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This verse from Rigved Book 4, Hymn 18 alludes to Indra killing his own father!

4.18.12. Who was he then who made thy Mother widow? Who sought to stay thee lying still or moving? What God, when by the foot thy Sire thou tookest and slewest, was at hand to give thee comfort?

कस्ते॑ मा॒तरं॑ वि॒धवा॑मचक्रच्छ॒युं कस्त्वाम॑जिघांस॒च्चर॑न्तम्।

कस्ते॑ दे॒वो अधि॑ मार्डी॒क आ॑सी॒द्यत्प्राक्षि॑णाः पि॒तरं॑ पाद॒गृह्य॑॥ ४.०१८.१२

Another verse from RV Book 6, Hymn 59 says:

  1. I WILL declare, while juices flow, the manly deeds that ye have done: Your Fathers, enemies of Gods, were smitten down, and, Indra-Agni, ye survive.

प्र नु वो॑चा सु॒तेषु॑ वां वी॒र्या॒३ यानि॑ च॒क्रथु॑।

ह॒तासो॑ वां पि॒तरो॑ दे॒वश॑त्रव॒ इन्द्रा॑ग्नी॒ जीव॑थो यु॒वम्॥ ६.०५९.०१

Is there any Puranic story that describes this more in detail? Also who could this father have been since Kashyap has been mentioned as being alive even in later times? Could it be Dyaus as mentioned in this answer?

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  • can you post sanskrit verse Jul 28, 2017 at 10:07
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    This is too similar to the story of Zeus slaying Kronos it makes me wonder whether we've been worshipping the wrong Indra.
    – Surya
    Jul 28, 2017 at 18:00
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    Yes this is what I have been thinking too! It is definitely very similar to the Greek myth just that Zeus (who is derived from Indra's father Dyaus) is doing what apparently Indra had done! Jul 28, 2017 at 19:43
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    FYI Jupiter is considered to be directly derived from dyau-pitar. Jul 29, 2017 at 0:36
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    @user1952500 yes i mentioned that when i was answering the question on Indra's father Jul 29, 2017 at 5:48

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I would ask people to read my answer from the link below which was ofcourse asked by the same OP. Was Indra born from his mother's side and did she die in child-birth?

As I have said in the answer given in the above link, it's Tvastar who created the sky and earth as his place to live. Tvastar created lots of thing. In fact his own creation started creating new things. Indra was of course created by earth and the sky. Indra had to fight Vritra which was a creation of Tvastar. Vritra holded all the water and Indra had to kill Vritra to release water.

For this, Indra had to be powerful. So, Indra drank soma. Soma is a drink which was protected by Tvastar. After drinking soma, Indra became powerful and started expanding.

Indra became so powerful and huge that even Tvastar himself got afraid. His continuous expansion starting creating gaps between the two worlds, (sky and earth) which happens to be his father and mother.

Both Earth and Sky were afraid of his expansion and were very small infront of him. The gap created by Indra's expansion never let earth and sky come together. This is where the below line comes in.

4.18.12. Who was he then who made thy Mother widow? Who sought to stay thee lying still or moving? What God, when by the foot thy Sire thou tookest and slewest, was at hand to give thee comfort?

Earth and Sky never united again as a result earth became a widow. Indra did not kill his father. He did gave some center fruit shock to his dad.

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    Well I really wanna know what you think Indra is! If we are taking earth and sky to mean what they normally do what do you think means by Indra growing so huge? BTW keeping their parents apart would not mean killing his dad would it? If that was the case the verse should have mentioned him killing both his mom and dad which as you mentioned in your other answer (the one you quoted here) is not the case. Earth isn't dead so then how can sky be dead? Jul 29, 2017 at 19:50

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