(I.154.1, 5.) Under all these names and images the sun is worshipped.

And it is necessary to review them all to see how deeply the worship is ingrained.

The sun is one of the most venerable as he is the most enduring of India's nature-gods.[52] In no early passage is the sun a malignant god.

He comes "as kine to the village, as a hero to his steed, as a calf to the cow, as a husband to his wife."[53] He is the 'giver,' the 'generous one,' and as such he is Mitra, 'the friend,' who with Varuna, the encompassing heaven, is, indeed, in the Rig Veda, a personality subordinated to his greater comrade; yet is this, perhaps, the sun's oldest name of those that are not descriptive of purely physical characteristics.

For Mithra in Persian keeps the proof that this title was given to the Indo-Iranic god before the separation of the two peoples.