--- Francesco Brighenti <
frabrig@...> wrote:
> Varun.a is attested only in the Indo-Aryan
> sub-branch of Indo-Iranian,
> whose ancestral speakers, I assume, lived in the
> land-locked regions
> of Central Asia (the steppe lands of the Andronovo
> cultural horizon).
> They knew of no sea-god, and Varun.a, indeed, isn't
> originally a sea-
> god.
>
> Regards,
> Francesco
>
While everything you say about Varuna makes perfect
sense, that doesn't preclude IE or IA speakers from
having a word for ocean or venerating it. Keep in mind
that Tibetan has a word for the ocean that it often
uses as a title for lords e.g. "Ocean of Wisdom". I
believe Mongolian does too. I could imagine a switch
in meaning based on de-metaphorizing an attribute from
the "god with an Ocean of Wisdom/Truth/etc." to "god
of the Ocean."
I'm from the US Midwest, far from the coast, and
believe me, if you've never seen the ocean, a big lake
is still very impressive.
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