 Primarily because the Avestan adjective "verethragnan" (victorious) had a corresponding Vedic term "vrtrahan" where it appeared "preponderantly [as] a qualification of Indra", Zoroastrians and Hindus accept that in Indo-Iranian times there existed the warrior god "Indra" and that Avestan "Verethragna" might be analogous to that divine figure.But western scholars oppose this identification.In the Avesta, it is the hero warrior-priest "Fereydun" who battles the serpent "Aži Dahāka" (which, for the virtue of 'Azi' being cognate with Sanskrit 'Ahi', snake, is – by proponents of the theory - associated with Vedic Vritra).