Why did tvaṣṭṛ (tvashtri) hide his magic cow from indra?

Alejandro

Active Member
There's a Hindu myth in which Tvaṣṭṛ, the architect of the gods, owns a magic cow which is actually the moon and whose milk is soma, the elixir of immortality. Tvaṣṭṛ hid this cow from Indra, the king of the gods, but Indra found a way to steal the cow's milk anyway. What reason did Tvaṣṭṛ have for doing that in the first place? Could it be because Indra had killed Tvaṣṭṛ’s son Triśiras? And does anyone know any of the rest of the story (coz this is all I got)?
 

Caburus

Active Member
Soma had great healing power, even able to ressurect life or bestow immortality. Tvastr hid his cow from everyone, not just Indra. It was probably born from a fear of giving away powerful knowledge to some one who might use it against you. Soma was not just the moon, it was also the sunlight reflected in the moon. Soma was therefore the sun, but was sunlight hidden in the moon. The only person to know this was the sage Dadhyanc, son of the priest Atharvan who looked after the fire and the soma, from which the whole universe was composed. Soma looks like milk, and so since soma is stored in the moon, the moon is said to be a cow full of milk. Dadhyanc told Indra the secret of soma.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
I've read the version of the story with Dadhyañc in it, where he, strangely enough, appears to have learned this secret from Indra rather than Tvaṣṭṛ, which just confuses me. According to this version, Dadhyañc knew the secret somehow (having inherited it from his father Atharvan [if we take it that he did not learn it from Indra]?), and Indra warned him that he would behead him if he ever taught it to anyone. The Aśvin twins, Nāsatya and Dasra, who were Tvaṣṭṛ’s grandsons, heard that this ṛṣi (sage) Dadhyañc knew the secret and asked him to teach it to them, but he declined due to Indra’s threat. The twin brothers then made a deal with him that they would replace his head even before Indra severed it from him: by severing it themselves and substituting it with a horse’s (the Aśvins themselves had horses’ heads), and then when Indra beheaded Dadhyañc by cutting off his horse-head, they would then give him back his own original one. So the ṛṣi agreed and the twins themselves beheaded him, replacing his head with that of a horse, and then Dadhyañc taught them the coveted secret. So it then followed that Indra, using his thunderbolt Vajra, cut the ṛṣi’s horse-head off, whereupon the Aśvins replaced it with his own original one. Indra is then said to have stolen Tvaṣṭṛ’s soma.

That's some really weird stuff! Can't tell where it's all going! Any thoughts? There's a connection I've been able to make, based on what you've said about Soma being the sun as well as the moon, since the Aśvins were the sons of Vivasvat, the Sun[-god]. Also, both Vivasvat and Soma appear in lists naming the twelve brothers called the Ādityas, a group of sun- or light-gods. But beyond that :(...

In a myth following this one up, the demons are said to somehow have gained supremacy in the universe over the gods simply by looking at Dadhyañc. After his death, the ṛṣi ascended to heaven, whence the earth was filled with demons, who overcame Indra and the gods, probably relegating Indra from his position as the sky-god living in heaven by (literally) bringing him down to earth. Indra searched for Dadhyañc, since he seemed to be a source of great power, but was told that the ṛṣi was in heaven, and so he asked the people of the land whether or not his remains were still extant, and they told him of the horse-head, though no one knew where it might be. Indra then commanded them to search for it, and they obeyed, finding it in Lake Śaryanavat, which was on Mt Śaryanavat, and flowed in the western half of Kuruketra. With the bones of this head, Indra slew the demons—ninety-nine of whom were manifestations of the drought dragon Vtra—and regained his position in heaven. These bones are also said to be the material that were used to forge Vajra, the thunderbolt of Indra (which contradicts the part of the story in which this weapon severs the same head from Dadhyañc's body sometime before these events). As for Dadhyañc’s horse-head, it is said later to rise up from the lake in which it was submerged to grant various wishes to living beings and that it lies submerged there until the end of the age. I'm even more weirded out at this point :confused:...
 

Caburus

Active Member
I'm not very familiar with Hindu myths. I've read that Indra would get intoxicated on soma, so maybe it caused him to do things the gods regreted, and so it was denied him?
I wonder if Tvastr withholding soma from Indra is related to Durvasa causing the gods to loose their immortality? Durvasa was a sage who gave Indra a garland of flowers, which Indra failed to treat with respect. Durvasa grew angry and said Indra would be cast out of heaven. The gods became weak and were defeated by the demons. On advice from Vishnu the gods called a truce and told the demons that if they churned the sea they would create Amrita, which bestowed immortality. They worked together to do this, but once it was produced, the demons were tricked out of their share, and the gods, powerful once more, retured to heaven. Soma and Amrita seem to serve the same purpose.
When Tvastr hid soma, was it also hidden from the other gods, or just Indra?
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
Durvasa was a sage who gave Indra a garland of flowers, which Indra failed to treat with respect.
Durvasas was given a magic garland from the goddess Devi, the Great Goddess, one of the three most important devotional gods in Indian/Hindu myth. Is this garland perhaps one and the same?
 

Caburus

Active Member
Yes :). Durvasa gave it to Indra, who gave it to his elephant to wear, but the flowers irritated the elephant's trunk, so it threw the garland on the ground. This made Durvasa angry, so he cursed Indra.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
I've read that Indra would get intoxicated on soma, so maybe it caused him to do things the gods regreted, and so it was denied him? I wonder if Tvastr withholding soma from Indra is related to Durvasa causing the gods to loose their immortality? ... When Tvastr hid soma, was it also hidden from the other gods, or just Indra?
I think the first idea is quite likely, in addition to the fact that Tvaṣṭṛ and Indra generally didn't seem to be on the best terms with each other. The incident with Durvasas and the gods' loss of immortality seems to be quite separate from Tvaṣṭṛ's beef with Indra, which I doubt extended to all the other gods. But maybe I could be wrong, since the tensions between Tvaṣṭṛ and Indra may well be based on Tvaṣṭṛ's relations with the āsuras (the traditional enemies of the gods): his wife in some versions, named Recana, is "the sister of the āsuras," and his son Triśiras was apparently a supporter of the gods' enemies. The issue of the rivalry between the two groups, the gods and the āsuras (or so-called demons), parallels to an extent in both stories.
 
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