Iranian Sraosa and Indian Skanda

10-22-2000, 12:50 PM

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Iranian Sraosa and Indian Skanda

By Sukumar Sen, M.A., Ph.D.

The Avestan deity Sraosa and the Indian deity Skanda - Kumara -
Karttikeya - Guha have not a few common features which, so far as I
know, have not been noted before. The Sanskritic equivalent of Sraosa is
Shrausa (a derivative from the aorist base of shra and literally meant
'obedience, allegiance'; it occurs as an epithet of two of the
attendants of the Sun god in some of the mediaeval iconographical texts.
Thus, from a quotation by Sarvananda in the Tîkâsarvasa (middle of the
twelfth century):

yamo'pi daksine pârs’ve khyâto mâthara-samjnâyaya,

pûrvadvâre haraguhau râjas’rasau kramena tau.

Here râjas’rasau, meaning 'obedient messengers of the king', qualifies
Hara and Guha. In Avestan the deity has lost his proper name and is
known only as Sraosa, being the obedient and watchful messenger of Ahura
Mazda. Both deities are young, good-looking, swift, active and
victorious. Sraosa is a killer of the demons (jantâ daêvayâ drujô);
Skanda is the leader (senânî) of the army of the gods.

The Iranian god is remembered for his victory over Aêsma, the demon of
lust and hate (in Brahmanic mythology this credit is given to Skanda's
father Siva, the smarajit, and in Buddhistic mythology to the Buddha,
the mârajit), while his Indian counterpart is extolled as the killer of
the demon Târaka.

l In Avestan the cock is the animal sacred to Sraosa. In later Hindu
mythology Karttikeya rides on a peacock (mayûra).

2 Sraosa is borne in a chariot drawn by four ruddy horses (yim cathwâro
aurvantô aurusa…vazanti).

There is no reference to this in Brahmanical mythology, although as a
satellite of the Sun god, like Aruna, he must have done so. In the
Rgveda, however, there is a slight hint. In a hymn to Yama (X. 135)
Kumara (generally though unconvincingly interpreted as 'boy') is
repeatedly mentioned with the chariot of Yama, 'the wheel-less chariot'
which has one pole but faces in all directions (acakram…ekesam vis’vatah
prâncam prîcam). There is little doubt that the Kumara here is the
prototype of post-Vedic Kumara and a counterpart of Iranian Sraosa.

End Notes

1.This may be a reminiscence of Indo-Iranian Srausa, the attendant of
the Sun god who obliterates the stars and dispels darkness before
sunrise. In Avestan there is abundant evidence of this aspect of the
deity (Yasna LVII). 2.Mayûra originally included game fowl as the Asokan
usage shows.

Article from Indo-Iranica, Vol IV No. 1, p. 27.

Research articles from the First International Conference on
Skanda-Murukan Murugan.org home page