ep the order of the seasons
(i. 2. 7-8) and protect men by the regular return of the rainy season.
Their weapons are always lightning (above, i. 152. 2, and elsewhere).
A short invocation in a family-book gives this prayer: "O
Mitra-Varuna, wet our meadows with _ghee_; wet all places with the
sweet drink" (iii. 62. 16).

The interpretation given above of the office of Varuna as regards the
sun's path, is supported by a verse where is made an allusion to the
time "when they release the sun's horses," _i.e_., when after two or
three months of rain the sun shines again (v. 62. 1). In another verse
one reads: "Ye direct the waters, sustenance of earth and heaven,
richly let come your rains" (viii. 25. 6).

Now there is nothing startling in this view. In opposition to the
unsatisfactory attempts of modern scholars, it is the traditional
interpretation of Mitra and Varuna that Mitra was god of day (_i.e.,_
the sun), and Varuna the god of night (_i.e.,_ covering),[85] while
native belief regularly attributes to him the lordship of water[86].
The 'thousand eyes' of Varuna are the result of this view. The other
light-side of Varuna as special lord of day (excluding the all-heaven
idea with the sun as his 'eye') is elsewhere scarcely referred to,
save in late hymns and VIII. 41.[87] In conjunction with the
storm-god, Indra, the wrath-side of Varuna is further developed. The
prayer for release is from 'long darkness,' _i.e._, from death; in
other words, may the light of life be restored (II. 27. 14-15; II. 28.
7). Grassmann, who believes that in Varuna there is an early
monotheistic deity, enumerates all his offices and omits the giving of
rain from the list;[88] while Ludwig derives his name from _var_ (=
velle) and defines him as the lofty god who wills!

Varuna's highest development ushers in the middle period of the Rig
Veda; before the rise of the later All-father, and even before the
great elevation of Indra. But when S[=u]rya and Dawn were chief, then
Varuna was chiefest. There is no monotheism in the worship of a god
who is regularly associated as one of a pair with another god. Nor is
there in Varuna any religious grandeur which, so far as it exceeds
that of other divinities, is not evolved from his old physical side.
One cannot personify heaven and write a descriptive poem about him
without becoming elevated in style, as compared with the tone of one
that praises a rain-cloud or even the more confined personality of t