Wind is one of the most immediate experiences of existence — you cannot see it, cannot grasp it, and yet it is everywhere, it moves everything, it brings rain or drought, it cools or burns. The ṛṣis of the Rig Veda made of it two distinct gods, Vāyu and Vāta, corresponding to two ways of experiencing wind: from afar and close up.
Vāyu: the first-born of cosmic breath
Vāyu is the great wind god of the Rig Veda. His name comes from the root vā — to blow, to move. He is one of the oldest gods of the Vedic pantheon, and hymn 1.2 (To Vāyu, ṛṣi: madhucchandas) invokes him first, before even Indra:
“These drops of the intense soma are mixed with curds and grains, O Vāyu, come to them and drink. We call Indra and Vāyu, the two gods who touch the Sky, to drink this soma. The sages call Indra and Vāyu, swift of thought, for their help, the two masters of meditation, with a thousand eyes.”
Vāyu is invited first to the sacrifice — before Indra, king of the gods. He is “the nearest,” says the Vedic tradition. The wind arrives before any other god because breath precedes every other form of life. Without breath, there is nothing.
Vāyu is also constantly paired with Indra as an equal partner. Together they “touch the Sky,” together they are “the two masters of meditation.” Wind and thunder — the invisible movement and the visible blow — are the two complementary faces of atmospheric power.
Vāta: the wind that heals
Vāta is a different figure, more intimate. His name comes from the same root, but his register is different — he is the wind felt on the skin, the breath that moves through the house, the air that carries remedy or illness.
Hymn 10.186 (To Vāta, ṛṣi: ula vātāyana) is one of the most touching in the Rig Veda — three verses of extraordinary tenderness:
“May Vāta blow into our heart a remedy that gives Happiness, that causes pleasure. He will make us cross through life. You are our father, O Vāta, and our brother, and our friend. Make for us a remedy that gives back life. Since O Vāta, you have placed the remedy in the house of the immortal, then give it to us to live.”
Father, brother, friend — these three words say everything. Vāta is not the distant, royal god of the sacrifice. He is the daily presence, the morning wind that cools the forehead, the fresh air that returns after fever. And in the house of the immortal he has placed the remedy — meaning that within the wind itself is hidden that which heals.
The long-haired ascetic hymn: wind and ecstasy
One of the most extraordinary Rig Veda texts on wind is hymn 10.136, known as “To the Long-Haired One” (keśin), composed by the brothers vātaraśana — whose name means precisely “girded with wind”:
“The long-haired one carries the fire. The long-haired one carries what acts swiftly. The long-haired one carries Heaven and Earth. The long-haired one is called Light. The ascetics, girded with wind, clothe themselves in ash, they follow the Force of the wind when the gods have entered them. Urged into ecstatic state, we ride the winds. You mortals, you see only our bodies. The Horse of the wind, friend of Vāyu, led by the gods, the ascetic dwells in the two oceans, that of the East and that of the West.”
This hymn describes ascetics who identify with the wind — who no longer wear clothing except the wind itself, who ride ecstasy as one rides the storm. Wind here is the spiritual force par excellence: invisible, omnipresent, free of all attachment.
Breath, life, and the seals of the Sapta Sindhu
What I take from Vāyu and Vāta is that the Vedic wind is not simply a meteorological phenomenon — it is the image of vital breath, of prāṇa, which moves through every living being. And the ascetics “girded with wind” of hymn 10.136 irresistibly bring to mind the figures engraved on the seals of the Seven Rivers civilisation — those figures in deep meditative posture that archaeologists have identified as yogis or priests. The inner breath, the mastery of prāṇa through yoga, may be the invisible thread connecting the Rig Veda to Mohenjo-daro. I develop these engraved figures in [my article on saptasindhuveda.com].
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