Indra


Indra is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the devas and svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war.
Indra is the most frequently mentioned deity in the Rigveda. He is celebrated for his powers based on his status as a god of order, and as the one who killed the great evil, an asura named Vritra, who obstructed human prosperity and happiness. Indra destroys Vritra and his "deceiving forces", and thereby brings rain and sunshine as the saviour of mankind.
Indra's significance diminishes in the post-Vedic Indian literature, but he still plays an important role in various mythological events. He is depicted as a powerful hero.
According to the Vishnu Purana, Indra is the title borne by the king of the gods, which changes every Manvantara – a cyclic period of time in Hindu cosmology. Each Manvantara has its own Indra and the Indra of the current Manvantara is called Purandhara.
Indra is also depicted in Buddhist and Jain mythologies. Indra rules over the much-sought Devas realm of rebirth within the Samsara doctrine of Buddhist traditions. However, like the post-Vedic Hindu texts, Indra is also a subject of ridicule and reduced to a figurehead status in Buddhist texts, shown as a god who suffers rebirth. In Jain traditions, unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Indra is not the king of gods, but the king of superhumans residing in Svarga-Loka, and very much a part of Jain rebirth cosmology. He is also the one who appears with his consort Indrani to celebrate the auspicious moments in the life of a Jain Tirthankara, an iconography that suggests the king and queen of superhumans residing in Svarga reverentially marking the spiritual journey of a Jain. He is a rough equivalent to Zeus in Greek mythology, or Jupiter in Roman mythology. Indra's powers are similar to other Indo-European deities such as Armenian Aramazd, Norse Odin, Slavic Perun, Perkūnas, Zalmoxis, Taranis, and Thor, part of the greater Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Indra's iconography shows him wielding his vajra and riding his vahana, Airavata. Indra's abode is in the capital city of Svarga, Amaravati, though he is also associated with Mount Meru.

Etymology and nomenclature

The etymological roots of Indra are unclear, and it has been a contested topic among scholars since the 19th-century, one with many proposals. The significant proposals have been:
  • root ind-u, or "spirit", based on the Vedic mythology that he conquered rain and brought it down to earth.
  • root ind, or "equipped with great power". This was proposed by Vopadeva.
  • root idh or "spirit", and ina or "strong".
  • root indha, or "igniter", for his ability to bring light and power that ignites the vital forces of life. This is based on Shatapatha Brahmana.
  • root idam-dra, or "It seeing" which is a reference to the one who first perceived the self-sufficient metaphysical Brahman. This is based on Aitareya Upanishad.
  • roots in ancient Indo-European, Indo-Aryan deities. For example, states John Colarusso, as a reflex of proto-Indo-European *h₂nḗr-, Greek anēr, Sabine nerō, Avestan nar-, Umbrian nerus, Old Irish nert, Pashto nər, Ossetic nart, and others which all refer to "most manly" or "hero".
  • roots in ancient Proto-Uralic paganism, particularly the old Uralic sky god, whose modern reflexes include e.g. Finnish Ilmarinen and Udmurt.
Colonial era scholarship proposed that Indra shares etymological roots with Avestan Andra, Old High German *antra, or Old Church Slavonic jedru, but Max Muller critiqued these proposals as untenable. Later scholarship has linked Vedic Indra to Aynar of Circassian, Abaza and Ubykh mythology, and Innara of Hittite mythology. Colarusso suggests a Pontic origin and that both the phonology and the context of Indra in Indian religions is best explained from Indo-Aryan roots and a Circassian etymology. Modern scholarship suggests the name originated at the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex where the Aryans lived before settling in India.

Other languages

In other languages, he is also known as
  • Ashkun: Indra
  • Bengali: ইন্দ্র
  • Burmese: သိကြားမင်း
  • Chinese: 因陀羅 or 帝釋天
  • Indonesian/Malay:
  • Japanese: 帝釈天.
  • Javanese: ꦧꦛꦫꦲꦶꦤ꧀ꦢꦿ
  • Kamkata-vari: Inra
  • Kannada: ಇಂದ್ರ
  • Khmer: ព្រះឥន្ទ្រ
  • Korean: 제석천
  • Lanna: ᩍᨶ᩠ᨴᩣ or ᨻᩕ᩠ᨿᩣᩍᨶ᩠ᨴ᩼
  • Lao: ພະອິນ or ພະຍາອິນ
  • Malayalam: ഇന്ദ്രൻ
  • Mon: ဣန်
  • Mongolian: Индра
  • Odia: ଇନ୍ଦ୍ର
  • Prasun: Indr
  • Sinhala: ඉඳු or ඉන්ද්‍ර
  • Tai Lue: ᦀᦲᧃ or ᦘᦍᦱᦀᦲᧃ
  • Tamil: இந்திரன்
  • Telugu: ఇంద్రుఁడు
  • Tibetan: དབང་པོ་
  • Thai: พระอินทร์
  • Waigali: ''Indr''

    Epithets

Indra has many epithets in the Indian religions, notably
Śakra,
  • Vṛṣan
  • Vṛtrahan
  • Meghavāhana
  • Devarāja
  • Devendra
  • Surendra
  • Svargapati
  • Śatakratu.
  • Vajrapāṇī
  • Vāsava
  • Purandara
  • Kaushika
  • Shachin or Shachindra.
  • Parjanya

    Origins

Indra is of ancient but unclear origin. Aspects of Indra as a deity are cognate to other Indo-European gods; there are thunder gods such as Thor, Perun, and Zeus who share parts of his heroic mythologies, act as king of gods, and all are linked to "rain and thunder". The similarities between Indra of Vedic mythology and of Thor of Nordic and Germanic mythologies are significant, states Max Müller. Both Indra and Thor are storm gods, with powers over lightning and thunder, both carry a hammer or an equivalent, for both the weapon returns to their hand after they hurl it, both are associated with bulls in the earliest layer of respective texts, both use thunder as a battle-cry, both are protectors of mankind, both are described with legends about "milking the cloud-cows", both are benevolent giants, gods of strength, of life, of marriage and the healing gods.
Michael Janda suggests that Indra has origins in the Indo-European *trigw-welumos "smasher of the enclosure" and diye-snūtyos "impeller of streams". Brave and heroic Innara or Inra, which sounds like Indra, is mentioned among the gods of the Mitanni, a Hurrian-speaking people of Hittite region.
Indra as a deity was known in the capital of the Hittite Empire in northeastern Asia minor, as evidenced by the inscriptions on the Boghaz-köi clay tablets dated to about 1400 BCE. This tablet mentions a treaty, but its significance is in four names it includes reverentially as Mi-it-ra, U-ru-w-na, In-da-ra and Na-sa-at-ti-ia. These are respectively, Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya-Asvin of the Vedic pantheon as revered deities, and these are also found in Avestan pantheon but with Indra and Naonhaitya as demons. This at least suggests that Indra and his fellow deities were in vogue in South Asia and Asia minor by about mid 2nd-millennium BCE.
Indra is praised as the highest god in 250 hymns of the Rigveda – a Hindu scripture dated to have been composed sometime between 1700 and 1100 BCE. He is co-praised as the supreme in another 50 hymns, thus making him one of the most celebrated Vedic deities. He is also mentioned in ancient Indo-Iranian literature, but with a major inconsistency when contrasted with the Vedas. In the Vedic literature, Indra is a heroic god. In the Avestan texts such as Vd. 10.9, Dk. 9.3 and Gbd 27.6-34.27, Indra – or accurately Andra – is a gigantic demon who opposes truth. In the Vedic texts, Indra kills the archenemy and demon Vritra who threatens mankind. In the Avestan texts, Vritra is not found.
According to David Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River and Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements", which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the Bactria–Margiana Culture. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were found in this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma. According to Anthony,
However, according to Paul Thieme, "there is no valid justification for supposing that the Proto-Aryan adjective *vrtraghan was specifically connected with *Indra or any other particular god."

Iconography

In Rigveda, Indra is described as strong willed, armed with a thunderbolt, riding a chariot:
Indra's weapon, which he used to kill the evil Vritra, is the vajra or thunderbolt. Other alternate iconographic symbolism for him includes a bow, a sword, a net, a noose, a hook, or a conch. The thunderbolt of Indra is called Bhaudhara.
In the post-Vedic period, he rides a large, four-tusked white elephant called Airavata. In sculpture and relief artworks in temples, he typically sits on an elephant or is near one. When he is shown to have two, he holds the vajra and a bow.
In the Shatapatha Brahmana and in Shaktism traditions, Indra is stated to be the same as the goddess Shodashi, and her iconography is described similarly to that of Indra.
The rainbow is called Indra's Bow.

Literature

Vedic texts

Indra was a prominent deity in the Historical Vedic religion. In Vedic times Indra was described in Rig Veda 6.30.4 as superior to any other god. Sayana in his commentary on Rig Veda 6.47.18 described Indra as assuming many forms, making Agni, Vishnu, and Rudra his illusory forms.
Over a quarter of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda mention Indra, making him the most referred to deity. These hymns present a complex picture of Indra, but some aspects of Indra are often repeated. Of these, the most common theme is where he as the god with thunderbolt kills the evil serpent Vritra that held back rains, and thus released rains and land nourishing rivers. For example, the Rigvedic hymn 1.32 dedicated to Indra reads:
In the myth, Vṛtra has coiled around a mountain and has trapped all the waters, namely the Seven Rivers. All the gods abandon Indra out of fear of Vṛtra. Indra uses his vajra, a mace, to kill Vritra and smash open the mountains to release the waters. In some versions, he is aided by the Maruts or other deities, and sometimes cattle and the sun is also released from the mountain. In one interpretation by Oldenberg, the hymns are referring to the snaking thunderstorm clouds that gather with bellowing winds, Indra is then seen as the storm god who intervenes in these clouds with his thunderbolts, which then release the rains nourishing the parched land, crops and thus humanity. In another interpretation by Hillebrandt, Indra is a symbolic sun god and Vritra is a symbolic winter-giant in the earliest, not the later, hymns of Rigveda. The Vritra is an ice-demon of colder central Asia and northern latitudes, who holds back the water. Indra is the one who releases the water from the winter demon, an idea that later metamorphosed into his role as storm god. According to Griswold, this is not a completely convincing interpretation, because Indra is simultaneously a lightning god, a rain god and a river-helping god in the Vedas. Further, the Vritra demon that Indra slew is best understood as any obstruction, whether it be clouds that refuse to release rain or mountains or snow that hold back the water. Jamison and Brereton also state that Vritra is best understood as any obstacle. The Vritra myth is associated with the Midday Pressing of soma, which is dedicated to Indra or Indra and the Maruts.
Even though Indra is declared as the king of gods in some verses, there is no consistent subordination of other gods to Indra. In Vedic thought, all gods and goddesses are equivalent and aspects of the same eternal abstract Brahman, none consistently superior, none consistently inferior. All gods obey Indra, but all gods also obey Varuna, Vishnu, Rudra and others when the situation arises. Further, Indra also accepts and follows the instructions of Savitr. Indra, like all Vedic deities, is a part of henotheistic theology of ancient India.
The second-most important myth about Indra is about the Vala cave. In this story, the Panis have stolen cattle and hidden them in the Vala cave. Here Indra utilizes the power of the songs he chants to split the cave open to release the cattle and dawn. He is accompanied in the cave by the Angirases. Here Indra exemplifies his role as a priest-king, called bṛhaspati. Eventually later in the Rigveda, Bṛhaspati and Indra become separate deities as both Indra and the Vedic king lose their priestly functions. The Vala myth was associated with the Morning Pressing of soma, in which cattle was donated to priests, called dakṣiṇā.
Indra is not a visible object of nature in the Vedic texts, nor is he a personification of any object, but that agent which causes the lightning, the rains and the rivers to flow. His myths and adventures in the Vedic literature are numerous, ranging from harnessing the rains, cutting through mountains to help rivers flow, helping land becoming fertile, unleashing sun by defeating the clouds, warming the land by overcoming the winter forces, winning the light and dawn for mankind, putting milk in the cows, rejuvenating the immobile into something mobile and prosperous, and in general, he is depicted as removing any and all sorts of obstacles to human progress. The Vedic prayers to Indra, states Jan Gonda, generally ask "produce success of this rite, throw down those who hate the materialized Brahman". The hymns of Rigveda declare him to be the "king that moves and moves not", the friend of mankind who holds the different tribes on earth together.
Indra is often presented as the twin brother of Agni – another major Vedic deity. Yet, he is also presented to be the same, states Max Muller, as in Rigvedic hymn 2.1.3, which states, "Thou Agni, art Indra, a bull among all beings; thou art the wide-ruling Vishnu, worthy of adoration. Thou art the Brahman,." He is also part of one of many Vedic trinities as "Agni, Indra and Surya", representing the "creator-maintainer-destroyer" aspects of existence in Hindu thought.
Rigveda 2.1.3 Jamison 2014
  1. You, Agni, as bull of beings, are Indra; you, wide-going, worthy of homage, are Viṣṇu. You, o lord of the sacred formulation, finder of wealth, are the Brahman ; you, o Apportioner, are accompanied by Plenitude.
Parentage of Indra is inconsistent in Vedic texts, and in fact Rigveda 4.17.12 states that Indra himself may not even know that much about his mother and father. Some verses of Vedas suggest that his mother was a grishti, while other verses name her Nishtigri. The medieval commentator Sayana identified her with Aditi, the goddess who is his mother in later Hinduism. The Atharvaveda states Indra's mother is Ekashtaka, daughter of Prajapati. Some verses of Vedic texts state that Indra's father is Tvaṣṭar or sometimes the couple Dyaus and Prithvi are mentioned as his parents. According to a legend found in it, before Indra is born, his mother attempts to persuade him to not take an unnatural exit from her womb. Immediately after birth, Indra steals soma from his father, and Indra's mother offers the drink to him. After Indra's birth, Indra's mother reassures Indra that he will prevail in his rivalry with his father, Tvaṣṭar. Both the unnatural exit from the womb and rivalry with the father are universal attributes of heroes. In the Rigveda, Indra's wife is Indrani, alias Shachi, and she is described to be extremely proud about her status. Rigveda 4.18.8 says after his birth Indra got swallowed by a demon Kushava.
Indra is also found in many other myths that are poorly understood. In one, Indra crushes the cart of Ushas, and she runs away. In another Indra beats Surya in a chariot race by tearing off the wheel of his chariot. This is connected to a myth where Indra and his sidekick Kutsa ride the same chariot drawn by the horses of the wind to the house of Uśanā Kāvya to receive aid before killing Śuṣṇa, the enemy of Kutsa. In one myth Indra shoots a boar named Emuṣa in order to obtain special rice porridge hidden inside or behind a mountain. Another myth has Indra kill Namuci by beheading him. In later versions of that myth Indra does this through trickery involving the foam of water. Other beings slain by Indra include Śambara, Pipru, Varcin, Dhuni and Cumuri, and others. Indra's chariot is pulled by fallow bay horses described as hárī. They bring Indra to and from the sacrifice, and are even offered their own roasted grains.