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Rig Veda · 416 of 1027
Mandala 5: HYMN LXII. Mitra-Varuṇa
1.BY your high Law firm order is established there where they loose for travel Sūrya’s horses. Ten hundred stood together: there I looked on this the most marvellous Deities’ one chief glory.
2.This, Mitra-Varuṇa, is your special greatness: floods that stood there they with the days attracted. Ye cause to flow all voices of the cowpen: your single chariotfelly hath rolled hither.
3.O Mitra-Varuṇa, ye by your greatness, both Kings, have firmly stablished earth and heaven, Ye caused the cows to stream, the plants to flourish, and, scattering swift drops, sent down the rain-flood.
4.Let your well-harnessed horses bear you hither: hitherward let them come with reins drawn tightly. A covering cloud of sacred oil attends you, and your streams flow to us from days aforetime.
5.To make the lustre wider and more famous, guarding the sacred grass with veneration, Ye, Mitra-Varuṇa, firm, strong, awe-inspiring, are seated on a throne amid oblations.
6.With hands that shed no blood, guarding the pious, whom, Varuni3, ye save amid oblations. Ye Twain, together, Kings of willing spirit, uphold dominion based on thousand pillars.
7.Adorned with gold, its columns are of iron. in heaven it glitters like a whip for horses; Or stablished on a field deep-spoiled and fruitful. So may we share the meath that loads your car-seat.
8.Ye mount your car gold-hued at break of morning, and iron-pillared when the Sun is setting, And from that place, O Varuṇa and Mitra, behold infinity and limit~tion.
9.Bountiful guardians of the world! the shelter that is impenetrable, strongest, flawless, Aid us with that, O Varuṇa and Mitra, and when we long to win may we be victors.
Asked of Guide
Why are Mitra and Varuṇa described as a single pair of Kings who establish law and bring rain together?
This hymn presents Mitra and Varuṇa as a complementary ruling pair who together found order and fertility: “Mitra-Varuṇa, ye by your greatness, both Kings, have firmly stablished earth and heaven.” Their joint actions—establishing Law, guarding the pious, and sending rain—frame sovereignty as both moral order (Mitra’s covenant-keeping) and cosmic enforcement (Varuṇa’s oversight).
The poem connects political rule with ecological blessing: the same kings who “guard the sacred grass” also make “the cows to stream” and cause plants to flourish, so rulership is measured by sustaining life. This pairing echoes themes in other Vedic hymns where dual deities share functions; compare Rig Veda Mandala 7’s combined hymns to Mitra and Varuṇa that also bind social law and natural order.
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