Indra (; , ) is the Vedic god of weather, considered the king of the devas and the realm of Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war.

Indra is the most frequently mentioned deity in the Rigveda. He is celebrated for his powers based on his status as a god of order, Indra's significance diminishes in the post-Vedic Indian literature, but he still plays an important role in various religious accounts. He is depicted as a powerful hero.

According to the Vishnu Purana, Indra is the title borne by the king of the gods, which changes every Manvantara – a cyclic period of time in Hindu cosmology. Each Manvantara has its own Indra and the Indra of the current Manvantara is called Purandhara.

Indra is also depicted in Buddhist () and Jain texts. Indra rules over the much-sought Devas realm of rebirth within the Samsara doctrine of Buddhist traditions. However, like the post-Vedic Hindu texts, Indra is also a subject of ridicule and reduced to a figurehead status in Buddhist texts, He is also the one who appears with his consort Indrani to celebrate the auspicious moments in the life of a Jain Tirthankara, an iconography that suggests the king and queen of superhumans residing in Svarga reverentially marking the spiritual journey of a Jain.

Indra has similarities to various other Indo-European deities, such as Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, Armenian Aramazd, Germanic Odin and Thor, Slavic Perun, Baltic Perkūnas, Dacian Zalmoxis, and Celtic Taranis, part of the greater Proto-Indo-European mythology.

Indra's iconography shows him wielding his vajra and riding his vahana, Airavata. Indra's abode is in the capital city of Svarga, Amaravati, though he is also associated with Mount Meru (also called Sumeru).]]

The etymological roots of Indra are unclear, and it has been a contested topic among scholars since the 19th-century, one with many proposals. The significant proposals have been:

  • root ind-u, or "spirit", based on the Vedic mythology that he conquered rain and brought it down to earth.
  • root indha, or "igniter", for his ability to bring light and power (indriya) that ignites the vital forces of life (prana). This is based on Shatapatha Brahmana.
  • root idam-dra, or "It seeing" which is a reference to the one who first perceived the self-sufficient metaphysical Brahman. This is based on Aitareya Upanishad. For example, states John Colarusso, as a reflex of proto-Indo-European *h₂nḗr-, Greek anēr, Sabine nerō, Avestan nar-, Umbrian nerus, Old Irish nert, Pashto nər, Ossetic nart, and others which all refer to "most manly" or "hero".

Colonial era scholarship proposed that Indra shares etymological roots with Avestan Andra, Old High German *antra ("giant"), or Old Church Slavonic jedru ("strong"), but Max Muller critiqued these proposals as untenable. Later scholarship has linked Vedic Indra to Aynar (the Great One) of Circassian, Abaza and Ubykh mythology, and Innara of Hittite mythology. Colarusso suggests a Pontic origin and that both the phonology and the context of Indra in Indian religions is best explained from Indo-Aryan roots and a Circassian etymology (i.e. *inra).

  • Javanese: (Bathara Indra)
  • Kamkata-vari: Inra
  • Kannada: (Indra)
  • Khmer: (Preah In )
  • Korean: (Jeseokcheon)
  • Lanna: (Intha) or (Pha Nya In)
  • Lao: (Pha In) or (Pha Nya In)
  • Malayalam: (Indran)
  • Mon: (In)
  • Mongolian: (Indra)
  • Odia: (Indrô)
  • Prasun: Indr
  • Sinhala: (In̆du) or (Indra)
  • Tai Lue: (In) or (Pha Ya In)
  • Tamil: (Inthiran)
  • Telugu: (Indrun̆ḍu or Indrũḍu)
  • Tibetan: དབང་པོ་ (dbang po)
  • Thai: (Phra In)
  • Waigali: Indr

Epithets

Indra has many epithets in the Indian religions, notably

Śakra (शक्र, powerful one),

  • Vṛṣan (वृषन्, mighty)
  • Vṛtrahan (वृत्रहन्, slayer of Vṛtra)
  • Meghavāhana (मेघवाहन, he whose vehicle is cloud)
  • Devarāja (देवराज, king of deities)
  • Devendra (देवेन्द्र, the lord of deities)
  • Surendra (सुरेन्द्र, chief of deities)
  • Svargapati (स्वर्गपति, the lord of heaven)
  • Śatakratu (शतक्रतु one who performs 100 sacrifices).
  • Vajrapāṇī (वज्रपाणि, wielder of Vajra, i.e., thunderbolt)
  • Vāsava (वासव, lord of Vasus)
  • Purandara (पुरंदर, the breaker of forts)
  • Kaushika (कौशिक, Vishvamitra was born as the embodiment of Indra)
  • Shachin or Shachindra (शचीन, the consort of Shachi).
  • Parjanya (पर्जन्य, Rain)

Origins

thumb|right|250px|[[Banteay Srei temple's pediment carvings depict Indra mounted on Airavata, Cambodia, c. 10th century.]]

Indra is of ancient but unclear origin. Aspects of Indra as a deity are cognate to other Indo-European gods; there are thunder gods such as Thor, Perun, and Zeus who share parts of his heroic mythologies, act as king of gods, and all are linked to "rain and thunder". The similarities between Indra of Vedic mythology and of Thor of Nordic and Germanic mythologies are significant, states Max Müller. Both Indra and Thor are storm gods, with powers over lightning and thunder, both carry a hammer or an equivalent, for both the weapon returns to their hand after they hurl it, both are associated with bulls in the earliest layer of respective texts, both use thunder as a battle-cry, both are protectors of mankind, both are described with legends about "milking the cloud-cows", both are benevolent giants, gods of strength, of life, of marriage and the healing gods.

Michael Janda suggests that Indra has origins in the Indo-European *trigw-welumos [or rather *trigw-t-welumos] "smasher of the enclosure" (of Vritra, Vala) and diye-snūtyos "impeller of streams" (the liberated rivers, corresponding to Vedic apam ajas "agitator of the waters"). Brave and heroic Innara or Inra, which sounds like Indra, is mentioned among the gods of the Mitanni, a Hurrian-speaking people of Hittite region.

Indra as a deity was known in the capital of the Hittite Empire in northeastern Asia minor, as evidenced by the inscriptions on the Boghaz-köi clay tablets dated to about 1400 BCE. This tablet mentions a treaty, but its significance is in four names it includes reverentially as Mi-it-ra, U-ru-w-na, In-da-ra and Na-sa-at-ti-ia. These are respectively, Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya-Asvin of the Vedic pantheon as revered deities, and these are also found in Avestan pantheon but with Indra and Naonhaitya as demons. This at least suggests that Indra and his fellow deities were in vogue in South Asia and Asia minor by about mid 2nd-millennium BCE.

During the Vedic age, Indra’s prominence is underscored by his frequency in the Vedic hymns; he is the sole dedicatee of approximately 250 hymns, and is praised alongside other deities in an additional 50 hymns within the Rigveda – a Hindu scripture dated to have been composed sometime between 1700 and 1100 BCE. – is a gigantic demon who opposes truth.

Iconography

In Rigveda, Indra is described as a strong willed, armed with a thunderbolt, riding a chariot:

Contrary to how he has been portrayed in post-Vedic works of art, Indra is described as having glowing golden hair, rather than the dark hair common among most Hindu gods:

Indra's weapon, which he used to kill the evil Vritra, is the vajra or thunderbolt. Other alternate iconographic symbolism for him includes a bow (sometimes as a colorful rainbow), a sword, a net, a noose, a hook, or a conch. The thunderbolt of Indra is called Bhaudhara.

In the post-Vedic period, he rides a large, four-tusked white elephant called Airavata.

The rainbow is called Indra's Bow ( ).

Over a quarter of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda mention Indra, making him the most referred to deity. These hymns present a complex picture of Indra, but some aspects of Indra are often repeated. Of these, the most common theme is where he as the god with thunderbolt kills the evil serpent Vritra that held back rains, and thus released rains and land nourishing rivers.

|1. Now I shall proclaim the heroic deeds of Indra, those foremost deeds that the mace-wielder performed:

He smashed the serpent. He bored out the waters. He split the bellies of the mountains.

2. He smashed the serpent resting on the mountain—for him Tvaṣṭar had fashioned the resounding [sunlike] mace.

Like bellowing milk-cows, streaming out, the waters went straight down to the sea.

In the myth, Vṛtra has coiled around a mountain and has trapped all the waters, namely the Seven Rivers. All the gods abandon Indra out of fear of Vṛtra. Indra uses his vajra, a mace, to kill Vritra and smash open the mountains to release the waters. In some versions, he is aided by the Maruts or other deities, and sometimes cattle and the sun is also released from the mountain. In one interpretation by Oldenberg, the hymns are referring to the snaking thunderstorm clouds that gather with bellowing winds (Vritra), Indra is then seen as the storm god who intervenes in these clouds with his thunderbolts, which then release the rains nourishing the parched land, crops and thus humanity. In another interpretation by Hillebrandt, Indra is a symbolic sun god (Surya) and Vritra is a symbolic winter-giant (historic mini cycles of ice age, cold) in the earliest, not the later, hymns of Rigveda. The Vritra is an ice-demon of colder central Asia and northern latitudes, who holds back the water. Indra is the one who releases the water from the winter demon, an idea that later metamorphosed into his role as storm god. Indra, like all Vedic deities, is a part of henotheistic theology of ancient India.

The second-most important myth about Indra is about the Vala cave. In this story, the Panis have stolen cattle and hidden them in the Vala cave. Here Indra utilizes the power of the songs he chants to split the cave open to release the cattle and dawn. He is accompanied in the cave by the Angirases (and sometimes Navagvas or the Daśagvas). Here Indra exemplifies his role as a priest-king, called bṛhaspati. Eventually later in the Rigveda, Bṛhaspati and Indra become separate deities as both Indra and the Vedic king lose their priestly functions. The Vala myth was associated with the Morning Pressing of soma, in which cattle was donated to priests, called dakṣiṇā.

Indra is not a visible object of nature in the Vedic texts, nor is he a personification of any object, but that agent which causes the lightning, the rains and the rivers to flow. His myths and adventures in the Vedic literature are numerous, ranging from harnessing the rains, cutting through mountains to help rivers flow, helping land becoming fertile, unleashing sun by defeating the clouds, warming the land by overcoming the winter forces, winning the light and dawn for mankind, putting milk in the cows, rejuvenating the immobile into something mobile and prosperous, and in general, he is depicted as removing any and all sorts of obstacles to human progress. The Vedic prayers to Indra, states Jan Gonda, generally ask "produce success of this rite, throw down those who hate the materialized Brahman". The hymns of Rigveda declare him to be the "king that moves and moves not", the friend of mankind who holds the different tribes on earth together.

Indra is often presented as the twin brother of Agni (fire) – another major Vedic deity. Yet, he is also presented to be the same, states Max Muller, as in Rigvedic hymn 2.1.3, which states, "Thou Agni, art Indra, a bull among all beings; thou art the wide-ruling Vishnu, worthy of adoration. Thou art the Brahman, (...)." He is also part of one of many Vedic trinities as "Agni, Indra and Surya", representing the "creator-maintainer-destroyer" aspects of existence in Hindu thought. Other trinities, beyond the more common "Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva", mentioned in ancient and medieval Hindu texts include: "Indra, Vishnu, Brahmanaspati", "Agni, Indra, Surya", "Agni, Vayu, Aditya", "Mahalakshmi, Mahasarasvati, and Mahakali", and others.

Rigveda 2.1.3 <small>Jamison 2014</small> Rigveda 4.18.8 says after his birth Indra got swallowed by a demon Kushava.

Indra is also found in many other myths that are poorly understood. In one, Indra crushes the cart of Ushas (Dawn), and she runs away. In another Indra beats Surya in a chariot race by tearing off the wheel of his chariot. This is connected to a myth where Indra and his sidekick Kutsa ride the same chariot drawn by the horses of the wind to the house of Uśanā Kāvya to receive aid before killing Śuṣṇa, the enemy of Kutsa. In one myth Indra (in some versions helped by Viṣṇu) shoots a boar named Emuṣa in order to obtain special rice porridge hidden inside or behind a mountain. Another myth has Indra kill Namuci by beheading him. In later versions of that myth Indra does this through trickery involving the foam of water. Other beings slain by Indra include Śambara, Pipru, Varcin, Dhuni and Cumuri, and others. Indra's chariot is pulled by fallow bay horses described as hárī. They bring Indra to and from the sacrifice, and are even offered their own roasted grains. The Atman thereafter creates food, and thus emerges a sustainable non-sentient universe, according to the Upanishad. The eternal Atman then enters each living being making the universe full of sentient beings, but these living beings fail to perceive their Atman. The first one to see the Atman as Brahman, asserts the Upanishad, said, "idam adarsha or "I have seen It". Others then called this first seer as Idam-dra or "It-seeing", which over time came to be cryptically known as "Indra", because, claims Aitareya Upanishad, everyone including the gods like short nicknames. In section&nbsp;5.1 of the Avyakta Upanishad, Indra is praised as he who embodies the qualities of all gods. Indra married Shachi, the daughter of the danava Puloman. Most texts state that Indra had only one wife, though sometimes other names are mentioned. Some listings add Nilambara and Rbhus. Indra and Shachi also had two daughters, Jayanti and Devasena. Jayanti becomes the spouse of Shukra, while Devasena marries the war god Kartikeya. Indra is depicted as the spiritual father of Vali in the Ramayana and Arjuna in the Mahabharata.

Indra had multiple affairs with other women. One such was Ahalya, the wife of sage Gautama. Indra was cursed by the sage. Although the Brahmanas (9th to 6th centuries BCE) are the earliest scriptures to hint at their relationship, the 7th- to 4th-centuries BCE Hindu epic Ramayana – whose hero is Rama – is the first to explicitly mention the affair in detail.

Indra becomes a source of nuisance rains in the Puranas, caused out of anger with an intent to hurt mankind. Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, comes to the rescue by lifting Mount Govardhana on his fingertip, and letting mankind shelter under the mountain till Indra exhausts his anger and relents. According to the Mahabharata, Indra disguises himself as a Brahmin and approaches Karna and asks for his kavacha (body armor) and kundala (earrings) as charity. Although being aware of his true identity, Karna peeled off his kavacha and kundala and fulfilled the wish of Indra. Pleased by this act, Indra gifts Karna a celestial dart called the Vasavi Shakti.

According to the Vishnu Purana, Indra is the position of being the king of the gods which changes in every Manvantara—a cyclic period of time in Hindu cosmology. Each Manvantara has its own Indra and the Indra of the current Manvantara is called Purandhara.

Sangam literature also describes Indra Vila (festival for Indra), the festival for want of rain, celebrated for one full month starting from the full moon in Uttrai (Chaitra) and completed on the full moon in Puyali (Vaisakha). This is described in the epic Cilappatikaram in detail.

In his work Tirukkural (before c. 5th century CE), Valluvar cites Indra to exemplify the virtue of conquest over one's senses.

In other religions

Indra is an important deity worshipped by the Kalash people, indicating his prominence in ancient Hinduism.