Since the time being, unicorns remain a subject of myths and fiction. But what if I told you that unicorns or should I say the first unicorn may not be entirely fictional. Before going further into deep, let me try to explain you what unicorns, the so called mystical creatures look like.
Let me ask you this, what image comes in your mind hearing the word Unicorn? A white horse, divine and magical, has one horn about 5-10 inches right between the two eyes over head. Let me surprise you a little bit. This image is not the only image portrayal of unicorns. An image of white one horned horse that comes to your mind is neither completely biblical nor Greek. Ctesias of Cnidus first wrote about them as wild asses, having a horn of 27 inches in size, fleet of foot, white colored, red and black. Although, this was the first ever recorded description of unicorns as white horses with big horns but it was not entirely their first depiction in history.
Unicorns in many religious myths are described as different animals. Egyptians used to worship a one horned creature which resembles to goat. While in China we have a similar lore of a beast name Qilin or the Chinese unicorn which looks like some kind of hybrid deer. Likewise we have ‘’Kirin’’ in Japanese version and ‘’Aurochs as Re’em’’ in Hebrew’s bible. The common traits between all the unicorns from different religions are almost same except that from India.
Till now we know that even if Unicorns were present at some point of time, they must be some sort of animals. Wild untamed beast or peace loving creature, mystical and definitely, divine. But in India there is different lore. While excavating Indus valley civilizations (Many researchers believe that it was built along the banks of Saraswati River which now dried up) seals with unicorn images were found. In the seals, there exist an animal which looks more like a bull or Onyx with a big long one horn exactly between his two eyes over head. These unicorn images were later on taken as spiritual depictions of Vishnu and not upon as portrayal of actual animals roaming at that time. But how come a civilization which was more than four thousand years old came up with an image of one horned animal so called unicorns. To answer that, we need to go to further depths into the Mahabharat.
In the longest epic Mahabharata, one finds the depiction of unicorn as Ek-shringa. The story of Ek-shringa is like this. Once in Treta Yug Sage Vibhandaka was in his penance and wanted to attain unlimited powers through it. Indra feared it and so he sent apsara Urvashi to disturb his penance. Enchanted by her beauty sage lost his penance and got seduced by apsara. From their reunion, Urvashi begets a child who strangely was born with a horn on his head. The child was thus named Rishyashringa also referred to as Ekshringa or one horned. It was this Rishi who performed Putra-Kameshti yajna for Dasharath. After this yajna Dasharath was blessed with Ram, Bharat, Lakshman and Shatrughan. As he was full of wisdom, brought rains to the gates of King Lomapada (Another lore of him marrying to Shanta, the only elder sister of Ram) and played crucial role for bringing Ram and Lakshman (Avatars of Vishnu) on earth, maybe he was given outmost respect and be treated with God like status during that time. Later on, may be much lore was created by his name and he attained a symbol of divinity and purity. May be this is how lore of Unicorns started paving their way in the history and mythical books. Because in every instance that mankind ever found regarding Unicorns, they are depicted as bringer of good fortune, wealth and good omens. May be Ekshringa was responsible for the lore of Unicorns.
(Note:-In many references mostly after the excavation of Indus valley civilization’s seals Krishna was referred to as symbol for unicorn)
May be mystical rishi Ekshringa was a normal human sage who suffered from Cutaneous horns which are nothing but keratinous skin tumors with the appearance of horns, or sometimes that of wood or coral. At present one can see hundreds of such acute cases of Cutaneous horns if one try to go through Wikipedia or Google. Call it images depicted on Indus valley civilization seals. Call it various other religious accounts or call it mere imagination of human being. May be the story of Unicorns is not that fictional after all. May be there is some reality to it. As with myth we have umpteen opportunities.
‘’Absence of evidence is not evidence of Absence’’ – Carl Sagan.
