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Samudra (Sanskrit: समुद्र; IAST: samudrá) is a Sanskrit term literally meaning the "gathering together of waters" (saṃ- "together" and -udra "water"). It refers to an ocean, sea or confluence. It also forms the name of Samudradeva (Sanskrit: समुद्रदेव; IAST: samudrá-deva), the Hindu god of the ocean. The word is also present on other languages influenced by Sanskrit.

Quotes

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  • With its customary caution the Vedic Index, which does not at all promote indigenism or an early Rg veda, but adheres to the AIT, states “knowledge of the ocean… was almost inevitable to people who knew the Indus” (vol 2, 432).
    • Vedic Index quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5
  • The day is the greatness born to the east of the horse. His source is in the eastern ocean. The night is the greatness born to the west. His source is in the western ocean. These two greatnesses have come into being around the horse (Brihadaranyaka upanishad I.1.2).
  • And both oceans are Varuna's flanks (AV Atharva veda, IV.16.3).16
  • Much Rig Veda imagery is maritime. A hymn in Book Ten says, ‘In the beginning there was darkness hidden in darkness, all this universe was an unilluminated sea.’ Another has the gods standing in the sea, ‘then from hidden in the oceans, they brought forth the sun’. One from Book Four also describes creation from the oceans. ‘The universe rests within your nature, in the ocean, in the heart of all life.’ The later Puranas also identify the origin of life as the sea. Indra is the most frequently invoked god, ‘who is as expansive as the sea,’ ‘extensive as the sea,’ and ‘a four-fold ocean, the support of treasures’. Agni is the second major god in terms of number of hymns and also ocean related. ‘All delights converge in Agni, as seven mighty streams into the ocean’ and ‘Agni, the one ocean, the upholder of treasures.’ The god of sacred fire and wisdom, ‘Agni will deliver us across all difficulties as a ship across the river or sea,’ imagery which also pervades later Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The earth and Mother Goddess Aditi are compared to a ship, only possible for a deeply maritime people. There are references to months of sea-travel, images of the sun’s movements through the year compared to a vessel crossing the sea. The enlightenment of a sage is compared to a ship’s journey. They understood the mechanics of evaporation and precipitation. ‘Oh, Maruts, you draw up the rain from the ocean and full of heavenly waters make it pour.’ The ocean is the father of all gods, the support of cosmic laws. ‘Flow on Soma as wealth from four oceans to us.’ ‘There is perhaps not a single Vedic god or group of gods that is not somewhere related to the ocean or ships,’ and the ocean is repeatedly identified as the means to bring riches, hence the importance of Indra’s dragon-slaying and freeing of rivers.
    • in : Nick Collins - How Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent Shaped the World (2022)

Rigveda

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  • Indra killed the dragon, opened outlets for the waters splitting the breasts of mountains then … flowing directly to the ocean down rushed the waters.
    • Rigveda I 32, 1-2: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • To [Indra] go praises… as to the samudra [go] in company those desiring gain.
    • Rigveda I 56, 2: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • All offerings go to Agni like the seven swift-ones flowing to the ocean.
    • Rigveda I 71, 7: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • For three nights and three days, o Asvins, you carried Bhujyu… to the distant dry-shore of the watery ocean.
    • Rigveda I 116, 4: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • While some flow together, others flow towards; the rivers fill the common receptacle’.
    • Rigveda II 35, 3: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • Impelled by Indra … you-two [rivers] ‘like chariot- horses go to the sea.
    • Rigveda III 33, 2: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • O Maruts, you raise up rain from the samudra [and] cause-to-rain.
    • Rigveda V 55, 5 : quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • As the wind, as the wood, as the sea stirs
    • Rigveda V 78, 8: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • Agni Vaisvanara received treasures in the rising of the sun from the samudra lower and upper, from sky/heaven and earth.
    • Rigveda VII 6, 7: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • Whatever medicinal balm is in the Indus and Asikni rivers… in the oceans … on the mountains.
    • Rigveda VIII 20, 25: quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • The samudra, the river Indus, the region/space, the midair/sky, the deity Aja Ekapaad (=the one-footed Unborn or Goat), the thunder, the flood (should listen).
    • Rigveda X 66 11 quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • From the upper to the lower Samudra he released the celestial waters.
    • RV X 98.5 quoted in Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 5 Samudra in the Rgveda
  • For Turvasha and Yadu, you calmed the gushing waters on the farther shore (V.31.8).
  • Ashwins, whether you are in a distant habitation, or beyond in the luminous realm of Heaven or in a house built upon the sea, come thence to us (VIII.10.1).54
  • The Gods who dwell in the luminous realm of Heaven above the firmament, who make the mountains shake across the flooding ocean; who extend with their rays with strength across the ocean, Indra come with the Maruts (I.19.7-8).
  • Oh Maruts, you draw up the rain from the ocean and, full of the heavenly waters, make it pour (V.55.5).
  • May the Creator with the Gods and their wives in accord, Heaven with the Gods and the Earth with the oceans, and the Dragon of the Depths hear us, along with the One-horned Goat, the Earth and the Ocean (VI.50.13- 14).63
  • Whose eldest is the ocean, from the middle of the sea, the Waters continue flowing unceasingly. The Waters which are heavenly or those which flow, which are dug out or those which come forth of themselves, whose goal is the sea (VII.49.1-2).65
  • Some unite to him, others flow to him, the rivers fill a common wideness. Shining pure, the Son of the Waters, the pure waters converge into him. All the worlds are like branches of him (II.35.3, 8).
  • Priests, go to the ocean, worship with offerings the Son of the Waters (X.30.3).
  • Saraswati, pure in her course from the mountains to the sea (VII.95.2).
  • From the lap of the mountains, happy, smiling, like two running mares, like two bright mother cows licking their calf, Vipas and Shutudri run with fluid. Directed by Indra, seeking power, as chariots they travel to the sea (III.33.1- 2)
  • Oh Maruts, what medicine of yours is in the Indus and in the Asikni rivers, what is in the oceans or what is in the mountains (VIII.20.25).
  • Saraswati, who is like a great ocean (or flood; 1.3.12).
  • Saraswati, whose endless, unencompassed, brilliant, mobile flood with power continues to roar (VI.61.8).
  • The king of the river plunges into the sea, lodged in the rivers, he holds to the wave of the waters (IX.86.8).
  • Come to us Indra from Heaven or Earth, quickly from the sea (Samudra) or the heavenly ocean (Purisha).
    • Rigveda IV.21.3.
  • He nourishes both oceans, that which is eastern and that which is western (Rigveda X.136.5).
  • When you were first born, oh horse, you neighed, as you arose from the ocean or the heavenly waters (Rigveda I.163.1).
  • Three, they say, in Heaven are your bonds, oh horse, three in the Waters, three in the ocean, and you appear to me as Varuna, where, they say, is your supreme birth (Rigveda 1.163.4).

Quotes about Samudra in Rigveda 7.95

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About the "much quoted line" in verse RV 7.95.2
  • Saraswatī, chief and purest of rivers, flowing from the mountains to the ocean, understood the request of Nāhusha, and distributing riches among the many existing beings, milked for him butter and water.
    • RV 7:95:2
    • Wilson tr.
  • Pure in her course from mountains to the ocean, alone of streams Sarasvatī has listened. Thinking of wealth and the great world of creatures, she poured for Nāhuṣa her milk and fatness.
    • RV 7:95:2
    • Griffith tr.
  • “RV 7.95.2, a hymn of the middle Rgvedic period, indeed speaks of the sarasvatí flowing to the samudra.”
    • (Witzel 2001: §25) quoted in Thomson, K. (2009). A still undeciphered text: How the scientific approach to the Rigveda would open up Indo-European studies. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 37(1-2), 1-72.
  • “Again, as categorically mentioned in the following verse of the Rigveda (7.95.2), the Sarasvatí rose from the mountains and fell into the ocean.”
    • (B.B. Lal in Bryant and Patton 2005: 54) quoted in Thomson, K. (2009). A still undeciphered text: How the scientific approach to the Rigveda would open up Indo-European studies. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 37(1-2), 1-72.
  • In 7.95.2, if one has faith in grammar and syntax, the text describes the Sarasvati as “pure, travelling down from the mountains, from the gathering-place of waters.”
    • Thomson, K. (2009). A still undeciphered text: How the scientific approach to the Rigveda would open up Indo-European studies. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 37(1-2), 1-72.
  • Since the position of ā́ in 7.95.2 is not anomalous, it is not surprising that generations of scholars have translated monotonously ‘from the mountains to the samudrá’.
    • Kazanas, Nicholas. 2010. “Ṛgveda 7.95.2 and Karen Thomson”. The Journal of Indo-European Studies 38.3-4: 409-421.
  • [Karen Thomson's] translation of samudrá in this context seems forced to me, though. Kazanas has argued against her interpretation... In the context of Thomson’s observation regarding the syntax here, a more logical translation than hers – or, perhaps, a more explicit translation of the intent, would be, “pure, travelling down from the mountains, from the heavenly ocean”.
    • Levitt, S. H. INTERPRETING THE VEDIC TRADITION. INDOLOGICA TAURINENSIA, 47. Indologica Taurinensia, 41-42 (2015-2016)
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