Part 20 - Vedic Deity Varuna by Indian Scholars

Prof. R.N. Dandekar:

Prof. R.N. Dandekar, a noted Vedic Scholar, has studied Vedic Deity Varuna in great details in a book titled 'Vedic Mythological Tracts' under the title 'A Vedic God and a Vedic Seer'. In his lecture one 'Vedic God: Varuna' he has done an indepth analysis of various facets of Vedic God Varuna.

At the outset of the lecture, he says that he does not consider it necessary to recount to the audience what all is said in Rigveda about Varuna. However, he would like to say that any theory concerning the personality and character of Varuna, to be convincing, must fulfill following minimum conditions that are mentioned as:

1) It should take into account the basic and essential feature of Rigvedic Varuna.

2) On the basis of that theory, it should be possible to organize those features into a reasonably well-structured religious mythological pattern of Vedic Deity Varuna.

As mentioned by Prof. R.N. Dandekar, the basic and essential features of Varuna are as below:

❖ Varuna: a special Guardian of Ruta.
❖ Varuna as Asura par excellence.
❖ Fetters of Varuna.
❖ Varuna's Maya.
❖ Universal Sovereignty of Varuna.
❖ Varuna's intimate association with Mitra.
❖ The rivalry between Indra and Varuna.

He further states that a few years ago in one of his comprehensive papers titled 'Asura Varuna' he has done a critical examination and assessment of various views put forth by some Western scholars listed below, with which he is not agreeable,

❖ Varuna as the sky God by Roth, Schroeder and Bloomfield.
❖ Varuna as the God of 'Night' by Meyer J.J.
❖ Varuna as the Bergaigese, Johansson.
❖ Varuna as fertility God by Meyer J.J.
❖ Varuna as the Moon God by Oldenberg and Hillebrandt.
❖ Varuna an Ocean God by Pischel.

Prof. Dandekar has categorically mentioned that he has shown them to be quite unacceptable in his paper 'Asura Varuna'.

Moving forward Prof. Dandekar takes cognizance of the work of Henrich Lüders whom he regards in high esteem because he describes his work as one of the most outstanding works on Varuna in recent times.

Prof. Dandekar says that Lüders does not accept the principles enunciated by Vedic Scholars such as Oldenburg and Hillebrandt that Vedas must be interpreted primarily with the help of Vedas, whereas Lüders believes that the approach to Vedas must be without any preconceived notions about Vedic religion and mythology.

Further Prof. Dandekar takes no exception to some more views by Lüders as below:

❖ That etymological analysis of the name of a Vedic God is not a starting point to find true nature of a particular Vedic god.

❖ That it is not true that Vedic Rishis always meant something different than what is said by them or the language used by the Rishis was intended to conceal the thoughts of their own.

❖ He has taken to task some earlier Vedics for branding Vedic thoughts calling these as primitive thoughts.

Prof. Dandekar finds the above views of Prof. Lüders more or less acceptable. However, some conclusion of Lüders which have been arrived by him after studying thoroughly Vedic passages about Varuna is unfortunately not acceptable to Prof. Dandekar because of the line of argument by Lüders. According to Lüders, Varuna's dwelling place is water and sometimes in Rigveda Varuna is also found to be associated with heaven.

Lüders believes that the above two are not contradicting to each other as water in Earth and Heaven are identical and Varuna has a connection with both the waters. Varuna has a close connection with Ruta. The word Ruta is an exact equivalent to Satya and Ruta means truth, as such Lüders kind of insists that the word Ruta in the Rigveda does not mean cosmic order. Due to the reason that Varuna resides among waters and he is the guardian of truth, one more concept that is closely associated with truth and water together is the concept of the oath. As per conclusion by Lüders, Varuna is, therefore, God of Oath.

However, Prof. Dandekar is not agreeable with the above reasoning by Lüders as he finds it not convincing. According to Prof. Dandekar, a statement that Ruta and Satya are exactly synonymous is difficult to accept because in Vedic passages at many places, the words Ruta and Satya have been used side by side and it is not just the stylistic variation of the poet. The two eyes cannot be called identical, but they are complementary, similarity Ruta and Satya are not identical, but they are complementing according to Prof. Dandekar in support of which he has quoted Taittiriya Samhita (V.I.5.8). In Atharvaveda (XII.5.10), Ruta and Satya are celebrated with various mutually complementary pairs such as Payas and Rasa, Anna and Annadya and Ista and Purta, Praja and Pashu.

Prof. Dandekar in addition to Lüders, touches upon the theories put forth by Thieme, Dumezil and Kuiper about Varuna, but he does not find them tenable. (Dandekar 1979: 323)

The researcher is impressed by the approach of Prof. Dandekar in that he is explaining initially the assumptions that the character of the religion of the people is generally determined by the kind of life they lived and that mythology is not static but it is fluid. Vedic mythology is no exception. According to him, Vedic mythology is essentially evolutionary mythology and its character changes according to changes in the cultural life of Vedic people. The above approach helps to understand the Vedic Deity.

As explained by Prof. R. N. Dandekar:

Vastness is generally found to be associated with the idea which involves something which is haphazard, unorganized, unmotivated are not regulated. However, the observation by the Aryans was that even though this universe was vast, it was not disorganized or unregulated. The functioning of the universe including big and small, gross and subtle the Aryans found a certain order and harmony. This vast universe was understood to be having a regular pattern or scheme and it was not chaos, but that it was cosmos.

Prof. Dandekar describes Varuna as:

“There must be, they believed a definite cosmic law which governed the universe and there must also be a cosmic God who ensured the proper operation of that law. This cosmic law is represented in the Rigveda as Ruta and the God who administers that law is Varuna.” (Dandekar 1979: 325)

The word Ruta in Rigveda is not only truth but its ethical connotation and the passages V.I.7, IV.42.4, 11.27.8, V.63.7, IV.2.19, I.164.11 are clearly indicative of and to convince that nature of Ruta as a cosmic potency which creates and sustains the world and ensures health and strength of life. (Dandekar 1979: 326)

In the Atharvaveda (VI.114.1, 2; 134.1; X.8.31 etc.) Ruta is actually represented as a universal magic potency which is invoked to overpower the spirit of evil and disorder. (Dandekar 1979: 326). The opposite of Ruta, namely Druh implies more than anything else the violation of the cosmic and moral order, that is chaos (Dandekar 1979: 326)

Varuna's special power as Asura is many times referred as Maya (III.61.7, V.63.4, V.85.5, V.85.6, V.63.3, V.63.7) The root in the word Maya is Mimati or Mimat which means to create and to arrange.

As Jan Gonda, a Vedic scholar suggested Maya represents the incomprehensible capacity to plan or to organize something which is beyond the intelligence and powers of man (Dandekar 1979: 328). Due to such powers, Varuna is attributed with an epithet Yakshin, the miracle-working magician and his magic has been described at V.85.2-6

When one would like to know what is the cosmic order and how Varuna establishes the same, and how Varuna controls the working of Universe and regulates it, the answer lies in the word Varuna which is derived from root Vru. Varuna has fetters and he can effectively control and regulate things by binding and using the fetters. He is a binder God and he controls and regulates the entire happenings in the universe, whether cosmic or human by binding the operators of these happenings. One can understand that the cosmic order which is a cycle of the rains, the flowing of rivers etc. are all controlled by Varuna through his fetters or 'Pashas' which have a double purpose to perform.

The first one being working in a subtle intangible way (setrbhirarajjubhih: VII.84.2) the pashas make the various entities to hold them in their proper places due to which it is ensured that they perform their functions. The second one being the guardians of the cosmic and ethical law, they punish the violators of truth or Ruta, or in other words those who embrace Druh or Unruta. (Dandekar 1979: 328)

Dr. M.A. Mehendale:

Dr. M.A. Mehendale, an Indian Vedic scholar has in his book titled Professor Lüders’ views on Varuna (Professor Lüders hyanche Varuna Vishayak Vichar), has given a detailed account of Professor Lüders’ work on Varuna. How his work was retrieved with great efforts, the editors such as Professor Alsdonrf who took help of the notings of Professor Lentz in his work. As stated in this book by Dr. M.A. Mehendale, Prof. Lüders has taken cognizance of work by scholars from the earlier period viz. Prof. Oldenburg, Prof. Hillebrandt, and Hardy, Prof. Pischelle, Prof. Meyers etc. Subsequently, Prof. Lüders has expressed his own views and his perception of Varuna, characteristics of Varuna such as:—Varuna and water, Varuna and Ruta, King Varuna.

Under the chapter King Varuna he has elaborated on some more aspects such as:

❖ The meaning of relation between Varuna and Water
❖ Taking an oath with water as a witness.
❖ An oath with water as a witness during the Vedic period
❖ Water in the process while giving a donation.
❖ Water as a witness for betrothal (engagement ceremony)
❖ Water while relieving (making free) someone from bondage.
❖ Varuna as the deity of Oath.
❖ Varuna a king and an emperor.
❖ Varuna, a judge.
❖ Varuna's status in the post-Vedic period.

It has been explained in brief here that in the post-Vedic period, the status of Varuna appears to have been reduced. The reason that is attributed is the rise of the phrases like Tapas, Dharma, Atman, Brahman etc and the status of Varuna due to this was reduced. A different phenomenon was however seen in Iran. Their Zoraster preserved the heritage of truth and not only that but he made the Ruta more powerful and there Varuna became Ahura Mazda (Mehendale 1977:53)

In the concluding remarks, there is once again an emphasis on Varuna as the deity of Oath. Varuna cannot be seen as or has no specific place like Moon, Sky, Ocean and still Varuna is seen as a very powerful deity. Due to the importance given to the oath and bond of which the deities were Varuna and Mitra respectively, it can be concluded that the people who created these Gods, were giving utmost importance to Oath and Bond. This would have happened during the times when Indo-Iranian people were together. There are no such specific Gods for Oath and Bond in the Indo-European language group such as Greek, Roman, Germanic etc. Moreover, Prof. Lüders says that the statement that these ideas were borrowed from Semitic people is baseless. These were the ideas of Aryans without any doubt. It would be very interesting to note the concluding remarks of Prof. Lüders that the Western/ European scholars have a tendency to treat Eastern/Oriental culture less important. However, the above conclusions would be important to do the assessment of Eastern/Oriental culture. The work done by them to place the truth at the highest level is in itself so valuable that other should envy them. (Mehendale 1977:54)

At the footnote, Dr. Mehendale has once again stated that all the research about Varuna is by Prof. Lüders and those words which asses the Eastern or Oriental culture are also by Prof. Lüders. (Mehendale 1977:54)