Dharma as the Bull: Varāha and Bhavishya Purāṇas

Dharma has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dharma.

Dharma is the right order that holds the world together: truth, duty and right conduct. In the Varāha Purāṇa, dharma is not only an idea. Dharma is a living being, born from the right side of Brahmā in the form of a vṛshabha (bull), and given the task of keeping right order among all beings in every yuga (age).

Here is what the Varāha Purāṇa tells about Dharma: his birth, his four feet, how he lives in different kinds of beings, the crisis caused by Soma, and the tithi (lunar day) sacred to him. It also looks at how the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa and the Skanda Purāṇa speak of Dharma. In the Agni Purāṇa, the bull given in dāna and the bull released in vṛshotsarga are both addressed as Dharma himself: Dharma in the form of the bull, the joy of the world and the vāhana of Śiva, who stands on four feet. The Bhavishya Purāṇa places Dharma in bull form on the banner of Sūrya‘s ratha, and tells the whole gift of the bull, which it addresses as the eternal Dharma, with its phala.

Birth of Dharma

After Brahmā had created the world, he wondered, “How shall I govern these beings?” At that moment a being came out of his right side. He wore white clothes, white garlands and white fragrance, and he had four feet, like a bull. Brahmā said to him:

“Sādhu! Govern all these beings. Be the first of the world.”

This bull-formed Dharma stood on four feet in the Kṛta Yuga and lost one foot in each following yuga:

Yuga	Feet
Kṛta	4
Tretā	3
Dvāpara	2
Kali	1

Dharma in Every Kind of Being

Dharma lives in different beings in different ways:

Brāhmaṇas: in six ways: performing yajña (sacred offering), helping others perform yajña, studying the Vedas, teaching, giving, and receiving
Kshatriyas: in three ways: yajña, study of the Vedas, and giving
Vaiśyas: in two ways: farming and trade
Śūdras: in one way: serving the other three varṇas through crafts and skills

“In all the worlds and in all the dvīpas (continents), the bull-formed Dharma-prabhu governs.”

Dharma as a Being of Sacred Sound

Dharma is also described as a nāda-maya purusha, a being made of sound, whose body is the structure of sacred language:

Four feet: dravya, guṇa, kriyā, jāti (substance, quality, action, and class)
Three horns: saṃhitā, pada, krama (three ways of reciting the Vedas)
Two heads: the beginning and end of Oṃkāra (the sound Oṃ)
Seven hands: the seven grammatical case-endings (vibhakti)
Three voices: udātta, anudātta, svarita (the three accents of Vedic chanting)

He is a being of first sound and of the order of the universe.

The Crisis of Soma and Tārā

Soma (the Moon) lived obsessively with Tārā, the wife of Bṛhaspati. This was an adharmic act, saudara-dāra-grahaṇa, the taking of a brother’s wife. Ashamed, Dharma fled into the forest. With Dharma gone:

Devas began going into the homes of the asuras’ wives
Asuras went into the homes of the devas
All boundaries broke down

Nārada told Brahmā what was happening. Brahmā came with the devas and asuras, found that the cause was Soma, and led Dharma back.

How Order Was Restored

Brahmā, the devas and the asuras all honoured the Dharma-bull with stotras (hymns of praise):

“O Deva shining like the moon! O Jagatpati (master of the world)! O one whose form is divine! O one who shows the way to svarga! O one whose very form is the path of action! O master present everywhere! Namo’stu (salutations to you).”

“You alone protect this whole earth. The three worlds, Janaloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka, are all governed by you.”

“Nothing at all exists in the whole moving and unmoving world (carācara) without you. Without you the universe would be destroyed at once.”

When Dharma’s eye, his gaze of blessing, fell on the devas and asuras, they at once shed their moha (delusion) and went back to right conduct.

Trayodaśī, Dharma’s Sacred Day

Brahmā declared Trayodaśī, the thirteenth tithi (day of the lunar calendar), to be Dharma’s sacred day, from the day he returned from the forest.

How it is kept: fast, and eat pāyasam (sweet rice pudding) on Trayodaśī.

Its fruit: even someone who has committed every possible pāpa is freed, and dwells in svarga. The forest in which Dharma wandered came to be called Dharmāraṇya, “Dharma’s forest”.

The Closing Lines of Dharma’s Stotra

“O Dharma, you preside, shining like the moon. In Kṛta with four feet, in Tretā with three, in Dvāpara with two, in Kali with one, in every way you dwell in and govern this earth and all the worlds. Protect the universe.”

Dharma as Varṇāśrama in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa

The Varāha Purāṇa shows Dharma as a bull, the living form of righteousness. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa shows dharma in its practical form as varṇāśrama-dharma: the particular duties that belong to each varṇa (social order) and each āśrama (stage of life). In Chapters 24–26 of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Madālasā teaches Alarka that a king’s first duty is to make sure that the duties of the varṇas and the āśramas in his kingdom stay whole. When they are kept, the king gains happiness both in this world (iha-loka) and the next (para-loka).

Dharma at Dharmāraṇya: the Dharmeśvara Liṅga

The Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa‘s Brahma Khaṇḍa gives a separate account of how the holy place of Dharmāraṇya is linked with Dharma. Śiva tells Skanda: “The son of Sūrya is Dharmarāja. He is the one who built this chief kshetra (sacred place). It was built by Dharma, and I call it Dharmāraṇya (Dharma’s forest).” In this account, Dharma means Yama, known as Dharmarāja, the son of Sūrya, who founded the holy place and gave it his name.

Dharma performed tapas (austerity) at Dharmāraṇya, and Śiva appeared before him, with matted hair (jaṭā) and sacred ash (bhasma), riding the bull, with bhūtas and pretas around him, and holding the khaṭvāṅga (skull-topped staff). Because of Dharma’s tapas, Śiva made his home in the kshetra for ever as the Dharmeśvara liṅga, the liṅga of the master of Dharma, to the east of Satya Mandira. This liṅga is the first and most important of the four devas who guard the four directions of Satya Mandira: Dharmeśvara in the east, Gaṇādhipati in the south, Sūrya in the west and Svayambhū in the north.

During his tapas, Dharma also offered Śiva a stotra of forty names, the Dharma-Śiva-Stotra. It praises him with forty names, from Īśvara and Yogarūpa to Tripurāri and Kāmadahana. Śiva was very pleased and gave Dharma the vara (boon) of presiding at Dharmāraṇya for ever. The fruit of this stotra and of Śiva’s presence at Dharmāraṇya is that even those guilty of the gravest mahāpāpas (great wrongs), such as gauhatyā (killing a cow), brahmahatyā (killing a brāhmaṇa) and gurutalpaga (violating the guru’s bed), are freed and reach Kailāsa.

The Bull as Dharma in the Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Purāṇa does not tell of Dharma’s birth, but in its rites the bull is honoured as Dharma in bodily form.

The bull given in dāna. At the end of the graha-yajña, the homa of ten thousand, a lakh or a crore offerings made for prosperity, śānti and victory, the yajamāna receives abhisheka and then gives gold, cows, land and other gifts, each with its own mantra. When he gives the bull, he says: “O Dharma! In the form of the bull you bring joy to the world; you are the vāhana of Śiva. Therefore give me śānti (peace).”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 167

The bull released in vṛshotsarga. Agni Deva teaches Vasishṭha Maharshi that vṛshotsarga, the release of a bull, gives akshaya (unending) fruit. The bull is marked with the seals of the cakra and the triśūla and set free with these words: “Deveśvara! You are Dharma himself, with four feet. These four are your beloved ones. O vṛshabha, form of the Veda, who nourish the pitṛs, men and ṛshis! By releasing you may I gain the imperishable, nectar-filled, eternal worlds. May I be freed from my debts to the devas, the bhūtas and the pitṛs. You are Dharma in person: may the state gained by those who take refuge in you be mine.” When vṛshotsarga is done at the eleventh-day, the six-monthly or the yearly śrāddha of one who has died, the dead person is freed from the preta-loka. One who performs vṛshotsarga on Kārtika pūrṇimā and such days uplifts his kula (family line).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 211, 213

The Bull as Dharma in the Bhavishya Purāṇa

The Bhavishya Purāṇa also knows Dharma in the form of a bull. He stands on the banner of Sūrya‘s ratha, and the bull that is honoured and given in dāna is addressed as Dharma himself.

On the banner of Bhagavān Sūrya’s ratha. Brahmā tells Rudra how the ratha of Bhagavān Sūrya is arrayed. On the banner the staff is the flagpole, and on the flag is Dharma in the form of a bull. The patākā is joined with Buddhi, Vṛddhi and Śrī.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 53

In the body of the cow. When Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira of the glory of the cows, he names the beings who dwell in the cow’s body. In her thighs is Dharma with his four feet, always.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 69

The bull in the navagraha-śānti. In the śāntika and paushṭika rites that Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Yudhishṭhira, the dakshiṇā for Maṅgala is a red bull, able to bear loads, with a high hump. One prays to each gift in turn, and to the bull one says: “Delighter of the world, you are Dharma in the form of a bull, and the vāhana of Ashṭamūrti Śiva. Give me śānti.”

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 141

The bull in the gift of a thousand cows. In the go-sahasra dāna, the munis have taught also the gift of a golden Nandikeśvara set upon salt, or of a living bull. Bathed by brāhmaṇas who know the Veda, the yajamāna takes flowers in his cupped hands and praises the cows. He ends with these words: “Since you, in the form of the vṛsha, are the eternal Dharma and the vāhana of Bhagavān Śiva, protect me.”

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 159

The gift of the bull. Yudhishṭhira says that the words of Śrī Kṛshṇa do not satisfy him fully, and that the vṛshabha, master of cows, is famous in the three lokas as being of the form of Govinda. He asks the fruit of giving so great a vṛshabha.

Śrī Kṛshṇa answers that vṛshabha-dāna is the purest of the pure and the best of gifts. The fruit of giving one healthy, sturdy vṛshabha is more than that of giving ten dhenus (milch cows). The bull should be well-fed, young, handsome, gentle-natured and of good form, with a hump and auspicious lakshaṇas. By giving even one such bull all the kulas of the donor are uplifted.

On a puṇya-parva day silver is put on the bull’s tail and it is well adorned. Then it is given with dakshiṇā to a brāhmaṇa, with this prayer:

धर्मस्त्वं वृषरूपेण जगदानन्दकारकः ।
अष्टमूर्तेरधिष्ठानमतः पाहि सनातन ॥
dharmastvaṃ vṛsharūpeṇa jagadānandakārakaḥ |
ashṭamūrteradhishṭhānamataḥ pāhi sanātana ||
You are Dharma in the form of the vṛsha, the giver of delight to the world, the seat of the Ashṭamūrti. Therefore protect me, O eternal one.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 160

The gift should go to a brāhmaṇa who is calm of mind, master of the senses, a knower of the Veda, ahiṃsaka, afraid of accepting gifts, able to uplift men, and a gṛhastha. To him should be given a firm, well-fed, strong bull, able to carry loads, having all good qualities.

The phala: the pāpas of seven previous births of one who gives a bull by this vidhi are destroyed at that very moment. At the end he goes to Svarga-loka in a divine vimāna that moves at will and has bulls. For as many thousand years as there are hairs on the body of that bull he is honoured in Goloka. After this he descends and is born in the home of a brāhmaṇa of high kula, a performer of yajñas, of great tejas, honoured by all brāhmaṇas.