TO VARUNA.
"I will sing forth unto the universal king a high deep prayer, dear to renowned Varuna, who, as a butcher a hide, has struck earth apart (from the sky) for the sun. Varuna has extended air in trees, strength in horses, milk in cows, and has laid wisdom in hearts; fire in water; the sun in the sky; soma in the stone. Varuna has inverted his water-barrel and let the two worlds with the space between flow (with rain). With this (heavenly water-barrel) he, the king of every created thing, wets the whole world, as a rain does a meadow. He wets the world, both earth and heaven, when he, Varuna, chooses to milk out (rain)—and then do the mountains clothe themselves with cloud, and even the strongest men grow weak. Yet another great and marvellous power of the renowned spirit (Asura) will I proclaim, this, that standing in mid-air he has measured earth with the sun, as if with a measuring rod. (It is due to) the marvellous power of the wisest god, which none ever resisted, that into the one confluence run the rivers, and pour into it, and fill it not. O Varuna, loosen whatever sin we have committed to bosom-friend, comrade, or brother; to our own house, or to the stranger; what (we) have sinned like gamblers at play, real (sin), or what we have not known. Make loose, as it were, all these things, O god Varuna, and may we be dear to thee hereafter."
In this hymn Varuna is a water-god, who stands in mid-air and directs the rain; who, after the rain, reinstates the sun; who releases from sin (as water does from dirt?). According to this conception it would seem that Varuna were the 'coverer' rather than the 'encompasser.' It might seem probable even that Varuna first stood to Dyaus as cloud and rain and night to shining day, and that his counterpart, (Greek: Hohyranhos), stood in the same relation to (Greek: Zehys); that were connecte(Greek: Hohyranhos)d with (Greek: hyrheô) and Varuna with vari, river, v[=a]ri, water.[76]
It is possible, but it is not provable. But no interpretation of Varuna that ignores his rainy side can be correct. And this is fully recognized by Hillebrandt. On account of his "thousand spies," i.e., eyes, he has been looked upon by some as exclusively a night-god. But this is too one-sided an interpretation, and passes over the all-important, fact that it is only in conjunction with the sun (Mitra), where there is a strong antithesis, that the night-side of the god is exclusively displayed. Wholly a day-god he cannot be, because he rules night and rain. He is par excellence the Asura, and, like Ahura Mazdao, has the sun for an eye, i.e., he is heaven. But there is no Varuna in Iranian worship and Ahura is a sectarian specialization. Without this name may one ascribe to India what is found in Iran?[77] It has been suggested by Bergaigne that Varuna and Vritra, the rain-holding demon, were developments from the same idea, one revered as a god, the other, a demon; and that the word means 'restrainer,' rather than 'encompasser.'
From all this it will be evident that to claim an original monotheism as still surviving in the person of Varuna, is impossible; and this is the one point we would make. Every one must admire the fine hymn in which he is praised, but what there is in it does not make it seem very old, and the intercalated month is decisive evidence, for here alone in the Rig Veda is mentioned this month, which implies the five-year cyclus, but this belongs to the Brahmanic period (Weber, Vedische Beiträge, p. 38). Every explanation of the original nature of Varuna must take into consideration that he is a rain-god, a day-god, and a night-god in turn, and that where he is praised in the most elevated language the rain-side disappears, although it was fundamental, as may be seen by comparing many passages, where Varuna is exhorted to give rain, where his title is 'lord of streams,' his position that of 'lord of waters.' The decrease of Varuna worship in favor of Indra results partly from the more peaceful god of rain appearing less admirable than the monsoon-god, who overpowers with storm and lightning, as well as 'wets the earth.'
The most valuable contribution to the study of Varuna is Hillebrandt's 'Varuna and Mitra.' This author has succeeded in completely overthrowing the old error that Varuna is exclusively a night-god.[78] Quite as definitively he proves that Varuna is not exclusively a day-god.
Bergaigne, on the other hand, claims an especially tenebrous character for Varuna.[79] Much has been written on luminous deities by scholars that fail to recognize the fact that the Hindus regard the night both as light and as dark. But to the Vedic poet the night, star-illumined, was bright. Even Hillebrandt speaks of "the bright heaven" of day as "opposed to the dark night-heaven in which Varuna also shows himself."[80]
In the Rig Veda, as it stands, with all the different views of Varuna side by side, Varuna is a universal encompasser, moral as well as physical. As such his physical side is almost gone. But the conception of him as a moral watcher and sole lord of the universe is in so sharp contrast to the figure of the rain-god, who, like Parjanya, stands in mid-air and upsets a water-barrel, that one must discriminate even between the Vedic views in regard to him.[81]
It is Varuna who lets rivers flow; with Indra he is besought not to let his weapons fall on the sinner; wind is his breath.[82]
On the other hand he is practically identified with the sun.[83] How ill this last agrees with the image of a god who 'lives by the spring of rivers,' 'covers earth as with a garment,' and 'rises like a secret sea (in fog) to heaven'![84] Even when invoked with the sun, Mitra, Varuna still gives rain: "To whomsoever ye two are kindly disposed comes sweet rain from heaven; we beseech you for rain … you, the thunderers who go through earth and heaven" (v. 63),—a strange prayer to be addressed to a monotheistic god of light: "Ye make the lightning flash, ye send the rain; ye hide the sky in cloud and rain" (ib.). In the hymn preceding we read: "Ye make firm heaven and earth, ye give growth to plants, milk to cows; O ye that give rain, pour down rain!" In the same group another short hymn declares: "They are universal kings, who have ghee (rain) in their laps; they are lords of the rain" (v. 68). In the next hymn: "Your clouds (cows) give nourishment, your streams are sweet." Thus the twain keep the order of the seasons (i. 2. 7-8) and protect men by the regular return of the rainy season. Their weapons are always lightning (above, i. 152. 2, and elsewhere). A short invocation in a family-book gives this prayer: "O Mitra-Varuna, wet our meadows with ghee; wet all places with the sweet drink" (iii. 62. 16).