"Chapter I. Prehistoric times"
"Chapter II. Ice Age"
"Chapter III. Arctic regions"
"Chapter IV. Night of the Gods"
"Chapter V. Vedic Dawns"
"Chapter VI. Long day and long night"
"Chapter VII. Months and seasons"
"Chapter VIII. The path of the cows"
Promotional video:
"Chapter IX. Vedic myths about captive waters"
To begin with, let us dwell on the legend of Indra and Vritra, or the captive waters, that is, on the legend that everyone considered satisfactorily explained on the basis of the thunderstorm theory.
The struggle between Indra and Vritra is presented in the Vedas as fourfold, or having four aspects. Firstly, this is the battle of Indra with Vritra, which is called differently - Namuchi, Shushna, Shambara, Vala, Pipru, Kuyava, etc. The event itself is known as "Vritra-turya" - "battle with Vritra." Secondly, it is a struggle for waters, which are either in the form of rivers ("sindhus"), now in the form of water spills ("apah"). They are often described as being freed by the killing of Vritra. This is known as "ap-turya" - "battle for water".
And Indra is called "Ap-jit" - "Conqueror in the waters", while Vritra is called "Apah pari-sayanam" - "He who embraces the waters." Thirdly, this is the battle for the acquisition of the cows - go-ishti, and in the Rig Veda there are many passages in which Indra frees the cows after the defeat of Vritra. Fourth, it is the struggle to bring back daylight or the sky, known as div-ishti, or battle for the day. And in many places the sun and dawn are spoken of as returned by Indra after the killing of Vritra.
Let us cite excerpts from A. MacDonell's work "Vedic mythology", where the necessary evidence from the Rig Veda is presented, which speaks about this four-part nature of the struggle between Indra and Vritra. Describing the terrible conflict, he thus summarizes his main points mentioned in the Rig Veda: “Heaven and earth trembled with fear when Indra hit Vritra with his club (I, 80, 11; II, 11, 9-10; VI, 17, 9); even Tvashtri, who bound this club, trembled with the wrath of Indra (I, 80, 14); Indra shook Vritra with a club (I, 32, 5); he hit him in the face with a sharpened weapon (I, 52, 15); he struck Vritra, who captured the waters (VI, 20, 2); the dragon that surrounded the waters, lying around ("pari-shayanam") the waters (IV, 19, 2); he defeated the dragon lying around the waters (V, 30, 6) (or on the waters); he killed the dragon, hidden in the waters and blocking the waters and the sky (II, 11, 5); Vritra,who locked the waters, he struck down like a tree with his club (And, 14, 2); so, "The winner in the waters" ("Ap-jit") is exclusively his name (and quality) (VIII, 36, 1) ".
With regard to the refuge of Vritra, we see the following: “Vritra had a hidden refuge, from where the waters released by Indra rushed away, flowing over the body of the demon (I, 32, 10); Vritra lies on the water (I, 121, 11; II, 11, 9); or shrouded in waters, lies at the bottom ("budhna") of rajas, that is, the universal space (I, 52, 6); he is also described as lying on the "sanu" (summit) when Indra released the waters (I, 80, 5); Vritra has fortresses, which Indra shakes when he kills him (X, 89, 7); there are 99 of them (VIII, 93, 2; VII, 19, 5); Vritra is called "nadivrt" - "who embraced the rivers" (I, 52, 2); and in one passage the parvata (mountain or cloud) is described as lying in his womb (I, 54, 10)."
There are also passages (V, 32, 5, 6), in which it is said about Indra that he threw Shushna, who was worried about the battle, “into a dark pit” and killed him “in the darkness where the sun's light did not penetrate” (“asurye tamasi "). In the hymn (I, 54, 10) it is said that darkness reigned in the empty place of Vritra, and in the hymn (II, 23, 18) it is said that Brihaspati, together with Indra, lowered the ocean "immersed in darkness" and opened the cattle stalls. Finally, in the hymn (I, 32, 10), Vritra's body was drowned in a long darkness covered by water. All this shows that the waters of the ocean, which was covered by Vritra, were not illuminated by the rays of the sun, that is, the ocean ("arnah"), surrounded, as it is said, by Vritra, was not that bright, sparkling "shukram arnah" - the ocean over which the sun has risen (V, 45, 10); the ocean of Vritra was shrouded in darkness - "tamasa parivrtam": I, 23, 18); while the ocean where the sun rose was bright and shining - "sukram";Indra is described as going to a very distant region to kill Vritra, or Namuchi (I, 53, 7; VIII, 12, 17; VIII, 45, 25).
Combining all these indications concerning the struggle between Indra and Vritra, we come to the conclusion that the battle took place in a distant and dark water place. The hymn (VIII, 32, 26) says that Indra killed Arbuda with a block of ice (“hima”), and the hymn (X, 62, 2) indicates that the Angiras, who helped Indra in his fight for the cows, struck Vala at the end years - "parivatsara". There is another indication in the Rig Veda, speaking about the date of the battle of Indra with Shambara, but we will talk about this later. It was stated above that Indra destroyed 99 fortresses of Vritra, and in other passages there are now 90, now 100 (I, 130, 7; IV, 30, 20). These fortresses or cities ("purah") are described as made of stone or iron (IV, 30, 20; IV, 27, 1), and in some places they are called autumnal - "charadich": I, 130, 7; I, 131, 4; VI, 20, 10). The importance of this fact will also be discussed in more detail below.
We have seen that the liberation of the cows and the ascension of dawn and sun were the simultaneous effects of Indra's victory over Vritra. The excerpts from the above-mentioned work by A. McDonell, cited below, emphasize the weight of this moment.
“The victory of the sun, light and dawn is associated with the liberation of the waters. Indra freed the sun and heavenly waters (III, 34, 8), this god is called to kill Vritra and release the light (VIII, 89, 4). When Indra killed the dragon Vritra with his metal weapon, freeing water for man, he made the sun visible in the sky (I, 51, 4; I, 52, 8). Indra, the dragon slayer, revived the movement of streams of sea water, gave birth to the sun and found cows (II, 19, 3). He gained sun and water after killing a demon (III, 33, 8-9). When Indra killed the dragon lord and freed the waters from the mountain, he created the sun, sky and dawn (I, 32, 4; VI, 30, 5). Cows are also mentioned together with the sun and dawn (I, 62, 5; II, 12, 7; VI, 17, 5) or only with the sun (I, 7, 3; II, 19, 3; X, 138, 2) as "found, withdrawn and freed by Indra."
Other passages describe Indra's release of streams locked by the dragon (II, 11, 2), the release of cows by him and the creation of seven flowing rivers (I, 32, 12; II, 12, 12). The hymn (II, 15, 6) says that the streams released by him rushed upward (“udancham”). It should be noted right away that in all these verses the clouds are not mentioned under their usual name "ab-hra", but such words as "parvata", "giri", "adri" are applied to them - all these words mean "mountain", or "udhas" - "udder", "utsa" - "spring", "habandha" - "barrel" or "kosha" - "tub". All these words were translated by the Nirukta school as the designation of clouds ("clouds"), and this translation was adopted by Western scholars. And the word "go" - "cow" was also sometimes explained as water released by Indra. Thus, when it is said about Indra that he freed the cows imprisoned in the stone (VI, 43, 3), or moved the rock,enclosing the cows (VI, 17, 5), this was explained as clouds, like stones, retaining the moisture of the rains.
The Maruts are usually Indra's companions in his battle, and Vishnu, Agni and Brihaspati are also mentioned as his assistants in freeing the cows from the clutches of Vala. Brihaspati's victory over Vala, hiding in the rock, is a paraphrase of Indra's victory over Vritra. In the hymn (X, 62, 2, 3) the Angiras are also described as taking the cows away, defeating Vala and raising the sun into the sky. All these feats are attributes of Indra. There are other versions of the same story in the Rig Veda, but for our purpose we should not go beyond what has already been said.
Continuation: "Chapter IX. Vedic myths about captive waters. 2. Four victories of Indra in the fight against Vala"
