Ṛbhus in Rigveda

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Ṛbhus in Rigveda

Ṛbhus are a triad of exceptionally skilful, semi-divine craftsmen in the Ṛgveda. They are praised in eleven hymns and mentioned over a hundred times. Their individual names are Ṛbhu (also Ṛbhukṣan, “chief of the Ṛbhus”), Vāja, and Vibhvan. The poets often use plural formations in a pleonastic way to refer to the trio—e.g., plural forms of each name together, and even the combined phrase Vājo Vibhvān Ṛbhavaḥ—or speak of “all the Ṛbhus”.[1][2][3][4][5] They are once distinguished as eldest, younger, and youngest.[6]

Names, epithets, and parentage

The Ṛbhus are about a dozen times styled Saudhanvanāḥ, “sons of Sudhanvan” (“good archer”), and once collectively addressed as “son (sūnu) of Indra”; they are also called “children of might” (śavaso napātaḥ). They are “children of Manu” in one passage, and in a hymn they address Agni as their brother.[7][8][9]

Worship and associations

The Ṛbhus are frequently invoked to come to the sacrifice and drink Soma; they are “high in heaven” yet asked to come down to the Soma set in the “lower abodes”. They are usually associated with Indra, sometimes with the Maruts, and once with the Ādityas, Savitṛ, Mountains, and Rivers. They are called “Indra-like”, and Ṛbhu is likened to a “new Indra”; with Indra they aid mortals to victory and are invoked to crush foes. They won Indra’s friendship through their skilful works, notably by fashioning his steeds.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

Appearance and equipment

References to their physique are scant: they have a sun-like appearance; they possess a bright car drawn by “fat” steeds, wear metal helmets and fair necklaces; and Ṛbhu is described as a possessor of steeds.[25][26][27][28]

From craftsmen to gods

The Ṛbhus are characteristically deft-handed and skilful; their incomparable works won them divine rank. Through wondrous deeds they became gods and immortal, “alighting like eagles” in heaven; they are “men of the air” who by their energy mounted to heaven. They obtained immortality and the friendship of the gods—yet they were originally mortals, “children of Manu,” who achieved godhood by industry. The evening Soma pressing (savana) came to be assigned to them by virtue of their skill; they are even explicitly invoked “as gods”. They bestow prosperity and wealth (cattle, horses, heroes), vigour, nourishment, offspring, dexterity; those they aid are invincible in battle.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

Five celebrated feats of dexterity

  1. The marvellous car. They fashioned a car that is “horseless, reinless, three-wheeled,” traversing space; they also made the revolving car of the Aśvins.[41][42][43]
  2. Indra’s steeds (and the horse). For Indra they fashioned the two bay steeds that “waft” him; they are also represented as repeatedly making a horse.[44][45]
  3. The cow of Plenty. They made a cow—“all-stimulating” and “omniform”—that yields nectar. Remarkably, they formed (or extracted) her from a hide, guarded her, and formed her flesh. Indra yoked the bay steeds, the Aśvins the car, and Bṛhaspati drove up the omniform cow; the Ṛbhus even re-united a mother with her calf.[46][47][48][49][50][51]
  4. The rejuvenation of the parents. The Ṛbhus made their frail, very old parents young again—parents who “lay like decaying posts”. This deed is sometimes summarized as “fashioning their parents,” and elsewhere equated with making heaven and earth thrive.[52][53][54]
  5. The cup of Tvaṣṭṛ. Commissioned by the gods via Agni, the Ṛbhus made a single wooden cup into four, on the promise that they would henceforth share divine worship. Tvaṣṭṛ first praised their proposal and later acquiesced on seeing the four shining cups; in another hymn he hides “among the females” and seeks to kill them for desecrating the gods’ drinking vessel (the Ṛbhus formally disclaim any wish to desecrate it). They “measured out like a field” the one wide drinking vessel and are elsewhere said simply to have “fashioned cups”.[55][56][57][58][59][60]

The Savitṛ–Agohya episode

After “much wandering,” the Ṛbhus came to Savitṛ’s house; when they came to Agohya (“the Unconcealable,” i.e., the sun), Savitṛ conferred immortality upon them. Having slumbered for twelve days in Agohya’s house, they made fields and directed streams; plants occupied the arid ground and waters the lowlands; by their skill they made grass on the heights and waters in the depths. After sleeping they asked who awakened them; “in a year” they looked around. They are also described as wind-sped around the sky in swift course.[61][62][63][64]

Etymology and original nature

The word ṛbhu probably derives from the root rabh “to grasp,” hence “handy, dexterous,” used adjectivally of gods like Indra and Agni. Vāja may mean “the vigorous one,” and Vibhvan “the eminent (artist).” On this view the Ṛbhus are, essentially, divine craftsmen. Many scholars infer (from their 12-day “solstitial” slumber with Savitṛ and other motifs) that they were originally terrestrial or aerial elves—perhaps genii of the three seasons—with Tvaṣṭṛ’s cup representing the moon and its four phases; yet the Ṛgvedic evidence does not permit certainty on their origin.[65]

References (Ṛgveda)

  1. RV 4.36.3.
  2. RV 8.48.1.
  3. RV 4.36 (occurrence of “Vājo Vibhvān Ṛbhavaḥ”).
  4. RV 7.51.3.
  5. RV 7.48.2.
  6. RV 4.33.5.
  7. RV 4.37.4.
  8. RV 3.60.3.
  9. RV 1.161.3.
  10. RV 4.34.1–3.
  11. RV 4.37.1.
  12. RV 4.34.4.
  13. RV 4.36.2.
  14. RV 7.48.1.
  15. RV 4.37.3.
  16. RV 3.60.4.
  17. RV 4.33.3.
  18. RV 4.34.11.
  19. RV 4.13.48.
  20. RV 4.37.5.
  21. RV 1.110.7.
  22. RV 4.37.6.
  23. RV 7.48.3.
  24. RV 4.35.8.
  25. RV 1.110.4.
  26. RV 1.161.7.
  27. RV 4.37.4 (car, steeds, ornaments).
  28. RV 4.33.8.
  29. RV 3.60.1.
  30. RV 1.110.6.
  31. RV 4.36.4.
  32. RV 1.161.8.
  33. RV 4.33.11.
  34. RV 4.34.10.
  35. RV 1.20.7.
  36. RV 4.35.6.
  37. RV 4.36.6.
  38. RV 4.36 (car described as horseless, reinless, three-wheeled).
  39. RV 1.20.3.
  40. RV 1.61.6.
  41. RV 4.33 (Indra’s bay steeds fashioned).
  42. RV 1.161.3–7.
  43. RV 1.161.1.
  44. RV 4.34.9.
  45. RV 1.110.8.
  46. RV 1.111.1.
  47. RV 1.161.6.
  48. RV 1.20.4.
  49. RV 4.35.5.
  50. RV 4.33.2–3.
  51. RV 1.161.1–2.
  52. RV 4.33.5–6.
  53. RV 1.161.4–5.
  54. RV 1.110.5.
  55. RV 1.161.9.
  56. RV 3.60.2.
  57. RV 1.110.2–3.
  58. RV 4.33.7.
  59. RV 1.161.11.
  60. RV 1.161.13.

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