One more attribute remains to be noticed, which connects Dyaus morally as well as physically with Savitar and Varuna.  The verse in which this attribute is spoken of is also not without interest from a sociological point of view:  “Whatsoever sin we have committed against the gods, or against a friend, or against the chief of the clan (family)[57] may this hymn to Heaven and Earth avert it.”  It was shown above that Savitar removes sin.  Here, as in later times, it is the hymn that does this.  The mystery of these gods’ origin puzzles the seer:  “Which was first and which came later, how were they begotten, who knows, O ye wise seers?  Whatever exists, that they carry."[58] But all that they do they do under the command of Mitra.[59]

The most significant fact in connection with the hymns to Heaven and Earth is that most of them are expressly for sacrificial intent.  “With sacrifices I praise Heaven and Earth” (I. 159. 1); “For the sake of the sacrifice are ye come down (to us)” (IV. 56. 7).  In VI. 70 they are addressed in sacrificial metaphors; in VII. 53. 1 the poet says:  “I invoke Heaven and Earth with sacrifices,” etc.  The passivity of the two gods makes them yield in importance to their son, the active Savitar, who goes between the two parents.  None of these hymns bears the impress of active religious feeling or has poetic value.  They all seem to be reflective, studied, more or less mechanical, and to belong to a period of theological philosophy.  To Earth alone without Heaven are addressed one uninspired hymn and a fragment of the same character:  “O Earth be kindly to us, full of dwellings and painless, and give us protection."[60] In the burial service the dead are exhorted to “go into kindly mother earth” who will be “wool-soft, like a maiden."[61] The one hymn to Earth should perhaps be placed parallel with similar meditative and perfunctory laudations in the Homeric hymns: 

  To EARTH (V. 84).

  In truth, O broad extended earth,
  Thou bear’st the render of the hills,[62]
  Thou who, O mighty mountainous one,
  Quickenest created things with might. 
  Thee praise, O thou that wander’st far,
  The hymns which light accompany,
  Thee who, O shining one, dost send
  Like eager steeds the gushing rain. 
  Thou mighty art, who holdest up
  With strength on earth the forest trees,
  When rain the rains that from thy clouds
  And Dyaus’ far-gleaming lightning come.[62]

On the bearing of these facts, especially in regard to the secondary greatness of Dyaus, we shall touch below.  He is a god exalted more by modern writers than by the Hindus!

VARUNA.

Varuna has been referred already in connection with the sun-god and with Heaven and Earth.  It is by Varuna’s power that they stand firm.  He has established the sun ‘like a tree,’ i.e., like a support, and ’made a path for it.’[63] He has a thousand remedies for ills; to his realm not even the birds can ascend, nor wind or swift waters attain.  It is in accordance with the changeless order[64] of Varuna that the stars and the moon go their regular course; he gives long life and releases from harm, from wrong, and from sin.[65]