VR: TRA 9645
very land where Kr: s: n: a actually lived long ago. The town of
Vr: ndāvana, in particular, was built on a site identified as the
forest where Kr: s: n: a met with Rādhā and the other gopı̄s for
their nightly trysts.
The historical development of Vr: ndāvana was due pri-
marily to the disciples of the Bengali saint Caitanya (b. 1486
CE), who came to be known as the Gaud: ı̄ya Vais: n: avas. The
“reclaiming” of the sites of Kr: s: n: a’s exploits on earth was a
cherished dream of Caitanya. Although the saint himself vis-
ited the area surrounding Vr: ndāvana only once, he had sent
before him a close disciple named Lokanātha Ācārya and
then later, a group of theologians known as the Six
Gosvāmins of Vr: ndāvana. The establishment of Vr: ndāvana
as an important religious center is chiefly the work of this
group of theologians, especially two brothers among them,
Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmin. These brothers were to have
the first of the magnificent temples of Vr: ndāvana built in the
sixteenth century with the help of wealthy rajas of Rajasthan.
They were also responsible for establishing the location of
many of the sites associated with the Kr: s: n: a myth and for cre-
ating a center of Vais: n: ava learning in Vr: ndāvana.
Three other Vais: n: ava sects were involved in the devel-
opment of Vraja culture that took place in and around
Vr: ndāvana, namely, the Rādhāvallabhas, the Vallabhācāryas,
and the Nimbārkas. Vr: ndāvana continued to grow and de-
velop as an important center for all Vais: n: avas, and with the
construction of a large Śrı̄ Vais: n: ava temple in Vr: ndāvana in
the mid-nineteenth century, all major sects of Vais: n: avism
came to be represented in Vr: ndāvana.
Today hundreds of pilgrims flock into Vr: ndāvana daily,
their numbers increasing substantially during the four mon-
soon months when, as legend has it, all other pilgrimage sites
come to reside in Vr: ndāvana. These pilgrims come to walk
the very land trodden by Lord Kr: s: n: a and to see the natural
objects transformed by his contact. They come also to see
Kr: s: n: a in another important form—as an image (mūrti) re-
siding for the benefit of his worshipers in the many famous
temples of Vr: ndāvana. But most important, they come dur-
ing the rainy season to see the numerous plays staged all over
Vr: ndāvana that depict stories of Kr: s: n: a and his intimate com-
panions. Vr: ndāvana continues to thrive—many new temples
are being constructed today—making it a living center of tra-
ditional Hindu culture.
SEE ALSO Caitanya; Hindi Religious Traditions; Kr: s: n: a;
Rādhā; Vais: n: avism, article on Bhāgavatas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
William G. Archer’s The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and
Poetry (New York, 1957) remains one of the best introduc-
tions to the Kr: s: n: a myth. See especially chapter 3 for a good
(if brief) description of Kr: s: n: a’s exploits in Vr: ndāvana. The
best sourcebook for the modern-day town of Vr: ndāvana is
still Fredrick S. Growse’s Mathurā: A District Memoir, 3d
rev. ed. (Allahabad, 1883). Although this work is now quite
dated, it provides detailed descriptions of the history and
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION
temples of Vr: ndāvana. Charlotte Vaudeville’s article “Braj:
Lost and Found,” Indo-Iranian Journal 18 (1976): 195–213,
is useful for understanding the cultural condition of the area
surrounding Vr: ndāvana before its development by the Vais-
nava Gosvāmins. For a good description of the Kr: s: n: a dramas
of Vr: ndāvana, see Norvin Hein’s The Miracle Plays of
Mathurā (New Haven, Conn., 1972) and John Stratton
Hawley’s At Play with Krishna: Pilgrimage Dramas from Brin-
davan (Princeton, N. J., 1981).
New Sources
Case, Margaret H. Seeing Krishna: The Religious World of a Brah-
min Family in Vrindaban. New York, 1999.
Das, R. K. Temples of Vrindaban. Delhi, 1990.
Entwistle, A. W. Braj: Centre of Krishna Pilgrimage. Groningen
Oriental studies, v. 3. Groningen, 1987.
Mahanidhi, Swami. The Gaudiya Vaisnava Samadhis in Vrin-
davana. Vrindavan, 1993.
DAVID L. HABERMAN (1987)
Revised Bibliography
VR: TRA, whose name is probably derived from the San-
skrit verbal root vr: , meaning “hold back, restrain, envelop,”
is a serpent slain by Indra in the R: gveda. This act, which is
Indra’s most famous, most impor: tant, and most frequently
mentioned achievement, is the subject of several complete
R: gvedic hymns (notably R: gveda 1.32 and 10.124). Vr: tra had
coiled around a mountain, preventing the waters from flow-
ing down; Indra pierced him with his thunderbolt and re-
leased the waters. This act has many symbolic resonances:
slaying the dragon, releasing the waters or rains, bringing the
ambrosial soma down from heaven or the mountains (an act
that Indra is elsewhere said to accomplish by stealing it, on
the back of an eagle), conquering the enemies of the invading
Indo-Aryans (for Vr: tra is called a dāsa, or “slave,” the name
given to the indigenous non-Aryans), creating the world out
of the body of the slain dragon, or rescuing it from the drag-
on who had swallowed it. The thunderbolt of Indra is a
cloud, which, as a phallic symbol, is a source of seed as well
as rain; Vr: tra is a cloud pierced in his loins or his bellies; and
the cows to which the waters are compared are also rain
clouds. Vr: tra, who is depicted as a serpent or as a dragon
whose arms and legs Indra has cut off, is a symbol of danger,
constriction, drought, and loss. The battle is waged with
magic as well as with physical weapons; Indra uses magic to
make himself as thin as a horse’s hair, and Vr: tra uses magic
to create lightning and fog. Indra wins, of course, and the
hymns end on a note of affirmation for Indra’s victory.
The killing of Vr: tra was closely associated with the kill-
ing of other demonic enemies, par: ticularly Triśiras
Viśvarūpa (the “three-headed, many-formed” son of Tvas: t: r: ,
the ar: tisan of the gods), Namuci (“don’t-let-go”), and Ahi
(the Serpent, perhaps just another name for Vr: tra). Vr: tra is
the younger brother of Triśiras, created by their father to
take revenge upon Indra for the killing of Triśiras. This my-
9646 VULVA
thology is elaborated in the Brāhman: as (c. 900 BCE), where
it is said that when Indra killed Visvarupa he cut off his three
heads, which became three birds; Tvas: t: r: performed a sacri-
fice to create Vr: tra. Namuci is a demon whom Indra is said
to have killed with foam (R: gveda 8.14.13); later, Indra kills
both Vr: tra and Namuci with foam at the juncture of day and
night (Taittirı̄ya Brāhman: a 1.7.1–7), when he had promised
Namuci that he would kill him neither by day nor by night,
neither with anything dry nor with anything wet (Śatapatha
Brāhman: a 12.7.3.1–2). In the Mahābhārata (5.9–13), Indra
kills Vr: tra alone by tricking him in this way. The cosmogon-
ic implications of the killing of Vr: tra are spelled out in the
Brāhman: as: Vr: tra lay covering all the space between heaven
and ear: th until Indra killed him (Śatapatha Brāhman: a
1.1.3.4–5); when Indra killed Vr: tra, Vr: tra said to him, “You
are now what I was; now cut me in two” (ibid., 1.6.3.1–17).
The killing of Vr: tra, par: ticularly when combined with
the accessory acts of killing Trisiras and Namuci, fits a pat-
tern that has strong resonances in other Indo-European my-
thologies. In the Avesta, Thraetaona kills a three-headed
demon and sets free the cows that have been imprisoned. In
Greece, Herakles kills the three-headed Geryon, and the
Roman Hercules kills Cacus, the son of Vulcan (who is, like
Tvas: t: r: , the blacksmith of the gods). Þórr (Thor), Indra’s par-
allel in Eddic literature, kills the World Serpent. And in a
more general way, Vr: tra can be assimilated to all the dragons
killed by all the great heroes—to Python slain by Apollo, to
the dragon killed by Saint George, and so forth.
As Indra’s powers diminished during the period of tran-
sition from the R: gveda to the Brāhman: as, the killing of Vr: tra
was no longer regarded as an act that he could accomplish
in single combat. Other gods help him (Aitareya Brāhman: a
2.3.5), or he uses the power of sacrifice rather than brute
force (Śatapatha Brāhman: a 2.5.4.1–9); finally, as with Na-
muci, he hedges with words to break his treaty (ibid.,
1.6.3.10). In the Mahābhārata, Indra is so overpowered by
Vr: tra’s superior magic and prowess that the demon can be
slain only with the aid of Śiva (who creates a fever in Vr: tra)
and Vis: n: u (who places his own power in Indra’s thunder-
bolt). Moreover, even after killing Vr: tra, Indra is so weak-
ened and defiled (polluted by the sin of brahmanicide for
having killed Vr: tra, a priest) that he runs away and hides in
a lotus stalk; still the fury (kr: tyā) of brahmanicide incarnate
seizes Indra until Brahmā distributes the sin among fire,
water, the trees, and the celestial nymphs, and purifies Indra
with a horse sacrifice (Mahābhārata 12.272–273).
Thus the ancient myth of the dragon whose body is dis-
membered to form the world (as Tiamat’s body does in the
Mesopotamian myth) is transformed into an epic myth in
which the sin of the warrior who kills the dragon is dismem-
bered, as it were, to provide the substances that guarantee the
fer: tility of the world. In either case, it is, ultimately, the drag-
on that is the source of that fer: tility; the darker side of cre-
ation and the sin that inevitably arises in dealing with it, rath-
er than the hero and his vir: tue, is the source of life.
SEE ALSO Indian Religions, article on Mythic Themes;
Indra; Snakes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vr: tra et Verethraghna by Émile Benveniste and Louis Renou
(Paris, 1934) remains the classic study of this myth; it has
been imaginatively augmented and extended by Georges
Dumézil’s writings, par: ticularly The Destiny of the Warrior,
translated by Alf Hiltebeital (Chicago, 1970). The major
myths of Indra and Vr: tra, together with a lengthy bibliogra-
phy of the secondary literature, are assembled on pages
74–90 and 320–321 of my Hindu Myths (Baltimore, 1975)
and discussed on pages 102–111 of my The Origins of Evil
in Hindu Mythology (Berkeley, Calif., 1976). Sukumari Bhat-
tacharji’s The Indian Theogony (Cambridge, 1970) summa-
rizes the details of the encounter on pages 251–259.
WENDY DONIGER (1987)
VULVA SEE YONI
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION