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Varuna

In Vedic religion, Varuna is a sky god, is lord of the cosmic rhythm of the celestial spheres. He is one of the most important Hindu gods: the chief of the Asuras and one of the Adityas

Vedic and Later Roles

In the pre-Vedic era, Varuna was probably the most supreme god and keeper of order, a god of rain and law who keeps the sun moving. He was omniscient and omnipotent.

Varuna and Mitra are the gods of the oath. The Atharvaveda[1] portrays Varuna as omniscient, catching liars in his snares. The stars are his thousand-eyed spies, watching every movement of men.

As a sky god, Varuna may either correspond to, or rule over, the dark half of the sky — the night sky — or represent the 'dark' side of the Sun as it travels back from West to East during the night.

In the post-Vedic era, his role as sovereign is increasingly taken on by Indra, a process already apparent in the Rig-Veda. Varuna became perhaps most strongly associated with rain, after Indra took his former position as overlord of the universe. Varuna later became the god of oceans and rivers and keeper of the souls of the drowned. As such, Varuna is also a god of the dead, and can grant immortality. He is attended by the nagas.

Varuna is the master of rta, which is the energy that keeps the universe running on time and in proper order, and is one of the Ashta-Dikpalas, representing the west.

Later art depicts Varuna as a lunar deity, as a white man wearing golden armor and holding a noose or lasso made from a snake. He rides the sea monster Makara.

Name

As a theonym, Varuna quite likely dates from the Indo-Iranian age, although no Iranian continuation of the name has survived. The Mitanni names aruna and urvana may refer to the same early Indo-Aryan god. The name Varuna seems to derive from the PIE root *wer- or *wel-, meaning "to cover".

Varuna is often named as forming a unit with Mitra forming the Dvandva compound, Mitravaruna. He is also intertwined with Indra in the Rig-Veda, where the two gods are referred to as Indravaruna.

Cognate names of gods in other Indo-European languages have been suggested, but remain uncertain: notably Uranos, the sky god in Greek mythology, and also V–rnir, a giant of Norse mythology (from *verunyos?), the Slavic god Veles, and velnias, the Lithuanian for "devil". Many of these matches have been contested by philologists.

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