aruNa section of the AraNyaka of the taittirIya-s includes the yajuSh-es on which the famous subrahmaNya sAman inviting indra to the soma offering is based:
- indra who appeared as a ram to medhAtithi kANva;
- as a woman to vR^iShaNashva;
- who prances like a gaur bull;
- who became the lover of ahalyA;
- who became a brAhmaNa of the kaushika clan;
- who was called gautama.
The anindra tradition that engulfed later H though misinterpret the original meanings of these special exploits of the supreme god by which the R^itvik pleases indra with singing of the subrahmaNya sAman. The original vaidika tales go thus.
indra enjoyed the pleasure of both the female (becoming menA to vR^iShaNashva) and male (as the lover of ahalyA maitreyI). The later exploit may be interpreted in 2 ways.
- As in the RV ahalyA is the unploughed field which indra fertilizes as in the sUkta for farming by vAmadeva gautama.
- Or as the kauthuma tradition holds he became a brAhmaNa of the kaushika clan & became to lover of ahalyA maitreyI.
- The jaiminIya tradition holds that as indra fought a battle with the asura-s the shruti was destroyed; hence, becoming a son of vishvAmitra he learned the shruti from the former to restore it: hence, kaushika brAhmaNa.
- Finally, the jaiminIya tradition says that once when the deva-s & asura-s were advancing for battle indra that gautama was performing tapasya in the zone between where the armies of the two were stationed. Hence, indra asked gautama to become a spy for the deva-s & report about the asura movements. But gautama refused either because he did not want to be a combatant or break his tapasya. Hence, indra told him that he could continue and indra himself would instead take the form of gautama and spy on the asura-s. Hence, it is gautama bruvANa |
indra who is all this is then asked to come to soma offering with aruNAshva – the solar chariot – in the aruNaketuka-chayana. (^aruNAShva-s: the 8 vasu-s led by the god agni in the solar chariot.)