Narayana (Glossary)

The deity Narayana appears as a form of the Hindu god Visnu fused together with the Vedic primordial being known as Purusa. Narayana is often depicted as floating on a bed of serpents in the Milky Ocean, an imagery found also in the Vedas were a cosmic Yaksha (tree spirit) floats on the primordial waters prior to creation.

Narayana can be broken down etymologically into nara "man" and ayana "coming, arrival," in reference to the deity as the cosmic man and pantheistic cause of creation. The word "nara" might also refer to water and Narayana's association with the ocean.

During the rainy season in the summer months, Narayana is said to fall asleep on the Milky Ocean, connecting his name also to the coming or arrival of water i.e. the summer rains.

Narayana and Pangu/Panhu

Like Narayana in the form of Purusa, the Chinese primordial being Pangu is portrayed as a cosmic being from which the world is created. Panhu, the dog king, is probably identical with Pangu, both having the same father Hundun -- the cosmic dumpling or gourd that floats on the ocean.

The dog-shaped Hundun, and the imagery of Panhu swimming across the flood, or over the ocean to the Dog Tumulus Country (Quan-feng-kuo), brings to mind Narayana's floating over the Milky Ocean.

Indeed, the dog imagery associated with Pangu, appears as horse imagery in association with Narayana. While Narayana as Purusa is closely linked with the Asvamedha horse sacrifice, the lei dog sacrifice to Shang-ti has some related pantheistic aspects.

Shang-ti refers to the Shang dynasty kings' sacrifice of their ancestors and was specifically connected with the location of the Fusang Tree. Instituted by Shun (Di Jun), the Shang-ti ritual was closely connected with dogs and rice, and the lei sacrifice mirrors some of the imagery of the Pangu/Panhu story of dismemberment during the world's creation.

In the Asvamedha, a swimming dog is sacrificed during the opening ceremony. Rice also plays an important part in the Vedic horse ritual. Wendy Doniger notes the rice links mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana:

The Adhvaryu cooks the priests' mess of rice; it is seed he thereby produces...For when the horse was immolated, its seed went from it and became gold; thus, when he gives gold (to the priests) he supplies the horse with seed...For the ball of rice is seed, and gold is seed; by means of seed he thus lays seed into that (horse and sacrificer) (SB 14.1.1.,1-4)

During the Mahisi ritual of the Asvamedha sacrifice, fried rice grains are thrown at the horse. Rice also plays an important part in an Assam horse ritual in which a dance with a horse image lasts throughout the night after which the body of the image is thrown into a river and the head preserved for another year. During the river ritual, rice is eaten by the participants.

Horse's head

There are various tales of Visnu having a horse's head and human body. Not surprisingly these horse forms are closely linked with Narayana-Purusa.

Narayana is said to have taken the form of the sage Vadavamukha, the submarine mare's head that devours the salty waters of the ocean turning them into fresh water. He also is associated with Hayasiras, the horse-headed deity who saves the Vedic texts after they are stolen by demons.

Kalki, the final avatar of Visnu, is also associated with Narayana and often portrayed with a horse's head.


Kalki with horse's head, source: http://www.karma2grace.org/encyclopedia/Kalki.html


Narayana as horse-headed Hayagriva, source: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/vasu/cambodia/museeguimet/hayagriva.htm

Thus did the blessed Hari [Visnu] assume in days of old that grand form having the equine head. This, of all his forms, endued with puissance, is celebrated as the most ancient. That person who frequently listens or mentally recites this history of the assumption by Narayana of the form equipt with the equine head, will never forget his Vedic or other lore.

-- Mahabharata 12:47

In China, Panhu, the culture hero who brings rice agriculture, and his descendents in Quan-feng-kuo are often described as having dogs' heads. In medieval times, the Dog Tumulus Country is conflated with Fusang, where we now find the dog-headed men together with the associated kingdom of women.

That this is not a coincidence is also supported by the fact that both Narayana and Panhu are located in the same general region, and at times in the same specific area. If we equate the Vourukasha Sea with the Milky Ocean as we have done previously using the story of Trita, then we know that at least in medieval times these oceans were identified with the "Sea of Chin."

Malaysia and the Philippines retain concepts, now confined to the area of demonology, that could explain the theme of animal and bird-headed humans. The Penanggalan in Malaysia and the Manananggal in the Philippines are now a type of vampire known to detach their heads from their bodies. These heads, often trailed by the person's entrails, fly around at night and come back to rejoin the body during the day.

Thus, the flying detached heads are quite similar to the principle of the kaladua or spirit-double but with a more anthropomorphic twist. The names of both head-detaching creatures are derived from the word tanggal which means "to detach or remove." As the kaladua spirit roams away from the body mostly at night so the detached head flies from the body of the Penanggalan, Manananggal and the Asuang.

In the case of a bird or animal double, the head represents the person's other self. So for the Asuang, the detached head is in principle that of a dog. While in modern Christianized culture, the Asuang has become an enemy of children and childbirth, originally it can confidently be said that the situation was reversed. The dog was seen as a protector of children, something that still survives in the use of dog-teeth necklaces to protect young ones from evil, including protection from the Asuang!

Indian lore often explains the horse's heads of gods and sages as coming after the original head is cut off. Various explanations are given for this procedure. In some cases, the human head is seen to represent bodily desire, while the horse's head contains the knowledge of the Vedas. Some view the horse's head as a symbol of the Sun.

However, even with other animal incarnations of Visnu, we see often that they are sometimes represented as humans with animal heads. This indicates the idea of a double nature.

Sa-Huynh-Kalanay bicephalous pendants may connect with this idea of the double self. There are other indications of dual thinking in this culture including the lingling-o earrings with decorations at each of the four quadrants, and the hexagonal and octagonal cut jade beads.

Object of pilgrimage

Classical sources mention journeys to the eastern island of Svetadvipa to visit Narayana by personages such as Narada, Trita, Rama, Ravana, and the four Kumaras.

Such pilgrimages may link with the Tibetan Buddhist journeys to Shambhala, which in Hindu tradition is linked with horse-headed Kalki. Indeed the Garuda Purana mentions Shambhala as a pilgrimage destination:

"...the village of Shambhala is a good place of pilgrimage. The sanctuary of Narayana is a great shrine, whereas a pilgrimage to holy forest Vadarika leads to the emancipation of self."

Despite the number of Tibetan guidebooks for journeys to Shambhala, the location is not specifically mentioned in the Kalacakratantra as a pilgrimage destination. It may have been included in the location of Suvarnadvipa, that is listed as one of the pilgrimage sites known as upamelapaka in the Kalacakratantra.

Mention has been made of expeditions by Chinese emperors and kings to find the fabled island of Penglai. In messianic Buddhist-Daoist texts that started appearing in the sixth century CE, savior kings known as Prince Moonlight (Yueguang tongzi) and the King of Light (Mingwang) came into being. Writings like the Scripture of the Monk Shouluo and the Scripture of the Realization of Understanding Preached by the Boddhisattva Samantabhadra told of voyages to Penglai to visit Prince Moonlight's kingdom.

The messianic king of Penglai may be the same as the Rigden king of Shambhala, who also figured in millenarian prophecy. Penglai is frequently mentioned together with Fusang in Chinese texts, and the latter seems to be fused with Dog Tumulus Country in the latter literature. Today, for example, Chinese often ascribe the origin of Taiwan's indigenous people either or equally to Panhu and/or the inhabitants of Penglai, as the related locations are hard to distinguish from each other.

Shambhala's rigden kings were identified with incarnations of Visnu in Kalacakra texts. For example, the commentator Mipham says Rigden Manjushrikirti is the same as the Matsya or fish incarnation of Visnu. So, the Shambhala kings are easily connected to Narayana also and to the savior Kalki.

Messianic kingdom

Hindu texts say that Kalki, the last avatar of Visnu, comes from the village of Sambhala (Shambhala), and many researchers equate this with Tibetan prophecies of the messianic king Raudracakrin, the 25th Rigden of Shambhala.

Both Raudracakrin and Kalki are said to arrive on horseback, and Kalki is often portrayed as a horse or as a human with a horse's head. Raudracakrin defeats his enemies using the meditation of the "best of horses." Prince Moonlight also marches into the final battle on a "dragon-horse."

"Kulika," the name of Raudracakrin's dynasty and also possibly the name "Kalki" are derived from the words kaula and kula, derivatives of which can refer to "family" and "birth" and also mean "dog."

kulika -- "one of good family, noble birth"
kauleya -- "sprung from a good family, a dog"
kauleyaka -- "sprung from a noble family, pertaining to family, a dog"
kauleyakuTumbini -- "dog's wife, bitch"
kauleyakah -- "dog" (kula + dhakan, Panini As.t.a-dhya-yi- 4.2.96)

Chinese millenarian views date back at least to the sage Mencius who claimed that about every 500 years a sage would arise to restore the natural order. Daoists fused their seer Lao Tzu with the primordial Pangu/Panhu and beliefs arose that Lao Tzu would reincarnate periodically as the savior Li Hong during degenerate times.

Li Hong evolved together with the Buddhist-Daoist Prince Moonlight and the King of Light, the latter two possibly being the same person. These beliefs came to incorporate also the doctrine involving the coming Buddha known as Maitreya. Predicted dates for the coming of Li Hong and Prince Moonlight often matched.

According to the prophecies, a time of cosmic decay would arise leading eventually to a great final battle between divine and demonic troops. Prince Moonlight appears from his kingdom in Penglai, predicting the coming events and instructing in the means of salvation. Those elect few who hear his words are saved as Prince Moonlight leads them to Penglai, or in other versions to the Tushita Heaven, to escape the coming tribulation.

Some have claimed the millennial conflict betrays Manichean influence although cataclysmic dualistic battles are found in some of the oldest Chinese literature. In the Yaodian, which Joseph Needham has dated to between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE on philological grounds, but with astronomical data going back to the third millennium BCE, Emperor Yao battles the flood-ravaging demon Gong-gong. After defeating Gong-gong the earth is titled toward the Southeast causing rivers to flow into a maelstrom and hole in the Earth located in the Southeastern Ocean and known as the Weilu.

Likewise in the Huainanzi of the Han Dynasty, we hear of the battles of the fire and water gods before Nu Gua raises the sky from the earth.

After Prince Moonlight's apocalyptic victory, a new world is reconstructed having great peace and opulence.

The advanced millenarian movements in China were concentrated mostly in the South, with the first center at Nanjing. Cults like the White Lotus tradition were concentrated mainly in northern Fujian and northern Jiangxi. Later the messianic movements became strongly centered in southeastern coastal regions like Fujian and eastern Guangdong.

Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese millennial beliefs thus tend to cluster around Narayana or his cognates, and around the specific locations of the Milky Ocean and Svetadvipa, which act as a backdrop for the Visnu incarnations and as birthplace for the final messianic avatar. The geographic reference is of great importance and like Penglai and Shambhala the precise location is somewhat "hidden" adding to its mystery and allure.

Prester John's communications starting in the 12th century laid claim to the Indies including the Garden of Eden, which in the view of the Ptolemaic astronomers of Muslim Spain, would rest 180 degrees east of the Fortunate Isles in the Sea of Chin. According to Prester John himself, it was from his kingdoms that the final battle would break out, and there one could find both the lost Ten Tribes and apocalyptic Gog and Magog nations. A descendent of Prester John would lead the battle ushering in the Second Coming. Such messages sparked a new wave of voyages in search of the Milky Ocean and the island of Narayana.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Doniger, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 155.

Ownby, David. "Chinese Millenarian Traditions: The Formative Age," The American Historical Review 104.5 (1999): 38 pars. 14 Nov. 2006 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr//104.5/ah001513.html>.

Glossary: Elixir

The elixir that promotes health, rejuvenates, prolongs life or even grants immortality is included among the forms of what Stephen Oppenheimer calls "edible immortality."

On Penglai, the Chinese isle of immortals, everything from the water to the plants and fruits promote longevity and well-being. In the Churning of the Milky Ocean myth as related in the Mahabharata the ashes and runoff created by the fiery holocaust on Mt. Mandara produces, among other things, a jar of the elixir of immortality.

Apparently the light-colored ash flowing into the sea turns the ocean into a milky or white color. In the Milky Ocean, therefore, there is a Svetadvipa or "White Island" where everything is white. Also on Penglai it is sometimes said that all the plants and animals are white. This may refer symbolically to the milk-colored volcanic substances that are said to have the "power of the Elixir" and which blanket the entire region after an eruption.

In the Zoroastrian literature, the White Haoma of the Varkash (Vourukasha) Sea is also said to be prepared as the ambrosia of the immortals.

Both the Indian and Persian literature link the Soma and Haoma respectively with the ocean. The Khorda Avesta (5:8) calls the Vourukasha, the "deep sea of salt waters." Tides and ocean currents are also apparently mentioned as having action upon this ocean:

Ahura Mazda answered It is even so as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathustra! I, Ahura Mazda, send the waters from the sea Vouru-kasha down with the wind and with the clouds.

I, Ahura Mazda, make them stream down to the corpses; I, Ahura Mazda, make them stream down to the Dakhmas; I, Ahura Mazda, make them stream down to the unclean remains; I, Ahura Mazda, make them stream down to the bones; then I, Ahura Mazda, make them flow back unseen; I, Ahura Mazda, make them flow back to the sea Pûitika.

'The waters stand there boiling, boiling up in the heart of, the sea Pûitika, and, when cleansed there, they run back again from the sea Pûitika to the sea Vouru-kasha, towards the well-watered tree, whereon grow the seeds of my plants of every kind [by hundreds, by thousands, by hundreds of thousands].

-- Vendidad 2:17-19

During the medieval period, Albumasar apparently develops these old Iranian concepts into a theory of tides in his work Great Introduction to Astrology. Albumasar's theory was adopted by Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, William of Auvergne, Albert the Great and others. The influence of the Moon on tides and the ocean is interesting in connection with the elixir as "Soma" is also a Sanskrit name for the Moon.

Oppenheimer has shown in Eden in the East how the waxing and waning of the Moon was seen in very ancient times as a sign of the immortality of the lunar deity. He feels that myths connected with the Moon and immortality were diffused by Austro-Asiatic peoples.

Iranian cosmology places the cosmic mountain at the farthest shore of the Varkash Sea to the East. From this mountain flow all the world's water after purifying the "underworld."

Waters from rivers and streams flow first into the sea where they apparenly eventually make their way east to west following the prevailing winds over the ocean. At the Western horizon they fall into "hell" where they wash away all impurities. From hell they make their way back into the cosmic mountain where initially they appear like "quicksilver" (Rivayats 1:91), and then flow into the Varkash Sea. From there, they again travel from East to West. It is this motion that causes the ebb and flow of the tide according to early tradition.

In the Varkash Sea is the White Haoma tree and also the Tree of Many Seeds. The trees are protected by a great fish known as the Kar and the Simurgh bird, which is portrayed usually with a dog or human head. The White Haoma is explicitely tied to the "Water of Life."


The Simurgh Bird that protects the Tree of Many Seeds

The Soma of Indic tradition also appears not to have been so much a single plant as the life-force of plants in the waters: "...in appearance like the sun, he [Soma] runs through the lakes, the seven streams and heaven" (Rgveda 9:52:2).

Production of both Soma and Haoma may be seen as partly a ritual reenactment of the great cataclysmic event that produced the original pot of elixir. The Soma pounded from medicinal herbs was mixed or "clothed" in milk possibly to resemble the ash-colored ocean of milk.

Even in the Rgvedic production of Soma, there appears to be an allusion to the primordial event -- a pit known as uparava, one arm-length in depth is dug in the earth to mix the juice pounded with sacred stones from the Soma herbs. The pit is reminiscent of the underworld association of the "waters of life" in mythologies from Sumer to Hawai`i.

Iranian myth mentions a three-legged "ass," apparently a whale since it is said to be the source of ambergris (Bundahishn 11:12), that purifies the fluids of the earth that return to the Varkash Sea.

Also in the midst of the sea is the great bull Sarsaok with flames shooting up out of its back. In some sources, it is said that this bull is slain in the last days and its marrow used to make the White Haoma of immortality. It is from the flames of this bull's back that the sacred Zoroastrian temple fires were brought.

Obviously, the flaming Sarsaok bull can be equated with the White Haoma tree and again with the cosmic/volcanic mountain. Also the three-legged ass or whale may also refer to the purifying fire's shooting up from the bull's back and protecting the elixir.

The word for ass is kar, and the great fish that guards the Tree of Many Seeds is known as the Kar Mahi or "ass-like fish." Thus the Kar and Kar Mahi may be the same -- a large fish or whale that resembles a three-legged ass.

Guarding of the sacred trees may refer to their fiery nature, as the Kar is also the purifier of the waters. In a similar sense, the Hebrew Bible speaks of the flaming sword that guarded the way of Eden.

Haoma's whiteness again bespeaks of the whitish ash of the volcanic eruption. In the Ayurvedic tradition of India, the incineration of plants and metals into bhasma or ash plays an important role in the making of medicines. We can look at the metals here as standing also for the great quantities of earth incinerated during the eruption. Bhasma smeared on the body of the god Siva or on the bodies of ascetics symbolizes purity through the fire of austerity, and the immortality thus gained.


Ascetics known as Nagasadhus, smeared with ash, gather for a dip in the Ganges River during the Kumbhamela pilgrimage. According to legend, some of the elixir produced during the churning of the milk ocean dropped here from the pot of Dhanvantari. (Source: http://spirit-of-india.com/SpiritualJourneys/index.html)

In the latter practice of alchemy, the ingredients of plants, metals, water and fire used to produce the elixir attempt to recreate some of the chemistry caused by the natural cataclysmic event.

Al-Balkhi and his followers placed the palace of the immortals, Kangdez, and the Varkash Sea in the same location as the Indian Yamakoti.

Quests for the Elixir

Both the Muslim and Greek geographers compressed the known world from East to West to fit into their worldviews. Ptolemy in his Geography, sought to extend the distance from the Happy Isles to Cattigara to 180 degrees.

Quite interestingly, in most of the known distances in Geography, such as those between Rome and Alexandria, between the latter and Babylon, etc., the real degree of longitude was about 3/4 of Ptolemy's longitude degree. If Ptolemy simply wanted to create fictional lands, he could have easily represented a fully-inhabited globe. However, mariners of his day would have ridiculed such a representation since they had no knowledge of any ability to circumnavigate the earth.

For Ptolemy then only half of the globe was inhabitable and he sought to fit the known world into that 180 degrees.

The Hindu astronomers appeared to have shrunk the real degree of longtitude to one-half in order to represent the known world as extending around the globe. Thus, the distance from Lanka to Romaka is given as 90 degrees when it is just slightly over 45 degrees. If we look at the real distance of the Hindu quadrants, they would represent nearly the division of the world into eight rather than four parts.

Kangdez's location was very much similar to that of the medieval Christian Garden of Eden. From this location was said to come eastern spices like aloeswood, cinnamon, cassia and ginger in both Christian and Muslim tradition. Indeed such association for these spices hails back to the Book of Enoch and the Old Testament where the mount of God appears as topped with fire and smoke.

This mountain, the omphalos, was the fountain also of the underground "waters of life" -- the Sumerian Abzu.

Many Austronesian myths locate the "water of life" in paradise, which often is also the land of the ancestors, the land of the dead. The Samoans knew of Bulotu, a blessed land whose lord has a home made of the bones of dead chiefs. Spirits come here to bathe in the water of life and regain strength. The Fijians know of the same place called Burotu or Murotu where a speaking tree is found near the waters of life.

A "river of living water" found in the mythology of San Cristoval refreshes the souls of the dead and grants immortality to the devout. In the Philippines, many indigenous peoples take ritual baths in rivers and streams to rejuvenate the body, using bundles of sacred herbs, leaves or grasses dipped in the water to baptize each other.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The Churning of the Milky Ocean

In China, the legendary emperor Fu Hsi is said to have founded the phoenix clan of the Dong Yi people of Shandong.

Fu Hsi is credited with having introduced many new things including the I Ching divination system. The I Ching may have been derived from the early oracle bone divination that used shells from sacrificed turtles. Shen-Shung Ling believed that turtle sacrifice in ancient China was of Austronesian origin and it has continued in Austronesia until modern times.

Chinese legend also states that Fu Hsi introduced the art of chicken raising and chicken egg-laying. According to research by Akshino Fumihito, the chicken was domesticated in Southeast Asia from the red junglefowl. Fumihito, by the way, is the brother of crown prince Naruhito of Japan. In Shinto, the national religion of that country, the chicken is considered sacred to the sun goddess Amaterasu, the ancestress of the imperial family.

The churning of the Milky Ocean was an epic event that sent ash and lahar into the sea, in this case the South China Sea, turning it into a milky color.

Note in the earlier quote from the Mahabharata, that the volcanic debris was thought to have qualities of an "elixir." Indeed, among the products of the oceanic churning is said to be a jar filled with amrita the elixir of immortality. We will return to this motif later.

The Milky Ocean story involves two opposing forces -- the Devas and the Danavas. We will see that many scattered myths also involve a divine war in circumstances that are also surprisingly similar.

For example, Nu Gua, the wife of Fu Hsi is said to have mended the sky after a battle between the Fire God and the Water God. The war resulted in a great cataclysm of fire and water that caused the collapse of a massive mountain. Again, this sounds very similar to a volcanic eruption.

Volcanoes tend to draw clouds during an eruption and create their own storm systems.

In far-off Greece we again encounter what may be allusion to a volcanic eruption. According to Hesiod, the Golden Race lived during the Golden Age when the seven Titans headed by Cronus ruled over heaven and earth.

Hesiod says that when Zeus and the gods overthrew the Titans the forests were set ablaze and the oceans "boiled and seethed."

According to Homer, Zeus "had also thrust great Cronos down beneath earth and the restless sea," to Tartaros. In the Iliad, Hera sometimes travels "to visit Oceanus at the far end of the earth, from whom the gods are sprung." In Greek legend, when volcanoes erupt they reveal the Giants or Titans imprisoned by Zeus below.

As we go on, the various motifs in the Greek myths including those concerning the underworld will turn up again in different cultures. These are part of the great body of myths that Oppenheimer has suggested are linked directly with the great migrations from Southeast Asia.

The churning of the ocean occurs not only from the volcanic eruptions but from the resulting sea migrations of people. These people carry various cultural items that are said to be the products of the churning including the jar of amrita, the conch shell trumpet and the archery bow known as sarnga.

For more information on the geographc location of the Milky Ocean, see the following article:

A new look at Vedic India

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento