- published: 26 Aug 2013
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Samudra is a Sanskrit term for "ocean", literally the "gathering together of waters" (saṃ- meaning "together" and -udra meaning "water". Dictionary meaning of samudra is ‘confluence’ and ‘ocean/sea’. It subsequently found its way into the vocabulary of the Malay-Indonesian languages, bearing the same meaning.
The term occurs 133 times in the Rigveda, referring to oceans (real, mythical or figurative) or large bodies of water as well as to large Soma vessels, e.g. RV 6.69.6 (trans. Griffith):
The precise semantic field of the Vedic word is difficult to establish, and has been much debated, in particular in relation to the question whether the bearers of the Rigvedic culture had direct knowledge of the ocean. Apart from the question of direct acquaintance of the bearers of Vedic culture with the ocean in the modern sense of the word, it is generally accepted that their worldview had the world encircled by oceans, a feature likely inherited from Proto-Indo-European mythology, with a "heavenly ocean" above the world, and a subterranean ocean of the underworld. Varuna was the deity presiding over both these oceans, and over water in general.
Alter all traces of life have disappeared forever
Nobody left alive, no one to remember
This forgotten barren wasteland
Forgotten plague upon it
Failed, forever doomed into emptiness never to return again
Hope is a false illusion
Nothing can save us from our fate
Damned, consumed by misery eternally never to awake again
If this life is so useless,
Soon to be abolished
Why, do we exist in the first place?
A mistake, a plague, an accident
Death is the only constant