Devalok
Legend · 2 tellings · Pan-India

The Child of the Waters

A hymn portrait of Apam Napat, and his place in the fetching of the Soma water.

Who is in it

  • Apam Napat the golden child shining in the waters
  • Apas the young Waters who nurse him
  • Agni the fire he is identified with
  • Bhrigu reconciles the two waters (Aitareya Brahmana)

Texts: Rigveda

The story, beat by beat

  1. A poet shapes a song from the heart for the Child of the Waters.
  2. The rivers gather into one store and the bright Waters stand around the bright child.
  3. The young Waters adorn him; he shines without wood, wrapped in ghee.
  4. Three goddesses feed him and he drinks the milk of the new mothers.
  5. He lives far off in strongholds not made by hands.
  6. The other worlds are his branches and plants are born of him.
  7. He rises clothed in lightning into the cloud.
  8. He is golden in form, look and colour.
  9. The young women kindle him here and the poet feeds the fire.
  10. The last verse addresses him as Agni.

fire in water lightning ritual hidden god

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Rigveda 2.35

Pan-India All traditions

The hymn describes rather than narrates. The Child of the Waters lies where the rivers gather, ringed by the Waters, who are young women that deck and feed him. He shines with no wood, wrapped in ghee, golden in every way, and he made all things. He rises into the cloud dressed in lightning. Yet he is also kindled here, and the singer polishes and feeds him as a fire; the closing verse calls him Agni.

Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 2.35

Primary text (translation)

Aitareya Brahmana 2.20 and Kaushitaki Brahmana 12.1-2, with Rigveda 10.30

Pan-India All traditions

At the Soma sacrifice the Adhvaryu goes to the water and makes a libation there; the hymn recited tells the priests to worship the Waters' Child, who shines without fuel and will give a consecrated wave. The Hotri asks whether the Adhvaryu has found the Waters, which the Brahmana glosses as finding the sacrifice, rises to meet them as one meets a superior, and follows them reciting. The Aitareya adds that the water drawn the day before and the water drawn in the morning quarrelled over which should carry the sacrifice first, and Bhrigu reconciled them with a verse of the hymn to the Child of the Waters. The Waters are finally seated on the grass together with their Child.

What is different here:

Ritual, not vision: the god is the receiver of a libation at the water. Adds the quarrel of the two waters and Bhrigu, which the hymn does not have.

Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, tr. A. B. Keith (1920) § ab.2.20; Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, tr. A. B. Keith (1920) § kb.12.1-2; Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 10.30

Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, tr. A. B. Keith (1920)

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