Aśvins


The Aśvins, or Ashwini Kumaras, are twin Vedic gods of medicine in Hindu mythology. Associated with the dawn, they are described as youthful divine twin horsemen in the Rigveda, travelling in a chariot drawn by horses that are never weary.

Origin

The Aśvins are an instance of the Proto-Indo-European divine horse twins. Reflexes in other Indo-European mythologies include the Baltic Ašvieniai, the Greek Castor and Polux; and possibly the English Hengist and Horsa, and the Welsh Bran and Manawydan. The first mention of the Nasatya twins is from the Mitanni documents of the second millennium BCE, where they are invoked in a treaty between Suppiluliuma and Shattiwaza, respectively kings of the Hittites and the Mitanni.

Names

In the Rigveda, the Aśvins are always referred to in the dual, and do not have individual names, although Vedic texts differentiate between the two Aśvins: "one of you is respected as the victorious lord of Sumakha, and the other as the fortunate son of heaven". They are called several times divó nápātā, "sons of Dyaús ".
The twin gods are also referred to as Nā́satyā, a name that appears 99 times in the Rigveda. The epithet probably derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *nes-, with cognates in the Avestan Nā̊ŋhaiθya, the name of a demon, as a result of a Zoroastrian religious reformation that degraded the status of prior deities, in the Greek hero Nestor, and in the Gothic verb nasjan.

Role

The Aśvins are often associated with rescuing mortals and bringing them back to life. Rebha was bound, stabbed, and cast into the waters for nine days and ten nights before being saved by the twins. He was explicitly described as "dead" when the twins "raised up" to save him. Similarly, Bhujyu was saved after his father or evil companions abandoned him at sea, when the twins “ home from the dead ancestors”. The Rigveda also describes the Aśvins as "bringing light": they gave "light-bringing help" to Bhujyu, and "raised up to see the sun".
The Aśvins are invoked at dawn, the time of their principal sacrifice, and have a close connection with the dawn goddess, Uṣas: she is bidden to awaken them, they follow her in their chariot, she is born when they hitch their steeds, and their chariot is once said to arrive before her. They are consequently associated with the "return from darkness": the twins are called “darkness slayers”, they are invoked with the formula "you who have made light for mankind", and their horses and chariot are described as "uncovering the covered darkness".

In Hindu sacred texts

Rigveda

The Aśvins are mentioned 398 times in the Rigveda, with more than 50 hymns specifically dedicated to them: 1.3, 1.22, 1.34, 1.46–47, 1.112, 1.116–120, 1.157–158, 1.180–184, 2.20, 3.58, 4.43–45, 5.73–78, 6.62–63, 7.67–74, 8.5, 8.8–10, 8.22, 8.26, 8.35, 8.57, 8.73, 8.85–87, 10.24, 10.39–41, 10.143.

Mahabharata

Indian holy books like the Mahabharata and the Puranas, relate that the Ashwini Kumar twins, who were Raja -Vaidya to the Devas during Vedic times, first prepared the Chyawanprash formulation for Rishi Chyavana at his Ashram on Dhosi Hill near Narnaul, Haryana, India, hence the name Chyawanprash. In the epic Mahabharata, King Pandu's wife Madri is granted a son by each Ashvin and bears the twins Nakula and Sahadeva who, are known as the Pandavas.