The Rig Veda Blog
Journeys into Vedic Thought
Long-form, researched essays on the deities, language, ritual and history of the Rig Veda. All free to read.
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How to Kill a Dragon: Vṛtra and a Sentence Older Than Sanskrit
Three Vedic words, áhann áhim, encode a sentence that survives in Hittite, Greek, and Norse. The Vṛtra myth is not just Indra's story; it is the oldest plot the Indo-Europeans carried with them.
Indra's 250 Hymns: War-God, Rain-Bringer, or Something Else Entirely?
Indra dominates the Rigveda like no other deity: roughly a quarter of the corpus is addressed to him. Yet the Indra of the hymns is stranger and more varied than the dragon-slayer of popular summary. He is a rain-bringer, a cosmic orderer, a drunkard, a doubter, and eventually a god whom later Hinduism will quietly demote.