Talk:Indra

this article needs some cleanup, i.e. the various sources must be cleanly separated and specified. dab (ᛏ) 12:12, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Feminine Aspect? Avatar? Incarnation?

I'm a bit confused by this article because I was pretty sure I'd seen references to Indra as a feminine deity. I've also met women (of east Indian heritage) who were named "Indra."

Is there some female aspect, avatar, incarnation or other association to Indra? JimD (talk) 00:52, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Anon comment

Some anonymous writer just put this on the page:

(sorry but Surya- the Sun GOD is the sun of Lord Brahma, and Not Indra. Surya )or Surya Dev) is also the Father of Lord Yama ( the greatest Judge and the Lord of Narka- hell according to the christian faith)

I'm not familiar with the subject, so I don't know if this is true or not.--Shanel 21:29, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

It's true that Surya is the sun god per-se in Vedic belief. But there's nothing in the article that claims that Indra is the sun god. There's a bit about Indra being derived from a solar deity, but that doesn't contradict Surya being the primary sun god. It's also true that Indra is the son of Dyeus Pita, and that Indra achieved his rank by slaying his father. The bit about Yama sounds a little strange to me; according to Vedic legends, Yama was not a god initially, but rather was the first mortal to die. Yama did rule over the underworld (being elevated to divine status following his death), but didn't really act as much of a judge; your obedience to rta determined whether you went to dwell among the gods or in hell, and Yama just escorted you to one place or the other. Overall, I'm not real sure what the anon poster was trying to get across with his comment. --Clay Collier 22:00, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Indo-Aryan info is messy

Don't know where to start, but I'll keep this short. So many people seem to throw around the word "Zoroastrian" and have little to no idea about Zoroastrianism ipso facto. I'm glad its even here, but not as a novelty side note... I'd like someone to give their reasons behind the information:

"The battle between Indra and Vritra is depicted in ancient Iranian religions such as Zoroastrianism. Some think that the Indo-Aryans settled not only India but also Iran."

Some think??! Umm, Iran=Aryan - I'm deleting that. As to the battle, give me the proper Zoroastrian names and whether we're talking about the Pre-Zarathushtra Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism proper (as in the Aban Yasht, etc.), or the Shahnameh. I'm going from my head right now, but I believe we're talking about the Thraetona vs. Azhi Dahaka story here, and Indra might better be compared to Tishtrya in this context. Otherwise it should be deleted altogether or re-written. Oh yeah, I added the Devanagari while I was here ;-) Khirad^talk 22:20, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Remove Thor and Perun from the introduction

The references to Thor and Perun do not belong to the first few lines of the introduction to the article. They should be moved to a new section named "Possible European counterparts"

Zeus?

I removed

He is a rough equivalent to Zeus in Greek Mythology, or Jupiter in Roman

Zeus is the leader of the gods whereas Indra is just one of many, so I don't think there is much equivalency here. AxelBoldt 19:27, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

In earlier times, Indra was regarded as chief of the Gods, and he is exalted above the others many times in the Rg-Veda.

For example, see [1] --Grammatical error 19:46, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

There are enough similarities to note.

Zues - Mortal, born from parents. We know the Titans are mortal because they die. Zues kill his father Kronos.

Indra - Mortal, we know they die, like when Indra died, or killed him self because he commeted brahmanside. He reincarnated but he still died.

Zues - Thunderbolt Indra - Thunderbolt

Zues - Rules three systems or worlds Indra - Rules three systems or worlds

Zues - KIlls a creature Typhoon who is known as a dragon Indra - Kills Vritra who is also known as a dragon, a red dragon to be exact.

Zues - Does not end up killing Echidna the mother of Thphoon Indra - Does not kill the mother of Vritra

Zues - Gives up his thron and Dionises takes over Indra - Gives up his throne and Nahusha takes over

Zues - Retakes his throne Indra - Retakes his throne

These are all that I can think of off the top of my head.

Also I think it should be stated in the article that Indra is a mortal, he does die, so he is not rightfully a god. Also he lives on a planet and has his own city there called the city of Indra. I can show refernces for this in Srimad Bhaghavatam, and I believe in Mahabharata.

The Bhagavatam is not the greatest authority on Indra - it greatly degrades his status and is almost insulting. Also, he does not give up his throne willingly whereas Zeus does, and the Rig-Veda is not completely clear on whether or not he killed Danu - he certainly struck her with his thunderbolt, making her fall next to Vritra's body. --Grammatical error 15:07, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Mahabharata book 5 section X - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05010.htm

"Now when the mighty Vritra, terrible to the gods, was killed, Indra became overpowered by falsehood, and he became exceedingly sad; and he was also overpowered by the sin of Brahmanicide

p. 19

on account of having killed the three-headed son of Twashtri. And he betook himself to the confines of the worlds, and became bereft of his senses and consciousness. And overpowered by his own sins, he could not be recognised. And he lay concealed in water, just like a writhing snake. And when the lord of celestials, oppressed with the dread of Brahmanicide, had vanished from sight, the earth looked as if a havoc had passed over it."

I would say according to Mahabharata which is an authoritative work in Hinduism, Indra indeed gave up his throne willingly.

Sakra

The entry about the rare mention of Indra in Buddhist scriptures is a howler. Indra and Sakra are used interchanagably and in equal measure in the Hindu scriptures and epics. Indra is just a standard way of referring to the same deity in modern texts. Whilst Bramha and Indra have a subordinate position to the Buddha, they are nevertheless extremely important celestial beings.

"fair" Indra

I wish people would at least consult the actual text before arguing stuff like that, is this too much to ask? If you want to argue a "fair-skinned Indra" from the Rigveda, the best you'll get is a reference to a "yellow beard" (which is yellow for all his Soma drinking at that). The Rigveda does say that "Indra hates black skin", which would suggest he is himself not "black", but he is nowhere described as "fair-skinned" in positive terms (it is true that krsna tvac is primarily a metaphor for "evil", but it would be a singularly ineptly chosen metaphor if you would suggest that it is at the same time in its literal sense a description of Indra's physique). The cited passages are bogus, an artifact of Griffith's fair. dab (𒁳) 13:37, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Indra is described as 'golden' with a 'flame beard' or 'yellow beard' and 'fire hair', beacuse he is a solar God. Some translations of 'yellow' are actually supposed to be 'flame' or 'fire'. I will try to get the exact derivative of the word. However it is fairly obvious that Indra is 'Golden' becasue he is a solar God, as is his 'Golden' solar god equivalent in Egypt etc.

KnowledgeAndVision (talk) 15:37, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Taishakuten

"Taishakuten"（帝釈天） is specifically a Japanese name for Indra as part of the Buddhist pantheon; Chinese and Korean Buddhists either do not use the same name or else pronounce it very differently. I think it is inaccurate to present the Japanese name, "Taishakuten," as if it were a general "East Asian Buddhist" name for Indra.

---

I added the pronunciation "Taishakuten" because I felt *something* was better for non Japanese/Korean/Chinese speakers than raw Hanzi/Hanja/Kanji. If I knew the Mandarin and Korean equivalent names I would add them, but I don't. If you do, however, be my guest to add them (it can't hurt).

Besides, it's not presenting Taishakuten as a 'general "East Asian Buddhist" name' for Indra, it's very specifically labeled as Japanese.128.205.116.51 (talk) 14:52, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Deletions

As explained here the following was deleted in the article by Hornplease (talk · contribs) but no reason was put on the talkpage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indra&diff=prev&oldid=126353688 *Indra and Shiva - By Koenraad Elst

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indra&diff=prev&oldid=126353590

Interpraetatio

Zeus and Indra are NOT mortals as stated above! ... However the similarities are very clear, no doubts about it. Some confusion may arise 'cos in the Greco-Roman World Zeus/Iovis and Ares/Mars are split in two different Deities but in the majority of other Indo-European cultures Zeus-Mars is in fact a single God, a clear example of that is Thor (and surely Indra...) = Zeus-Mars or in other terms the Thunder God is not separate from the War God, the Classical World is an exception in this case, and however obviously the character of Zeus in the classical myths has his particularities, but the similarities are more than the differences, furthermore Zeus shows the same wrathy behavior, the other side of the coin of this divine character is the joviality, kindness, joy etc. as it's stated for Indra in the Rig Veda. But comparisons can go on... also with other Gods. Many ancients (See for example Salustius' De Diis et Mundo) knew that Zeus and Dionysos (literally the "Zeus of Nysa", some scholars have connected the term Nysa with Joy) are only very slightly different faces of the same God, Zeus and Dionysos are the same God. Indra strongly resembles also many traits of Dionysos, the playful and warrior nature at the same time, the patronate over the mistic drinks, the court of Apsaras/Menads/Bacchants etc. It's therefore clear that also Indra, Rudra and Shiva (Shiva is an epitet of Indra in the Rig-Veda) are the same God split into 3... It's self-evident when you analyse this divine figures, and also made comparison with their traits and with the same figures of Indo-European World.

About the fact that the Brahmans had wanted to discredit the figure of Indra it's quite obvious... Indra was the patron, the protector of the Kshatryas... so many late tales after the vedic period against Indra are all empieties... it's the typical empious brahmanic behaviour to feel superior even of the Gods...

--Antioco79 (talk) 01:49, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

14 Indra? Inherited Position?

No where in Rig Veda is stated that Indra is a title that can be inherited. Rig Veda clearly states the birth of Indra,his deeds and his rule.Please state that this concept was only introduce later in the Puranas, and is not mention at all in Rig Veda .One can assume this done to further reduce the important of Indra. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.27.115.118 (talk) 04:20, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

/* "Indradhanush", the bow of Indra: Rainbow */

The Sanskrit is indradhanus इन्द्रधनुस् - not indradhanush. Not sure about Hindi. 86.26.1.194 (talk) 08:08, 26 June 2010 (UTC)