Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

and

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

, Sāṁvartaka or Sanvartaka is a divine force or power normally used by the deity

Indra Indra (; ) is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the Deva (Hinduism), Devas and Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes Indra is the m ...

. Described as being a cloud of energy or fire, the force is used to destroy or despoil that which displeases Indra. The force is referenced to in Hindu and Jainist texts. Samvartaka is also strongly associated with comets.

Description

In Hinduism and Jainism, Samvartaka is a force primarily wielded by the god

. However, some texts portray the force as being wielded by deities other than Indra. Regardless of caller or wielder, the force is portrayed as being incredibly destructive.

Instances of use

In the epic

Vana Parva The Vana Parva ("Book of the Forest") is the third of the eighteen ''parvas'' (books) of the Indian epic ''Mahabharata''.van Buitenen, J.A.B. (1975) ''The Mahabharata: Book 2: The Book of the Assembly Hall; Book 3: The Book of the Forest''. Chicag ...

, Indra calls forth Samvartaka to settle a dispute between himself and

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

. In the epic, a jealous and prideful Indra sends the cloud to flood the lands of

Vrindavan Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj, Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance for Hindus who believe that Krishna, one of ...

; this is stopped by the intervention of Krishna, who lifts the

Govardhan Hill Govardhana Hill (; ), also called Mount Govardhana and Giriraj, is a sacred Hindu site in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India on an 8 km long hill located in the area of Govardhan and Radha Kund, which is about from Vrindavan ...

to shield the land from the devastating rain the cloud brings. In Book 3 of the Vana Parva, the hero

Yudhishthira Yudhishthira (Sanskrit: युधिष्ठिर, ud̪ʱiʂʈʰiɾᵊ IAST: ''Yudhiṣṭhira''), also known as Dharmaputra, is the eldest among the five Pandavas, and is also one of the central characters of the ancient Indian epic ''Ma ...

prays to the sun, asking the celestial body to "let the fire Samvartaka born of thy wrath consumeth the three worlds and existence alone" upon the dissolution of the universe. Similarly, the sage

Markandeya Markandeya () is a rishi (sage) featured in Hindu literature. He is the son of the sage Mrikanda and his wife, Manasvini. The Markandeya Purana (one of the eighteen Mahāpurāṇas in Hinduism), attributed to the sage, comprises a dialogue ...

describes to Yudhishthira how samvartaka, spread by an inauspicious wind, will consume the earth. In the

Skanda Purana The ''Skanda Purana'' ( IAST: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest '' Mukhyapurāṇa'', a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Shaivite literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parv ...

, a

Rudra Rudra (/ ɾud̪ɾə/; ) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the ''Rigveda'', Rudra is praised as the "mightiest of the mighty". Rudra ...

(storm god) is able to release and command samvartaka to subdue a great bull that has threatened to drink dry the oceans. In this story, samvartaka is depicted as a raging fire. In the works of Garga, samvartaka is described as a devastating, energetic force that will arrive as one of two comets. In the sage's words, "Like the stellar wheel rotating (repeating) in the sky, the comet-wheel also repeats in the sky. At the end of 1000 years, at the end of the comet strand, two comets—Dhūma and Samvartaka—appear together." Garga writes that these twin comets will cause

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

s and meteorite showers that will sunder the mountains and the oceans. He notes that samvartaka will be the more devastating of the two, as it will be responsible for " reducing" the world.A Profile of Indian Astronomy before the Siddhāntic Period Prof. Dr. R. N. Iyengar Raja Ramanna Fellow Dept. of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012. PDF URL:https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/34385598/RootsOfHinduAstronomyRNIyengarEng.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1541356647&Signature=WmzFVAJglSg%2ByppMD6sWnAWG0bs%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DA_Profile_of_Indian_Astronomy_before_the.pdf Another Vedic text also refers to samvartaka as a comet. In this text, the comet appears and grows so large as to take up one third of the sky. It is described as having "a thin dreadful copper colored spear-like head, ejecting a jet of smoke." While the comet hangs above the world, kings are projected to fight among themselves.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sāṁvartaka Hindu theology