Samudra

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

• 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

Rigveda

• 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

Quotes about Samudra in Rigveda 7.95

About the "much quoted line" in verse RV 7.95.2

• This stream Sarasvatī with fostering current comes forth, our sure defence, our fort of iron. As on a car, the flood flows on, surpassing in majesty and might all other waters. Pure in her course from mountains to the ocean, alone of streams Sarasvatī hath listened. Thinking of wealth and the great world of creatures, she poured for Nahuṣa her milk and fatness.
  • RV 7:95:1-2
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• 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)