Devalok
Legend · 3 tellings · Pan-India

Parjanya brings the rain

Who is in it

Texts: Rigveda

The story, beat by beat

  1. The poet calls the people to welcome Parjanya, the roaring bull who lays seed in the plants.
  2. Parjanya fills the sky with cloud; his roar is like a lion's far away.
  3. Like a charioteer whipping horses he drives his rain messengers forward.
  4. Winds burst out and lightning falls; he splits trees and strikes the wicked.
  5. All creatures fear him; even the guiltless flee; cattle scatter.
  6. The poet asks him to thunder, open his waterskin and level heights and hollows.
  7. He asks the Maruts to send the rain and calls Parjanya lord and father.
  8. Rain pours; plants shoot up in every colour; food springs for all.
  9. The world rejoices when he strikes down wrongdoers.
  10. The poet asks him to hold the rain back now, and thanks him.

rain storm thunder plants prayer

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Rigveda 5.83

Pan-India All traditions

Ten verses. Parjanya is the loud bull who lays the seed in plants; he smites trees and demons and all life fears his weapon; like a car-driver he whips on his rain messengers and roars like a lion; winds burst forth, lightning falls, plants shoot up. Earth bows before him. The Maruts are asked to send rain; Parjanya is called heavenly lord and father and asked to draw his opened waterskin downward and lift the great vessel. The last verse says he has poured the flood and asks him now to withhold it, with thanks for herbs and passable deserts.

Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 5.83

Primary text (translation)

Atharvaveda 4.15

Pan-India All traditions

A charm to hasten the rains, sixteen verses. The singer calls the misty regions and wind-sped clouds to gather, asks the Maruts to raise vapour from the sea and swell the song, asks for lightning and winds from every side, tells Parjanya to roar, thunder and bedew the ground, and wishes that the owner of lean cattle may go home. He tells the frogs to send out their voices and a female frog to greet the rain and swim in the lake. It ends by asking that the mighty cask be lifted and poured.

What is different here:

The rain has not yet come and must be gathered by the rite; many helpers are invoked; frogs are told to call. No fear of Parjanya and no request that he stop.

Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1895) § 4.15

Primary text (translation)

Rigveda 7.101 and 7.102

Pan-India All traditions

Two short hymns. 7.101: the bull has bellowed and fathers the germ of plants; he is now sterile, now fruitful, changing form at will; the Father's flow bedews the Mother; all creatures and the three heavens rest in him. 7.102, three verses: Parjanya is the son of Heaven who sends rain and forms the germ of life in cows, mares, plants and women.

What is different here:

Praise without a storm scene; adds his changeable nature and calls him son of Dyaus.

Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 7.101; Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 7.102

Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1895)

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