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Deity

Indra

IN-drah
Hindu Deities

Indra is the king of the gods and by a wide margin the most addressed deity of the Rigveda, holder of the thunderbolt, drinker of soma, who kills the serpent Vritra and releases the waters the serpent had penned. That act is the central myth of the earliest layer of Indian religion. In the classical and Puranic period he is demoted: still king of the devas and guardian of the east, but repeatedly outwitted, humiliated for adultery and shown to be subordinate to Vishnu and Shiva, most pointedly when Krishna lifts Mount Govardhan to shelter the cowherds from the storm Indra has sent. Buddhism keeps him as Sakra, ruler of the Trayastrimsha heaven and an attendant on the Buddha.

Facts
Attestation
Era of Attestation
1500 BCE to 2026 CE 1
Veneration Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Historicity
Legendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 2
Belief
Theology
Polytheistic: many gods 2
Disputed
Origin of the Name
Indra's name has no securely established Indo-European etymology. 2
Sanskritists have proposed multiple derivations, including roots connected to strength and to rain, but none commands general agreement, and some historical linguists argue the name may descend from a substrate language absorbed into early Vedic religion rather than from any Indo-Iranian or Indo-European root at all, a disagreement that has run across more than a century of scholarship with no resolution in sight.
Cult
Attributes and Iconography
Bearing the vajra thunderbolt and riding the white elephant Airavata. 1
Worship and Practice
Indra Jatra, an annual festival in the Kathmandu Valley, honors Indra with the raising of a tall wooden pole, masked dances and chariot processions for the living goddess Kumari, a continuing public rite for a god whose formal Vedic sacrificial cult has otherwise receded far behind that of Vishnu and Shiva in most of the subcontinent. 1
Life
Associated Relic
His weapon is the vajra, a thunderbolt, and his mount in later iconography is the white elephant Airavata. 2
Practice
Lineage
The Puranas most often name Indra a son of the sage Kashyapa and his wife Aditi, making him one of the Adityas, the solar gods born of that pair, a genealogy into which Vishnu's own Vamana avatara is folded as another of Aditi's sons sent to curb an overreaching demon king. 2
Function
Domain / Function
Storm and thunder 1
Domain / Function
Rain and weather 1
Domain / Function
War and battle 1
Domain / Function
Kingship and sovereignty 1
Attributions
Mythic Association
The Rig Veda's most invoked deity, Indra is the storm and war god who slew the serpent Vritra with his thunderbolt, the vajra, to release the pent up waters. 2
Identity
Gender
Male 1
Position Profile
Key Text
The Rigveda's most celebrated myth credits Indra with slaying the serpent demon Vritra, who had imprisoned the world's waters, using the thunderbolt weapon Vajra fashioned by the craftsman god Tvashtar, an act that releases the rivers and is repeatedly invoked as Indra's defining heroic feat. 3
Learn More
King of the Vedic Gods, Slayer of the Serpent

Indra is the king of the gods and by a wide margin the most invoked deity of the Rigveda, roughly a quarter of its hymns are addressed to him. He is the wielder of the vajra, the thunderbolt, the great drinker of soma, and the warrior whose central deed is the slaying of the serpent Vritra, who had penned up the waters: in releasing them Indra frees the rivers, brings the rains and, in one reading, sets the ordered world in motion. This victory is the founding myth of the earliest layer of Indian religion, retold and alluded to constantly, and it casts Indra as the champion who wins cosmos from chaos.

Indra's antiquity is confirmed by evidence older than the Rigveda itself: a treaty between the Hittite and Mitanni kingdoms, inscribed on a cuneiform tablet from around the fourteenth century BCE and recovered from the Hittite capital Hattusa, invokes a group of gods including Indara, along with Mitra, Varuna and the Nasatya twins, as divine witnesses to the oath, a startling appearance of recognisably Vedic deity names in a Near Eastern political document centuries before the Rigveda's hymns were composed in India. Indra's central deed, freeing the pent waters by slaying the serpent Vritra, is also widely compared by scholars to other Indo-European dragon-slaying myths, among them Thor's battle with the world-serpent Jormungandr and Zeus's defeat of Typhon, a recurring chaos-battle pattern some trace to a shared inherited myth.

The King Demoted, and Sakra of the Buddhists

In the later classical and Puranic period Indra undergoes a striking demotion. He remains king of the devas and guardian of the east, but he is repeatedly outwitted, humbled and made subordinate to the greater gods Vishnu and Shiva, most pointedly when the boy Krishna lifts Mount Govardhan on one finger to shelter the cowherds from the very storm that Indra, in wounded pride, has sent, after which the chastened king bows to him. This decline registers a real shift in the history of Hinduism, as the sacrificial gods of the Veda gave way to the devotional worship of Vishnu, Shiva and the Goddess. Buddhism, meanwhile, preserved Indra under the name Sakra as the well-disposed ruler of the Trayastrimsha heaven and a frequent attendant on the Buddha, so that the old storm-king lived on, tamed, in a new tradition.

Jainism preserved Indra too, though refracted through its own very different cosmology: Jain texts describe multiple Indras presiding over different heavens, and the Indra of the first heaven is said to descend, along with his consort, to perform the ceremonial bathing of a Tirthankara at birth, one of the most celebrated rituals in Jain sacred narrative and temple art. That a figure once addressed in roughly a quarter of the Rigveda's hymns as supreme storm-king should end up, across the history of Indian religion, honoured as a still-respected but distinctly subordinate attendant figure in Buddhism and Jainism alike illustrates how thoroughly the old Vedic pantheon was reordered as devotional Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism each developed their own later hierarchies.

Indra
Filter Results1 entry

Deva

Indra
Correspondences & Relations

Archetypes

The Ruler, Archetypes

Pantheons

Hindu, Pantheons
Connections

Addressed By

Soma Sacrifice, Rituals
Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Associated With

Deva, Mythical Creatures

Indra rules the devas as king of the heavens in Vedic and Puranic tradition.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton
Indra, Wikipedia, Sources

This source names Indra directly: "The sourced Wikipedia account of Indra, covering his Vedic role as king of the gods and the most frequently invoked deity of the Rigveda, his iconography of vajra thunderbolt and Airavata the white..."

Source Indra, Wikipedia
Indrani, Deities

This source names Indra directly: "Indrani, also called Aindri, is one of the Sapta Matrikas, the seven mother goddesses of Hindu tradition, embodying the shakti or divine power of Indra, king of the gods and lord of storms."

Source Matrikas (Wikipedia)
Jyeshtha, Nakshatras (Lunar Mansions)

Named as the presiding deity of the lunar mansion Jyeshtha.

Source History of Dharmasastra, Volume VP. V. Kane
Jyeshtha, Nakshatras (Lunar Mansions)
Source Brihat Parashara Hora ShastraSage Parashara (attributed)
Kena Upanishad, Scripture Portions

This source names Indra directly: "identify, humbles their pride and Indra alone comes closest to recognizing what he has encountered."

Source The Upanishads (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 1 and 15)F. Max Muller
Matrikas (Wikipedia), Sources

This source names Indra directly: "of Kartikeya, Varahi of Varaha, Indrani of Indra and Chamunda of Chandi or Parvati, each riding her parent god's own vahana and carrying his attributes."

Source Matrikas (Wikipedia)
Rig Veda 1.32.1-2, Passages

This source names Indra directly: "Indra kills Vritra and releases the waters: the central Vedic myth and the Indo-European dragon-slaying pattern that also underlies the Norse and Greek versions."

Source The Hymns of the Rigveda, translated with a popular commentaryRalph T. H. Griffith
Soma, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Indra is said to drink it before killing Vritra and releasing the waters, so the sacrifice supplies the strength for that act.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton
Standing Indra, accession 1987.218.12a, b (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Sources

This source names Indra directly: "detail for its sandstone Standing Indra, accession 1987.218.12a, b, from Mathura or Ahicchatra in Uttar Pradesh, India, giving its date, dimensions, and the pedestal inscription that names the..."

Source Standing Indra, accession 1987.218.12a, b (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Svarga, Realms

Svarga is the celestial paradise ruled by the god Indra, where the virtuous enjoy the fruits of good deeds.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Myths & Sacred Narratives
Source Vishnu PuranaAnonymous
The Sapta Matrikas, Deities

This source names Indra directly: "of Shiva, Kaumari of Kartikeya, Indrani of Indra, Varahi of Varaha and Chamunda, who is her own case, an emanation of the Goddess herself rather than of a male consort."

Source Matrikas (Wikipedia)
The Vasus, Deities

In the Rigveda the class is regularly named under Indra, and it forms a triad with the Adityas and the Rudras.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell
Trayastrimsa, Realms

Trayastrimsa is the heaven of the thirty three, over which he presides.

Vishakha, Nakshatras (Lunar Mansions)

Named with Agni as a presiding deity of the lunar mansion Vishakha.

Source History of Dharmasastra, Volume VP. V. Kane
Vishakha, Nakshatras (Lunar Mansions)
Source Brihat Parashara Hora ShastraSage Parashara (attributed)

Children

Arjuna, Figures

Arjuna's own description: "son of the god Indra." Source already cited on the entity; no character-register Indra exists.

Source The MahabharataVyasa (attributed)

Depicted In

Standing Indra (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Sacred Art & Iconography
Source Standing Indra, accession 1987.218.12a, b (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Held to Be the Same Figure

Sakra, Deities

Sakra, the mighty one, is a common epithet of Indra rather than a separate figure.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Member Of

The Adityas, Deities

Indra stands in the Puranic list of twelve under the name Sakra.

Source Vishnu PuranaAnonymous

Opposed By

Vishvarupa, Deities

Indra strikes off his three heads, and the killing is the tradition's standing example of brahminicide.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton
Vritra, Mythical Creatures

Indra splits him with the vajra and the held waters go free. The Rigveda calls Indra Vritrahan, slayer of Vritra, more often than any other epithet.

Related To

Garuda, Deities

Indra's thunderbolt cannot hurt Garuda, and when Vishnu offers him a boon he takes immortality without needing to drink the amrita he stole.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Tvashtri, Deities

Fashioned the thunderbolt Indra used to kill Vritra, and later stood against him as the father of Vishvarupa.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell
Vajra, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

In earlier Indian religion the vajra is Indra's thunderbolt weapon, which Buddhism reassigned from a weapon that destroys to a thing that cannot be destroyed.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Vishvakarma, Deities

Vishvakarma, the divine architect, forges Indra's thunderbolt out of a sage's bones and builds the palaces and flying chariots of the gods.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Sacred to This Deity

Svarga, Realms
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Worshipped In

Hinduism, Religions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008IndraView the Source
2. Vedic Mythology
Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Karl J. Trubner, Strassburg, 1897Vedic Mythology, p. 11, A.A. Macdonell
Quote, Vedic Mythology, p. 11, A.A. Macdonell
Indra measured the six regions, made the wide expanse of earth and the high dome of heaven
View the Source
3. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India
Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, Oxford University Press, 2014The Vritra hymns
Quote, The Vritra hymns
Indra is the most addressed deity of the Rigveda, and his killing of Vritra to release the penned waters is the central myth of the earliest layer of Indian religion. Jamison and Brereton note that the dating of the text is likely to remain a matter of contention.
View the Source
History of Dharmasastra, Volume V
P. V. Kane, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1958
  • cited for the presiding deity of the lunar mansion Jyeshtha
  • cited for the presiding deity of the lunar mansion Vishakha
View the Source
Vishnu Purana
Anonymous, Trubner & Co., 1864The Vishnu Purana, a System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition, tr. H.H. Wilson, on Vedic ritual
Quote, The Vishnu Purana, a System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition, tr. H.H. Wilson, on Vedic ritual
The prevailing character of the ritual of the Vedas is the worship of the personified elements; of Agni or fire; Indra, the firmament; Vayu, the air; Varuna, the water; of Aditya, the sun; Soma, the moon.
View the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005
  • s.v. Indra
  • Sacred to This Deity: Svarga
View the Source
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
Sage Parashara (attributed), Ranjan Publications, 1984
  • Associated With: Jyeshtha
  • Associated With: Vishakha
View the Source

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