Indra
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| Indra | |
 |
|
| weather and war, king of the gods | |
| Devanagari | इन्द्र or इंद्र |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Deva |
| Abode | Amarāvati in Svarga |
| Weapon | Vajra |
| Consort | Sachi/Indrāṇi |
| Mount | Airavata |
Indra (Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra, Japanese: Taishakuten) is the god of War and Weather, also the King of the gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hinduism. Mentioned first as the chief deity in the sacred Hindu text of Rig Veda, Indra is bestowed with a heroic and almost brash and amorous character. He has always remained significant in Indian mythology, from Vedic to Puranic times, as the primary ruler of all devas, even as his reputation and role diminished in later Hinduism with the rise of the Trimurti. However he is still active in the Pali canon, where he is addressed as Sakka (from Sanskrit Śakra).[1]
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[edit] Origins
Indra is attested as a god of the Mitanni. If Devendra (Indra) as a deity is cognate to other Indo-European gods, either thunder gods such as Thor, Perun, or Zeus, or heroic gods such as Mars, or gods of intoxicating drinks such as Dionysos, his name has either not been preserved in any other branch, or else it is itself an Indian (or perhaps Indo-Iranian) innovation. Janda (1998:221) suggests that the Proto-Indo-European (or Graeco-Aryan) predecessor of Indra had the epitheta *trigw-welumos "smasher of the enclosure" (of Vritra, Vala) and diye-snūtyos "impeller of streams" (the liberated rivers, corresponding to Vedic apam ajas "agitator of the waters"), which resulted in the Greek gods Triptolemos and Dionysos.
In the religious practices of the foundation of Hinduism, q.e. Vedic civilization, Indra has prominence over the continuation of chief god of the Indo-European pantheon Dyēus (Dyēus appears in the Vedas as Dyaus Pita, a relatively minor deity who, interestingly, is the father of Indra). Compare to this the relatively low status of Tyr compared to Odin or Thor in Norse paganism.
It was once supposed that Vedic Indra corresponds to Verethragna of the Zoroastrian Avesta. This idea was based primarily on the fact that the noun verethragna- corresponds to Vedic vrtrahan-, which is predominantly an epithet of Indra. The supposition that Indra corresponds to Verethragna is now obsolete. While both vritra- and verethra- derive from the same root "to cover", the word verethra- is today understood to mean "obstacle". Thus, verethragna- is now understood to reflect "smiter of resistance". Vritra does not appear in either the Avesta or in 9th-12th century books of Zoroastrian tradition. The name 'Indra' appears in Zoroastrian texts as that of an arch-demon opposing Truth (Vd. 10.9; Dk. 9.3; Gbd. 27.6, 34.27).
[edit] In the Rig Veda
The Rig-Veda states,
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. (2.12.7, trans. Griffith)
It further states,
“Indra, you lifted up the outcast who was oppressed, you glorified the blind and the lame.” (Rg-Veda 2:13:12)[2]
Indra is the chief god of the Rigveda (besides Agni). He delights in drinking Soma, and the central Vedic myth is his heroic defeat of Vritra, liberating the rivers, or alternatively, his smashing of the Vala, a stone enclosure where the Panis had imprisoned the cows, and Ushas (dawn). He is the god of war, smashing the stone fortresses of the Dasyu, and 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. (The slightly later 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.
By the age of the Vedanta, Indra became the prototype for all lords and thus a king could be called Mānavendra (Indra or lord of men) and Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, was referred to as Rāghavendra (Indra of the clan of Raghu). Hence the original Indra was also referred to as Devendra (Indra of the Devas). However, Sakra and Vasava were used exclusively for the original Indra. Though, modern texts usually adhere to the name Indra, the traditional Hindu texts (the Vedas, epics and Puranas) use Indra, Sakra and Vasava interchangeably and with the same frequency.
"Of the Vedas I am the Sama Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness]." (Bhagavad Gita 10.22) [1]
[edit] Status and function
Indra is an important god in many Hindu mythological tales. He leads the Devas (the gods who form and maintain Heaven) and the elements, such as Agni (Fire), Varuna (Water) and Surya (Sun)), and constantly wages war against the demonic Asuras of the netherworlds, or Patala, who oppose morality and dharma. He thus fights in the timeless battle between good and evil. As the god of war, he is also regarded as one of the Guardians of the directions, representing the east. He is however, not a perfect being, and is ascribed with more human characteristics and vices than any other Vedic deity. Perhaps consequently, he also has the most hymns dedicated to him: 250 (Masson-Oursel and Morin, 326).
Modern Hindus, however tend to see Indra as minor deity in comparison to others in the Hindu pantheon, such as Shiva, Vishnu, or Devi. A Puranic story illustrating the subjugation of Indra's pride is illustrated in the story of Govardhan hill where Krishna, avatar or incarnation of Vishnu carried the hill and protected his devotees when Indra, angered by non-worship of him, launched rains over the village.
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