Vritra

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In Hinduism, Vritra, in Sanskrit: वृत्र (Devanagari) or Template:IAST (IAST), "the enveloper" was a serpent or dragon, the personification of drought and the enemy of Indra. He is said to have had three heads.

1 Vedic version
2 Puranic & later versions
3 See also
4 External links

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Vedic version

According to the Rig Veda, Vritra stole all the water in the world and kept it for himself until killed by Indra, who destroyed all ninety-nine fortresses of Vritra (although the fortresses are sometimes attributed to Sambara) before librerating the imprisoned rivers. The combat began soon after Indra was born, and he had drunk a large volume of Soma at Tvashtri's house to empower him before facing Vritra. Tvashtri fashioned the thunderbolt (Vajrayudha) for Indra, and Vishnu, when asked to do so by Indra, made space for the battle by taking the three great steps for which he became famous. During the battle, Vritra broke Indra's two jaws, but was then thrown down and, in falling, crushed the fortresses that had already been shattered. For this feat, Indra became known as Vritrahan "slayer of Vritra" and also as "slayer of the first-born of dragons". Vritra's mother, Danu (also mother of the Danava race of Asuras), was then attacked and defeated by Indra with his thunderbolt. In one of the versions of the story, Varuna, Soma and Agni, all of them Asuras, were coaxed by Indra into aiding him in the fight against Vritra whereas before they had been on the side of the demon (whom they called "Father"). Vritra was also known in the Vedas as Ahi ("snake"), cognate with Azhi Dahaka of Zoroastrian mythology.

Some modern Indian geologists interpret the Vedic story as a description of the breakup of glaciers. B.P. Radhakrishna writes: "Geological record indicates that during Late Pleistocene glaciation, waters of the Himalaya were frozen and that in place of rivers there were only glaciers, masses of solid ice. As and when the climate became warmer, the glaciers began to break up and the frozen water held by them surged forth in great floods, inundating the alluvial plains in front of the mountains.... no wonder the early inhabitants of the plains burst into song praising Lord Indra for breaking up the glaciers and releasing water which flowed out in seven mighty channels (Sapta Sindhu). The analogy of a slowly moving serpent (Ahi) for describing the Himalayan glacier is most appropriate." (B.P. Radhakrishna, Vedic Sarasvati and the Dawn of Indian Civilization, Memoir Geological Society of India, No. 42, 1999, pg. 7)

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Puranic & later versions

In a later version of the myth, Vritra was created by Tvashtri to get revenge for Indra's murder of his son, known as Trisiras or Visvarupa. Vritra won the battle and swallowed Indra, but the other gods forced him to vomit Indra out. The battle continued and Indra was eventually forced to flee. Vishnu and the rishis brokered a truce, and Indra swore that he would not attack Vritra with anything made of metal, wood or stone, nor anything that was dry or wet, or during the day or the night. Indra used the foam from the waves of the ocean to kill him at twilight.However, in some places Hindu scriptures also recognize Vritra as a bhakta of Vishnu, and a brahmin. He was slain only due to his failure to live piously and without aggression. In this version, the terrible anthropomorphic personification of Brāhmanahatya (Brahmanicide) chased Indra and forced him into hiding for his sin, and Nahusha was invited to take his place.

The story of Indra only being able to kill Vritra when certain conditions were met could have been the origin or prototype of the Ramayana story, in which the gods could not kill Ravana because of a boon, and he was too powerful for any humans to kill (the loophole in this case was that a god incarnated as a man, i.e. Rama, was able to kill him). This story probably also inspired the legend of the Narasimha avatara of Vishnu. The similarities are that Hiranyakashipu, the Asura king obtained a boon from Brahma that he could not be killed during the day or at night, nor by man or beast, neither indoors nor outdoors and by no weapon.In order to slay the Asura, Vishnu took the incarnation of a lion headed man, who was not completely man nor completely beast (Narasimha literally means man-lion). Narasimha used his nails, rather than weapons which would have been ineffectual, to kill the Asura and placed him on the dorrstep, which was neither indoors nor outdoors. He killed him at twilight, which was neither day nor night. Another possibly related legend was the story of Mahishasura, in which the buffalo-demon could not be defeated by males and the gods had to create the goddess Durga with their combined power to kill him.

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