almost invariably associated in the Hymns, and, as mentioned,* 
he is identified with Savitri. Pushan, “ the Growth-producer/'’ 
is a phase and name of the sun-god. Pushan guides on 
journeys and to the unseen world, aids in the revolution of day 
and night, is an Asura, knows all things, presides over mar- 
riage, and conducts the souls of the departed. He is Yama- 
Savitri. Tvashtri is a personification of skill in divine work- 
manship, an Indian Hephaistos. We still meet with no abso- 
lute separate divinity except the Asura and the divine solar 
and light -god, whose names are numberless ; he is in reality 
the Savitri-Yama-Mitra-Pushan. So far as I am aware, 
Savitri, Pushan, and Tvashtri are purely Indian appellations ; 
whilst Yama and Mitra belong to the earlier period. 
26 . Vanina. 
Prof. Muller has remarked that an “ advantage which the 
Veda offers is this, that in its numerous hymns we can still 
watch the gradual growth of the gods, the slow transition of 
appellations into proper names, the first tentative steps towards 
personification •” and that “ the feeling that the various deities 
are but different names, different conceptions of that Incom- 
prehensible Being which no thought can reach and no lan- 
guage express, is not yet quite extinct in the minds of some 
of the more thoughtful among the Vedic bards/’t This Being 
is especially mirrored in the Vedic Varuna, whose name 
belongs to the period of Aryan unity, and who is identified by 
many with the Varena of the Vendidad. Varuna is “the 
Coverer,” “ the Encompasser,” the all-surrounding, all-space- 
filling. He is pre-eminently the Asura J and the King (Raja), 
king of the universe, king of all that exists, king of gods and 
men, universal monarch, far-sighted and thousand-eyed. He 
made the revolving sun to shine, the wind is his breath, he 
witnesses man’s truth and falsehood ; through him it is that 
though all the rivers run into one ocean yet they never fill 
it ; § his laws are immutable, and they rest upon him as on a 
mountain. He has fashioned and upholds heaven and earth, 
and dwells in all worlds, — 
“ Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.” 
He is frequently celebrated alone and frequently together with 
Mitra, and between the two the closest harmony exists. 
* Sup. sec. 23. f Lectures on the Science of Language, ii. 454. 
X “The epithet asura is frequently applied to Varuna in particular.” 
(Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 61.) § Cf. Ecclesiastes i. 7. 
