ORIENTAL SERIES.

INDRA. 12$
is mentioned as having a wife, and the name of Indratti or
Aindri is invoked among the goddesses. In the Satapatha
Brahmafta she is called India's beloved wife.
In the later mythology Indra has fallen into the second rank.
He is inferior to the triad, but he is the chief of all the other
gods. He is the regent of the atmosphere and of the east
quarter of the compass, and he reigns over Swarga, the heaven
of the gods and of beatified spirits, which is a region of great
magnificence and splendour. He retains many of his Vedic
characteristics, and some of them are intensified. He sends the
lightning and hurls the thunderbolt, and the rainbow is his bow.
He is frequently at war with the Asuras, of whom he lives in
constant dread, and by whom he is often worsted. But he slew
the demon Vritra, who, being regarded as a Brahman, Indra had
to conceal himself and make sacrifice until his guilt was purged
away. His continued love for the soma juice is shown by a
legend in the MahJi-bhiirata, which represents him as being com-
pelled by the sage Chyavana to allow the Aswins to partake of
the soma libations, and his sensuality has now developed into
an extreme lasciviousness. Many instances are recorded of his
incontinence and adultery, and his example is frequently referred
to as an excuse in cases of gallantry, as by King ISTahusha when
he tried to obtain India's wife while the latter was hiding in
fear for having killed the Brahman in the person of the demon
Wttra. According to the Maha-bharata he seduced, or endeavoured
to seduce, Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama, and
that sage's curse impressed upon him a thousand marks resem-
bling the female organ, so he was called Sa-yoni; but these
marks were afterwards changed to eyes, and he is hence called
Netra-yoni, and Sahasraksha f
the thousand-eyed.' In the
Eamayana it is related that Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka
or Ceylon, warred against Indra in his own heaven, and that
Indra was defeated and carried off to Lanka by Havana's son
Megha-nilda, who for this exploit received the title of Indra-jit
(q.v.),
'
conqueror of Indra.' Brahma and the gods had to sue
for the release of Indra, and to purchase it with the boon of
immortality to the victor. Brahma then told the humiliated
god that his defeat was a punishment for the seduction of
Ahalya, The Taittirlya Brahmam states that he chose Indian!
to be his wife in preference to other goddesses because of hei