Table Of Contents
CREATION
DEATH
THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE
THE HORSE SACRIFICE
GODS OF THE SACRIFICE: AGNI AND SOMA
SOMA
INDRA
GODS OF THE STORM
SOLAR GODS
SKY AND EARTH
VARUNA
RUDRA AND VISNU
REALIA
WOMEN
INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS
VARUNA
ALTHOUGH Varuna’s original function was that of a sky god (like Ouranos, with whom his name is cognate), by the time of the Rig Veda he had developed into a god whose primary role was watching over the deeds of men (as a sky god is well placed to do) and punishing those who violated the sacred law (Rta) of which Varuna was the most important custodian. He is also, like several other Vedic gods, credited with the archetypal acts of creation – finding the sun, propping apart the sky and earth, and so forth (5.85). His friendship, disaffection, and ultimate reconciliation with the sage Vasistha (7.86, 7.88, 7.89) form a paradigm for his stern but loving relationship with mankind in general. He is asked to protect the worshipper not only from his own avenging wrath but also from all dangers and hatreds (2.28), an all-encompassing role that was transferred to the gods Visnu and Siva in later Hinduism, when Varuna ceased to be worshipped any more.
5.85 The Deeds of Varuna
This hymn describes the great deeds of Varuna and closes with a wish that he will pardon the mistakes of the worshipper.
1 For the emperor1 I will sing a splendid, deep prayer, one that will be dear to the famous Varuna who struck apart the earth2 and spread it beneath the sun as the priest who performs the slaughter spreads out the victim’s skin.3
2 He stretched out the middle realm of space in the trees; he laid victory in swift horses and milk in the dawn cows, intelligence in hearts and fire in the waters. Varuna placed the sun in the sky and Soma on the mountain.
3 Over the two world-halves and the realm of space between them Varuna has poured out the cask,4 turning its mouth downward. With it the king of the whole universe waters the soil as the rain waters the grain. 4 He waters the soil, the earth,5 and the sky. Whenever Varuna wishes for milk, the mountains dress them selves in cloud and the heroes,6 brandishing their power, let them loose.7 5 I will proclaim the great magic8 of Varuna the famous Asura,9 who stood up in the middle realm of space and measured apart the earth with the sun as with a measuring- stick.10 6 No one has dared this great magic of the most inspired god: that these shimmering torrents, pouring down, do not ll the one single ocean with their water.11 7 If we have committed an offence against a hospitable friend like Aryaman or a close friend like Mitra,12 or against one who has always been a comrade, or a brother, or a neighbour – one of our own or a stranger – loosen that offence from us, Varuna.
8 If we have cheated like gamblers in a game, whether we know it or really do not know it,13 O god, cast all these offences away like loosened bonds.14 Let us be dear to you, Varuna.
NOTES
1. Varuna who is the king over all kings.
2. That is, struck it and made it part from the sky.
3. The sacrificial priest (Samitr) spreads the skin and places the limbs of the animal upon it. Cf. 1.162.19.
4. The overturned cask or leather bottle is a frequent metaphor for a torrent of rain. Cf. 5.83.7.
5. The earth here designates the whole world, in contrast with the surface (soil).
6. The Maruts.
7. The Maruts let loose the cloud – that is, the waters. The metaphor may also refer to other things loosed by the Maruts – their own horses or powers – or to the explicit simile, the garments.
8. Magic here in the sense of a miracle rather than an illusion.
9. Asura not in its later sense of ‘demon’ but in its early Vedic sense of sky god.
10. Cf. 1.154.1.
11. That is, although there are many rivers and rains, the ocean, though alone, contains them. No one dares this – no one dares to challenge it or to attempt it.
12. Aryaman is the god of formal hospitality to strangers, Mitra the god of intimate friendship among one’s own kind.
13. Cf. 2.12.10 for a sin of which one is unaware.
14. The bonds are both the offences themselves and the bonds with which Varuna punishes those who offend. Cf. 7.86 and 7.89.
7.86 Varuna ‘Provoked to Anger
According to one tradition, this hymn should be read together with 7.5 5, to which it is joined by a myth: In a dream (or in his sleep) one night the sage Vasistha came to the house of Varuna; as he entered, a dog ran at him, barking and trying to bite him, but Vasistha put him to sleep with several verses (7.5 5); then King Varuna bound Vasistha with his snares, and when Vasistha praised his father Varuna with more verses (7.86-9), he was released. One text says that Vasistha stole something (perhaps food), an episode that may be alluded to in the reference to Vasistha being like a cattle-thief; but it is precisely the unknown and indefinable nature of Vasistha’s sin that gives this hymn its
power. For the implication of someone else in one’s own evil deed -an older brother, or a father, or the forces of wine and anger, or the cloud of sleep – tends to negate any possible sense of remorse; one can regret the results of an unknown act (visible in Varuna’s punishment) but not repent of its motives.1 One may be punished for the sins of other people; in this context, sin may be a misleading word to use, for although the worshipper wishes for expiation, he wishes to be ‘free from sin’ primarily in the sense of being free from the effects of sin. He wishes to serve Varuna in order to become free from sin, not to be free from sin in order to serve Varuna. ‘The evil that sleep does not avert’ may be a bad dream or a deed committed while asleep;2 this may be the source of the tradition that Vasistha composed this hymn while wandering in a dream (or in his sleep), but in any case it further highlights the tension between conscious evil (sin) and unconscious evil (for which there is no good term in English).
1 The generations have become wise by the power of him who has propped apart the two world-halves even though they are so vast.3 He has pushed away the dome of the sky to make it high and wide; he has set the sun on its double journey4 and spread out the earth.
2 And I ask my own heart, ‘When shall I be close to Varuna? Will he enjoy my offering and not be provoked to anger? When shall I see his mercy and rejoice?’
3 I ask myself what that transgression was, Varuna, for I wish to understand. I turn to the wise to ask them. The poets have told me the very same thing: ‘Varuna has been provoked to anger against you.’
4 O Varuna, what was the terrible crime for which you wish to destroy your friend who praises you? Proclaim it to me so that I may hasten to prostrate myself before you and be free from sin, for you are hard to deceive and are ruled by yourself alone.
5 Free us from the harmful deeds of our fathers, and from those that we have committed with our own bodies. O king, free Vasistha like a thief who has stolen cattle,5 like a calf set free from a rope.
6 The mischief was not done by my own free will, Varuna; wine, anger, dice, or carelessness led me astray. The older shares in the mistake of the younger.6 Even sleep does not avert evil.
7 As a slave serves a generous master, so would I serve the furious god and be free from sin. The noble god gave understanding to those who did not understand;7 being yet wiser, he speeds the clever man to wealth.
8 O Varuna, you who are ruled by yourself alone, let this praise lodge in your very heart. Let it go well for us always with your blessings.
NOTES
1. Cf. 2.12.10 and 5.85.8.
2. Cf. 10.164. 3. Creation consists in the act (here attributed to Varuna, else where to other gods) of propping apart heaven and earth and releasing the sun.
4. Either by day in the sky and under the earth by night, or, less likely, its daily and annual revolutions.
5. Varuna binds sinners with his snares of disease and misfortune. The thief is set free after doing expiation for his sin – or, perhaps, in order to be led to his punishment.
6. The elder brother may be implicated in his younger brother’s lapse, or he may be the cause of it. ‘Older’ may also refer to an older generation, the ancestral sin mentioned in the previous verse.
7. The wisdom that Varuna gives to the generations is his own truth. Varuna himself is ‘yet wiser’ either than those to whom he gave understanding or than the clever man that he aids. Varuna is wise in a spiritual sense ; the clever or ‘ sharp ‘ man is merely worldly-wise.
7.88 Varuna the Friend of Vasistha
After an introductory verse spoken by the poet, Vasistha speaks of his bygone friendship with Varuna, a friendship now threatened by the possibility that Vasistha has committed some offence, which he does not know of, and incurred the punishing wrath of Varuna.
1 Vasistha, bring a pure and most desirable poem to the bountiful Varuna, who draws toward us the great bull1 who is worthy of sacri ce and thousands of gifts.
2 ‘Now that I have come into his2 presence, I think the face of Varuna is Agni’s. Let the Lord on High3 lead me to the sun that is in the rock4 and the darkness, so that I may see the marvel.
3 ‘When we two, Varuna, board the boat and sail forth to the middle of the ocean, when we skim along the crests of the waters, we will swing in the swing5 and glitter.’
4 Varuna set Vasistha right in the boat. The inspired master made him a seer, a poet, by his great powers, so that his days would be good days, so that his skies and dawns would stretch out.
5 ‘Where have those friendships of us two gone, when in the old times we could live together without becoming enemies? I went into your high palace, self-ruling Varuna, into your house with a thousand doors.6
6 ‘If your old friend and dear ally has committed sins against you, Varuna, do not make us who have offended you pay for that. Avenger, inspired one, give protection to the singer of praises.
7 ‘As we dwell in these solid dwelling-places, let Varuna set us free from the noose and help us win aid from the lap of Aditi. Protect us always with blessings.’
NOTES
1. The sun, brought forth each day by Varuna.
2. Probably Varuna’s presence, but perhaps that of the sun.
3. Varuna.
4. The sun tests in the rock of darkness all night; it is, moreover, trapped in the cli until Indra sets it free (3.31), a feat also attributed to Varuna.
5. Varuna, as god of the waters, has a boat that glitters as it swings.
6. Vasistha’s entry into Varuna’s house is alluded to elsewhere in the Rig Veda; cf.
7.89.1 and the introduction to 7.86.
7.89 The House of Clay
Varuna casts his snares upon the offending worshipper in the form of dropsy; but he satisfies by the grace of his own nature the thirst of the man who suffers from physical or spiritual fever. Thus the waters in verse 4 refer to the feverish thirst and ‘waters’ of the dropsy and to the waters of Varuna himself. The concept of unconscious sin is implicit in verse 3 and clearly expressed in verse 5, which juxtaposes various levels of evil: offence, sin, and a violation of the cosmic law (dharma, Varuna’s law, the ‘true current’ of verse 3). All of these are tempered by the possibility that they were done carelessly, unwittingly; for it is the duty of Varuna himself to make men thoughtful (to ‘make the generations wise’),1 and the duty of the repentant sinner to know his sin.
The house of clay is a metaphor for death on various planes: it is the urn used to store the ashes of the dead after cremation or to store their bones in burial; it is the earth, the house of the dead man; and it is the home of Varuna, to which Vasistha went one night.2
1 Let me not go to the house of clay, O King Varuna, not yet. Have mercy, great ruler; be merciful.
2 If I seem to stumble and tremble like a puffed up goatskin,3 O master of stones,4 have mercy; great ruler, be merciful.
3 If through weakness of will-power I have somehow gone against the true current, O pure one, have mercy; great ruler, be merciful.
4 Thirst has come upon the one who sings to you as he stands in the midst of waters; have mercy, great ruler, be merciful.
5 If we humans have committed some offence against the race of gods, O Varuna, or through carelessness have violated your laws, do not injure us, O god, for that sin.
NOTES
1. See 7.86.1.
2. Cf. 7.88.5 and introduction to 7.86. Cf. also n. 6 to 7.88.
3. The worshipper is palsied and swollen from dropsy, like a leather wine-bottle filled with air; and he trembles in fear of Varun. For stumbling, cf. 8.48.5.
4. This epithet, usually applied to Indra, refers both to the mastery of stones used to press the Some and to stones used as we pons in sling.
2.28 Varuna
1 Let this song to the son of Aditi, the poet who rules himself, surpass in greatness all the songs that now exist. The god who is comfortable to sacrifice to, the abundant Varuna, is the one I beg for lasting fame.
2 Let us be happy in your command, having praised you, Varuna, with good intentions, awakening like kindled fires day after day at the approach of the dawns rich in cattle.
3 Let us be under your protection, for you have many heroes, Varuna our leader, and your word reaches far. You sons of Aditi, gods who cannot be deceived, consent to join us.
4 The son of Aditi set them free to flow and ordered them; the rivers go by the Order of Varuna. They do not tire, nor do they unharness themselves. They fly swiftly like birds in their orbit.
5 Loosen me from sin as from sash; let us find the fountainhead of your Order, Varuna. Do not let the thread break while I am still weaving this thought, nor let the measuring- stick of the workman shatter before its time.
6 Keep fear far way from me, Varuna, and hold fast to me, O emperor of Order. Set me free from anguish as one would free a calf from rope; I cannot bear to live apart from you even for the blink of an eye.
7 Varuna the Asura, do not wound us with your weapons that wound the man you seek when he has committed sin. Let us not be exiled from the light. Loosen clean way from us our failures, so that we may live.
8 O Varuna born of strength, the homage to you that was made in the past long go we would speak now, and in the time yet to come. Upon you who cannot be deceived our vows are set, unshakeable, as if upon mountain.
9 Abolish the debts for the things I have done, O king, and do not make me pay for what has been done by others. So many more dawns have not yet risen, Varuna; make sure that we will live through them.
10 If someone I have met, O king, or friend has spoken of danger to me in a dream to frighten me, or if a thief should waylay us, or wolf – protect us from that, Varuna.
11 Do not let me know the loss of dear, generous, open-handed friend, Varuna, nor let me lack the wealth that makes good reign, O king. Let us speak great words as men of
power in the sacrificial gathering.
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