Editing Indra (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Banteay Srei - 032 Indra on Airavata (8581494845).jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Banteay Srei]] temple's pediment carvings depict Indra mounted on [[Airavata]], [[Cambodia]], c. 10th century.]]
Indra is of ancient but unclear origin. Aspects of Indra as a deity are cognate to other Indo-European gods; there are [[list of thunder gods|thunder god]]s such as [[Thor]], [[Perun]], and [[Zeus]] who share parts of his heroic mythologies, act as king of gods, and all are linked to "rain and thunder".<ref>{{cite book|author=Alexander Stuart Murray|title=Manual of Mythology: Greek and Roman, Norse, and Old German, Hindoo and Egyptian Mythology, 2nd Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7lLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA329|year=1891|publisher=C. Scribner's sons|pages=329–331}}</ref> The similarities between Indra of Vedic mythology and of [[Thor]] of Nordic and Germanic mythologies are significant, states [[Max Müller]]. Both Indra and Thor are storm gods, with powers over lightning and thunder, both carry a hammer or an equivalent, for both the weapon returns to their hand after they hurl it, both are associated with bulls in the earliest layer of respective texts, both use thunder as a battle-cry, both are protectors of mankind, both are described with legends about "milking the cloud-cows", both are benevolent giants, gods of strength, of life, of marriage and the healing gods.<ref>{{cite book|author=Friedrich Max Müller|author-link=Max Müller|title=Contributions to the Science of Mythology|url=https://archive.org/details/contributionsto01mlgoog|year=1897|publisher=Longmans Green|pages=[https://archive.org/details/contributionsto01mlgoog/page/n334 744]–749}}</ref>

Michael Janda suggests that Indra has origins in the Indo-European ''*trigw-welumos'' [or rather ''*trigw-t-welumos''] "smasher of the enclosure" (of [[Vritra]], [[Vala (Vedic)|Vala]]) and ''diye-snūtyos'' "impeller of streams" (the liberated rivers, corresponding to Vedic ''apam ajas'' "agitator of the waters").<ref>{{cite book |author=Janda, Michael |year=2000 |title=Eleusis: Das Indogermanische Erbe der Mysterien |publisher=Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck |isbn=978-3-85124-675-9 |pages=261–262 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dUoAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> Brave and heroic Innara or Inra, which sounds like Indra, is mentioned among the [[Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni#Names of gods|gods]] of the [[Mitanni]], a [[Hurrians|Hurrian-speaking people]] of Hittite region.<ref>{{cite book |author=von&nbsp;Dassow, Eva |year=2008 |title=State and Society in the Late Bronze Age |publisher=University Press of Maryland |isbn=978-1-934309-14-8 |pages=77, 85–86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5QtAQAAIAAJ}}</ref>

Indra as a deity had a presence in northeastern [[Asia minor]], as evidenced by the inscriptions on the Boghaz-köi clay tablets dated to about 1400 BCE. This tablet mentions a treaty, but its significance is in four names it includes reverentially as ''Mi-it-ra'', ''U-ru-w-na'', ''In-da-ra'' and ''Na-sa-at-ti-ia''. These are respectively, Mitra, [[Varuna]], Indra and Nasatya-Asvin of the Vedic pantheon as revered deities, and these are also found in Avestan pantheon but with Indra and Naonhaitya as demons. This at least suggests that Indra and his fellow deities were in vogue in South Asia and Asia minor by about mid 2nd-millennium BCE.<ref name="Griswold1971p177"/><ref>{{cite book |author=Rapson, Edward James |year=1955 |title=The Cambridge History of India |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=320–321 |id=GGKEY:FP2CEFT2WJH |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYg8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA320}}</ref>

Indra is praised as the highest god in 250&nbsp;hymns of the ''[[Rigveda]]'' – a [[Hindu]] scripture dated to have been composed sometime between 1700 and 1100&nbsp;BCE. He is co-praised as the supreme in another 50&nbsp;hymns, thus making him one of the most celebrated Vedic deities.<ref name="Griswold1971p177"/> He is also mentioned in ancient Indo-Iranian literature, but with a major inconsistency when contrasted with the Vedas. In the Vedic literature, Indra is a heroic god. In the Avestan (ancient, pre-Islamic Iranian) texts such as ''[[Vendidad|Vd.]]'' 10.9, ''[[Denkard|Dk.]]'' 9.3 and ''[[Bundahishn|Gbd]]'' 27.6-34.27, Indra – or accurately Andra<ref name="Müller1897p757">{{cite book |author=Müller, Friedrich Max |year=1897 |title=Contributions to the Science of Mythology |publisher=Longmans Green |pages=[https://archive.org/details/contributionsto01mlgoog/page/n346 756]–759 |url=https://archive.org/details/contributionsto01mlgoog}}</ref> – is a gigantic demon who opposes truth.<ref name="Colarusso329"/>{{efn|In deities that are similar to Indra in the [[Hittite mythology|Hittite]] and European mythologies, he is also heroic.<ref name="Colarusso329"/>}} In the Vedic texts, Indra kills the archenemy and demon Vritra who threatens mankind. In the Avestan texts, Vritra is not found.<ref name="Müller1897p757"/>

According to David Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the [[Zeravshan River]] (present-day [[Uzbekistan]]) and (present-day) Iran.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=462}} It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements",{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=462}} which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=32}} from the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria–Margiana Culture]].{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=32}} At least 383&nbsp;non-Indo-European words were found in this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink [[Soma (drink)|Soma]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=454-455}} According to Anthony,
{{blockquote|Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, [[Verethraghna]], were transferred to the god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250&nbsp;hymns, a quarter of the ''Rig Veda''. He was associated more than any other deity with ''Soma'', a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from ''Ephedra'') probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=454}}}}

However, according to [[Paul Thieme]], "there is no valid justification for supposing that the Proto-Aryan adjective *vrtraghan was specifically connected with *Indra or any other particular god."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thieme |first=Paul |date=Oct–Dec 1960 |title=The 'Aryan' gods of the Mitanni treaties |journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]] |volume=80 |issue=4 |pages=301–317 |doi=10.2307/595878 |jstor=595878}}</ref>