Horse, killing and eating of Horse, Deification of Horse: The mythologization and demythologization of Horse-God theology in the world civilizations! (3)

Horse, killing and eating of Horse, Deification of Horse: The mythologization and demythologization of Horse-God theology in the world civilizations! (3)

Hayagriva faith[1] spread to Tibet, China and Japan: The Himalayan valley range have yielded fossils of elephants, horses etc., as pointed out by the geologists. The Indian poets could not have imagined and lied while describing horses of battle scenes involved etc[2]. The Gangetic Valley had been subjected to plate-tectonic processes, floods etc., and therefore, there have been surface and stratigraphical disturbances. After settling down, the Gangetic Valley Civilization flourished with culture, tradition, and heritage.  The Horse-God faith has been spread to Tibet, China and Japan also[3]. The wind horse is an allegory for the human soul in the shamanistic tradition of East Asia and Central Asia. In Tibetan Buddhism, it was included as the pivotal element in the centre of the four animals symbolizing the cardinal directions and a symbol of the idea of well-being or good fortune. It has also given the name to a type of prayer flag that has the five animals printed on it. This matches with the Vedic description of the parts of Vishnu body fell oriented with the cardinal points of cosmos. Ratnasambhava, Avalokiteswara, and other depictions in sculpture, icons and paintings show the dominant presence of a horse.

In China, the Hayagriva, Peiping, probably found in the old city of Peiping, now known as Peking, the Capital. The Horse-God has been the God of wisdom. The Chinese incorporated horse as the seventh in their year cycle / zodiac. The Vajikukh or horse representation of tantric practices could have reached Peiping through Buddhism. In the Paintings, the Yama had been the king and the two gate-keepers have been horse-faced and ox-faced guards. They punish the wicked as per the directions of the King Yama.

In the Korean temples, mausoleums and monuments, the horse-guard has been prominently depicted.

In the respective literature, whether written in Tibetan, Chinese, Pali or Sanskrit, the Indian presence is easily noted as the names, slokas and ritualization have not been changed. Only, the tantric formation differs from the normal bakti India worship. Thus, when the horse myth was carried to outside India, through Buddhism, it became oriented towards tantric mode, whereas, when it spread to the south, it was converted into bakti mode, as could be noted from the liturgy and the literature.

Hayagriva in the Southeast Asian cultures: It is quite natural that the Hayagriva worship and later tantric practices spread to, flourished and settled with the Hindu, Buddhists and the local population. The god with the equine head played a significant role in the belief system of pre-Ankorean Cambodia[4]. The most well know statuary of this deity was found at Sambor Prei Kuk by the ex-colonial French governor Adhemard Leclere around 1860. The statue was transported to Paris, France and is now housed at the Gumiet Museum shown far right bottom row[5]. There is no mention of this deity in Cambodia or in any of the literature and is not even mentioned in Lawrence Palmer Brigg’s definitive work”The Khmer Empire”. However, there have been other statuary of Hayagriva found in Cambodia testifying to the prominence this deity once had for the devotees of Vishnu Narayana.

Hellen Jessup and Therry Zephur in their book “Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia” show a 135cm high deity with a horses head, top row far left, which is now housed at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. The stance of this piece shows a very pronounced posture of kindness and one of overseeing his world. Elsewhere an exceptional piece of Hayagriva is housed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada in their new Asia Galleries. A 106cm statute of Vajimukha was found at Prasat Neang Khmau, in Cambodia, and it is from the first quarter of the 10th century. Thus, the dating of Hayagriva here during the pre-Angkorian period is significant.

Indo-Aryans, horses and related theories and hypotheses: During the 19^th-20^th centuries, the scholars, archaeologists and historians have been believers of race theories and therefore, they were interpreting historical processes in their discourses accordingly. The pure Aryan race developed somewhere in northern Europe and from where, it spread down to other countries. Even, B.C.Tilak believed such hypotheses and recorded in his book “Arctic Home of Aryans.” The evidences of domesticated horses were found in the horse sculptures in the Volga and Dnieper regions around 4,500 BCE. The Dereivka settlement yielded the earliest remains of domestic horses dated to c.4350-3675 BCE. Therefore, when they reached Indus Valley to form an advanced civilization, it is not known as to why they had forgotten their knowledge of horses, chivalry, chariots etc. The pro-Dravidian enthusiastic researchers also do not bother and they have been silent about the Dravidian bards started composing “Sangam literature” immediately, around c.500-300 BCE period., when they were driven down to South India. In their literature, they mentioned horses, chariots etc. Therefore, the movement of racial groups as proposed by the non-Indian experts has not been consistent. Having accepted that there was no race, no racial Aryans and Dravidians, still they are not able to arrange the events historically and chronologically. Now, the Dravidian protagonists have been confusing with the incomplete Keeladi evidences. Thus, the horse question and other issues question many inconsistent, contradicting and incompatible hypotheses and theories.

Conclusion: A comprehensive, comparative and matching study of Horse-God, Horse-headed God, foaled God, association with “fallen angels,” “sons of god,” Centaurus myth etc., prove the origin of myth in India, rather than at the northern parts of Europe or Arctic region.

1. As European scholarship itself accepted at one point about the Ganges oigin of Indian literature, then, the Itihasa’ description of spreading of degraded Khastriyas to other areas of the world, after the “Great War,” or Mahabharat could be considered. In fact, J. B. Bury[6], Edward Pocokoke[7], Colonel Todd[8] and others have pointed out the Indian origin of the Greek civilization.
2. Of course, William Jones was also engaged in such Comparative study. As now the archaeological evidences of the Ganges Valley go back to c. 5,500 BCE, it is safely taken for the comparative study.
3. Nowadays, there have been many experts posing as “inter-religious dialoguers,” professors of “Comparative Religion”, and “Comparative theology” etc., who have been producing tonnes of research papers and books, but with bias, prejudice and preconceived notions. They set the goal or result and proceed to get their goal or result.
4. Had they taken these “horse” studies, then, they could change their viewpoint.
5. Therefore, they still treat the literature of others as heathenish. Therefore, such an attitude should change to do research in the Horse-God narratives also.
6. All the legends can be demythologized to find out the mythistory hidden behind, from which, historical details could be culled out.
7. Then, it is clearly pointed out that the Hayagriva – horse god myth was developed on the banks of the Ganges and then spread to other cultures from there through Jainism and Buddhism and later incorporated in the other branches of faiths of Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism.

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

06-08-2020

[1]  Instead of “cult,” the expression faith is preferred, as it is not fad, craze or unusual trend for any religious group that believed in godhead or not..

[2] van der Geer, Alexandra, Michael Dermitzakis, and John de Vos, Fossil Folklore from India: The Siwalik Hills, 2008.

[3] Shahar, Meir. The Tantric Origins of the Horse King: Hayagrīva and the Chinese Horse Cult., in Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism. Brill, 2017. Pp. 147-190.

[4] http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Messenger//vadavamukhagallery.html

[5] 10th century statue in Pre Rup style Vajimukha from Prasat N7, Sandstone, MG. 18099 at the Musée national des arts asiatiques‐Guimet, Paris

[6] J. B. Bury, History of the Greece,  Macmillan & Co., U.K, p.821.

[7] Edward Pocoke, Indian in Greece, Orient Publishers, New Delhi, 1976.

[8] Colonel Tod, The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Motilal Banaraidas, New Delhi.