In the Rig Veda, water is not merely a chemical element or even a natural resource. It is divine — Apas, the Waters, form a category of divinities in their own right, goddesses in the plural, present in dozens of hymns and invoked with a fervour that says how central their role was in the spiritual and daily life of the 7 Rivers civilization.
In the glossary of The Civilization of the 7 Rivers, the definition is concise and essential: « Waters: symbol of purification. »
Purification. Not merely physical cleaning. Purification — in the deepest Vedic sense: the dissolution of what obstructs consciousness, the return to what is pure, access to what heals.
The Waters as goddesses: hymn 7.49
Hymn 7.49, composed by the rishi Vasiṣṭha, is one of the most beautiful directly devoted to the Waters in the Rig Veda. Its refrain — « may the goddesses protect me, here » — returns like a breath, four times, giving the hymn a character of immediate and personal protection.
In my translation:
7.49.1 — They come from the flow of the middle of the best ocean, those who purify without ceasing. May Indra, the bull, the bearer of the thunderbolt, form the bed of these waters. May the goddesses protect me, here.
7.49.2 — These divine Waters, and, or those that flow, and, or those found by digging, and, or those that are self-born, and, or those that are clear and pure, whose goal is the ocean, may the goddesses protect me, here.
7.49.3 — King Varuṇa goes in the midst of these, regardless of the truth and the falsehood of peoples. Those that are clear and pure, whose goal is the ocean, may the goddesses protect me, here.
7.49.4 — In these, Varuṇa; in these, the soma and all the gods. In these, Agni Vaiśvānara has entered. May the goddesses protect me, here.
What is remarkable in this hymn is the classification of the Waters in verse 2: those that flow on the surface, those reached by digging, those that are self-born (springs), those that are clear and pure. The rishi does not address an abstraction. He addresses all the forms water takes in daily reality — and in each he recognizes the same divine nature.
And in verse 4: « In these, Varuṇa; in these, soma and all the gods. In these, Agni Vaiśvānara has entered. » The Waters contain all the gods. They are not inferior to other divinities — they are their dwelling place.
Hymn 10.9: healing and union
Hymn 10.9, one of the most directly medicinal in the Rig Veda, develops the purifying power of the Waters with remarkable precision.
10.9.1 — For your waters give pleasure, place them in us for power, for great luminous Happiness.
10.9.2 — This juice, the most benevolent, share it here, for us, like mothers who desire it.
10.9.5 — They reign over the treasures, governing the peoples. I ask the waters for a remedy.
10.9.6 — In the waters, Soma told me, are found all the remedies, Agni and the Happiness of all.
10.9.7 — O Waters, bring healing and protection for my body and may I see the Sun for a long time.
10.9.8 — O Waters, carry it away, whatever the affliction in me, or whatever the disease, or whatever the hatred, the injury or the lie.
10.9.9 — O Waters, today, I have come to unite with you through the juice. O Agni, come here, full of juice and flow to unite us with the Light.
What the Waters carry away in this last verse is remarkable: physical disease, but also hatred, injury and lies. Purification by water is not only bodily. It is also moral — it cleanses twisted intentions, wounding words, accumulated disappointments. Water is the universal solvent of what encumbers consciousness.
And verse 6 states a fundamental truth: « In the waters are found all the remedies. » This is not superstition. It is an assertion about the nature of water as the medium in which all forms of healing are potentially present.
Hymn 1.23: the Amṛta in the Waters
Hymn 1.23, composed by the rishi Medhātithi Kāṇva, contains one of the most luminous verses in the entire Rig Veda on the nature of the Waters:
1.23.19 — The Amṛta is in the Waters, the healing is in the Waters, which are worthy of praise. Gods, be heroes.
1.23.20 — Soma told me that all that heals is in the Waters, and Agni is the Happiness of all, and all that heals is in the Waters.
1.23.21 — Waters, fill my body with healing, be like a thin armour, may I see the Sun for a long time.
1.23.22 — Waters, carry away the evil that is in me, the hatred that inhabits me and the curses or the lies.
« The Amṛta is in the Waters » — the Amṛta, the nectar of immortality, is not in an inaccessible Olympus. It is in the Waters. In the river that flows. In the well one digs. In the rain that falls.
This democratization of the sacred is typical of the Vedic vision: access to the divine is not reserved for an elite, a temple, a priest. It is in the water that everyone drinks, that everyone touches, that everyone needs to live.
Apām Napāt: the son of the Waters
Hymn 2.35 is devoted to Apām Napāt — literally « the grandson of the Waters » or « the son of the Waters. » This is Agni in his aquatic form — the fire hidden in water, the light that shines without fuel in the depths.
2.35.3 — Some streams unite, others join, the rivers bring a broad flow. From everywhere, the luminous Waters have encompassed the brilliant and resplendent Child of the Waters.
2.35.4 — The Waters, always trusting, young women, cleaning around, go toward the young one. He, with the Lights, shines artistically, without fuel, in the luminously pure Waters.
2.35.9 — The son of the Waters rose in the midst of the deceivers, clothed in Light. His golden colours go around, swift, like the strongest running Waters.
This figure of Agni in the Waters — fire in water — is one of the most fertile paradoxes of Vedic symbolism. It says that Light is not the opposite of water. It is within it, secret, waiting to be revealed through the sacrifice, through the mantra, through right consciousness.
The Waters in the 7 Rivers civilization: from text to stone
What the hymns describe, archaeology has found in brick and stone.
In The Civilization of the 7 Rivers, I document this: water management was an absolute priority in this civilization. The wells — hundreds found on sites, some thirty metres deep — were lined with trapezoidal bricks of remarkable solidity and precision. The wastewater drainage network prevented any contamination of drinking water. And at the heart of the citadel of Mohenjo-Daro, the Great Bath — that watertight pool twelve metres long — was used, in all probability, for collective purification rituals.
The Amṛta of the hymns materialized in the well at every crossroads. The purification sung in the hymns was lived in the Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro. Text and stone respond to each other — the same civilization, the same value: purifying water is at the centre.
Le Rig Veda 
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