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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The Roaring Bull of the Sky: Parjanya, the Rig Veda's Rain God and the Indo-European Thunderer
Only three hymns of the Rig Veda are addressed to Parjanya, the roaring rain-bull who fertilizes the earth. Yet his name may preserve a thread reaching back to a Proto-Indo-European storm god, one that also surfaces in Lithuanian Perkūnas and Slavic Perun. The match is tantalizing and far from settled.
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.