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Biography
other usesHdeity infobox| Image =Vayu Deva.jpg | Caption = Vayu | Name = Vayu | Devanagari = ???? | Sanskrit_Transliteration = Vayu | Pali_Transliteration = | Tamil_script = | Script_name = | Script = | Affiliation = Deva (Hinduism)|Deva , Guardians of the directions | God_of = the wind The Book of Hindu Imagery: Gods, Manifestations and Their Meaning By Eva Rudy Jansen p. 68 | Abode = | Mantra = | Weapon = | Consort = | Mount = Antelope | Planet =
Vayu ( Sanskrit : :wikt:????|???? , IAST : Vayu; Malay language|Malay : Bayu, lang-th|Phra Pai) is a primary Hinduism|Hindu deity, the Lord of the winds, the father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Lord Hanuman . He is also known as Vata (???), Pavana (???, the Purifier ),Citation | title=The book of Hindu imagery: The Gods and their Symbols | author=Eva Rudy Jansen, Tony Langham | year=1993 | publisher=Binkey Kok Publications | isbn=90-74597-07-6 | url= http://books.google.com/? id=1iASyoae8cMC | quote= ... God of the wind ... also known as Vata or Pavan ... exceptional beauty ... moves on noisily in his shining coach ... white banner ... and sometimes Pra?a (?????, the breath ).
Connotations
As the word for air (classical element)|air , (Vayu) or wind (Pavana) is one of the Classical elements#Classical elements in Hinduism|Panchamahabhuta or five great elements . The Sanskrit word 'Vata' literally means " :wikt:blown|blown ", 'Vayu' " :wikt:blower|blower ", and 'Prana' " :wikt:breathing|breathing " (viz. the breath of life, cf. the *an- in ' :wikt:animate|animate '). Hence, the primary referent of the word is the "deity of Life", who is sometimes for clarity referred to as "Mukhya-Vayu" (the chief Vayu) or "Mukhya Prana" (the chief of Life).
Sometimes the word "vayu," which is more generally used in the sense of the physical air or wind, is used as a synonym for "prana".Citation | author = Raju, P.T. | year = 1954 | title = The concept of the spiritual in Indian thought | journal = Philosophy East and West | volume = 4 | issue = 3 | pages = 195–213 | jstor = 1397554| doi = 10.2307/1397554 | postscript = . There is however a separate set of five deities of Prana (vital breath), Mukhya-Prana being chief among them, so that, in Hindi ,?????(Tamil) and other India n languages, someone's death is stated as "his lives departed" ( uske pran nikal gaye ) rather than "his life departed." These five Vayu deities, Prana , Apana, Vyana, Udana, and Samana, control life (and the vital breath), the wind, touch/sensation, digestion, and excretion.
Vata, an additional name for Vayu, is the root of the Sanskrit and Hindi term for "atmosphere", vatavaran (???????).Citation | title=Tirtha, the treasury of Indian expressions | author=Vijaya Ghose, Jaya Ramanathan, Renuka N. Khandekar | year=1992 | publisher=CMC Limited | isbn= 978-81-900267-0-3| url= http://books.google.com/? id=_v1tAAAAMAAJ | quote=''... God of the winds ... Another name for Vayu is Vata (hence the present Hindi term for 'atmosphere, 'vatavaran). Also known as Pavana (the purifier), Vayu is lauded in both the ...
Pavan is also a fairly common Hindu name. Pavan had played an important role in Anjana 's begetting Hanuman as her child. Hence Hanuman is also called Pavan-Putra (son of Pavana) and Vayu-Putra.
In the Mahabharata, Bheema was the son of Vayu and played a major role in the Kurukshetra war. He utilised his huge power and skill with the mace for supporting Dharma.
Hindu texts and philosophy
Classic elementIn the hymns, Vayu is "''described as having 'exceptional beauty' and moving noisily in his shining coach, driven by two or forty-nine or one-thousand white and purple horses. A white banner is his main attribute. " Like the other atmospheric deities, he is a "fighter and destroyer", "powerful and heroic."Citation | title=Literature in the Vedic age | author=Sukumari Bhattacharji | year=1984 | publisher=K.P. Bagchi | isbn= | url= http://books.google.com/? id=v7soAAAAYAAJ | quote= ... The other atmospheric gods are his associates: Vayu-Vatah, Parjanya, the Rudras and the Maruts. All of them are fighters and destroyers, they are powerful and heroic ...
In the Upanishad s there are numerous statements and illustrations of the greatness of Vayu. The Brhadaranyaka states that the gods who control bodily functions once engaged in a contest to determine who among them is the greatest. When a deity such as that of vision would leave a man's body, that man would continue to live, albeit as a blind man and having regained the lost faculty once the errant deity returned to his post. One by one the deities all took their turns leaving the body, but the man continued to live on, though successively impaired in various ways. Finally, when Mukhya Prana started to leave the body, all the other deities started to be inexorably pulled off their posts by force, "just as a powerful horse yanks off pegs in the ground to which he is bound." This caused the other deities to realize that they can function only when empowered by Vayu, and can be overpowered by him easily. In another episode, Vayu is said to be the only deity not afflicted by demons of sin who were on the attack. The Chandogya states that one cannot know Brahman except by knowing Vayu as the Aum|udgitha (the mantric syllable " om ").
Mukhya-Vayu also incarnated as Madhvacharya to teach worthy souls to worship the Supreme God Vishnu and to correct the errors of the Advaita philosophy.
See also
Deities of the sky
Vayu-Vata - in his Zoroastrian context
References
Reflist Hindu Culture and EpicsIndian Philosophy Category:Classical elements Category:Guardians of the directions Category:Hindu gods Category:Life-death-rebirth gods Category:Rigvedic deities Category:Sanskrit words and phrases Category:Sky and weather gods
