Vayu (also Vata, Pavana, Prana)

A breath escapes a sleeping child in a hill village south of the Vindhyas, and somewhere in that small movement is a god. He is not loud about it. The wind that lifts a kite over a paddy field, the gust that rounds a temple corner and rattles the brass bells, the slow tide of air through a sadhu’s lungs at dawn, these are all the same deity wearing different volumes. Vayu has no fixed body in the way a mountain god has a mountain. He is what the body lets in and out.

The Rigveda names him Vata when it wants to speak of the rushing thing and Pavana when it wants to speak of purification, but in the rituals he answers to all of them. He is one of the oldest gods on record, mentioned in hymns that were already old when they were first written down. The Soma offering, that strange luminous drink the gods coveted, was poured for Vayu first. One account preserved in the Vedic tradition tells of a footrace among the gods to decide who would taste it before the others. Vayu won. Indra came in second. The cup went to the wind because nothing in creation outruns the wind.

He rides a chariot, and the texts cannot agree on how many horses pull it. Some hymns say two. Others say forty-nine. The most extravagant claim a thousand, all of them white and purple, all of them faster than thought. A white banner streams behind him. The chariot is described as shining, and the sound of it is the sound that moves through the cane fields before a storm, the low rising note that makes farmers look up. Out of his belly come the Maruts, that troop of storm gods who fly beside him with their own bright weapons and their own thundering horses. They are his sons in the older texts, and they bring the violence of wind, the kind that strips roofs and breaks branches.

His range is enormous and his work is constant. Among the eight dikpalas, the guardians of the cardinal and intercardinal directions, he holds the northwest. The Upanishads, when they turn philosophical, call him Prana, the life breath of the world. He is one of the Pancha Bhutas, the five great elements, standing among earth, water, fire, and space as one of the fundamental constituents of everything that exists. To be alive is to be borrowing him.

The two stories that anchor him most firmly in human memory are stories about his sons. In the Treta Yuga, the queen Anjana prayed for a child, and Vayu sent the breath that placed Hanuman in her womb. The boy grew up with the strength of the wind itself, leapt across the sea to find the captured Sita, and bore the army of Rama on the storm of his devotion. Generations later, in the Dvapara Yuga, the queen Kunti called on Vayu, and Bhima was born. He grew into the second of the Pandava brothers, a man so strong he uprooted trees for sport, and the central engine of the violence at Kurukshetra. The line through the ages is direct. When a great work needs strength, the wind god provides a son.

Later traditions extend the line further. The thirteenth-century saint Madhvacharya, who founded the Dvaita school of Vaishnava philosophy, was held by his followers to be the third earthly incarnation of Vayu, following Hanuman and Bhima. In that view, Vayu serves Vishnu directly across the ages, returning whenever dharma needs muscle behind it.

His powers follow from what he is. He goes everywhere, because air goes everywhere. He is invisible, but his work is not, the bending of grass, the carrying of seed, the breath drawn from a newborn. He moves faster than any other being. He purifies, because moving air does what stagnant air cannot. He sustains life directly, since nothing breathes without him, and he can withdraw that gift, since a windless world is a suffocating one. He carries messages between gods and between worlds, the original courier.

His limits are the limits of his element. He cannot be held. He has no fixed form a worshipper can wrap arms around, and his presence is so constant that he is the easiest god to forget. The Vedic ritualists understood this and made sure to call his name first. A wind that is never thanked is still a wind, but a wind that is thanked aloud joins the worshipper in a transaction older than any temple. Even he, the swiftest of the gods, can lose a footrace if Indra is given the head start. Even he must wait for the cup to be poured.

The breath leaves the sleeping child and enters the room, and the room exchanges it with the night outside, and the night exchanges it with the sea. None of it stops. That is the only thing about him that never changes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Vayu in Hindu mythology?

Vayu is the Hindu god of wind, air, and breath, one of the oldest deities named in the Rigveda. He serves as messenger of the gods, guardian of the northwest among the eight dikpalas, and stands among the five great elements (Pancha Bhutas) as the embodiment of air itself.

Who are Vayu’s sons?

Vayu is the father of Hanuman, the monkey hero of the Ramayana, and of Bhima, the second of the five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata. Both inherited his immense strength and speed. In Madhva Vaishnava tradition, the philosopher Madhvacharya is regarded as a third incarnation of Vayu, completing the line across three ages.

Why does Vayu drink the Soma first?

In Vedic ritual Vayu is offered the first draught of the sacred Soma juice because, by one account, he won a footrace among the gods to claim that honor. Indra came in second. This privileged position is reflected in Rigvedic hymns that address Vayu as the one who drinks first at the holy rites.

What does Vayu look like?

Indian art depicts Vayu as a handsome, vigorous male figure in flowing white and blue garments, often crowned and carrying a white banner. He rides a shining chariot pulled by anywhere from two to a thousand horses of white and purple, the number varying by source. The Maruts, a troop of storm gods, are described as having been born from his belly.

What is the difference between Vayu and Prana?

Vayu is the personified god of wind in Hindu mythology, while Prana is the term for the vital life breath inside every living being. The Upanishads draw the two together by calling Vayu the Prana of the world, meaning the same animating principle moves at both cosmic and individual scale. In ritual practice they are addressed as aspects of one continuous reality.

Related Entries

Hanuman, Rama, Arjuna, Indra, Agni, Soma, Varuna, Yama, Rudra, Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, Garuda