The Vedic god Rudra is, like Varuna, an Asura or Spirit. He is described as “the wise,” and his votaries are encouraged to worship him “for a comprehensive and sound understanding.” But in one passage the epithet “asura maha,” so curiously recalling to our ears the name of the Avestan “Ahura Mazda,” is actually applied to him.[81] As a wise and great Asura, Rudra seems to be as close a parallel to Ahura Mazda as Varuna; the resemblance of epithet in the case of Rudra makes the parallelism closer. [81] Wilson, _Rig Veda_, Maṇḍala ii., I, 6, Uncertainty prevails among scholars as to the exact meaning to be given to the name Ahura Mazda. The Rev. L. H. Mills, D.D., under the heading “Zend,” writes thus in _Chambers’s Encyclopædia_; “The Supreme Deity Ahura Mazdâh, the Living God or ‘Lord’ (_ahu_ = ‘the living,’ ‘life,’ or ‘spirit’--root _ah_ = ‘to be’), the Great Creator (_maz_ + _da_ = Sansk. _mahâ_ + _dhâ_), or ‘the Wise One’ (_cf._ _su-medhâs_).” Again, the same writer in his book on the Gàthàs, published in 1894, gives on p. 3 in his “verbatim translation,” “O magni-donator (?) (vel) O Sapiens (?),” as alternative meanings for Mazda. Similar uncertainty seems to prevail as regards the meaning to be attached to the words of the passage in the Rig Veda to which reference has been made above, _i.e._, Maṇḍala ii., Súkta i., verse 6. In Wilson’s translation of the Rig Veda, vol. ii., p. 211, we read:--“Thou, Agni, art Rudra, the expeller (of foes) from the expanse of heaven”: and in his note to this passage he says: “_Twam Rudro asuro maho divah_: _asura_ is explained śatrúnám nirasitá, the expeller of enemies, _divas_, from heaven; or it may mean, the giver of strength....” Macdonell (_Vedic Mythology_, p. 75) says that Rudra is called in this passage “the great _asura_ of heaven.” Varuna indeed in Vedic estimation held a much higher and more commanding position than Rudra, but considering how opposed the Avestan was to Vedic mythology on important points, we ought not to expect that the god elevated by the Medians above all others should have held a very exalted place amongst the Brahmins of India. But it is when we turn our thoughts not only to Ahura Mazda but to his Assyrian representative Assur, that the parallelism between him and Rudra becomes more marked. Rudra is not only a wise and great Asura, he is above everything else celebrated in the Rig Veda as an archer. He has “the sure arrow, the strong bow.”[82] He is “the divine Rudra armed with the strong bow and fast flying arrows.”[83] [82] Wilson, _Rig Veda_, Maṇḍala v., x. (xlii.), 11. [83] _Ib._, Maṇḍala vii., xiii. (xlvi.), 1.