Excerpt from The Faras-Nama-E Rangin: Or the Book of the Horse
The horse has played an important part in the history of the various races to whom the civilization of India is due, and it is therefore natural that it should also have played an important part in the mythology of those races. The legends of the Hindus naturally differ from the legends of the Muslims, but many of the old ideas and quaint superstitions of the two great divisions of the peoples of India have become mingled. Although, therefore, it is often possible to distinguish some superstition as regards the horse as definitely Hindu or definitely Muslim, in many cases it may be assumed, or even demonstrated, that the belief is of mixed origin.
No Eastern treatise on the horse would be complete without a reference to some of the traditions regarding its origin. The present treatise, written by an Indian Muslim, deals with the Indian horse chiefly from a Muslim point of view. But, before giving an account of Muslim traditions regarding the horse, I am tempted to say something gathered from Hindu writings.
Hindu Legends. - Hindu mythology relates that when the gods and demons-churned the ocean of milk to obtain the nectar, the first horse, the King of the horses, rose out of the churning together with the Moon, the Goddess of Fortune, the King of the elephants and certain other acquisitions. To Indra, King of the Gods, was awarded the beautiful milk-white long-eared animal.
In the astronomy of the Hindus, the first of the twenty-seven lunar mansions is called Asvini, the Sanskrit for mare. The third sign of the Zodiac is called the "Sons of the Mare," the twin offspring of Surya, the sun, and a nymph named Sanjna, who metamorphosed herself into a mare. Hindu nymphs, to escape the unwelcome attentions of a suitor, not infrequently assume the form of animals and seek the protection of the being they prefer, and it was presumably for some such reason that Sanjna became a mare.
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