International Conference
In The Mirror Of Dharma : Indian Culture Through The Ages
29 February – 1 March 2016
Indology Department, Sofia University
Sofia, Bulgaria
Presented by: Ramendra Pandey
In the story of vitrèsura Sangrama, the Vitra (clouds) covers the sky, so the gods (rays of sun) had to fight with the clouds to reach the surface of earth but could not succeed, it is this, which is taken as the defeat of deities and victory of Asuras. And due to heat of the sun (sêrya) the clouds rain, and the rays reach the earth, this is the defeat of Asuras by Indra (sêrya).
The scientific aspect of this mythical legend is convectional precipitation i.e. Rainfall. In this precipitation the actuating force is the thermal convection of heat & moist air masses (clouds). The moisture in the form of water vapors is present in the atmosphere. The ascending currents of air makes Cloudy condensation and after the process of adiabatic cooling.
The vapors changes into water droplets and Ice crystals. Which constitute the clouds. The International Cloud Atlas describes 10 main cloud genera (families) which are sub dived into 14 species based on their shape & structure. Certain type of clouds floating in the air all time have no precipitation. When the Nimbo stratus clouds, Cumulonimpus clouds which do rain, wrapped the sky, then the sun rays do not reach the surface of the earth, these clouds which rain are called as V‚itra, Asura, varèha etc.
In the vedic script and the war in between the clouds and Indra (SÊrya) Sun is rhetorically described in texts. In further description of this event, in Parvarti Sahitya, the human kings (like MÈndhÈtÈ, Nahusha, Dushyanta) are taken into account, who ascend through the sky to reach up to the area which is wrapped by Asuras whom he defeats and the deities become victorious.
