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According to AYilson, " the White Huns or Indo- Scythians, who were established in the Panjab and along the Indus at the commencement of our era, as we know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy, confirmed by recent discoveries of their coins," and since still further confirmed by inscriptions and additional coins. Dr. Pitzedward Hall says, " I am not pre- pared to deny that the ancient Hindus, when they spoke of the HiiTzas, intended the Huns. In the Middle Ages, however, it is certain that a race called HiiTia was understood by the learned of India to form a division of the Kshatrivas." — V. P. ii. 134. HUX-DEaS'A. The country round Lake Manasarovara. HUSHKA HUYISHKA.*^ A Tushkara or Turk i king, whose name is mentioned in the Raja Tarangiwi as Hushka, which has been found in inscriptions as Huvishka, and upon the corrupt Greek coins as Oerki. He is supposed to have reigned just at the commencement of the Christian era. See Kanishka. Ii)A. In the i?^"g-veda Ma is primarily food, refreshment, or a libation of milk ; thence a stream of praise, personified as the goddess of speech. She is called the instructress of j\lanu, and frequent passages ascribe to her the first institution of the rules of performing sacrifices. According to Sriya??a, she is the goddess presiding over the earth. A legend in the *S'atapatha BrfdimaTza represents her as springing from a sacrifice wliich IManu per- formed for the purpose of obtaining offspring. She Avas claimed by Mitra-Yaru?ia, but remained faithful to liiin who had pro- IDA—INDRA. 123 duced lier. IManu lived with her, and praying and fasting to obtain offspring, he begat upon her the race of Mann. In the Pura?2as she is daughter of the Mann Vaivaswata, wife of P>udha (Mercury), and mother of Pururavas. The Manu Yaivas- wata, before he had sons, instituted a sacrifice to Mitra and Varu?ia for the purpose of obtaining one ; but the ofhciating priest mismanaged the performance, and the result was the birth of a daughter, I(ia or Ila. Through the favour of the two deities her sex was changed, and she became a man, Su-dyumna. Under the malediction of /S'iva, Su-dyumna M^as again turned into a woman, and, as Ila, married Budha or Mercury. After she had given birth to Pururavas, she, under the favour of Yisli^iu, once more became Su-dyumna, and was the father of three sons. According to another version of the legend, the Manu's eldest son was named Ila. He having trespassed on a grove sacred to Parvati, was changed into a female, Ila. Upon the supplica- tions and prayers of Ila's friends, /S'iva and his consort conceded that the offender should be a male one month and a female another. There are other variations in the story which is appa- rently ancient. YBKNYDK. Daughter of Trwabindu and the Apsaras Alam- busha. There are different statements in the Puranas as regards her. She is represented to be the wife of Yisravas and mother of Kuvera, or the wife of Pulastya and mother of Visravas. IKSHWAKU. Son of the Manu Yaivaswat, who was son of Yivaswat, the sun. " He was born from the nostril of the Manu as he happened to sneeze." Ikshwaku was founder of the Solar race of kings, and reigned in Ayodhya at the beginning of the second Yuga or age. He had a hundred sons, of whom the eldest was Yikukshi. Another son, named Nimi, founded the Mithila dynasty. According to Max Miiller the name is men- tioned once, and only once, in the itig-veda. Respecting this he adds : " I take it, not as the name of a king, but as the name of a people, probably the people who inhabited Bhajeratha, the country washed by the northern Ganga or Bhaglratlii." Others place the Ikshwakus in the north-west. ILA, ILA. See, I(^a. ILAYILA. See Irfavi(ia. ILYALA. See Yatapi. INDPA. The god of the firmament, the personified atmo- 124 INDRA. sphere. In tlie Vedas lie stands in the first rank among the gods, but he is not uncreate, and is represented as having a father and mother : " a vigorous god begot him ; a heroic female brought him fortL" He is described as being of a ruddy or golden colour, and as having arms of enormous length ; " but his forms are endless, and he can assume any shape at will." He rides in a bright golden car, drawn by two tawny or ruddy horses with flowing manes and tails. His weapon is the thun- derbolt, which he carries in his right hand ; he also uses arrows, a great hook, and a net, in which he is said to entangle his foes. The soma juice is his especial delight ; he takes enormous draughts of it, and, stimulated by its exhilarating qualities, he goes forth to war against his foes, and to perform his other duties. As deity of the atmosphere, he governs the weather and dispenses the rain ; he sends forth his lightnings and thunder, and he is continually at war with Y?'itra or Ahi, the demon of drought and inclement weather, whom he overcomes with his thunderbolts, and compels to pour down the rain. Strabo describes the Indians as worshipping Jupiter Pluvius, no doubt meaning Indra, and he has also been compared to Jupiter Tonans. One myth is that of his discovering and rescuing the cows of the priests or of the gods, which had been stolen by an Asura named Pa?ii or Yala, wdiom he killed, and he is hence called Yala-bhid. He is frequently represented as destroying the "stone-built cities" of the Asuras or atmospheric demons, and of the Dasyus or aborigines of India. In his warfare he is sometimes represented as escorted by troops of Maruts, and attended by his comrade Vishwu. More hymns are addressed to Indra than to any other deity in the Vedas, with the exception" of Agni. For he was reverenced in his beneficent character as the bestower of rain and the cause of fertility, and he was feared as the awful ruler of the storm and director of the lightning and thunder. In many places of the i?ig-veda the highest divine functions and attributes are ascribed to him. There was a triad of gods — Agni, Vayu, and Siirya — which held a pre-eminence above the rest, and Indra frequently took the place of Yfiyu. In some parts of the Veda, as Dr. INIuir remarks, the ideas expressed of Indra are grand and lofty; at other times he is treated with familiarity, and his devotion to the soma juice is dilated upon, though nothing debasing is perceived in his sensuality. Indra INDRA. 125 is mentioned as having a wife, and the name of Indnmi or Aindri is invoked among the goddesses. In the /S'atapatha Brahma^a she is called India's beloved wife. In the later mythology Indra has fallen into the second rank. He is inferior to the triad, but he is the chief of all the other gods. He is the regent of the atmosphere and of the east quarter of the compass, and he reigns over Swarga, the heaven of the gods and of beatified spirits, which is a region of great magnificence and splendour. He retains many of his Vedic characteristics, and some of them are intensified. He sends the lightning and hurls the thunderbolt, and the rainbow is his bow. He is frequently at war with the Asuras, of whom he lives in constant dread, and by whom he is often worsted. But he slew the demon Yntra, who, being regarded as a Brahman, Indra had to conceal himself and make sacrifice until his guilt was purged away. His continued love for the soma juice is shown by a legend in the Maha-bharata, which represents him as being com- pelled by the sage Chyavana to allow the Aswins to partake of the soma libations, and his sensuality has now developed into an extreme lasciviousness. Many instances are recorded of his incontinence and adultery, and his example is frequently referred to as an excuse in cases of gallantry, as by King Nahusha when he tried to obtain Indra's wife while the latter was hiding in fear for having killed the Brahman in the person of the demon V/itra. According to the Maha-bharata he seduced, or endea- voured to seduce, Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama, and that sage's curse impressed upon him a thousand marks resem- bling the female organ, so he was caUed Sa-yoni ; but these marks were afterwards changed to eyes, and he is hence called JSTetra-yoni, and Sahasraksha 'the thousand-eyed.' In the Eamaya/za it is related that RavaTia, the Rakshasa king of Lanka or Ceylon, warred against Indra in his own heaven, and that Indra was defeated and carried off to Lanka by Eava??a's son Megha-nada, who for this exploit received the title of Indra-jit (q.v.), ' conqueror of Indra.