Devalok
God · All traditions · Pan-India

Pushan

Also called: Pusan, Pusha, Aghrini, Ajashva, Vimochana

The Vedic god of roads, herds and safe journeys. Eight hymns of the Rigveda are his alone (1.42, 1.138, 6.53-56, 6.58, 10.26) and two are shared (6.57 with Indra, 2.40 with Soma); the name occurs about 120 times (Macdonell). He has braided hair and a beard, carries a goad and an awl, drives a cart drawn by goats and eats gruel. He guards cattle, brings back what is lost, clears the road of wolves and robbers, leads the bride at Surya's wedding and conducts the dead to the Fathers. The Brahmanas say a piece of the pierced sacrifice knocked out his teeth; the Mahabharata and Bhagavata make Rudra or Virabhadra do it. In the Puranas he is one of the twelve Adityas.

roads herds finding the lost guide of the dead wedding

Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Vedic Mythology, A. A. Macdonell (1897); The Satapatha-Brahmana, tr. Julius Eggeling (Sacred Books of the East 12, 41) · see Pushan's web

Relations 8

Pushan rival of

Pushan appears in

  • Isha Upanishad (Text)
    The closing prayer, verses 15-16, is addressed to Pushan.

Pushan blessed

Pushan child of

  • Aditi (God)
    Pushan is one of the twelve Adityas born to Kashyapa and Aditi in the Vishnu Purana. The Rigveda does not call him an Aditya.

Pushan consort of

  • Suryā, the Sun's daughter (God)
    Macdonell: 'probably as the husband of Surya' Pushan is asked in the wedding hymn to lead the bride. This is his inference.

Pushan form of

  • Surya (God)
    Yaska explains Pushan as the sun, and in post-Vedic literature Pushan is at times a name of the sun.

Pushan sibling of

  • Indra (God)
    Pushan is once called the brother of Indra (RV 6.55.5).

Stories 8

Cited