Many of us know the barest details of Indra, the chief of the Devathas of Hinduism.
That he was the father of Arjuna, husband of Indrani,wields Thundebolt, induced Rains in Govardhana Giri,has Vajrayudha ,rides the elephant Airavatha, his Post of Indra changes every Manvantrara and of his infamous episode involving Ahalya.
That’s about all.
Indra, atop the Airavatha Elephant,Angkorvat. Click to enlarge.
Indra, atop the Airavatha Elephant,Angkorvat.
But it may be of interest to know that Indra was one of the earliest Vedic Deities mentioned in th Rigveda.
Hs father was Dayus and other Savasi.
The name Dayus is being used by the western scholars to spread a canard to disseminate information under the guise of Research papers stating that there was Proto-Indo-European or Graeco-Aryan language group and there was a tribe in the Caucasus called Aryans who entered India!
I shall be calling off this bluff in another post.
Indra (Indara) is also mentioned among the gods of the Mitanni, a Hurrian-speaking people who ruled northern Syria from ca.1500BC-1300BC.
The attributes of Zeus of the Greeks and Indra are identical.
Vedic Indra corresponds to Verethragna of the Zoroastrian Avesta as the noun verethragna- corresponds to Vedic vrtrahan-, which is predominantly an epithet of Indra.
*According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) 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 borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma.According to Anthony,
*I contest this claim and I shall be repudiating this point in another Post.
He under whose supreme control are horses, all chariots, the villages, and cattle;
He who gave being to the Sun and Morning, who leads the waters, He, O men, is Indra. ( Rig Veda 2.12.7, trans. Griffith)
It further states,
Indra, you lifted up the pariah who was oppressed, you glorified the blind and the lame. (Rg-Veda 2:13:12)
Indra is, with Varuna and Mitra, one of the Ādityas, the chief gods of the Rigveda (besides Agni and others such as the Ashvins). He delights in drinking soma and the centralVedic myth is his heroic defeat of Vṛtrá, liberating the rivers, or alternatively, his smashing of the Vala cave, a stone enclosure where the Panis had imprisoned the cows that are habitually identified with Ushas, the dawn(s). He is the god of war, smashing the stone fortresses of the Dasyu, but he is also is invoked by combatants on both sides in the Battle of the Ten Kings.
..The Rig-Veda frequently refers to him as Śakra: the mighty-one. In the Vedic period, the number of gods was assumed to be thirty-three and Indra was their lord. (Some early post Rigvedic texts such as the Khilas and the late Vedic Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad enumerates the gods as the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Adityas, Indra, and Prajapati). As lord of the Vasus, Indra was also referred to as Vāsava.
In Rigveda, Indra the solar god is sometimes described as golden-bodied with golden jaw, nails, hair, beard.
One Atharva Vedic verse reads, “In Indra are set fast all forms of golden hue.”
In the RV 1.65 reads, “SAKRA, who is the purifier (of his worshipers), and well-skilled in horses, who is wonderful and golden-bodied.”Rigveda also reads that Indra “is the dancing god who, clothed in perfumed garments, golden-cheeked rides his golden cart.” One passage calls him both brown and yellow. “Him with the fleece they purify, brown, golden-hued, beloved of all, Who with exhilarating juice goes forth to all the deities”:
With him too is this rain of his that comes like herds: Indra throws drops of moisture on his golden beard. When the sweet juice is shed he seeks the pleasant place, and stirs the worshipper as wind disturbs the wood.
—Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn XXIII, P. 4
At the swift draught the Soma-drinker waxed in might, the Iron One with yellow beard and yellow hair.
The 14 Indras .
Manvatara/Manu Indra Svayambhuva Yajna (Avatar of Vishnu) Swarochish Vipaschit Uttam Sushaanti Taamas Shibi Raivat Vibhu Chaakshush Manojav Shraaddhdev Purandar (the present Indra) Savarni Bali Daksha Saavarni Adbhut Brahma Saavarni Shanti Dharma Saavarni Vish Rudraputra Saavarni Ritudhaama Ruchi (Deva Saavarni) Devaspati Bhaum (Indra Saavarni) Suchi While the battle between Indra and Vritra is included in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, Zoroastrianism takes a much different interpretation of Indra’s character. Rather than venerating Indra as the supreme embodiment of good, Zoroastrianism instead claims Indra to be the leader of “false gods” (which refers to virtually all gods other than Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity in Zoroastrianism). These beings are equated with demons. In the Vendidad, the most recent of the texts within the Avesta, Indra is identified as one of the six chief demons that are seen to stand opposite the six Amesha Spentas, spirits which put in place the benevolent will of Ahura Mazda.Vendidad 10.9 explains that Indra is the direct enemy of Asha Vahishta, who personifies the aspect of asha/rta or Truth. Thus, Indra is the opponent of order, truth, and righteousness. Similarly, in the Denkard, a ninth-century Middle Persian text, Indra is the arch-demon that “is the spirit of apostasy and further deceives the worldly existence of mankind” (9.3). In the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation, Indra “freezes the minds of the creatures from practicing righteousness just like much frozen snow. He instills this into the minds of men that they ought not to have the sacred shirt and thread girdle” (27.6). The shirt and girdle are garments that must be worn by all devout Zoroastrians, thus Indra stands in diametric opposition to one of the indispensable aspects of the Zoroastrian faith. Atfrashokereti, the eschatological regeneration of good within the universe, it is said that Indra will be defeated by Asha Vahishta (34.27).
In the mythology and iconography of Indra that arose after the Vedas in the heterodox Indian schools of Buddhism and Jainism, Indra retained his role as chief of the gods. Although Jainism is non-theist, it is Indra who awards Jain founder Mahavira with a golden robe during his earthly life, and later welcomes him into heaven upon his death. Buddhists also acknowledge Indra as the original leader of the Devas, ruler of the heaven of the Thirty-three gods. All in all, Indra is rarely referred to in Buddhist texts, and when he is it is either as a minor deity (a lord of the yakṣas, for instance), or as the object of worship of the Brahmins.
Sikhs believe that there is only one god without question. However, the Gurus still mention numerous Hindu deities in the Guru Granth Sahib, including Indra. Bhagat Kabir Ji, whose hymns are found in Guru Granth Sahib Ji, mentions Indra among other Hindu gods: “Beings like Hanumaan, Garura, Indra the king of the gods and the rulers of humans—none of them know Your Glories, Lord” (Ragg Dhanaasree, Panna 691.2). Passages such as this illustrate the Sikh belief that although Indra and other personalistic dieties have been meditated upon by the minds of humans for thousands of years, they merely as a function of maya and do not allow for full a complete understanding of the one supreme God. Although the Sikhs do not worship Indra specifically, his name also appears as a part of many Sikh compound names as the ending “inder.” This ending represents the strength and virility in battle that Indra embodies, and can be used by both males and females.
Citation.
Filed under: Hinduism Tagged: Ahalya, Buddhism, Chief of Devathas, Hinduism, Indra, Jainism, Puranas, Rig Veda, Sikhism, Zeus, Zoroastrianism
