Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

14 Dec 2002, 1:33 a.m.

It is my considered opinion, based on many years of…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

It is my considered opinion, based on many years of reading Amar Chitra Katha comics, that Indra is not the king of the gods. He convenes councils to try to protect heaven from rakshasa invasions, a task which almost always falls to Vishnu or suchlike in the end. Once in a while he goes head-to-head with Vishnu or Shiva and loses, either directly or in some proxy battle fought on earth. Perhaps a more modern translation would have Indra be Secretary-General of the gods.