Vritra

Vritra (Sanskrit वृत्र Vrtra m. " Enemy, Thundercloud " ) is in the Vedic mythology, a dragon, clouds, or snake -like " demon " ( Asura ) and enemy of God and man, which is opposed by Indra.

Myth

Vritra is called the son of Danu. He pressed all the three worlds ( Triloka ) and keeps the water caught. Indra is drawn to fight Vritra, which is why he also called Vritrahan (" Vritra - Erschlager "). First he destroyed his 99 forts. In the meantime, he is devoured by Vritra, but forcing the other gods Indra him disgorge. But then he slays the "demons" with his club Vajra and so frees the water of truth, which were enclosed by Vritra and run in the form of cows to the sea. He is of the chaos form, a life and lets the sun shine anew. He also creates the dawn, and the sky, which he separates from the earth. His victory over Vritra can therefore also as a creation myth, or rather interpreted as world creation myth. Vritra is a central part of Indramythologie and embodies the destructive, dark and chaotic forces of nature ( inertia, winter and drought ), while Indra represents the productive forces.

Indo-European common

Since the Iranian Avesta the god Verethragna whose name phonetically fit exactly to Sanskrit Vritrahan, similar functions as Indra, it can be assumed that the myth of the struggle with the " snake demon " is at least Indo-Iranian origin. Moreover, since similar myths are otherwise distributed, so the struggle of the Greek hero Heracles with the water serpent Hydra or the Germanic thunder god Thor against the Midgard Serpent, it is suspected that this is a myth urindogermanischer.