The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.56

v1.c16.s2.56

The evidence adduced to the views of Meyer is inadequate; it is quite clear that Varuṇa and Mitra came into special connexion with the agreement and the oath respectively, but neither fact is enough to show that the deity was developed from either conception alone, and we cannot prove that it is more plausible to assume such a derivation than to accept the view that to these great gods of the sky the conception of the control of moral order and contract was naturally assigned. The importance of the sun as a deity is sufficiently shown for Iranian religion by the fact that he became the chief god of the Massagetae,² and the importance of Mithra as a sun-god in later Iran is notorious. It is on the other hand more easy to understand how concrete gods attained moral aspects³ than to believe that moral gods became so remarkably concrete in nature.