INDRA, THE RAIN GOD

Prominent amongst the deities of the Vedas, and most popular with the Aryan peoples is Indra. “ In Sanskrit,” says Max Muller, “ the drops of rain are called indu, and he who sends them is called Ind-ra, the ‘ rainer,’ the ‘ irrigator.’ In Roman mythology the corresponding deity is Jupiter Pluvius. “ Indra is king of the stormy heavens, the god of thunder and of nature’s elements, with inferior genii at his command ; he governs the Eastern quarter of the world, and also presides over the celestial bands stationed on the Golden Mount Meru 1 where he solaces the gods with nectar and heavenly music. He resides in the celestial city of Amravati, where his palace is situated. There are to be found the Apsaras, the celestial dancing girls, and in the palace gardens grow the all-yielding trees, Pariyataka Kalpadruma, and three others equally bountiful. The possession of even one of these trees would qualify its owner for the title which Indra bears of * Lord of Wealth.’ His consort is Indrani, and he rides the elephant Airavata, who was produced at the churning of the ocean, and is driven by Matali are solely accountable for it.

“ In the Gangetic plain there are three great seasons—the cold, the hot, and the rainy. Towards the end of the hot season all nature languishes, the sun pours down its terrible heat, the water courses dry up, great rivers become mere trickling streams, all around are thousands of acres of sun-baked earth with scarcely a vestige of verdure for the starving cattle. The suffering people look up to the sky and see there the  clouds, laden with life-giving waters, floating in from the ocean ; but they move on impelled by demons who wish to chain them in the recesses of the mountains. The people call on Indra to avert widespread calamity and break the power of the cloud-compelling demons. They pour out to him large libations of the liquor  which both he and they love so well—the Soma juice. The flash of the lightning is seen. It is Indra hurling his bolts against the demon Vritra. The thunder roars—Ah ! that is the demon, struck, and howling as he flies away.

Then the blessed waters rush down to earth, they change the desert into a garden, and man and beast, tree and flower rejoice in Indra’s praise.” 1 It is not surprising that in the Rig-Veda, amongst a large number of hymns to Indra the following hymn is found descriptive of his triumph over the demon of drought In the Vedas Indra holds high rank as the Son of the  Heaven Father (Dyaus Pitar) and the Earth Mother (Prithivi). He is the twin brother of Agni, the god of fire. But the gods of the Hindus are like beings who reign for a time and then  give place to successors. No sooner was Indra born than he manifested his ambition for supremacy. He called for his weapons and asked the Earth, his mother/' Who are renowned as fierce warriors ? ” Immediately after reaching manhood came the first struggle for supremacy in the Hindu Pantheon, a struggle destined to have many successors, and his father and mother, the bright blue heavens and the wide-spreading earth, were obliged to yield to his might. “ The divine Dyaus bowed before Indra, before Indra the great Earth bowed with her wide spaces.” His sovereignty, however, did not endure for long. In the Brahmanic days he sinks to the rank of a secondary god, inferior to the great Hindu Triad, and liable at the end of every hundred divine years to be superseded by some other god or man who by his merit should raise himself to the necessary status. The sacrifice of one hundred horses is sufficient for the purpose.

This inferiority is well represented by the accompanying illustration in which Indra and IndranI are seen riding the white elephant, and worshipping 3iva, Parvati, and Ganesha mounted on the sacred bull Nandi, whose head takes the place of the head of the elephant.  Indra is thus relegated to an inferior position to that of 3iva. This is characteristic of the whole process whereby the Vedic deities are degraded by the Brahman authors of the Puranas to a lower level than their own greater gods. This god is represented by a fair man riding a white elephant, Airavata, whose trunk is said to be the water-spout. He has four arms. In one hand he holds the weapon Vajra, the terrible thunderbolt, in the others are seen a conch shell, bow and arrows, a hook and a net. He is still worshipped in some parts of India, especially in seasons of drought. His moral character is of the lowest. He is greatly addicted to drinking the intoxicating Soma juice.  From drunkenness he makes the easy descent to immorality and seduces the wife of his spiritual teacher, Gautama, and his profligacy has passed into a proverb. He is also represented as being exceedingly jealous of worship paid to other gods.

Indra had in his heaven many Apsaras of surprising beauty. These he used to tempt ascetics who, by reason of their austerities, were endangering the dominion of the gods. One such ascetic, Visvamitra, who for thousands of years had been engaged in the most rigid mortifications, was subjugated by the charms of the damsel, Menaka. ‘ What !  exclaimed at length, the reflecting sage, ‘ my wisdom, my austerities, my firm resolutions, all destroyed at once by a woman ? Seduced by the crime in which Indra delights I am stripped of the advantages arising from my penances ! ’ ” 1 On one occasion Indra assumed the form of a shepherd boy so that he might more easily steal some pomegranate blossoms from a garden to deck the dark tresses of his consort Indrani. The sequel is told in Sir William Jones’ charming hymn to him  These “ robes of changing dyes ” are of course the clouds, and the “ thousand eyes ” were the marks of the displeasure of the gods for his intrigue with Gautama’s wife.

The following is characteristic of the stories told of this god and his doings :  On a certain occasion many of the gods were invited to an entertainment in Indra’s palace. To complete their happiness, several of the Apsaras, beautiful nymphs, danced before them. Gandharvasenu, son of Indra, was so fascinated with the charms of one of them and behaved so indelicately that his father commanded him to descend to earth in the form of an ass. All the assembled gods beseeched him to modify this sentence, and ultimately Indra agreed that his son should be an ass by day, but a man by night. With this he dismissed him to wander about the earth. One day a Brahman came to bathe at a pond near which the ass was wandering. The animal spoke to him and told him he was Indra’s son, and asked him to speak to King Dharu to give him his daughter in marriage. The Brahman consented, and next day the king went with his counsellors and held a conversation with the ass, who related his story and the cause of his degradation. The king refused consent to the marriage unless the ass would perform some miracle to prove his descent.

To this he agreed, and the following night he built a fort of iron, forty miles square and six high. Then the king was forced to yield, and appointed the day of marriage. The day came, and with splendid show, dancing, and music the bride, adorned with jewels and the richest attire, was led into the iron fort to be married to the ass. The bridegroom on seeing her could not refrain from giving voice. The guests on hearing the ass bray were filled with grief and astonishment. Some hid their faces with sorrow, some because of laughter. Others, more bold, went to the king and said : “ O King, is this the son of Indra ? O Monarch ! you have found an excellent bridegroom. Don’t delay the wedding ! we never saw so glorious a match. We have heard of a camel being married to an ass, when the ass, looking on the camel said, ‘ Bless me ! what a fine form ! ’ and the camel, hearing the voice of the ass, said ‘ Dear me ! what a sweet voice ! ”—the king felt ashamed and hung his head.

At length Gandharvasenu reminded the king of his promise, and urged upon him that the body is merely a garment, that vase men never estimate the worth of a person by the clothes he wears, and, moreover, he was in this shape from the curse of his father, and during the night he would assume the form  of a man. The king then withdrew his objection and the marriage was celebrated. By the time the guests were dismissed the night drew on, and a handsome man, suitably dressed, presented himself to the king. The king brought the bride in great state to the palace and gave her to her husband. The next day he gave jewels, horses, camels, and servants to her and dismissed the guests with suitable presents. Dharu, however, could not but feel anxious that his son-inlaw should finally throw off his ass-body. After a thousand contrivances he said to himself, “ Gandharvasenu is the son of Indra, therefore he can never die ; at night he casts off his ass’s body, which lies like a dead body. I will burn it and  so keep him always in the form of a man.” This he did and the curse was removed.