Legendary Uchchaihshravas: Divine Seven-Headed Flying Horse Of God Indra

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - There is a wonderful, snow-white horse, in Hindu mythology, which is known as Uchchaihshravas.

Uchchaihshravas is considered the best of horses, archetype, and king of horses. This divine horse became ‘Vahana’ of  Indra, the Hindu god, known as King of the Gods and Heaven, God of Lightning, Thunder, and Rains.

Interestingly, in the folklore of the Bali people, the same horse is the king of demons.

Credit: Adobe Stock - Snehit Photo

Uchchaihshravas ("long-ears" (or "neighing aloud") is a seven-headed flying horse, that emerged from “churning of the milk ocean” (in Sanskrit: 'Samudra manthan') along with other treasures such as goddess Lakshmi - the goddess of fortune, taken by god Vishnu as his consort and the ‘amrita’ – the drink of immortality, which both the devas (gods) and asuras (demons) wanted to possess.

Uchchaihshravas seven-headed horse in Hindu mythology. Left: A seven-headed winged Uchchaihshravas with other treasures from Samudra manthan. Credit: Public Domain - Right: Public Domain

The famous story of “Churning of the Ocean of Milk” explains the origin of ‘amrita’, and is mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana, the Vishnu Purana, and in the epic Mahabharata. Engaged in continuous war with each other, the devas (gods) and asuras (demons) decided to work together for a millennium to churn the ocean and release Amrita, the nectar of immortal life.

According to Hindu cosmology, the Ocean of Milk is the fifth from the center of the seven oceans. It surrounds the continent known as Krauncha, which according to the Puranas, is the fifth of the seven islands (dwipas), which makes up the world.

Various treasures (ratnas) emerged from the ocean of milk. These were Sura, goddess and creator of alcohol, Apsarases, various divine nymphs like Rambha, Menaka, Kaustubha, the most valuable jewel in the world, Kalpavriksha, the wish-granting tree, Kamadhenu, the first cow and mother of all other cows, Airavata, the elephant of Indra, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune and Wealth, Parijat, the divine tree, Halahala the deadly poison, Chandra, the moon and the wonderful divine Uchhaishravas, the divine 7-headed horse. Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bhagavad Gita, which is a 700-verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit and part of the Hindu epic Mahabharataalso mentions  Uchchaihshravas. The creature is involved in a discourse between god Krishna (Vishnu’s eighth avatar) and Arjuna, the son of Indra and the king of the celestials. When Krishna declares to be the source of the universe, he declares that among all horses, he is Uchchaihshravas - who is born from the amrita, sacred potion.

In the 12th century Indian text, the Hariharacaturanga, there is a story that one day, the creator-god, Brahma, performed a sacrifice, which resulted in a creation of a winged white horse called Uchchaihshravas. Then, the horse once again appeared out of the milk ocean and was taken by the king of the demons (Asura) Bali, who used the horse’s supernatural powers.

The divine Uchchaihshravas is very similar to Odin’s horse Sleipnir in Norse mythology.

Updated on June 21, 2021

Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer

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