h.
He often is called simply the snake, and as the Budhnya Snake, or
snake of the cloud-depths, is possibly the Python (=Budh-nya).[10]
There is here a touch of primitive belief in an old enemy of man--the
serpent! But the Budhnya Snake has been developed in opposite ways,
and has contradictory functions.[11]

Indra, however, is no more the lightning than he is the sun. One poet
says that he is like the sun;[12] another, that he is like the
lightning (viii. 93. 9), which he carries in his arms (viii. 12. 7);
another, that he is like the light of dawn (x. 89. 12). So various are
the activities, so many the phenomena, that with him first the seer is
obliged to look back of all these phenomena and find in them one
person; and thus he is the most anthropomorphized of the Vedic gods.
He is born of heaven or born of clouds (iv. 18), but that his mother
is Aditi is not certain. As the most powerful god Indra is again
regarded as the All-god (viii. 98. 1-2). With this final supremacy,
that distinction between battle-gods and gods sovereign, which
Bergaigne insists upon--the sovereign gods belonging to _une
conception unitaire de l'ordre du monde_ (iii. p. 3; ii. p.
167)--fades away. As Varuna became gradually greatest, so did Indra in
turn. But Varuna was a philosopher's god, not a warrior's; and Varuna
was not double and mystical. So even the priest (Agni) leaves Varuna,
and with the warrior takes more pleasure in his twin Indra; of him
making an All-god, a greatest god. Varuna is passive; Indra is
energetic; but Indra does not struggle for his lordship. Inspired by
_soma_, he smites, triumphs, punishes. Victor already, he descends
upon his enemies and with a blow destroys them. It is rarely that he
feels the effect of battle; he never doubts its issue.

There is evidence that this supremacy was not gained without
contradiction, and the novelty of the last extravagant Indra-worship
may be deduced, perhaps, from such passages as viii. 96. 15; and 100.
3, where are expressed doubts in regard to the existence of a real
Indra. How late is the worship of the popular Indra, and that it is
not originality that causes his hymns to be placed early in each
collection, may be judged from the fact that only of Indra (and Agni?)
are there idols: viii. 1. 5; iv. 24. 10: "Who gives ten cows for my
Indra? When he has slain his foe let (the purchaser) give him to me
again."[13] Thus it happens that one rarely finds such poems to Indra
as to