| varuṇa वरुण Definition: m. (once in the  varuṇ/a-) "All-enveloping Sky", Name of an āditya- (in the veda- commonly the night as mitra- over the day, but often celebrated separately, whereas mitra- is rarely invoked alone; varuṇa- is one of the oldest of the Vedic gods, and is commonly thought to correspond to the of the Greeks, although of a more spiritual conception;he is often regarded as the supreme deity, being then styled"king of the gods"or"king of both gods and men"or"king of the universe";no other deity has such grand attributes and functions assigned to him;he is described as fashioning and upholding heaven and earth, as possessing extraordinary power and wisdom called māyā-,as sending his spies or messengers throughout both worlds, as numbering the very winkings of men's eyes, as hating falsehood, as seizing transgressors with his pāśa-or noose, as inflicting diseases, especially dropsy, as pardoning sin, as the guardian of immortality;he is also invoked in the veda- together with indra-, and in later Vedic literature together with agni-, with yama-, and with viṣṇu-;in ,he is even called the brother of agni-;though not generally regarded in the veda- as a god of the ocean, yet he is often connected with the waters, especially the waters of the atmosphere or firmament, and in one place[ ] is called with mitra-, sindhu-pati-,"lord of the sea or of rivers";hence in the later mythology he became a kind of Neptune, and is there best known in his character of god of the ocean;in the varuṇa- is said to be a son of kardama- and father of puṣkara-, and is also variously represented as one of the deva-gandharva-s, as a nāga-, as a king of the naga-s, and as an asura-;he is the regent of the western quarter[ see loka-pāla-]and of the nakṣatra- śatabhiṣaj-[ ];the jaina-s consider varuṇa- as a servant of the twentieth arhat- of the present avasarpiṇī-) etc. etc. (see ) |