(4) Conjoint functions and attributes of Mitra and Varuna. The same or nearly the same functions and attributes as are ascribed to Varuna are also attributed to him and Mitra conjointly. They uphold and rule over the earth and sky, the shining and the terrestrial regions, and place the sun in the heavens (v. 62, 3; v. 69, 1, 4: trī rochanā Varuna trīn uta dyūn trīni dhārayatho rajām̃si | v. 63, 7; vi. 67, 5; vii. 61, 4; x. 132, 2). They are the guardians of the world (viśvasya bhuvanasya gopā | viśvasya gopā | yūyam viśvam pari pātha | ii. 27, 4; v. 62, 9; vii. 51, 2; viii. 25, 1; x. 126, 4). By their ordinance the great sky shines (yayor dhāma dharmanā rochate bṛihat | x. 65, 5). They discharge the rain (v. 62, 3: ava vṛishtim sṛijatam jīradānū | v. 63, 1-3: dyām varshayatho asurasya māyayā). Their godhead is beyond the ken of the skies, or of rivers (i. 151, 9: na vām̃ dyāvo ahabhir nota sindhavo na devatvam panayo nānaśur magham). They (together with Aryaman) are awful deities, haters and dispellers of falsehood (i. 152, 1; vii. 66, 13: ritavānaḥ ṛitajātāḥ ṛitāvṛidho ghoraso anṛita-dvishaḥ). They carry out their fixed purposes, which are unobstructed even by the immortal gods (v. 63, 7; v. 69, 4: na vām devāḥ amṛitāḥ ā minanti vratāni Mitrā-varuṇā dhruvāņi). They make the foolish wise (vii. 60, 6, 7: achetasam chich chitayanti dakshaiḥ); they know heaven and earth (vii. 60, 7: ime divo animishā prithivyāś chikitvamsaḥ). They look down from heaven observing men as if herds of cattle (adhi yā bṛihato divaḥ abhi yūtheva paśyataḥ | See also verses 9 and 16, and R.V. vii. 60, 3). They are described as righteous, and as promoters of religious rites (or truth or righteousness) ṛitāvṛidhā, ṛitāvānā, ṛitajātā, ṛitaspṛiśā, ṛitasya gopau (i. 2, 8; i. 23, 5; i. 136, 4; ii. 27, 4; v. 63, 1; v. 65, 2; v. 67, 4; vii. 64, 2; vii. 66, 13; viii. 23, 30; viii. 25, 8), as the lords of truth and light (ritasya jyotishas pati | i. 23, 5). They, with the other Adityas, avenge sin and falsehood (chayamānāḥ ṛiṇāni | chetāro anṛitasya bhūreḥ | ii. 27, 4; vii. 60, 5): the man who neglects their worship is seized with consumption (i. 122, 9: jano yo Mitra-varunav abhidhrug apo na vām sunoti akshnayādhruk | svayam sa yakshmam hridaye ni dhatta). They are besought along with Aditi to remove the trespasses of their worshippers (ii. 27, 14: Adite Mitra Varunota mṛila yad vo vayam chakṛima kach chid agaḥ); and along with Aryaman to give deliverance from evil (x. 126, passim).134 (5) Hymn addressed to Mitra only. Mitra alone is celebrated in iii. 59. The following are some of the verses: 1. Mitro janān yātayati bruvāno Mitro dadhāra pṛithivīm uta dyām | Mitraḥ krishtir animisha 'bhi chashțe Mitrāya havyam ghṛitavaj juhota | 2. Pra sa Mitra marto astu prayasvān yas te Āditya śikshati vratena | na hanyate na jiyate tvā-ūto nainam amho aśnoty antito na dūrāt | 4. Ayam Mitro namasyaḥ suśevo rājā sukshatro ajanishṭa vedhāḥ | tasya vayam Mitrasya sumatau syāma | 5. Mahān adityo namasa upasadyo yatayajjano grinate suśevaḥ | 7. Abhi yo mahina divam Mitro babhūva saprathāḥ | abhi śravobhiḥ prithivīm | 8. Mitrāya pancha yemire janāḥ abhishṭi-śavase sa devān viśvān bibhartti | "1. Mitra, uttering his voice, calls men to activity. 135 Mitra sustains the earth and the sky. Mitra with unwinking eye beholds (all) creatures. Offer to Mitra the oblation with butter. 2. Mitra, son of Aditi, may the mortal who worships thee with sacred rites, have food. He who is protected by thee is neither slain nor conquered. Calamity does not reach him from near or from far. 4. This Mitra has been born adorable, blessed, a king, strong, and wise. May we abide in his favour. 5. This great Aditya, who rouses men to exertion (see v. 1), who is favourable to his worshipper, is to be approached with reverence. 7. The vast Mitra who by his greatness transcends the sky, and the earth by his glory. 8. The five classes of men have done homage to Mitra the powerful helper, who sustains all the gods." (6) Professor Roth's remarks on Mitra and Varuna. In his paper on "The highest gods of the Arian races" (Journ. of the German Oriental Society, vi. p. 70 f.), Professor Roth has the fol 134 Like other gods, and in particular Indra, they are represented as drinking the soma-juice, i. 136, 4; i. 137, 1 ff.; iv. 41, 3; iv. 42, 6; v. 64, 7; v. 71, 3; v. 72, 1-3; vi. 68, 10. 135 With this verse Roth (Illustrations of Nirukta, x. 22, p. 140) compares R.V. v. 82, 9, where it is said" "Savitri, who causes all creatures to hear his sound, and impels them." Comp. v. 5 of the present hymn; and vii. 36, 2, referred to by Roth in the passage about to be quoted. lowing ingenious and interesting observations on Mitra and Varuna: "Within the circle of the Adityas there subsists the closest connection between Mitra and Varuna, who are invoked more frequently together than Varuna is invoked singly. We find only one hymn in which Mitra is invoked by himself (iii. 59). The fact that this dual invocation is preserved in the Zend Avesta, in regard to Ahura and Mithra, though the position of both has become entirely altered, and Mithra is not even reckoned among the Amshaspands, this fact proves how close the ancient connection of the two was, when it has been maintained even after the reason for it had ceased. The essential character of the two gods, as distinguished from one another, is nowhere distinctly expressed in the hymns, and was in fact originally one which could not be defined with intellectual precision. But the stage of religious culture which lies before us in the Rig-veda, enables us to distinguish this difference as one already existing, viz., that Mitra is the celestial light in its manifestation by day, while Varuna, though the lord of light and of all time, yet rules especially over the nightly heaven. A hymn of Vasishtha (vii. 36, 2) says: 'One of you (Varuna) is the lord, and unassailable guide, and he who is called Mitra, (i.e. the friend) calls men to activity' (ino vām anyaḥ padavir adabdho janam cha Mitro yatati bruvānaḥ). Here so much at least is declared (and the same thing is expressed in nearly the same words in other places), that the light of day, which awakens life, and brings joy and activity into the world, is the narrower sphere of Mitra's power; though, however, Varuna is not thereby relegated to the night alone, for he continues to be the lord and the first. "Though therefore such representations as are expressed in Indian exegesis, (as for instance, when Sayana says on R.V. vii. 87, 1, that Varuna is the setting sun), are far too narrow and one-sided, they still contain some truth; and we may guess by what process they are to be developed. If Varuna is, as his name shews, that one among the lucid Adityas whose seat and sphere of authority is the bright heaven, in whose bosom is embraced all that lives, and therefore also the remotest boundary, beyond which human thought seeks nothing further, then is he also one who can scarcely be attained either by the eye or by the imagination. By day the power of vision cannot discover this remotest limit, the bright heaven presents to it no resting place. But at night this veil of the world, in which Varuna is enthroned, appears to approach nearer, and becomes perceptible, for the eye finds a limit. Varuna is closer to men. Besides, the other divine forms which, in the clouds, the atmosphere, the rays of light, filled the space between the earth and yonder immeasurable outermost sphere, have disappeared: no other god now stands between Varuna and the mortal who gazes at him." (7) The Indian Mitra and the Zoroastrian Mithra. Whatever may be the the success of the attempts made to identify any other of the Indian and Iranian gods with one another, there can at least be no doubt, from the correspondence of the two names, that the Vedic Mitra and the Mithra of the Zend Avesta were originally the same deity. Accordingly, the late Dr. F. Windischmann, in his Dissertation on the Persian Mithra, 136 regards it as established that this god was known, and common, to the old Arian race before the separation of its Iranian from its Indian branch, though the conception of his character was subsequently modified by Zoroastrian ideas. That Mithra was worshipped in Persia in and previous to the age of Herodotus, is proved, as Windischmann remarks, by the common use of such names as Mitradates and Mitrobates. Herodotus himself (i. 131) speaks of Mitra, not as a god, but as a goddess ('Emiμeμabýкaσi dè кal Tỷ Οὐρανίῃ θύειν, παρά τε Ασσυρίων μαθόντες καὶ ̓Αραβίων· καλέουσι δὲ ̓Ασσύριοι τὴν ̓Αφροδίτην Μύλιττα, Αράβιοι δὲ ̓́Αλιττα, Πέρσαι δὲ Μίτραν. See Rawlinson's note, in loco, in his translation of Herodotus). But Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 5, 53; Ec. iv. 24), and Plutarch (Artax. 4, and Alexand. 30) describes the Persians as swearing by the god Mitra. And Plutarch, in his treatise on Isis and Osiris, chap. xlvi. tells us that Zoroaster conceived of Mithra as standing intermediate between the deities Oromazes, the representative of light, and Areimanius, the representative of darkness and ignorance. 137 It is unnecessary to say anything further here of the Persian Mithra, the eventual introduction of whose worship into the West is matter of history. 136 Mithra, ein Beitrag zur Mythengeschichte des Orients, in the Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Leipzig, 1857. See pp. 54 ff. 137 Ibid, p. 56. This passage is also quoted in the 2nd vol. of this work, p. 471. (8) Is there any historical connection between Varuna and Ahura Mazda? Varuna also, in the opinion of certain writers, is connected, at least indirectly, with the Ahura Mazda of the old Persian mythology; and in support of this it may be alleged,—(1) that the name of Asura, the divine being, is frequently applied to Varuna, as an epithet; (2) that the class of Indian gods called Adityas, of whom Varuna is the most distinguished, bears a certain analogy to the Amshaspands of the Zend mythology, of whom Ahura Mazda is the highest; and (3) that a close connection exists between Varuna and Mitra, just as, according to Professor Roth (see above), Ahura and Mithra are frequently associated in the Zendavesta, though the position of the two has otherwise become altered, and Mithra is not even reckoned among the Amshaspands. Other scholars, however, think that there is not sufficient proof of Varuna and Ahura Mazda being connected with one another. I shall state the opinion of Professor Roth in regard to the connection of Varuna with Ahura Mazda more fully in the next Section, where reference will be made to the same writer's views regarding the relation of Indra to Varuna. (9) Varuna connected with the element of water even in the Rig-veda. Though Varuna is not generally regarded in the Rig-veda as the god of the ocean, he is yet in the following passages connected with the element of water, both in the atmosphere and on the earth, in such a way as may have led to the conception of his character and functions which is fully established in the later mythology. i. 161, 14. Divā yānti Maruto bhūmyā Agnir ayam Vāto antarikshena yati | adbhir vāti Varuṇaḥ samudrair yushmān ichhantaḥ śavasaḥ napātaḥ | "Desiring you, ye sons of strength, the Maruts proceed through the sky, Agni along the earth, this Vāta (wind) through the atmosphere, and Varuna along the waters, the ocean" (adbhiḥ samudraiḥ). 138 vii. 49, 2. Yāḥ āpo divyāḥ uta vā sravanti khanitrimāḥ uta vā yāḥ svayamjāḥ | samudrārthāḥ yāḥ śuchayaḥ pāvakās tāḥ āpo devir iha mām avantu 3. Yāsām rājā Varuno yati madhye satyanṛite avapasyan 138 See Bollensen in Or. and Occid. 2, 467. |