Indra the great: forgotten king of the gods

Indra was the one of the greatest gods in vedic culture. He was the god of rain, thunder, war, wealth, protection and destruction...in fact it was for this reason that he was known as the all powerful king of gods!!

When the world was in peril and dominated by rakshasas.. and everyone had given up.. One day Indra was born, and his mother Aditi, fed him the divine soma juice before even feeding him with the her breast-milk.. and in that day it-self Indra determined to fight the rakshasa domination, wielding an arrow in his hand, and became one of the greatest gods!

Indra gave confidence to the people to fight the rakshasas when all hope was lost!.

Indra along with Vishnu and the sons of Rudra-the Maruts, slew hundred thousand rakshasas in the battle with the mighty demon named Vrtra.

when indra with his powerful thunderbolt vajra cut the dragon like demon,Vrtra,into pieces.. all the gods were in awe of his power!

Indra killed many other demons like one named Sushna,who was born out of an egg and had tormented humanity..

In another instance Indra with the help of the warrior sage Brhaspati, killed an aquatic demon named Krsnasura who was residing in the river named Amsumati along with an army of ten thousand rakshasas.

many other battles are mentioned in the Rig-veda about Indra and his battle against the rakshasa forces

One of the verses from the Rig-Veda (mandala 8,sukta 1,5) says..:

म॒हे च॒न त्वाम॑द्रिवः॒ परा॑ शु॒ल्काय॑ देयाम् ।

न स॒हस्रा॑य॒ नायुता॑य वज्रिवो॒ न श॒ताय॑ शतामघ ॥ ८.००१.०५

वस्या॑ँ इन्द्रासि मे पि॒तुरु॒त भ्रातु॒रभु॑ञ्जतः ।

मा॒ता च॑ मे छदयथः स॒मा व॑सो वसुत्व॒नाय॒ राध॑से ॥ ८.००१.०६

ma̱he ca̱na tvāma̍driva̱ḥ parā̍ śu̱lkāya̍ deyām .

na sa̱hasrā̍ya̱ nāyutā̍ya vajrivo̱ na śa̱tāya̍ śatāmagha .. 8.001.05

vasyā̍m̐ indrāsi me pi̱turu̱ta bhrātu̱rabhu̍ñjataḥ .

mā̱tā ca̍ me chadayathaḥ sa̱mā va̍so vasutva̱nāya̱ rādha̍se .. 8.001.06

"Wielder of the thunderbolt! I would not give u away for a large price,not for a thousand,not for ten thousand no opulent bearer for hundred thousand!"

the next verse says

"Indra,you are more precious than my father or than my uncaring brother; you, o giver of dwelling are equal to my loving mother!"..

these verses show how great and loving and kind Lord Indra is!

Indra is also known as the greatest poet ever known and so is known as vipratamah kavinam!

Indra was also very fond of a drink named Somarasa which was made by crushing the soma plant,mixing it’s juices with milk and was drunk after it was fermented.The soma juice used to exhilarate Indra and make him ready for battle.Indra wasn’t the only one fond of the soma juice, even Rudra,Vishnu,Varuna,Aryama,Asvins and other deities too were very fond of this drink..

Indra and Vishnu:

In the adi parva of Mahabharata, lord Indra is mentioned as the elder brother of lord Vishnu; this is the reason why Vishnu is also known as Upendra-the younger brother of Indra.

both Indra and Vishnu were children of mother Aditi and sage Kashyapa.. this is the reason they are known as Adityas -children of Aditi.

a verse the Rig-veda says..

"Vishnu, mighty giver of dwellings, along with Mitra and Varuna sing your praises! and your company of Maruts are in exhilaration!"

- this verse shows how dear Vishnu’s elder brother was to him.. and it clearly shows how the stories which were trying to demean Indra are most probably false.

In most of rig-veda Vishnu is called as Indra’s sakha, which means best friend!

This is the same way Krishna is Arjuna’s sakha or vice versa.

Throughout Ramayana ,the brothers Rama and Laxmana have been compared to the divine brothers Indra and Vishnu ..

For eg in yuddha kanda,sarga 99 :

”Having driven away the army of monkeys, Ravana the foremost among the demons then saw Rama, the annihilator of his enemies, who was endowed with long arms and eyes as wide as lotus petals standing unconquered with his brother Lakshmana, like Indra the lord of celestials is seen with Vishnu, the supreme lord of preservation-holding up his great bow as though scraping the sky.”

Also in the end battle with Ravana, Indra grants lord Rama a divine armor, a helmet, a bow, a spear, a quiver with infinite arrows, and also his chariot along with his charioteer- Matali to defeat the demon king.

In Bhagavad Gita Krishna says:

“Of all the Vedas I am the Sâma-Veda , of the gods/devas I am Indra- the king of heaven, of the senses I am the mind and I am also the living force of all creatures”

the relation between Indra and Vishnu is just like that of Vishnu and Shiva,where both parties sing praises of each other.

Its pretty clear that Indra is one of the greatest gods, equal in power to Vishnu and Shiva, and is definitely worthy of worship! and it is very sad how he is totally forgotten, sidestepped and demeaned.

🙏 Jayatu Indra 🙏

🙏 Namo Narasimha 🙏