VARU?A

VARU?A A powerful deity, Varu?a is known in the Rig Veda as the universal ruler in charge of rita, cosmic law and order, and the personification of moral authority. He is an all-seeing, omniscient, celestial controller and exacting punisher of those who transgress his commandments (vrata). In hymns he is frequently invoked in the compound Mitravaru?a along with his brother, Mitra, also one of the ?dityas, the sons of the goddess Aditi, "the Unbounded." Mitra, a name cognate to ancient Iranian Mithra, meaning "friend," shares the major features of Varu?a, including kingship, but appears as a benign, restoring, and contractual side of divine sovereignty. Varu?a, on the other hand, is the wielder of occult power (m?y?) and the severe binder of sinners, capturing with nooses (p?sha) those who infringe upon rita, often inflicting diseases upon them. Hymns to Varu?a invariably include pleas for forgiveness and release from his wrath, judgment, and bondage for any moral offense (?ga). Like Mitra, Varu?a may extend grace to the penitent. Release from one or another of his hundred nooses means not only cessation of disease or physical pain but also removal of the sin that brought on punishment. He is the dominant side of the pair, Mitra being addressed alone in a single Rig Vedic hymn, whereas a dozen are directed solely to Varu?a.

Satya, or truth and exactitude in sacrifice, are within Varu?a's guardianship, and several Vedic sacrifices feature him, including r?jas?ya (consecration of a king), ashvamedha (horse sacrifice), and varu?apragh?sa (second of three seasonal sacrifices, a rite in which the sacrificer's wife must confess sins). One of the priests essential to the Vedic soma cult is named Maitr?varu?a; he takes the also one of the A pressed juice offered to Mitravaru?a, the pair, as devine unity.

S?rya, the sun, serves as eye of the all-observant Varu?a, who as divine overseer also has spies (spasha); the same word occurs for Mithra's spies in the Avesta, indicating an Indo-Iranian antiquity for this feature of cosmic control. Since Varu?a is associated with both the day and night sky, his spies are possibly stars. Cosmic waters above and below the earth, rivers, and rain are all within his domain.

During the Vedic period, Varu?a as samr?j (king by his nature) gradually lost his position as all-powerful sovereign and greatest of deities to Indra, who is king by force, by self-rule (svar?j). In the Sanskrit epics and Pur??as, Varu?a appears as a lokap?la, assigned to the west as one of the eight guardian deities. Still lord of the waters, now featuring the ocean, he is king of n?gas, or serpents. He may be seen in temple sculptures on his mount (v?hana), the makara, a crocodile-like composite creature. In addition to Varu??n?, named in the Rig Veda, his legitimate wives in various Pur??as include Gaur? and Jyeshth.?, while Bhadr?, daughter of Soma and wife of Utathya, he captured by force. Among his sons were the rishi Vasisht?a (fathered jointly with Mitra), Pushkara, and the great poet of the R?m?ya? a, V?lm?ki, born according to one version when Varu?a's semen fell on a termite mound (valm?ka).

Today, Varu?a's aide is sought when digging wells or in times of drought. If monsoon rains are late and crops are endangered, Vaidika Brahmans may be summoned to recite Rig Veda hymns in a Varu?a p?j?. Although Varu?a is now seldom credited, both dharma as cosmic law and vrata as human vow to observe dharma continue to be the focus of modern Hinduism, as they were for the development of the classical Dharma S?tras and Dharma Sh?stras.

David M. Knipe

See alsoAgni ; Hinduism (Dharma) ; Indra ; Soma ; Vedic Aryan India

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brereton, Joel P. The ?gvedic ?dityas. New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1981. Discusses Varu?a as well ?dityas in the Rig Veda.

Gonda, Jan. Dual Deities in the Religion of the Veda. Amsterdam: N. V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1974. Ch. 5 details Mitra and Varu?a separately and as the as Mitra, Aryaman, and other A compound Mitravaru?a.

Parpola, Asko. "The Religious Background of the S?vitr? Legend." In Har?nandalahar?, edited by Ryutaro Tsuchida and Albrecht Wezler. Reinbek: Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen, 2000. Suggests Proto-Dravidian and Vedic connections regarding Varu?a's noose, spies, heavenly banyan tree.

Rodhe, Sten. Deliver Us from Evil: Studies on the Vedic Ideas ofSalvation. Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1946. Ch. 2 illuminates passages on Varu?a's noose (p?sha) in Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Br?hma?as.