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The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s1: § 1. Indra

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s1

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§ 1. Indra

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INDRA is the greatest god of the Rigveda, with the solitary exception of Varuṇa, who may be deemed to equal him in might.¹ His connexion with the Soma offering is, however, far closer than that of Varuṇa; he is the subject of 250 hymns, or almost a quarter of the whole of the collection, and he shares with other deities at least fifty more. He is, however, like Varuṇa in one thing: he is not a god whose physical nature overwhelms the anthropomorphism of the poets: he has, therefore, become the subject of many myths, which it would be idle to seek to bring into any connexion whatever with the normal basis of his nature.

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¹ For his parallelism with Thorr, see Mannhardt, *Germ. Myth.*, pp. 1 ff.; von Schroeder, *Arische Religion*, ii. 625 ff.; Rhys, *Celtic Heathendom*, pp. 291 ff.; with Herakles, von Schroeder, *Herakles und Indra* (1914). See also B. Schweitzer, *Herakles* (1922).

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Of the personal appearance of Indra a much more vivid picture is given than of any other of the gods: he has head, arms, hands, and a great belly which he fills full with the Soma, so that it comes to be likened to a lake. His lips are often mentioned: his beard is agitated when he moves, and, like his hair, it is tawny; his arms are long and strong, as becomes the wielder of the bolt, and he can assume any form at will. His favourite weapon is the thunderbolt,² of metal or of gold, with four or a hundred angles, with a hundred or a thousand points. His is *par excellence* the epithet *vajrin*, ‘bearer of the bolt’, which is else given but once each to Rudra, the Maruts, and Manyu. When he bears a bow, his arrows are hundred-pointed and winged with a thousand feathers. He has also a hook with which he gives wealth or fights, and the Atharvaveda³ gives him a net wherewith to overcome his foes. His chariot is drawn by horses, normally two, but sometimes a thousand or eleven hundred: their hair is like peacock’s feathers. His favourite food is the Soma, which he drinks on the very day of his birth, and of which he consumed three lakes when seeking to slay Vṛtra: on yet another occasion he drank thirty lakes. The epithet Soma-drinker is so essentially his that it is given only to Vāyu apart from him, and a few times to Bṛhaspati and Agni, when associated with him. His connexion with Vāyu in this regard is close: he is said to have Indra for his charioteer. Indra, however, also drinks milk mixed with honey, and is partial to buffaloes, eating as many as The birth of Indra is mysterious, like that of other heroes; he declines to be born save through his mother’s side:¹ this may be interpreted² as the lightning bursting through the cloud, or it may be merely treated as one of the many cases of miraculous births, which may be ascribed to nothing more than popular fancy, and of which the birth of Athene is on one view a famous case. His mother is called once a cow, and he is styled a calf: once³ she is called Niṣṭigrī, identified by Sāyaṇa with Aditi. Twice she is styled Çavasī, as he is the son of strength (*çavas*). The Atharvaveda⁴ makes her Ekāṣṭakā, daughter of Prajāpati, which is of course merely speculation. His father is Tvaṣṭr or Dyaus, and a legend⁵ clearly indicates that, in order to obtain the Soma, he seized his father by the foot and slew him: perhaps for this reason we find one clear record of the hostility of the gods to Indra. Only late speculation⁶ makes him the oldest, or the favourite, son of Prajāpati, while with Agni he springs from the mouth of the giant in the Puruṣasūkta. Agni and Pūṣan are made his brothers, and his sons once occur, but without indication who they are; he has, however, a son Kutsa, produced from his thigh and precisely like him, in the Jaiminīya.⁷ His wife is Indrāṇī, but the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa⁸ gives him two wives, Senā and Prāsahā, who are clearly legendary; the regular post-Vedic wife, Çacī, daughter of Puloman, is clearly derived from his epithet *çacīpati*, ‘lord of strength’, understood as husband of Çacī, a meaning which Pischel⁹ vainly reads into the Rigveda. She definitely appears in the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa in a curious legend in which Kutsa Aurava, born of Indra’s thigh and his double, lies with her and is marked by Indra to distinguish him. But another tale alluded to in the Atharvaveda¹⁰ tells how in love of an Asura woman, the Dānavī Vilisteṅgā,¹¹ he went to live among the Asuras, assuming a female form among women, a male among men. Here perhaps should be reckoned his invocation as Menā, ‘wife’ or ‘daughter’ of Vṛṣaṇaçva in the Subrahmaṇyā.¹² A vulgar tale¹³ records how, as Sumitra, he had intercourse with Dīrghajihvī, an Asura woman, who licked the Soma and had unlimited organs of sex.

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² In the epic Indra has the boomerang (MBh. iii. 309. 24), as also Thorr.

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³ viii. 8. 5–8.

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¹ RV. iv. 18. 1–2.

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² Macdonell, *Ved. Myth.*, p. 56; cf. Carnoy, *Les Indo-Européens*, p. 196; contra, Hartland, *Legend of Perseus*, i. 71 ff.; Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², p. 132, n. 3; Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* iii. 409; Fox, *Greek and Roman Mythology*, p. 170.

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³ RV. x. 101. 12. For Çavasī, see RV. viii. 45. 5; 77. 2.

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⁴ iii. 10. 12, 13.

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⁵ RV. iv. 18. 12; iii. 48. 4.

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⁶ TB. ii. 2. 10. 1; ÇB. xi. 1. 6. 14; PB. xvi. 4 ff.

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⁷ iii. 199; this legend is aetiological and curious; Kutsa is spared by Indra despite his act in posing as him to Çacī, but refuses him sacrifice and kills the son of Suçravas, his Purohita, who does sacrifice to him; at Suçravas’ entreaty Indra revives him. That RV. iv. 16. 10 knows this legend (Caland, *Over en uit het Jaiminīya-brāhmaṇa*, p. 74) is dubious.

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⁸ iii. 22. 7.

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⁹ *Ved. Stud.* ii. 52. Cf. Bloomfield, ZDMG. xlviii. 548; JB. iii. 199–202.

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¹⁰ vii. 38. 2.

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¹¹ Weber, *Ind. Stud.* iii. 479; Oertel, JAOS. xix. 120.

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¹² Cf. Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* ii. 209; JB. ii. 79; ÇB. iii. 3. 4. 18.

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¹³ JB. i. 162 f.; PB. xiii. 6. 9 ff.; Oertel, *Actes du Onzième Congrès Int. des Orient.* i. 225 ff., who cites RV. ix. 101. 1. He appears as an aged dancer, with a yoke on his shoulders, supporting a basket of cakes and a pot of curds and butter, to Upamā, wife of Kṣatra, a presage of victory in battle; JB. iii. 244 ff.

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Of the other gods Indra is closely connected with his troop, the Maruts, with Agni whom he generates or finds in the waters, and to whom he is akin in nature, with Varuṇa, Vāyu, Soma, Bṛhaspati, Pūṣan, and Viṣṇu, whose relation to him becomes in some passages a close one. With Sūrya he is actually here and there identified, he receives the epithet Savitṛ, and the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa¹ declares him to be the sun and Vṛtra the moon. But he differs from all the gods in his physical magnitude which makes the two worlds but half of him, heaven and earth insufficient for his girdle, and ten earths not equal to him. No language is too strong for the Vedic poets in expressing his greatness: Sūrya and Varuṇa are made inferior to him, he is invoked to destroy the foes of Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, he makes broad space for the gods in battle: he is an independent ruler *par excellence*, and occasionally, like Varuṇa, a universal ruler. He is the mighty (*çakra*), an epithet rarely used of any other god. He practically alone is styled 'of a hundred powers' (*çatakratu*); he is strong, young, immortal, and ancient.

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¹ Cf. Hillebrandt, *op. cit.* iii. 44. For Vṛtra's distinction in the Brāhmaṇas cf. Hopkins, *Trans. Conn. Acad.* xv. 43 f.

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There is nothing here to show clearly the nature of Indra, save in so far as his connexion with the sun and the fire suggests his fiery character, and that with Vāyu his fierce onset. But the myth of the slaying of Vṛtra, which is the great deed of the god, is not doubtful in sense. It takes the form of the slaying by the god with the aid of the Maruts and of Viṣṇu, or without their aid, of a serpent which was lying on the mountains keeping in with its coils the waters of the streams. The flood of the waters flows then swiftly to the sea, and at the same time the light shines forth. The god strikes Vṛtra on the back, or smites his face, or pierces his vital parts. But the action is not done once, but ever and again, and Indra is implored to perform it in the future as in the past. The waters set free are likened often to lowing cows, and such is the fury of the onset that the heaven and earth tremble with fear. It is important to note that the terms used of the myth are essentially restricted with very rare exceptions to the words, bolt, mountain, waters, or rivers, in place of lightning, clouds, and air. The cows which occur here and there are open to two interpretations; they may be simply the waters, for in a few cases the waters are clearly so designated, as when it is said that the cows roared at the birth of Indra. But they may also be the rays of light, set free when the waters are loosened.

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In the view of Oldenberg² the use of the terms mountain and streams is proof that in the Vedic period the poets conceived the deed of Indra as the setting forth from mountains on earth of streams terrestrial, the invaluable waters of the Punjab: he grants that in the oldest period the myth was one of the thunderstorm, the fall of rain, and the coming of the light.¹ But, while he admits that this view of the myth was perfectly well known to Yāska and to the later literature, he denies that it was appreciated by the Vedic poets. This is, however, difficult to accept: the arguments adduced for it are not by any means conclusive. The absence of direct mention normally—occasionally there is such mention as Oldenberg admits—is due to the fact that the story is a myth; it has passed the stage when it is merely a description of phenomenon, and it is not only a myth but a very popular myth. Moreover, it is impossible to accept the view that Vajra, the name of the bolt, is not the thunderbolt, which it is throughout the Vedic literature, often in quite clear fashion. The comparison of mountains with clouds is natural and easy: the mountains are the clouds, which before the storm hang in heavy darkness refusing to yield the rain: the storm comes, the lightning bursts forth, the rain falls, and the sun shines out. A different view is suggested by the theory of Hillebrandt² which sees in the story of the contest with Vṛtra, not the storm-god bringing down the rain to earth, but the defeating of a serpent demon, the glacier which with the winter cold holds fast the waters in ice.³ The suggestion is brilliant and attractive, and, if such a glacial myth existed, it would clearly be natural to find its remnants in the tale of Vṛtra, but the evidence which can be adduced from the language of the Rigveda is of the most inadequate nature to prove the thesis desired.

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² *Rel. des Veda*², pp. 137 ff.

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¹ Cf. the Avestan demon Apaosha, really allied verbally to Vṛtra; Wackernagel, *Festschrift Kuhn*, pp. 158 f.; and Helm, *Altgerm. Rel.* i. 192 ff.

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² *Ved. Myth.* iii. 174–201; (Kl. Ausg.), pp. 85 ff. Cf. Barth, *Rev. de l’histoire des rel.* xxxix. 69; Bloomfield, *Rel. of Veda*, pp. 178 ff. Hopkins (*JAOS.* xxxvi. 242 ff.) finds in Indra a deity of fertility, originally of the Kuçikas and Gotamas who won acceptance by the Bharadvājas as war-god, and became generally revered as a great god. Güntert (pp. 11 ff.) makes him a war-god and demon-slayer.

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³ Von Schroeder (*op. cit.* ii. 613) compares Thorr’s relation to ice and glaciers.

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The slaying of Vṛtra is not merely attributed to Indra: by the syncretism of the Veda, it is also attributed to Agni and Soma. The gods as a whole are supposed to aid Indra in the contest, but at the roaring or hissing of the serpent they fled, leaving the Maruts only to aid him, and once at least even they fled, and left him alone. Viṣṇu is also an aider in the struggle and even earthly priests lend aid.

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Another myth tells of the slaying of the three-headed Viçvarūpa by Indra:⁴ it is, however, clear that this is a more modern form of a myth in which Viçvarūpa was slain by Trita, for this form of the myth appears in the Rigveda, and in the Avesta Thraētaona is said to slay a three-headed serpent with six eyes, freeing thus two fair ladies. In the classical myths of Herakles and Geryoneus, and of Hercules and Cacus, the monsters have likewise three heads, and, when slain, the hero wins the cattle which they have taken and hidden away. The motive of winning cows is found also in the Viçvarūpa myth, and it is perfectly clear that these four myths are one and the same in nature: in the case of the Avesta the part of restoring lost cattle has past over to Ahura himself, who is *par excellence* the discoverer of lost things.

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⁴ Hillebrandt (*Ved. Myth.* i. 531–5) holds that Viçvarūpa is the moon in its hostile aspect.

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With this myth may be compared the legend¹ of Saramā and the Paṇis. The Paṇis stole and hid away cows in a cave among the rocks, and Indra's dog, Saramā, pursues them and finds the place where are the cows: them she demands back from the Paṇis in a dialogue which is preserved to us in an interesting, if not very old, hymn of the Rigveda. The Paṇis refuse to give them back and the later tradition makes Saramā unfaithful to her mission. This, however, is not recorded in the Rigveda, and from other accounts it seems that Indra advances against the Paṇis and recovers the cows. Moreover, we find Bṛhaspati engaged in the same feat: the priestly god with his prayers cleaves the barriers behind which the cows are hidden, and brings them forth. Agni too takes a share in the struggle: the priestly god of fire is naturally active in this important undertaking. The Aṅgirases also take a great part, or, in their place, the seven seers, the eponymous fathers of the priestly clans. They pray and they offer sacrifice, and thus attain the same end. A further element in the picture of Vala: Indra cleaves his ridge in attaining the cows. The meaning of the myth can hardly be doubtful when it is noted how often Indra is brought into prominence as the maker of the dawn and the finder of the sun. The cows must be, not rain-clouds, as sometimes in the myth of Vṛtra, but the morning beams of light, or perhaps the red clouds of dawn; there is little difference between the two conceptions. The nature of Vala, 'the Keeper', is clearer still: he is merely the personification of the place in which the cows are kept. But the Paṇis are not quite so easy to explain: Hillebrandt² has found in them an historical people, and has argued that the mention of the Paṇis is a piece of history turned into myth. It is perfectly possible that this could be the case, but in the case of the Paṇis, who are assimilated to Parnians, the references are not satisfactorily taken as historical in ultimate essence: the theory too involves speculations regarding the places in which the Rigveda was composed which will not stand very close investigation.³ The natural and satisfactory view is that the Paṇis were the misers, who refuse to give the priests gifts, and who are overthrown, a conception which is interwoven with the mythical winning of the clouds.

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¹ RV. x. 108. Oldenberg (*Rel. des Veda*², p. 147) treats the legend as an aetiological myth to explain men's ownership of cows. A similar view of the waters myth is also unlikely. Rhys (*Celtic Heathendom*, pp. 299 ff.) holds him a culture hero, but admits contamination with Trita or Dyaus.

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² *Ved. Myth.* i. 83-116; he finds the dawn in Saramā, and sun and moon in the Sārameyas, and so with Saraṇyū (ii. 48-50).

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³ Macdonell and Keith, *Vedic Index*, i. 471-3. Meyer (*Gesch. des Alt.*³ I. ii. p. 905) also rejects Hillebrandt's view, which is repeated in *Ved. Myth.*, pp. 95 f. See Oldenberg on RV. vi. 61. 1; *GGA.* 1914, p. 447.

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A further question, however, arises as to the exact circumstances in which the clouds are won. Is it to be supposed that the legend is only another side of the winning of the light in the Vṛtra legend, which means, no doubt, the appearance of light after the thunderstorm? The answer to this question is usually given in the affirmative, but it seems much more likely that the myth is an independent one, the winning of the sun and the dawn from the dark mountains of the night, as is the view of Oldenberg. To suppose that this is a secondary development from the other myth is not necessary, nor very probable. But it is impossible to follow Oldenberg in the view that the winning of the light and the sun, which is connected with the Vṛtra myth, is not an expression of the recovery of the light after the storm, but a poetical embellishment of the theme.

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While it is in these mythical forms that the feats of Indra as bringing down the rain and finding the light are mainly celebrated, there are passages in which he is credited with creating the lightnings and turning the waters of heaven downwards, and very much more freely is his feat of winning the dawn and the sun celebrated. Such a god was clearly essentially suited to be the god of the warrior, and Indra is the great aider of the Vedic Indian, the Aryan, in his fights, whether with other Aryan foes, or more often in the tradition with the Dāsas or Dasyus, in whom we must often see the aborigines. It would be wholly impossible to believe that in every case the Dāsas are human enemies, and they include doubtless evil spirits who are none other than the gods of the hated races: twice in the Rigveda¹ we find phallus worshippers regarded as hostile, and everything points to the probability of such deities being among the enemies overthrown by Indra in the Rigveda. But, equally obviously, historical men may be reckoned as among the foes of the gods, and invested with traits of demons. Or again they may simply be mentioned as defeated by Indra, as princes whom we have no reason to doubt as Aryan are represented as being defeated for another prince by the aid of the god, as when for Tūrvayāṇa, Āyu, Atithigva, and Kutsa are overthrown.

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¹ vii. 21. 5; x. 99. 3; above, p. 10, n. 3.

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The hostile Dāsas or Dasyus are regarded as black skinned² and noseless, doubtless a reference to flat noses, but their chief characteristic, and the one which makes them no real men, is their refusal to worship the Aryan gods, and to give gifts to the priest, the two essential duties of the true Vedic warrior. Of the princes favoured by Indra the greatest, or one of the greatest, is Atithigva or Divodāsa, ‘the servant of the heaven’, whose name has wrongly induced Hillebrandt³ to treat him as a Dāsa and to find the Dāsas among the Dahae, instead of among the aborigines of India itself. Among his foes are men with names like Karañja and Parṇaya,⁴ whose appellations seem very possibly aboriginal, and above all Çambara. That foe has forts, ninety or ninety-nine, or a hundred, and with the aid of Indra he destroys them and defeats him in his home in the mountains. Mythical these references may of course be, and clouds be meant, but it is quite as easy to see in them the real palisades of the aborigines stormed by Aryan princes, and their pursuing their enemy to the hills in which as always the defeated forces from the plains take refuge. Çambara is also defeated by Indra for the sake of Ṛjiçvan, son of Vidathin. He also lulls to slumber and to ruin Cumuri and Dhuni for the sake of Dabhīti, and this reference may not inaptly be applied to an attack on the enemy made by night when the camp was wrapped in slumber.¹ Another foe overcome by Indra is Ilibiça: his name like that of Pipru and of other of Indra's foes seems un-Aryan.

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² Macdonell and Keith, *Vedic Index*, i. 356 ff.

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³ *Ved. Myth.* i. 96, 106 ff.; iii. 269 ff. See Macdonell and Keith, *Vedic Index*, i. 347 ff.

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⁴ Mysterious is Rahasyu, who slays the seers, the Vaikhānanas, whom Indra revives, PB. xiv. 4. 7; JB. iii. 190. The dolphin (Çarkara Çiñçumāra) alone refused Indra, praise but was forced to yield by Parjanya drying up his ocean, JB. iii. 193 f.

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¹ RV. ii. 15. 9.

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In other cases there may be a more mythic basis. The demon Uraṇa is described as having ninety-nine arms which is rather inhuman:² Arbuda is so little specified as to be of doubtful origin. Çuṣṇa seems from his name to be the hisser,³ in which case he would have analogies with Vṛtra, whose snorting (*çvasatha*) so frightens the gods that they run away, leaving Indra to fight alone with the monster. He is also called a wild beast⁴ and he seems to be horned, which may of course merely refer to the head-dress of a chief of the aborigines. His chief rival is Kutsa, who appears as battling against him, and as victor by the aid of Indra, who for his sake tore from the sun a wheel, prolonging the daylight and thus enabling, it may be assumed, Kutsa to turn the issue of battle. The feat of Indra is several times mentioned, and the fact that Kutsa is a real hero is suggested, though not proved, by the fact that elsewhere he appears in hostile relation to Indra,⁵ just as Atithigva, who is normally the protégé of Indra, in one or two places appears in the reverse relation. It is true that it is not to be expected that a god, or a hero of divine dimensions, would be thus placed in opposition to the god, though, as the god is the uncertain Indra, the argument is by no means conclusive. Kutsa in the case of his real personality must be a king, and this is not inconsistent with his being called a seer: royal seers are not unknown. The Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa makes him born from Indra's thigh and disloyal to him. No other god has anything like the same place as Indra in the overcoming of the Dāsas for the sake of the Aryans: the feat is ascribed elsewhere only to Agni, the Açvins, and the gods generally.

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² RV. ii. 14. 4.

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³ Macdonell (*Ved. Myth.*, pp. 160, 161) refers the name to the scorching of the earth by drought. Hillebrandt (*Ved. Myth.* iii. 290) thinks the demon who eclipses the sun may be meant.

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⁴ Hillebrandt (VOJ. xiii. 316) compares the later legend of the gazelle form of Mārīca.

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⁵ Macdonell and Keith, *Vedic Index*, i. 228; Oertel, JAOS. xviii. 31. *See* Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², pp. 154 ff.; Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* iii. 292; JB. iii. 199–202.

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Other Dāsas are certainly not real men; such are Vyaṁsa, whose jaws Indra struck off, and Namuci, who is the hero of a strange tale;⁶ Indra, it seems, made a compact with him not to slay him by any weapon, by wet or dry, by day or night, and, true to this compact, when he did slay him it was with the foam of the sea at the twilight on the margin of the sea, and the head, struck off, follows him, reproaching him with treachery. The story is especially interesting because of its clear reference to the idea of the external soul: doubtless that of Namuci was deemed to be placed in the sea foam. Noteworthy also is Indra’s consciousness of guilt in slaying.¹ A further curious tale tells how Indra as the result of over-indulgence in his favourite Soma became ill, and how he was cured by drinking with Namuci, or by extracting in some way from his body, a curious mixture of Soma and Surā. The Sautrāmaṇī rite of the Brāhmaṇas is clearly a case of a rite founded on the strange and unedifying myth. In the Rigveda² Indra twists off the head of Namuci, which suggests the natural phenomenon of a waterspout amidst a storm.

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⁶ Bloomfield, JAOS. xv. 143 ff. Oldenberg, GN. 1893, pp. 342 ff.; Frazer, *Golden Bough*³, xi. 280; Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* iii. 255 ff.; Weber, *Rājasūya*, p. 102, n. 4 (morning mist). See MS. iv. 3. 4; 4. 4; TS. i. 8. 14; TB. i. 7. 1. 6; 8. 2; ÇB. v. 4. 1. 9; xii. 7. 3. 1; PB. xii. 6. 8.

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¹ So with Vṛtra, TS. ii. 5. 3. 6; PB. xxii. 14. 2; Tvaṣṭṛ’s son, TS. ii. 5. 1. 2; PB. xvii. 5. 1, &c.

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² v. 30. 7, 8; vi. 20. 6; viii. 14. 13; Lanman, *JASB.* lviii. 28–30.

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The Asuras also are more probably to be taken as the powers of darkness than as men, though individual Asuras may be quite well nothing but men: thus Pipru is called a Dāsa, and also an Asura, and the Asura Varcin, whose hundred and thousand men are slain by Indra and Viṣṇu when they overthrow Çambara, may fall in the same category. As we have seen, the Asuras appear but seldom as foes in the Rigveda; in one hymn, however, we learn that Agni abandons the Asuras, and joins the gods, that Indra slays Vṛtra, and that the wiles of the Asuras depart from them.³ In the Brāhmaṇa literature Indra of course, like the other gods, fights against the Asuras, and after the usual period of defeat succeeds in defeating them in turn by the adoption of some ritual device or the repetition of some formula.⁴

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³ Magic powers are used both against (RV. vii. 98. 5; PB. xix. 19. 1) and by Indra (RV. viii. 14. 14; PB. xiii. 6. 9). For his wars, *cf.* Hopkins, *Trans. Conn. Acad.* xv. 44.

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⁴ In the Subrahmaṇyā formula (ÇB. iii. 3. 4. 18; JB. ii. 79; iii. 233) Indra is invoked as ram of Medhātithi, an episode brought by some scholars into connexion with the Ganymede legend; Weber, *Ind. Stud.* ix. 48; Oertel, JAOS. xvi. p. ccxl; xviii. 38; RV. viii. 2. 40; *Vedic Index*, ii. 178.

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In some cases we have full evidence of historical happenings. Turvaça and Yadu, that is the kings of the two tribes of that time, in whose historical character we have no ground to doubt,⁵ are declared to have been brought safely over the stream by Indra’s aid, doubtless procured by the help of the priest, and he is the great god who assists Sudās at the instance of Vasiṣṭha⁶ in the battle with the ten kings, and makes him overthrow his rivals, bringing them to death in the stream of the Paruṣṇī, and then assisting the king to overthrow Bheda. Similar is the statement that he aided Suçravas and slew 60,099 of his enemies, though the number is fabulous. It is he on whom men call in battle, and, little as the Vedic poetry is inspired with warlike spirit, here and there it is clear that the poet has caught some of the tone of war poetry.¹ Doubtless part of the lavishing of wealth which is a merit of Indra's was manifested in the giving of victory in the strife for cows, which, as the chief form of property of primitive Indian society, made up the main object to be won in a mere foray. Indra too appears in close relations with his worshippers, as a friend, a brother, a father or father and mother in one. The epithet Kauçika denotes him as the family god of the Kuçikas. He is the generous god *par excellence*, whence the title Maghavan, bountiful, is almost exclusively his in the Vedic ritual literature, and is his common name in post-Vedic texts. His bounty includes wives and also children.

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⁵ RV. i. 174. 9.

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⁶ RV. vii. 18 and 33. Indra appears to him face to face (PB. xv. 5. 24; TS. iii. 5. 2), and he gains his love (PB. xii. 12. 9 f.).

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¹ Hence in the Mahāvrata armed warriors represent his power, PB. v. 5. 21.

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In other cases myths are attached to Indra, in which we need not seek any direct connexion with his nature: as a great god he can stretch out heaven and earth, and in particular he settles the quaking mountains, while in the later Vedic texts he is said to have cut off the wings of the mountains and to have reduced them to a stationary condition.² The wings then became the thunder clouds. The separation of heaven and earth is sometimes attributed to his victory over a demon,³ who held them together: the faint parallelism with the Hesiodic myth⁴ is hardly worth note. If anything more than imagination is to be seen in the idea, it may be that the light appearing seems to separate the heaven and earth joined by the darkness. Probably, too, we must not see any reference to the myth of Vṛtra is the oft repeated wonder of the poet that Indra places in the red or raw cow the cooked milk. The problem seems to have been a favourite one in India. A less satisfactory side of his character is revealed in his addition to the drinking of Soma: a curious, if late, hymn⁵ is represented as the monologue of the drunken Indra, who sees himself able to do anything he likes in the intoxication produced by his deep draughts. His over-indulgence in the drink has been noted, and it was his desire for it which drove him to slay his father. He is also the hero of more than one amour; an old litany, the Subrahmaṇyā, addresses him as the lover of Ahalyā, a Brahman, calling himself Gautama, from which the Brāhmaṇas derive the natural explanation that he approached Ahalyā, wife of Gautama, under her husband's name and form.⁶ To Weber the episode denotes that the dawn of morning ascends the bright sky, but their loving commerce is broken by the cloud coming up, but it would be unwise to press the accuracy of such an explanation. It may be rather ranked with the many aetiological myths of different countries in which a family claims divine descent through the intercourse of a god with an ancestress, whose honour is saved by the representation that the god approached her in the guise of her lawful spouse. A still more obscure story¹ tells how a maiden, Apālā, found Soma beside a river, and having pressed it dedicated it to Indra, from whom she received the fulfilment of certain desires. Yet more obscure if possible is the famous Vṛṣākapi hymn,² which narrates a dispute which arose between Indra and Indrāṇī over an ape, Vṛṣākapi, which was the dear friend of Indra, but which had aroused the anger of Indrāṇī by destroying some of her property. Vṛṣākapi is induced, despite his caution, to be caught by Indrāṇī and is beaten by Indra, and banished from the house. Indra, however, misses his companion, and in some way not intelligible a reconciliation is effected. It would be idle to seek mythological conceptions in this strange confusion of ideas, and von Bradke³ has ingeniously suggested that the hymn is none other than a satire on a contemporary prince and his consort under the titles of the god and goddess. The problem is plainly insoluble. Another odd tale is that of his stealing Aiṣakṛta Çitibāhu's Soma in monkey form, this power of change of shape adhering to him in later tradition,⁴ where he appears as a leech, parrot, or cat.

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² RV. ii. 12. 2; x. 44. 8; iv. 54. 5; MS. i. 10. 13; Pischel, *Ved. Stud.* i. 174.

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³ RV. v. 29. 4; viii. 6. 17.

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⁴ Theog. 166 ff.; Lang, *Custom and Myth*, pp. 44 ff. For heaven and earth as united and severed, see Hopkins, *Trans. Conn. Acad.* xv. 33, n. 1.

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⁵ RV. x. 119; Deussen (*Gesch. der Phil.* I. i. 99 ff.) sees in it a satire, but dubiously, see below, Part V, Chap. 26.

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⁶ Weber, SBA. 1887, p. 903. This view is criticized by Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², p. 166. Hopkins (JAOS. xxxvi. 264) compares Ahalyā with the unploughed land. Cf. Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* iii. 209, n. 4; JB. ii. 79, in JAOS. xviii. 34 ff.; xxvi. 186.

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¹ RV. viii. 91; von Schroeder, VOJ. xxii. 223–44; xxiii. 270 ff. (Apālā as earth); Frazer, *Golden Bough*³, xi. 192.

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² RV. x. 86.

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³ ZDMG. xlvi. 465. Other views in Bloomfield, xlviii. 541 ff.; Geldner, *Ved. Stud.* ii. 22 ff.; Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* iii. 278 (a constellation); von Schroeder, *Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda*, pp. 304 ff.; Tilak, *Orion*, pp. 170 ff.; Ludwig, *Ueber d. neuesten Arb.*, pp. 126 ff.; Winternitz, VOJ. xxiii. 112.

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⁴ JB. i. 363; Oertel, JAOS. xxvi. 192, 195, 314.

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Nothing is more interesting in Indra's nature than the contrast between the strongly moral character of his rival Varuṇa and his own lack of moral quality. He is occasionally given moral attributes, and faith in him is enjoined, but the very fact that the existence of sceptics who denied his divinity is recorded shows that the nature of Indra was not in all quarters considered to be worthy of the conception of divinity, doubtless as compared with the figure of Varuṇa. A list of his sins includes the killing of Viçvarūpa, Vṛtra, the Arurmaghas, and the Yatis, and quarrelling with Bṛhaspati, to whom priestly partiality is shown.⁵

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⁵ AB. vii. 28 (Keith, trs., p. 314); KU. iii. 1; TS. ii. 5. 1.

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The existence of Indra in the period of Indo-Iranian unity, which was rendered probable by the existence of a demon Indra, and of the god of victory Verethraghna,⁶ who is clearly equivalent to Vṛtrahan, is made practically certain by the discovery of the name of Indra along with those of Mitra and Varuṇa and the Nāsatya among the gods of the Mitanni. While the name is of quite uncertain origin,⁷ the parallelism of the myth of the finding of the cows proves that part of the conception of the god is Indo-European.

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⁶ His bird form Vāraghna is parallel to the eagle form of Indra when he brings down the Soma; Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², p. 72. The name denotes 'assault-repelling', but the idea of an abstract deity (Carnoy, *Iran. Myth.*, p. 271) is implausible, despite Moulton, *Early Zoroastrianism*, p. 69.

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⁷ Bergaigne (*Rel. Véd.* ii. 166) suggests *indh*; Jacobi (KZ. xxxi. 316 ff.) ‘manly’; Bezzenberger (BB. i. 342) compares AS. *ent*, ‘giant,’ OHD. *enticc*; Güntert (*Weltkönig*, p. 14), οἰδέω.

Linked texts (11)