The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.1

v1.c16.s2.1

The slight prominence of Dyaus in the Indian period is doubtless in part at least due to the prominence of Mitra and Varuṇa, of which pair the greatest by far is Varuṇa. Mitra, indeed, by his close association with Varuṇa has lost any real independence of character. Though Varuṇa is anthropomorphic and has arms, hands, feet, walks, drives, sits, eats, and drinks, the cosmic character of his eye is brought very clearly: the eye of Mitra and Varuṇa is repeatedly declared to be the sun, and it figures conspicuously in all the hymns regarding Varuṇa. Varuṇa is also far-sighted and thousand-eyed: he wears a golden mantle and a shining robe. He and Mitra drive with the rays of the sun as with arms, and like Savitṛ and Tvaṣṭṛ they are beautiful handed. In striking contrast with this picture of a fair god is that suggested by a passage in the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa,³ where Varuṇa is described as a bald yellow-eyed old man; but this passage must be read in its context, from which it appears clearly that we have to deal not with a primitive, but with a mystical, view of the nature of Varuṇa.