ORIENTAL SERIES.

VARUNA. 337
He is regent of tlie west quarter and of one of the Nakshatras
or lunar mansions. According to the Maha-bharata he was son
of Kardama and father of Pushkara. The Maha-bharata relates
that he carried off Bhadra, the wife of Utathya (q.v.), a Brahman,
but Utathya obliged him to submit and restore her. He
was in a way the father of the sage Vasishftia (q.v.). In the
Vedas, Varuvia is not specially connected with water, but there
are passages in which he is associated with the element of water
both in the atmosphere and on the earth, in such a way as may
account for the character and functions ascribed to him in the
later mythology.
Dr. Muir thus sums up in the words of the hymns the functions
and attributes of Yaruwa
"
: The grandest cosmical func-
tions are ascribed to "Varuwa. Possessed of illimitable resources
(or knowledge), this divine being has meted out (or fashioned)
and upholds heaven and earth, he dwells in all worlds as sov&
reign ruler ; indeed the three worlds are embraced within him.
He made the golden and revolving sun to shine in the firma-
ment. The wind which resounds through the atmosphere is his
breath. He has opened out boundless paths for the sun, and
has hollowed out channels for the rivers, which flow by Ms com-
mand. By his wonderful contrivance the rivers pour out their
waters into the one ocean but never fill it. His ordinances are
fixed and unassailable. They rest on him unshaken as on a
mountain. Through the operation (of his laws) the moon walks
in brightness, and the stars which appear in the nightly sky
mysteriously vanish in daylight, Neither the birds flying in
the air, nor the rivers in their ceaseless flow can attain a know-
ledge of his power or his wrath. Has messengers behold both
worlds. He knows the flight of birds in the sky, the paths of
ships on the ocean, the course of the far-travelling wind, and beholds
all the things that have been or shall be done. No creature
can even wink without him. He witnesses men's truth and false-
hood. He instructs the Eishi Vasishftia in mysteries ; but his
secrets and those of Mitra are not to be revealed to the foolish."
" He has unlimited control over the destinies of mankind He
has a hundred thousand remedies, and is supplicated to show his
wide and deep benevolence and drive away evil and sin, to untie
sin like a rope and remove it He is entreated not to steal away,
but to prolong life, and to spare the suppliant who daily trans