Deity · Vedic · c. 1400 BCE
Vritra
Also called Ahi
The serpent who encloses the waters, slain by Indra — the Indo-European cousin of Lotan, Leviathan, Tiamat and Apep.
Narrow source base
The name means the encloser, and the act is withholding rather than attacking: he holds the waters and the world is dry until Indra kills him. That makes him the Vedic member of a family this corpus keeps meeting — Lotan, Leviathan, Tiamat, Jörmungandr, Apep — the serpent that has to be dealt with before anything can work. What later Vedic tradition does with him is make the killing a problem: in texts outside this corpus the slaying is brahmin-killing, and Indra's guilt is parcelled out among the earth, the trees and the waters. The corpus can show the argument beginning rather than assert it — the Shatapatha, which it does hold, has Indra kill Tvashtri's three-headed son and then insists he was free from that sin. This entry therefore rests on the Rigveda alone, and says so, because the second witness it was given turned out not to name him.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
None. The obstacle Indra exists to remove.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- Rigveda · c. 1500-1200 BCE
- Rank
- Serpent of Drought
- Pantheon
- Vedic
- Order
- Vedic
- Base of operations
- None. The obstacle Indra exists to remove.
- Era
- c. 1400 BCE
- Traditions
- Vedic & Hindu
- Placed in
- Devas and Asuras
Traits
- Domain
- Drought, obstruction, enclosure of the waters
- Traditional form
- A serpent or dragon coiled about the mountain waters
Stats
Known connections
Opposed by
Identified with
1 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 1 offices attributed to Vritra, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- malefic1
malefic
1 mark
Which marks is it attached to?
A mark a figure carries and a mark used against a figure are opposite claims, so each link says which it is.
1 texts
Which texts say so?
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Vritra?
Is Vritra the same as Lotan?
What rank is Vritra?
How else is Vritra spelled?
What is Vritra said to do?
How old is Vritra?
Nearest in the corpus
If Vritra is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Indra
King of the Devas · Vedic
The thunderbolt-wielding king of the gods, who slays the serpent Vritra and releases the pent waters. It is the Indo-European form of the same combat myth as Baal against Yam.
Agni
God of Fire · Vedic
Fire as the mouth of the gods — the one who carries offerings upward, and so the messenger of the Vedic system.
Rudra
The Howler · Vedic
The fierce archer who sends disease and withholds it — addressed in the Rigveda with open fear, and later absorbed into Shiva.
The Asuras
Class of Beings · Vedic
In the earliest Rigveda a title of honour for the highest gods; by the later Vedic period, the demonic opponents of the devas. The same word, inverted within one tradition.
Varuna
Keeper of Cosmic Order · Vedic
Binder of the oath-breaker with his noose. The earliest hymns call him *asura*, using the word as an honorific, long before it turned demonic.
Yama
Lord of Death · Vedic
The first mortal to die, and so the king of the dead who judges those who follow. Azrael and Anubis hold the same office under other names.
The book behind Vritra
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. It is public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
Rigveda
Anonymous; multiple rishi families · c. 1500-1200 BCE · Vedic Sanskrit
Read Rigveda in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Unknown author · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.