Is vedic manu the same as Manu of Manusmriti?
We have all heard of Manu from the Manusmriti. He was directed by Brahma, the creator of the Hindu world, to create a code of conduct (dharma) that befits people based on their status in society (varna) and their stage of life (ashrama). This story comes from the Manusmriti itself.
Manusmriti is one of the many Dharma-shastras, which started being composed around and after the Mauryan period (300 BC). The early Dharma-shastras have no such story. Manusmriti is a later text, dated roughly to the Gupta period (300 AD). With this story, Manusmriti positioned itself as divinely ordained.
But this is not the only Manu we know.
The first time we come across Manu is in the Rig Veda, in the fourth Mandala in the 26th verse. Vamadeva speaks of how a falcon flies high to the heavens, steals the Soma plant from a highly fortified settlement and risks the arrows of archers. After losing just one feather, the falcon manages to bring it down to earth to Manu. Then Manu presses it and offers it to Indra. The same verse describes Indra as the one who leads and offers the Aryans the land they need to graze their cattle.
Incidentally, this hymn is from 1500 BC. In exchange for the Soma drink, Indra then leads Manu and his followers to new Aryan lands. The Hindu Kush, in the old Avestan language, means a mountain that the falcons cannot cross. The Soma plant (ephedra) grows in the dry mountains north of the Hindu Kush. Could this be a memory of the migration of Aryan people, nomads who brought horses to India, five centuries after the collapse of the Harappan cities?
By 800 BC, Vedic literature starts describing rituals such as Agnicayana rituals that were being performed in the Gangetic plain. The old pastoral people were now farmers, using iron tools smelted by local tribes, to clear forests. Here, the fire altar was designed like a bird and the bird is facing the eastern direction, a reminder of the ancient migratory route. In Vedic rituals, the priest always faces the east. But in later Hindu temples, built a thousand years ago, the deity faces the east. On these temple walls one never finds the image of any Manu. The most popular image of Manu was erected only in the 20th century, in the Rajasthan High Court premises at Jaipur.
In the Shatapatha Brahmana (800 BC), we hear for the first time the story of how Manu saves a small fish from the big fish. Then the big fish rescues him from a great flood by advising him to build a boat. The fish is identified with Prajapati. Was this a memory of monsoon floods that the early Aryans encountered?
The Vedic Manu who received the falcon is forgotten by the time the Mahabharata was composed. Mahabharata was composed at the same time as the Dharma-shastra (300 BC to 300 AD). It refers to an earlier Vedic age and tells the story of Krishna, whose death traditionally marks the start of the Kali Yuga.
The yuga concept became widespread only after 500 AD, after the rise of the Gupta empire, and the migration of Brahmins to the west, east and south of India, in search of patronage. This was the sage that saw the rise of brahmadeya land-grants to priests, the rise of agrahara Brahmin communities, and the gradual shift from Vedic fire rituals to temple rituals involving flowers and water. The Manu of these Brahmins was very different.
In the Vishnu Puran (500 AD), we hear of a great flood known as the flood of Pralaya, which marks the end of Brahma’s day or Kalpa. The start of Brahma’s day is marked by a Manu, saving seven sages, the keepers of the Vedas, on a boat and taking them to safety, with the help of a fish. But this fish is not Prajapati. It is identified with Vishnu.
This Vishnu is not the Vedic Vishnu, younger brother of Indra, famous for taking three steps. This Vishnu overshadows Indra, and even Prajapati. From his navel rises a lotus in which is born Brahma. This Vishnu saves the Veda, and Manu, from Pralaya. Brahmins began telling the kings of India to be like Vishnu and rescue the Veda from destruction, by supporting Brahmins.
Thus we encounter four Manus. First, the 3,500-year-old Manu of the Veda is linked to a falcon and Soma. Then, 2,800-year-old Manu of the Brahmana literature linked to Prajapati, the fish. Third, 1,800-year-old Manu of the Manusmriti, who makes laws. And finally, the 1,500-year-old Manu of Vishnu Purana, who is the father of humanity. Stories change over time. We need to remember that.
Devdutt Pattanaik
Mythologist, Author, Speaker
Posts on X: @devduttmyth