11 – The King Fought Tooth and Nails and Bones

Hi Friends!

Today let’s take a look at a story about the King of gods, who was a son of Aditi, and how he went about his most famous accomplishment, killing an Encircler, sometimes mentioned as his half-brother being a Daanav (son of Danu). For a quick review of the various sons of Sage Kasyapa through the various daughters of Daksha Prajapati, you can refer to an earlier post.

The eldest of the Adityas, the twelve different personifications of the Sun, gets a lot of bad name, if you skim the various mythological stories. Let’s see if he actually deserves it.

ISSUE #1: He is said to be very strong, but every once in a while, he becomes weaker, and defeated. He is said to be fickle, and known to be destructive or vindictive, without good reasons. He keeps losing his throne to various entities. Sometimes the sons of Diti, with their subterranean terrors. Sometimes the sons of Danu, with their withholding of water from rivers, and streams. Sometimes even by heroes, kings and cowherds.

POSSIBLE REASON: Being the lord of rains, thunderstorms and lightning, may be that is just an observation of the varying strengths of the “monsoon” season of the Indian subcontinent. By the way, the word “monsoon” is an anglicised version of the Urdu word “mausam” meaning “weather”, which in turn comes from the Arabic word “mawsim” which amongst other also means a set or “marked” date. Ironically the start of monsoon is not exactly a specific date, yet happens in a general period. His losing to subterranean terrors of Daityas, and river-water withholding Danavas, and his later victories over them, may be the representation of the periods of drought, with cracked earth, and dried river beds, which are later quenched and back to normal after one good season of rains.

ISSUE #2: He drinks a lot of “soma”, a form of intoxicating drink. That makes him strong, and immune to pain. But also makes him cruel, and unnecessarily violent. He also turns his affection towards women other than his wife, called Indrani, causing disrespect to him and, more importantly, pain and shame for them. As we mentioned earlier the queen of gods, Indrani, is said to be constant and has the sweet smelling Parijata (a Ratna from Sagara Manthan) as her prized possession, with the king, or Indra, changing every Manvantara.

POSSIBLE REASON: The imbibing of “soma” was considered sacred in the vedic times. In fact it was seen more as an invigorating drink for warriors prior to battles (we will see it in the story we cover today), and less as something that was decadent. Do look-up the term “berserker”. Later more puritanical times made this warrior like nature of Indra into a less savoury character. Regarding Indra’s “romantic” escapades, the imagery of fickle rains of monsoon can be the explanation. The monsoon can sometimes bring more of its “love” (read “rainfall”) to places and fields that don’t need them, causing lost crops and floods. Sometimes it seems to skip some regions, which need it, and sometimes flood some regions which don’t. Monsoons come and go, but the fields and forests, that truly deserve its love, remain in one place, like Indrani. Always patiently waiting for her wayward husband.

A small anecdote (not from mythology proper) to give you an example of the fickleness of Indian rains, and its unintended ramifications. There was a time when I was stationed for some work in Rajasthan. This state in India is known to many, especially those who don’t know it that well, as an arid rainless region. One of my projects needed a file to be signed by the Collector, or District Magistrate of Jodhpur. For a reason (which I will tell you soon) the Collector was unable to reach his office in Jodhpur. The Director of my company, and the boss of my boss, called me and asked “nicely” regarding the delay. I said, “Sir, please accept that the delay is something I have no control over. But please don’t ask for the exact reason, as then you may wrongly assume that I am making feeble excuses”. His curiosity piqued, he asked me to explain myself. After extracting a promise that he won’t laugh, I told him. The Collector’s wife, an officer in the forest services, was posted in Jaipur, and he had gone to visit her in the weekend. Glory be to Indra’s fickle nature, there was unseasonal, and unexpectedly high, rainfall in Jaipur region. So much so that due to inadequate drainage systems (not surprisingly) there was flooding, and closure of motorable roads. Hence the eagerly-awaited civil servant could not get back to his office, and sign the file we needed. The Director did not keep his promise, and laughed at the sad tone of my voice while I told this story. He was still laughing when he cut the call, calling me an “entertaining storyteller”.

So let’s get to today’s main story.

There was a powerful son of Danu, called Vritra. This word has multiple connotations. One way it means, a Circle, hence an artificial human-made thing. This also means an Encircler, or Enveloper. Then again it also means “storm cloud”. To add to the mix, this Danava is sometimes referred to a snake, or dragon. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva, and had got a boon from him that he could not be defeated by any weapons made of metal, or wood, or any weapon created till then. So this excluded all the normal weapons, like bows, arrows, javelins, spears, knives, or swords. Now, Vritra became so powerful that he defeated Indra, took over the heavens, and imprisoned all the river waters with his ninety-nine fortifications. The Devas lost their heavenly dominions, and the mortals lost access to life-giving waters of the rivers.

So Indra, and the gods, went to their usual benefactor, Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu. The two members of the Trinity pointed Indra towards a learned sage, curiously named The One Whose Body is (Strengthened by) Curd, or Dadhyanga, sometimes called Sage Dadhyancha, or more commonly as Sage Dadhichi.

There was some earlier history between Indra and Sage Dadhichi. This Sage was very knowledgeable, and knew a coveted science of curing, which used natural products, such as honey. This was called Madhu Vidya. At that time two minor gods, called Ashvin Kumaras, wanted to learn the art and science of medicine, and become the gods of medicine. Till then they were just gods of horse-rearing, hence the name Ashvin, or “of horses”. Now Indra seemed to have issue of his brothers (and subordinates) taking up more than their allotted portfolios. So he proclaimed that he would behead anybody who taught medicine to Ashvin Kumaras. The smart gods of horse-rearing went to Sage Dadhichi, and hatched a plan. They swapped his head for a horse of a head. Hence he was also called Sage AshvaShira. He taught them Madhu Vidya, and other medicinal sciences. As soon as Indra found out, he came over, and beheaded Sage AshvaShira. And as soon as Indra departed, the Ashvin Kumaras, now the gods of medicinal arts & science, came over and reattached the original head of Sage Dadhichi (same person, different names).

There was another instance when Indra fought and defeated Sage Dadhichi, causing him a lot of dishonour. Sage Dadhichi did a lot of penance and appeased Lord Brahma, thus getting the boon that his bones become stronger than any weapon, and he could not be killed or harmed by anybody. I am assuming he also imbibed a lot of curd and calcium rich products, and used his knowledge of good effects of honey, making himself strong inside and out. After all this preparations, Sage Dadhichi asked for a re-match, and roundly defeated Indra, and the other gods, stopping in his rampage only when Lord Vishnu came to the ground, as he was a devotee of Vishnu.

In spite of all this negative history with Indra, when Sage Dadhichi was approached in the time of the need, and being told that this was on the advice of his two respected idols, Brahma and Vishnu, he showed the true nature of sacrifice for the greater good. He told them that his bones were the strongest material in the world. And his spine would make a new type of weapon, not made of metal or bone, so circumvent the terms of the boon received by Vritra from Lord Brahma. As no one could harm him, and possibly to save Indra of the bad karma of killing a Sage (which presumably Indra had no problem to do by the way, refer the AshvaShira incident), he showed another level of his self-sacrifice, by creating a huge fire and entering it so that his body would be destroyed leaving behind his strong bones.

His spine, strengthened by boons (and a good diet of curd or dadhi), was then fashioned into a new weapon, called Vajra-Ayudha, or Vajra for short. This vajra was so bright and strong that it shone like a thousand suns, and was fast and ultra-destructive, and made thunderous sound, just like lightning. In fact vajra was “lightning”, the apt weapon of the warrior lord of rain and thunderstorms, Indra.

Then Indra drank copious amounts of soma, to get into a berserker mode and make himself immune to pain. Wielding the Vajra of thunder and lightning, Indra attacked and killed Vritra. Not easily, as it seems Vritra broke both the jaws of Indra in the fight. When Vritra fell defeated, his huge body broke the ninety-nine fortifications, thus releasing the water for the world. We can safely assume that after the sedative effects of Soma wore off this would have been very painful, and Indra would have been quite thankful that the Ashvin Kumaras could treat him with the science of healing they had learnt on the sly from Sage Dadhichi.

Some may wonder if this is a story of the exploits of an invading king (“Indra”), who drunk with power and liquor (“soma”), supported by the better technology from the sacrifice of his learned people (“Dadhichi”), defeated earlier rulers who were worshippers of Lord Shiva (“Pashupati seals” in excavations), and broke the many check-dams and fortifications of artifice (“Vritra”), and brought about a new age dominated by him, and his followers.

Or is this story an allegory about the phenomenon of lightning (“vajra”) during thunderstorms after a period of drought (“ninety nine fortifications on the rivers”) when Indra (“monsoon”) breaks the envelope of the storm clouds (“Vritra”) and gives the boon of water to us mortals, and regains his throne as the king of gods?

I tend to opt for the second option, as it seems more likely, more in line with the general tone of Indian mythology, and much, much less controversial.

Or is this a story of the supreme sacrifice of a learned man, who gave up his life knowingly for the greater good, in spite of not being treated well by the ruler. Incidentally the highest military award of the Indian Army, called the Supreme Bravery Circle or Paramvira Chakra, has the icon of vajra (made by the bones of Sage Dadhichi). Very apt for an award for supreme and self-less sacrifice.

Probably next time we will look at a less complicated tale. May be take the stories of Vishnu incarnations forward?