Sarama
Sign in to saveIn Ancient Hindu Text, Sarama (, ) is a female dog of the gods, or Deva-shuni (देव-शुनी, ). She first appears in one of Hinduism's earliest texts, the Rig Veda, in which she helps the king of the gods Indra to recover divine cows stolen by the Panis asuras. This legend is alluded to in many later texts, and Sarama is often associated with Indra. The epic Mahabharata, and some Puranas, also make brief reference to Sarama.
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Etymology and epithets
- Finding the stolen cows
- Rig veda and related versions
- Brhaddevata and related versions
- Parentage and children
- Epics
- Interpretations and associations
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
In Ancient Hindu Text, Sarama (, ) is a female dog of the gods, or Deva-shuni (देव-शुनी, ). She first appears in one of Hinduism's earliest texts, the Rig Veda, in which she helps the king of the gods Indra to recover divine cows stolen by the Panis asuras. This legend is alluded to in many later texts, and Sarama is often associated with Indra. The epic Mahabharata, and some Puranas, also make brief reference to Sarama.
Early Rig Vedic works do not depict Sarama as a dog, but later Vedic mythologies and interpretations usually do. She is described as the mother of all dogs, in particular of the two four-eyed brindle dogs of the god Yama, and dogs are given the matronymic Sarameya ("offspring of Sarama"). One scripture further describes Sarama as the mother of all wild animals.