Indra

• King of the Devas (divinity, devi for female deities) and Svarga (celestial abode of devas)
• Associations: sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, war
• In Vishnu Purana
  • Title borne by king of the gods
  • Changes every Mavantara: cyclic period of time in Hindu cosmology
  • Indra of current Mavantara is called Purandhara
• Also depicted in Buddhist and Jain mythologies
  • Rules over Deva realm of rebirth within Samsara
    • Rebirth in his realm is consequence of good karma
    • Also referred to as Sákra
  • Sometimes ridiculed as a god who keeps suffering rebirth
• Significance diminishes post-Vedic Indian literature but remains prominent in mythology
• Wields the Vajra
  • The thunderbolt of Indra is called Bhaudhara

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

depictions

Gilt-copper sculpture of Indra, c. 16th-century

Indra as guardian deity on the east side of a Hindu temple