About
Pasu — Son of Savitr and Prishni, Divine Form of the Animal Sacrifice
Pasu · Pashu · Pasubandha · Nirudhapasubandha
Pasu is named in the Bhagavata Purana, Canto 6, Chapter 18, verse 1 as one of the sons of Prishni and the Aditya Savitr. His brothers are Agnihotra, Soma, Caturmasya, and the five Mahayajnas; his sisters are Savitri, Vyahriti, and Trayi. As a divine figure he is the personalised form of the Pasubandha or Nirudhapasubandha — the animal sacrifice, which is the fifth of the seven haviryajnas in the Vedic srauta sacrificial system. The animal sacrifice occupies a significant and theologically complex position within the Vedic ritual order, representing the offering of animal life — most typically a goat consecrated as a sacrificial victim — to a presiding deity, and its elevation to the status of a divine son of Savitr situates it firmly within the solar Aditya lineage as a personalised cosmic principle rather than merely a ritual procedure.
✦ The Name
The name Pasu derives from the Sanskrit root pas, meaning to bind or to tie, and denotes an animal, a beast, or a sacrificial victim — specifically one that is bound or tethered as part of a ritual act. In the Vedic sacrificial context, pasu refers to the consecrated animal offered at the Pasubandha sacrifice, and the term carries a broader cosmic significance: in the Vedic understanding, all living beings are pasus in the sense of being bound by the conditions of existence, and the sacrificial pasu represents this bound condition offered back to the divine. As a name for a divine being, Pasu designates the god who is the personalised form of this sacrificial principle — the divine presence embodied in the act of consecrated animal offering.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Savitr — the fifth of the twelve Adityas, son of Kashyapa and Aditi; presiding deity of divine impulsion and the animating solar force.
- Mother: Prishni — consort of Savitr.
- Brothers: Agnihotra, Soma, Caturmasya, and the five Mahayajnas — each the personalised divine form of a category of Vedic sacrificial practice.
- Sisters: Savitri, Vyahriti, and Trayi — divine personifications of the Gayatri Mantra, the Vyahriti utterances, and the three Vedas respectively.
- Paternal grandfather: Kashyapa — one of the Saptarishis; son of Marichi, born from Brahma.
- Paternal grandmother: Aditi — daughter of Daksha; mother of all the Adityas.
✦ The Pasubandha Rite and its Significance
The Pasubandha or Nirudhapasubandha is the fifth of the seven haviryajnas — the category of srauta sacrifices involving oblatory offerings — and consists of the binding, consecration, and ritual slaughter of an animal, most typically a castrated goat, offered to a specific deity. The Shatapatha Brahmana and the Taittiriya Brahmana contain detailed discussions of the Pasubandha, its procedures, the deities to whom animals of different kinds are offered, and its cosmic significance. The rite represents a more elaborate and occasional form of sacrifice than the daily Agnihotra, and its performance requires a full complement of ritual priests.
In the broader Vedic ritual taxonomy, the animal sacrifice occupies the intermediate position between the daily fire offerings of the haviryajnas and the more elaborate and prestigious Soma sacrifices. Its placement as a son of Savitr within the Puranic genealogical system situates it within the solar lineage as a ritual form that carries the animating impulsion of the solar principle into the domain of animal life — the offering of the bound living creature as the sacrificial enactment of the cosmic relationship between the solar divine and the embodied world.
✦ References
- Bhagavata Purana, Canto 6, Chapter 18, verse 1: The primary source naming Pasu as a son of Prishni and Savitr.
- Shatapatha Brahmana: Extensive treatment of the Pasubandha sacrifice, its procedures, cosmic significance, and position within the haviryajna hierarchy.
- Taittiriya Brahmana: Additional primary Vedic source for the animal sacrifice rite and its theological significance within the Krishna Yajurveda tradition.
- Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopaedia (1975): Reference for the genealogical data of Savitr's family.