VARUNA, (from Skt. var, to cover, surround, encompass, probably connected with Gk. ot,pav6s, ouranos, heaven, sky). In Vedic mythology, the representative of the all-encom passing heaven. Only a dozen hymns in the Rig Veda are addressed exclusively to his praise, but thus picture whieh they give of him shows him to be the noblest of the Vedic divinities. Ile is generally invoked in company with Mitra (q.v.). The sun is their common eye: the heaven is their golden abode. As creator and regent of the world, Varuna rules the universe with unswerving laws; the gods are subject to his dominion; nature dares not transgress his decrees. A thousand spies, the stars or rays of light, seek out offenders against his rule; there is no escape from his omniscient knowledge, even by flight unto the farthest heaven; his bonds and fetters are ever ready for the guilty; and inevitable punishment awaits those who have aroused his wrath. At the same time this ruler, whose power controls the moral and the physical world, can be equally kind and beneficent. It is his all-wise providence that cares for and protects the good. In his divine keeping are a thousand remedies that relieve the miseries incurred by sin and hold death afar.
The reward of immortality is Varuna's abode hereafter. As sovereign of the vaulted sky King Varuna is the lord of the waters. The sea is his domain, the rivers flow at his bidding„ and the rains descend in accordance with his ordi nances. His sovereignty over the waters, more over, is shown in the special disease, dropsy, which he inflicts upon those who sin against his divine law. As an Aditya he is sometimes in voked together with other gods than Mitra, while his great rival for supremacy in the hearts of the people is lndra In the post-Vedic mythology Vanilla sank into insignificance beside Prajapati (q.v.) as a su preme being, and in the later Indian religion his dominion is confined simply to the lordship over the wafers, especially the sea, and to t he suprem acy over the western quarters. Ile rides upon a fabulous monster called makara, and lie holds in his hand a noose to hind the guilty. Consult: Macdonell. l'orlie Mythology (Strassburg, 1897) ; lIgegi-:\rroeysunith, The lligmda. (Boston, 1896) ; Ilopkins, Religions of India (ib., 1895) ; Hindu Mythology (2d ed., London, 1900).