Again, you instinctively assume that wider IE distribution means older connotation. Am I right? This is what I precisely oppose.
Agreed that I am not a scholar and as earlier it is said, being a layman does not warrant me to shoot off my ideas. Yet, I think what I say precisely becoming true - there is no independent proof to say that a word of wider IE distribution (here, Zeus) is older than the pure Indic word (Varuna).
Do we have an independent proof, without simply assuming that wider IE distribution means older connotation? if not linguistics, in liturgical texts? in Archaeology? I am not sure.
Btw, Fransesco did not mention any reservations. He just thought it is not prudent to brush off a century old discussion very easily. His point is noted.
This becomes more so, since I may clarify that I did not mean to be so categocial in my statement about Varuna being Ahur Mazda, as I have written. If Iranian tradition is a loan tradition from India, still you can have a Varuna in Iran, which does not prove any thing.
Kishore patnaik