Editing Vayu (section)

==Hindu texts and philosophy==
[[File:Kanishka I and Oado.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] ruler [[Kanishka I]] with deity ''Oado'' (Vayu-Vata) on the reverse. Circa 120-150 CE]]
In the ''[[Rigveda]]'', Vayu is associated with the winds, with the [[Maruts]] being described as being born from Vayu's belly. Vayu is also the first god to receive [[Soma (drink)|soma]] in the ritual, and then he and [[Indra]] share their first drink.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephanie Jamison|title=The Rigveda –– Earliest Religious Poetry of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LTRDwAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0190633394|page=47}}</ref><ref>Rigveda,Mandala 1,Hymn 2</ref>

In the hymns, Vayu is 'described as having "exceptional beauty" and moving noisily in his shining coach, driven by two or forty-nine or one-thousand white and purple horses. A white banner is his main attribute'.<ref name="jansen1993" /> Like the other atmospheric deities, he is a 'fighter and destroyer', 'powerful and heroic'.<ref name="bhattacharji1984">{{Citation | title=Literature in the Vedic age | author=[[Sukumari Bhattacharji]] | year=1984 | publisher=K.P. Bagchi | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v7soAAAAYAAJ | quote=... The other atmospheric gods are his associates: Vayu-Vatah, Parjanya, the Rudras and the Maruts. All of them are fighters and destroyers, they are powerful and heroic ...}}</ref>

In the [[Upanishads]], there are numerous statements and illustrations of the greatness of Vayu. The ''[[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]]'' says that the gods who control bodily functions once engaged in a contest to determine who among them is the greatest. When a deity such as that of vision would leave a man's body, that man would continue to live, albeit as a blind man and having regained the lost faculty once the errant deity returned to his post. One by one the deities all took their turns leaving the body, but the man continued to live on, though successively impaired in various ways.  Finally, when Mukhya Prāna started to leave the body, all the other deities started to be inexorably pulled off their posts by force, 'just as a powerful horse yanks off pegs in the ground to which he is bound'. This caused the other deities to realize that they can function only when empowered by Vayu, and can be overpowered by him easily. In another episode, Vayu is said to be the only deity not afflicted by demons of sin who were on the attack. This Vayu is "Mukhya Prana Vayu".<ref>{{cite book|title=Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣadbhāṣya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7mEpAAAAYAAJ|page=158|author1=Shoun Hino|author2=K. P. Jog|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers|year=1995| isbn=9788120812833 |quote=Vāyu indicates Mukhya Prāṇa.}}</ref> The [[Chandogya Upanishad]] says that one cannot know [[Brahman]] except by knowing Vayu as the ''udgitha'' (the mantric syllable ''[[om]]'').<ref>Chandogya Upanishad, Adhyaya XVIII, Verse 4; http://www.swamij.com/upanishad-chandogya.htm</ref>