In this episode, Dr. Robert Svoboda explores the story of Vishnu being beheaded by his own bow and the origin of Hayagriva.

But I’m gonna tell you a story about Vishnu that you probably have not heard a story about when Vishnu beheaded himself, or rather, was beheaded by his own bow. This story comes from the Shatapatha Brahmana. A Brahmana is a text that is associated with a Vedic text, and it’s meant to be used to facilitate the sacrificial ritual that may be associated with that Vedic text. In this case, the shatapatha brahmana, the brahmana of 100 paths is associated with the shukla yajurveda.

They’re two recension of the Yajurveda the Shukla, and the Krishna. The shukla yajurveda mostly in Northern India. The Krishna yajurveda is mostly in Southern India. Mararajstra being kind of in the border between the two, has both Shukla and Krishna yajurveda in it. So what’s interesting about the shatputa brahmna where there are many things that are interesting about it. And if you want to know more about it, please read the book, ‘Ardor,’ by Roberto Calasso. One of the things that’s interesting is that Vishnu is very much mentioned in the Shatputa brahmna in, Vishnu earlier is not so important.

He is a solar deity. But in the shatputa brahmna, the first five of the now generally regarded as 10 avatars of Vishnu are specifically mentioned. That would be matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, and Vamana. In addition, there’s an interesting story that mentions yet another Vishnu who normally is not part of those or not included in those, the 10 that most people are familiar with, and that one is named Hayagriva, which literally means “Mr. Horseneck.” The way that happened was this, there was a sacrificial ritual that was going on all the gods were there, including Vishnu, and for reasons that are obscure at best.

Vishnu had worked very hard and he had fallen asleep with his head on his bow. The name of his bow is Sharanga. And Sharanga comes from the word sga, which means a horn. So either the bow was made out of horn or it somehow symbolized as horn or something. In any event, the head was on Sharanga. And Brahmā, the creator, instructed either an ant or a termite or some ants or some termites to go and gnaw through eat through the bow string of the bow.

So when the bow string was eaten through, as you know, and when a bow is strung, it’s under pressure. The pressure was released and the bow itself chopped off Vishnu’s head, And then they replaced Vishnu’s head with the head of horse and he became Hayagriva. And then some people say it was Hayagriva who protected the Vedas from another. Demon named Riva who had taken them away. Vedic mythology is not always easy to understand. What we can say, however, is that the Shatputa Brahmna in several locations identifies Vishnu with the sacrifice.

It’s also important to remember that a horse sacrifice was one of the, if not the major sacrifices in the Vedic sacrificial menu. So somehow sacrificing himself. Vishnu facilitated his own evolution in the direction of who he is today, which is the major if, or one of the three major deities of the Hindu pantheon. All because some ants or possibly termites nod through his bow string and chopped his head off.