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Mahabharata katha London
2012
Soma dinking, elephant riding, thunderbolt yielding youthful ruler of the Vedas is viewed differently in later tales, especially in the Itihasses and Puranas. Amongst all the Vedic Gods, Indra is the one that suffers the most in terms of being belittled in Puranic lore. Other Vedic Gods, such as Varun, Agni, Mitra, Pusha are simply sidelined or not even mentioned.
Puranic tales water-down Indra’s greatness by attributing his prowess to favours and graces of ‘other’.
Puranic tales recount how Indra’s thunderbolt is said to be powerful not through Indra’s own energy, but due to the energy of the self-sacrificing sage Dadhichi. Having worshiped the weapons of Shiva and Vishnu for prolonged time, energy from these weapons is said to have empowered the body and bones of the sage. To kill a mighty demon called Vitra, Indra requests Dhadhichi to donate his bones so he can fashion a new weapon from it. It is this energy of Shiva and Vishnu, along with self-sacrifice of the sage, that makes the Vajra of Indra as powerful as it is. Selfishly, Indra asks for the sage’s bones knowing he has to die to make himself victorious. So in the Puranas, the eventual power of the vajra was attributed to a sage, Shiva and Vishnu.
Even Indra’s wonderful elephant is said to ‘not exclusively his’. Airavat is said to have come out of the Samudramanthan and hence fruit of collective efforts of Devas and Danavas. Indra’s white elephant with multiple tusks is an essential aspect of his imperial insignia. In Puranic tales, this regal elephant becomes the cause of a curse when Indra carelessly discards a garland that has been gifted to him by sage Durvas and the elephant crushes the garland underfoot.
Puranic lore attributes Indra’s nectar to a multitude of people. Obtaining the nectar was a joint effort of the sons of Kashyap, Devas and Danavas through Samudramanthan. In Puranic tale, Vishnu assists in the Samudramanthan by first lifting the mountain, than supporting the mountain as Kurma (tortoise), than as Mohini the enchantress, he secures the nectar for the Devas. Later, Garuda, proto bird-of-prey and vehical of Vishnu, snatches the nectar from Indra. Thus Indra’s ability to procure and protect the nectar is also compromised in Purans.
In early Vedic hymns , Indra is praised as ‘an illustrious son of Aditi’. In later suktas and ruchas, his mother is said to have a much favoured younger son, 5th avatar of Vishnu, conveniently known as Upendra – the ‘other Indra’. Having Vishnu adopt the position of a younger brother to Indra shows the power of Indra worship at that time. This in itself is a backhanded compliment to Indra. Upendra / Vaman (dwarf) becomes Virat (giant) and helps Indra win back the kingdom of heaven from Danava king Bali. As time progresses, Vishnu worship overtakes Indra worship.
Vishnu, through his 8th avatar Shri Krushna commandeers the title of Gopal, caretaker of the divine cattle. Vedic Indra was a friend of the cattle herd and the farmer. SM Bhagvat puran has Indra being rather haughty and willing to punish herdsmen and farmers alike by sending unseasonal, torrential rain. Shri Krushna saves all of them by lifting a mountain for seven days and nights. Interestingly, Shri Krushna does not fight to kill Indra. He simply defeats him to ‘teach him a lesson’ in humility.
In the Puranic lore, Indra loses his moral high ground when he deceives Ahalya, ever faithful wife of sage Gautam. Not only is he vilified and ostracised by heavenly society, he is punished with countless urine oozing vaginas all over his body.
Indra, conquer of enemy cities, warrior king of the Vedas, becomes a milder version of himself by the Puranic age. Kartikey (Skandha), son of Shiv and Shivaa takes over Indra’s ancient role and becomes the 'General' of heavenly army. Indra's daughter Devsena (heavenly army) is married to Kartikey to confirm Indra's capitulation as 'warrior God' and conferring on Skandha the ultimate title of 'Heavenly General'. Indra even plays court to Ravan and is said to be scared of him in the Ramayana! In later tales, Indra ‘outsources’ his war duties to human-beings – kings and heroes like Muchkund, Nahush, Dashrath, Rama, Puru, Arjun etc.
In these tales, 'Indra' is seen as a 'title' rather an an individual. Hence the title of Indra can be acquired, just as the title of Emperor can be attained if you defeat all your enemies. In Vedic lore, Indra was given the throne of Swarga for being the great grandson of Brahma. In Puranic lore, Kings could ‘attain’ the heavenly throne and become 'Indra' by defeating their neighbours and inaugurating any number of expensive yagnas. Generally, greater the charity given, greater the honour gained and greater the chances of getting the throne of heaven. Those with limited monetary funds could do impressive, intense, physically arduous taaps to become ‘Indra’. Puranic tales are often spiced up with accounts of Indra’s attempts to spoil someone’s yagna (eg king Sagar) or break someone’s vows / taaps (eg Vishwamitra).
Indra of the purans is scared of rishis and their curses. But why would rishis curse the very god they invite to preside over their yagnas? Indra of later era can even be summoned as a sacrifice in the yagna!! (sarpa satra of king Janmanjaya). Puranas are often a collection of local & regional mythologies that are rationalised in favour of the 'chosen deity' of that Purana. These local myths later expand themselves so that their chosen deity defeats ‘all others’, including Indra, and is shown to be the chief of all the celestials (title originally given to Indra).
Indra in later Bhakti sects & scriptures