The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.13

v1.c16.s2.13

In the later literature there are other marked changes in the character of the god. In the first place Mitra and Varuṇa come to be placed into relation with the sun and the moon respectively: Mitra is said to have produced the day, Varuṇa the night: the night is Varuṇa’s, the day Mitra’s. In the Atharvaveda⁴ it is said ‘At evening he is Varuṇa, Agni; Mitra he becometh arising in the morning’ and ‘That which Varuṇa hath drawn together, shall Mitra asunder part in the morning.’ Even more significant is the fact that in the ritual to Mitra and Varuṇa respectively white and black victims are sometimes ascribed: there can be no doubt of the significance of this distinction in treatment of the two gods. In the second place there is a marked tendency to reduce Varuṇa to the control of the waters. In the Atharvaveda¹ he is connected with the waters as is Soma with the mountains; his golden house is in the waters; he sheds rain waters, and he and Mitra are the lords of waters. In the Yajurveda² similarly the waters are his wives, and he is the child of the waters, in which he establishes his abode, and Mitra and Varuṇa are the leaders of the waters. It is true that for these conceptions close parallels exist in the Rigveda, but the essential feature is that, in the new matter supplied by these Vedas, nothing which is not specifically connected with the waters is of much account. It is quite possible that the connexion with the moon aided the connexion with the waters, but this cannot be proved; in the Brāhmaṇas we find not merely the recognition of the connexion of the moon with rain, but equally the view that rain comes from the sun. Some force may be assigned to the view that with the growing knowledge of the ocean the tendency to restrict Varuṇa to that element increased parallel with the steady decline in the importance attached to the moral aspect of Varuṇa as a universal ruler.