INDRA
Indra, armed with swords and elephant goad, rides on his great white elephant Airavata, caparisoned like a south Indian temple elephant, in a detail from a 19th century painting.
Indra was the most popular deity among the poets of the first and best known of teh Vedic hymn collections, the Rigveda. Around a quarter of it's hymns invoke him. He is the dominant god of the middle region of teh atmosphere, and is described in more anthropomorphic terms than most other deities. His body is huge and mighty, his arms are powerful in order to weild his weapons, his hair is tawny, his belly is distended with intoxicating 'soma'. Above all, he is the most outstanding warrior of the Vedic pantheon. Chief of the gods, Indra is their leader against teh Asuras and the main focus of the mythe alluded to in the Vedic hymns. Born from heaven and earth(whom he seperates for ever), he begins at once to display his characteristic energy. The stories about his birth and youthful exploits concern his rivalry with the more mysterious deity, Varuna, who seems once to have been the ruler of the gods but to have been gradually ousted by Indra. Whearas Varuna represents the static and juridical aspects of sovereignty ( symbolised in his guardianship of 'rta', or cosmic order), Indra represents more immediately the power on which kingship relies.
The principle myth about Indra tells of his battle with the serpent Vritra, but he also engages in conflict with many other hostile forces, as well as aiding the Aryans in their battles on earth. Sometimes he is described as destroying hostile powers in general, sweeping away the Asuras or consuming the Rakshasas (malevolent minor powers) with his thunderbolt. By his victory over Vritra, Indra gave form to the previously formless chaos, and activated the process of differentiation and evolution. By killing the serpent he seperated land from water, upper regions from nether, and caused the sun to rise in an act of creation that is repeated every morning. This episode established him as the great champion against all forms of resistance and obstruction. However5, in a priestly reworking of the Vritra myth, Indra overthrows Vala with a hymn or by other ritual means. In his ready indulgence in the exhilharating drink 'soma', Indra has much in common with the swashbuckling, hard-drinking Aryan warrior whose hero he was. Pressed from a plant whose identity remains controversial, this juice was central to Vedic sacrificial rituals. After he has drunk it, Indra's belly is said to be like a lake, and he swells to a terrifying size, filling the two worlds, Heaven and Earth. The juice empowers him to make the sun rise, and perform his mighty deeds. The Vedas imply approval when they mention Indra outsmarting Vritra and striking him in the back, but in later Hinduism the god's role as a paragon of the warrior ethic is diminished. Vritra is regarded as a brahman (whom it is a heinous offence to kill), and Indra must therefore expiate his sin. He slays Namuci only by getting around the terms of the non-aggression pact they have made with each other, disguising or more exactly transforming his thunderbolt (vajra) by wrapping it in foam. Another of his victims, Trishiras ("three-headed"), is considered to be his half-brother. He seduces the sage Guatama's wife, Ahalya, and suffers the sage's curse. This kin-killing, contract-breaking and adultery become a standard theme of the Puranas - Indra as a triple sinner - and in consequence he loses his lustre, his strength and his looks.
