Multiplicity

Polytheism is the art of discovering divine multiplicity & is perfectly compatible with monism, pantheism, panentheism, henotheism & even monolatry in some forms. - GA

The Gods are multiple (whether or not they arose from a single being before time). This is clear from the experience they granted to our ancestors the Arya-s - with different names, lores and rituals. There is no good reason to reduce them to “angels” or “demigods” or “facets” of the same entity - it suffices to acknowledge their generality and the provisional nature of their myths. They may even be innumerable - with more Gods revealing themselves to us under changing spatio-temporal and social circumstances. Tradition holds that their number is large in comparison to everyday numbers.

Primodial few

We see that a given deva/devI might present themselves as multiple devatA-s. Thus, they are what may be termed prakR^iti-s. The most abstract of these prakR^iti-s are the ones that have an existence quite independent of humans or any such species & their shAstra-s. - MT

Multiple Gods, same idol

It is valid to approach new God shrines with reference to our experience with previous Gods. It is certainly possible for multiple Gods to be accessible from the very same icon/ portal - even if via the itermediary (mantresha) associated with the particular icon/ shrine. This is akin to multiple doctors sharing the same receptionist.

Also see notes on absorption of foreign deities at the deity competition page.

Drift

now, if jupiter and hinduDeityX are the same IE deity; then why the big difference in form/ weapons etc.?

Identification

There are many possibilities. For example, someone/some community may have discovered that the local God was the God they knew under another name, and so they started calling Them that name, but the substantive character of the local God prevailed over time.

This would be consistent with IE language having some prestige value in early Greece, but the indigenous population being more numerous and their theophanies having persistent strength. Note the persistence of substrate words for important phenomena and a number of divine names.

In fact, Zeus is one of the few Hellenic Gods with an unambiguously Indo-European name; it seems more likely that He acquired it than that others lost theirs or have disparate origins. This is all mere speculation, of course: the devotional perspective is the real.

  • EP Butler

Replacement

Can it be argued that they are entirely different deities? If so, at what point would the IE deity have made way for Jupiter & hinduDeityX?

Indra (or Rudra) of the Indo-Arya-s is not necessarily the same as Zeus of the Greeks or Jupiter of the Romans - they may well have been “offspring” of the same God adored by our common ancestors. Just because two doctor brothers appear similar, it does not follow that they are the same. (Though their origin could be termed human-dependent, once “born”, they’re for ever.) The same may apply to “same” Gods at different locations.

It could be that Dyaus became the epithet of another deity (perhaps even one with a similar but unrelated name), and then the epithet came to be regarded as the name. - EP Butler

So, even though generation after generation people thought they adored the same particular God, at some point one branch took to another God due to local conditions/ encounters etc.. by applying known epithets and such to the latter.

New shrines

  • Trinidad and Tobago

“Yet it was in 1995, during the celebration of Trinidad and Tobago’s 150th Anniversary of Indian Arrival Day that interested persons in India collected water and dust from two thousand sacred pilgrimage places along the Ganges and this was then brought to Trinidad in two urns specially made of several metals. The dust of nine sacred locations in Trinidad was also added and then, using a machine, a hole was pierced deep into a large slab of stone where the ancient design was interred. Then all was buried at a place (called the prayaag) where two rivers converged to form one, thereby consecrating the river. Thus was teerath created here, making the river officially and spiritually Ganga for local Hindus to come and worship at.” Triniview.

  • Mauritius
    • Mauritius gangA and mauritiuseshvara.

Connection to shrines

A connection to not only a deity, but also to a very particular individuation of the deity at a specific shrine. It’s the feeling one might get when rallying around the flag of one’s dhArmika state. The kind for which you might punch, shoot and kill without thinking. Upon reflection, I did this double-take: I may not be able say with a straight face that viShNu is supreme over all other deities; but I can say that no deity comes anywhere close in stature to the specific viShNu who is the lord of champakApurI hamlet. - KV