Sun, fire and sacrifice
Wendy Doniger delves into the equine in Indian myth and culture
The white stallion that rises from the ocean and is also submerged within its waters; magical horses that escort the sun, but earn the wrath of the fire god; mares that desert their children and husbands — horses traverse a truly vast and diverse terrain in Indian mythology. The equine has spun a web of symbols and metaphors, strayed into philosophy and spawned a profusion of cultural motifs and grand tales of heroism.
For an animal that is not indigenous to the region, writes Wendy Doniger in Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares, the horse wraps an extremely colourful and intricately woven tapestry of metaphor and myth around itself in the Indian subcontinent.
None can find fault with the research, which drills deep into every idea, story and aspect about the animal. Her critics, of whom there are many, will find it difficult to discount her diligent eye even if they choose to channel their outrage at the connections she draws between the mythology about the equine, its historical relevance and interpretations and its modern-day applications as caste and class taboos.
The horse fascinated everyone — from bards and priests to kings and commoners. Entranced by the animal that ran like the wind and neighed like thunder, ancient storytellers made the horse a receptacle of their fears and desires.
Under the sacrificial traditions of the Vedic age, for instance, kings sought to acquire the virility and strength of a stallion (preferably white) through rituals and yagnas. The purity of the white horse was set in contrast with the deceptive nature of mares (usually black) in mythology, a belief that is most strikingly laid out in the story of the sun god and his runaway bride Saranyu, a story that Doniger has extensively researched and written about in earlier books.
Horses become important for humans, be it in the religio-mythic context or that of the animal’s ability to carry warriors into battle, only when they are domesticated. The taming of the horse is, not surprisingly then, a turning point in the mythology around the animal.
Doniger writes that in Indian mythology horses are liminal creatures who lead humans from the world of the tame into the wild. A story from the Yogavasishtha talks of a king struck by the magical quality of a horse that appears with the wave of a peacock feather, which leads him on a journey that is both a momentary illusion and also lasts many years.
Magical and mysterious, this is an animal whose powers are never fully revealed, not even in close proximity. Many stories and hymns that Doniger references in the book, convey this sense of wonder and intimacy. A hymn in the Rig Veda imagines the arrival of the winged horse in the heavens and lists all those who mourn him on earth. “From afar, in my heart I recognized your soul, the bird flying below the sky,” the hymn goes, as it exhorts the animal not to forget those who he has left behind.
One of the oldest Upanishads, the Brihadaranyaka, begins with a salutation to the sacrificial horse: “The head of the sacrificial horse is the dawn. His eye is the sun, his breath the wind, and his open mouth the fire that all men share…” This is the Upanishadic equivalent of the Vedic hymn (Purusa Sukta, Rig Veda) where the first man is sacrificed to create the universe. The horse takes the place of man as the primeval creature.
Its divinity is further established with Vishnu being worshipped as the horseheaded Hayagriva. One story about how he got a horse head tells of how Vishnu was accidentally beheaded, as he sank into a deep stupor after a bruising battle. Tasked with the responsibility of awakening the god, the ants gnawed through his bowstring and caused the god’s head to snap and roll off. Chaos threatened all existence until the Ashvins (twin gods associated with horses) replaced his head with that of a horse.
Born from the ocean in many stories, the horse is widely associated with the underwater fire in myth and ritual. Just as they are part of the myths and rituals in the Vedas, horses are built into the structure of the Mahabharata, writes Doniger. The epic is narrated by Sutas, who were both charioteers and bards and are believed to have enjoyed the confidence of the kings they served — during the day as bodyguards on the battlefield and after dusk, as storytellers who sang of the glory of their riders.
It is not just the mythical quality of horses that interests the author. She digs into the ancient art of Ashvashastra, or the science of breeding and training horses, and examines the detailed and practical advice offered in texts such as the Arthashastra. A lot of it is extremely useful but horse owners would do well to stay off the dietary prescriptions in the ancient texts, she writes.
Nothing escapes Doniger’s notice. From myth to history to political science, the author casts her academic eye wherever there is a horse in the story. What makes this book different from her previous explorations into other obscure myths is her love for horses. The book shines with this added personal touch.