INDRA

INDRA The leading deity in Vedic Hinduism, Indra is evidently a pre-Vedic god, invoked by Mitanni Aryans of northern Syria in their famous treaty with the Hittites about 1380 b.c. Almost one-fourth of the 1,028 hymns of the Rig Veda, composed in verse by 1000 b.c. at the latest, are addressed to Indra as the conqueror of enemies of Indo-Aryans, the D?sas or Dasyus in particular, at times conflated with asuras, mythic enemies of the gods. When destroying demons or human foe, Indra wields his vajra, a thunderbolt-mace forged by Tvast?, and becomes a shape-changer by means of his powers of m?y?. Above all, he is Vritrahan (slayer of Vritra) an epithet cognate to ancient Iranian Verethraghna. This conquest of the serpent demon named "Resistance" is recounted in Rig Veda 1.32 and 1.51. Indra emerges here as a cosmogonic figure, since Vritra held in bondage all the fertilizing waters necessary for life. Not only does the warrior of the gods release those streams, often homologized to captive cows, he also wins the light or the sun, and retrieves the primary sacrificial substance soma from the cloud-mountains. In another cosmogonic feat, he is credited with propping apart heaven and earth. As invincible leader, Indra thus becomes patron deity of Kshatriyas, the warrior var?a. (class) that is the source of kingship in ancient and classical India. In sum, he is the heroic champion who in battles of cosmic scale wins the day and the territory—perhaps in the vicinity of the Sarasvati River in southern Afghanistan—for Indo-Aryan nomadic pastoralists.

Of all the deities in Rig Vedic poetry, Indra is described most colorfully. Whereas Varu?a is samr?j, or universal king, simply by his nature, the younger, impetuous Indra is svar?j, one who seizes kingship by his prevailing self-rule. Chariot-driving Indra, said to have a hundred powers, is bearded and gigantic in size. Having a thousand testicles, he is a universal fertilizer of females, including the earth; though boastful and intoxicated by soma, he is also generous, designated by poets as maghavan (bounteous).

In some fifty hymns, Indra is associated with other gods and goddesses, chiefly Agni, Brihaspati, Varu?a a, Ushas, V?yu, the Ashvin twins, martial storm-gods known collectively as the Maruts, and Soma, the last as both god and the pressed juice that he voraciously consumes in soma sacrifices. In the extended mythology, more than one perspective unfolds to engage Indra in controversy. He is charged with crimes against the three classes—Brahmans, Kshatriyas (his own var?a), and Vaishyas—and in consequence suffers diminution of his seemingly invincible power. The terrible dragon Vritra is identified as a Brahman, and therefore Indra is guilty of Brahmanicide, a dreadful sin. In violation of the code of courageous warriors, he is accused of cowardly flight from combat, including his initial confrontation with Vritra. And in a sexual crime against the Vaishya class, society's producers, he assumes the guise of Gautama to trick and violate his wife, Ahaly?, while sage Gautama performs his morning prayers.

In the later era of the Sanskrit epics and Pur??as, Indra's worship and centrality as divine sovereign dwindle in favor of Shiva and Vishnu. Preserved, however, are countless aspects of his warrior career. Tamil epics, for example, situate the self-offerings of martial heroes, and victory for their king, in the festival of Indra. Also perpetuated are Vedic myths that ridicule his sexual prowess in accounts of castration and substitution of his genitals with those of a ram or goat. In one variant, the body of Indra sprouts a thousand vaginas. Shiva in particular sustains many of Indra's famous roles. Shiva, Vishnu, and emerging cults of major goddesses gradually take center stage, just as Indra himself in an earlier era had replaced Varu?a as king of the gods.

David M. Knipe

See alsoAgni ; Hinduism (Dharma) ; Soma ; Varu?a ; Vedic Aryan India

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dumézil, Georges. The Destiny of the Warrior. Translated by Alf Hiltebeitel. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1970.

Situates Indra in comparative Indo-European motif of the warrior's three sins.

Gonda, Jan. The Indra Hymns of the ?gveda. Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill, 1989. Analysis of cosmogonic and other central and enduring myths.

O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. Hindu Myths. Baltimore: Penguin, 1975. Ch. 2 translates, annotates key episodes, Rig Veda to epics and Pur?nas.