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" There is in the brâhmanas a constant association of the notions of noose (
*pâza*) and *drúh*. Vedic man prayed to be delivered from Varuna's noose, or
from "wrongness" and the noose, or from the noose of wrongness. Cf. "With
the words 'I have been delivered from Varuna's noose' he is delivered from
the Varuna-noose", " 'With the words 'May I be delivered from wrongness,
from Varuna's noose, he delivers him from wrongness, from the Varuna-noose",
"That snare of wrongness of thine, O king Varuna, that, consisting of the
metre Gâyatrî, has entered the earth and has the *brahman* for its support,
that of thine I hereby avert, by sacrifice, *svâhâ* to it!" The phrase
"snares of wrongness" occurs once in the Rigveda: "The furious man, O Maruts,
who is fain to kill us, even when we do not expect it' O Vasus' may he put
on himself the snares of wrongness". cf. also in the Atharvaveda: "Thus I
deliver thee from the afterbirth, Nirrti, the curse that come from thy kin,
from wrongness, from Varuna's noose" and "the fetters of wrongness that does
not release." [<p.70] [p.71>] Varuna's *krûra* ['cruel' - SV] character is
most clearly shown by the fact that he is identical with Death. The Gopatha
Brahmana even uses the term Varuna Mrtyu. In the funeral hymns of the
Rigveda it is said that the deceased will see king Varuna and Yama in the
next world and in one of the Vasistha hymns, which testify to a close
intimacy with Varuna, the poet prays the gods that he may not have to go
into the "clay house". In spite of Geldner's different interpretation these
words probably refer to the grave. [note #256>] Geldner Kommentar, p.115: "die
irdene Gruft für die Gebeine, das Beinhaus"; Übersetzung: "die Urne, in derdie
Gebeine beigesetzt wurden." [<#256] [<p.71]