rigvedic-rivers

"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."

"So let not Rasā, Krumu, or Anitabhā, Kubhā, or Sindhu hold you back. Let not the watery Sarayu obstruct your way. With us be all the bliss ye give."

"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."

"With those aids by which you make the Rasa overflow with a flood of water, with those aids come to us, oh Ashwins (I.112.12)."

"Wherewith ye made Rasā swell full with water-floods, and urged to victory the car without a horse; Wherewith Triśoka drove forth his recovered cows,—Come hither unto us, O Aśvins, with those aids.”"

"“Duly to each one hath my laud been offered. Strong be Varūtrī with her powers to succour. May the great Mother Rasā here befriend us, straight-handed, with the princes, striving forward.”"

"“On every side, O Soma, flow round us with thy protecting stream, As Rasā flows around the world.”"

"Your wide vehicle encompasses Heaven, when from the ocean it returns you. Let the Indus with the Rasa anoint your horses (IV.43.5-6)."

"“Into the pressed soma pour glory {= milk}, the full glory of the two world-halves. The Rasā (River {= water} should receive the bull.”"

"“His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men call sea and Rasā his possession: His arms are these, his are these heavenly regions. What God shall we adore with our oblation?“"

"“What wish of Saramā hath brought her hither? The path leads far away to distant places. What charge hast thou for us? Where turns thy journey? How hast thou made thy way o’er Rasā’s waters.”"

"Whose they say are the Himalayas with their majesty, and the ocean with the Rasa, whose are these five directions, whose are these two arms, to the unknown God may we give our offering (X.121.4)."

"“So let not Rasā, Krumu, or Anitabhā, Kubhā, or Sindhu hold you back. Let not the watery Sarayu obstruct your way. With us be all the bliss ye give.”"

"“I come appointed messenger of Indra, seeking your ample stores of wealth, O Paṇis. This hath preserved me from the fear of crossing: thus have I made my way o’er Rasā’s waters.”"

"May the Rasa, the Mighty Mother, flow for us (V.41.15)."

"Clear-seeing Soma flow, fill great Heaven and Earth, like the dawn the Sun with his rays. Flow to us from all sides with your most peaceful current, like the river Rasa around the world (IX.41.6)."

"“Let Sindhu with his wave bedew your horses: in fiery glow have the red birds come hither. Observed of all was that your rapid going, whereby ye were the Lords of Sūrya’s Daughter.”"

"“Forth from the bosom of the mountains, eager as two swift mares with loosened rein contending, Like two bright mother cows who lick their youngling, Vipāś and Śutudrī speed down their waters.”"

"I have driven to the best motherly river (Śutudrī). We have come to the well-formed Vipāś. Like a cow licking a calf both proceeding together along the same river bed (yoni)."

"“So there this car of Uṣas lay, broken to pieces, in Vipāś, And she herself fled far away.”"

"“For fear of thee forth fled the dark-hued races, scattered abroad, deserting their possessions, When, glowing, O Vaiśvānara, for Pūru, thou Agni didst light up and rend their castles.”"

"That land, created by the gods, which lies between the two divine rivers Sarasvati and Drishadvati, the (sages) call Brahmavarta."

"He set thee in the earth’s most lovely station, in Iḷā’s place, in days of fair bright weather. On man, on Āpayā, Agni! on the rivers Dṛṣadvati, Sarasvatī, shine richly."

"There is no doubt that the Rawi, even more than some of the other rivers constituting the Panch Nad or Panj Ab, has changed more or less from one side to the other and back again time after time; and thus to attempt to “identify" places along its present banks with others supposed to have existed more than twenty-two centuries ago, is so absurd as to require no further comment."

"“The very truth do I declare to thee, Paruṣṇī, mighty flood. Waters! No man is there who gives more horses than Śaviṣṭha gives.”"

"Holy Maruts, what medicine is on the Indus, in the Asikni, in the oceans or in the mountains, with that bless us."

"“Bull, hurler of the four-edged rain-producer with both his arms, strong, mighty, most heroic; Wearing as wool Paruṣṇī for adornment, whose joints for sake of friendship he hath covered.”"

"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."

"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."

"If the river Drsadvati is full of water, they should perform the Aponaptriya Isti near its confluence (in the Sarasvati). Dhanamjaya maintains that it may be performed there, even if it (the Drsadvati) has no water."

"“Fools, in their folly fain to waste her waters, they parted inexhaustible Paruṣṇī. Lord of the Earth, he with his might repressed them: still lay the herd and the affrighted herdsman.” “As to their goal they sped to their destruction: they sought Paruṣṇī; e’en the swift returned not. Indra abandoned, to Sudās the manly, the swiftly flying foes, unmanly babblers.”"

"“Fair-gleaming, on Paruṣṇī they have clothed themselves in robes of wool, And with their chariot tires they cleave the rock asunder in their might.”"

"From fear of you, Agni, the Asikni people fled and abandoned their possessions"

"O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise! Hear my call, O Asiknī (Chenab), Marudvridhā (Maruvardhvan), Vitastā (Jhelum) with Ārjīkiyā and Sushomā. First you flow united with Trishtāmā, with Susartu and Rasā, and with Svetyā, O Sindhu (Indus) with Kubhā (Kabul) to Gomati (Gumal or Gomal), with Mehatnū to Krumu (Kurram), with whom you proceed together."

"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."

"The mighty ones, the seven times seven, have singly given me hundred gifts. I have obtained on Yamuna famed wealth in kine and wealth in steeds."

"Finding some divine liquor in a forest near Vrindavan one day, he (Balarāma) became so inebriated that he was taken over by the fancy to summon the Yamunā to himself so that he could bathe in her. The lady was less than enthusiastic, however, and turned a deaf ear. Furious, Balarāma seized his ploughshare, plunged it into her bank, and dragged her to him: ‘He compelled the dark river to quit its ordinary course,’ says the Vishnu Purāna."

"Yamuna and the Trtsus aided Indra."

"the Sutlej ‘flowed southwards from the Himalāya . . . and onwards, through Sind, to the sea’—until, for some reason, a prince-turned-ascetic named Puran, a hero of many Punjabi legends, cursed the river to leave its bed and move westward. ‘The stream, in consequence, changed its course more and more towards the west, until, six hundred and fifty years ago, it entered the Beas valley . . .’, which would take us to the thirteenth century CE; but leaving aside the date, the consequence was ‘a terrible drought and famine in the country on the banks of the Hakra, where [large] numbers of men and cattle perished. The survivors then migrated to the banks of the Indus, and the country has ever since been desert’"

"This early confluence of the Sutlej and Beas was by no means the end of the matter. Both rivers have separated and rejoined several times in the last 2000 years."

"“Forth from the bosom of the mountains, eager as two swift mares with loosened rein contending, Like two bright mother cows who lick their youngling, Vipāś and Śutudrī speed down their waters.”"

"The Yamunā was thus a double river—which would conveniently explain the root meaning of the word yamunā: ‘twin’."

"O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise! Hear my call, O Asiknī (Chenab), Marudvridhā (Maruvardhvan), Vitastā (Jhelum) with Ārjīkiyā and Sushomā. First you flow united with Trishtāmā, with Susartu and Rasā, and with Svetyā, O Sindhu (Indus) with Kubhā (Kabul) to Gomati (Gumal or Gomal), with Mehatnū to Krumu (Kurram), with whom you proceed together."

"Even to this day, the Yamunā is seen to flow through the track (river bed) through which [she] was dragged."

"To reconstruct the main stages in the [Sarasvati] river’s life—in a manner which, I believe, respects all the strands of our web—I will begin with a useful clue in the Mahābhārata. In two places at least, the epic tells us that the Sarasvatī’s course in the mountain was close to the Yamunā’s. In the more precise passage of the two, Balarāma climbs to a tīrtha on the Sarasvatī called ‘Plakshaprāsravana’ (the name of the river’s source as we saw earlier) and, from there, soon reaches the Yamunā."

"The Mahābhārata tells us how the great rishi Vasishtha, sorely distressed when he found that all his sons had been killed by his arch rival Vishvāmitra, wished to end his life. He tried various ways, but the elements always refused to cooperate; the sea or rivers into which he repeatedly hurled himself, bound with ropes or weighed with stones, stubbornly cast him back ashore. Thinking he was a ball of fire, the last river he plunged into ‘immediately flew in a hundred different directions, and has been known ever since by the name of the Shatadru, the river of a hundred courses’. Here again, the textual tradition is in accordance with what we find on the ground in the form of the Sutlej’s multiple channels."

"I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, – astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc."

"For India's devout Hindus, the sacred River Ganges is always clean and always pure -- even if its waters are a toxic mix of human sewage, discarded garbage and factory waste. ... Ganges water is well known for its extraordinary resilience and recuperative capacity."

"Jaharnavi (Jahnavi) was brought by the ascetic Bhagiratha..."

"If the wine is made from the waters of Sursuri (Ganges), the saintly persons do not drink it; if the impure wine or any ,jf other water, mixes with Sursuri, it becomes the Sursuri itself."