The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s3: § 3. Apāṁ Napāt
The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s3
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§ 3. Apāṁ Napāt
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The deity Apāṁ Napāt, 'child of the waters,' is more distinguished than Trita Āptya by being the subject of one whole hymn in the Rigveda, where his name occurs some thirty times in all. He is essentially connected with the waters, his relation being envisaged in diverse ways: three divine females desire to give him food, he sucks the milk of the first mothers, but he also engenders the embryo within them, as a bull. On the other hand he shines without fuel in the waters; clothed in the lightning he mounts upright the lap of the shining waters; around him the swift golden-coloured waters go. He is golden in form, he comes from a golden womb. His food is ghee, he has in his home a cow which gives him milk. He dwells in the highest place, and grows in secret, and in the hymn addressed to him he is directly identified with the god Agni, but elsewhere, though associated with Agni, he is distinguished from him. In the ritual he is connected with the waters; when the priests go for the waters required for the sacrifice, it is to Apāṁ Napāt that they address their prayer, and to him they offer butter in order to procure suitable waters; offerings are likewise made to him in the case when the sacrificial victim perishes in water, or when the Kārīrīṣṭi, a rain spell, is performed.
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In the Avesta there is found a spirit Apãm Napāt, who lives in the depths of the waters, surrounded by females; he is said to have recovered the glory when in the flight between Ātar and the dragon it fell in the ocean Vourukaša. In this trait there is clearly a connexion with fire, and the igneous nature of the spirit is asserted by Spiegel⁶ and Darmesteter,⁷ the latter of whom considers him to be the fire-god born from the cloud in the lightning. The natural conclusion is that the traditional view is correct, and the Apāṁ Napāt is the same god as Agni, who is conceived as the lightning in the clouds. Of the moon character as connected with the waters which Hillebrandt¹ ascribes to this deity, a view accepted by Hardy,² it is difficult to see any clear trace, and of resemblance to the sun as suggested by Max Müller³ there is small evidence. Oldenberg's⁴ view that Agni and Apāṁ Napāt were originally distinct and that the identification, which he does not deny, is later, is of course possible, but it is not supported at all conclusively by the ritual, which naturally emphasizes the water side of the god, but which by no means proves that he was a water deity. The fact that the only hymn⁵ addressed to him already identifies the deities precludes us from certain knowledge of an earlier period in the history of the deity. The other deities beside Agni with whom the god is found mentioned, such as Ahi Budhnya and Aja Ekapād, are probably also akin in part to Agni, and this is clear of Savitṛ, with whom the god seems to be identified once.⁶
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⁶ *Ar. Per.*, pp. 192, 193.
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⁷ *SBE.* iv². p. lxiii; cf. von Schroeder, *Arische Religion*, ii. 490 f.
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¹ *Ved. Myth.* i. 365 ff.; ii. 133; iii. 338.
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² *Ved.-brahm. Periode*, pp. 38, 39.
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³ *Chips*, iv². 410; Magoun, JAOS. xix. ii. 137 ff.; AJP. xxi. 274 ff. Cf. Gray, *Archiv für Rel.* iii. 18 ff.
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⁴ *Rel. des Veda*², pp. 117-19.
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⁵ RV. ii. 35; cf. x. 30. 3, 4.
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⁶ Macdonell, *Ved. Myth.*, p.
Linked texts (1)
- Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit