Varaha Purana

Varaha and Its Various

Representations

Although the word ‘Varaha’ means a boar in Sanskrit, this term can be split up into two words: ‘Vara’ + ‘aha’. Vara’ means one which (or who) envelops or covers entirely, and ‘aha’ means one who sets limits to the limitless. Varaha, this way, means or signifies one who envelops and sets limits to the formless. In the Varaha incarnation, the third one of Vishnu as Varaha, the Lord lifted up the universe (earth) from the primeval depths of dissolution and darkness.

Prior to the Varaha incarnation, the earth was suffering greatly and allegorically, due to the pride of Hiranyaksha, the golden-eyed Daitya who had won a boon from Brahma through spending many ages in austerities.

[It should be noted that even Brahma cannot prevent the attainment of powers won through effort: it is the use to which these powers are put which makes them good or bad. When these powers are used for bad purposes Brahma helps to destroy the culprit through his prayer to Vishnu who incarnates himself to redeem the earth and its dwellers].

The boon was that he should become the king of the whole world and that no animal which he mentioned by name should have the power to harm him. In his catalogue of animals he forgot to name the boar, When in his pride he had dragged the earth down into the ocean it complained bitterly to Vishnu. Vishnu, therefore, took the form of a boar, with great white tusks, and plunged into the ocean to free the earth. It took him one thousand years to kill Hiranyaksha and to lift the earth up with his tusks.

[In one mythological account it is mentioned that Prajapati or Brahma found the earth covered with water and caused the earth to blow to dry it. Then he requested Vishnu to lift it up. As she dried she grew, so that one of her epithets became Prithvi—a word meaning the extended one].

[In fact the entire allegory of incarnations has a logical similarity with the much acclaimed ‘theory of evolution‘. First was this universe full of water and then the aquatic being, fish, was needed and hence the ‘Matsya’ Incarnation. Then it was very little solid mass and much of water and hence the Koorma Incarnation or the Tortoise emerged Third Incarnation was of Varaha or the Boar. As we know a boar is the best being to deal with slushy or muddy conditions. It was to clear the filth that Vishnu took the form of a Boar to make the earth dwellable. Then came Nrisimha (Man-lion) incarnation and the Lord took two more incarnations to reach the human form. It is to explain this almost scientific process that the stories were appended to various incarnations. To say that Vishnu in the form of the Boar lifted the earth out of the mess is to assert that he made the earth somewhat dwellable for life. That the earth had started the process of solidification is corroborated by the fact that—according to yet another account—when Brahma saw a lotus leaf on the waters he realised that its roots must be on something firm and he prayed Vishnu to take the form to plunge into the water and breaking off a portion of matter, he rose to the surface. This portion he placed on the lotus leaf and it became the earth.]

In the rock-cut temple at Udayagiri cave, there is a sculpture depicting Varaha lifting ‘Prithvi’ up. This dates back to around 400 AD. Varaha in the sculpture is depicted as a powerful human figure with a boar’s head. The being wears bangles, a garland of lotuses, a ‘dhoti and a covering called ‘Odhani’. It has its left foot placed on the serpent, Shesha-Naga, and a woman’s figure clings to the right tusk. In the background is the sea, and sages and other beings crowd around, worshipping the boar.

Also, at Badami there is a Chalukyana image of Maha (great) Varaha. This is dated to the 7th century A.D. Depicted as an ornamental male body, the boar is shown with a human head. The being has four arms. One carries a couch-shell (Shankha) a second carries a bladed discus (Chakra) and the third is placed on a thigh. The fourth arm holds aloft the female form of ‘Prithvi’. Reverencing kings and sages crowd around and the ‘Shesha Naga’ is shown at the feet of the boar. At Ellora, in the Dashavatara Cave, a similar boar image is shown which dates back to the 8th century. In the northern Gujarat at a village called Vihara (earlier Varahanagar) there is a 10th century (A.D.) ‘Boar Image’ showing a human trunk with a quadruped boar figure. There are certain coins dating to even earlier times showing the Varaha image imprinted on them.

The Vayu Purana eulogises the form of Yajan Varaha. It is Said that when the earth yelled for succour to Vishnu, Vishnu thought about what form should be adopt so as to redeem the earth from the sea. He finally decided on taking the form of the Yajan Varaha (the consecrated or holy Varaha). The Brahma Purana, Padma Purana and the Matsya Purana also contain hymns for the Yajan Varaha. Although even the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagwata Purana have such allusions, curiously enough, there is no trace of them in the Varaha Purana.

In this Yajan Varaha concept, Yajana (literally, the act or process of performing a sacrifice or Yagya) is believed to be of the dynamic force which creates the cosmos. It is Varaha which raises the earth up from chaos and confusion. The two are often likened to one another or they even blend together. Different parts of the boar are interpreted to be the different components of a yagya. The performance of the yagya is a ceremony performed to show the cohesion or the original cohesive forces.

The Varaha is symbolised as different parts of a yagya, developing in the process of Yajan is thirty five following epithets:

Vedapadah: The four legs of the Varaha represent the four Vedas.

Yupadamshtrah: The protruding tusks of the boar are compared with the ‘Yupa’ or the scaffolding on which the animals are sacrificed.

Kratudantah: The Kratu symbolises the sixty-four sacrifices that had to be performed in the course of a yajna and the boar had as many teeth. Hence the comparison.

Chitimukh: Chttis are fire altars. The boar’s gaping mouth was likened to these.

Agnijivhas: Literally the tongue of fire and the tongue of the Boar is compared to the tongue of fire.

Darbhaloma: The shaggy hair of the boar is compared to the ‘Darbha grass’ that is spread on altars.

Brahrnasheershaha: The head of the boar is likened to Brahma.

Ahoratrikshadherah: He (the boar) who has his two eyes like the night and the day.

Vedangashnutibhooshanah: The boar has his six earrings like the six Vedangah (the six branched of knowledge): The six subordinate branches of the Vedas viz: Shiksha, or the rules of correct pronunciation of the Vedic mantras, Kalpa or the details of religious ceremonies, Nirukta or the etymology or explanation of Vedic words, Chhanda or prosody, Jyotish or astronomy and astrology and finally Vyakarana or grammar.

Ajyanasah. The nostrils of the Boar are likened to clarified butter or ghee. As is the common knowledge ghee is sprinkled on the fire at certain sacrifices.

Sruvatundah: The boar’s protruding snout is likened to a long-handled ladle used at sacrifices.

Samaghoshasvanah: The voice of the boar is likened to the chanting of the Sama hymns.

Satyadharmamaya: The boar is full of truth and righteousness.

Karmavikrama sat krita: The powerful movements of the boar constitute the rituals of the priest of the yagya.

Prayashchittanakhoghora: The boar’s terrible claws are the difficult ceremonies that are required for one atoning for his misdeed through the performance of the yagya.

Pashujanuh: The boar’s knee-joints are compared to the broken bodies of the animals that are sacrificed.

Makhakritih: The appearance of the boar evoking a similarity with the sacrifice. [One synonym for the sacrifice or yagya is ‘Makha’].

Homalingah: The private parts of the boar are compared with the ghee offerings made in the yagya.

Udgatrantrah: Udgatras (long lyrics of Sama sooktas) are likened to the entrails of the boar.

Bijoushadhi Mahaphala: The generative organs of the boar are compared with herb.

Vayvantaratma: Vayu the wind-god, is compared to the soul of the boar.

Yajnasthivikriti: The mantras (incantations) chanted in the course of a sacrifice are compared to the bones of the boar.

Somashonita: Soma-juice is likened to the blood of the