Devalok
God · All traditions · Pan-India

Parjanya

Also called: Parjanya the Thunderer

The rain cloud as a god. Three Rigveda hymns are his (5.83, 7.101, 7.102). He is a roaring bull who lays the seed in plants, drives a water-laden chariot, tips out a waterskin, splits trees with thunder and is asked at the end to hold the rain back. He is called father, son of Dyaus, husband of the Earth; the frogs sing when he wakes them (7.103). Later the word means simply rain or cloud; the Vishnu Purana seats him among the twelve Adityas as the one of the month of Kartik.

Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1895); The Vishnu Purana, tr. H. H. Wilson (1840); Vedic Mythology, A. A. Macdonell (1897) · see Parjanya's web

Relations 4

Parjanya child of

  • Dyaus (God)
    Parjanya is called a son of Dyaus.

Parjanya consort of

  • Prithvi (God)
    The Earth is by implication Parjanya's wife (RV 5.83.4); Atharvaveda 12.1.12 says Earth is the mother and Parjanya the father. Elsewhere the Atharvaveda names his wife as Vasha.

Parjanya form of

  • Indra (God)
    The god Parjanya is sometimes identified with Indra in the Mahabharata.

Parjanya parent of

  • Soma (God)
    Parjanya is the father of the mighty bird, that is of Soma.

Stories 4

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