Editing Indra (section)

==In other religions==

Indra is an important deity worshipped by the [[Kalash people]], indicating his prominence in [[ancient Hinduism]].<ref name="Bezhan2017">{{cite web |last=Bezhan |first=Frud |date=19 April 2017 |title=Pakistan's Forgotten Pagans Get Their Due |publisher=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/28439107.html |access-date=11 July 2017 |quote=About half of the Kalash practice a form of ancient Hinduism infused with old pagan and animist beliefs.}}</ref><ref name=Barrington-Kendrick-2006>{{cite book |last1=Barrington |first1=Nicholas |last2=Kendrick |first2=Joseph T. |last3=Schlagintweit |first3=Reinhard |date=18 April 2006 |title=A Passage to Nuristan: Exploring the mysterious Afghan hinterland |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |isbn=978-1-84511-175-5 |page=111}}</ref>{{efn|Prominent sites include Hadda, near Jalalabad, but Buddhism never seems to have penetrated the remote valleys of Nuristan, where the people continued to practise an early form of polytheistic Hinduism.<ref name=Barrington-Kendrick-2006/>}}<ref name=Weiss-Maurer-2012>{{cite book |last1=Weiss |first1=Mitch |last2=Maurer |first2=Kevin |date=31 December 2012 |title=No Way Out: A story of valor in the mountains of Afghanistan |publisher=Berkley Caliber |isbn=978-0-425-25340-3 |page=299}}</ref>{{efn|Up until the late nineteenth century, many Nuristanis practised a primitive form of Hinduism. It was the last area in Afghanistan to convert to Islam — and the conversion was accomplished by the sword.<ref name=Weiss-Maurer-2012/>}}<ref name=Ghai-2014>{{cite news |last=Ghai |first=Rajat |date=2014-02-17 |title=Save the Kalash! |newspaper=Business Standard India |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/save-the-kalash-114021700863_1.html |access-date=2021-03-08}}</ref><ref name=Jamil-2019>{{cite web |last=Jamil |first=Kashif |date=19 August 2019 |title=Uchal — a festival of shepherds and farmers of the Kalash tribe |newspaper=[[Daily Times (Pakistan)|Daily Times]] |language=en |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/450469/uchal-a-festival-of-shepherds-and-farmers-of-the-kalash-tribe/ |access-date=23 January 2020}}</ref>{{efn|Some of their deities who are worshiped in Kalash tribe are similar to the Hindu god and goddess like Mahadev in Hinduism is called Mahandeo in Kalash tribe. ... All the tribal also visit the Mahandeo for worship and pray. After that they reach to the gree (dancing place).<ref name=Jamil-2019/>}}<ref name=West-2010>{{cite book |last=West |first=Barbara A. |date=19 May 2010 |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4381-1913-7 |page=357 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA357}}</ref>{{efn|The Kalasha are a unique people living in just three valleys near Chitral, Pakistan, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. Unlike their neighbors in the Hindu Kush Mountains on both the Afghan and Pakistani sides of the border the Kalasha have not converted to [[Islam]]. During the mid-20th century a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan were forcibly converted to this dominant religion, but the people fought the conversion and once official pressure was removed the vast majority continued to practice their own religion. Their religion is a form of Hinduism that recognizes many gods and spirits and has been related to the religion of the ancient Greeks ... given their Indo-Aryan language, ... the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbors that to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies.<ref name=West-2010/>}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Witzel, M. |chapter=[Extract: ''Kalash religion''] The Ṛgvedic religious system and its central Asian and Hindukush antecedents |editor1=Griffiths, A. |editor2=Houben, J.E.M. |year=2004 |title=The Vedas: Texts, language, and ritual |location=Groningen |publisher=Forsten |pages=581–636 |url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/KalashaReligion.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100817110142/http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ewitzel/KalashaReligion.pdf |archive-date=2010-08-17 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-03-11}}</ref>

===Buddhism===
{{Main|Śakra (Buddhism)}}
[[File:Indrasala cave, Loriyan Tangai.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|Buddhist relief from [[Loriyan Tangai]], showing Indra paying homage to the Buddha at the [[Indrasala Cave]], 2nd century CE, [[Gandhara]].]]
The Buddhist cosmology places Indra above [[Mount Sumeru]], in Trayastrimsha heaven.<ref name="Baroni2002p153"/> He resides and rules over one of the six realms of rebirth, the ''Deva'' realm of [[Saṃsāra (Buddhism)|Saṃsāra]], that is widely sought in the Buddhist tradition.{{sfn|Trainor|2004|p=62}}{{efn|Scholars<ref name=Fowler-1999>{{cite book |author=Fowler, Merv |year=1999 |title=Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-898723-66-0 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7UKjtA0QDwC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831073004/https://books.google.com/books?id=A7UKjtA0QDwC |archive-date=31 August 2016 }}</ref>{{efn|For a vast majority of Buddhists in Theravadin countries, however, the order of monks is seen by lay Buddhists as a means of gaining the most merit in the hope of accumulating good karma for a better rebirth.<ref name=Fowler-1999/>}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Gowans, Christopher |year=2004 |title=Philosophy of the Buddha: An Introduction |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-46973-4 |page=169 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbU4Hd5lro0C}}</ref> note that better rebirth, not nirvana, has been the primary focus of a vast majority of lay Buddhists. This is sought in the Buddhist traditions through merit accumulation and good ''kamma''.}} Rebirth in the realm of Indra is a consequence of very good [[Karma]] (Pali: ''kamma'') and accumulated merit during a human life.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Buswell, Robert E. Jr. |author2=Lopez, Donald S. Jr. |year=2013 |title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4805-8 |pages=230–231 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA231}}</ref>

[[File:Seal Bangkok Metropolitan Admin (green).svg|thumb|upright=0.65|Many official seals in southeast Asia feature Indra.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Waraporn |last=Poopongpan |year=2007 |title=Thai kingship during the Ayutthaya period: A note on its divine aspects concerning Indra |journal=Silpakorn University International Journal |volume=7 |pages=143–171}}</ref> Above: seal of Bangkok, Thailand.]]
In [[Buddhism]], Indra is commonly called by his other name, [[Śakra (Buddhism)|Śakra]] or Sakka, ruler of the [[Trāyastriṃśa|{{IAST|Trāyastriṃśa}}]] heaven.<ref name="HoltKinnard2012p45">{{cite book |author1=Holt, John Clifford |author2=Kinnard, Jacob N. |author3=Walters, Jonathan S. |year=2012 |title=Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the religious cultures of south and southeast Asia |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-8705-1 |pages=45–46, 57–64, 108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnnG8sclrdYC}}</ref> Śakra is sometimes referred to as ''Devānām Indra'' or "Lord of the Devas". Buddhist texts also refer to Indra by numerous names and epithets, as is the case with Hindu and Jain texts. For example, Asvaghosha's ''Buddhacarita'' in different sections refers to Indra with terms such as "the thousand eyed",{{sfn|Cowell |Davis|1969 |pp=5, 21}} ''Puramdara'',{{Sfn|Cowell |Davis |1969|p=44}} ''Lekharshabha'',{{Sfn|Cowell|Davis|1969|p=71 footnote 1}} ''Mahendra'', ''Marutvat'', ''Valabhid'' and ''Maghavat''.{{Sfn|Cowell|Davis|1969|p=205}} Elsewhere, he is known as ''Devarajan'' (literally, "the king of gods"). These names reflect a large overlap between Hinduism and Buddhism, and the adoption of many Vedic terminology and concepts into Buddhist thought.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Robert E. Buswell Jr.|author2=Donald S. Lopez Jr.|title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 |year=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-4805-8|page=235}}</ref> Even the term ''Śakra'', which means "mighty", appears in the Vedic texts such as in hymn 5.34 of the ''Rigveda''.<ref name="Daniélou1991p108"/><ref>Sanskrit: [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_५.३४ Rigveda 5.34], Wikisource;<br />English Translation: {{cite book |author=Wilson, H.H. |year=1857 |title=Rig-veda Sanhita: A collection of ancient Hindu hymns |publisher=Trübner & Company |pages=288–291, 58–61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxwYAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>

In [[Theravada]] [[Buddhism]] Indra is referred to as Indā in evening chanting such as the Udissanādiṭṭhānagāthā (Iminā).<ref>{{cite web |title=Part&nbsp;2 – Evening Chanting |website=www.Watpasantidhamma.org |url=https://www.watpasantidhamma.org/p/part-2-evening-chanting.html#2.12 |access-date=2019-01-18}}</ref>

[[File:BimaranCasket2.JPG|thumb|right|[[Bimaran casket]]: the Buddha (middle) is flanked by Brahma (left) and Indra, in one of the earliest Buddhist depictions (1st century CE).<ref name=lopez37/>]]
The [[Bimaran Casket]] made of gold inset with garnet, dated to be around 60 CE, but some proposals dating it to the 1st century BCE, is among the earliest archaeological evidences available that establish the importance of Indra in Buddhist mythology. The artwork shows the Buddha flanked by gods [[Brahma]] and Indra.<ref name=lopez37>{{cite book | author=Lopez, Donald S. Jr. |year=2013 |title=From Stone to Flesh: A short history of the Buddha |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-49321-3 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pITNHIZnZ5QC}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=K. Walton |last=Dobbins |date=March–June 1968 |title=Two Gandhāran reliquaries |journal=East and West |volume=18 |number=1–2 |pages=151–162 |jstor=29755217}}</ref>

In [[China]], [[Korea]], and [[Japan]], he is known by the characters 帝釋天 (Chinese: 釋提桓因, pinyin: shì dī huán yīn, Korean: "Je-seok-cheon" or 桓因 ''Hwan-in'', Japanese: "Tai-shaku-ten", [[kanji]]: 帝釈天) and usually appears opposite [[Brahma]] in Buddhist art. Brahma and Indra are revered together as protectors of the historical Buddha (Chinese: 釋迦, [[kanji]]: 釈迦, also known as [[Gautama Buddha|Shakyamuni]]), and are frequently shown giving the infant Buddha his first bath. Although Indra is often depicted like a [[bodhisattva]] in the Far East, typically in [[Tang dynasty]] costume, his iconography also includes a martial aspect, wielding a thunderbolt from atop his elephant mount.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

In some schools of Buddhism and in Hinduism, the image of [[Indra's net]]  is a metaphor for the emptiness of all things, and at the same time a metaphor for the understanding of the universe as a web of connections and interdependences<ref>[[Indra's Net (book)#cite note-FOOTNOTEMalhotra20144-10]]</ref>{{circular reference|date=December 2019}}.

In China, Indra (帝釋天 Dìshìtiān) is regarded as one of the twenty-four protective devas ([[:zh:二十四诸天|二十四諸天]] Èrshísì zhūtiān) of Buddhism. In Chinese Buddhist temples, his statue is usually enshrined in the [[Mahavira Hall]] along with the other devas.

In Japan, Indra (帝釈天 Taishakuten) is one of the [[twelve Devas]], as guardian deities, who are found in or around Buddhist temples (十二天Jūni-ten).<ref>{{cite web |title=Twelve heavenly deities (devas) |publisher=Nara National Museum |place=Nara, Japan |url=http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100031/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en |access-date=31 December 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201634/http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100031/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en }}</ref><ref name="biswas184">{{cite book |first=S. |last=Biswas |year=2000 |title=Art of Japan |publisher=Northern |isbn=978-81-7211-269-1 |page=184}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Willem Frederik |last1=Stutterheim |display-authors=etal |year=1995 |title=Rāma-legends and Rāma-reliefs in Indonesia |isbn=978-81-7017-251-2 |pages={{mvar|xiv–xvi}} |publisher=Abhinav Publications }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Snodgrass, A. |author-link=Adrian Snodgrass |year=2007 |title=The Symbolism of the Stupa, Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0781-5 |pages=120–124, 298–300|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers }}</ref>

The ceremonial name of [[Bangkok]] claims that the city was "given by Indra and built by [[Vishvakarman]]."<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Royal Institute Newsletter |volume=3 |issue=31 |date=December 1993 |script-title=th:กรุงเทพมหานคร |language=th |trans-title=Bangkok}} Reproduced in {{cite web |script-title=th:กรุงเทพมหานคร |trans-title=Krung Thep Mahanakhon |language=th |url=http://www.royin.go.th/th/knowledge/detail.php?ID=639 |access-date=12 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206140602/http://www.royin.go.th/th/knowledge/detail.php?ID=639 |archive-date=2014-12-06}}</ref>

===Jainism===
{{multiple image
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| caption1          = Left: 14th century [[Kalpasutra]] folio showing the infant [[Mahavira]] sitting in the lap of Indra being bathed by the gods (''Janma Kalyanaka'')
| image2            = Bhagvan Indra.jpg
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| caption2          = Right: Indra, Indrani with elephant at the 9th-century [[Mirpur Jain Temple]] in Rajasthan (rebuilt 15th-century).
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Indra in [[Jainism|Jain]] mythology always serves the [[Tirthankara]] teachers. Indra most commonly appears in stories related to Tirthankaras, in which Indra himself manages and celebrates the [[Panch Kalyanaka|five auspicious events]] in that Tirthankara's life, such as Chavan kalyanak, [[Birth|Janma]] kalyanak, [[Diksha]] kalyanak, [[Kevala Jnana]] kalyanak, and [[Moksha (Jainism)|moksha]] kalyanak.{{sfn|Goswamy|2014|p=245}}

There are sixty-four Indras in Jain literature, each ruling over different heavenly realms where heavenly souls who have not yet gained Kaivalya ([[moksha]]) are reborn according to Jainism.<ref name=Wileyj99/><ref name=owenj64/> Among these many Indras, the ruler of the first Kalpa heaven is the Indra who is known as ''Saudharma'' in [[Digambara]], and ''Sakra'' in [[Śvētāmbara]] tradition. He is most preferred, discussed and often depicted in Jain caves and marble temples, often with his wife Indrani.<ref name=owenj64>{{cite book |author=Owen, Lisa |year=2012 |title=Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora |publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=978-90-04-20629-8 |pages=25–28, 29–33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHK2WE8xAzYC&pg=PA25}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|pages=25–28}}<ref>{{cite book |author=von Glasenapp, Helmuth |year=1999 |title=Jainism: An Indian religion of salvation |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1376-2 |pages=268–269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzEzXDk0v6sC}}</ref> They greet the devotee as he or she walks in, flank the entrance to an idol of [[Arihant (Jainism)|Jina]] (conqueror), and lead the gods as they are shown celebrating the five auspicious moments in a Jina's life, including his birth.<ref name=Wileyj99/> These Indra-related stories are enacted by laypeople in Jainism tradition during special Puja (worship) or festive remembrances.<ref name=Wileyj99/><ref name=owenj64/>{{rp|style=ama|pages=29–33}}

In the South Indian [[Digambara]] Jain community, Indra is also the title of hereditary priests who preside over Jain temple functions.<ref name=Wileyj99/>

=== Zoroastrianism ===
As the Iranian and Indian religions diverged from each other, the two main groupings of deities, the [[Asura|''asura''s]] (Iranian ''[[ahura]]'') and [[Daeva|''daeva''s]] (Indian [[Deva (Hinduism)|''deva'']]) acquired opposite features.{{Speculation inline|date=date=July 2024}} For reasons that are not entirely clear{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}, the ''asura''s/''ahura''s became demonized in India and elevated in Iran while the ''deva''s/''daeva''s became demonized among the Iranians and elevated in India. In the ''[[Vendidad]]'', one part of the [[Avesta]], Indra is mentioned along with Nanghaithya (Vedic Nasatya) and Sauvra (Śarva) as a relatively minor demon.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Yarshater |first=Ehsan |author-link=Ehsan Yarshater |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-521-20092-9 |volume=3 (1) |page=348 |chapter=Iranian National History |orig-date=1983}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|year=2004|first=W. W.|last=Malandra|title=Indra|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indra|access-date=14 April 2024}}</ref> At the same time, many of the features of Indra in the Rigveda are shared with the ''ahura''s Mithra and Verethragna and the Iranian legendary hero [[Fereydun|Thraetona (Fereydun)]]. It is possible that Indra, originally a minor deity who later acquired greater significance, acquired the traits of other deities as his importance increased among the Indo-Aryans.<ref name=":6" />