Now there is nothing startling in this view. In opposition to the unsatisfactory attempts of modern scholars, it is the traditional interpretation of Mitra and Varuna that Mitra was god of day (_i.e.,_ the sun), and Varuna the god of night (_i.e.,_ covering),[85] while native belief regularly attributes to him the lordship of water[86]. The 'thousand eyes' of Varuna are the result of this view. The other light-side of Varuna as special lord of day (excluding the all-heaven idea with the sun as his 'eye') is elsewhere scarcely referred to, save in late hymns and VIII. 41.[87] In conjunction with the storm-god, Indra, the wrath-side of Varuna is further developed. The prayer for release is from 'long darkness,' _i.e._, from death; in other words, may the light of life be restored (II. 27. 14-15; II. 28. 7). Grassmann, who believes that in Varuna there is an early monotheistic deity, enumerates all his offices and omits the giving of rain from the list;[88] while Ludwig derives his name from _var_ (= velle) and defines him as the lofty god who wills! Varuna's highest development ushers in the middle period of the Rig Veda; before the rise of the later All-father, and even before the great elevation of Indra. But when S[=u]rya and Dawn were chief, then Varuna was chiefest. There is no monotheism in the worship of a god who is regularly associated as one of a pair with another god. Nor is there in Varuna any religious grandeur which, so far as it exceeds that of other divinities, is not evolved from his old physical side. One cannot personify heaven and write a descriptive poem about him without becoming elevated in style, as compared with the tone of one that praises a rain-cloud or even the more confined personality of the sun. There is a stylistic but not a metaphysical descent from this earlier period in the 'lords of the atmosphere,' for, as we shall show, the elevation of Indra and Agni denotes a philosophical conception yet more advanced than the almost monotheistic greatness attained by Varuna. But one must find the background to this earlier period; and in it Varuna is not monotheistic. He is the covering sky united with the sun, or he whose covering is rain and dew. Indra treats Varuna as Savitar treats Mitra, supplants him; and for the same reason, because each represents the same priestly philosophy. In the one extant hymn to Mitra (who is Indo-Iranian) it is Mitra that 'watches men,' and 'bears earth and heaven.' He is here (iii. 59) the kindly sun, his name (Mitra, 'friend') being frequently punned upon.