Mitra

“ NOW Mitra-Varuna shall be exalted high by your songs, noblest of all existing; They who, as 'twere with reins are best Controllers, unequalled with their arms to check the people. 2. To you Two Gods is this my thought extended, turned to the sacred grass with loving homage. Give us, O Mitra-Varuna, a dwelling safe from attack, which ye shall guard, Boon-Givers! 3. Come hither, Mitra-Varuna, invited with eulogies and loving adoration, Ye who with your might, as Work-Controllers, urge even men who quickly hear to labour. ”

“ In Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron of Truth, and "the Mediator" between heaven and earth [70] . This god was also worshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for a period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread into Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a corn god slaying the harvest bull ”

“ Let us not anger Varuna, nor Vayu, nor him, the dearest Friend of mortals, Mitra. 5. Stretch forth your arms and let our lives be lengthened: with fatness dew the pastures of our cattle. Ye Youthful, make us famed among the people: hear, Mitra-Varuna, these mine invocations. 6. Now Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman vouchsafe us freedom and room, for us and for our children. May we find paths all fair and good to travel. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings. ”

“ The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays penetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of men; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was Mitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian Rigveda. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span of human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons. ”

“ Another instance of a deity who is scarcely changed in any way is Mithra, the Sanskṛit form of which is Mitra. In the Ṛig-veda “Mitra calls men to their work; Mitra is preserving earth and heaven; Mitra looks upon the nations always without shutting his eyes.” In the Avesta he is also the lord of the morning, the god of day, and the object of profound adoration. ”

“ From the wide earth, O Varuna and Mitra from the great lofty heaven, ye, Bounteous Givers, - Have in the fields and houses set your warder-, who visit every spot and watch unceasing. 4. I praise the strength of Varuna and Mitra that strength, by mightiness, keeps both worlds asunder. Heroless pass the months of the ungodly he who loves sacrifice makes his home enduring. 5. Steers, all infallible are these your people in whom no wondrous thing is seen, no worship. Guile follows close the men who are untruthful: no secrets may be hidden from your knowledge. ”

“ These, Mitra, Varuna whom none deceiveth, with great power quicken even the fool to wisdom, And, wakening, moreover, thoughtful insight, lead it by easy paths o'er grief and trouble. 7. They ever vigilant, with eyes that close not, caring for heaven and earth, lead on the thoughtless. Even in the river's bed there is a shallow. across this broad expanse may they conduct us. 8. When Aditi and Varuna and Mitra, like guardians, give Sudas their friendly shelter, Granting him sons and lineal succession, let us not, bold ones! move the Gods to anger. ”

“ The active potent juice of heaven is flowing on, great Varuna whom the forward man can ne'er deceive. Mitra, the Holy, hath been pressed for troubled times, neighing like an impatient horse amid the herd. ”

“ Conan looked about him curiously. He had never before visited the temple of Asura, had not certainly known that there was such a temple in Tarantia. The priests of the religion had a habit of hiding their temples in a remarkable fashion. The worship of Mitra was overwhelmingly predominant in the Hyborian nations, but the cult of Asura persisted, in spite of official ban and popular antagonism. ”

“ Mithras is not here, however, the Supreme Being, nor even the highest among the gods benevolent to man. This last place is occupied in the Zend Avesta by Ahura Mazda, 232“the omniscient lord,” who appears to be the Persian form of Varuna, the god of the sky whom we have seen associated with Mitra in the Vedas [798] . ”

“ But this being, like the Platonic Zeus and the Gnostic Bythos, was considered too great and too remote to concern himself with the doings of the visible universe, in which Mithras acts as his vicegerent. Whether Mithras was or was not considered as in some sort the double or antitype of the Supreme Being cannot be said; but it is worth noticing that in the Vedas, as among the Hittites, Varuna and Mitra form an inseparable couple who are always invoked together, and that the same seems to have been the case with Ahura Mazda and Mithra in the oldest religious literature of the Persians [881] . ”

“ When we remember mighty Dadhikravan our food and strength, then the blest name of Maruts, Varuna, Mitra, we invoke for welfare, and Agni, and the thunder-wielding Indra. 5. Both sides invoke him as they call on Indra when they stir forth and turn to sacrificing. To us have Varuna and Mitra granted the Courser Dadhikris, a guide for mortals. 6. So have I glorified with praise strong Dadhikravan, conquering Steed. Sweet may he make our mouths; may he prolong the days we have to live. ”

“ I have compared it with the Mitra groenlandica (specimens of which are in the British Museum) of Möller, a species which we may expect possibly to be preserved in the drift. The Greenland shell is about the same size as our fossil, but in other respects is very different. The existence of a Mitra in Greenland is an apparent anomaly in the distribution of the species of that genus, which would seriously militate against the idea entertained by many naturalists (and to which I am inclined to subscribe) of the existence of generic centres. ”

“ FULL wise is he who hath discerned: let him speak to us of the Gods,— The man whose praise-songs Varuṇa the beautiful, or Mitra, loves. 2. For they are Kings of noblest might, of glorious fame most widely spread; Lords of the brave, who strengthen Law, the Holy Ones with every race. 3. Approaching you with prayer for aid, together I address you first We who have good steeds call on you, Most Sage, to give us strength besides. 4. E’en out of misery Mitra gives a way to dwelling at our case, For he who worships hath the grace of Mitra, fighter in the van. ”

“ Inhabits the South Seas. In the Manchester Museum, and in our own.
MITRA carinata.
Shell slender, fusiform, brown; whorls with a single carinated ridge, and striated transversely near the suture; pillar 4-plaited.
The habit of this Mitra will place it with the fusiform species; from all of which, however, it differs in not having exterior plaits, nodules, or impressed sculpture. The aperture is smooth within, and white. We have only seen one specimen, received by Mrs. Mawe, from Sierra Leone, and this was covered with a brown epidermis. ”

“ We have also added a figure of our Mitra acuminata, to shew how beautifully Mitreola is represented by the fourth type of the genus Mitra, as now restricted, to which type (represented by M. Zebra) , acuminata also belongs: both, as prototypes of the Strombidæ, have the outer lip gibbous near the top; but the plaits of the pillar are totally different, while the spire of one is acute, and of the other papillary. ”

“ Another reference reads, “Agni has been established among the tribes of men, the son of the waters, Mitra acting in the right way”. Oldenberg notes that Mitra is here identified with Agni; Mitra also means “friend” or “ally” (iii, 5. 3, and note) . Scyld in Beowulf, the mysterious child of the sea, became a king over men. Agni “indeed is king, leading all beings to gloriousness. As soon as born from here, he looks over the whole world.... Agni, who has been looked and longed for in Heaven, who has been looked for on earth—he who has been looked for has entered all herbs” (i, 98) . ”

“ Even after the legislation of the remarriage of Hindu widows, several means were devised by Vidyasagar's friends to keep the movement alive. With this view, Umes Chandra Mitra, brother of the Hon'ble Sir Rames Chandra Mitra, one of the late native Justices of the Calcutta High Court, composed a drama, titled Bidhava-Bibaha Natak. The first performance of this play was opened to the public in the beginning of 1859. ”

“ What evil may cling to us sever
With bolts and sharp weapons, kind friends,
And gracious be ever.
From the snare of Varuna deliver us, ward us,
Ye warm-hearted gods, O help us and guard us.
Associated with Varuna was the God Mitra (the Persian Mithra) . These deities are invariably coupled and belong to the early Iranian period. Much controversy has been waged over their pre-Vedic significance. Some have regarded Mithra as the firmament by day with its blazing and fertilizing sun, and Varuna as the many-eyed firmament of night, in short, the twin forms of Dyaus. Prof. ”

“ In other words, character rather than intellect is the foundation not only of national but also of individual greatness—a profound truth which is brought home every day to those who are engaged in the actual management of public affairs, especially in the East. Mr. Mitra, moreover, makes various praiseworthy efforts to dispel certain illusions frequently nourished by some of his countrymen, and to diminish the width of the religious gulf which separates the rulers from the ruled. ”

“ Podi. It is the degenerate Amin who is ruining the country. Is it through my own choice that I am levelling the axe at my feet, by giving the young women to the Saheb? Oh to think of the club which Rai (Ray Churn) , lifted against me that day! If it were not for Sadhuda, the day would have proved my last. Ah, it bursts my heart when I see the face of Khetromany. Have I no feeling of compassion, because I have made a paramour my companion? Whenever she sees me still, she comes to me, calling me Aunt, Aunt! Can the mother, with a firm heart, give such a golden deer into the grasp of the tiger? ”

“ There is no suggestion of the popular idea that the mitre symbolizes the “tongues of fire” that descended on the heads of the apostles at Pentecost.
According to the Roman Caeremoniale the bishop wears the mitra pretiosa on high festivals, and always during the singing of the Te Deum and the Gloria at mass. He is allowed, however, “on account of its weight,” to substitute for the pretiosa the auriphrygiata during part of the services, i.e. ”

“ Having brought one of a strange caste, I am become unable to preserve propriety. My eldest Babu! preserve me; my life is on the point of bursting out. Bring me Khetromani; bring me my puppet of gold.
Sabitri. These destroyers can do all things. Ye are taking by force the pieces of ground of men, their grain, their kine and calves. By the force of clubs, ye are cultivating Indigo, and the people are doing your work with cries and sobbings.
Reboti. My mother! I am preparing the Indigo, taking only half the food. Those bigahs which they had marked, on them I worked. ”

“ With these words, he snatched the bottle from the kabiraj, and all the young lunatics, smearing themselves over with the oil, leaped into the Ganges. The kabiraj became as one bereft of his senses when he saw all this, and thinking that he might breathe again if he could only get away, he increased his pace. Thereupon Haladhar, as he was swimming about, screamed out: Ho there, respected kabiraj! I am getting more and more bilious every day: you must give me some of your powders to take: do not run away: if you do, your wife will have to remove her bracelet and be a widow. ”

“ One night all the three wives had the same dream, a very wonderful one, in which the god Siva, who is very much honoured in India, appeared to them. He told them that, looking down from Heaven, he had noticed how tenderly they cared for the newborn baby, and that he wished them to call him Putraka. Besides this he astonished them by adding that, as a reward for the unselfish way in which they had behaved, they would find one hundred thousand gold pieces under the little child's pillow every morning, and that one day that little child would be a king. ”

“ Just as they thought they were safe from pursuit, they heard a loud rushing noise behind; and looking round, they saw the father of the bride close upon them on his Arab steed, with sword uplifted in his hand to strike. " Fear not," whispered Rupa-Sikha to her husband. "I will show you now what I can do." And waving her arms to and fro, as she muttered some strange words, she changed herself into an old woman and Sringa-Bhuja into an old man, whilst Marut became a great pile of wood by the road-side. ”

“ Sadhu. Sir, do you call this giving advances for Indigo; would it not be better to call it the cramming down Indigo? [5] Oh! my Ill-fortune, you are still with me. That very blow through fear of which I fled, I have to bear again. This land was as the Kingdom of Rama before Indigo was established; but the ignorant fool is become a beggar, and famine has come upon the land.
Amin. (To himself observing Khetromani.) This young woman is not bad-looking; if our younger Saheb can get her, he will, with his whole heart, take her. ”

“ The species yet discovered are few, and hence we yet can only trace three types of form; the first evidently representing Mitra, and the third, probably, typifying Conohelix. M. Olivaria Lam., which truly belongs to this genus, may, perhaps, be only a modification of the 2nd type, to which our present species strictly belongs. The representation of this group among the Volutes, will be found in Voluta Zebra and its allies.
Mitrella fusca is small, and of great rarity; our own specimen, beautifully perfect, is the only one we have yet seen. ”