1. Samudra (ocean) in the Brāhmaṇas

A river is a natural flowing watercourse usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. River has been used as a source of water for obtaining food, transport, as a defensive measure, as a hydropower to drive machinery for bathing and as a means of disposing of waste. There cannot be a shade of doubt that the sea or ocean was well known to the Aryans of the Vedic age. Not only did they possess knowledge of the ocean but there were sea going huge vessels and maritime trade as well. The Ṛgvedasaṃhitā mentions vessels propelled by hundred oars (śatāritranāva). The Śatapathabrāhmaṇa^[1] says that the ocean swells round the earth. In the Aitareyabrāhmaṇa, ocean or Samudra has been mentioned several times.^[2] A king who will be ekarat (one supreme head) will rule over the whole earth stretching as far as the ocean or girdled by the ocean like a paramount sovereign. The fathomless deep is mentioned in many Brāhmaṇa texts.The Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa^[3] refers to the saline water of the sea and states, ‘hence men do not drink the water of the sea’. The Vedic Aryans were conversant with the fact that the sea never transgresses its limits; the high water level reached by the full tide remains the same. This observation is also recorded in the Aitareyabrāhmaṇa.^[4]

In the Abhiṣeka or Sprinkling ceremony, holy waters were collected from seventeen different sources consisting of rivers, pools wells, dew drops, floods, rain-water, seas etc. After that all these collected waters mixed together in a vessel made of the wood of Udumvara tree and the king is sprinkled with these holy waters. The Abhiṣeka or Abhiṣecanīya literary means sprinkling as a main item of the ceremony consists in sprinkling the king with holy waters collected from different sacred rivers and seas. Amongst rivers, Sarasvatī occupied that position in the Vedic age which is occupied by the Ganges in the Post-Vedic age from the point of sanctity. Each type of water symbolizes some power or character of the king. Thus, Sarasvatī, as it is found from the Śatapathabrāhmaṇa,^[5] symbolizes speech, gift of the gab, the following river symbolizes vigour, flood stands for plenty, sea for dominion and the pool or tank for loyalty of the people to the monarch, which should be sincere and harmless like the waters of a stagnant pool. The sprinkling is done jointly by a Brāhmaṇa (adhvaryu), a Kṣatriya, and also by a Vaiśya. The sprinkling vessel differs in the case of each caste. At first, all the holy waters are mixed together in a vessel made of Udumvara wood. Then that mixed consecration water is distributed into four smaller vessels made of woods of Palāśa, Udumvara, Nyagrodha of banyan and Aśvatha or ficus religion trees respectively.