Hinduism
In
Hinduism, Lord Hayagriva is an
avatar of Lord
Vishnu. He is worshipped as the god of
knowledge and
wisdom, with a human body and a horse's head, brilliant
white in color, with white garments and seated on a white
lotus.
Symbolically, the story represents the triumph of pure knowledge,
guided by the hand of God, over the demonic forces of passion and
darkness.
Origins about the worship of Hayagriva have been researched, some of the early evidences dates back to 2,000 BCE, when
Indo-Aryan people worshipped the horse for its speed, strength, intelligence.Hayagriva is one of the prominent deities in
Vaishnava
tradition. His blessings are sought when beginning study of both sacred
and secular subjects. Special worship is conducted on the day of the
full moon in August (Śravaṇa-Paurṇamī) (his
avatāra-dina) and on
Mahanavami, the ninth day of the
Navaratri festival. He is also hailed as "Hayasirsa". Hayaśirṣa means haya=Horse, śirṣa=Head.
In IAST
jñānānandamayaṃ devaṃ nirmalasphaṭikākṛtiṃ
ādhāraṃ sarvavidyānāṃ hayagrīvaṃ upāsmahe
In Devanāgarī
ज्ञानानन्दमयं देवं निर्मलस्फटिकाकृतिं
आधारं सर्वविद्यानां हयग्रीवं उपास्महे
This verse is originally from the Pañcarātra Agamas but is now popularly prefixed to the
Hayagriva Stotram of the 13th-century poet-philosopher
Vedanta Desika. It is very popular among devotees of Hayagrīva.
Hindu iconography
Vedanta Desika's
dhyāna-śloka (meditative verse) on Hayagrīva typifies this deity's depiction in Hindu iconography:
He has four lotus hands, with one in the mode of bestowing knowledge;
another holds books of wisdom, and the other two hold the Conch and Discus.
His beauty, like fresh cut crystal, is an auspicious brilliance that never decays.
May this Lord of speech who showers such cooling rays of grace
on me be forever manifest in my heart!
In the Mahavairocana-sutra [Sūtra of the Great Sun] translated and copied in 1796 by I-hsing it says:
“Beneath the buddhas is Hayagriva. His body is the color of
the sun at dawn. He wears flaming effulgence and skulls as a garland.
His nails are long and sharp; his face shows a pair of bare tiger’s
fangs. His hair is that of a burning lion’s mane.He is awesomely
powerful and fierce! This is the fierce Vidyaraja of the Lotus section. He is just like a horse-jewel of a Cakravartin
that wanders the four continents, nowhere and never does he rest,
having all the great and terrible force of all the buddhas’. This is his
nature, and therefore he possesses this terrible and all-mighty light.
Amidst the greatest obstacles of death and evil he is without the
slightest care for his own welfare, his conspicuous and uncommon
gallantry, intrepidity, and wrath is legendary among the gods, and
therefore he easily and quickly vanquishes all who oppose him! Many
others submit to him at first sight! This is because though he is fierce
and terrible; his heart is full of compassion (unbiased, dispassionate
understanding).”
-- Hayagrīva Stotram, v.32
Later on Hayagriva is referred to as the “Horse necked one”, Defender
of faith”, the “Terrible executioner”, the “Excellent Horse”, and the
“Aerial horse”.
This said, the Horse Avatar of Lord Vishnu is seen as pulling the
sun up to the heavens every day, bringing light to darkness.
Hayagriva’s consort is Marichi, the goddess of the rising sun, more
accurately the sun’s light which is the life force of all things, and
which is seen as the female aspect of Hayagriva. Marichi represents the
essence of the power of creation of the cosmos. Whereas Hayagriva
represents the other male aspect.
In several other sources he is a white horse who pulls the sun
into the sky every morning. In others such as the great epic
Taraka-battle where the gods are fallen on and attacked by the Danava’s
[demons], Vishnu appears as a great ferocious warrior called Hayagriva
when he comes to their aid. It says;
“
Hayagriva appears in his chariot, drawn by 1,000 powerful steeds, crushing the enemies of the gods beneath him!”
Srimad Andavan and Sri Parakala Jeeyar in front of Sri Laxmi Hayagriva of Parakala Mutt
There are many other references to Hayagriva throughout the
Mahabharata. It is said that Vishnu comes from battle as a conqueror in
the magnificent mystic form of the great and terrible Hayagriva;
“
The great Hayagriva having been praised in this way by the
different saints and ascetics, assumes a great white horses head. The
verda’s [mantras] made up his shape, his body built of all the great
gods; in the middle of his head was Shiva, in his heart was Brahmā [god of heaven]; the rays of sun (Marichi) were his mane, the sun and moon his eyes; the Vasus and Sadhyas were his legs, in all his bones were the gods. Agni [Ka-ten; god of fire] was his tongue, the goddess Satya his speech, while his knees were formed by the Maruts and Varuna.
Having assumed this form, an awesome wonder to behold to the gods, he
vanquished the asura, and cast them down, with eyes that were red with
anger.”
Invariably, Hayagriva is depicted seated, most often with his right hand either blessing the supplicant or in the
vyākhyā mudrā pose of teaching. The right hand also usually holds a
akṣa-mālā
(rosary), indicating his identification with meditative knowledge. His
left holds a book, indicating his role as a teacher. His face is always
serene and peaceful, if not smiling. Unlike his Buddhist counterpart,
there is no hint of a fearsome side in the Hindu description of this
deity. Indeed, the two deities seem to be totally unrelated to one
another.
Hayagriva is sometimes worshiped in a solitary pose of meditation, as in temple in
Thiruvanthipuram.
This form is known as Yoga-Hayagriva. However, he is most commonly
worshipped along with his consort Lakshmi and is known as
Lakshmi-Hayagriva. Hayagriva in this form is the presiding deity of
Mysore's
Parakala Mutt, a significant
Sri Vaishnavism monastic institution.
In Sakta mythology
Hyagreeva restoring Vedas to Brahma which were taken to Rasatala
A legend has it that during the creation, the demons
Madhu-Kaitabha stole the
Vedas from
Brahma,
and Vishnu then took the Hayagriva form to recover them. The two bodies
of Madhu and Kaitabha disintegrated into twelve pieces (two heads, two
torsos, four arms and four legs). These are considered to represent the
twelve seismic plates of the Earth.Yet another legend has it that during the creation, Vishnu compiled the Vedas in the Hayagrīva form.
Some consider Hayagriva to be one of the Dashavataras of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
[citation needed] He along with Śrī
Krishna, Shrī
Rama and Shri
Narasimha is considered to be an important avatar of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Lord Hayagriva is also amongst the deities present at the
Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam. Hayagreeva in
Srirangam
is very famous for children's education. The Sannidhi is very beautiful
and all rituals are done according to Vedic principles very strictly.
Hayagrīva Mahatmyam
A great devotee named Śrī
Vadirajatirtha of
Udupi Śrī
Kṛṣṇa Mutt used to offer cooked horse gram (Kollu) to Lord Hayagreeva.
He used to recite the Hayagrīva Śloka and keep the offerings on his
head. Lord Hayagrīva would come as a beautiful white horse form and
would eat the horse gram. As a very staunch devotee, Vadirajatirtha
would recite the following
sloka -
Na HayagrivAth Param Asthi MangaLam
Na HayagrivAth Param Asthi Paavanam
Na HayagrivAth Param Asthi Dhaivatham
Na Hayagrivam Pranipathya Seedhathi!
There is no auspiciousness greater than Hayagrivan.Nothing is more sacred than Sri Hayagrivan to destroy our accumulated sins. No other God is superior to Hayagrivan. No one grieves after performing Śaraṇagati at the sacred feet of Hayagrivan.
Hayagriva is listed as one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu in Canto 10 (skandh 10), chapter 40 of the
Śrīmadbhagavatam, and
Akrūra's prayer contains Hayagriva's name when he had a vision while bathing in
Yamuna.
