Varuna has six or seven brothers, like himself sons of Aditi, or immensity. The most important of these brothers is Mitra who is frequently invoked concurrently with Varuna. Both Mitra and Varuna are called A8ura, which originally meant endowed with supernatural power." This attribute was also occasionally applied to Indra and other Vedic deities.

Among the ancient Persians this word Asura, in the form Ahura has become part of the supreme god's personal name. Ahura Mazda or Ormazd is the personification of the good principle as opposed to Ariman, the Evil One. It is interesting to note that the word "Asura" in later times acquired an entire]y opposite meaning and came to signify a demon or enemy of the gods. This change of meaning is evidently due to the speculations of over-wise philologists. The initial "a" of Asura was explained as an alpha privativum and "sura" was supposed to mean "god." All the Chinese translators of Buddhist sutras that I know accept this explanation and translate Asura by Fei T'ien.

In this case we have again a remarkable transformation before us:
a word which was used by the original Aryans to designate the highest and most benevolent divinities, has become the name of a class of dangerous goblins in later Hindooism as well as in Buddhism.

Already in the Rigveda Varuna is considered as ruling over the waters of heaven and earth. He is asked for rain and is mentioned as pervading the oceans.

But Varuna's functions as a water god are very rarely mentioned in the Rigveda. The contrary is the case in the literature of mediaevaI India. There the other traits of Varuna's personality are completely lost and only his connection with the waters remains. 'This character he still retains in India, but I do not know whether any modern Hindoos actually worship him at present. In Chinese and Japanese Buddhist books the word Varuna" occurs as (1) the name 0£ a water god (2) the name of a dragon king, and (3) the name of the deity presiding over one of the twenty- eight lunar mansions .

While the element or natural power originally represented by Varuna cannot be determined with certainty, the fact that the Aryan Mitra was a sun god seems to be admitted by all authorities.

In the Rigveda he is generally associated with Varuna, Mitra being regarded as the ruler of the day and Varuna as the ruler of the night. Together, they uphold the moral and the physical order of the Universe. Mitra, like Varuna, is invoked as a protector of the righteous, dreaded by all evil doers. The cult of Mithra (which is the Persian form of the name) or Mitra was much more popular in Persia than it had ever been in India. Certain communities worshipped that god almost to the exclusion of all other divinities and formed a sect which spread from Persia to the adjoining territories subject to the Roman Empire and thence to Rome itself. The Roman legionaries, who had been partly recruited in Asia Minor, carried Mitraism to the farthest borders of the Empire. By the middle of the first century A.D. the cult had reached the Danube frontier; and Mitraic monuments dating from subsequent periods are found on the Rhine, in France, Spain, Africa, Greece and Great B.itain, principally along the northern border of the Roman dominions. The monuments left behind by the Roman soldiers are our main source of information concerning Western Mitraism, and the ancient Latin texts do not help us much.

The central act of worship seems to have been the sacrifice of a bull, the prototype of which was the slaying of the bull by Mitra himself, represented in relief in every Mitraic sancturary. Such Mitraic reliefs are found nearly everywhere in Europe and Africa where legions were stationed during the first centuries of the Christian era. The chief scene depicted by these reliefs varies but little in the different localities. We see Mitra, clothed in conventional Oriental attire, placing his left knee on the back of a bull, seizing its muzzle with the left hand and plunging a knife into its throat. From the tail of the dying bull, or from its blood, spring ears of corn, and the sacrifice is supposed to symbolize the annual renewal of vegetable life. The adherents of the cult believed that the killing of the bull promoted fertility on earth and assured the prosperity of the pious.

The cult of Mitra, who was supposed to be represented on earth by the Roman Emperor and who was worshipped throughout the Empire as "Dens Sol invictus Mithras," achieved its widest dissemination during the third century A.D. and bade fair at that time to become a world religion. Mitraism still had some adherents in Central Europe at the end of the fifth century, but must be considered extinct in the West ever since the sixth century. In Persia it lasted longer; and even present-day Zoroastrians still recognize Mitra as one of their gods without, however, as far as I know, performing any special rities in his honour. He is particularly respected as the god of contracts and oaths.

About the career of Mitra in the Far East, I know very little. His name, according to the "Dictionary of Buddhism" occurs in Chinese Buddhist books as Mi To Lo and as Mi Ch'i Lo. He is regarded as presiding over one of the lunar mansions mentioned above and also as one of the twelve divine generals representing the twelve divisions of time. In the Japanese iconographical work we find a drawing of Mitra as a rather demoniacal looking warrior (fasc. 4, page fig. lb).

The only Chinese representation of Mitra known to me belongs to the Hsi-yu-ssu, where he appears as one of the twelve great generals. From the photographs of them which are in my possession we see that a bowl is placed before each general, which tends to show that Mithra still enjoys divine honours in China.

The ground covered by this divinity is indeed enormous We find him killing the bull on the Scotch border, protecting a treaty in Mesopotamia and surviving as a Chinese general on the Peking-Hankow Railway.

The god Yama also was invoked about four thousand years ago by the Aryans in the mountains of Persia and is still worshipped, or at least feared, by Buddhists in China and Japan. According to the Rigveda, Yama was the first man who died. After departing this life, he ascended to heaven to become in the course of time the ruler of the righteous who followed him. To dwell in the heaven of Yama was regarded as the highest reward of a pious life. In Yama's heaven the virtuous enjoy immunity from all diseases and live forever in perfect bliss. Yama, who rules over them, sits under a shady tree and drinks Soma, while listening to heavenly music. Among the original Aryans, also, Yama was regarded as a most benign divinity. This conclusion is arrived at by comparing the Rigvedic passages, in which Yama appears, with the corresponding parts of the Avesta. There Yama confronts us as the ruler of a marvellous kingdom in which neither old age nor death, neither heat nor cold, existed; and in which passions as well as want were unknown. Neither in the Rigveda nor in the Avesta is there anything terrible in the personality of Yama himself. The only objects of terror connected with him are his two insatiable dogs with four eyes and enormous nostrils who guard the entrance to his abode. The departed are advised to hurry past these dogs with all possible speed. But when this had been achieved, there was nothing but beatitude awaiting them in Yama's world.

How different is the aspect of this god as he confronts us in later Hindoo and in Buddhist writings! In later Hindoo mythology he appears as the terrible judge of the dead and his abode is in the lower regions. A soul when it quits its mortal frame descends to Yama's world there a recorder reads out his account from the great register, and a just sentence follows. According to their merits, the souls are allowed either to ascend to heaven or are sent down to one of the numerous hells. Some Buddhist books draw a still more frightful picture of Yama. He is supposed to have been the king of Vaisali a city in India well known to all Buddhists as a place frequently visited by the Buddha. While King of Vaisali, Yama engaged in bloody wars, and, though reborn as the ruler of all the hells, he has himself to suffer for his misdeeds committed on earth. Three times in every 24 hours boiling copper is poured down Yama's mouth by way of punishment for his sins. Together with Yama his eighteen generals and his army of 80,000 men are reborn in hell and they all now serve him as assistant judges, jailors and executioners. (Compare Eitel's Hand-book of Chinese Buddhism , page 207). The changes the personality of Yama has undergone during the centuries are truly remarkable. The benign king of the blessed, the happiest of immortals, the ruler of heaven, has descended to hell where he lives to be tormented himself and to subject others to the most cruel punishments imaginable. (Outside Ch'ao Yang Men, Peking, there is a temple in which some of these punishments are illustrated.)

We have already observed that the change of meaning of the word "Asura" is probably connected with the speculations of super-learned philologists. It is not impossible that Yama became connected with the punishments inflicted upon sinners because (or partly because) his name, which is of unknown derivation, was explained by later philologists as containing the root "yam," " to restrain."

In Tokyo one of the most popular festivals is celebrated on the day consecrated to Emma-o (the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters for Yen Mo Wang . The ceremonies in honour of Yama are attended by enormous crowds and are performed by laymen; the Buddhist clergy do not on that day, as far as I know, participate in the worship of Yama. A feature of this Japanese Yama festival are the religious plays enacted in tents erected for the occasion.

In China, Yen-wang or King Yama is certainly well known everywhere. I am told that his images are to be found in all the city temples which have been built throughout the country ever since the the Ming period. In the Tung-yueh-miao outside Ch'ao-yang-men, Peking, a terrible Yama image is also found. I have not, however, been able to find out whether a special festival is held anywhere in China in honour of Yama. His name is frequently mentioned by the Buddhist priests, who read the scriptures at higher-class funerals, and occasionally incense is burnt before the representations of the god in the various temples. I have searched for the special Yama temples which I was told existed in Peking, but in vain.

In Peking there are at least two streets called Yen-wang-miao Chieh, or "Street of King Yama's Temple." One of them is near the Government Printing Office. Many persons living in that street have been questioned as to the location of the Yama temple, which gave the street its name, but none could give a satisfactory answer. Even the memory of the sanctuary, which surely must have existed, had vanished.

The other Yen-wang-miao Chieh is just outside the Hatamen gate and the temple of Yama was easily located; but it was found that the temple contained no images. It had three years before been converted into a fire brigade station. This change will probably be acclaimed by many as another victory of modern science over the powers of hell, but it will be sincerely regretted by all those interested in comparative mythology.

NOTE: This does not pretend to be an exhaustive inquiry into the history of the gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra and Yama. It is nothing but an after dinner lecture prepared in order to amuse "The Peking Friends of Letters" (Wen yu hui). The lack of a library containing the standard works on all the different creeds and all the corresponding periodicals prevents any serious work being done here on the subject of comparative mythology. The writer, for the purpose of preparing his Various papers, has had to borrow books from American tourists, French bankers, British diplomats and other kind friends temporarily residing at Peking.

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