O Varuna, loosen whatever sin we have committed to bosom-friend, comrade, or brother; to our own house, or to the stranger; what (we) have sinned like gamblers at play, real (sin), or what we have not known.

Make loose, as it were, all these things, O god Varuna, and may we be dear to thee hereafter." In this hymn Varuna is a water-god, who stands in mid-air and directs the rain; who, after the rain, reinstates the sun; who releases from sin (as water does from dirt ?).

According to this conception it would seem that Varuna were the 'coverer' rather than the 'encompasser.' It might seem probable even that Varuna first stood to Dyaus as cloud and rain and night to shining day, and that his counterpart, (Greek: Hohyranhos), stood in the same relation to (Greek: Zehys); that were connecte( Greek: Hohyranhos)d with (Greek: hyrheo) and Varuna with _vari_, river, _v[=a]ri_, water.[76] It is possible, but it is not provable.

But no interpretation of Varuna that ignores his rainy side can be correct.

And this is fully recognized by Hillebrandt.