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SECTION V.

MITRA AND VARUNA.

(1) General idea of these two gods.

These two deities are very frequently found in conjunction. Varuna is also often separately celebrated; Mitra but seldom. Their frequent association is easily explained if the commentators are right in understanding Mitra to represent the day, and Varuna the night. Thus Sāyaṇa says on R.V. i. 89, 3: "Mitra is the god who presides over the day, according to the Vedic text, 'the day is Mitra's'" (aharabhimāninam devam | "Maitram vai ahar" iti śruteḥ); and again, "Varuna is derived from the root vri, to cover; he envelops the wicked in his snares; and is the god who rules over the night, according to the text, 'the night is Varuna's 109" (vrinoti | pāpakṛitaḥ svakiyaiḥ pāśair āvṛinoti iti rātry-abhimāni-devo Varunaḥ śrüyate cha "Vārunī rātrir" [Taitt. Br. i. 7, 10, 1] iti |). In the same way the commentator on the Taittirīya Sanhitā, i. 8, 16, 1 (Bibl. Ind. vol. ii. p. 164), affirms that the "word Mitra denotes the sun (Mitra-sabdasya sūryavāchitvāt), and that the "word Varuna signifies one who envelops like

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109 See also his note on i. 141, 9, where he gives the same explanation regarding Mitra and Varuna, and adds that Aryaman is the god who goes between the other two (Aryama ubhayor madhya-vartlī devaḥ). According to his note on i. 90, 1, Aryaman is the sun who makes the division of day and night (Aryamā aho-rātravibhāgasya kartṭā sūryaḥ). Compare also his note on ii. 38, 8, where he says that Varuna is represented as giving resting-places to creatures after sunset, because he carries on the affairs of the night (Yonim sthānam nimishi nimeshe Savitur astasamaye sati viśramārtham prāṇibhyaḥ prayachhati | Varunasya rātrer nirvāhākatvāt). In i. 35, 1, Mitra and Varuna are invoked along with Agni, Night and Savitri: "I invoke first Agni for our welfare; I invoke hither Mitra and Varuna to our aid; I invoke Night who gives rest to the world; I invoke the divine Savitri to our assistance" (hvayāmi Agnim prathamam svastaye hvayāmi Mitrā-varuṇāv ihāvase | hvayāmi rātrīm jagato niveśanīm hvayāmi devam Savitāram ūtaye).

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darkness" (Varuna-sabdasya andhakāra-vad āvaraka-vāchitvāt), according to the text (above given, in p. 58, of the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, i. 7, 10, 1), "the day is Mitra's and the night is Varuna's." In another part of the Taittiriya Sanhita, vi. 4, 8, we read: Na vai idam divā na naktam āsīd avyākṛitam | te devāḥ Mitrā-varuṇāv abruvan “idam no vivāsayatam" iti | . . . . Mitro 'har ajanayad Varuno rātrim | "This world had neither day nor night, but was (in that respect) undistinguished. The gods said to Mitra and Varuna, 'Make a separation.'. ... Mitra produced the day, and Varuna the night." (See the same Sanhitā ii. 1, 7, 4.) In R.V. viii. 41, 3, it is said of Varuṇa, "The conspicuous god has embraced the nights, by his wisdom he has established the days, and everything perfectly" (sa kshapaḥ parishasvaje ni usro māyayā dadhe sa viśvam pari darśatah |). In his note on another passage (R.V. vii. 87, 1) Sayana says that it is the setting sun which is called Varuna, who by his departure creates the nights (Astam gachhan sūryaḥ eva Varunaḥ ity uchyate | sa hi sva-gamanena rātrīr janayati |). The Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, xii. 9, 2, 12, says: "This (terrestrial) world is Mitra; the other (the celestial) world is Varuna" (ayam vai loko Mitraḥ | asau Varunaḥ |)

(2) Their chief characteristics.

The following are some of the principal characteristics of these gods, as represented in the Rig-veda. Varuna is, sometimes at least, visible to the mental eye of his worshippers. Thus, in i. 25, 18, the rishi says: Darśam nu viśva-darśatam darśam ratham adhi kshami | "I beheld him who is visible to all; I beheld his chariot upon the ground." In vii. 88, 2, also, the poet exclaims: Adha nu asya sandṛiśam jaganvān Agner anīkam Varunasya mamśi | “When I have obtained a vision of Varuna, I have regarded his lustre as resembling that of Agni.' " 110 Mighty and fixed in purpose, he sits in his abode exercising sovereignty (i. 25, 10: Ni shasāda dhritavrato Varunaḥ pastyāsu ā | samrājyāya sukratuḥ |). He is arrayed in golden mail, and surrounded by his messengers or angels (i. 25, 13: Bibhrad drāpiñ hiranyayam Varuno vasta nirnijam |

111

110 See Roth's article on "The highest gods of the Arian races," Journ. Germ. Or. Society, vi. 71.

111 Golden mail is also assigned to Savitri (iv. 53, 2).

112

pari spaso ni shedire). His house, at which the worshippers are said to have arrived, has a thousand doors (vii. 88, 5: Brihantam mānam Varuna svadhāvaḥ sahasradvāram jagama griham te). Again he is described as occupying, along with Mitra, a stable palace supported by a thousand columns (ii. 41, 5: Rājānā anabhidruhā dhruve sadasi uttame | sahasrasthune asate | v. 62, 6: Rājanā kshattram ahṛinīyamānā sahasrasthūnam bibhṛithaḥ saha dvau |). The two deities ascend their chariot, which is drawn by horses, and is golden-coloured at the break of day, and takes the hue of iron at the setting of the sun (v. 62, 8, already quoted in p. 42).13 Mounted on their car, and soaring in the highest empyrean, they behold all things in heaven and earth (v. 62, 4, 8; v. 63, 1: Ritasya gopāv adhi tishthato ratham satyadharmānā parame vyomani). Varuna is said to be farsighted (uruchakshas, i. 25, 5, 16; viii. 90, 2); and thousand-eyed (sahasrachakshas, vii. 34, 10). In one place mention is made of his golden-winged messenger (hiranyapaksham Varunasya dūtam, x. 123, 6), and elsewhere the sun is called the eye of Mitra and Varuna (chakshur Mitrasya Varunasya, vii. 61, 1; vii. 63, 1; x. 37, 1). Along with Aryaman, another of the Adityas, these two gods are called sun-eyed (sūrachakshasaḥ, vii. 66, 10). They are also denominated supānī, the beautiful or skilful-handed. Varuna is frequently spoken of as a king (rājā Varunaḥ, i. 24, 7, 8; iv. 1, 2; v. 40, 7; vii. 64, 1; x. 103, 9; x. 173, 5); as king of all (x. 132, 4); as king of all, both gods and men (ii. 27, 10: tvam viśveshām Varuna asi rāja ye cha devāḥ asura ye cha marttāḥ |); as king of the universe (viśvasya bhuvanasya, v. 85, 3), and of all that exists (sato asya, vii. 87, 6); as an universal monarch (samrāț, i. 25, 10; ii. 28, 6; v. 85, 1; vi. 68, 9; viii. 42, 1); as a self-dependent ruler svarāţ, ii. 28, 1). The same epithets of king and universal monarch are also applied in other places to Mitra and Varuna conjointly (as in i. 71, 9; i. 136, 1, 4; i. 137, 1; v. 62, 6; v. 63, 2, 3, 5; v. 65, 2; v. 68, 2; vii. 64, 2; viii. 23, 30; viii. 25, 4, 7, 8; viii. 90, 2; x. 65, 5),114

112 Compare Ovid. Met. ii. 1 ff. Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis, etc. His golden house is, according to A.V. vii. 83, 1, built in the waters (apsu te rājan Varuna griho hiranyayo mitaḥ).

113 I follow Roth here in understanding uditā sūryasya not of the rising (as the phrase generally means), but of the setting of the sun. It is thus only that the iron colour of the chariot becomes intelligible.

114 The same deities with Aryaman are called kings in i. 41, 3; and kings of men

Power, martial strength, or sovereign authority, kshattra, is also constantly predicated of one or both of these deities; and they as well as the Adityas generally are denominated the strong, or martial, gods, kshattriyāḥ (as in i. 24, 6; i. 25, 5; i. 136, 1; v. 66, 2; v. 67, 1; v. 68, 1, 3; vi. 49, 1; vi. 51, 10; 115 vi. 67, 5, 6; vii. 34, 11; vii. 64, 2; viii. 25, 8; viii. 56, 1; viii. 90, 2). They are also designated as rudra, the terrible (v. 70, 2, 3); as asurā, the divine (vii. 36, 2; viii. 25, 4; viii. 27, 20); as the divine and lordly deities (asurā tāv aryā) among the gods (vii. 65, 2). The epithet asura, divine, is frequently applied to Varuna in particular (as in i. 24, 14; ii. 27, 10; v. 85, 5, 6; viii. 42, 1), though it is also given to other deities of the Vedic pantheon.

Another word employed to express their divine power, or wisdom, is māyā;116 and Varuna is sometimes called the mayin, the possessor of this attribute (vi. 48, 14; vii. 28, 4; x. 99, 10; x. 147, 5). While in some places (iii. 61, 7; v. 63, 4) this quality (māyā) is ascribed to the two deities themselves, in other verses of the last quoted hymn (v. 63, 3, 7) they are said to cause the heaven to rain, and to uphold their ordinances, through the power (māyayā) of the divine being (asurasya). It might appear as if the word asura denoted here some great deity distinct from, and superior to, Mitra and Varuna, through whose strength they acted; but in other places, as we have already seen, the term asura is distinctly used as an epithet of Varuna and the other Adityas.

(3) Functions and attributes of Varuna.

The grandest cosmical functions are ascribed to Varuna. Possessed of illimitable resources (or knowledge), this divine being has meted out, (or fashioned), and upholds, heaven and earth; he dwells in all worlds as sovereign ruler (viii.42, 1: Astabhnad dyām asuro viśvaredāḥ amimīta varimānam pṛithivyāḥ | āsīdad viśvā bhuvanāni samrāḍ viśvā it tāni Varunasya vratāni), indeed, the three worlds are em(rajānas charshaṇīnām) in x. 26, 6. In vii. 66, 11, it is said: "The kings Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman, who established the year, the month, and the day, etc., enjoy unrivalled dominion (ye vi dadhuḥ śaradam māsam ād ahar yajnam aktum cha ād ṛicham | anōpyam Varuno Mitro Aryamā kshatram rājānaḥ āśata).

115 In these two last passages Agni shares with Mitra and Varuna the epithet of rukshatra.

116 It is also ascribed to other deities: see Böhtlingk and Roth, s.v.

117

braced within him (vii. 87, 5: tisro dyavo nihitaḥ antar asmin tisro bhūmīḥ); he made the golden and revolving sun to shine in the firmament (ibid. gritso rājā Varunas chakre etam divi prenkham hiranyayam subhe kam | comp. v. 85, 2). See also vi. 70, 1; vii. 86, 1; vii. 87, 6; viii. 41, 4, 5, 10. The wind which resounds through the atmosphere is his breath (vii. 87, 2: ātmā te vāto rajaḥ ā navīnot). He has opened boundless paths for the sun,11 and has hollowed out channels for the rivers, which flow by his command (i. 24, 8: Urum hi rājā Varuṇaś chakāra sūryāya panthām anu etave u | ii. 28, 4: Pra sim Ādityo asṛijad vidhartta ritam sindhave Varunasya yanti | vii. 87, 1: Radat patho Varuṇaḥ sūryāya praa rṇām̃si samudriyā nadīnām). By his wonderful contrivance the rivers pour their waters into the one ocean, but never fill it 18 (v. 85, 6: imām u nu kavitamasya māyām mahim devasya nakir adadharsha | ekam yad udna na prinanti enīr āsinchantir avanayaḥ samudram). His ordinances are fixed and unassailable 119 (iii. 54, 18: Adabdhāni Varunasya vratāni). They rest on him, unshaken, as upon a mountain (ii. 28, 8: Tve hi kam parvate na śṛitāni aprachyutāni dūlabha vratāni | See also i. 25, 6, 10; i. 44, 14; i. 141, 9; ii. 1, 4; viii. 25, 2, where the word dhṛita-vrata, "he whose laws are fixed," is found); through their operation, the moon walks in brightness, and the stars which appear in the nightly sky mysteriously vanish in daylight (i. 24, 10: Ami ye rikshāḥ nihitāsaḥ uchcha naktam dadriśre kuha chid diva iyuḥ adabdhani Varunasya vratāni vichākaśach chandramā naktam eti). Neither the birds flying in the air, nor the rivers in their sleepless flow, can attain a knowledge of his power or his wrath (i. 24, 6: Na hi te kshatram na saho na manyum vayas chana ami patayantaḥ āpuḥ | na imāḥ āpo animisham charantiḥ). His messengers behold both worlds (vii. 87, 3: Pari spaso Varunasya smadishṭāḥ ubhe paśyanti rodasi sumeke | See also i. 24, 13; vi. 67, 5). He knows the flight of birds in the sky, the path of ships on the ocean, the course of the far-travelling wind, and beholds all the

117 In vii. 60, 4, Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman are said to open out paths for the sun (yasmai ādityāḥ adhvano radanti ityādi).

118 See Roth on "The highest gods of the Arian races," p. 71. Compare Ecclesiastes, i. 7: “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again."

119 See Roth in the Journ. Amer. Or. Society, iii. 341; and Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit. p. 534, note 2.

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