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Hinduism - Who Is Varuna In The Hindu Pantheon?

 

Varuna with his consort Varunani

Who Is The Indo-Aryan Deity Varuna?

Statue of Varuna at the National Museum in Delhi


In the Vedas, the oldest and most authoritative religious texts, Varuna is a deity associated with the sky, with waters, with justice, and with truth.

Statue of Varuna - Lord of knowledge


Varuna belongs to the earliest layer of the Indo-Aryan deities; this is clearly shown by comparisons with the Avesta, an ancient Iranian sacred text that shows many parallels with the Vedas, and with even older epigraphic sources.

As portrayed in the Vedas, however, Varuna’s influence has clearly declined—there are far fewer hymns addressed to him than to deities such as Indra, Agni, and Soma, and he seems to have played a far less important role than these other deities in Vedic religion.

In the Vedas, Varuna is portrayed as the guardian of rta, the cosmic order through which the world proceeds.

Varuna Riding Naga


As the deity associated with the high heaven, he also watches over the deeds of human beings and punishes them for any transgressions.

The best known hymn to Varuna, Rig Veda 7.86, shows Varuna’s connection with justice, moral order, and the waters.

The hymn is the lament of a person who has committed some offense against Varuna and whose sin has become visible through being afflicted with dropsy, in which the body retains its fluids and swells.

USS Varuna


The speaker begs Varuna to reveal the forbidden act, “committed under the influence of liquor, anger, or heedlessness,” so that Varuna may be propitiated and the sufferer healed.

Despite his virtual eclipse early in the tradition, in the later tradition, Varuna retains his association as the god presiding over the waters.

He is also considered to be one of the eight Guardians of the Directions, each of which is associated with one of eight points on the compass.

Varuna presides over the western direction.


~Kiran Atma


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