Vanquisher of Vritra

Now I will tell you about how I defeated the great demon Vritra when no one else could. To be fair I may have initiated this by killing his brother, but let me start from the very beginning. At first, the Devas, which I am the king of, were in a war with the Asuras. To do battle with them we needed a guru and we had a great one by the name of Brihaspathi. One day, I was just minding my own business and he just walked into my throne room while I was completely engrossed with my jasmine-scented Yuthika flowers. I did not see him and he took this very personally and just left! I was flabbergasted and could not understand why he was so hurt. I went to go find him, but he was nowhere to be found, so I had to go find the Devas a new guru and managed to accomplish this flawlessly. I enlisted Trisiras' help and he gladly joined us even though he was half Asura, and this did make me a little suspicious but we won the war with him on our side.

However, one day I found out that he was secretly making small sacrifices to the Asuras. I could not let this one slide so I killed him even though everyone told me not to, and I now do realize that this was a horrible mistake on my part. His death angered his Asura father Twasta. He was so angry that he created the demon Vritra just to obtain vengeance and slay me. Vritra was the strongest foe I had ever faced. His body was that of a dragon, he had a maw that could swallow multiple elephants whole, his tail was razor sharp and could cut down a whole forest, and when he rose to his full height even the sun was blocked out. The arrival of Vritra also brought a great drought to the land and soon all the crops were dead, and I knew I had to defeat the demon soon.

The Devas and I attacked him with everything we had, but he was not even fazed and defeated us like we were children. Even with the help of my elephant mount Airavata we were still powerless. I asked Vishnu for help after our embarrassing defeat, and he led me to the rishi Dadhichi. He was a pious man whose body had been strengthened through constant prayer, and we used his bones to create divine weapons that could even slay Vritra. When we faced off against the Asuras and Vritra for a second time, the tide of the battle had been changed completely. They could not stand up against the strength of our weapons and soon only Vritra was left.

As I faced off against by myself I could see that he shook with rage and only wanted revenge. His attacks were ferocious and constant. I may have had the ultimate weapon, but I could not even use it due to his countless attacks which did not give me even a moment of rest. With a loud roar Vritra charged at me with his open maw and before I could even do anything he swallowed me and my elephant mount Airavata whole. I realized now that if I did not get out of this situation quick it would be the end of me. Thankfully, my trusty elephant Airavata is a quick thinker and he used his trunk to keep the mouth of Vritra open so he could not chew us. This was all I needed as I jumped off Airavata and brought out my ultimate divine weapon. From the inside of his mouth I cut Vritra's neck off, slayed him, obtained peace, and brought rain back to the land.

Author's Note: This retelling of the battle between Vritra and Indra is quite different because you are able to see how Indra feels after he makes his blunders. Telling the story from Indra's first person point of view can help convey all the emotions he feels and how he approaches problems. He is a very rash character and many times he will jump to conclusions that have disastrous consequences. He started this whole mess for no reason and unleashed a great evil upon the world just because he was too rash. Many times Indra is very childlike and I wanted to make this more apparent. Indra is also always saved by other people and he almost never accomplishes a big task independently. However, he will be having some more development as a character which I am excited to do.

Bibliography: "Indra and Vritra", Mythological Stories

"Indra", Wikipedia