
vajra
.

Indra-V
ṛ
tra in the
Purāṇas

The Purāṇas in their present form serve primarily the purpose to corroborate the claims of the various sects that Viṣṇu, Śiva, or Devī, respectively, are the highest deity and Supreme Being. In the Purāṇas the gods become very concrete figures, with distinct personalities and definite features. Thus the Indra of the
Purāṇas
is far more stereotyped than that of the
Ṛgveda
, far more plastic and understandable. He is throughout the chief of the
devas
, the king of a sensual heaven – an important figure in the three worlds but not God Supreme. He is not connected with the ultimate aim of man as seen by the Purāṇas. Despite Indra’s devaluation, the ancient myth of his battle with Vṛtra figures prominently in some of the Purāṇas – and though his victory is ultimately credited to the intervention of Viṣṇu, Śiva, or Devi, the story still bears unmistakably the character of a salvation myth.

In those Purāṇas which are usually considered the oldest, namely, the
Vāyu,
⁶³
Viṣṇu,
⁶⁴
and
Matsya,
⁶⁵
we find only short references to the Indra-Vṛtra battle. In the others, various battles of Indra with demons like Kālanemi, Bali, Jambha, Namuci, Paka, and so forth figure more prominently than that with Vṛtra. Especially the story of Indra’s fight with Bali seems to have attracted greater interest in later times. But most of them at least mention it. A few deal with it at great length. In order to show the typical transformations of this myth at the hands of the Purāṇic authors we summarize the versions given in one major Vaisnava-Purāṇa, Śaiva-Purāṇa, and Śākta-Purāṇa.

The
Bhāgavata Purāṇa
is considered the most authoritative scripture by many Vaiṣṇavas. Though among the more recent ones in its present literary form, it does, no doubt, preserve ancient traditions.
⁶⁶
Its main purpose is to show Kṛṣṇa as
svayam bhagavān
, as the manifestation of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu. In a typically sectarian narrative it tells us about Kṛṣṇa’s defiance of Indra at Govardhāna
⁶⁷
– implying that Indra has lost his practical importance and that Kṛṣṇa is now the Lord. Nevertheless, the same Purāṇa narrates at extraordinary length the Indra-Vṛtra story, giving it a sectarian twist, but repeating also many elements of the ancient Vedic myth. The text tries to show that it was all Indra’s fault that there was any such battle at all, and only Viṣṇu rescued Indra, who foolishly precipitated the near catastrophe for all the three worlds.

Indra had offended Bṛhaspati, the divine preceptor, whereupon Bṛhaspati deserted the gods. The
asuras
then immediately took up arms against the
devas
. The badly beaten
devas
approached Brahmā for help. Brahmā advised the gods to ask Viśvarūpa, “son of Tvaṣṭṛ, a Brahmin, a
tapasvī
, self-controlled,”
⁶⁸
to become their
guru
. Viśvarūpa accepted. “Viśvarūpa snatched by means of a prayer addressed to Lord Viṣṇu the fortune of the
asuras
and restored it to the great Indra. Viśvarūpa, nobleminded, taught to Indra the prayer protected by which that mighty god with a thousand eyes was able to conquer the demon hosts.”
⁶⁹
The
Bhāgavata Purāṇa
then describes the
Nārāyaṇa Kavaca
, the great protective prayer, which as such has nothing to do with the Indra-Vṛtra story. But the ultimate victory of Indra is attributed to this “Viṣṇu-armour.”

Viśvarūpa had three heads: with one he drank Soma, with the second he drank liquor, and with the third he ate food. He faithfully performed the sacrifices to the gods “since the gods were his fathers.” But he secretly offered a share to the
asuras
“for he had his sympathies with the
asuras
because of the affection his mother (Rācanā) bore to them.”
⁷⁰
Indra becomes angry at Viśvarūpa’s offering sacrifices to the
asuras
, and cuts off his heads. The first head turns into a Chataka bird, the second into a sparrow, and the third into a partridge. Indra accepts the sin of Brahmanicide, which remains with him for a year, and then divides it into four parts among the earth, water, trees, and women, together with a boon.

Tvaṣṭṛ, whose son had been killed, pours oblations into the sacred fire in order to obtain another son who would kill Indra. “Now from the offering rose a demon of terrible aspect who looked like Death appearing at the time of universal dissolution for the destruction of the worlds. He rapidly grew to the extent of an arrow’s throw on every side from day to day, presented the appearance of a burnt hill, and possessed the glow of a mass of evening clouds. With a beard and moustache and hair red as heated copper and eyes as fierce as the midday sun, he danced as if holding the vault of heaven on the end of his brilliant trident, gave a loud roar, and shook the earth with his feet. Terribly afraid, all creatures ran to and fro, as they saw him respiring again and again with his extensive gaping mouth, containing fearful teeth, and deep as a cavern, which seemed to imbibe the firmament, lick the stars with the tongue, and devour the three worlds. That sinful and ferocious demon was rightly named Vṛtra, inasmuch as these worlds were enveloped by that darkness appearing in the form of Tvaṣṭṛ’s offspring. Rushing against him with their troops, the generals of the gods assailed him, each with his hosts of celestial missiles and weapons; he, however, swallowed them all.”
⁷¹

The humiliated gods this time approach Viṣṇu, addressing him with a long prayer. Viṣṇu, pleased, advises the gods to go to Dadhyanc (Dadhica), the original possessor of the
Nārāyaṇa Kavaca
, and ask his body from him. Out of its limbs the divine artisan Viśvakarman should make a weapon “by means of which and strengthened with my power you will be able to sever the head of Vṛtra. When he is slain you will regain your glory.” He concludes: “Enemies can never destroy those who are devoted to me.” The
Bhāgavata Purāṇa
locates the Indra-Vṛtra battle on the banks of the Narbada at the beginning of the
Tretā yuga
“during the very first round of the four
yugas.”
Two formidable armies meet: the
asuras
make no impression on the
devas
and thus they flee, leaving Vṛtra alone. Vṛtra appears self-composed, calm, and virtuous, following the rules of scripture, preaching Yoga to his
Mlow-asuras
and Viṣṇubhakti to Indra. He curses Indra as a Brahman-murderer and killer of his
guru
, and he prays to Viṣṇu to be reborn as a servant of his servants. Vṛtra and Indra begin to fight.

Vṛtra is clearly superior to Indra and several times Indra is almost slain. It is only Viṣṇu’s boon which preserves Indra. Vṛtra swallows Indra. Indra comes out, ripping open Vṛtra’s belly, lopping off his arms and his head. But Vṛtra’s death at the hands of Indra appears as willed by Vṛtra himself, whose soul entered and merged into Viṣṇu in a resplendent form. “Though revolving quickly, and cutting on all sides, the thunderbolt felled the neck of Vṛtra in as many days as are taken by the northward and southward marches of heavenly bodies at the time appointed for the death of the demon. At that time drums sounded with a loud noise, and
Gandharvas
and
Siddhas
along with hosts of eminent sages, joyously showered flowers on him, glorifying him with sacred hymns celebrating the prowess of the slayer of Vṛtra.”
⁷²

After the Vedic reminiscence the
Bhāgavatam
relapses into its brahmanical bias: Indra is again guilty of Brāhmaṇa murder; though the
devas
are relieved and happy, Indra must be sad. The sin pursues him “in human form, resembling a Pariah-woman suffering from consumption, clad in blood-stained clothes, her limbs trembling due to old age, throwing about her grey hair crying ’stop, stop’ and befouling the road with her breath that stinks like fish.”
⁷³
Indra hides in the fibers of a lotus stalk in Mānasasarovara for a thousand years, during which time Nahusa rules in his stead. Indra’s sin is “neutralized through meditation on Śri Hari” and he returns to heaven. “The sin, that had been deprived of its force by Śri Rudra, could not assail him, protected by Goddess Lakṣmī.” The Brahmins then prepare a horse-sacrifice in honor of Lord Viṣṇu and thus they exterminate the sin of Vṛtra-killing. Though the author of the
Bhāgavata Purāṇa
narrates the entire myth it is something of an embarrassment for him. He cannot connect it with his ideas of Viṣṇu’s salvation and thus it loses much of its original power; although occasionally, in passages that appear like old quotations, the salvation myth comes through.