The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 73
an example of such a division.239 Ts. Stepanov assumes that “in the Khazar
Khaganate the Indo-Iranian principle in the “kingship concept” remained
quite strong also during the ninth and tenth centuries. Or, in other words, the
political/military/priestly aspects that were concentrated in the figure of the
king according to ancient tradition (the Eurasian “Scythian” one in particular),
fell apart in Khazaria during the ninth to tenth centuries, separating into two
hypostases; the khagan and the bek thus were the two names and epitomes
of the male principle. This is why the Arabic written tradition has preserved
the following on these two high-ranking figures: the bek is the one who rules,
but he must have the khagan by his side in order to be in/have full power. This
would not be surprising given the fact that during the period in question the
Khazars had nowhere to borrow a “living” model of the Jewish state from, as
well as a kingship notion and rituality, and were thus possibly forced to recycle
their own old “royal” matrices, filling them with new meaning”.240
The divine pairs do not provide a simple solution with regard to the distri-
bution of power in the Khazar dual kingdom. Varuna can be identified with
the Khazar khagan because he “punishes by “bondage” (that is, by illness or
impotence) anyone who infringes the law”, while the tendency to be passive
is “manifested by all the supreme gods of Heaven and goes very well with the
“magical” prestige of the sovereign gods who “act without action”, work directly
by the “power of the spirit”.241 Like the Khazar khagans, Varuna is both a lunar
and an aquatic deity, associated with the night.242 It is important to bear in
mind, in light of the Khazar dual kingship tradition and the cult of Varuna, that
according to M. Eliade, “it is only among Indo-Europeans that the “binding”
complex is found organically integrated into the very structure of “terrible”
sovereignty, both divine and human”.243
Actually, more popular in the ancient Indian beliefs is Indra, who personi-
fies the supreme kingship. He is “a demiurge and fecundator, personification of
the exuberance of life, of cosmic and biological energies”.244 Indra is first and
foremost a king who does not age. A thunderer associated with the forces of
nature and especially with wind and rain. He is the embodiment of the ideal
239 According to Pritsak 1981a, 78–80, the perceptions of the celestial pair Mithra–Varuna are
reflected in the dual kingship of the steppe khaganates.
240 Stepanov 2003a, 228.
241 Eliade 1998b, 95.
242 Eliade 1998b, 95.
243 Eliade 1998b, 121.
244 Eliade 1997, 250.