Indra’s Family Tree

About Indra →

Family

• Suja(spouse)— Marriage

  Sakka won Sujā, daughter of the asura king Vepacitti, as his bride — a union that bound the lord of the devas to the bloodline of his sworn enemies.

Allied with

• Gautama Buddha

  Indra is Gautama Buddha's most devoted celestial supporter, attending key moments including sheltering him, receiving teachings, and escorting him from Trayastrimsha heaven.

Enemy of

• Asura

  Indra wages recurring war against the Asuras, who were cast out of Tavatimsa heaven and continually battle to reclaim it.

Rules over

• Four Heavenly Kings

  Indra commands the Four Heavenly Kings, who guard the four cardinal directions of Mount Meru under his authority as king of Trayastrimsha heaven.

• Mount Meru

  Indra (Shakra) rules from the summit of Mount Meru in the Trayastrimsha heaven, presiding over the thirty-three gods and the cosmic mountain itself.

Member of

• Devaputra

  Indra reigns as Sakka, king of the Devaputra and lord of Tavatimsa heaven atop Mount Meru, presiding over the thirty-three gods who feast in splendor until their merit expires and they fall to lower realms.

Equivalent to

• Hwanin(Korean),Indra(Persian),Indra(Hindu)

  Hindu Indra, Buddhist Indra (Sakka/Shakra), Persian Indra, and Korean Hwanin share origins in Proto-Indo-Iranian religion. The Samguk Yusa identifies Hwanin with Indra (帝釋天); in Buddhism Indra protects the Dharma; in Persian tradition he is demonized as a daeva.

  ⚠ Whether Hwanin is an indigenous Korean supreme deity identified with Indra through Buddhist terminology by the monk Iryeon, or a direct adoption of the Buddhist Śakra into Korean cosmogony, remains debated. The Samguk Yusa explicitly equates them: 桓因卽釋提桓因也.

Associated with

• Vajra

  Indra wields the vajra as his thunderbolt, the weapon with which he slew the serpent Vritra and split open the waters — an act of cosmic liberation that Buddhism later reinterpreted as the diamond scepter of indestructible truth.