Vedic Mythology c5.s6.3

c5.s6.3

Next to Heaven and Earth, the pair most frequently named is Mitra-Varuṇa. These two deities are invoked conjointly in many more hymns than are dedicated to their separate praise. As Mitra has hardly any individual traits, the same attributes and functions belong to the pair conjointly as to Varuṇa alone. Scarcely anything need therefore be here added to what has already been said about Varuṇa. The couple are conceived as young men (3, 54¹⁰; 7, 62⁵). Like various other gods, they are spoken of as shining (*candra*), bright (*śuci*), sunlike (*svardṛś*), ruddy (*rudra*), and terrible (*ghora*). The priority of the name of Mitra in the compound might seem to indicate that he was originally the more important deity; it is, however, probably due simply to the tendency to make the shorter word the first member of a compound. This dual invocation goes back to the Indo-Iranian period, for Ahura and Mithra are thus coupled in the Avesta⁸.