Sharvara and Shyama

Sharvara (Sanskrit: शार्वर, romanized: Śārvara), also rendered Shabala (Sanskrit: शबल, romanized: Śabala)^[1] and Shyama (Sanskrit: श्याम, romanized: Śyāma) are two Hindu mythological watchdogs belonging to Yama.^[2]

Sharvara is identified with the constellation Canis Major, and Shyama with Canis Minor; together they guard the gates of the underworld, the domain of Yama.^[3][4]

Etymology

The word sharvara means variegated or spotted.^[5] In older Sanskrit, शर्वर is written as कर्वर (karvara).^[6] Shyama is translated as black or dark-coloured.^[7]

Mythology

Sharvara and Shyama are described to be two ferocious, four-eyed dogs that guard the entrance to the palace of Yama. The dead are required to get past these dogs in order to be rendered judgement by their master.^[8] They are referred to as Mithūdṛśā, meaning that they are not both capable of sight at the same time.^[9]

The dogs are first described in the Yamasukta section of the Rigveda. Named as the children of Sharama, departed souls are asked to venture beyond the two spotted four-eyed dogs in order to join their pitrs. They are also mentioned in a prayer to Yama, in which the dead are requested to be entrusted to their protection, and are extolled as the guardians of the road.^[10]

The Atharvaveda describes the dogs as the messengers of Yama, designated with the role of seeking out individuals who are to die.^[11]

Comparisons

Sharvara can be compared with the Greek Cerberus, the mythological dog of the Greeks with similar characteristics. However, there is no description of Cerberus having a companion, and he is usually depicted with three heads.^[12] Scholars have concluded that the three heads were a Greek addition to the underlying Indo-Aryan myth.^[13][14]

Shavara and Shyama can also be compared to Odin's wolves Geri and Freki in Norse mythology.^[15] Odin (the all-father) just like Yama (the progenitor of all humans) sits on a chair guarded by two dogs.^[16]

Tilak dates the Vedic antiquity using the assertion that the Milky Way (path of the dead) used to be guarded by Sharvara and a new year started upon the crossing of Milky Way by the sun. Using internal evidence he dated the timeframe of Vedic antiquity (Taittriya Samhita) to the time when at the vernal equinox the sun rose in the asterism of Orion (Mrigashiras).^[17]

References

1. Dalal, Roshen (2014-04-15). The Vedas: An Introduction to Hinduism's Sacred Texts. Penguin UK. p. 343. ISBN 978-81-8475-763-7.
2. Walker, Benjamin (2019-04-09). Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism. In Two Volumes. Volume I A-L. Routledge. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-429-62421-6.
3. Tilak, Bal Gangadhar (1893). The Orion, or, Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas. Pune: Mrs. Radhabai Atmaram Sagoon. p. 42.
4. Byghan, Yowann (2020-03-12). Sacred and Mythological Animals: A Worldwide Taxonomy (in Bengali). McFarland. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-4766-3887-4.
5. Tilak 1893, p. 108
6. Monier Williams Dictionary
7. Williams, Monier (1872). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and other cognate Indo-European Languages By Monier Williams. At the Clarendon Press Sold by Macmillan. p. 1023.
8. Stookey, Lorena Laura (2004). Thematic Guide to World Mythology. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-313-31505-3.
9. Bhattacharji, Sukumari. the indian theogony. CUP Archive. p. 70.
10. Srivastava, Vinod Chandra (2008). History of Agriculture in India, Up to C. 1200 A.D. Concept Publishing Company. p. 296. ISBN 978-81-8069-521-6.
11. Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 265. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
12. Apolodorus and others indicate that he had three heads, but Hesiod with poetical hyperbole gives him fifty. Elton, Charles Abraham (1812). Hesiod, translated from the Greek into English verse, with a Preliminary Dissertation on the Writings, Life, and Æra of Hesiod. London: Lackington, Allen and Company. p. 267.
13. Elton 1812, p. 267
14. Bryant, Jacob (1809). A new system: or, An analysis of antient mythology. Vol. 2 (3rd ed.). J. Walker. pp. 118–119.
15. Geri and Freki, "Greedy" and "Voracious" Bloomfield, Maurice (1905). Cerberus, the Dog of Hades: The History of an Idea. Open Court Publishing. pp. 26–27.
16. Bloomfield 1905, p. 27
17. Tilak 1893, pp. 41–60