The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c8.42

c8.42

Two spheres of Vedic ideas and practices concern us here in a particular degree. The first is the sphere of the great Vedic god Varuna, his dual partner Mitra, and a set of gods known as Ādityas, to whom belong both Varuna and Mitra. Varuna, unquestionably the most imposing god of the Rig-Veda, is in charge of the moral law or order of the universe, that *ṛta* which, we have seen, dates at least as far back as 1600 B.C. The second sphere is that of the plant *soma*, which is pressed artfully so as to yield an intoxicating liquor that is accepted joyfully by the Vedic gods as their tipple. It was pressed first by a mythic first man of the name of Yama, and by his divine father Vivasvant. Yama has a sister Yamī, the first pair, who unconventionally people the world. Vivasvant, "the shining one," is the father of Yama, the final progenitor who carries this familiar chain of logic to an end. He is, in all probability, either the "fire," or the "sun"; or, mixedly, "the sun, the divine fire." In each of these spheres Vedic mythology presents itself in its most brilliant aspects. We shall deal with them in the order stated.