Devalok ← All gods
Also calledRibhuVajaVibhvanRibhukshanSaudhanvanas

At a glance

TraditionVedic
WhoThree brothers

Ribhu, Vaja and Vibhvan, the sons of Sudhanvan

MarkDeft hands

the hymns give them metal helmets, fair necklaces and a bright chariot

Who The Ribhus is

The Ribhus are three brothers, Ribhu, Vaja and Vibhvan. Eleven hymns of the Rigveda are theirs, and their names come up more than a hundred times. What sets them apart from the other gods is that they were not born gods. The hymns say so plainly: they were mortals, sons of a man named Sudhanvan and descendants of Manu, and they earned their place in heaven with their hands.

The poets count five works and repeat them in almost every hymn. For the Ashvins the brothers built a chariot that rolls round the sky on three wheels, without horse or rein. For Indra they made the two bay horses that draw his car, "yoked by a word". They took the hide of a cow and brought a living cow out of it, and set her beside her calf again. Their own father and mother had grown so old that they lay "like posts that moulder"; the Ribhus made them young. And they took the one cup of the gods, the work of the craftsman Tvashtri, and made it into four.

The gods were pleased with all this. One hymn says that Vaja became the craftsman of the gods, Ribhukshan of Indra, and Vibhvan of Varuna. Savitr, the Sun, gave them immortality. They were given a share in the sacrifice, and it is still theirs: the third pressing of Soma, the one poured in the evening.

There is one more thing the hymns say of them and do not explain. After long wandering the brothers came to the house of Agohya, the one who cannot be hidden, and slept there for twelve days. While they rested, fields became fertile, rivers ran, and grass grew on the high ground.

The poets held them up as proof that work is honoured. "Not without toil," one hymn says, "are the gods inclined to friendship."

By the skill of your hands you became gods, and you settled in heaven like falcons coming down to rest.

From the Vedas to the Puranas

What became of The Ribhus

The Ribhus do not cross into the Puranas. No Purana tells their story, no temple is theirs, and by the time of the epics the craftsman's work in heaven belongs to one figure, Vishvakarma. What remains of the three brothers is a share in a ritual and a name.

The Brahmanas still knew them well. The Aitareya Brahmana (3.30) explains why a hymn to the Ribhus is recited at the evening pressing of Soma. It says they won the right to drink Soma among the gods by austerity, and that the gods did not want them. Agni and the Vasus turned them away in the morning, Indra and the Rudras at midday, and the All-gods in the evening. Prajapati then asked Savitr to drink with them, since they were his pupils. Even so, the text says, the gods shrank from them "because of the human scent". The same Brahmana says elsewhere that Prajapati, as a father, made the mortal Ribhus immortal.

The Brihaddevata (3.83 to 3.90), a later guide to the gods of each hymn, fills in their schooling. It makes them the sons of Sudhanvan, son of Angiras, and pupils of Tvashtri, who taught them every art he knew. In this account Tvashtri, Savitr and Prajapati together gave them immortality.

After that the trail thins. The Vishnu Purana (2.15 to 2.16) has a sage called Ribhu, a son of Brahma, who teaches a pupil named Nidagha. Reference works note that this teacher is a different figure from the Vedic craftsmen, though he carries the eldest brother's name. Later commentators, Yaska and Sayana among them, read the three brothers as rays of the sun; some modern scholars have read them as the three seasons, and the twelve days of sleep as the days added to make the lunar year match the solar one. These are readings, and the hymns themselves do not say so.

The share they won is still spoken of. In the Soma ritual the chant at the third pressing is called the Arbhava, "of the Ribhus".

See how the Vedic gods became the Puranic ones →

Related gods

VedicSavitr VedicAgni VedicIndra