Indra and Varuna in Indian Mythology (An Old and Rare Book)

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Indra and Varuna are the two most important archetypal symbols of Indian mythology. This book reviews the development of the myths related to these figures in the entire Vedic literature, the Mahabharata and the principal Puranas It studies the meteorological, physiological, psychological, political, social, religious and philosophical interpretations of these two mythological and literary iMages. This book concludes that mythically the two most important and exalted Vedic gods- Indra and Varuna of Vedas fall of from their position at the emergence of the Hindu trinity in the Mahabharata and the Puranas but philosophically they remain as important as before representing the two complementary aspects of the cosmic reality at various levels of existence. One represents the truth of being, the other the truth of becoming; one represents the spirit, the other the matter; one symbolises the vast creative principle and the other the enveloping formless void; one denotes metaphorically the day, and the other the night.

Dr. (Mrs.) Usha Choudhuri (b. 1937)

Gold Medalist in M.A. Sanskrit, Ph.D., Delhi Vedavacaspati, Gurukul Kangri University

Lecturer of Sanskrit, Indra-prastha College/ Delhi University for over twenty two years.

Guest Professor of Vedic thought and classical literature, University of Bucharest, Romania, 1973-74.

Author of Indra and Varuna in Indian Mythology and various other research papers.

Specialization in Vedic literature, Mythology and Archetypal criticism.

The present work is a study of two mythical symbols Indra and Varuna of the Vedic poetry and their development in the great epic Mahabharata and the principal Puranas. I persued my research work on this subject and got Ph. D. degree from the University of Delhi in 1965. Initially I intended to study only the religious and philosophical aspects of these two mythical symbols and their interpretations but in course of time I got involved also in the study of the mythical poetic symbol with reference to its nature, function and transformation in literature for which the present subject provided ample scope as the journey from the Samhitas to the Puranas is not only very long but also diverse in language, diction and spirit. The work in its present form, thus, can be called a mythico-philosophical study of the two archetypal symbols Indra and Varuņa.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Satya Vrata Shastri, Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit, University of Delhi who found time to go through the book and contribute the foreword to it. I also thank Shri Nag Sharan Singh of Nag Publishers for undertaking the publication of this work.

Now comes the smiling image of my revered Guru, Late Professor N.N. Choudhuri, before my mind's eye. I humbly bow. He was the guide.

I have great pleasure in introducing to the world of scholars the valuable publication Indra and Varuna in Indian Mythology. It represents substantially the thesis under the title Indra and Varuna in the Vedas, the Mahabharata and the Principal Puraņas approved for the degree of Ph.D. by the University of Delhi. As the title of the work shows, it deals with the two of the most prominent deities of the Hindu pantheon. Treating them in historical perspective, it traces their gradual development mythologically and philosophically from the period of the Samhitas to that of the Puranas and the Maha- bharata and brings out vividly the changes, the transformations and the alterations that they have undergone in their contours and configurations.

The deities are credited with many powers which accounts for a variety of names that they have acquired. Yaska makes it clear when he says tasam mahabhagyad ekaikasya api bahuni namadheyani bhovanti',¹ of these (deities), each receives many appellations, on account of his supereminence or diversity of functions. To bring out the super-eminence or diverse functions certain myths come to be associated with them. This has been the practice since the dawn of history. It has been happening in the case of the human beings as well. The more powerful among them, be it physically, mentally or spiritually have certain legends come to be associated with them. When such is the case with human beings, we can imagine as to how forcefully this would happen in the case of the gods. That explains the multiplicity of myths and legends associated with them. These legends and myths also have many a time an esoteric or philosophical significance. It requires a discerning mind to bring out this significance. The author of the book happily has such a mind. She gives the legends and the myths a searching treatment unravelling in the fullest measure what lies behind them.

Devasya pasya kavyam na mamara na jīryati. The Vedic poetry is supposed to have been fashioned out of the pro- foundest depths of the spirit. The Vedic poet is called a Rşi (seer) who saw the eternal truths, the fundamental and universal principles of secret coherence and inner unity operative at various levels of cosmic functioning (saksatkṛtadharmaņa rşayo babhuvuḥ). Says Rşi Dirghatamah that the vision of life as expressed in its eternal truth dawns in a mind that is divinely possessed or illumined (devam manaḥ) That vision or reali- zation is not only mysterious and intuitive but so vivid and overpowering that it must flow out, it must be shared; but the ordinary words would not do; only the words that could become the vehicles of conveying that seeric vision had to be chosen. The verbal symbols and images used by the poets to give expression to their divine visions are the Devatas, the mythical symbols. Agni, Indra, Vayu, Sürya, Varuņa, Apah and Yupa etc. are all Devatas by the virtue of their being employed by the Vedic seers to convey their visions of the deep- rooted, timeless principles called the archetypes in the modern literary terminology. The poets weave different myths with these mythical symbols. Yaska says that the seer who has had the vision of reality shows love for mythification.

Rşerdṛṣṭarthasya prītirbhavatyakhyanasamyukta. (Nir. 10.10.2)

The Veda speaks of the correspondence between the vision, the image and the symbol (Kasīt prama pratima kim nidanam). The twentieth century mythist E. Cassirer says something similar, 'the intuitions present themselves to the mythical mind directly; the momentary apprehension subordinates everything else to itself. Even the thinker is blotted out by the intentions of his thought. The resultant concentration of meaning is so great that the sacred object is felt to be identical with the whole of reality.'