The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.36

v1.c16.s2.36

The natural conception which lies at the root of Varuṇa and the Ādityas, is, it is clear, far from obvious. Both Varuṇa and the group of Ādityas have lost or never had immediate connexion with nature, and have developed their individuality in such a way as to make their original identity uncertain. Contrast with Indra shows that Varuṇa’s original nature must have been something which afforded little chance of the growth of mythology: practically no myth is connected with Varuṇa at all, while the strong god Indra is the subject of by far the greater number of Vedic myths. The name of Varuṇa gives little assistance: it has been connected with the Greek Ouranos, but the phonetic correspondence⁴ is not yet clearly made out, and the identity must remain doubtful: it seems naturally to be derived from the root *vṛ*, cover, so that the first meaning would be the coverer or encompasser, and native tradition explains it in this sense as the god who envelops like darkness or covers with his bonds. If so, the parallel and contrast with Vṛtra are interesting. It is possible that it originally was an epithet of sky, as the all-encompassing, but it would be too dangerous to lay any stress on the apparent etymological sense as denoting the character of the god.