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It is how we utilize our power for humanity. How we display our authority to our peers and worshippers, that matters in the eyes of those who revere us. I am willing to be humbled, Zeus. While you only bleat in defiance like a goat.
~ Indra

Indra is the God of War and Weather, also the King of the Devas and Lord of Svargaloka in Hinduism. He was the most important god in the Vedic religion and he later became a major figure in Hinduism and an important deity in Buddhism.

Overview[]

Indra was born, along with his brother Agni, from the mouth of the primordial god or giant Purusha whose various other body parts gave birth to the other members of the Hindu pantheon. These new gods then brought order to the cosmos and Indra, seated on his throne within the storm clouds of the svarga or third heaven is ruler of the clouds and skies alongside his wife Indrāni. In Indian mythology the clouds are equated with divine cattle and the sound of thunder during storms is Indra fighting with the demons who are forever trying to steal these celestial cows

Perhaps the most celebrated exploit involving the god is his battle with the demon Vritra. This demon, also known as the Enemy, had transformed himself into a fearsome snake with no less than 99 coils. Unfortunately for local farmers these tremendous coils were blocking up the rivers and streams and causing a great drought. So horrifying was Vritra that none of the gods dared intervene and it was only Indra who found the courage, fortified with soma, to slay the beast with one of his thunderbolts. As a result of this episode he won great favor among the other great gods and one of Indra’s surnames became Vritrahan, meaning the ‘slayer of Vritra’.

In later tradition Indra is transformed from a worshiped god into a mythological figure involved in various, sometimes unflattering, adventures whilst gods such as Vishnu and Shiva replace him at the head of the Hindu pantheon. Nevertheless, Indra continued to be associated with storms, rain and the cardinal point East.

Personality[]

Indra is bestowed with a heroic and almost brash and amorous character. The formidable thunderbolt-wielding Indra strikes an imposing figure but as king of the gods he is generally benevolent, being generous to his worshipers, guaranteeing peace and prosperity and delivering beneficial rainstorms to end droughts. He can also be called upon in times of war to give support with his divine weapons and favorable intervention.

Indra has been known to partake on many adventures, although, Indra is, on occasion, portrayed in a less than favorable light in his adventures, for example, he is known for his fondness of the alcoholic elixir drink soma which he does not always take in moderation and so he sometimes suffers from its after-effects. However, the helpful Ashvins gods and the goddess Sarasvati are always on hand to administer an antidote taken from the body of a demon and restore the god to his senses.

Powers and Abilities[]

As the supreme king of the Devas, Indra is an extremely powerful god and easily the most skilled and powerful out of all the Devas with only the likes of Shiva, Vishnu, or Durga being directly above him. He is acknowledged by even Zeus, who despite being a powerful god in his own right, to be somewhat more skilled in prowess than him. He has also proven capable of effortlessly dispatching the most fearsome of demons and warriors with the Ogdru Hem even having great difficulty in fighting him.

Among his peers (that being Zeus, Odin, and Ra) Indra is arguably the strongest in close-quarters combat and only resorts to using the most destructive powerful weapons in Hindu mythology when his normal styles of combat are ineffective. Even then according to Rama such instances are rare which goes to show how much of a formidable force he is to his foes. Like Zeus with his Master Bolt, Indra can utilize a similar power of wielding lightning bolts with Vajra and can use it with extreme and destructive proficiency. With his Vajra, Indra can perform many godly feats such as easily decimate entire demon forts and armies, and at one point has even made the mighty Cthulhu stagger backwards from his blows. Indra was powerful enough to shatter the left cheekbone of Hanuman who is said to be Sun Wukong himself ascended to a higher plane of existence as the god of victorious battles and was said to have fought Vritra for three-hundred and sixty-five days with Vajra.

Aside from Vajra, Indra also possesses other weapons that are far more powerful than Vajra such as Vasavi Shakti, Pashupatastra, Narayanastra (belonging to Vishnu), and Vasavi Sakra. In regards to the Vasavi Shakti and Pashupatastra, they said to harbor extraordinary levels of destructive power that not only Indra (barring Shiva and Vishnu) can use them sparingly but is stated to be the only one amongst the gods can properly wield the weapon to its full effect. Naturally, being a weather and storm deity, Indra has complete control over the weather and can bring down rain for bountiful crops.

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