Talk:Varuna

Unbalanced

Currently the article is disproportioned. There is too much emphasis firstly his depiction solely in the Vedas and then on Etymology and Comparative mythology. In fact this constitutes for more than half of the page and even the Vedic and other roles section touches on it. The article lacks any info of the modern Hindu (probably more Puranic) view of Varun. It still a common Indian name, which shows his prominance but the article doesn't mention the deity at all from a modern perspective. Gizza^{Chat ©} 07:10, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism

Somebody wrote "wat the f" at the beginning of the screwed up template, but when I went to remove it, it wasn't in the edit page. I looked back in the history and it seems to have been there as long as the template has (almost two years) and it only shows up on the article page, not the edit history or the source page. Excuse the pun, but wat the f? -- §HurricaneERICarchive 22:41, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I busted the little bugger. He vandalized the template itself. -- §HurricaneERICarchive 22:45, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Deva or asura?

I know Varuna is a deva, and thats what the article states initially. But later on, in "vedic and other roles" section, it goes on to say, "As the most prominent asura, however" etc... Varuna is not an asura, please correct and rewrite it as originally intended. Lilaac (talk) 19:09, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

In Vedas Varuna, Mithra, Rudra, Agni, Aryaman, Pusan and Parjanya are Asuras. See Asura --Syam Kumar (talk) 12:24, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

In the early Vedas, Rigveda, Varuna is a Deva (god) who is also called an Asura, but there is no contradiction because the term Asura originally meant "mighty lord" or "possessor of spiritual power" and was a title of honor applied to benevolent supreme deities like Varuna and Mitra. The difference emerged only in later Vedic and Puranic times, when Asura shifted in meaning to become a label for "demon" or enemy of the Devas. The reason for this shift is largely theological and competitive: as Indra rose to prominence as the king of the gods, the older, more abstract sovereign Varuna was gradually demoted to a lesser role (god of oceans), and the title Asura was increasingly reserved for the rivals and opponents of the Devas. Consequently, Varuna is never considered a demon in the Vedic sense; he is a Deva who happens to bear an ancient, now-misunderstood honorific. VerdictByLogic - Let's Discuss 08:19, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Relation

Varuna is the god of the sky, oceans and underworld. In Greek myth, this would be equivalent of the three gods and brothers; Zeus(sky), Poseidon(Oceans) and Hades(underworld). I thought it would be an interesting comparison in case anyone wanted to add it to the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.163.32.84 (talk) 16:33, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Etymology

The etymology of Varuna (from PIE *ŭer 'to bind') here differs completely from the etymology presented on the Wiktionary (from PIE *h₁wer- 'broad'). Does anyone know if one or the other is the currently preferred etymology, or should they both be presented here as options?

I might also add that I can find no other references to *ŭer being the PIE root for some sense of 'binding' (other than the single source cited here already), which leads me to believe the Wiktionary etymology over this one, since it provides a more complete trace through Indo-Aryan and Avestan...

2A0C:5BC0:40:10CE:E9FD:8785:FBDF:9A6B (talk) 18:20, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

There are other sources cited in the following paragraph. Ruslik_Zero 08:30, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Varuna

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Varuna's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "pauldeussen311":

• From Taittiriya Upanishad: Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 241-246
• From Chandogya Upanishad: Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 101-106 with preface and footnotes

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 11:32, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

Uranus?

The article appears to be claiming that the Greek deity Uranus is a misnomer for Vedic Varuna. It isn't even certain they come from the same PIE mythological root, much less one simply being a mispronunciation of the other IAmNitpicking (talk) 22:06, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Sindhi Hinduism

The article has organizational issues. Sindhi Hinduism is mentioned both in the main section and the "Beyond" section, and in the latter is considered to not be Hinduism? IAmNitpicking (talk) 17:21, 20 September 2021 (UTC)

There are no spots of Sindhi in "Beyond" section. Thank you. Regards, VerdictByLogic - Let's Discuss 09:55, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Grammar and formatting problems

Hello, I just wanted to mention that the Vedic section of this article has a few typos and weird line breaks (or maybe missing words? unclear). It's pretty difficult to read especially because ancient hymns and mythology is already so dependent on interpretation of individual words.

I dunno how to add messages that say it needs to be fixed, and I don't feel qualified to fix it myself, so I'm just writing this here. Hope that's ok. 2A02:AA7:4042:C91C:46BD:CECF:806B:70C3 (talk) 10:13, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

AI use

This is confirmed, see edit history where editor mentioned "rephrasing my research through ai" Gnomingstuff (talk) 16:12, 17 May 2026 (UTC)