The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c11.5.3

c11.5.3

The only other explanation is to suppose that Shukra, Manthin, Âgrayana, &c, were the names of Soma juice, and that the vessels used for holding that juice in its various capacities, were described as the vessels of Shukra, &c. There is, however, no authority in the sacrificial literature for holding that Soma really had so many and such different capacities; and I therefore conclude that the mention of Shukra and Manthin, as applied to vessels, in the Rigveda is a clear indication of the planets being then discovered. There is, however, in my opinion, a more explicit reference to a planet in the Rigveda which does not seem to have yet been noticed. In the tenth Mandala we have a hymn (123) dedicated to Vena which according to Yâska denotes a deity of the middle region. Yâska (Nirukta 10. 38) derives the word from ven 'to love,' 'to desire,' and explains it as denoting, as his commentator Durgâchârya says, "loved by all;"* while the hymn itself contains such expressions as the "son of the sun," "on the top of rita," "comes out of the ocean like a wave," † &c., which have been variously interpreted by the commentators. But from all these facts I think we have herein the original Aryan name of Venus.