The Arctic Home in the Vedas c12.32

c12.32

It has been noticed above that the passages, where waters are said to be released by Indra after killing Vritra do not refer expressly to the rain-cloud. The words parvata, giri, and the like are used to denote the place where the waters were confined, and âpaḥ, or sindhus, to denote the waters themselves. Now âpaḥ, or waters generally, are mentioned in a number of places in the Rig-Veda, and the word in many places denotes the celestial or aerial waters. Thus we are told that they follow the path of the gods, and are to be found beside the sun, who is with them (I, 23, 17). In VII, 49, 2, we have an express statement that there are waters, which are celestial (divyâḥ âpaḥ), and also those that flow in earthly channels (khanitrimâḥ), thus clearly distinguishing between terrestrial and celestial waters. In the same verse they are said to have the sea or the ocean for the goal; and in VIII, 69, 12, the seven rivers are said to flow into the jaws of Varuṇa as into a surging abyss. Varuṇa again is described as the god, who, like Indra, makes the rivers flow (II, 28, 4); and we have seen that the sage Dîrghatamas is said to have been borne on the waters wending to their goal (I, 158, 6). But it is needless to cite more authorities on this point, for scholars are agreed that both celestial and terrestrial waters are mentioned in the Rig-Veda. The nature, the character, or the movements of celestial waters appear, however, to be very imperfectly understood; and this is the sole reason why scholars have not yet been able to connect the release of the waters with the recovery of the dawn in the Vritra legend. It seems to have been supposed that when the Rig-Veda speaks of the celestial waters (*divyâḥ âpaḥ*) only the rain-waters are intended. But this is a mistake; for, in passages which speak of the creation of the world (X, 82, 6; 129, 3), the world is said to have once consisted of nothing but undifferentiated waters. In short, the Rig-Veda, like the Hebrew Testament, expressly states that the world was originally full of waters, and that there were the waters in the firmament above and waters below. The Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa (XI, 1, 6, 1), the Aitareya Upaniṣad (I, 1,) and Manu (I, 9), all say that the world was created from watery vapours. There can, therefore, be no doubt that the idea of celestial waters was well-known to the ancestors of the Vedic bards in early days; and as the celestial waters were conceived to be the material out of which the universe was created, it is probable that the Vedic bards understood by that phrase what the modern scientists now understand by ‘ether’ or ‘the nebulous mass of matter’ that fills all the space in the universe. We need not, however, go so far. It is enough for our purpose to know that the celestial waters (*divyâḥ âpaḥ*), or the watery vapours (*purīṣam*), are mentioned in the Rig-Veda, and that the Vedic bards considered the space or the region above, below, and around them to be full of these celestial vapours which are said to be co-eval with the world in X, 30, 10.