The Rig Veda: An Anthology

The Rig Veda celebrates the pleasures of life; it is a very worldly sacred text. Renunciation of the material world or its pleasures for an ascetic spiritual quest, an important part of later Hindu religion, is an attitude almost entirely absent from it. The worshipper invokes the Vedic gods to provide the things he wants: wealth, cattle, victory in battle and on the racecourse, lasting friendships, erotic joy, longevity, and progeny. While many Rig Veda hymns focus on the gods or the Soma sacrifice, the hymns in this chapter are primarily celebrations of the natural world and the good things in life.

Two hymns commemorate the waters as the life-giving element that rejuvenates and purifies the body and soul. In 10.9, the poet appeals to the waters as loving mothers or goddesses who nurture with their milk, bringing health and well-being. Their cure is like “an armor for [the] body,” giving longevity, purifying his heart and soul, and removing the taint of any deceitful malice he has committed by washing away his offences (231). Soma has told the poet that all cures exist within the waters, and that Agni, the god of