[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Religion and philosophy](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion) › [The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908) › c9.87 # The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.87 The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.87 - **Language:** English ### [c9.87](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.87) After such and other premonitory symptoms of scepticism and unrest, Professor Hillebrandt has recently advanced a new theory of Indra, Vritra, and the waters, which he expounds with great ingenuity and learning.¹ He argues that the streams of India and the neighboring Iranian countries are at their lowest level in the winter; that the confiner of their waters is the frozen winter, conceived as a winter monster by the name of Vritra, "confiner;" that Vritra holds captive the rivers on the heights of the glacier mountains; and that, consequently, Indra can be no other than the spring or summer sun who frees them from the clutches of the winter dragon: "Behold, in winter's chain sleeps the song of the waterfall under the dungeon roof of crystal ice!" So sings a Swedish poet, Count Snoilsky. And another Swedish poet, Andreas Aabel, rings out the antistrophe: "Hear the mountains proud cascade! Just now it has broken winter's check and prison, and now it courses free along its road!"² - [Previous: c9.86](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.86) - [Next: c9.88](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.88) - [Up: c9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.87](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.87) · Pramāṇa