I have some questions regarding the Indian god VaruNa and,
whether VaruNa is mentioned in Mitanni documents.
In old Iran, VaruNa is not attested at all, and in Mitanni doucment
also only uruwana & aruna are attested and *not* VaruNa.
See Bjarte Kaldhol's post made 8 years ago:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?
A2=ind0011&L=indology&D=1&P=38169
"As for Varuna, this name does not appear to be found anywhere in
Hurrian texts. But there is an Aruna, written a-ru-u2-na, apparently
a Hittite or Anatolian version of Hurrian Kiya$e, "Ocean", a Hurrian
goddess and a very common female name element in Hurrian texts.
Aruna was a woman, living in the eastern part of Mittani, Arrapha.
In the Akkadian text where she is mentioned, there are many names,
all Hurrian except Burnazini (Kassite). There are also some
Akkadianized Hurrian legal terms. Aruna's name should not be
connected to Varuna, which in itself is a problematic name. I
believe there is no certain IE etymology?"
It is true we don't have VaruNa etymology for certain, and the word
itself is unattested outside India. BTW, this paper needs to be
looked into also.
O. Carruba "Zur Ãberlieferung einiger Namen und Appellativa der Arier
von Mitanni- a Luwian look" in: Indoarisch, Iranisch und die
Indogermanistik ed. by B. Forssman and R. Plath, Reichert Verlag
Wiesbaden 2000, p. 51-68.
Note that Mitanni treaty is 2 centuries before Aryan texts like
Rgveda were written. So, the Indic god VaruNa may not be what is
referred to in Mitanni treaty in the 14th century BC.
The chief god, Indra in nom. singular form "DINGIR" is placed in the
center in the 5 gods list in Mitanni treaty. Chief god Indra (king
among gods, the foremost mentioned in Rgveda - 6 times more than
VaruNa in Rgveda) is surrounded all around by the attendant lesser
gods mentioned in the plural form. The plural form may be to
indicate a "family" of gods accompanied by a god mentioned by name.
Indra is surrounded by gods "belonging to/accompanied by"
like Mitra and Arunas and Nasatya twins. In the Mitanni treaty,
water gods accompanied by arunas/uruwana may refer to gods of
rivers/lakes and sea. The Mitanni treaty list, with Indra as supreme
followed by gods-families that include Mitra (male), Aruna (female)
is possibly like Mazda as supremo followed by Mithra (male), Anahita
(female) in old Persian inscriptions. Is Mitra and Arunas gods
refering to heaven (sun) and water (earth) gods in the Mitanni
treaty? If water god(s) are not possible for some reason,
there are also other choices.
Some linguists have written that Mitanni people are from
Dardo-Kafir folks of Central Asia, not Indo-Aryan stock who entered
India. Igor Diakonoff [1] wrote his view:
"there were not two branches of Indo-Iranians but three, viz.,
Iranians, Dardo-Kafirs, and Indo-Aryans. Those whom we meet in
Mitanni are a stray group of Dardo-Kafirs coming from their original
home in the steppes of central Asia."
-------
Igor Diakonoff has suggested an identification of Mitannian uruwana-
with IIr urwan 'soul'. Mitanni uruwana not from Indo-Aryan VaruNa.
To quote Francesco Brighenti, (& various books, -
probably also in Georg Feuerstein, S. Kak's In Search of the Cradle
of Civilization as well). "Also, the Russian comparative linguist
Igor M. Diakonoff has questioned the identification of Mittanian
uruwana- with the Indo-Aryan Varun.a. According to him, ur(u)wa-
na "is probably the Hurrian plural of the Indo-Iranian mythological
term urwan `soul' (preserved in Old Iranian)." He also rejects
Mittanian aruna- < pre-R.gvedic Old Indo-Aryan *weruna- (vel sim.)
because, in his views, *w > zero is not possible in any of the
languages involved. See I.M. Diakonoff, "Language Contacts in the
Caucasus and the Near East," in T.L. Markey & J.A.C. Greppin, eds.,
_When Worlds Collide: Indo- Europeans and Pre-Indo-Europeans_, Ann
Arbor, Karoma, 1990, p. 64."
Because VaruNa is specific to India, and the Mitanni treaty is
before Aryans settled in India, doubts about VaruNa being refered to
in the 14th century. And, also whether these Mitanni Aryana are
Indo-Aryan at all??
VaruNa's vAhana in India is the Indus crocodile (gharial)
and he is the deity of the direction, West in India. Note that
Indus calley seals the so-called proto-'Siva seals depict
four animals surrounding a buffalo-horned deity, and in similar
seals, the buffalo horned being is replaced by a crocodile
surrounded by same animals. On VaruNa's Indian associations,
see Ananda Coomaraswamy [2]. VaruNa has many features later on
from Indus glyptic art.
Naga Ganesan
[1]: I. M. Diakonoff (Two recent studies of Indo-Iranian origins,
J. Am. Oriental Soc., 115, 3, 1995, pp. 473-477) summarises
his views on the Mitanni Aryan presence.
In pg. 474-475, he wrote: " Actually, there was no "Aryan" population
of dynasty at Nuzi and Arraphe: all 'Indo-Aryan' names
which are registered in Nuzi Personal Names (whence they have
been quoted by all subsequent scholars) belong to *one* Mitannian
detachment which fled to Arraphe (during a civil war in Mitanni)
together with the pretender Sattiwasa, and which disappeared together
with him. Sattiwasa, alone in a single chariot, finally met the
Hittite king and concluded a treaty with him (on the latter's
conditions). This treaty is preserved and is witnessed by a
multitude of both Hittite and Hurrian gods; the four "Indo-Aryan"
deities are mentioned near the very end of the huge list. Moreover,
N. B. Jankowska has pointed out that the charioteers in Arraphe (as
well as in the other knigdoms of that time) were not owners of the
chariots after the manner of a feudal nobility,
but servants of the king who received both the chariots and the
horses from the royal economy when required; and they were very far
from always being Aryans. The same can be observed in eighth century
B.C. Urartu.
It is a pity that Ye. Ye. Kuzmina found it impossible even to
hypothesize how the Indo-Iranians (an what sub-group of them) might
have reached northern Mesopotamia as early as sixteenth century
B.B., when the Indo-Aryans ought to have had their hands full
conquering Hindustan. In my opinion, there were not two branches of
Indo-Iranians but three, viz., Iranians, Dardo-Kafirs, and
Indo-Aryans. Those whom we meet in Mitanni are a stray group of
Dardo-Kafirs coming from their original home in the steppes of
central Asia before the rest of them were displaced to Pamir, Swat
and Chitral in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C."
[2] Indian VaruNa in Atharva Veda (popular among early Vedas):
A. K. Coomaraswamy YakSas, pt. II, Smithsonian, 1929
(Manohar 1971). Some quotations will give an idea.
pg. 2
"This prototype of the later (MBh. III, 272, 44 and XII, 207,13)
conception of the reclining Narayana, resting upon the
waters, and giving birth to Brahma (demiurge) by way of a
lotus, of which the stem rises from his navel, is developed
as follows, in the Atharva Veda X.7.38, with reference to
VaruNa, Brahman or PrajApati as the supreme and ultimate
source of life"
pg. 13 " "that germ which the waters held first and in which
all the gods exist "rose like a tree" "from the navel of the unborn,"
who in the oldest passage is VaruNa and in the Atharva Veda is
called a YakSa".
pg. 25 " This tradition appears already in the Rgveda (RV)., I.24.7
in connection with VaruNa, then in RV X.82.5 and YV IV.6.2
"Prior to the sky, prior to this earth, prior to the living gods,
what is that Germ which the waters held first and in which
all gods existed; on the navel of the Unborn
stood that in which all the gods existed? The waters held that
same Germ in which all the gods existed; on the navel of
the Unborn stood that in which all beings stood."
The Unborn, of course, is one of the early designations
of the world-ground, later called PuruSa, PrajApati,
Brahman, or Narayana; and with the full development of
theism, ViSNu inherits the formula. Meanwhile, in the AV
X.7.38, That One is spoken of as "a great YakSa in the midst
of the creation, lying upon the sea in penance; therein are set
whatever gods there are, like the branches of a tree round about
a trunk."
pg. 27 "It would appear to me, however, that as god of living
waters, fertility and justice, and as a great king, VaruNa belongs
almost entirely to a settled order of things, to a city state
and peasant culture of immemorial antiquity; that on the dark
chthonic side of things, with its seasonal festivals, ritual
eroticism, and possibly human sacrifice, the whole complex of ideas
connected with Varuna and Aditi, Gandharvas, Yaksas, and so
forth, points backward to a great culture evolved with the beginnings
of agriculture, and flourishing from the Mediterranean
to the Indus, rather than to the priestly invention of later warlike
peoples, such as the Persian or Indian Aryans. VaruNa and
Aditi in may respects suggest Tammuz and Ishtar."
pg. 30,"The horse sacrifice is a vegetative ritual designed to
secure the establishment of sovereign power, the fertility of men
and cattle, and absolution from sin. Amongst evidences of its
certainly pre-Vedic and probably pre-Aryan antiquity is the fact
that certain characteristic features, such as the intimacy of the
MahiSI with the slain horse (the pair is designated a mithuna),
and the obscene dialogue are somewhat reluctantly tolerated rather
than invented by the Brahman authors of the ritual texts. The
original connection with VaruNa is preserved in the statement of
the sacrificer, "He who will kill the horse attacks VaruNa"
(A'svalAyana, 'Srauta Suutra, X.6.10, and SBr., XIII, 4.3.5),
and in the ritual of the final bath."
pg. 36, " In other words, the creation myths of the water
cosmology (esp. the churning of the ocean, and the world-tree
myth in its various forms), which are later so conspicuously
connected with ViSNu, are really inherited from VaruNa. In the
same way a succession of designations of the great Mother
and Earth goddess can be recognized in Aditi, IDA, DhiSaNA,
PrakRti, Vaak, and LakSmI and BhUmidevi, and in all aspects
of the concept of 'Sakti."