i N D 



connected with the motley hiftory of this perfonage, many 

 volumes thereon are extant among the Hindoos. He is 

 faid, in their thengony, to be the offspring of Kafyapa and 

 Aditi (fee Kasyapa), and has the whck- lirmument under 

 his regency. In Biany particulars he correfponds with the 

 .l<<ves or Jupiters, for there were a great many among the 

 Greeks and Romans ; more efpccially, perhaps, with Jupiter 

 Pluviiis, for Indra is the god of fliowers. The Hindoos 

 fancy the vifible heavens to be under the guidance of eight 

 genii, colleftively called Maruts, or the Winds. (See Ma- 

 Rt'T.) Of thefe, Indra is the principal, and he rules the 

 caftern quarter. He may be deemed a perfonilication of the 

 firmament, ruling all atmofpheric or meteoric phenomena. 

 As god of thunder he is named 'Vajra Pani, or Lightning 

 Sender ; his difk-fhaped weapon, -uajm, reprefents light- 

 ning. He refides in the celeilial city Umravati ; his palace, 

 Vaijayanta, is fituated in the garden Nandana, which con- 

 tains alfo the all-yielding trees Pariyataka, Kalpadruma, and 

 three others fimilarly bountiful. He pofleflTes alfo the all- 

 prolific cow Kamdenu, otherwife called Surabhi ; and hence 

 ©nfe of Indra's names means the brd of meahk. He has a 

 confort named TnJiani : he rides the elephant Iravat, with 

 three probofci, which are faid to reprefent water-fpouts, as 

 the bow with which he is armed is the iris. Seated on mount 

 Meru, or tlie north pole, attended by mate and female 

 dancers (Siu'ara and Upsara), he regales the gods with 

 neftar and lieavenly mufic. He is painted with four arms, 

 and fpangled with eyes ; hence one of his names is the l]:ou- 

 fand-ryed god. Another of his names is Purendera, or the 

 Jejfrcyer of to-am ; he having, in revenge for fuppofed ne- 

 glefts, overwhelmed feveral cities ; particularly Ujaini, or 

 Oojein, the capital of Malwa. 



Indka Malwa, the hereditary pofleffion of the family of 

 Sindia. The city has now lain fubmerged about 1900 years. 

 (See OoJKI^•.^ Indra is alfo named Sliatkratu, meaning he 

 to whom is made a hundred facnfices, for this " king of the 

 immortals,''' another of his names, is very extentively pro. 

 pitiated in the numerous ceremonies of luftration and facri- 

 fice that Brahmans, devoted to the fervice of the altar, are 

 daily called upon to obferve. Jealous, however, of the 

 efferings made to other deities, he is reprefented as fre- 

 quently interrupting, both by perfonal interpofition and evil 

 counfel, the facrifice prepared or intended for other deities : 

 in this chara£ler of an evil counfellor he is ufually called 

 Sakra, and although called and reprefented as tboufand-eyal, 

 he is fometimes painted with but one eye ; the caufe of 

 •which, with many other fables connefted wi:h the character 

 and hiilory of this important deity, is related in Moor's 

 Hindoo Pantheon, whence moll of the particulars of this 

 article are taken. 



Like moft of the other Hindoo deities, Indra is repre- 

 fented as immoral and depraved, even to a proverbial degree ; 

 but we muft refer to the work juil mentioned for infkances 

 of his profligacy, exceflively extravagant if received literally, 

 but which, doubtlefs, arc allegorical concealments of fome 

 aftronomical or phyfieal fads ; for major Moor proves Indra 

 to be a Itar or a conftellation of the northern hemifphere, 

 2nd that the wars which he fuftains againft giants, in which 

 he is alternately conqueror and conqutred, refer to fome 

 cycle or periodical revolution of the heavenly bodies. Me- 

 tallic images of Indra are rarely feen : he is fculptured in 

 Elephanta and other excavations in India, mounted on Iravat, 

 and is often met with in paintings. Several engravings of 

 him are given in the Hindoo Pantheon. Under the words 

 feverally referred to above, and the foreign names of perfons 

 and places that occur, farther particulars of the fubjedls of 

 this article will be fgund ; for Indra is fo important a deity, 



I N D 



that his hiftory, like liis worfiiip, mixes it fclf with that e 1 

 moil of his divine affociates in the monftrous fyftem of Hin- 

 doo idolatry. 



INDRANI, is the name of the Sakti or confort (fee 

 Sakii) of Indra, the regent of the firmament among the 

 Hindoos. (See Indra.) Her name is fometimes pro- 

 nounced Aindrani. She is otherwife called Pulomaya, or 

 Powlamya, and Saki, and is reprefented in the Hindoo 

 Puranas, or mythological and theogonical romances, as a 

 faithful and virtuous charafter, which is not always the caie 

 with their female divinities : (he is alfo very handfonie, and ha- 

 refilled many temptations. She is called one of the fcven di- 

 vine mothers of the celellials. (See Matri.) In the fixth 

 volume of the Afiatic Refearches, is a very curious and interell- 

 ing account by fir Charles Malet, of the magnificent exca- 

 vations at EUora, accompanied by plates ; one of them re- 

 prefeiitiiig Indrani, of lovely form, feated on a lion, with u 

 cliild ill her lap, and a fivull and crofs bones in her girdle : 

 niaiiir Moor, however (Hindoo Pantheon, p. 271.), doubts 

 if this elegant figure be really of Indrani, of whian lie fays 

 he never faw any fculptured reprefentation. See El.ORA ; 

 to our account of which may be added, that Mr. Daniel has 

 engraved and publiilied, from materials in the coUeftion of 

 fir Charles Malet, a fei'ies of views, both minute and per- 

 fpeftive, of the interior and exterior of thefe wonderful 

 excavations, that is altogether unrivalled by any work in 

 Europe, as well for the accuracy of oriental fcenery and 

 collume, as for its general elegance and fplendour. 



INDRAPOUR, in Geography, a town on the W. coaft 

 of the iflandof Sumatra, and capital of a country, wliich 

 has feveral other towns, where the Dutch have a factory for 

 the piirchafe of pepper, ico miles N. W. of Bencoolen. 

 S. lat 2\ E. long. ICO 40'. This was once the feat of 

 a monafchy of fome confidcration and extent. Its anti- 

 quity appears from an hillorical account given by the fultan 

 of Bantam to Corneille le Brun, in which it is mentioned, 

 that tlie fon of the Arabian prince, who firil converted the 

 Javans to Mahometanifm, about the year 1400, having got 

 himfelf declared fovcreign of Bantam, married the daughter 

 of the raja of Indrapour, and had, as her portion, the ter 

 ritory of the Silhbares, a people of Banca-houlou. This 

 was probably the firll difmemberment which the Javan mo- 

 narchs long availed themfelves of; and fince, the kingdom 

 of Indrapour has dwindled into obfcurity. From its ruins 

 has fprung that of Anacfoongey ; extending on the fea- 

 coaft from Mandoota river to that of Oori ; the prefent 

 capital of which, if fuch towns deferve the appellation, is 

 Moco Moco. Marfden's Sumatra, p. 2S4. 



Indrapour Point, a cape on the W. coafl of Sumatra. 

 S. lat. 2 10'. E. long. 100 ^^4'. 



INDRAT, a town of Hindooftan, in Dowlatabadj 2j 

 miles N.W. of Beder. 



INDRE, a river of France, which rifes about four 

 miles N. N. W. from Boudac, in the department of the 

 Creufe ; and joins the Loire at Rigny, between Saumur and 

 Tours. 



iNUiin:, one of the departments of the central region 

 of France, formerly Lower Berri, in N. lat. 46' 45 , fo 

 called from the river which traverfes it from S.E. to 

 N. W. ; bounded on the N. by the department of the 

 Loir and Cher, on the E. by that of the Cher, on the S. 

 by the departments of the Creufe and Upper Vienne, and 

 on the W. by thofe of the Vienne and Indre and Loire, 

 about 54 miles from N. to S., and j from E. to W. Its 

 capital is Chateauroux. It contains 362 fquare leagues, 

 and 207,91 1 inhabitants; it is divided into four diftricts, 

 T.'s. IlTouduu, tontaiiiing 39.341 inhabitants ; Chateauroux, 



