Posted:
The current track, or rather tonight's track, of Indra killing Trishiras creates the opening again for the return of Vritra, if they show it that way. I've read 2 ACKs, both w/ different accounts of the story. While one of them shows Indra in his usual scheming mode, the other gives a perfectly rational foundation of why Indra did what he did.
The one Indra & Sachi has it that Indra was simply jealous of the 3 headed Trishiras, who was a boy, and killed him w/ his Vajra while he was meditating (what they showed in the serial). However, Trishira's eyes continued to stare at him, and he asked a woodcutter to cut off the heads of the corpse. After that, he sharpened the latter's ax again w/ his vajra, and released him. Vritra was invoked to try & kill him, and Indra, after being at the receiving end of a few defeats, signed a truce with him. Vritra demanded that Indra promise not to kill him with any weapon - wet nor dry, nor at any time day or night. Indra agreed.
One evening, at the beach, Indra decided to break his deal w/o violating the vow. He noticed foam on the ocean, and noted that it can't be considered a weapon, nor was it wet nor dry. Twilight isn't day or night. He appealed to Vishnu for help, and Vishnu entered the foam. When Indra hurled it at Vritra, the latter got killed. Due to his treachery, and also the Brahmhatya, he abdicated his throne and disappeared, the Devas got Nahusha and made him their king, and then started the story of Nahusha stalking Sachi once he saw her.
The other ACK Indra & Vritra has a different story, and this one is much more favorable to Indra. What happened here was that one day, while Indra was in his court and the devas were enjoying the apsara dance & entertainment, Brihaspati arrived, but nobody noticed him. He was completely ignored and left in a huff. As usual, those were some of the times of the devasura wars, and the devas relied on the yagnas to have the edge. Brihaspati disappearing gave the edge to the asuras, and they won the next few battles against the devas.
Indra then approached Brahma for advise, and he suggested adapting another guru, proposing Trishiras' name. Indra pointed out that while Trishiras was the son of Twastha, his mother was related to the asuras, so he was bound to have some emotional loyalties to the asuras. Brahma assured him that this wasn't the case, so Indra invited Trishiras to take Brihaspati's position, and the latter agreed.
Initially, the tide turned in favor of the devas, as they won their next few battles with the asuras. However, Trishiras was unhappy at the asuras being trounced, and decided to secretly dedicate part of the yagna to them as well. The next few battles b/w the devas & asuras were stalemates, puzzling Indra, so he decided to get to the root of that. During the next yagna, he made it a point to follow closely what Trishiras was doing, and noticed that Trishiras was secretly chanting another prayer in parallel to the one he was supposed to. Then finally, when the ghee offering moment came, Trishiras put a spoon of the ghee into the havankund, dedicating it to the devas, and Indra was puzzled as to why he didn't empty the entire pot into it. Trishiras did that next, dedicating it for the asuras, and Indra, furious at his treachery, drew his sword and cut off his heads. His heads took the form of 3 birds that flew back to his father, Twastha.
Once Twastha divined what had happened to Trishiras, he did another yagna, and this was where and how Vritra was created! He ordered Vritra to avenge Trishiras. The next devasura war, the battle was a stalemate, but suddenly, Vritra arrived and trounced the devas.
Indra then went to Brahma or Vishnu and asked them how to defeat Vritra. They pointed out that since Vritra's powers came from Rishi Twastha's tapabal, the only way to kill him was if another sage w/ the same powers that matched donated his skeleton to create a weapon that would slay him. They suggested the name of Dadhichi. So Indra approached Dadhichi w/ the Ashwini Kumars, and requested him for his skeleton. Dadichi took an yogic pose and gave up his life, and with his skeleton, Vishwakarma made the Vajra and handed it to Indra. In their next battle, Indra managed to kill Vritra.
This is the story of why Dadhichi's bones were needed to make a weapon to kill Vritra. As is noted, here, Indra didn't really do any wrong by his Brahmahatya, since Trishiras had split loyalties, and really had no business being the guru of the devas. If anyone ought to be blamed for his death, it ought to be Brahma, who must have known that Trishiras had not overcome his attachments and was therefore unsuitable for this task.
The thing I do wonder is - will they show the return of Vritra and Indra confronting him for the last time, as well as the balidan of Dadhichi? Or will they go straight to the other track where Indra abdicates his throne, and the devas invite Nahusha to occupy it?
