The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.43

v1.c16.s2.43

Nor is there really any insuperable difficulty in finding another naturalistic basis for Varuṇa and an explanation of his moral authority. The old view that Varuṇa is the all encompassing sky is not open to any serious objection. It explains perfectly well all that he does in the physical world: his place, in the highest heaven, his sending of rain, the fact that the sun is his eye, his epithet of far-seeing, his thousand eyes which doubtless point to the stars of night—possibly his spies, though that conception may be otherwise explained as belonging to the conception of him as king¹ it is no objection that Varuṇa is represented as mounting a car in the highest heaven with Mitra: the god is clearly to some degree detached from his material substratum, and therefore is treated in this point as any other deity. The conception of an almighty ruler is most easily developed from the vast expanse of the sky, on which the sun moves in its regular course, and which seems to gaze upon the deeds of men. It is of course impossible to prove that Zeus has attained his position in the Hellenic pantheon entirely in this way, but the parallel is certainly striking enough to render the view that Varuṇa thus became a great moral ruler reasonable enough.