I’m now feeling very sorry for doing my own thing here while some good discussions are going on.
But to continue:
Agni is another important deity in the Vedic pantheon, second only to Indra. He is the god of fire and a personification of the sacrificial fire itself. As such Agni is considered to be the accepter of sacrifices (men offer sacrifice by fire and the gods receive partake of the sacrifice by fire) and thus, the bridge between men and the gods. Hence out of all the gods he has the most connection with human beings.
Varuna is the supreme keeper of the cosmic law and order (
rita). Like Indra he is also a king (they are sometimes paired together as
Indra-Varuna), but while Indra is a ‘brawns over brains’ type of god: boisterous, reckless and easily manipulated by ritual and
soma, Varuna is more ethical, considerate and just. He is a strict moral governor, punishing the wicked who breaks his laws but also rewarding the righteous and showing mercy to the penitent. He seems to have been at an early stage a sky god (with some solar traits; see below) although this aspect of his has been neglected in favor of abstract concepts.
Mitra (related to the Zoroastrian
Mithra, who became the inspiration for the Greco-Roman
Mithras) is the god of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings. He is so often paired with Varuna as a guardian of natural, social and moral order (Mitra-Varuna) that he really has little character of his own. Both gods have solar aspects (making them two out of the many Vedic solar gods), although when paired Varuna is often associated with the night, and Mitra with the daylight.
The
Ashvins, aka the
Nasatyas (the ‘true’) are the Indo-Aryan divine horse twins (cf. the Greco-Roman
Dioskouroi/
Dioscuri and the Baltic
Asveniai). They symbolize the shining of sunrise and sunset, appearing in the sky before the dawn in a golden chariot (most Vedic gods ride on one). Serving as physicians to gods and men, they bring treasures and avert misfortune and sickness.
Soma, the god of the eponymous favorite beverage of the gods and the eponymous plant it was made of (cf. the Avestan
haoma). Highly intoxicating, drinking soma was what made the gods immortal (cf. the Greek
ambrosia): out of all the lot Agni and Indra are heavy soma drinkers. In fact, the drink was reputed to not just confer immortality, but other miraculous effects. Unfortunately for the Indo-Aryans and later generations, true soma soon became unavailable and knowledge of the exact identity of the plant was lost altogether.
Rudra, god of the storm (especially its destructive aspects), a fierce hunter with braided hair armed often with bow and arrow but sometimes with a thunderbolt. He is so feared because of his tendency to smite man and beast with disease (though he also has the power to heal them) that he is sometimes like Voldemort never referred to by his name but are given euphemistic epithets (Indians sure like multiple names
) like
ghora (‘terrible’; later shifting to
aghora ‘not-terrible’),
asau devam (‘that god’), or
shiva (‘auspicious’).
Aside from these there also other gods like
Dyava-prithvi, in other words Heaven (Dyaus, the Indo-Aryan sky father) and his consort the Earth (Prithvi);
Ushas, goddess of the dawn;
Parjanya, god of rain and the raincloud; a water deity named
Apam Napat (cf. the Avestan god of the same name);
Brihaspati, the ‘lord of prayer’;
Vata and
Vayu, gods of wind;
Ratri, goddess of night;
Yama, the first mortal and ruler of the dead;
Bhaga, god of wealth and marriage; the
Maruts, sons of Rudra and the bodyguards of Indra;
Aditi, mother of the Adityas (which are seven, eight, eleven or twelve in number); other solar deities like
Savitar,
Surya (the solar orb),
Vishnu (who traversed the entire universe in just three strides and assisted Indra against Vritra),
Pushan (god of meeting, a psychopomp and a supportive guide, leading towards rich pastures and wealth), or
Aryaman. And so on and so forth.
