Dear Howard,

Indra`s visible appearence:

according to RV 10,95,8 Indra is hári-keśa and hári-śmaśāru, of  “yellow-red (golden) hair” and “yellow-red (golden) beard”.

hári  is also used of the fire, the sun, of lightening and of Indras horses - and of the Soma plant.

According to Falk, however, hári  denotes  “yellowish-green to green” (Falk, p.85, Soma I and II, BSOAS, Vol. 52, No. 1,1989, pp. 77-90 ),

because this - he thinks - makes that colourful epitheton fit to the “bluish green” (Falk, p.85) colour of the ephedra plant. That would make

Indra the first punk of history.

Rainer Stuhrmann

Stuttgart