Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/93

Rh of various deities was formed. The oldest is probably Dyu, but in India he soon lost his place, and the sky in one of its peculiar functions soon usurped his place. For in India the annual rise of rivers, the fertility of land, and the luxuriance of crops depend, not on the sky which shines above us, but on the sky that rains, and Indra soon became the first among the Vedic gods.

Another ancient name of the sky was Varuna, the sky which covered the earth, probably the sky without light, the nightly sky. Both the idea and the name of Varuna as a god of sky were known to the ancestors of the Aryan nations before the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians separated. In that remote period Varuna was the highest and holiest of the gods, and represented the spiritual aspect of religion. After the separation had taken place, this deity of righteousness was translated in Iran into Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity, while to the Hindu Varuna the Vedic bard sang:—

"O Varuna! the birds that fly have not attained thy power or thy vigour; the water which flows ceaselessly and the moving wind do not surpass thy speed.

"King Varuna of unsullied power remains in the firmament and holds on high the rays of light.

"King Varuna has spread out the path for the course of the sun. He has made the path for the sun to traverse in pathless space.

"O King Varuna! a hundred and a thousand medicinal drugs are thine; may thy beneficence be vast and deep. Keep unrighteousness away from us, deliver us from the sins we have committed.