Naimishāraṇya Satra (Vāyu Purāṇa)

The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa begins at Naimishāraṇya, a holy forest where a great twelve-year satra (a long Vedic yajña, or fire ritual) is going on. Śaunaka and thousands of ṛshis (seers) are gathered there. Sūta comes to the place, and the ṛshis ask him to tell the Purāṇa. In this Purāṇa, Bhagavān Vāyu is both the one who first told it and the one it speaks about.

The twelve-year satra

The setting of the Vāyu Purāṇa is the Dvādaśa Vārshika Satra, a Vedic yajña that lasts twelve years without a break. It is one of the hardest and most full of puṇya (merit) of all the satras. The twelve years make one unbroken act of yajña. The ṛshis live at Naimishāraṇya for all that time and keep the sacred fires and the ritual life going.

The leaders of the gathering are:

  • Śaunaka Maharshi, the chief of the ṛshis there, the great teacher of the Śaunakaprakriyā of the Ṛgveda.
  • Thousands of ṛshis from all the gotra lineages.

Sūta (Ugraśravā, son of Lomaharshaṇa) arrives at Naimishāraṇya. The ṛshis rise to receive him. Sūta is the disciple of Veda-Vyāsa himself and the keeper of the eighteen Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata.

The request

Śaunaka and the ṛshis honour Sūta with arghya (water of welcome), pādya (water for the feet) and ācamana (a sip of water for purity). Then they make their request:

“O Sūta, you are Vyāsa’s dear disciple and you know all the Purāṇas. At this holy Satra, please tell us the ancient knowledge: the creation of the universe, the lineages of the devas and ṛshis, the nature of Dharma, the four yugas, and above all the glory of Bhagavān Śiva, the master of all beings.”

Sūta agrees. He begins by explaining that Bhagavān Vāyu first told this Purāṇa to the ṛshis. Bhagavān Vāyu is the deva of the wind and one of the eight forms of Mahādeva (Bhagavān Śiva as Īśāna-Vāyu). That is why the Purāṇa has the name Vāyu Purāṇa.

How Naimishāraṇya got its name

Chapter 2 gives the holy origin of Naimishāraṇya.

Brahmā made a dharma-cakra, a wheel of dharma, and set it rolling over the earth. He told the ṛshis: “Follow this wheel. Where it stops, build your āśrama and perform your tapas.”

The wheel rolled across the holy land of Bhārata. At last, in one place, its nemi (rim) broke. The name comes from this:

  • nemi (rim) becomes nimisha and then Naimisha, the place where the rim broke.
  • The name means “the forest at the place where the rim of the Dharma-wheel broke”.

The breaking of the rim shows that this place is so full of the power of dharma that the wheel could go no further. It had found its home. The ṛshis settled there and began their tapas. From that time Naimishāraṇya has been the first place for long Vedic satras.

Purūravas

Chapter 2 also names Purūravas, the son of Ilā and the first king of the Lunar Dynasty (Candra-vaṃśa), in connection with Naimishāraṇya. This gives the holy place a root in the first events of the Lunar Dynasty. Naimishāraṇya is not only a place of the tapas of the ṛshis.

The same setting in other Purāṇas

Other Purāṇas also open at Naimishāraṇya. The same twelve-year Satra, the same Sūta and the same ṛshis led by Śaunaka form the opening of:

  • The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa (First Skandha)
  • The Padma Purāṇa
  • The Kūrma Purāṇa

At Naimishāraṇya the knowledge of the Purāṇas passes from Sūta to the ṛshis, and through them to all people.

Vāyu as the one who tells and the one told of

The Vāyu Purāṇa is unusual in who first told it: Bhagavān Vāyu, the deva of the wind. Bhagavān Vāyu is:

  • one of the eight bodies of Bhagavān Śiva, where Vāyu is the body of Īśāna;
  • the breath that keeps all life going;
  • the carrier of all sound, including the Vedic mantras.

This Purāṇa gives the most space to the glory of Bhagavān Śiva, and it is told by Śiva’s own body, Vāyu. The breath and sound through which all teaching travels is the form of Bhagavān Śiva himself.

Sources

  • Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2