Indra

Indra and his wife Sachi on his Airavata vehicle.

The God Indra and the three-headed elephant Erawan (Airavata). Detail of the Phra Prang, the central tower of the Wat Arun (the twilight season) in Bangkok (Thailand). Satellite photo of the temple: Maps.Google.com.

Indonesian figure of Indradev.

Indra surrounded by servers; at the ends you see elephant-leons (gaja-simha). Friso Cambodian, Siemreap Province (Prasat Koki, Phnom Kulen); Kulen style, 9th century, in gres; currently owned by the Guimet Museum (in Paris).

To the center: Indra rides on the tricephal elephant Airavana (sicAiravata and soften the lightning. Friso in preRup style, late X century; currently owned by the Guimet Museum (in Paris).

In Hindu mythology, Indra is the king of the gods or devas and lord of Heaven and the main god of the Vedic religion (prior to Hinduism) in India.

He appears as a hero, deity and central figure in the book Rig-veda (mid-2nd millennium BC). Within the Hindu divinities, he is considered the god of war, the atmosphere, the visible sky, the storm and lightning (he is represented as a sword with undulations (like lightning)). As an ancient supreme deity, he would be the creator of the Indra Pearls in Hindu cosmology.

Later, in Hinduism, he became the king of all the demigods (inferior gods) and was surpassed by the gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Shivá.

His weapon is lightning (vashra). His vajana (vahana: 'vehicle, mount') is the elephant Airavata, who represents the cloud from which Indra pours down his rain.

Among other things, he is the ruling god of the pupil of the right eye (while that of the left is represented by his wife, the goddess Indrānī) or Sachi.

His skin is white or yellowish, and his body is covered in eyes with lids that allow him to see everything that happens in the world.

Actually, those eyes were a curse-blessing from the wise Gotama. Indra had seduced the sage's wife, Ajalia (Ahalya). When the ascetic learned of the adultery, she caused Indra's body to be filled with dozens of vulvas. Indra did penance to ask for forgiveness, and the sage ended up agreeing to turn the vulvas into eyes.

In Hindu scriptures, Indra, being a karma-knowing deva, is a god fearful of losing his position as chief god. Therefore, when he learns that some human (such as Vishuamitra) performs many austerities to earn karma that allows him to ascend in a next incarnation and thus be able to occupy the position of Indra, he sends the celestial prostitutes, the apsaras (such as Urvashí, Rambhá or Menaká) to seduce him and make him lose all mystical progress. However, in the end he still ended up losing his status as main God in favor of the gods of the Trimurti.

Origins

In the first Vedic religion (prior to the Hindu religion) Indra (god of heaven) is the son of Diaus Pitar the Father of Heaven, who is the husband of Pritui (Earth) and also father of Agni (god of fire). and would also be the brother of Suria (the sun god). With the appearance of Hinduism (puranic religion) Diaus Pitar directly disappears from the pantheon, being replaced by his son Indra.

Indra can be classified as a deity related to other Indo-European gods, such as Dieus, Thor, Perun, Zeus, Jupiter and the Hittite-Anatolian god Tarhun, as well as other gods of alcoholic beverages like Dionysus, he also summons legions of supporting spirits. Indra's name is also mentioned among the gods of the Mitanni, a Hurrian people who ruled northern Syria between 1500 and 1270 BCE. c.

In the "Rigveda"

In the verses of the Rig-veda (mid-2nd millennium BC) it is said:

He, under whose very high hierarchy of control are horses, all chariots, peoples, and cattle. He, under whose very high hierarchy of control are horses, all chariots, peoples, and cattle. He, who surrendered to the Sun of the morning, the one who leads the waters, he, O men, is Indra.

Rig-veda 2:12:7, English translation of Griffith)

Indra, you who raised the marginalized who were oppressed, who glorified the blind and the lame.

Rig-veda 2:13:12

Indra, with Váruna and Mitra, is one of the Aditia, the main gods of the 'Rig-veda' (besides the god of fire Agni and the Ashvins). He delights in the consumption of the delicious elixir of immortality that intoxicates whoever gets to drink it through the necessary austerity, Soma, and the central Vedic myth is his heroic victory over the asura Vritrá, freeing the rivers, or, alternatively,, his destruction of the asura Valá, a cave-like demon in the mountain, where the Panis had imprisoned the cows and Ushas. Indra is the god of war, breaking the stone fortresses of the Dasius, and invoked by the combatants of both sides in the battle of the Ten Kings.

The Rig-veda often refers to him as Shakrá ('mighty'). In the Vedic period (between the 15th and 7th centuries BCE, the number of gods was supposed to be 33, and Indra was supposed to be their lord (Traias-triṁśa-pati). The Brijad-araniaka-upanishad lists the gods as the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Aditias, Indra and Prayapati Brahmá). Indra is also mentioned under the name of Vasavá ('lord of the gods Vasus').

In the age of Vedanta (around the 3rd century BC), Indra became the prototype of all the gods and therefore as a king who could be called Mānavendra (Mánava-Indra, 'lord of men'). The god Rama (the hero of the Ramaiana) was quoted under the name of Raghavendra (Rághava-Indra, 'lord of the Rághavas'). Therefore the original Indra was also called Devendra (Deva-Indra, lord of the gods). However, the names Shakrá and Vasavá were used exclusively by the original Indra. Although modern texts generally stick to Indra's name, traditional Hindu texts (the Vedas, the Epics, and the Puranas) use Indra, Śakrá, and Vasavá interchangeably and with the same frequency.

Of the Vedas I am. Sama-vedaOf the half-gods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in the living creatures I am the consciousness of the living force.

Krishná, in the Bhagavad-guita 10: 22

Relations with other gods

Indra would have ascended the throne of the Devas after killing his father Diaus Pitar (the ancient god of heaven) dragging him by one foot and making him fall from the sky.

Indra is married to Indrani (whose father, Puloman, he had killed). He was the father —with different women— of Áryuna, Yaianta, Midhusa, Nilambara, Kamla, Bhus and Rishabha, among others.

Regarding his relationship with other deities, Indra killed the children of the goddess Diti, for which this goddess decided to expect a son who would be more powerful than Indra and avenge him. For this she remained pregnant for a century, through the practice of magic. But before her birth Indra discovered her, and threw her thunderbolt at him, which smashed the fetus into 7 (or 49) parts. Each part regenerated as an individual, and became the Maruts, a group of storm gods less powerful than Indra.