Vedic Mitra is a prominent deity of the Rigveda distinguished by a relationship to Varuna, the protector of rta.
The first extant record of Indic[REF] Mitra, in the form mi-it-ra-, is in the inscribed peace treaty of c. 1400 BC between Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van in Asia Minor.