Varaha Purana 2.24: Adhyaya 2, Shloka 24
Cosmogony and the Ninefold Creation: Rudra’s Origin and the Prelude to the Sāvitrī-Veda Narrative
Pūrva Bhāga · Cosmological Etymologies (Nāra–Nārāyaṇa)
आपो नाराः इति प्रोक्ताः आपो वै नरसूनवः । अयनं तस्य ताः पूर्वं तेन नारायणः स्मृतः ॥ २.२४ ॥
āpo nārā iti proktā āpo vai narasūnavaḥ | ayānaṃ tasya tāḥ pūrvaṃ tena nārāyaṇaḥ smṛtaḥ || 2.24 ||
Apo nArA iti proktA Apo vai narasUnavaH | ayanaM tasya tAH pUrvaM tena nArAyaNaH smRRitaH || 2.24 ||
ജലങ്ങളെ ‘നാരാഃ’ എന്നു പറയുന്നു; സത്യത്തിൽ ജലങ്ങൾ നരന്റെ പുത്രന്മാരെന്നു പ്രസിദ്ധം. പൂർവ്വം അവ തന്നെയായിരുന്നു അവന്റെ ‘അയനം’ (നിവാസം); അതുകൊണ്ട് അവൻ ‘നാരായണൻ’ എന്നു സ്മരിക്കപ്പെടുന്നു.
Sandhi Notes
- āpo nārā iti: quotation
- narasūnavaḥ = nara + sūnavaḥ
Varāha
Curious
Why is the Supreme called Nārāyaṇa, and what is the ontological basis of that name?
Divine names encode metaphysical relations: Nārāyaṇa as the one whose abode/support is the primordial waters and who is their source-ground.
Contemplate the name ‘Nārāyaṇa’ as a meditation on the Lord’s immanence in the causal matrix and his transcendence over it; use nāma-smaraṇa to stabilize śānta-bhāva.
Nārāyaṇa is presented as the immanent ground of the cosmic waters (nāra) and as the one for whom they are an ayana (resting-place), pointing to the Lord as both material support and transcendent indweller of creation.
Waters (nāra) as the primordial field; ayana as the cosmic ‘bed’/support on which the Lord reclines prior to manifestation—an implicit pre-creation sacrificial ‘substrate’ motif rather than explicit limb-to-yajña mapping.
Aligns with Vedāntic causality: the Supreme as upādāna/adhisthāna (material/supporting cause) and antaryāmin (inner ruler) of the undifferentiated causal state symbolized by waters.
Varāha Purāṇa, creation narrative sections describing pre-manifest waters and the Lord’s causal state (adjacent sarga passages)
FAQs
It preserves a Purāṇic-style etymology explaining the epithet “Nārāyaṇa” through key Sanskrit terms (āpaḥ, nārā, ayana), reflecting how early medieval Sanskrit traditions linked cosmology, language, and divine nomenclature.
No specific geographic site is named in this verse; it is primarily a cosmological and lexical explanation centered on “waters” (āpaḥ) as a primordial category.
Rather than a direct rule, the verse conveys a philosophical instruction: it frames water as primordial and foundational, supporting a worldview in which natural elements (especially waters) are treated as conceptually central to cosmic order and cultural heritage discourse.
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