Vedic Mythology c5.s2.18.3

c5.s2.18.3

That this exploit is Indra's chief characteristic, is shown by the manner in which the poet epitomizes the myth in the two first verses of the latter hymn: ‘I will proclaim the heroic deeds of Indra, which the wielder of the bolt first performed: he slew the dragon lying on the mountain, released the waters, pierced the belly of the mountains’. The physical elements are nearly always indicated by the stereotyped figurative terms ‘bolt’, ‘mountain’, ‘waters or rivers’, while lightning, thunder, cloud, rain (*vṛṣṭi*, *varṣa*, or the verb *vṛṣ*) are seldom directly named (1, 52⁵· ⁶· ¹⁴ &c.)¹⁹. The rivers caused to flow are of course often terrestrial (BRV. 2, 184), but it cannot be doubted that waters and rivers are in the RV. very often conceived as aerial or celestial (1, 10⁸; 2, 20⁸. 22⁴ cp. BRV. 2, 187). Apart from a desire to express the Vṛtra myth in phraseology differing from that applied to other gods, the large stores of water (cp. *arṇas*, flood) released by Indra would encourage the use of words like ‘streams’ rather than ‘rain’. The ‘cows’ released by Indra may in many cases refer to the waters, for we have seen that the latter are occasionally compared with lowing cows. Thus Indra is said to have found the cows for man when he slew the dragon (5, 29³ cp. 1, 52⁸). The context seems to shew that the waters are meant when Indra is described as having, with his bolt for an ally, extracted the cows with light from darkness (1, 33¹⁰).