The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c13.s2.15

v1.c13.s2.15

Other examples of this fetishism can easily be cited, but in comparison with them a passage in the Rigveda⁴ stands in a certain isolation of character. It is there said by a poet: ‘Who will buy this my Indra for ten cows? When he hath conquered his foe, let him return it to me!’ This passage can have but one sense: some fetish of Indra must be meant, whether a rough anthropomorphic picture or merely something much ruder we cannot say: the latter view has, however, the greater probability, in that statues of deities are otherwise not hinted at until the end of the Vedic period,⁵ when they may have been introduced under Western influences. It is characteristic that the god who is the hero of this episode is the warrior god, Indra: no other deity of first-rate importance in the Rigveda is treated habitually with such lightness of spirit⁶ as he is, and the fact that he is dealt with in this commercial spirit reminds us that already in this age there were men who questioned the existence of the god Indra, perhaps because, unlike deities such as the Sun or Dawn, he was not to be discerned by the naked eye day by day.