There are other hymns, of course, that refer to the light of day or to the sun in his later stages also, culminating as Vish_n_u, or setting with T_ri_ta, till at last Râtrî, night, appears, and Varu_n_a, the coverer, reigns once more supreme in heaven. When we see Varu_n_a together with Mitra, the sun-god, they represent a divine couple, dividing between them the sovereignty of the whole world, heaven and earth, very much like the A_s_vins. They are not so much in opposition to each other, as partners in a common work. Just as the night, the sister of the Dawn, is sometimes conceived as a dawn or day (Ahan) herself, Mitra and Varu_n_a also seem often to be charged with the same duties. They hold heaven and earth asunder, they support heaven and earth and are the common guardians of the whole world. Varu_n_a as well as Mitra is represented as sun-eyed. Still the contrast between the two becomes gradually more and more pointed, and we can clearly see that, while light and day become the portion of Mitra, night and darkness fall more and more to the share of Varu_n_a. The sun is said to rise from the abode of Mitra and Varu_n_a, but night, moon, and stars are mentioned in the hymns already, as more closely related to Varu_n_a. Thus we read, Rig-Veda I, 27, 10:— The stars fixed high in heaven and shining brightly By night, Oh say, where have they gone by daytime? The laws of Varu_n_a are everlasting, The moon moves on by night in brilliant splendour. In Rig-Veda VIII, 41, 10, we ought surely to translate, “He made the white-clothed black-clothed,” and not, as proposed, “He made the black-clothed white-clothed,” a change which is never ascribed to Varu_n_a. This explains why some scholars went so far as to recognise in Varu_n_a the original representative of the moon or of the evening star, a far too narrow conception, however, of that supreme deity, though true, no doubt, so far as Varu_n_a, like the sky, comprehends within his sphere of influence night and stars as well as sun and dawn. The almost perfect identity of name between Varu_n_a and Ouranos shows that Varu_n_a was not only a Vedic or Indian deity, but had been named already in the Aryan period. There are phonetic difficulties, but how should we account for the coincidences in the name and character of these two gods?