Varuna Mudra is a mudra, a symbolic hand-gesture of the Indian religious traditions, known in Sanskrit as Varuna Mudra and signifying the seal of water.
Form and meaning
In this seal the tip of the little finger meets the tip of the thumb. Named for the god of the waters, it is linked to the water element and to fluid balance and suppleness.
Mudras appear across Hindu and Buddhist ritual, iconography, classical dance and yoga, where a fixed position of the hands carries a settled meaning or is held to direct attention and breath. The gesture is described here within those documented traditions.
Sources and caution
Varuna Mudra, the little finger and thumb tip pressed together, is presented within the same modern finger-element scheme as governing jala, water, named for Varuna, the Vedic deity of the cosmic ocean and of cosmic law (rita), an old and well-attested figure in the Rigveda, though the specific finger-seal gesture bearing his name is again a modern addition rather than a documented Vedic ritual instruction; the deity's antiquity should not be mistaken for antiquity of this particular mudra-therapy technique. As with the other seals in this set, the deity's antiquity should not be mistaken for antiquity of the specific hand gesture bearing his name.