Indra (Devanagari Devanagari , also called Nagari (Nāgarī, the name of its parent writing system), is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, does not have distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script: इन्द्र) is the King of the gods or Devas Deva is the Sanskrit word for "god, deity". It can be variously interpreted as a god, angel, demigod, or any supernatural being of high excellence, and is thus comparable to the Hebrew Elohim. The devas in Hindu mythology are often juxtaposed to the usually demonic Asuras and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka In Hinduism, Svarga (or Swarga) is set of heavenly worlds located on and above Mt. Meru. It is a Heaven where the righteous live in a paradise before their next reincarnation. Svarga is seen as a transitory place for righteous souls who have performed good deeds in their lives but are not yet ready to attain moksha, or union with Brahman, which in Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Indian mythology, and also he is the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.

Indra figures as one of the chief deities Indra, a heroic god, slayer of Vrtra and destroyer of the Vala, liberator of the cows and the rivers; Agni the sacrificial fire and messenger of the gods; and Soma the ritual drink dedicated to Indra are the most prominent deities in the Rigveda The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world's oldest religious texts in continued use, celebrated as the slayer of Vṛtra and central to the Soma Soma , or Haoma (Avestan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains many hymns praising its energizing qualities. In the Avesta, Haoma has an entire Yašt dedicated to it sacrifice. He has many epithets, notably vṛṣan the bull, and vṛtrahan, slayer of Vṛtra. Indra appears as the name of an arch-demon In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are 'wrong gods' or 'false gods' or 'gods that are rejected'. This meaning is – subject to interpretation – perhaps also evident in the Old Persian 'daiva inscription' of the 5th century BCE. In the Younger Avesta, the daevas are noxious creatures that promote chaos and in the Zoroastrian A Zoroastrian is an adherent to Zoroastrianism, is one of the first monotheistic religions, that is based on the teachings and philosophies of Zoroaster religion, while Verethragna Verethragna is an Avestan language neuter noun literally meaning "smiting of resistance" (Gnoli, 1989:510; Boyce 1975:63). Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the hypostasis of "victory", and "as a giver of victory Verethragna plainly enjoyed the greatest popularity of old" (Boyce, 1975:63) appears as a god of victory.

In Puranic The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu (or Jain and Buddhist) religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography mythology, Indra is bestowed with a heroic and almost brash and amorous character at times, even as his reputation and role diminished in later Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as in Vaishnavism. Hinduism also includes yogic with the rise of the Trimurti The Hindu scriptures or the Puranas explain that Absolute Satchinanda, or Existence-Bliss-Absolute once had a wish to be seer and player in a unreal world, the world of Maya. So he created the Trimurtis, the Universe, men, Gods, Demons. There many ideas conflicting with each other, but no one can say which one of it is right. The followers of. In Buddhist tradition, Indra is also called Śakra (Pali Pāli (ISO 15919/ALA-LC: is a Middle Indo-Aryan language of India. It is best known as the language of many of the earliest extant Buddhist scriptures, as collected in the Pāḷi Canon or Tipitaka, and as the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism: Sakka). He is known in Burmese The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most continue to refer to the language as Burmese. It is the native language of the Bamar and other related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar. It is spoken by 32 million as a first language, and as a second language by as သိကြားမင်း, pronounced [ðaʤá míɴ]; in Thai Thai (ภาษาไทย Phasa Thai [pʰāːsǎːtʰāj] ) is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively link the Tai-Kadai languages to any as พระอินทร์ Phra Intra, in Malay Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family and the official language of Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, where in the latter it is standardized as Indonesian. It is one of four official languages of Singapore, and as Indonesian is a working language of East Timor, a consequence of over twenty years of Indonesian administration. It is as Indera, in Tamil Tamil (தமிழ் tamiḻ; [t̪ɐmɨɻ] ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Puducherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. It is one of the twenty-two scheduled as Intiran, in Chinese Chinese or the Sinitic language (汉语／漢語 Hànyǔ; 华语／華語 Huáyǔ; 中文 Zhōngwén) is a language family consisting of languages which are mostly mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages as 帝释天 Dìshìtiān, and in Japanese Japanese (日本語, Nihongo?, [nihoŋɡo] ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none of them has gained unanimous acceptance. Japanese is an as 帝釈天 Taishakuten.^[1]

Origins

If Indra as a deity is cognate to other Indo-European gods, they are either thunder gods such as Thor In Norse polytheism, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, destruction, fertility, healing, and the protection of mankind. The cognate deity in wider Germanic mythology was known in Old English as Þunor and in Old High German Donar (runic þonar ᚦᛟᚾᚨᚱ), from a Common Germanic *Þ, Perun In Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and lightning. His other attributes were the fire, mountains, the oak, iris, eagle, firmament (in Indo-European languages this was joined with the notion of the sky of stone), horses and carts, weapons (the hammer, axe (Axe of Perun) and arrow) and war. He was, and Zeus In Greek mythology Zeus is the "Father of Gods and men", according to Hesiod's Theogony, who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family; he was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as, or gods of intoxicating drinks such as Dionysos Dionysus or Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of wine, wine cups, wineskin, grapes, theater, and fertility. The god who inspires ritual madness, joyful worship, and ecstasy, carnivals, celebration and a major figure of Greek mythology. He is included as one of the twelve Olympians in some lists. Dionysus is typical of the god of the epiphany, &. The name of Indra is also mentioned among the gods of the Mitanni Mitanni or Hanigalbat (Assyrian Hanigalbat, Khanigalbat cuneiform Ḫa-ni-gal-bat ) was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and south-east Anatolia from ca. 1500 BC–1300 BC. Founded by an Indo-Aryan ruling class governing a predominately Hurrian population, Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite, an Indo-Aryan Hurrian The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East who lived in Northern Mesopotamia and areas to the immediate east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC. They probably originated in the Caucasus and entered Mesopotamia from the north, but this is not certain. Their known homeland was centred in Subartu, the Khabur River valley, and later speaking people who ruled northern Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية‎), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest from ca.1500BC-1300BC.^[2]

Janda (1998:221) suggests that the Proto-Indo-European The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European (PIE) religion and mythology (or Graeco-Aryan Graeco-Aryan refers to a hypothesis that the Greek language and the Indo-Iranian languages share a common history within the wider Indo-European family. Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek (spoken in the Balkans) and Proto-Indo-Iranian (spoken in the Caspian steppe) by the mid 3rd millennium BC. The Phrygian language) predecessor of Indra had the epitheta *trigw-welumos "smasher of the enclosure" (of Vritra In the early Vedic religion, Vritra , is an Asura and also a serpent or dragon, the personification of drought and enemy of Indra. Vritra was also known in the Vedas as Ahi ("snake"). He appears as a dragon blocking the course of the Rivers and is heroically slain by Indra, 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 Dionysus or Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of wine, wine cups, wineskin, grapes, theater, and fertility. The god who inspires ritual madness, joyful worship, and ecstasy, carnivals, celebration and a major figure of Greek mythology. He is included as one of the twelve Olympians in some lists. Dionysus is typical of the god of the epiphany, &.

It was once supposed that Vedic Indra corresponds to Verethragna Verethragna is an Avestan language neuter noun literally meaning "smiting of resistance" (Gnoli, 1989:510; Boyce 1975:63). Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the hypostasis of "victory", and "as a giver of victory Verethragna plainly enjoyed the greatest popularity of old" (Boyce, 1975:63) of the Zoroastrian Avesta The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. 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 controversial. 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. Since the name 'Indra' appears in Zoroastrian texts as that of an arch-demon opposing Truth Asha is the Avestan language term (corresponding to Vedic language ṛta) for a concept of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine. In the moral sphere, aša/arta represents what has been called "the decisive confessional concept of Zoroastrianism." The opposite of Avestan aša is druj, "lie." (Vd. The Vendidad or Videvdat is a collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. However, unlike the other texts of the Avesta, the Vendidad is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual 10.9; Dk. The Dēnkard or Dēnkart is a 10th century compendium of the Mazdaen Zoroastrian beliefs and customs. The Denkard is to a great extent an "Encyclopedia of Mazdaism" and is a most valuable source of information on the religion. The Denkard is not itself considered scripture 9.3; Gbd Bundahishn, meaning "Primal Creation", is the name traditionally given to an encyclopædiaic collections of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known. 27.6, 34.27), it may be supposed that Verethragna was a way of reintroducing him in a favorable light.

In the Rig Veda

The Rig-Veda The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world's oldest religious texts in continued use 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)^[3]

Indra is, with Varuna In Vedic religion, Varuna is a god of the sky, of water and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld. He is the most prominent Asura in the Rigveda, and lord of the heavens and the earth and Mitra *Mitra was an important Indo-Iranian divinity. Following the prehistoric cultural split of Indian and Iranian cultures, names descended from *mitra were used for the following religious entities:, one of the Ādityas, the chief gods of the Rigveda The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world's oldest religious texts in continued use (besides Agni Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, and also immortal and the Ashvins). He delights in drinking Soma Soma , or Haoma (Avestan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains many hymns praising its energizing qualities. In the Avesta, Haoma has an entire Yašt dedicated to it, and the central Vedic myth Vedic mythology refers to the mythological aspects of the historical Vedic religion and Vedic literature. It has directly contributed to the evolution and development of later Hinduism and Hindu mythology. The four Vedic Samhitas are part of the Hindu Śruti. Sanskrit veda means "knowledge" is his heroic defeat of Vṛtrá In the early Vedic religion, Vritra , is an Asura and also a serpent or dragon, the personification of drought and enemy of Indra. Vritra was also known in the Vedas as Ahi ("snake"). He appears as a dragon blocking the course of the Rivers and is heroically slain by Indra, liberating the rivers, or alternatively, his smashing of the Vala, a stone enclosure where the Panis had imprisoned the cows, and Ushas Ushas , Sanskrit for "dawn", is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity as well (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 Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a sandhied form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal [end] of the Vedas.", Indra became the prototype for all lords and thus a king could be called Mānavendra (Indra or lord of men) and Rama Rama or Ramachandra (रामचंद्र, రామచంద్ర ) is the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a legendary king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian Puranas. Based on Puranic genealogy, Rama is believed to have lived during 1450 BC, during the Rig Vedic period, 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) [2]

Status and function

In the Rig Veda ,Indra is the king of the gods and ruler of the heavens. Indra is the god of thunder and rain and a great warrior, a symbol of courage and strength. He leads the Deva (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. As the favourite national god of the Vedic Indians, Indra has about 250 hymns dedicated to him in the Rigveda, more than those devoted to any other god and almost one fourth of the total number of hymns of the Rigveda.

Characteristics

Appearance

In Rig Veda, Indra the solar god is sometimes described as golden-bodied ("Gora" that means golden-yellowish) with golden jaw, nails, hair, beard.

One Atharva Vedic verse reads, "In Indra are set fast all forms of golden hue."^[4]

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."^[5] Rig Veda also reads that Indra "is the dancing god who, clothed in perfumed garments, golden-cheeked rides his golden car."^[6] One passage calls him both brown and yellow.^[7] "Him with the fleece they purify, brown, golden-hued, beloved of all, Who with exhilarating juice goes forth to all the deities"

Indra is described in the Rig Veda of dying his hair a yellow colour from yellow Soma juice.^[8] One part of the Rig Veda says, "At the swift draught the Soma-drinker waxed in might, the Iron One with yellow beard and yellow hair." The Rig Veda/Mandala 10/Hymn 96

Other Characteristics

"Like violent gusts of wind the droughts that I have drunk have lifted me Have I not drunk of Soma juice?"^[9]

"Fair cheeks hath Indra, Maghavan, the Victor, Lord of a great host, Stormer, strong in action. What once thou didst in might when mortals vexed thee, where now, O Bull, are those thy hero exploits?" (RigVeda, Book 3, Hymn XXX: Griffith)^[10]

"May the strong Heaven make thee the Strong wax stronger: Strong, for thou art borne by thy two strong Bay Horses. So, fair of cheek, with mighty chariot, mighty, uphold us, strong-willed, thunder armed, in battle." (RigVeda, Book 5, Hymn XXXVI: Grffith)^[11]

Indra's weapon, which he used to kill Vritra, is the thunderbolt (Vajra), though he also uses a bow, a net, and a hook. He rides a large, four-tusked white elephant called Airavata. When portrayed having four arms, he has lances in two of his hands which resemble elephant goads. When he is shown to have two, he holds the Vajra and a bow.^[12]

Indra lives in Svarga in the clouds around Mt. Meru. Deceased warriors go to his hall after death, where they live without sadness, pain or fear. They watch the Apsaras and the Gandharvas dance, and play games. The gods of the elements, celestial sages, great kings, and warriors enrich his court.

"Indradhanush", the bow of Indra: Rainbow

In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is called "Indradhanush" (Sanskrit: indradhanus इन्द्रधनुस्), meaning the bow (Sanskrit dhanus; Hindi dhanush) of Indra, the God of lightning, thunder and rain.

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