THE DRAGON IN SCENES OF COMBAT
a The dragon combat in ancient myth
cultures of the Near East and India, the Indo-
Iranians may well have imagined dragons har-
Combat with the water-controlling dragon
bouring and restraining the heavenly waters, so
causing drought, and not releasing them until
Myths of dragon-like creatures and the van-
overcome by a god or hero 2 The oldest texts of the
quishing of these dragons were well-known, if
Indo-Iranians, the Vedic texts (1500–1000 bc),
not universal, in the traditions both of the Indo-
are composed in Sanskrit and usually refer to the
Europeans and of the Near Eastern civilisations
dragon by the most common word áhi-, while in
with whom the Persian speaking peoples came
the old Iranian Avestan texts the term used is azhi,
into contact from at least the first half of the first
which originally meant only “snake, serpent ”3
millennium bc 1 In these contexts the mythical
Intoxicated and strengthened by the ritual potion
creatures are suited ideally to play the role of
of Soma, the divine hero Indra fulfils a cosmo-
adversaries as they represent forces or elements
gonic act by dismembering the primary denizen
that interfere with the correct order or function-
of the forces of chaos, the cosmic serpent-mon-
ing of the world, and they are defeated by dei-
ster Vṛtra (“the enveloper”) whom the Rigveda
ties, kings or heroes who shape and organise the
calls “the first-born of dragons” ( prathama-jấm
cosmos Through their victory the latter acquire
áhīnām, 1 32 4) 4 Indra, who carries the Indo-
authority and power over the newly ordered
Iranian epithet “smashing resistance, obstacles”
world The iconography of the dragon combat
(ṷṛtra-ǰhan),5 is eulogised in the Sanskrit text of
or encounter, part of the Indo-Iranian literary
the Rigvedic hymn (1 32) with the words:
theme of heroic mythological exploits, draws
on the immemorially ancient epic theme of this
I tell now the manly deeds of Indra,
quest, an ever-recurring motif even in cultures
The foremost which he did armed with the cudgel
He slew the serpent, dril ed through to the waters,
that are cultural y and geographical y far removed
He split the belly of the mountains 6
from one another
The cosmogonic quality of the dragon-slaying
Importantly, the stone dragon is split into two
myths evidently lay in the fact that in order to
halves, the upper half forming Dyáv- “the sky”
construct or defend world order, the god or hero
and the lower kṣám- “the earth ”7 The defeated
had to destroy the primeval or chaotic dragon
Vṛtra is referred to in the Rigvedic texts as áhi-,
During the remote period of Indo-Iranian unity,
“serpent,”8 and dāsá, “the pent-up waters with
an age that long played a key role in the later
the dāsá as husband, the Serpent as guardian”
1 Cf Watkins, 1995, p 299 The most ancient known
4 Indra similarly defeats the monster Vala ( valá-, mean-
traditions about vanquishing dragons go back to the Sume-
ing “enclosure”) who may have been conceptionally identical
rian, Akkadian and Egyptian mythologies of the first three
with Vṛtra at an earlier stage of the myth being derived from
millennia bc The god Enlil defeats a monstrous dragon,
the same root, val-/var- “to cover, to enclose”; Vala thereupon
the Labbu, in a Sumerian text The god Marduk vanquishes
frees the goddess of dawn, Ushas, whom he had imprisoned
Tiamat and her conscripts in the Akkadian epic of creation,
Janda, 2010, pp 27, 65, 247, 266, 270
Enūma Elish, of Babylon In the mythology of the ancient
5 Watkins, 1995, p 299 .
Syrian city of Ugarit the god Baal overcomes the monsters
6 Cited after idem, p 304 It is interesting to note the
yamm and Mot The dragon Apopis is dispatched by the god
ambiguity surrounding the killing of the primordial dragon
Seth in Egyptian mythology In the Hittite texts of Bogazköy,
conveyed in the Purāṇic accounts in which, paradoxically,
the dragon Illuyanka fights the weather god
Vṛtra is said to be a brāhmaṇa and Indra is decried for com-
2 Skjærvø, “Aždahā I,” EIr In Greek mythology, Zeus
mitting brahmanicide, the most heinous of all sins Cf Long,
slays the monster Typhaon/Typhon that has a hundred snake
1976, p 172, n 3, and p 192, n 29
heads (Hesiod, Theogony 825–626)
7 Janda, 2010, pp 45–70, esp 27, 63, 79, 266, 270
3 Watkins, 1995, p 299
8 Rigveda 1 32 5, 1 32 8, 1 8 10, 1 61 8, 1 103 7
88