Indo-European Mythology and Religion
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he appears as the sun with which he “dried up the oceans”
and at the same time removes the sense of “sight” itself, the
sun being traditional y associated with sight in India as
well as in Egypt and Mesopotamia. At this point, he dives
into the Abyss to search out Earth, the embryonic new
universe which lies hidden there. Vishnu next appears as
a gale (wind) which “convulsed the entire world” and at
the same time destroyed “inspiration, expiration and all
the forms of breath”. The third form he assumes is that of
fire, which reduces the universe to ashes, and final y, he
assumes the nature of water as a “hundred dark whirling
clouds” which “gratified the Earth with ghee-like divine
water”.43 This impregnation causes “the subtle world [i.e. of
the senses of sight and breath], with the sun, wind and the
sky” to be enclosed in the Earth that has been recovered
from the abyss. The last step of the process described here
would have occurred at the time of the formation of the
Cosmic Egg.
For another account of the stages which mark the
new creation after the destruction of the previous cosmos,
we may turn to the Bhāgavata Purāna. The emergence
of the light of the universe—which is called Protogonos/
Phanes in the Orphic theogonies44—occurs in the first
manvantara of the Varāha Kalpa, since Protogonos’ Indic
counterpart, Priyavrata, is said to be the son of the very
first Manu, Swāyambhuva Manu. This manvantara is also
marked by the emergence of Earth and its division into
seven islands (called continents in the Iranian sacred
literature) which represent various galactic formations
( BP V,1,30ff.). Like Protogonos/Mitra, it was Priyavrata
who created the divisions of Earth by riding around
43 See S. Shastri, op.cit., p.34f.
44 See M.L. West, Orphic Poems, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983, p.70.
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Mt. Meru in his chariot.45 Of the seven islands, the one
we inhabit is the central one and called Jambudweepa
( BP V,16,5ff.), which itself is divided into nine Varshas, of which one, Bharatvarsha, is the region which humans
inhabit after the cosmic flood ( BP V,19.9ff.).
The Varāha Kalpa, is marked by several other ‘avatārs’
or incarnations of the supreme Lord46 that are assumed by
the latter throughout the developing life of the cosmos in
order to elevate the creation spiritual y. After the Boar, the
next incarnation of the Lord in our cosmic age is that of
Prithu, who extracts the life-giving qualities from Earth
when it has assumed the form of a Cow (in the sixth
manvantara) ( BP IV,18; BrdP I,ii,36,110ff.).
Chākshusha Pralaya
The sixth manvantara of the Varāha Kalpa, called
the Chākshusha Manvantara or the manvantara of
Chākshusha, is indeed the one at the end of which the
‘deluge’ occurs that is recounted in the various flood
stories of antiquity as if it had occurred on earth. This
flood also precedes the appearance of the seventh Manu,
45 This is reflected in the Hieronyman Orphic fragment (78) also, where Protogonos wheels round the world in his chariot to bring light to it (see M.L. West, op.cit. , p.214).
46 According to BP I,3, there are twenty-two avatārs of Vishnu, beginning with
[Krita Yuga] Chatursana (the four sons of Brahma), the boar Varāha, Nārada, Nara-Nārāyana, Kapila, Dattatreya, Yajna, Rishabha,
[Treta Yuga] the fish Matsya, the tortoise Kūrma, Dhanvantari,
Mohini, Narasimha, Vāmana, Parashurāma, Vyāsa, Rāma,
[Dvāpara Yuga] Balarāma, Krishna,
[Kali Yuga] the Buddha, Kalki.
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Vaivasvata whose task it is to preserve the life of the
universe ( BP I,3,15).
The flood is caused by Shiva (Enlil) when he breaks
open the Cosmic Egg. Shiva begins the flood by splitting
“asunder these seven worlds,47 and breaking the [golden
cosmic] egg higher than the highest”. Shiva is said to be
“robed in Indra’s thunder-bolts”48 as he goes about his
task of devastation. In the Akkadian Atrahasis epic as
well as in the Sumerian Gilgamesh (Tablet XI), it is Enlil (counterpart of Shiva) who causes the flood. For it is Enlil
(or his son) who attacks the divine light An and forces it
down into the underworld and into our universe. Shiva/
Chronos’ breaking open of this egg is indeed the start of
the transfer of the life contained within it to our universe.
The solar force that is shattered by the force of Shiva/
Enlil is forced into the ‘underworld’ where it lies in a
moribund state, ‘castrated’ as it were by Time/Chronos.
However, it is a continuation of Chronos’ force, called his
‘son’, Zeus, that eventual y revives the dormant solar force
in the underworld so that it can rise into our universe as
the sun. This heroic figure in the evolution of the sun is
called Zeus/Ganesha/Seth in the mythologies of Greece,
India, and Egypt.49 The descent of the perfect light of
Osiris-Horus the Elder/Brahman into the Abyss thus
precedes its rise again as the light of our universe.
During this flood, the Lord (Vishnu in the BP) reposes
on the serpent Anantasesha (the eternal Sesha), a form of
Shiva,50 that inhabits Pātāla, the seventh and last circle of
47 That is, the seven “continents”, or galactic formations of the universe.
48 See S. Shastri, op.cit., p.88.
49 For a detailed study of the formation of the sun see A. Jacob, Ātman: A Reconstruction of the Solar Cosmology of the Indo-Europeans, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2005.
50 As Hedammu no doubt is a form of Kumarbi in the Hurrian
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indo-european mythology and religion
the underworld ( BP V,24,30). Since the lord of the abyss
in Sumer, Egypt, as well as in the Vedas is traditional y
Enki/Osiris/Varuna, the Vishnu that sleeps on the serpent
Sesha must be the same as Varuna himself as the reviving
solar energy. Varuna’s association with Vishnu (as well as
with Mitra, the “sun-god”) is confirmed by the Egyptian
identity of Osiris as Lord of the Abyss (abdu/Abydos) and
the Underworld, who is at the same time the brother, or
rather, vital aspect, of Horus the Elder, and father of the
sun-god Horus the Younger. This explains Vishnu’s other
names, Nārāyana, Lord of the Waters, which is typical
of Varuna/Enki/Osiris, and Anantaseshasāyī, the Lord
who reposes on the eternal Sesha. Vishnu at this stage
corresponds to Osiris in the underworld surrounded by
the serpent Nehaher.51 Vishnu/Varuna’s trance-like sleep
in the Purānas is indeed the same as the “death” of Osiris
caused by his alter ego Seth.
In BP V,25,1, the serpent Sesha is described as being
the tāmasic or Māyā-associated aspect of the supreme
lord which sustains this universe by the magical effect of
sympathy. In the Vishnu Purāna, it is stated that “Vishnu assumes the form of Rudra [Shiva/Kāla] and inclines
; towards destruction in order to withdraw the entire
creation into himself”.52 Rudra, however, is not only the
same as Time but also “the flame of Time” which “turns
into the blasting breath of Sesha [the serpent]”.53 We see
here an identification of Time with Māyā as agents of the
il usion that sustains the incipient universe.
The serpent representing Shiva has both a benign and
a malign aspect. This dual role is particularly observed in
the Egyptian representations of the serpent (sometimes
“Kingship in Heaven” myth (see p.36).
51 See below.
52 See S. Shastri, op.cit., p.48.
53 Ibid. , p.49.
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called Mehen, the “World-encircler”, sometimes Nehaher,
“the one with the fearful face”), which first holds together
the corpse of Osiris and then accompanies the emergence
of his son, the incipient sun, Horus the Younger.54 Thus,
when Osiris dies and descends into the underworld, his
decaying corpse (represented as a mummy) is depicted as
being held together by Nehaher.55 In the Indic accounts
of Manu and the Flood,56 this serpent of the Abyss is the
same that serves as a rope between the boat and the horn
of the piscine form of the supreme deity that saves Manu
during the flood.
The dual aspect of the serpent as both destructive
and creative is highlighted in the last scene of the
Egyptian Book of Caverns, which depicts a serpent within a mound of earth that helps regenerate Osiris as Horus the
Younger along with another serpent encircling the solar
beetle (Khepry) that is cut into pieces.57 In the Amduat too, while the serpent Apop is destroyed in the seventh hour,
in the eleventh and twelfth hours58 the emergent sun itself
appears within the bounds of the serpent called “World
encircler”.59
54 See E. Hornung, , The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, , tr. D. Lorton, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999, pp.33ff; cf. R.T.
Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol in ancient Egypt, London: Thames and Hudson, 1959, pp.167ff.
55 See
The Book of Caverns (cf. R.T.Rundle Clark, op.cit. , p.169).
56 See
Shatapatha Brāhmana, I,viii,
57 See E. Hornung, op.cit., p.90.
58 It may be noted, in passing, that the “hours” of the Egyptian books of the underworld certainly do not refer to our terrestrial hours but, rather, to divine ones. We have seen that, according to the BP, a divine day is as long as a terrestrial year. It is possible that the sun’s yearly revolution as well as its diurnal passage may have been considered in Egypt to be repeated rehearsals of the original creation.
59 E. Hornung, op.cit. , pp.33ff. 35
indo-european mythology and religion
In Egypt, as Usener pointed out,60 the solar aspect of
the flood is also evident in the account of the sailing of
Amun-Ra on the back of the cow, called itself the Great
Flood (Mehet Ouret)—a form of Hathor/Nut61—holding
on to her “horns”. We will encounter this bovine image of
the goddess of the primaeval waters and of the dawn also
in the Indic sacred literature. The hymn to Amun-Ra in the
Darius temple to this deity declares that the original seat
of Amun-Ra was the high ground of Hermopolis Magna,
where the “eight gods” of the Ogdoad were worshipped.
Amun-Ra is said to have left this oasis and appeared in the
moist, hidden egg along with the goddess Amente. Then
he takes his place on the Great Flood. At that time, “there
were no plants. They began when … the water rose to the
mountain”.62
We note that the “great flood” in Egypt is not, as in the
Biblical story, the setting for the preservation of merely
the Noachidian race on earth but for the emergence of the
sun in our universe along with the life of the universe.
In the fragmentary Hedammu epic of the Hurrians,
too, Kumarbi produces a dragon Hedammu (resembling
the flood Narmada and Hathor) to destroy mankind.63 The
fact that, in the Hurrian epic of ‘The Kingship in Heaven’,
Anu’s seed (as well as his phal us) is contained in the bel y
of Kumarbi (Chronos/Kala/Shiva) also suggests that the
creative waters of the flood caused by Shiva serve as the
amniotic fluid of the incipient universe.
In the Greek Orphic theogonies, Chronos is
represented as a serpent twined around the cosmic axis of
60 See H. Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen, Bonn: Friedrich Cohen, 1899, p.260.
61 See PT 829 d/e; cf. R.T. Rundle Clark, op.cit., p.184.
62 Ibid.
63 See J. Siegelova, “Appu Märchen und Hedammu-Mythus”, Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten 14.
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Ananke, Necessity.64 This confirms the identity of Shiva/
Chronos/Kumarbi with the serpent, especial y in its
creative role, since, as we shall see, Shiva represents Time as
well as the aspect of Egoity which informs the universe.65
The basic quality of the serpent, however, is that of
the resistant force of matter which must be overcome
to allow the light of the sun to emerge in our universe.
Hence the rise of the solar energy is typical y preceded by
a battle of a heroic god representing the storm-force of the
incipient sun against a serpent of restriction. Indra in the
Rgveda is described as freeing the “cows” from the “vala”,
a rocky enclosure in which these animals are hidden by
the evil Panis.66 The “cows” in the vala myth (X,67,1-12) in
fact symbolise the radiant solar energy, since RV I,164,3
suggests that this is the secret name of the rays of the
dawn. In RV X,108,5, the “cows” are described as “flying
around to the ends of the sky”. The Panis themselves are
described in BP V,24,30 as serpentine, Asuric creations of Diti and Danu and inhabit Rasātala, the sixth of the seven
subterranean regions of the material universe bordering
on the last, Pātāla, in which lies the serpent Sesha.67 “Vala”,
significantly, is the same term that is used in the Avesta
(“vara”) for the ark which bears Yima during the flood
which accompanies the birth of the sun.
***
64 See M.L. West, op.cit.
65 See p.65.
66 For a reference to the cows confined in the vala by the Panis see RV I, 32,11.
67 In the Egyptian Book of the Heavenly Cow too the underworld is described as being populated by serpents supervised by Geb [Earth]
(see E. Hornung, op.cit., p.149). 37
indo-european mythology and religion
The reason of the flood itself is given in the Egyptian Book
of the Heavenly Cow, where the eye of Re, which is
equated with Hathor, is said to be the instrument of the
punishment of degenerate “mankind”, by which we may
understand a form of mankind that emerged early in
the creational activities of Brahman. Re embarks on this
course of punishment in conjunction with the lord of
the Abyss, Nun. A part of “humanity” is destroyed by
the flood, but the remainder are saved by the sun-god’s
decision to stop Hathor’s work o
f devastation by causing
her to become drunk on blood-red beer.68 The sun then
rises to the heavens on the back of the celestial cow.
This Egyptian account is perhaps the source of the
Hebrew story, in Genesis 6:7, of the Flood:
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth; both man, and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air;
for it repenteth me that I have made them.
It is clear, however, that the Hebrew Flood is inaccurately
located on earth and dated after the creation of Noah/
Manu, when in fact the latter appears ages after the Flood,
in the seventh manvantara.
In the Babylonian ‘Epic of Erra’, Marduk, the
counterpart of the solar force, Ninurta/69 Muruga, takes
the place of his father Enlil in causing the flood:
68 Cf. E. Hornung, op.cit., p.149. The reference to beer is significant, since we note that inebriation by beer is in fact characteristic of Seth, whose name, according to a Leiden papyrus, represents the intoxicating power of beer (see H. te Velde, Seth God of Confusion: A Study of his Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion, Leiden: E.J. Bril , 1967, p.3ff.).
Seth is the counterpart of the Vedic Indra, who also raises the sun into the heavens infused with the force of Soma.
69 For Marduk as one of the epithets of Ninurta, see K.
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I got angry long ago: I rose from my seat and contrived
the deluge,
I rose from my seat, and the government of heaven
and earth dissolved.
And the sky, lo! shook: the stations of the stars in the
sky were altered, and I did not bring [them] back to
their [former] positions.
…
The offspring of the living diminished, and I did not
restore them
Until, like a farmer, I should take their seed in my
hand.70
We see that Marduk too destroys some early form of
life in the cosmos while preserving some part of it to be
propagated in our universe.
In the relatively late Greek legend of the Flood,
in which Prometheus’ son, Deucalion, is represented
as the survivor, who reaches safety on Mt. Parnassus,
Zeus is anachronistical y said to have caused the deluge
because he ‘would destroy the men of the Bronze Age’.71 In
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, I, 177ff, Zeus’ anger is aroused by the inferiority of humankind compared to the demi-gods:
Now I must destroy the human race, wherever Nereus