 The "Shatapatha Brahmana"'s commentator, Kumarila Bhatta (c. 700), reasons that the Ahalya–Indra narrative is an allegory for the Sun or the light (Indra) taking away the shade of night (Ahalya).Edward Washburn Hopkins, an American indologist, interpreted the Ahalya of the "subrahmanya" formula not as a woman, but literally as "yet unploughed land", which Indra makes fertile.The "Bala Kanda" of the "Ramayana" is the earliest text to describe Ahalya's seduction in detail.