The Arctic Home in the Vedas c12.37.4

c12.37.4

When the Rig-Veda, therefore, speaks of the highest *rajas* as being the seat of waters, it is not to be understood, as supposed by Wallace, that there are no nether waters, for it is the nether waters that come up from the lower world and moving in the uppermost region of the heaven produce terrestrial waters by giving rise to rain and clouds. Thus Ardvi Sûra Anâhita is said to run through the starry region (cf. Yt. VIII, 47), and has to be worshipped with sacrifice in order that her waters may not all run up into the region of the sun, thereby producing a drought on the surface of the earth, (Yt. V, 85 and 90). In the Rig-Veda, the Sarasvatî is similarly described as filling the earthly region and the wide atmospheric space (VI, 61, 11), and is besought to come swelling with streams, and along with waters. But the most striking resemblance between Ardvi Sûra Anâhita and Sarasvatî is that while the latter is described as Vritra-slayer or Vritra-ghnî in Rig. VI, 61, 7, Ardvi Sûra Anâhita is described in the Aban Yasht (V, 33 and 34) as granting to Thrâetaona, the heir of the valiant Âthwya clan (Vedic Trita Âptya), who offered up a sacrifice to her, a boon that he would be able to overcome Azi Dahâk, the three-mouthed, three-headed and six-eyed monster.