An even older story tells us how Vishnu lost his head and the Ashwins replaced it. The Brahmana texts, which provide explanations for various Vedic rituals, inform us that Vishnu, with his bow and arrow, was extremely powerful and could protect all the gods. The gods wanted this power and did not know how to get it as it was located in Vishnu’s head. So once, when Vishnu was resting his chin on his bow, the gods asked an ant to eat the thread of the bow. The ant did so, the thread broke, the staff of the bow snapped up and Vishnu’s head was cut. It flew into the sky, and became the Sun which is why Vishnu is called Surya Narayana. Vishnu’s body fell to the ground with his neck pointing towards the eastern direction.

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In later Puranic stories, the Ashwins replaced Vishnu’s lost head with a horse’s head. The horse-headed Vishnu then could kill a horse-headed demon called Hayagriva and recover the Vedas. The horse-headed form of Vishnu known as Hayagriva is especially popular in South Indian culture and connected with knowledge. In Yajur Veda, the horse-headed sun is said to have taught Vedic secrets to Yagnavalkya. Thus the head, the horse, and the sun are connected with secret knowledge.

This inspired the Pravargya ritual, a secret ritual performed outside the village, where special pots called Mahavira, representing the solar head of Vishnu are placed on fire. In this pot, the milk of a cow and goat, along with ghee was boiled and offered to the Ashwins.

These stories are stories of loss and renewal. Pots contain food. Bad quality pots cause loss of food that is then consumed by ants. Bad quality heads lead to leakage and loss of secret knowledge. 

They also speak of wilful death and wilful rebirth—the rebirth of Vishnu, Dadhichi, Daksha and Ganesha. A man who dies in sin, and is reborn in faith becomes “born-again” as Christians would say. Or a man born of a woman who is reborn through his guru becomes  ‘dvija’ or twice-born as Brahmins would say.

The author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. Reach him at devdutt.pattanaik@mid-day.com