DISAPPEARING DRAGONS AND RUSSIAN DOLLS: UNPACKING THE VRTRAHATYA IN THE ÅRANYAKAPARVA: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The story of Indra’s battle with V®tra, and his subsequent release of the imprisoned waters, is a myth which dominates the ‰gveda and is still told in the texts of later Hinduism. In its Rgveda form the myth has been the subject of a number of studies and interpretations, but few of the more detailed analyses of the story incorporate any of the post-Vedic versions. An exception to this is that of Hillebrandt, which follows a study of the Rgvedic myth with an investigation into the changes it has undergone in the texts of classical Hinduism (1980 [1899]: 134-146). Hillebrandt concludes that while the classical versions of the conflict retain the shell and some “stock phrases” from the earlier text, the purport and significance of the story has been lost in a religious environment that no longer shares the worldview or values that formed it:
The legends deal no more with the liberation of the streams; now it is merely a battle between V®tra and the Dånavas or Kålakeyas who flocked around him on the one hand and Indra and the gods led by him on the other . . .the entire concept is thoroughly altered... In the shape assumed by V®tra in the [Mahåbhårata] . . . there is no trace of the original basic conception.