MR J. MUIR ON THE PRINCIPAL DEITIES OF THE RIGVEDA. 557 



I return to the Mitra and Varuna of the Rigveda. The frequent association 

 of these two gods is easily explained, if the Indian commentators are right in 

 determining that Mitra is the sun, or the deity who presides over the day, while 

 Varuna is the god who envelops everything in darkness, and rules over the 

 night. In one text of the Rigveda, it is said of the latter that he " embraces the 

 nights, and by his wisdom establishes the day, and does every thing perfectly." 

 On this Indian interpretation, Professor Roth makes the following ingenious 

 remarks:* — "Though such representations, as expressed in Indian exegesis, are 

 far too narrow and one-sided, they nevertheless contain a certain amount of 

 truth, and we may guess by what process they are to be developed. If Varuna 

 is, as his name shows, the Aditya whose abode and whose sphere of authority is 

 the bright heaven, in whose bosom is embraced all that lives ; and if, therefore, 

 he forms the remotest boundary, beyond which human thought can seek nothing 

 further, then is he also one who can hardly be attained either by the eye or the 

 imagination. By day the visual power cannot discover this remotest limit ; the 

 bright heaven presents to it no resting place. But at night this curtain of the 

 world in which Varuna is enthroned, appears to approach nearer, and becomes 

 perceptible as the eye finds a limit. Varuna is closer to men. Besides, the 

 other divine forms which, in the clouds, in the atmosphere, and in the rays of 

 light, filled up the space between the earth and yonder immeasurable outermost 

 sphere, have vanished. No other god now stands betwixt Varuna and the mortal 

 beholder." 



Varuna is, notwithstanding, represented in the Veda as being sometimes 

 visible in a bodily shape. He then assumes a luminous aspect, or is clad in golden 

 armour. He sits in his abode exercising sovereignty, surrounded by his spies (or 

 angels) ; and in two passages he is described as the joint occupant with Mitra 

 of a vast palace, supported by a thousand columns.f Again, these two deities 

 are described as ascending their chariot, which shines with a golden radiance at 

 the break of day, and at sunset assumes the colour of iron. Seated in this car, 

 and soaring in the empyrean, they beh9ld all things in heaven and earth. The 

 sun is in one passage denominated the golden-winged messenger of Varuna ; in 

 other places he is said to be the eye of Mitra and Varuna. Both of these deities, 

 but in particular Varuna, are celebrated by a variety of epithets, as exercising 

 sovereign authority and universal sway, as possessing a spiritual nature, and 

 divine wisdom. The grandest cosmical functions are ascribed to Varuna. Pos- 

 sessed of illimitable resources, this great being has meted out, created, and 

 upholds heaven and earth. He dwells in all worlds as sovereign : indeed the 

 three worlds are embraced within hira. The wind which resounds through the 

 firmament is his breath. He has placed the sun in the heaven, and opened up 



* Journal of the German Oriental Society, vi. 70 f. 



t Compai'e Ovid. Met, ii. ff. : " Regia Solis erat subliraibus alta columnis," &c. 



