About Hayagrīva, the horse-headed god in Indian

mythology*

Dr. Gaya Charan Tripathi

hayāsyaṃ puṇḍarīkasthaṃ jñānapustakalāñchitam /

śaṇkhacakradharaṃ śāntaṃ devaṃ vidyāpradaṃ bhaje //

(author)

In addition to the ten well-known incarnations of Vishnu, which he

adopted in order to relieve the distress of humanity, there are others
that do not belong to the classic Avatar system, but in the history of
art and religion they are almost even more important Role-play. One
of these is certainly Hayagriva (or Hayashirsha) Avatar of Lord
Vishnu, i.e. a theriomorous incarnation in which the head of a horse
sits on a human body. Since the late Gupta period, this figure has
steadily developed into one of the most venerable deities in the
Vaishnavite pantheon and plays an important role, especially among
the Sri Vaishnavs of South India and the Tantrists in Kashmir. Among
the former, Hayagriva (HG) is considered the supreme guru who first
proclaimed the doctrine of Vaishnavism and clearly explained its
philosophical basis. As such, he is not only the first to be venerated
by the novices at every initiation rite, but also receives reverence
from the students at the monastery at the beginning of every class.
The statue of
Hayagriva is the most precious religious object in the matha
(monastery) of Parakaalasvaamin in Mysore. In the past, when the
chief Swami (Paramācārya) traveled with the figure of Hayagrīva, a
small troop of soldiers always accompanied him to protect the god
and his precious treasure.

The Vishnudharmottara-Pure. (6th-8th century) is probably the first

work that depicts iconography of the Hayagrīva in more detail.
According to this text, the figure of the god Hayagriva has eight
hands and, in addition to the four well-known attributes of Vishnu
(Shankha, chakra, gadā, padma), also show the rosary, noose,
elephant goad and the wish-granting gesture. The Paanch raatra
Samhitaas later also give precise - albeit different - information about
Hayagriva's appearance. The name, one of the oldest Päñcarătra
sarphitās, is even associated with Hayagrīva himself, because he is
considered the originator of this Samhitä. The text is usually dated
from the 6th to the 8th century. According to this text, the figure of
Hayagrīva is said to carry the attributes of Śańkha, Cakra, Gada and
the Vedas (in book form) in his four hands. However, most of the
South Indian figures of Hayagrīva seem to have followed the
indications of the Padma Samhitā. This Samhita describes Hayagrīva
as an apparition with four arms and a crystal white body
(suddhasphatikasamkāśam). The god has a horse's head, adorned
with a crown, and he wears white robes. The upper two hands carry
a rosary and Śańkha (snail), the lower right hand the gesture of
granting a wish and the lower left a book (Veda?). The rosary is often
replaced by the cakra (discus), as is the varada mudra by the gesture
of proclaiming or preaching (jñānamudra). The god sits on a serpent,
which holds its hood over his head like an umbrella.

Based on the famous tantra work Šäradātilaka (ŚT) by

Lakşmaņadeśika, which

Written in Kashmir in the 11th century, Hayagrīva is said to hold

Shankha and Cakra in his upper hands, but place the lower two on
his knees without attributes. The god has white body color like that
of the full moon in autumn, and he wears jewelry made of pearls.

Rāghavabhatta, a commentator on Śāradātilaka (16th century),

quotes a verse from a text he did not specify, which describes HG as
a god whose skin color is white as milk, who sits on a white lotus,
white Wears robes and carries a lotus, a book and a rosary in his
three hands and shows the wish-granting gesture with the fourth

The worship of this form of Vişņu is particularly recommended for

one who aspires to become an excellent scholar, because whoever
worships HG becomes the lord of all sciences, especially the Vedas
and Agamas

Anyone who worships HG with white kunda flowers (a type of

jasmine) and mixes the same flowers with honey and sacrifices them
in the fire for him develops into an excellent poet who can
continuously compose verses on the spur of the moment

The Sheshasamhitaa makes an interesting statement about the seat

of the knowledge giver HG for the purpose of meditation. According
to this text, one should meditate on the figure of Hayageriva as one
located in the moon disk. The white skin of Hayagrīva, the white
lotus flower in his hand, his seat on the white lotus, white pearl
necklaces around his neck and upper arm, rosa
ry made of white rock crystal and the white shell in his hand, all this
symbolically indicates that this apparition embodies Vişnu's
knowledge and knowledge. For the same reason, Sarasvatt, the
Indian goddess of arts, literature and science, is also called the 'all-
white' (sarvajukla).

Having described the appearance and nature of Hayagrīva, we now

proceed to examine the historical development of his personality.
The best, most noble and at the same time most important Purāņa
for Hindu resligious history is the Bhagavatam. However, anyone
who turns to Bhagavata to find out something about the God HG is
deeply disappointed, because the Hayagriva is not a God, but a
demon. In the final verse of Skandha 8 it says:
pralayapayasi dhātoh suptalakter mukhebhyah irutigaņam apantiam
pratyupadatta hatva/ ditijam akathayad yo brahma satyavratānām
tam aham akhilahetum jihma-minam nato 'smi //

The author bows here to the illusory fish form of Vişņu, who
assumed this form in order to use this form to kill a demon who had
stolen the four Vedas from the four mouths of the creator god
Brahma and disappeared with them into the underworld was. He
found the opportunity to do this when the god Brahma became tired
and therefore careless towards the end of his creative activity. In the
form of a fish, God Vişņu is said to have announced the principles of
the Vedas to Satyavrata while he (Vişnu) was moving his boat around
in the waters of the Sintilut. Although the name of the demon who
dies in this venture of Vişnu is not mentioned in the Śloka quoted
above, it is expressly mentioned in the previous three Ślokas. This is
what verses 8 and 9 of this (24th) Adhyāya read:

kaalenāgatanidrasya dhatuḥ śijayişor balt/ mukhato nihsytän vedän

hayagrivo Rntike Rharat // jñātvā tad danavendrasya hayagrīvasya
cestitam/ dadhāra sapharirupam bhagavān harir Ishvarah ||

After a long creative activity of 432 million years, the Creator God is
exhausted and sleepy. Although creation is almost finished and
accomplished, there is still a troublemaker in the form of an Asura-
Hayagrīva. He sees the precious treasure, the Vedas, which are
located in the four oral cavities of Brahma; Brahma only notices
about the theft when they have already left. He complains to Vişņu,
on whose navel lotus he is seated. Vişņu then takes the form of a
fish, saves the Manu named Satyavrata from the flood and swims
with him in the flood waters of the ocean, also telling him the
mysteries of the Vedas. Just before Brahmä rises (and needs the
Vedas again for creation), Vişņu kills the Asura Hayagrīva, brings back
the Vedas and hands them over to Brahma
There is no doubt here that in this legend Hayagrīva is a demon who
stole the source of creation - the Vedas - from the Creator God.
Without the Vedas - the embodiment of sacred knowledge - the
process of creation cannot take place or continue. Recovering the
Vedas is therefore a cosmic necessity and the one who disturbs the
normal course of the cosmic law must be eliminated. The demon HG
does this and must now be destroyed by Vişņu, since, according to
Vedic belief, Vişņu is identical with the sacrifice (yajña) and the
sacrifice is the actual force that maintains the cosmic laws and
ensures the regular course of the universe .

The tradition of Hayagrīva as a demon, which appears sporadically

here and there in the Purăņas, provides material for a great poetic
work, the Hayagrīvava-dham, written by the Kashmiri poet
Bhartrmentha in the 5th century. We have some quotations from the
Mahakävya in the rhetorical writings; however, the Kävya no longer
exists. According to Kalhaņa's Rājatarangini (3.260-261), the Kāvya
was so full of rasa (juice, aesthetic pleasure) that the king Mātṛgupta
had a golden tray made as a coaster for the manuscript of the Kävya
so that the poetic juice of the Kävya would not get onto the dripping
down the floor! However, Mammața's complaint about Kāvya was
that in this work the anti-hero (Pratināyaka), the demon Hayagrīva,
was glorified too much (Kävyaprakāśa. VII. 62: 10), so much so that
he overshadows all the gods, which is actually not allowed to
happen.

The oldest evidence of Hayagrīva being a demon can be found in the

Mahābhārata (Udyoga: 130.50), where Krishņa-Vişhņu in the course
of enumerating his heroic deeds boasts that in one of his earlier
appearances Hayagrīva slitet za have said:

ekaarpave ca svapata nikatau makukalabha janmäntaram spāgamya

hayagrīvas tathā hatah
It is no coincidence that HG is mentioned here along with the
demons Madhu and Kaitabha. In all other places it is the pair of
demons Madhu and Kaitabha who steal the Vedas from the god
Brahma. These Demons are born from drops of Visnu's sweat before
creation begins. They climb up the lotus pole that rises from the
navel of Vişnu and look at Brahma as he produces the Vedas. They
find the Vedas fascinating, take them over and disappear with them
into the Pätala. At the request of Brahmā, Vişqu then assumes a
horse-headed form, which is the seat of all the Vedas and has a
cosmic form. The earth is their forehead, while heaven and the
underworld are their ears:

kṛtvā hayaśiraḥ śubhram vedānām ālayam prabhuḥ/ karnāv

ākāśapātāle lalātam bhūtadhāriṇi //

With this theriomorphic form, Vişnu penetrates into the underworld

and begins to sing the beautiful melodies of Samaveda. The demons,
carried away by the heavenly song, come out of their hiding place
and listen to the music. When they become careless, Vişnu-Hayagrīva
takes the Vedas and disappears. Brahma gets the Vedas back. The
demons now approach Vişnu angrily and challenge him to a fight. In
the ensuing battle, they are killed by Vişņu, in his normal form
instead of his HG form, which he has since given up.

This is the oldest version of the Hayagrīva legend that we know. It is

based on some information from the Rgveda that is not very clear
and cannot be interpreted in more detail. The most important of
these is that Dadhyañc, the descendant of Atharvan, preached the
Madhu-vidyā to the Aśvins with the head of a horse:

Dadhyan ha yan madhu aatharvano vam

aśvasya sirşņā pra yadim uvāca //

This information appears four times in the RV (1.166.12, 117.12,

119.9; X.42.2), three times in the first and once in the tenth mandala.
We know that the Ašvins have a particularly close relationship with
madhu or honey and therefore bear the attribute madhvi. Their skin
color is like that of honey. They have honey in their horse-drawn cart
and carry a barrel full of honey with them (drtim vahethe
madhumantam ašvină, IV.45.3). They are madhiyu, i.e. they 'run after
honey'. Wherever 'Madhu' is available, the Aśvins are not far away. It
is therefore clear that they are also pursuing the Madhuvidyā of
Dadhyañc and are eager to learn it from him.

By the way, we can tell from the Brhad what this Madhuvidyā
actually was. Up. (11.5.) find out where it is described in some detail.
The bottom line of this Vidyā is that Soma is not the only Madhu in
this world. Those who offer Soma offerings and feel arrogant are
doing it wrong. The actual Soma is, for example, the sun, which
nourishes the plant, human and animal world and allows them to
thrive. She is also the actual and correct Ašva, in the truest sense of
the word, and not the horse of Aśvamedha, because the word Aśva
comes from the root aś, which means "to encompass, or 'to
penetrate. The sunlight encompasses the world. Its rays penetrate
the worldly objects. That is why these should actually be understood
and referred to as Aśva. The principle of sacrifice can also be called
'Aśva' because it permeates every worldly phenomenon through its
laws that encompass the entire universe.

So this is a teaching that is, so to speak, directed against the Vedic

ritual, especially the Soma ritual. That is why it is preached by a Rşi
who is a descendant of Atharvan, i.e. one who belongs to the
unorthodox Atharvaveda tradition. It is not difficult to explain why
the Aśvins adopt this vidya. want. Namely, they are the ones who are
excluded from the soma sacrifice. Reference should be made here to
the "Cyavana legend", which describes very clearly how the Rşi
Cyavana - a "Bhargava", i.e. a descendant of Bhrgu - again a Rşi of the
Atharvaveda tradition - against the wishes and will of Indra the
Aśvins Soma sacrifices in return for the fact that the Aśvins, the
divine doctors, have made this old Rși young again. The Aśvins are
interested in Learning Madhuvidya because through it they can show
the gods that this

Participation in the soma sacrifice is not something special. What the

actual

Madhu is something the gods don't understand or have. They (the

gods) would need

to no longer feel superior because they drink soma. That in the Brhd.
Up. The Madhuvidya contained in it was actually understood as the
Madhuvidya that Dadhyañc had passed on to the Aśvins is evident
from the following words of the Upanisad:

idam vai tan madhu dadhyanin atharvano aivibhyām uvdca tad etad
rsih palyann avocad/atharvanaya aśvinā dhadhice aśvyam sirah
pratyairayatam II

BrdUp. IL 5.16-18

This is the Madhu that Dadhyañc, the descendant of Atharvan,

announced to the Alvins. Seeing this very fact, the Rşi (in ŚB) said:
"The Alvins replaced the head of Dadhyañc, the Atharvaņa, with that
of a horse.""

So we have arrived at the horse's head. The story of replacing

Dadhyañc's head with a horse's head is told in detail in ŚB XIV.
1.1.18-20. Dadhyañc is the only connoisseur of Madhuvidya. The
Aśvins go to him and want to learn this from him. Dadhyañc asks her
to come the next morning. Meanwhile, Indra gets news of the Aśvins'
visit to Dadhyañc. He does not want the Aśvins to benefit from this
teaching. He goes to Dadhyañc and forbids him from proclaiming the
teaching to the Ašvins and threatens that if the Rşi passes on the
teaching to the Aśvins despite his warning, he will cut off his head.
When the Aśvins come to Dadhyañc the next morning, he tells them
about Indra's threat. The divine doctors, however, downplay the
problem and say to Dadhyañc: “We can remove your head now and
put the head of a horse on your torso instead. You can teach us the
Madhuvidyā with this horse's head and then when Indra cuts off this
horse's head, we will put your real head back on your torso." That's
exactly how it happens. The Aśvins receive the Madhuvidyű from
Dadhyañc through a horse's head. This is done by Indra is knocked
off, but is immediately replaced by the real head of Dadhyañc.

The legend of Dadhyañc continues to develop in the later texts -

especially the Purāņas - in a strange but appealing way. Our
Dadhyañc is the Dadhīci of the Purāņas. Indra suffers defeat in the
battle against Vrtra and has to take flight. All his weapons against
Vṛtra are ineffective. Then Prajāpati advises him to go to Dadhīci and
ask him for his skeleton. The sage's bones are said to be full of
spiritual and magical power through the practice of asceticism and
meditation practices. The Viśvakarman could then make a
thunderbolt from these bones and only through this thunderbolt
could Vrtra be defeated and slain. The gods then come to Dadhīci,
who willingly sinks into deep meditation (samādhi), frees his soul
from his body and leaves the body to the gods. Dadhīci's sacrificial
death for the benefit of humanity had a very inspiring effect on later
literature. However, why Dadhīci in particular was included in the
Vrtra legend, we find out in the Satapatha Brāhmaņa, which,
following the legend of the announcement of the Madhuvidyā to the
Aśvins, notes that Viśvakarman came from the same horse's head
with which Dadhīci preached this mysterious teaching and which has
now been cut off and was thrown away, made a Vajra (thunderbolt)
for Indra with which he killed Vrtra!

So we have a horse's head in the Veda as the herald of the secret

doctrine. Horses and horse heads are therefore connected with ritual
and the Veda in general. The best of the Vedas, the Sämaveda, is said
to have the shape of a horse and is depicted as such. It is therefore
immediately obvious that Vişnu in his Hayagrīva form in the
Mahābhārata enchants the demons with the melodies from the
Sāmaveda. The idea that the Kinnaras, the divine musicians,
alternately have the head or upper body of a horse certainly also has
something to do with their relationship to music. The Nātyaśāstra
(=Nātyaveda) and the Purāņa-śāstra are also depicted with the head
of a horse.

In the vestibule of the temple of Lakşmī in the large Jagannātha

temple at Puri there is a beautiful painting on the wall on the east
side in which God Hayagrīva is depicted sitting on a lotus in the
ocean. Four small children swim around him, trying to climb onto
Hayagrīva's lap. Hayagrīva lovingly puts his arms around the children
and protects them. While three children have white skin, the fourth
child has dark skin. There will be no doubt here that these four
children symbolize the four Vedas, the black child being the
Atharvaveda.

However, the author of the Bhāgavata (8th century?) did not like the
idea of Hayagrīva as an incarnation. The idea of ten Avatāras Vişņus
had now become firmly established (during the Gupta period).
Counting Hayagrīva would have expanded the list and disrupted the
system. He therefore left Hayagrīva as a demon appear, a demon
who does exactly the opposite of what Vişņu does as Hayagrīva. The
demon Hayagrīva steals the four Vedas and disappears into the
underworld. Vişqu in his Matsya incarnation, in his fish form, tracks
down the demon, kills him and brings back the Vedas. This battle
between the fish incarnation of Vişnu and the horse-head demon is
not, to my knowledge, mentioned in any other older Purāņa. As is
well known, the fish incarnation had a completely different function,
namely the function of saving creation from the flood.

So we have a horse-headed figure as a demonic troublemaker who

steals the Vedas and on the other hand the same figure as a form or
appearance of Visqu who harbors the Vedas and proclaims the Vedic
wisdom to the seven sages (Rsis).

The descriptions are difficult to reconcile. The contradiction in the

Purilņas persisted for a long time until the author of an Upapurāņa
called Devibhāgavata found the whole thing a bit strange and he
tried to build a bridge between these opposing, contradictory
traditions, recognizing the two on the basis of equivalence, and still
bring meaning and logic to the legend.

This Puriņa begins with the introduction of the "demon" Hayagrīva

and describes that the horse-headed demon once performed long
asceticism to satisfy the Mother Goddess. When the Mother became
merciful and granted him a wish, the demon wanted to attain
immortality. When he came from When the Mother Goddess
explained that this was impossible and that according to worldly law
every living person must simply die, he, as Vara, negotiated the
condition that he should be killed by another Hayagriva (horse-
headed figure):

hayage Dole ca me mytyuh nanyasmād let's move

Devi Bhg. 1.5.100

This wish is granted to him by the goddess.

Now the Devibhāgavata Pur takes hold. goes back to the Taittiriya
Brahmana (5.1.1-7) and tells the legend of the head of the sleeping
Vişņu being severed by his soaring bow after its string had been
gnawed through by ants. When the gods mourn their Vişnu or their
sacrifice, the Mother Goddess decrees that this event is only a
providence to fulfill the divine task. The Visvakarman will now place a
horse's head on the torso of Vişnu. and horse-headed Vişņu will kill
the horse-headed demon for the good of the gods:
hayagrivo' tha bhagavān hanişyati tam asuram/ papiştham danavam
krüram devānām hitakāmyayä // Devi Bhg. 1.4.105.

That's how it happens. The demon Hayagrīva and Vişnu as Hayagrīva

fight each other for a long time, with the demon finally being killed.

The story of the cutting off of Vişņu's head is told except in Taitt. Br.
also told in the Maitrāyaṇī-Samhitä (4.5.9) and the Śatapatha Br.
(14.1.1.13) and Pañcavimša Br. (7.5.6). In all these places Vişņu is
intended as an allegory for sacrifice as a world principle. Vişņu is
identical with the sacrifice (vişnur vai yajñaḥ).

According to the ritualistic ideas of the Brāhmaņas, the rite of

Pravargya constitutes the head of a Soma sacrifice (Agniştoma). In
this rite, clarified butter is heated and then milk is added to it. When
performing the Pravargya rite, the container glows and in this state it
is identified with the Sun. "Whoever performs a sacrifice without
Pravargya, performs a sacrifice without his head, for Pravargya is
verily his head," said the Brahmaņas. After the separation of the
head, therefore, when the gods come to the Aśvins and ask them,
Vişņu - equal to yajña To make it whole again, the Aśvins simply
place the Pravargya on the torso of Vişņu and the Vişņu-yajña is
complete again.

tau etad yajñasya śirah pratyadhattam yat pravargyah/ yat

pravargyam pravrņakti yajñasyetac chiraḥ pratidadhāti / Taitt.Br.
5.1.7

What is significant here is that even after obtaining the Madhuvidyā

from Dadhyañc, the Aśvins go straight to Kurukşetra and there tell
the gods who are performing a sacrifice (yajña) that they (the gods)
are actually performing this yajña without a head: When the gods
want to know more, the Aśvins explain that a Soma sacrifice without
the knowledge of Madhuvidyā is like a sacrifice without a head.
Asked by the gods, they then reveal to them the teachings of
Madhuvidyā that they have just learned and thus complete the
sacrifice or sacrificial vişņu. Since in Madhuvidyā itself the sacrifice is
represented as an Aśva or horse, the teaching of Madhuvidyā is
actually the head of this sacrificial horse.

It is therefore also clear that the idea of Vişņu as Hayaśīrşa actually

has a very old tradition, while the idea of Hayaśirşa as a demon
comes much later and is practically to be regarded as a dead branch
of the Hayaštrşa legend. The mythological tradition of the
Bhagavata-P. does not develop further. In the depictions of the
Višvariąpa (the universal form) of Vişņu in Indian art, the head of a
horse appears at the top center, which indicates the special
importance of this figure, even if it is not counted among the main
incarnations of Vişpu. This fact is also confirmed by the fact that
there are many unpublished manuscripts in the libraries of India
which describe the mode of worship of HG and give the
corresponding mantras for it. The worshiper is promised the
attainment of religious knowledge and spiritual knowledge as a
reward.

Hayagrīva has also been adopted into Buddhism. In many Buddhist

monasteries in Tibet and Nepal you can find this figure as a
protective deity at the entrance to the monastery. During their Päjä
ritual, the lamas also carry a wedge with the head of Hayagrīva,
which is said to keep evil forces away. The most famous temple for
HG in northeast India stands at a place called 'Hajo' or 'Hojo' (from
Sansk. haya horse), about 20 km north of Guahati, the capital of
Assam, sacred to both the Hindus and the Buddhists is. On a certain
day of the year, thousands of Buddhist Pigers from Bhutan come to
worship God Hayagrīva in Hajo, whose statue is simply an ancient
Buddha figure in which some horse-like features have been created
by appropriate facial painting.

So today we still have the tradition of Hayagrīva as God in living form

in both Hinduism and Buddhism."
"I would like to thank Prof. Harry Falk for improving the language of
this essay and Prof. Dieter Schlingloff for some very valuable
suggestions and additional information about Hayagrīva.