Devraj Indra: God of Thunder

DEVRAJ INDRA

    According to ancient Indian texts, Indra is king of gods or deities due to which he is known as Devraj Indra.Indra is a word derived from a word "indriya" which means senses. He is the god of  thunder, storms, rains, river flows and war. He is lord of immense power and he had killed various Demons.And one of them was Vritrasura who obstructed human prosperity and happiness . Indra used his ( vajra ) thunderbolt to kill him.

Parents:

   According to Puranas, Indra is considered to be son of Maharishi Kashayapa ( one of the great seven sages ) and Devi Aditi ( daughter Prajapati Daksha ). 

Abode :

     The abode of Devraj is Amaravati ,situated in Swaraglok ( Heaven). Swarg was the main reason of battle between Gods and Demons.

Vehicle ( vahan ):

  The vehicle of devraj Indra is Airavata -a divine white elephant who had five heads. Airavata has ten tusks and five trunks . Another mount of Indra is Uchchaihshravas-a flying horse having seven heads which he got from Samudar Manthan.

Consert ( wife ) & Childeren :

    Wife of Devraj Indra is Shachi - daughter of Demon Puloman and  she is also known as Indrani. He has childrens which are named as Jayanta, Shasthi, Risabha, Jayanti, Devasena, Vali or Bali  (who was the king kishkindha  and brother of Sugriva during Ramayan ) and  Arjuna ( great archer and one of Pandavas ).

Weapons :

    Weapons of Devraj Indra are various Divine astras and major one is Vajra ( thunderbolt) - made up by bones of Maharishi Dadichi. Vajra was made to kill Demon Vritrasura.

Stories :

 There are many stories related to King of gods in which he showed his valour and in some stories he is known for his arrogance, ego and for other bad things. Some of the stories related to Devraj Indra are as follows :

Devraj Indra & Vritrasura:

   Once Devraj Indra was enjoying the music sitting in his Indra Sabha. Guru Brihaspati came and all deities stand in respect of Guruji but Devraj Indra ignored Guru Brihaspati as he was enjoying music.

   Guru Brihaspati felt insulted and he lefted the indra Sabha immediately.As soon as Guru Brihaspati left, the fame of the gods started decreasing.When Demons came to know about this, they attacked the gods and they  were defeated in that war.

    Devraj Indra realized that we have lost due to lack of Guru's grace but Guru Brihaspati had gone somewhere after getting angry with Indra.So Devraj along with other gods went to Lord Vishnu to find a solution to this problem.

    Lord Vishnu told him that till the time Guru Brihaspati is not considered, then take Vishwaroop, son of sage Tavast as your priest, your actions will be pure.

   Indra did the same and made Vishwaroop her priest.

   Vishwaroop returned the power of the gods by performing Yag Havana. Gods defeated the Demons and got heaven back.But Vishwaroop's mother was an Asura, due to which he used to give a sacrifice in the name of Asura in Yagana.Devraj came to know about this and got angry and cut off Vishwaroop's head. 

  When priest vishwaroop's father Rishi Tavasta came to know about this,he got very angry and to take revenge he created a monster named vritra from yagana. Vritra was huge in size and and on order of Tavasta Rishi he went to kill Devraj Indra. With his huge size he covered all the three worlds and started his tyranny on gods.

   He used to break all the weapons thrown by the gods to kill him.Seeing all this, all the gods got scared that he is more powerful than us.And all the gods ran to the Trideva for their safety.

   Trideva told Indra and other gods that a weapon made from bones of Maharishi Dadhichi will be able to kill that demon Vritra.

So Indra went to Rishi Dadhichi and told him everything about the vritrasura and told all what Trideva said.

   Rishi Dadhichi happily asked to donate his bones and he took Samadhi to help in killing of demon Vritrasura.Vajra was formed from  bones of Rishi Dadhichi and with the help of that Devraj Indra ended the Vritrasura.

Devraj Indra And Ahiliya : 

  According to ancient Texts, Maharishi Gautam was a great sage who he is related creation of river Godavari - which is also named as Gautami.He had a beautiful wife - Ahiliya.She was much younger than Maharishi Gautama but she was a virtuous woman.

   When Devraj Indra seen Devi Ahiliya he got enamoured by her beauty.And he wanted to have a relationship with Ahiliya.

   Indra was in search of an opportunity to do as he want to do. So in the early morning when Rishi Gautam was going to take bath,Indra made the disguise of Rishi Gautam and gone to met Ahiliya and make request to make love with him.

   Although Ahiliya recognized Indra, Ahilya did not give her consent for love.  When Devraj Indra was returning to Heaven. At the same time  Rishi Gautam was coming back to his ashram, his eyes fell on Indra who was disguised as himself. 

   Rishi Gautam was in anger to see Indra and he cursed to be impotent.  Simultaneously, in anger he also cursed his  wife Ahilya to be  converted into a stone.  

     The gods of heaven got worried due to the curse of Gautam Rishi.  Ahilya, the wife of Gautam Rishi, apologized and told him that there was not my mistake in it.  

    When anger of  Rishi Gautam subdued ,he said to Ahiliya that," In Treta Yuga, when Lord Shri Ram will come and touch you with his feet.  Then you will get salvation".

 For thousand of years, Ahiliya in form of Stone waited for Lord Shree Ram. And during treta Yuga, Lord Ram came with Laxman and Guru Vishwamitra and with his feet given her salvation.

Indra : Position for King of Gods not name of a person

   According to Vishnu Purana, Indra is not a name of person, it is the position given to the king of gods which changes in every manvantra. It is believed that, every manvantra has its own Indra and name of current Indra is Purandhara and It is believed that there are 14 Indra till now.

Why Indra is not Worshipped and had no temple :

  Before Lord  Krishna there was a huge festival for Indra named as " Indrotasava".

    During that festival Lord Krishna saw his mother was Worshipping Devraj Indra and he asked why all are worshipping Indra. In answer his mother said that Indra is god of rain and thunder, we have to worship him to get rain  by which get food for us and our cattle. On this Lord Krishna said," If it is so we have to worship Govardhan parvat where our cattle graze ". 

      Listening to Lord Krishna all people started Worshipping Govardhan Parvat. Considering it as his insult Devraj Indra started heavy rain on peoples of Barsana. Lord Krishna to save peoples lifted Govardhan Parvat on his finger and all peoples got under it.

  Indra after sometime get to know that Lord Krishna is not other than Avtar of Lord Vishnu. Indra than came to earth and apologized to Lord krishna.

  From that day Lord Indra is not worshipped anywhere in India.

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