iMdraH [ iMd-ran; iMdatIti iMdraH; idi ESvarye Malli. ] 1 The lord of gods. 2 The god of rain, rain; cloud. 3 A lord or ruler (as of men &c.); first or best (of any class of objects), always as the last member of comp. ; nareMdraH a lord of men i. e. a king; so mfgeMdraH a lion; gajeMdraH the lord or chief of elephants; so yogIMdraH, kapIMdraH . 4 A prince, king. 5 The pupil of the right eye. 6 N. of the plant kuwaja . 7 Night. 8 One of the divisions of BAratavarza . 9 ( pb ) N. of the 26th Yoga . 10 The human or animal soul. 11 A vegetable poison. 12 The Yoga star in the 26th Nakṣatra. 13 Greatness. — drA The wife of Indra, Indrāṇī. [Indra, the god of the firmament, is the Jupiter Pluvius of the Indian Āryans. In the Vedas he is placed in the first rank among the gods; yet he is not regarded as an uncreated being, being distinctly spoken of in various passages of the Vedas as being born, and as having a father and a mother. He is sometimes represented as having been produced by the gods as a destroyer of enemies, as the son of Ekāṣṭakā, and in Rv. 10. 90. 13 he is said to have sprung from the mouth of Puruṣa. He is of a ruddy or golden colour, and can assume any form at will. He rides in a bright golden chariot drawn by two tawny horses. His most famous weapon is the thunderbolt which he uses with deadly effect in his warfare with the demons of darkness, drought and inclement weather, variously called Ahi, Vṛtra, Śambara, Namuci &c. He storms and breaks through their castles, and sends down fertilizing showers of rain to the great delight of his worshippers. He is thus the lord of the atmosphere, the dispenser of rain, and governor of the weather. He is represented as being assisted by the Maruts or storm-gods in his warfare. Besides the thunderbolt he uses arrows, a large hook, and a net. The Soma juice is his most favourite food, and under its exhilarating influence he performs great achievements ( cf. Rv. 10. 119 ), and pleases his devout worshippers, who are said to invite the god to drink the juice. He is their friend and even their brother; a father, and the most fatherly of fathers; the helper of the poor, and the deliverer and comforter of his servants. He is a wall of defence; his friend is never slain or defeated. He richly rewards his adorers, particularly those who bring him libations of Soma, and he is supplicated for all sorts of temporal blessings, as cows, horses, chariots, health, intelligence, prosperous days, long life, and victory in war. In the Vedas Indra's wife is Indr ani , who is invoked among the goddesses. Such is the Vedic conception of Indra. But in later mythology he falls in the second rank. He is said to be one of the sons of Kaśyapa and Dākṣāyaṇī or Aditi. He is inferior to the triad Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśa (though in some places Viṣṇu is regarded as his younger brother, cf. R. 14. 59 , 15. 40 ), but he is the chief of all the other gods, and is commonly styled Sureśa, Devendra &c. As in the Vedas so in later mythology, he is the regent of the atmosphere, and of the east quarter, and his world is called Svarga. He sends ( pb ) the lightning, uses the thunderbolt and sends down rain. He is frequently at war with Asuras, whom he constantly dreads, and by whom he is sometimes defeated. The Indra of mythology is famous for his incontinence and adultery, one prominent instance of which is his seduction of Ahalyā, the wife of Gautama (see Ahalyā), and for which he is often spoken of as Ahalyā-jāra. The curse of the sage impressed upon him a 1000 marks resembling the female organ, and he was therefore called Sayoni; but these marks were afterwards changed into eyes, and he is hence called Netra-yoni and Sahasrākṣa. In the Rāmāyaṇa Indra is represented as having been defeated and carried off to Laṅkā by Rāvaṇa's son called Meghanāda, who for this exploit received the title of ‘Indrajit.’ It was only at the intercession of Brahmā and the gods that Indra was released, and this humiliation was regarded as a punishment for his seduction of Ahalyā. He is also represented as being in constant dread of sages practising potent penances, and as sending down nymphs to beguile their minds (see. Apsaras ). In the Purāṇas he is said to have destroyed the offspring of Diti in her womb, and to have cut off the wings of mountains when they grew troublesome. Other stories are also told in which Indra was once worsted by Raja, grandson of Purūravas, owing to the curse of Durvāsas, and other accounts show that he and Kṛṣṇa were at war with each other for the Pārijāta tree which the latter wanted to remove from Svarga, and which he succeeded in doing in spite of Indra's resistance. His wife is Indr ani , the daughter of the demon Puloman, and his son is named Jayanta. He is also said to be father of Arjuna. His epithets are numerous; mostly descriptive of his achievements, e. g. vftrahan, balaBid, pAkaSAsana, gotraBid, puraMdara , Satakratu, jizRu, namucisUdana &c. (see Ak. I. 1. 44-4...