558 MR J. MUIR ON THE PRINCIPAL DEITIES OF THE BIGVEDA. 



a boundless path for it to traverse. He has hollowed out the channels of the 

 rivers. It is by his wise contrivance that, though all the rivers pour their waters 

 into the sea, the sea is never filled.* By his ordinance the moon shines in the sky. 

 and the stars which are visible by night disappear on the approach of daylight. 

 Neither the birds flying in the air, nor the rivers in their sleepless flow, can 

 attain a knowledge of his power or his wrath. His spies (or angels) behold both 

 worlds. He himself has a thousand eyes. He knows the flight of birds in the 

 sky, the path of ships on the sea, the course of the far-sweeping wind, and per- 

 ceives all the hidden things that have been or that shall be done. No creature 

 can even wink without him. He is a witness of men's truth and falsehood. His 

 power and his omniscience are thus celebrated in the Atharva Veda (iv. 16, 1-G) : 

 (1.) " The Great Ruler of these (worlds) beholds, as if he were close at hand. 

 When any man thinks to do aught by stealth, the gods know it all ; (2.) and (they 

 perceive) every one who stands, or walks, or glides along secretly, or withdraws 

 into his house, or into any lurking place. Whatever two persons, sitting together, 

 devise, is known to Varuna the king (present there as) a third. (3.) This earth, 

 too (belongs) to King A^aruna, and that A^ast sky, with its far distant limits. The 

 two oceans (aerial and terrestrial), are Varuna's loins; and he dwells in this 

 small pool of water. (4.) He who should flee far beyond the sky, would not 

 there escape from Varuna the king. His spies (or angels), descending from heaven, 

 traverse this world ; thousand-eyed they look across the whole earth. (5.) King 

 Varuna perceives all that is within, and all that is beyond, heaven and earth. 

 The winkings of men's eyes are numbered by him. He handles (all) these (things) 

 as a gamester his dice. (G.) Ma}^ thy destructive nooses, which are cast sevenfold 

 and threefold, ensnare the man who speaks lies, and pass by the man who speaks 

 truth !"t 



* Compare Ecclesiastes i. 7. — " All the I'ivers run into the sea ; yet the sea is not full ; unto 

 the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." 



t Then follow two verses containing imprecations. After giving a German translation of this 

 hymn in his " Dissertation on the Atharva Veda" (Tuhingen, 1856), Professor Roth remarks: — 

 '• There is no hymn in the whole Vedic literature which ex2)resses the Divine omniscience in sucli 

 forcible terms as this ; and yet this beautiful description has been degraded into an introduction to 

 an imprecation. Eut in this case, as in many other passages of this Veda, it is natural to conjecture 

 that existing fragments of older hymns have been used to deck out magical formulas. The first 

 iive, or even six, verses of this hymn might be regarded as a fragment of this sort." 



I have attempted to transfer this hymn into English verse as follows : — 



" The mighty Lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies : 

 The gods know all men do, though men would fain their sins disguise. 

 "Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place, 

 Or hides him in his secret den, — the gods his movements trace. 

 Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone, 

 King Varuna is there, a third, and all tlieir schemes are known. 

 This earth is Varuna's, and his those vast and boundless skies ; 

 These oceans are his loins, and yet in that small pool he lies. 

 Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing, 

 Yet could not there escape the hand of Varuna the king. 



