Vishnu the Sacrifice and the Yajnavaraha

0 Comments | October 17, 2008 at 10:43 am by mahud
Filed under Hinduism, Hindu Mythology

This post contains a couple of extracts from my current book project titled The Cosmic Double-Death (And Cyclic re-creation through the Dying God). The bibliography for this post is too extensive to include here, but may be available on request.

Vishnu the Sacrifice

In the mythology of the Vedas, we encounter the idea of a sacrificial being, through whose body the universe is created. According to the Rig-Veda (10.80), the entire universe, throughout time, is a single being known as Purusha, the Primal Man. He is ruler of immortality, and all beings, whether mortal or immortal, form his body of a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet. In the beginning, the gods (devas) sacrificed Purusha as a sacrifice to himself. The divine Vedic texts sprang into existence, along with earth and sky and space. Every living creature and the four orders of Hindu society were born from the divided parts of his body. The dismemberment of Purusha is the prototype for the Vedic ritual of sacrifice (yajna), which maintains the cosmic order (rta).

Through his association with the three strides (or steps), Vishnu, a relatively significant deity of the Vedic pantheon, is repeatedly identified in the Brahmanic period as the deity of the Vedic sacrifice (Satapatha Brahmana). In fact, he is yajna, the sacrifice. Further, Vishnu is identified with the performer of the sacrifice (yajamana), who, through imitation of Vishnu’s three cosmic steps (marking out the sacrificial ground), becomes Vishnu and obtains the power to regenerate the cosmos (vajasati).

The myth of Vishnu’s three strides is associated with the 5th Dasavatara Vamana, the Dwarf. According to one Puranic version of the myth, Vishnu presented himself before Bali the demon king who ruled the universe of three worlds. In his dwarf form, Vishnu requested the Bali give him all the land he could cover in three strides. Bali agreed (against the advice of his guru) and the dwarf, revealing his true gigantic form, claimed the entire three worlds (earth, sky and the heavens) with each stride. Another version of the myth has Vishnu claim the worlds in just two strides, and having nowhere else to place the third stride, Bali bows before the god and Vishnu places his foot on the demon’s head, forcing him into the netherworld (hell), where Bali now rules.

Tracy Pinchman, in Guests at God’s Wedding, writes that every Diwali, Bali’s earthly rule is restored for three days, after which he is again cast down to the world below.

In a Hymn to Vishnu (Rig Veda: 1.154), the deity elevates heaven (Vishnu’s abode ‘v.5’), separating it from the earth, with his three strides (v.1). Vishnu alone supports the cosmos (earth and sky) and all living things (v.4), and all creatures are said to reside within his three strides (v.2). Each of his footsteps are filled with honey (v.4), while from his third and highest footstep, in the heavenly transcendent realms (where the faithful joined with their gods rejoice ‘v.5’), flows a fountain of honey (v.5), that is, the nectar of immortality (equal to soma). In the following hymn, addressed to both Vishnu and Indra (1.155), while the first two steps may be perceived by mortals, the highest footstep is “beyond the flight of birds” (v.5). The abode of Vishnu being visible only to the wise in the form of a heavenly eye (1.22.20).

The performer of the sacrifice (who, as mentioned, becomes Vishnu through imitation of the three strides), recites a text pertaining to Vishnu’s strides and reaches Vishnu’s abode, attaining a state of transcendence. According to the Katha Upanishad (3.8-9), only one who is ever mindful and pure reaches the final and highest step of Vishnu (paramam padam), and attains release (moksha) from the wheel of rebirth (samsara).

An interesting parallel can also be found in Zoroastrianism, where the soul at death walks three steps (corresponding with thoughts, words and deeds) over the Chinvat Bridge. If the three steps are good, the soul may pass over to paradise, while those that are evil are cast down to hell.

Jan Gonda, in Rice and Barley Offerings in the Veda, observes that the offering of three cakes on three kapalas (pieces of pottery partly in the shape of crescents) to Vishnu the sacrifice, correspond with the three strides. Further, the cakes that total nine (3X3), also correspond with the threefold chant of three verses, numbering nine in total, as well as the three breaths, also said to be nine, all three being related elements in the sacrificial rite. Gonda also mentions that the Vedic god Mitra (also associated with the number three) received the offering of a cake on the ninth day, perhaps because the number nine symbolizes cosmic totality, mirroring the steps of Vishnu, whose three strides contain the universe.

The Yajnavaraha

In the Taittriya Samhita (6.2.4) “the sacrifice” is said to have left the gods in the form of Vishnu and entered the earth. All the gods joined hands and searched for him. The god Indra passed over Vishnu and together they planned to slay a certain boar that lived beyond seven hills, and claim its treasure. The boar (elsewhere known as Emusha) is described as a thief who guards the wealth of the Asuras (demons/anti-gods). Vishnu tells Indra to kill the boar. Picking a bunch of Kusa (or ‘Darbha’) grass, Indra pierces the seven hills and slays the boar. Indra then tells Vishnu to fetch the boar. The text describes Vishnu as “the sacrifice who carries off the sacrifice”, identifying both Vishnu and Emusha as the sacrifice (Yajna). In this way, the wealth of the Asuras was obtained by the gods.

Another boar myth, cosmogonic in nature, is also found in the Taittriya Samhita (7.1.5): “In the beginning the universe was the waters, that is, the ocean. Prajapati transformed into the wind and moved within the ocean. He saw her and changed into a boar. Taking hold of her… …she extended and became the earth….”

A variation of the cosmogonic boar myth (again associated with the god Prajapati), appears in the Satapatha Brahmana (14.1.2.11). Here, the earth, “in the beginning,” is described as being only “the size of a span,” and she is “lifted up,” by her partner Prajapati in the form of a boar. The Satapatha Brahmana version of the myth is unique in that it identifies, by name, the boar of sacrifice (Yajnavaraha) “Emusha,” (the demonic boar, killed by Indra and carried off by Vishnu the sacrifice), with the boar of creation.

In the Vishnu Purana (1.4), the Prajapati-Boar is further identified as the three gods, Brahma, Narayana and Vishnu. Here, at the beginning of the present world age, between the dissolution and creation of the cosmos, the creator transforms himself into a boar, elevates the earth from beneath the waters and recreates the universe. Just as he had done at the beginning of previous cosmic cycles in the form of a fish and tortoise.

Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology) states that in earlier versions of the boar creation myth, according to the Brahmanas, the earth, over time, begins to sink into the cosmic sea. The earth is subsequently lifted up by one of these three animals (fish, tortoise, boar), which later become three of the Ten Great Avatars of Vishnu (The Boar Avatar (Varahaavatara), according to Jan Gonda, “in some Puranas,” being the most prominent). Vishnu, in these three forms, is then later understood to rescue the submerged earth from demonic forces.

And so, Vishnu became primarily identified with the cosmic-sacrificial boar. In the fully developed myth Vishnu rescues the goddess Earth from a demonic serpent king called Hiranyaksa, whom Vishnu kills (Sukumari Bhattacharji in ‘The Indian Theogony’ mentions an iconic representation of the Boar overcoming the demonic serpent, dating around 400 A.D.). Lifting the goddess up from the bottom of the ocean of existence, as she clings to his single tusk, which symbolizes the post to which the sacrificial animal is tied.