Rishi Vamadeva

Vamadeva is the Rigvedic seer to whom Mandala 4 is attributed. The Rigveda Anukramani gives him all 58 hymns of the book except 4.43 and 4.44, which it assigns to Purumidha and Ajamidha Sauhotra. He is called Vamadeva Gautama, a son of Gotama, and belongs to the Gautama branch of the Angirasas. Mandala 4 is one of the family books (Mandalas 2 to 7), the older core of the Rigveda.

The name Vamadeva is used for more than one figure. This page is about the sage. The epics name a Vamadeva as a priest of King Dasharatha and as an adviser of kings, and tradition takes him to be the same sage. Shaiva texts also use Vamadeva for one of the five aspects of Shiva, with Sadyojata, Aghora, Tatpurusha and Ishana. That is a divine aspect with its own mantra, not the sage, though it is the same word.

His name appears in the Upanishads as a seer who knew his true self. The Aitareya Upanishad quotes a verse of his in which he says that, while still in the womb, he knew the births of all the gods [Rigveda 4.27.1; Aitareya Upanishad 2.5]. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says the seer Vamadeva, seeing this, declared "I was Manu and the sun" [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10, quoting Rigveda 4.26.1].

1. Speaking before birth: In Rigveda 4.27 the speaker says he knew all the births of the gods while he lay in the womb, and that a hundred iron fortresses held him until he flew out like a falcon. The Aitareya Upanishad (2.5) names Vamadeva as the one who spoke.
2. A time of hunger: In Rigveda 4.18.13 the speaker, whom the tradition takes to be Vamadeva, says that in deep distress he cooked a dog's intestines and found no god to comfort him, until a falcon brought him the soma. Scholars read the verse in different ways.
3. Priest of Dasharatha: The Ramayana names Vasishtha and Vamadeva as the two chief priests among the ministers of King Dasharatha [Ramayana, Bala Kanda 7].
4. Counsel to Vasumanas: When King Vasumanas asks how he should behave, Vamadeva tells him to act righteously, to avoid vicious ministers, and never to think he has enough virtue, wealth or friends [Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, sections 92 and 93 in Ganguli].

• The womb, in the verse the Aitareya Upanishad quotes
• A time of famine, in Rigveda 4.18
• The court of Dasharatha at Ayodhya