Vritra- Hindu DemonDemon · Monster"The Enveloper"
Also known as: Ahi, Vritrasura, वृत्र, and Vṛtra
Titles & Epithets
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Description
Coiled upon the mountains, the serpent Vritra held back the seven rivers and sealed the cosmic waters within stone, bringing drought upon the world. Indra, strengthened by soma and armed with the thunderbolt vajra, split the serpent open and released the waters to roar toward the sea.
Mythology & Lore
The Slaying
Rigveda 1.32 tells the story. Vritra, whose name means "the enveloper," lay coiled upon the mountains, holding back the seven rivers. The world was in drought. Indra drank three draughts of soma and took up the thunderbolt vajra, fashioned by Tvashtar. The serpent is described as shoulderless, footless, and without hands, a formless mass of obstruction. Indra struck him with the vajra, splitting open the mountains and releasing the waters to flow toward the sea. The hymn ends with Vritra's mother Danu lying beside her slain son, the waters running over her.
Dadhichi's Bones
The Mahabharata tells a different version. Tvashtar created Vritra to avenge his son Vishvarupa, whom Indra had killed. The demon proved so formidable that Indra was forced to negotiate a truce: he swore he would not attack Vritra by day or night, with weapon of wood or stone, wet or dry.
Indra broke the oath. At twilight, on the seashore, he struck Vritra with a weapon made from the bones of the sage Dadhichi, who had voluntarily given his skeleton for the purpose. Foam from the ocean clung to the bone, making it neither wet nor dry. The hour was neither day nor night. Vritra fell.
The deception burdened Indra with the sin of brahmahatya, brahmin-killing, which drove him into hiding and left heaven without a king. In the Bhagavata Purana, Vritra dies as a devotee of Vishnu, accepting his death with equanimity and desiring only liberation.