Indra

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

one of the Hindu deities of the Vedic period of the Hindu religion, who also enjoyed a great legendary popularity in the Epic and Puranic periods. (See Hinduism). He is, so to speak, the Hindi Jupiter. He is quite frequently styled "Lord of heaven" (divaspati Diespiter). The name itself is of doubtful origin, meaning either (1) "blue" (as epithet of the firmament), or (2) "the illuminator," or (3) "the giver of rain'" (compare Wuttke, Gesch. Des Leidenthuesss, 2, 242). Max Muller (Science Of Language: 2nd series, p. 449) says the name "admits of but one etymology; i.e. it must be derived from the same root, whatever that may be, which in Sanskrit yielded Indu, drop, sap. It meant originally the giver of rain, the Jupiter Pluvius, a deity in India more often present to the mind of the worshipper than any other" (comp. Benfey, Orient And Occident, 1. 49). "In that class of Rig-Veda hymns which there is reason to look upon as the oldest portion of Vedic poetry, the character of Indra is that of a mighty ruler of the bright firmament, and his principal feat is that of conquering the daemon Vritra, a symbolical personification of the cloud which obstructs the clearness of the sky, and withholds the fructifying rain from the earth. In his battles with Vritra he is therefore described as ‘ opening the receptacles of the waters,' as ‘ cleaving the cloud' with his ‘ far-whirling thunderbolt,' as ‘ casting the waters down to the earth,' and ‘ restoring the sun to the sky.' he is, in consequence, ‘ the upholder of heaven, earth, and firmament,' and the god ‘ who has engendered the sun and the dawn.' And since the atmospherical phenomena personified in this conception are ever and ever recurring, he is ‘ undecaying' and ‘ ever youthful.' All the wonderful deeds of Indra, however, are performed by him merely for the benefit of the good, which, in the language of the Veda, means the pious men who worship him in their songs, and invigorate him with the offerings of the juice of the soma plant. (See Hinduism).

He is, therefore, the ‘ lord of the virtuous,' and the ‘ discomfiter of those who neglect religious rites.' Many other epithets, which we have not space to enumerate, illustrate the same conception. It is on account of the paramount influence which the deeds of Indra exercise on the material happiness of man that this deity occupies a foremost rank in the Vedic worship, and that a greater number of invocations are addressed to him than to any other of the gods (comp. Max Muller, Chips From A German Workshop, 1, 30-32, et al.). But to understand the gradual expansion of his mythical character, and his ultimate degradation to an inferior position in the Hindu pantheon of a later period, it is necessary to bear in mind that, however much the Vedic poets call Indra the protector of the pious and virtuous, he is in their songs essentially a warlike god, and gradually endowed by imagination not only with the qualities of a mighty, but also of a self-willed king. The legends which represent him in this light seem, it is true, to belong to a later class of the Rig-Veda hymns, but they show that the original conception of Indra excluded from his nature those ethical considerations which in time changed the pantheon of elementary gods into one of a different stamp. Whether the idea of an incarnation (q.v.) of the deity, which, at the Epic and Pur Anic periods, played so important a part in the history of Vishnu, did not exercise its influence as early as the composition of some of the Vedic hymns in honor of Indra, may at least be matter of doubt. He is, for instance, frequently invoked as the destroyer of cities-of seven, of ninety- nine, even of a hundred cities and he is not only repeatedly called the slayer of the hostile tribes which surrounded the Aryan Hindus, but some of the chiefs slain by him are enumerated by name. The commentators, of course, turn those ‘ robbers' and their ‘ chiefs' into daemons, and their cities into celestial abodes; but as it is improbable that all these names should be nothing but personifications of clouds destroyed by the thunder-bolt of Indra, it is, to say the least, questionable whether events in the early history of India may not have been associated with the deeds of Indra himself, in like manner as, at the Epic period, mortal heroes were looked upon as incarnations of Vishnu, and mortal deeds transformed into exploits of this god.

"The purely kingly character of Indra assumes its typical shape in the Aitareya Brahmana, where his installation as lord of the inferior gods is described with much mystical detail; and from that time he continues to be the supreme lord of the minor gods, and the type of a mortal king. During the Epic and Puranic periods, where ethical conceptions of the divine powers prevail over ideas based on elementary impressions, Indra ceases to enjoy the worship he had acquired at the ‘ Vedic time, and his existence is chiefly upheld by the poets, who, in their turn, however, work it out in the most fantastical detail. Of the eight guardians of the world. he is, then, the one who presides over the east, and he is still the god who sends rain and wields the thunderbolt; but poetry is more engrossed by the beauty of his paradise, Swarga, the happy abode of the- inferior gods, and of those pious men who attain it after death in consequence of having, during life, properly discharged their religious duties; by the charms of his heavenly nymphs, the Apsarasas, who now and then descend to earth to disturb the equanimity of austere penitents; by the musical performances of his choristers, the Gandharvas; by the splendor of his capital, Amaravati; by the fabulous beauty of his garden, Nandana, etc. A remarkable trait in this legendary life of Indra is the series of his conflicts with Krishna (q.v.), an incarnation of Vishnu, which end, however, in his becoming reconciled with the more important god. As the god who is emphatically called the god of the hundred sacrifices (Satakratu), Indra is jealous of every mortal who may have the presumption of aiming at the performance of that number of sacrifices, for the accomplishment of such an intention would raise the sacrificer to a rank equal to that which he occupies. He is, therefore, ever at hand to disturb sacrificial acts which may expose him to the danger of having his power shared by another Indra. According to the Puranas, the reign of this god Indra, who is frequently called also Sakra, or the mighty, does not last longer than the ‘ first Manwantara, or mundane epoch. After each successive destruction of the world, a new Indra was created, together with other gods, saints, ands mortal beings. Thus the Indra of the second Manwantara is Vipaschit; of the third, Susdnti; of the fourth, Sivi; of the fifth, Vibhu; of the sixth, Manojava; and the Indra of the present age is Purandara" (Chambers, s.v.). In works of art, Indra is generally represented as riding on an elephant. In paintings, his eyes are veiled. See also Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, 1, 173.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

The king of heaven and national god of the Aryans; gives victory to his people, and is always ready to aid them; he is pre-eminently a warlike god, and as he stands on his war-chariot, drawn by five fawn-coloured horses, he is in a sort the type of an Aryan chieftain; he is sometimes assisted by other gods, but he more frequently fights alone; he is the dispenser, moreover, of all good gifts, and the author and preserver of all living; his power extends over the heavens, and he holds the earth in the hollow of his hand.