from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun The god of the ocean, often considered king of the gods and frequently paired with Mitra as an upholder of the world, inflicter of disease on sinners, and bringer of rain.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun In Hind, myth., a deity represented in the Vedic hymns as of very great and manifold powers—the guardian of immortality, cherisher of truth, the seizer and punisher of ill-doers, the forgiver of sins, protector of the good, and the like.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun (Hindu Myth.) The god of the waters; the Indian Neptune. He is regarded as regent of the west, and lord of punishment, and is represented as riding on a sea monster, holding in his hand a snaky cord or noose with which to bind offenders, under water.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
proper noun Hinduism A god of the sky, of rain and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld.
proper noun astronomy One of the Kuiper belt objects.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun in Vedism, god of the night sky who with his thousand eyes watches over human conduct and judges good and evil and punishes evildoers; often considered king of the Hindu gods and frequently paired with Mitra as an upholder of the world
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Sanskrit Varuṇaḥ.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Sanskrit वरुण (váruṇa).
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Examples
The etymology of the name Varuna is doubtful, but the representation of him in the Rig-Veda points to the sky as his original form -- he is a clear example of a sky-god who becomes universal.
The Indian navy has already been conducting formalised exercises annually with several foreign navies since the past several years, such as the 'Varuna' series with the French navy, the 'Indra' series with the
June 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian and French navies, which have been conducting the "Varuna" joint exercise for the past seven years, will engage outside Indian waters for the first time when the war game is conducted off the coast of Brittany June
There is always a close connection between Varuna and Yama, and perhaps it is owing to this that parallel to 'Varuna's fetters' is found also 'Yama's fetter,' i.e., death (x.
This was my fourth trip in three decades to Benares (a.k.a. Varanasi), the holy city where the Varuna and the sacred Ganges Rivers join, gaining spiritual momentum as their currents rush to meet their destiny in the Bay of Bengal.
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