The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s8.8

v1.c17.s8.8

The nature of Parjanya as the thunder cloud is preserved throughout the Vedic literature and is recognized in the later period, where his name is also applied to Indra with whom in much he is identical, though his character has clear similarities also to that of Dyaus. The identification of him with the Lithuanian god Perkúnas, the Slav Perun, and the Norse Fjörgynn, which would make him to be in origin a god of the oak, or of the thunder which smites the oak, is open to the gravest difficulties of phonology,² and must be considered as too doubtful to be worth more than serious consideration.³ No other attempt to explain his name is yet made plausible, though it has been attempted to show that he is a rain god pure and simple.