Vedic Mythology c5.s2.4

c5.s2.4

The thunderbolt (*vajra*)¹ is the weapon exclusively appropriate to Indra. It is the regular mythological name of the lightning stroke (cp. p. 59). It is generally described as fashioned for him by Tvaṣṭṛ (1, 32² &c.), but Kāvya Uśanā is also said to have made it and given it to him (1, 121¹²; 5, 34²). In the AB. (4, 1) it is the gods who are said to have provided Indra with his bolt. It lies in the ocean enveloped in water (8, 89⁹). Its place is below that of the sun (10, 27²¹). It is generally described as *āyasa* or metallic (1, 52⁸ &c.), but sometimes as golden (1, 57² &c.), tawny (3, 44⁴; 10, 96³) or bright (3, 44⁵). It is four-angled (4, 22²), hundred-angled (4, 17¹⁰), hundred-jointed (8, 6⁶ &c.), and thousand-pointed (1, 80¹² &c.). It is sharp (7, 18¹⁸ &c.). Indra whets it like a knife or as a bull his horns² (1, 130⁴. 55¹). It is spoken of as a stone (*aśman*) or rock (*parvata*: 7, 104¹⁹). The bolt in Indra's hand is compared with the sun in the sky (8, 59²). Epithets derived from or compounded with *vajra*, some of which are very frequent, are almost entirely limited to Indra. *Vajrabhṛt*, 'bearing the bolt', *vajrivat*, 'armed with the bolt', and *vajradakṣiṇa*, 'holding the bolt in his right hand' are applied to him exclusively, while *vajrabāhu* or *-hasta*, 'holding the bolt in his arm or hand', and the commonest derivative *vajrin*, 'armed with the bolt', otherwise occur as attributes of Rudra, the Maruts, and Manyu only once each respectively.