Vedic God of the waters. He is together with Mitra, God of truth.
They symbolize the old saying ‚in water is truth‘. In the past, people read the future from water by pouring oil into it and interpreting the resulting image.
When once Mitra and Varuna met Urvashi the seed of Mitra fell into a vessel, that of Varuna fell to the ground. Sage Agastya became Mitra’s son, sage Vasishtha became Varuna’s son.
Another son is Pushkara. He asked Brahma to be allowed to be present in all holy waters. He became the protector of bathing places at holy waters, Tirtha.