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.

Horse, killing and eating of Horse, Deification of Horse: The mythologization and demythologization of Horse-God theology in the world civilizations! (1)

Horse, killing and eating of Horse, Deification of Horse: The mythologization and demythologization of Horse-God theology in the world civilizations! (1)

Horse meat a taboo in the US and European countries: In recent years, there have been a lot of speeches and writings about beef eating, the right to eat and so on in India. However, the taboo of horse-meat has never been whispered here in India or discussed. Horse meat was also eaten as part of Germanic pagan religious ceremonies in Northern Europe, particularly ceremonies associated with the worship of Odin. It is not a generally available food in some English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, the United States, and English Canada. It is also taboo in Brazil, Israel, and among the Romani people and Jewish people the world over. Horse meat is not generally eaten in Spain, except in the north, but the country exports horses both as live animals and as slaughtered meat for the French and Italian markets. Horse meat is consumed in some North American and Latin American countries, but is illegal in some others.

Why the Americans abhors horse meat or Chevaline? No Aswamedha in USA!: Very often, Indians are / have been blamed for having medieval barbaric, heathenish and even satanic practices. How the “beef politics” has been going on is well known. However, historians, researchers and other experts do not tell Indian why the Americans do not eat horse meat or Chevaline! Killing and eating Chevaline (Aswamedha, अश्वमेध ) in the USA has been a taboo. Mohammedans have a taboo about pork and crow stew. The American media has plenty of information for hating horse meat giving the reasons for[1]:

1. Horses became taboo meat in the ancient Middle East, possibly because they were associated with companionship, royalty, and war[2].
2. The Book of Leviticus rules out eating horse, and in 732 CE, the Pope Gregory III instructed his subjects to stop eating horse because it was an “impure and detestable” pagan meat.
3. By the 16^th century, hippophagy—the practice of eating horse meat—had become a capital offence in France.
4. America banned it, as the Pilgrims had brought the European prohibition on eating horse flesh, inherited from the pre-Christian tradition.
5. Besides, horse meat was considered un-American. Nineteenth-century newspapers abound with ghoulish accounts of the rise of hippophagy in the Old World. In these narratives, horse meat is the food of poverty, war, social breakdown, and revolution—everything new migrants had left behind.
6. In early September 2006, the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed the U.S. House, with Republican John Sweeney calling the horse meat business “one of the most inhumane, brutal and shady practices going on in the United States today.”
7. The 2014 Obama budget once more ruled out a revival. Meanwhile, the horses continued to be shipped to Mexico and Canada.

The horse-meat politics of the USA has been worse than the beef politics of India, but none points out[3] . And still none has gusts to lift the ban equivocally[4]. There also, very often questions are raised[5].

Till the 19^th century, horse sacrifice was there in Europe: Dr David Anthony gives the reasons why American and Europeans have been uncomfortable in eating horse-meat[6]. The aversion felt by most modern Americans and Europeans originated as a religious taboo in the early Middle Ages. The sacrifice of a horse and the consumption of its sanctified flesh were central parts of very widespread pagan rites in ancient Europe. The early Christian church forbade the consumption of horseflesh because it was so regularly associated with pre-Christian ceremonies. Pope Gregory III (731-741CE) banned the eating of horses as “an unclean and execrable act.” Although the papal ban seems to have greatly reduced the consumption of horseflesh in most of Europe, the ritual sacrifice of horses continued for a surprisingly long time. Horses were slaughtered at the funerals of King John of England in 1216 and the Holy Roman Emperor Karl IV in 1378[7]. As recently as 1781, during the funeral of cavalry General Friedrich Kasimir at Trier, his horse was killed and deposited in his grave. Even more surprising, churches were sanctified with horse sacrifices, perhaps conducted secretly by the workmen who built the church buildings. Modern construction workers found horse bones embedded in the floor of St. Botolph’s at Boston, Lincolnshire, and in the belfry of a church at Elsdon, Northumberland. Eight horse skulls were discovered in 1883 in the stonework of the pulpit at Bristol Street meeting house in Edinburgh, Scotland; others were discovered embedded in the foundation of the choir stalls at Llandraff Cathedral, Wales. As late as the 18th century, Dutch peasants would place a horse skull on the roof to keep bad luck away from the home. Therefore, it is evident that horses were sacrificed before and after the completion f the construction of the Churches, as a practice followed.

The system of belief, non-belief etc: In every believing system, whether theistic or atheistic, agnostic or Gnostic or otherwise, certain beliefs, ideas and viewpoints have been kept in tight, whether they are questioned by others or not. Invariably, the atheistic, agnostic, and such other non-believing ideologies only make a huge noise, as if their belief is superior to others. It is well-known that any person, whether he knows the subject or not, he can go on asking questions, because, he is not bothered about getting any rational, scientific or acceptable answer to his questions, but, interested in asking more questions. Thus, the Indian belief-system has been under attack by many other belief-systems, ideologists and dogmatic experts. And modern, ideologized and politicized Indians have been more fashioned to ask questions. A stage reaches, where, the questioner himself loses his logic of “point of no return,” but, starts again from the beginning.

Horse-headed Deity in Hindu religion: Indians have been celebrating today – 03-08-2020 as Hayagriva Jayanti to commemorate the birth of Horse-God Vishnu! But, the horse was considered as divine by many civilizations. Irish, German, Etruscan, Mycenaean, Minoan, Etruscan, Greek, Chinese, Japan considered horse divine. However, it is not known why they are not celebrating such festivals, every year in their respective cultures and countries. The Horse-headed incarnation of God is traced back to the Vedas by the scholars[8]. The narratives continued through Agama and tantric texts, because of the Jaina and Buddhist intrusion, interpretation and adoption in their worship, rites and rituals. The iconic, sculptural and painting representations also varied accordingly. In the Vedic myth of Dadhyanc Atharvana (Dadhyanc son of Atharvan, horse-headed Vedic Seer) the horse-head is connected with the idea of secret knowledge[9].

The Pravargya Brahmana of Shathapatha narrates a story in which Vishnu himself cuts off of his head and it is replaced with a horse-head. His head becoming Sun, and other parts going to other cardinal points etc., prove cosmic and geological aspects happened figuratively. It also gives these details[10], “The devas were sacrificing and toiling with the headless yagnya. Dadhyanc atharvaNa knew the secret of putting back the head of the sacrifice and hence completing it. Indra warned Dadynac that if he revealed this secret to anybody, he would cut his head off. Ashvins wanted to learn the secret and hence they approached Dadhyanc. He told them about Indra’s warning and hesitated. They told him that they would cut his head off, replace it with a horse’s head and then he can teach them. Once, Indra cuts the head (i.e. the horse’s head), they would fix back the original head. Agreeing to this, Dadhyanc revealed the secret to the Ashvins after they replaced his head with the horse’s head. Indra did as he warned and the ashvins put back his original head.”

Initially, in the Vedic period and literature, there was no sacrifice, but, later, such intrusions were found. It has been interpreted that Brahmans opposed sacrifices. Actually, these narratives could be interpolated and misinterpreted by the Jains and Buddhists to suit their “Matra-tantra-yantra” practices. This points to the important role to be played by Hayagrlva in Tantrism, as was described more by the Dutch scholar H. van Gulik[11]. That the Hayagriva concept could penetrate into the Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese culture through Buddhism proves the impact of Indian philosophy and way of life. The transmission might have taken place through the Buddhist missionaries and the traders through the well-accepted trade routes.

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

06-08-2020

[1] The Atlantic,The Troubled History of Horse Meat in America , Susanna Forrest, JUNE 8, 2017.

[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/06/horse-meat/529665/

[3]  USA Today, Ban on slaughtering horses for meat gets last-minute renewal in spending law Trump signed, Erin Kelly, Published: March 16, 2018, 4.12 pm.

[4] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/26/ban-slaughtering-horses-meat-gets-last-minute-renewal-spending-law-trump-signed/459076002/

[5] The Washington Post, Could Congress put horsemeat back on the menu in America?, By Maura Judkis, July 14, 2017 at 11:38 p.m. GMT+5:30

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/07/14/could-congress-put-horsemeat-back-on-the-menu-in-america/

[6] Dr David Anthony, Let them eat horses, http://silkroadfoundation.org/artl/horsemyth.shtml

[7] Duch, Anna Maria. The Royal Funerary and Burial Ceremonies of Medieval English Kings, 1216-1509. Diss. University of York, 2016.

[8]  D. Sridhara Babu, Hayaagriva – The Horse-Headed Deity in Indian culture, Sri Venkateswara University, Oriental Research Institute, Tirupati, 1990.

[9] The horse is head, the source of transcendent knowledge, symbolic of time.Dadhyañc Ātharvaṇa is mentioned in RV in the context of Pravargya (lost head of the then incomplete yajna. The legend is narrated in Jaiminiya Brahmana 3.64 9in fusion with Cyavana legnd in JBr. 3.120-128) and ŚatBr. 14.1.1.1 ff. The JBr.

[10] K. Amshuman, A yajur-vedic legend from shathapatha brAhmaNa, http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ramanuja/archives/oct03/msg00009.html

[11] Robert Hans van Gulik, Hayagrīva: The Mantrayānic Aspect of Horse-cult in China and Japan, Briill, Leiden, Netherlands, 1935.