Page 74 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

history
Indian Mythology
for a god; Varuna is called an asura. But later, it comes to mean a demon,
whom the devas despise. But they are also half-brothers, for both devas
and asuras are children of the same father, Kashyapa, but have different
mothers, Aditi and Diti. In some stories, Lakshmi is the daughter of
an asura king, Puloman, and wife of Indra.
The mythology of Indra is now so much richer, a shift over
a thousand years, from 1500 BCE (Before Common Era) to 500 BCE;
from a semi-nomadic lifestyle based on war to a fully settled
agricultural lifestyle dependent on rain. Some things have changed
and some things continue as before.
Around 2,500 years ago, society saw, on one side, ambitious kings
who wanted to establish kingdoms, and highly organised trading
Indra communities with great wealth, who patronised the arts. This group
preferred the ritualistic Brahmanas that promised success and wealth.
appears On the other side, there were groups of men who gave up family

repeatedly and all wealth, and went into the forest to meditate and contemplate
on the meaning of life and death. This second group favoured the more
In the philosophical Aranyakas and Upanishads. These were the shramanas,
the hermits, who had a profound impact on Indian thought. The most
stories popular of these hermits came to be known as the Buddha, the
awakened one. The other was Mahavira Jina, the mighty one who
of the conquered his mind. These hermits drew attention to the mind,
Buddha and saw it as more important than material things.
In the stories of the Buddha and the Jina, Indra appears repeatedly.
and When Siddhartha Gautama, the prince of the Sakya clan, attains
supreme awareness and transforms into the Buddha, Indra comes
the Jina and salutes him and tells him to pass on his knowledge to the world.
Indra also enables the Jina’s birth, transferring him from the womb
of a priest’s wife to the womb of a warrior’s wife, thus ensuring
he is both wise of mind and strong of body, has knowledge as well
as wealth and power.
In Buddhist and Jain stories, Indra is known as Sakra. He is
identified as the leader of the 33 gods who reside in Swarga. This phrase
‘thirty three gods’ refers to the old Vedic gods of the skies: the 12 Aditya
who live in the sky as celestial bodies, the 8 Vasu who live on earth on
the directions, the 11 Marutta who stretch as the wind between the sky.

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