INDRA, the Hindu god of thunder, a personifi cation of the sky, the chief of the Devata or Sum, the name being from the Sanskrit root Id, to be glorious (vide Devata). The attributes of Indra correspond to those of the Jupiter Pluvius and .lnpitcr Tonans of the Greeks and Romans, and the Thor of Scandinavia, and as such he is the im personation of the phenomena of the skies. Ile is represented as a white man sitting upon his celestial valian, the elephant Airavati, produced at the churning of the ocean, and holding in his hand the vajra or thunderbolt. One of tho Rig Veda hymns describes the contest of the lord of thunder, with Vritra, otherwise called Ali, the personification of the rain-cloud ; and those who know how important rain is to countries like India, can appreciate the joy that welcomes descending showers upon the parched and heated fields, and understand how the cloud which is supposed to imprison the waters is re garded as a demon, while the lightning that cleaves it, and sets them free to descend on earth, is worshipped as a beneficent deity. The following is Professor Wilson's translation of the hymn in the 32d Sakta : 'I declare the former valorous deeds of Indra, which the thunderer has achieved : he clove the cloud ; he cast the waters down (to earth); he broke (a way) for the torrents of the mountain.
He clove the cloud, seeking refuge on the mountain ; Twashtri sharpened his bolt ; the flowing waters quickly hastened to the ocean, like cows (hastening) to their calves.
`Impetuous as a bull, he quaffed the soma juice ; he drank of the libations at the triple sacrifice. Mag haven took his shaft, the thunderbolt, and with it struck the first-horn of the clouds.
Inasmuch, Indra, as thou has divided the first-born of the clouds, thou hest destroyed the delusions of the deluders, and then engendering the sun, the dawn, the firmament, thou has not left an enemy (to oppose thee).
With his vast destroying thunderbolt, Indra struck the darkling mutilated Vritra ; as the trunks of trees are felled by the axe, so lies A'hi prostrate on the earth.'
Indra takes a different position in each of the three periods of Hindu mythology. In the Vedic period he is the great being who inhabits the firmament, guides the winds and clouds, dispenses rain, and hurls the thunderbolt. In the Epic period he is still a principal deity, taking pre cedence of Agni, Varuna, and Yama. In the l'uranie period he is inferior in rank to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. His heaven is called Swarga loka or Indra-loka, and his pleasure-garden or elysium, his city (sometimes placed on Mount Meru, the Olympus of the Greeks), his charioteer, his thunderbolt, his elvphant, his bow (the rain bow) are all farried.
Nature-worship, with Indra as its chief deity, seems to have been holding its place until about n.c. 1600 ; but, in later mythologies, he is even vilified, and described as extremely licentious. And in the present state of Hinduism, in which every IIindu has a separate belief, and hero worship, devil-worship, and lingam-worship are the prevailing forms, Indra is almost unheard of and unknown, is never invoked, and has been replaced by Vishnu and Siva, their wives and children and incarnations.
Amongst the earliest dissenters from Indra were the Yadu race under Krishna's influence. The Mahabharata makes Krishna say to Nanda, his adopted father, r Why worship Indra as the Supreme God ? 0 father ! we are Vaisyas, and our cattle live upon the pastures, let us therefore Cease to worship Indra, and pay our devotions to the mountain Govardhana.' Up to that time, it was to the heaven of Indra that the good who died were believed to proceed.
These changes indicate the strife between sects as the present forms of Hinduism were being eliminated. In one myth, Indra is depicted, like Argus, covered with eyes, and is thus called the thousand-eyed god. Having become enamoured of Ahalya, wife of the rishi Gautama, the rishi discovered his intentions, and bestowed on the god his curse that his body should be covered in a very extraordinary manner, which, on the contri tion of the deity, he changed into eyes.