Concept

Indra

Overview

Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र, IPA: [in̪d̪rɐ]) 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, and as the one who killed the great evil, an asura named Vritra, who obstructed human prosperity and happiness. Indra destroys Vritra and his "deceiving forces", and thereby brings rain and sunshine as the saviour of mankind. 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 (Pali: Indā) 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, shown as a god who suffers rebirth. In Jain traditions, unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Indra is not the king of gods, but the king of superhumans residing in Svarga-Loka, and very much a part of Jain rebirth cosmology. 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).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Indra is discussed.

When this is so with me, then am I Brahma. Such a retreat into Thought takes place in the Religion as well as in the Philosophy of the Indians, and they assert with reference to this state of bliss that it is what is highest of all, and that even the gods do not attain to it. Indra, for example, the god of the visible heavens, is much lower than the soul in this life of internal contemplation; many thousand Indras…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
states what it is; names the idea
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It has a real form, because everything material must have a form. Behind the _indriyas_ is what is called the _manas_, the _chitta_ in _vritti_, what might be called the vibratory state of the mind, the unsettled state. If you throw a stone into a calm lake, first there will be vibration, and then resistance. For a moment the water will vibrate and then it will react on the stone. So, when any impression comes on…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
states what it is
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But, inasmuch as the impression was vanishing, the mythological idea in question was that of a 'god of the moment.' Then followed a second stage, in which a demoniacal power was associated with a particular place. Following upon these local gods came other gods, representing the guardian powers of a tribe, a vocation, or some other social group. At the third stage of development, the 'particular god' acquired a…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
states what it is
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7), light being an accident; yoẓer harim, “That formeth the mountains” (Amos iv. 13), i.e., that gave them their shape. In the same sense the verb is used in the passage, “And the Lord God formed (va-yiẓer) all the beasts,” etc. (Gen. ii. 7).
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
states what it is
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Even when, at the beginning of the passage, he is said to be the beginning, middle, and end of living things, this totality is distinguished from the living things themselves as single existences. Even such a picture which extends deity far and wide in its existence cannot be called pantheism: we must rather say that in the infinitely multiple empirical world, everything is reduced to a limited number of essential…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Philosophy of Mind
names the idea; opens on it
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Philosophers who discussed Indra

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Aphrodite

Place in the tradition

Part of Dharma.

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