Maruts

About another proof that Rig Vedas had to have been written in India proper, proof discovered through applying animal calendar markers theory to one of the more obscure parts of the Marut's legends.

7th c. Maruts relief, Sambor Prei Kuk, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

In the Vedic mythology, Maruts, are a group of storm/rain deities which always accompany Indra...You can read about them in "THE MARUTS" by Uma Chakravarty...

Indra of course primarily the monsoon rain god, whose main duty is to annually defeat Vritra, the dragon of drought...You can read about this aspect of Indra in "Indra as God of Fertility" by E. Washburn Hopkins

BTW

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...

Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha"...

Marut's main duty is to bring rain. 

In RV we can read that:

They are clothed with rain

Rain follows them

They bring water and impel rain

They cover the eye of the sun with rain

They create darkness with the cloud when they shed rain

You can read more about this in "Vedic Mythology" by Macdonell, Arthur Anthony

Their mother is said to be the ocean or the heavenly cow Pṛśni (rain cloud). And their father is said to be Agni (fire) or Vāyu (wind).

A terrestrial river is called, Marudvṛddhā, 'swelled by the Maruts'.

All of this describes the summer wet monsoon

Varāhapurāṇa chapter 82: A "river of the sky" starts at the "ocean of the sky" and, being agitated by the elephant of Indra, falls at the top of mount Meru, where at the bottom it forms four great rivers...I talked about this in my post "Elephants and the river in the sky"...

In other places in Rig Veda, Maruts are said to be the sons of Rudra, and are also often called Rudras. I will talk about Rudra and Rudras soon. This is a very interesting topic which deserves its own post.

On the Sambor Prei Kuk relief, maruts are depicted riding on Makaras. 

Makara is another complex animal calendar marker for monsoon season, which could have only been developed in Indian Subcontinent. I talked about it in my posts "Yakshi" and "Makara"...

And, Makara is already found, with many other, later deified, animal calendar markers, in Indus Valley Civilisation. I talked about this in my post "Proto Durga"...

On the Sambor Prei Kuk relief, the central Marut is depicted riding on an elephant. 

Already explained that elephant is an animal calendar marker for the summer monsoon season, cause elephant mating season peaks in Jul/Aug, peak of summer monsoon season in India...

The elephant rider is flanked by two horse riders. Horse is a universal solar symbol. And horse mating season (Apr/May-Sep/Oct) marks the summer monsoon season in India...You can read more about it in my article about solar horse in India, "Hayagriva"...

Anyway, after this shortish introduction, let me get to the interesting bit 🙂

"Maruts, whose steeds are the spotted deer..." Rig Veda 7.40.3

Rig Veda is full of references to Maruts riding on chariots pulled by spotted deer. And I haven't seen one explanation why would that be the case. 

I have seen attempts to replace spotted deer with spotted horses, probably to make the whole story more Steppe Indo-European. But there is a perfectly good Indian Subcontinent explanation for this "weird" choice of ride for Monsoon Rain Gods...

The chital or cheetal, also known as the spotted deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent...

Now I explained many times before, animal calendar markers mark significant events from the annual reproduction cycle of the depicted animal: mating, birthing...

Events well known to the local population. So for the spotted deer, people in India would say: "when spotted deer start mating, that would mean that monsoon rain is soon to arrive to"...Why? Cause of this:

You can read more about cheetal deer here and here...

How would locals have known when spotted deer started to mate? Chital stags bellow loudly during mating season. Not something you can miss...

Chital Stag Bellowing - Unseen and Often Unheard Chital Deer Call

Chital stags fight madly during mating season. Also not something you can miss...

So the locals could indeed say "mating of spotted deer is followed by monsoon rain". Or they could say "spotted deer brings rain"...Or they could say "Maruts arrive on chariots pulled by spotted deer"...More poetic...

And apparently this was incomprehensibly difficult to decode for all the people who looked at Rig Veda before me...Why is that? I mean this is obvious, right? Anyone with some knowledge of Indian climate, flora and fauna could have figured this out, right?

Well, yes, if you knew about the existence of animal calendar markers, then this would be obvious. But it seems that the idea of using animals and plants as calendar markers never occurred to anyone...Before me...

And honestly, I am not bragging. I just can't believe I am...

1981, Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia...Šarlo Akrobata - O, o, o, o, o...

Prvi i Jedini 🙂 The First and The Only one

Finally, the fact that the spotted deer is an animal calendar marker for the beginning of summer monsoon in India, means that the hymns about Maruts and their spotted deer steeds had to have been composed in India proper, where all this spotted deer nonsense actually makes sense.

For those interested, I talked about deer as animal calendar marker in many different posts, like "White stag", "Deer kills snake", "Winter deer", "Lachish animal calendar", "Dancing with deer and birds", "Mythical beast from Xian"... Different deer, different mating season, different climate, different animal calendar marker, for different time of the year with different meaning.

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Elephants and the river in the sky

Varāhapurāṇa chapter 82: A "river of the sky" starts at the "ocean of the sky" and, being agitated by the elephant of Indra, falls at the top of mount Meru, where at the bottom it forms four great rivers...From "Indra as God of Fertility" 1916 article By E. WASHBURN HOPKINS, Professor in Yale University.

Basically a description of summer monsoon...

But why elephant?

Because Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...

Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha"...

As for ocean (and) river in the sky (Okeanos Potamos 🙂)

The 340 BC Derveni papyrus which contains commentary on an Orphic poem by Anaxagoras, says this: "...It is unclear to the many, but quite clear to those who have correct understanding, that Oceanus is the [river in the] air". This river? 

I talked about this in my post "River in the sky"...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Yakshi

2nd century BC relief of Yakshi, a nature spirit associated with water, trees and the fertility of the earth, standing on an elephant. Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh...

Why is Yakshi standing on an elephant? Cause rain/water = fertility...

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...This eventually lead to "elephant" becoming an animal calendar marker for "monsoon season"...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...

Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha"...

2nd century BC relief of Yakshi, a nature spirit associated with water, trees and the fertility of the earth, standing on Makara. Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh...

What is Makara and why is Yakshi standing on Makara? Cause rain/water = fertility...

Relief from the 199-100 BC stupa from Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India, depicting Makara, the "mythical being" and a vehicle of Varuna, the ex god of rain and water...Actually a complex animal calendar marker for monsoon season...Pic from: vmis.in

Makara has many forms, from a simple gharial, fish eating, crocodile, used as a mount by Varuna...

...to truly incredible composite beings. Like this one...

But interestingly, all the animals that form main Makara parts either mate or give birth or migrate during the monsoon season, and can be used as animal calendar markers for the monsoon season... I talked about Makara in my post "Makara"...

Makara is one of the best examples of how complex animal calendar markers are formed from overlapping reproductive behaviour of many different animal species...

And how they are then morphed into "mythical beings" linked to gods which control the part of the year these calendar marker once marked...

Also check this article about "Proto Durga", which talks about gharial crocodile as calendar marker, which probably predates Makara, and was the original vehicle of the rain god, before Indra arrived on his elephant...

Which is why Yakshi stands on Makaras...

Yakshas have intimate connection with (life giving) waters: "Yakshas control, not so much the waters as mere waters, but that essence in the waters which is one...with the seed (sperm) in living beings"...

Rain as semen of the Sky father which fertilises Earth mother an creates life...A common "mythological" theme in areas where we have dry and wet season...

Anyway, I think this is kind of interesting...To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Turtles all the way

In Hindu mythology, the earth is supported by four elephants standing on the back of a turtle. 

It's Diskworld by Terry Pratchett. He stole his Diskworld idea from the Hindus...For a laugh...Cause he thought it was the most idiotic world myth there was...Bonkers, right? Complete nonsense, right? 

Not if you look at turtle and elephants as animal calendar markers: It's all a complex calendar marker for the monsoon season...

Elephants:

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white elephant...

I wrote about elephant as an animal calendar marker in India in these articles: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha".

Turtles:

There are many turtle and tortoise species in India. So which one is "The World Turtle"? Apparently, The World Turtle is the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu...And Hindus believe that the animal in question is Indian Star Tortoise. You can read about it in this paper "A star attraction: The illegal trade in Indian Star Tortoises"... 

And Indian Star Tortoises mate during monsoon season. You can read about it in this paper "Husbandry Guidelines For Indian Star Tortoise" 

It is very interesting that this sacred tortoise of Vishnu, Kurma, is associated "with the sun"...Vishnu has tendencies to be associated with solar animals...I talked about this in my article about Solar Horse Hayagriva, also Vishnu avatar...

But equally tortoise was believed to be "The lord of waters" and "The sap of life". You can read about it in this article "Tortoise in the Vedic mythology and ritual"...

Why is this important? Cause the monsoon season in India is the sunniest, hottest time of the year in India...

So I don't think that in this legend, the earth is really "The Earth"...It is more like Life giving earth...Apparently, Prajapati, the Procreator, took the shape of a turtle when creating all living beings...

So that's one possible explanation...But maybe I am wrong and this is all just a bonkers story that makes no sense...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Makara

Hindu god Varuna, riding Makara, "a mythical being" which was sometimes (like on this 17th century illustration) depicted as a crocodile...

So why would Varuna ride on a crocodile? To answer this question, we first have to look into who Varuna is. Actually who he was, at the time when his mythology and symbolism was developed...

During the Vedic period, Varuna was "The Man", the Sky God who controlled "The Waters": sea, rivers, rain...As one would expect from a Sky god in India, where rivers are filled with the rain that arrives with the monsoon winds from the sea...

In Vedas, Varuna was also twinned with Indra, the Storm god, and together they are referred to as Indra-Varuna. In Rg Veda 4.42, Varuna explicitly states the connection between himself and Indra:

"I, Varuna, am king...I, Varuna, am Indra [too]"

Eventually, through some political machinations, Indra became the overall ruler of the skies and rain...And Varuna was officially relieved of his "water duties"...

But, the Vedic Varuna, is being revered even now as the God of Rain...

When it rains for the first time during the monsoon, tillers of agricultural fields still say, “Varuna-demudu-karunichaadu” (God Varuna has shown empathy)...

But sometimes Varuna gets angry, monsoon rains are late or not as plentiful...

And when there is a low rainfall, because the Rain-God is angry or upset, the Varuna Yajna ritual is performed, during which temple priests immerse themselves in huge barrels of water, chanting Lord Varuna’s name...

So here we have a rain god. And he is riding on a crocodile...Why? 

Remember when in my post "Musth" I explained why Indra, Varuna's alter ego, is riding on an elephant?

It is all because Indian elephants mate between Jun and Sep, during the monsoon season...

With the peak of the mating season coinciding with the peak of the rain season, Jul/Aug...

So elephant that Indra rides on is just an animal calendar marker for rain season...So why is Varuna riding on a crocodile? Again, crocodile here is an animal calendar marker for the monsoon, rain season...

Remember my post "Blue boy" about the crocodile related folklore from China? The post about Kiao (Jiaolong)...

While I was researching it, I learned that there are three main crocodile types that live in India: gharials, muggers and salt water crocodiles...

And then I came across this paper "Aquatic Faunal Diversity in Eastern Ghats" which said that in India: "Hatching occurs during June and July in gharials and muggers and July and August in salt water crocodiles."

Considering that the crocodile eggs incubation period is between 55 and 85 days, that means that the eggs are laid from around the beginning of summer, Apr/May...And the beginning of the monsoon season...

And as the crocodile mothers stay around their nests, and guard them ferociously, the sudden appearance of all these irritable crocodile mums on river banks is the sign that "Varuna the Rain God" is on his way...

The crocodiles river bank invasion lasts until the last croc baby is born, around the peak of the monsoon, Jul/Aug...And then they disappear into the churning waters of the overflowing rivers (river water levels peak during the peak monsoon)...

Hence Varuna rides on a crocodile...Except he isn't really riding on a crocodile. He is riding on a Makara, "a mythical being" from Hindu mythology. Which is sometimes depicted as a crocodile...But mostly it is a composite animal, half terrestrial and half aquatic...

But don't be fooled by the priests...What I will to show in this post is that Makara is not "a chimeric mythical being". Instead, it is a complex animal calendar marker for the monsoon season...

In its simplest form, Makara is "Half elephant, half fish"...

Well we have seen that Elephant mating season overlaps with the monsoon season. So that explains the elephant part. But what about the fish part?

Remember this post, "Dragon gate" about fish animal calendar marker from China? Which was based on migratory carp, which starts swimming up the rivers at the beginning of the monsoon season in China...

Wherever we find big migratory fish, we find them also embedded into local mythology as deified calendar markers...

Remember this post, "Fig with bulls" (and fish)?

In it, I talked about Indus river migratory "palla" fish and all the fish depictions on Indus Valley civilisation artefacts...

"Palla" fish migrates into and out of Indus River during the monsoon season which in Indus Valley lasts between Jun and Sep. So is the fish part of Makara animal calendar marker "palla" fish? I originally thought so...

Possibly. But today I discovered another migratory fish that lives in Indian rivers: mahseer.  This giant fish migrates upstream at the beginning of the monsoon and spawns during the period between Jul to Sep...Peak monsoon season...

So considering that mahseer is much bigger than palla, and much easier to spot migrating, I think that this is even better candidate for the fish animal calendar marker for monsoon season...And the tail part of Makara...

But there is actually another migratory aquatic animal, that swims up Indian rivers during monsoon season. South Asian river dolphin, also known as Ganges dolphin.

During monsoon season, these dolphins migrate to tributaries of the main river systems, "sometimes swimming along with their beaks emerging from the water, and jumping partly or completely clear of the water"...

Not something you would miss if you lived by the river...

So we have mad rampaging mating elephants and giant fish swimming up rivers, as the rain pour down from the sky...Hence Varuna riding on Makara, a "mythical beast", half elephant, half fish...

But believe or not Makara can get even more elaborate than this. It is "also shown in an abstract, chimeric form with head and jaws of a crocodile, an elephant trunk, lion's feat, fish scales and a peacock tail"...This thing...

Insane, right? If you didn't know about complex animal calendar markers, you would think that these guys must have been smoking some really strong stuff when they invented something like this...🙂

But we know that elephant and crocodile and fish are all animal calendar markers for monsoon season. So what about lion and peacock?

Well, why is Leo marking Jul/Aug? Cause this is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions starts. And has always started...Leo originally had nothing to do with stars...

And guess what happens in Jul/Aug in India? Monsoon peaks...

What about peacocks? Well, the breeding season of the Indian peafowl is closely related to the monsoon. It starts just before the monsoon arrives, in Apr/May in southern India and in Jun in Northern India...

The loud peacock's call, resembles the "miaou" of a gigantic cat. In Northern India it is said to form, the syllable “Menhao” meaning “Come Rain!” for the peacock is especially noisy at the approach of the rainy season...

Sooo...Another two animal calendar markers for the monsoon season...So every one of the animal bits that were used to create magical vehicle of Varuna, the old god of monsoon, is an animal calendar marker for monsoon season...

Oh by the way, Makara is not only the vehicle of Varuna. The personification of the River Ganga also rides on Makara? 

Why? Because Ganges river water level peaks during the peak of the monsoon season...I talked about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

And why is goddess Ganga holding a lotus flower while riding on a crocodile? Cause lotus peak flowering season is July-August, the peak monsoon season in the Ganga river catchment area...When crocodiles hatch...

Lakshmi (I talked about here in my post "Modesty"), the goddess of prosperity and wealth, who is associated with elephants and lots, also rides on Makara...

Prosperity in India is directly dependant on agriculture which is dependant on the monsoon...Hence all the plants growing out of Makara's body and pouring out of Makara's mouth...

BTW, goddess Sarasvati ("Monsoon flood") also rides on Makara...I wonder why? 🙂 I talked about Sarasvati and her sisters in my post "Bitch of the gods"...

Anyway, just when you think Makara can't get any crazier, it turns out it can...

In even more complex form, Makara is said to have: "the crocodile jaws, elephant trunk, lion's feet, wild boar's tusks and ears, monkey's eyes, fish scales and peacock's tail". 🙂

Ok, here we go again...Monkey...If I was a betting man, I would bet that the monkey here is sacred Hanuman langur... 

And this monkey's peak mating season is Jul-Oct, peak monsoon season...

So that fits...

Oh BTW, isn't Hanuman, divine monkey from Vedas, "who was stealing offerings dedicated to Indra, the God of Rain"? The monkey whose father was Vayu, the God of (monsoon) Winds? I mean Hanuman monkeys are all conceived during the time when monsoon wind blows and rain falls...

Finally what about the boar...This was really annoying. The Indian wild boar (seriously cool looking beast) starts mating in Oct/Nov, like all the other wild boar, hence wild boar being pretty universal animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov and winter...

This is after the monsoon season ends...so this doesn't fit...

I was about to give up, and admit that I really have no idea why boar was used as part of the Makara complex animal calendar marker for monsoon season...

And then I remembered my post "Lei Kung" about thunder god from Chinese folk religion. Where we discovered that in China it was wild boar birthing, not mating season, that was the important event used to create calendar marker.

Remember, animal calendar markers are created from both mating (Leo, lion mating season) and birthing (Taurus, auroch calving season). 

Indian wild boar piglets are born between Mar and May. Just before the beginning of the monsoon season...So is this why wild boar?

And, there is another wild pig species in India, which gives birth to piglets exactly at the beginning of the monsoon, in Apr/May: Pygmy hog...

Soooo....I think this fits too...

That's it...What do you think? Cool? 

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...