Vāruṇī (Daughter of Varuṇa)
Vāruṇī, “the daughter of Varuṇa”
Vāruṇī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vāruṇī.
Vāruṇī is the daughter of Varuṇa, the ruler of the waters. Her father gave her in marriage to the great daitya Mahāśani, son of Hiraṇya. She is not Vāruṇī the śakti of Varuṇa, also called Madirā, who went to Balarāma.
In the Gautamī Māhātmya, Brahmā tells Nārada the account of the tīrthas on the southern bank of the Gautamī. Hiraṇya, a strong ancestor of the daityas, became invincible to all the devas by his tapas, and his son Mahāśani, whose wife was Aparājitā, was just as hard to conquer. Mahāśani defeated Indra again and again in battle, bound him with his elephant and handed him to his father, who kept him under guard in the netherworlds. Then Mahāśani marched against Varuṇa. Varuṇa, of great understanding, offered him his daughter and gave him his own abode in the ocean, and so friendship arose between them. Varuṇa’s daughter Vāruṇī married Mahāśani.
Later, when Bhagavān Vishṇu asked Varuṇa to bring Indra out, Varuṇa went to Mahāśani, the husband of his daughter, and asked for Indra, and Mahāśani gave him up.
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 59