vajra

vajra vs hammer

Coming to the mace as you may have notice their euhemeric urge springs from the “earthly” representations in the Iranic world of the vazra as a ram-headed mace (again a conflation with the battering ram of indra mentioned in the RV) & Mjollnir of your folks. However, even in this a key Germanic peculiarity which illuminates the matter is ignored: the unexpected cognancy of hammer the weapon with word for sky Ger Himmel & Nordic himinn. Thus, the hammer itself was seen specifically as a weapon of heaven – wrapping into it the dimension of the heaven bolt or meteoritic bolide.

On the other hand the cognancy of Mjollnir (which Thor himself calls a hammer) with the Balto-Slavic molnija/milna = lightning and the weapon of Perkunas of their branch of the religion. Thus, even within the north Germanic hammer we have the multiple dimensions of the vajra. This make one wonder about the Greek hero name Mele-(u)agros – the second part is clearly derived from the greek cognate of vajra but is first after all from a word cognate to milna-molnija-mjollnir.

3 pronged

Source: TW

Throughout the IE world the iconography of the vajra (or cognate) is three-pronged: early on in the Anatolian world, then Greece, then India& Rome. We have held that this is an IE feature even though the RV calls it shataparvan among other things. But in the jaiminIya brAhmaNa it is clearly mentioned as three-pronged.

मूलम्

अथ ह स्माहारुणिः किं सोऽभिचरेत्किं वाभिचार्यमाण आद्रियेत य एतं त्रिवृतं वज्रं त्रिभृष्टिमच्छिद्रमच्छम्बट्कारिणमहरहरिमाल्ँ लोकाननुवर्तमानं वेद ।

स्वयम् अभिचरितो वाव स यमेवंविद्द्वेष्टि यो वैवंविदं द्वेष्टीति ।

एष उ एवैनं त्रिवृद्वज्रस्त्रिभृष्टिरच्छिद्रो ऽच्छम्बट्कार्यहरहरिमाल्ँ लोकाननुवर्तमानोऽभिवर्तते ।

English (MT)

Then Āruņi had stated thus:
What should he performing sorcery or being attacked by sorcery worship?
He who knows this threefold vajra, three-pronged, incapable of being cleaved and unbaffled, day after day attended to by these worlds,
himself having has performed sorcery about whom he knowing thus hates, or he who hates him knowing thus.

Verily on by that one this threefold vajra turns, three-pronged, incapable of being cleaved, and unbaffled day after day attended to by these words.

Thus, we have a vaidika author AruNi clearly recognize this form approximately coeval with Anatolian depictions suggesting that it was indeed an old IE conception of the weapon. A coin of Marcos Aurelios with Jupiter with 3-pronged weapon.

This also brings to mind the famous AV (vulgate) incantation of the secret atharvan weapon, triShaMdhi, which can be interpreted as 3-pronged: e.g.,

अयोमुखाः सूचीमुखा अथो विकङ्कतीमुखाः ।
क्रव्यादो वातरंहस आ सजन्त्व् अमित्रान् वज्रेण त्रिषन्धिना ॥

Metal-headed, point-headed, barb-headed, flesh-eating, with the speed of wind, stick to the enemies, together with the three-pronged vajra.

Also:

यां देवा अनुतिष्ठन्ति यस्या नास्ति विराधनम् ।
तयेन्द्रो हन्तु वृत्रहा वज्रेण त्रिषन्धिना ॥

With the [ritual] the deva-s attend, which has no failure, by that indra, the slayer of vR^itra, shall kill with teh three-pronged vajra.