Chyavana Offers Soma to the Ashvins Despite Indra's Threat

King Sharyati of the Ikshvaku line built a sacrificial ground and filled it with every desirable object. He invited the Bhargava sage Chyavana to preside. Chyavana was old — ancient, in fact. He had spent so many years in meditation that ants had built a mound around his body. The Ashvins, the twin horsemen who served as physicians to the gods, had restored his youth and given him back his beauty. They had made him, as he put it, "like the ageless gods." Now, at Sharyati's sacrifice, Chyavana grasped a cup of soma — the sacred drink that only the gods could consume — and prepared to offer it to the Ashvins. Indra stopped him. "In my view," the king of the gods said, "these two Nasatyas are unworthy of being offered soma. They are the physicians of the gods and their acts make them unworthy of worship." Chyavana did not bow. "They are great in powers. They are great in soul. They are wealthy in beauty and riches. They have made me young, like the ageless gods. Together with you and the other gods, why should they be unworthy of receiving offerings? O lord of the gods! Know that the Ashvins are also gods." Indra pressed harder. "These two are physicians and nothing but servants. They can adopt any form they desire. They roam the world of the mortals. How can they be deserving of soma?" Chyavana paid no heed. He grasped the cup and prepared to pour. Indra spoke one last time: "If you willingly grasp the soma and offer it to them, I will hurl my vajra — supreme and terrible in form — at you." Chyavana smiled. He looked at Indra. And then, following the procedure, he grasped some excellent soma and offered it to the Ashvins. Indra hurled the vajra. But just as the thunderbolt left his hand, Chyavana paralysed the god's arm. The vajra fell useless. Having immobilised Indra, Chyavana uttered mantras and made offerings to the fire. He had succeeded in his objective — but he was not finished. He decided to teach the king of the gods a lesson. With the strength of his austerities — the power accumulated through decades of meditation, fasting, and self-denial — Chyavana created a gigantic asura (demon) named Mada. Mada's body was so immense that neither gods nor demons could measure it. His mouth was terrible, full of sharp teeth. One of his jaws rested on the earth; the other stretched up to heaven. He had four fangs that extended for ten thousand yojanas — a distance that defied comprehension. His other fangs were ten yojanas long, shaped like walls and tipped like spears. His arms were like mountains, each ten thousand yojanas in length. His eyes were the sun and the moon. His mouth looked like death itself. Mada licked his mouth with a darting tongue as fickle as lightning. He rushed at Indra — Shatakratu, the performer of a hundred sacrifices — as if to devour him. The world resounded with the noise of his great and terrible roar. Indra, the king of the gods, stood frozen, his arm paralysed, facing a demon born from the austerities of a sage he had tried to intimidate.