Above the spirits of fire, of the first streaks of light, of the dawn, and the sun, are those gods of the clear sky, with which we have already made acquaintance, as belonging partly to the undivided possessions of the Indo-Europeans, and partly to the undivided possessions of the Aryas in Iran and on the Indus. Though still enthroned in the highest light and the highest sky, these spirits are nevertheless, in the minds of the Aryas, expelled from the central position in their religious conceptions and worship, by a form which, though it did not spring up in the land of the Indus, first attained this pre-eminent position among the Aryas there. With the tribes of Iran, the god of the clear sky, the god of light, is Mitra, the victorious champion against darkness and demons. It is he who has overcome Veretra, the prince of the evil ones, the demon of darkness; as a warrior-god, he is for the Iranians the god of battles, the giver of victory. The nature of the land of the Panjab was calculated to give a special development and peculiar traits to the ancient conception of the struggle of the god of light against the demon of darkness. There the pastures were parched in the height of summer, the fields burnt, the springs and streams dried up, until at length, long awaited and desired, the storms bring the rain. Phenomena of so violent a nature as the tropical storms were unknown to the Aryas before they entered this region. The deluge of water in storm and tempest, the return of the clear sky and sunlight after the dense blackness of the storm, could not be without influence on the existing conceptions of the struggle with the spirits. In the heavy black clouds which came before the storm, the Aryas saw the dark spirits, Vritra and Ahi, who would change the light of the sky into night, quench the sun, and carry off the water of the sky. The tempest which preceded the outbreak of the storm, the lightning which parted the heavy clouds, and caused the rain to stream down, the returning light of the sun in the sky, these must be the beneficent saving acts of a victorious god, who rendered vain the object of the demons, wrested from them the waters they had carried off, rekindled the light of the sun, sent the waters on the earth, caused streams and rivers to flow with renewed vigour, and gave fresh life to the withered pastures and parched fields. These conceptions underlie the mighty form into which the struggle of the demons grew up among the Aryas on the Indus, the god of storm and tempest--Indra. The army of the winds fights at his side, just as the wild army surrounds the storm-god of the Germans. Indra is a warrior, who bears the spear; heaven and earth tremble at the sound of his spear. This sound is the thunder, his good spear is the lightning; with this he smites the black clouds, the black bodies of the demons which have sucked up the water of the sky; with it he rekindles the sun.[86] With it he milks the cows, _i.e._ the clouds; shatters the towers of the demons, _i.e._ the tempests which gather round the mountain top; and hurls back the demons when they would ascend heaven.[87] "I will sing of the victories of Indra, which the god with the spear carried off," so we read in the hymns of the Veda. "On the mountain he smote Ahi; he poured out the waters, and let the river flow from the mountains; like calves to cows, so do the waters hasten to the sea. Like a bull, Indra dashed upon the sacrifice, and drank thrice of the prepared drink, then he smote the first-born of the evil one. When thou, Indra, didst smite them, thou didst overcome the craft of the guileful: thou didst beget the sun, the day, and the dawn. With a mighty cast Indra smote the dark Vritra, so that he broke his shoulders; like a tree felled with an axe Ahi sank to the earth. The waters now run over the corpse of Ahi, and the enemy of Indra sleeps there in the long darkness."[88] "Thou hast opened the cave of Vritra rich in cattle; the fetters of the streams thou hast burnt asunder."[89]