Unicorn! The graceful white horse with a single horn, wandering through enchanted forests. Most people assume it belongs entirely to European folklore. But its story is far more fascinating and has an Indian connection! Let’s dig …

The Indian Unicorn

The Indian story begins with Sage Ṛṣyaśṛṅga, whose name means “Deer-Horned Sage.” The legend appears in the Ramayana (Bala Kanda) and the Mahabharata (Vana Parva)as well.

Ṛṣyaśṛṅga was born under miraculous circumstances to Sage Vibhandaka and a doe. In some legends the does was a cursed Apsara. Ṛṣyaśṛṅga was born with a single horn upon his head. Raised deep in the forest by his father, Vibhandaka he had never seen human society and had never encountered a woman. Through years of austerity and meditation, he acquired immense spiritual power.

At that time, the kingdom of Anga was suffering from a devastating drought. The king Romapada was told that only the presence of the pure ascetic could bring rain. The king sent beautiful women into the forest to bring Ṛṣyaśṛṅga. Curious and innocent, the sage followed them to the kingdom. As soon as he entered Anga, rains started and prosperity returned. The king gave his daughter Shanta in marriage to the sage.

It was a memorable story— of innocence, temptation and spiritual power of a one-horned figure living in the forest.

The story became popular across India and did not remain confined to Hindu literature.

The Buddhist Journey

As Buddhism spread across Asia, many Indian stories were retold as Jataka Tales, stories about the previous lives of the Buddha. In these retellings, Ṛṣyaśṛṅga became Ekaśṛṅga, “The One-Horned One.”

In the Naḷinikā Jātaka (Jātaka 526), Ṛṣyaśṛṅga appears as Isisiṅga (or Ekaśṛṅga in other traditions). The essential elements remained the same. A one-horned ascetic lived in the forest, untouched by worldly life. A woman entered his secluded world and drew him into society. The story was now used to explore Buddhist themes such as desire, renunciation, and compassion.

For centuries, these stories travelled along the trade routes that connected India with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean world, carried by monks, merchants and translators.

The journey of the Indian unicorn had begun.

The European Unicorn

Around the 5th century BCE, the Greek physician Ctesias, who served at the Persian court, wrote a book called Indica. In it he described all that he had heard about India from Indus river to elephants. It was a fantastic account that also described the extraordinary one-horned creature – Unicorn! His account inspired centuries of Greek and Roman writers and helped shape Europe’s image of the unicorn.  

Meanwhile, the Hebrew scriptures mentioned a powerful animal called the re’em, meaning a fierce, wild, untameable ox. When Jewish texts were translated into Greek, the word was rendered as monokeros, meaning “one-horned.” Later Latin translators wrote unicornis. And in the 1611 English King James Bible it became unicorn!

Slowly, a legend of Unicorn came to shape. The medieval unicorn became a creature that lived in the forest, could not be captured by force, and was associated with purity and innocence. The only way to capture it was to place a virgin maiden in its path. The unicorn would approach her peacefully and rest its head in her lap. Once it was fast asleep, the hunters would draw in and capture it.

In medieval Christian art – Virgin Mary came to represent the virgin maiden, Jesus represented the unicorn, andhunters attacking the sleeping unicorn represented the betrayal and death of Jesus.

Similarities

Many scholars have noticed how closely this resembles the Indian story of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga.

• Both feature a one-horned being.
• Both live far from civilization, in the forest.
• Both possess extraordinary purity.
• Both are approached through feminine charm.
• Both are ultimately brought into human society.

No medieval writer explicitly states that the unicorn legend came from Ramayana or the Mahabharata. Yet the similarities are striking, especially when we know that Indian stories such as the Barlaam and Josaphat were already entering Christian literature.

Enter Marco Polo

Towards the end of the 13th century, Marco Polo travelled through the Indian Ocean and visited parts of India. He had grown up on the extraordinary stories of India and of its fantastic beasts. He knew of the pure white unicorn, that was tameable only by a virgin woman.

When he saw the Indian Unicorn he must have been utterly disappointed. He described them as “scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant’s. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead … They have a head like a wild boar’s … They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions.”

Clearly Marco Polo was describing a rhinoceros!

References –

1. Mahabharata, Vana Parva
2. Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda – valmikiramayan.net  
3. Naḷinikājātakavaṇṇanā  (Jā 526) The Explanation of the Naḷinikā Story  – available at: https://ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Jatakas/526-Nalinikajataka.htm   
4. The Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries Depict a “Virgin-Capture Legend” By: Amanda Parrish Morgan available at – https://daily.jstor.org/the-hunt-of-the-unicorn-tapestries-depict-a-virgin-capture-legend/
5. Indica (Ctesias) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(Ctesias)
6. The story of Marco Polo by Brooks, Noah, 1830-1903 available at: https://archive.org/details/storyofmarcopolo00broouoft/page/n277/mode/2up

*The title is inspired by a Video titled – Who will be a Dinosaur