अहं राष्ट्री सङ्गमनी वसूनामहं सुवे पितरमस्य मूर्धन्मम योनिरप्स्वन्तः समुद्रे । य एवं वेद स देवीपदमाप्नोति । ते देवा अब्रुवन् । नमो देव्यै महादेव्यै शिवायै सततं नमः । नमः प्रकृत्यै भद्रायै नियताः प्रणताः स्म ताम्
ahaṃ rāṣṭrī saṅgamanī vasūnāmahaṃ suve pitaramasya mūrdhanmama yonirapsvantaḥ samudre | ya evaṃ veda sa devīpadamāpnoti | te devā abruvan | namo devyai mahādevyai śivāyai satataṃ namaḥ | namaḥ prakṛtyai bhadrāyai niyatāḥ praṇatāḥ sma tām
«I am the sovereign lady, the gatherer of goods; I bring forth the father of this [world] on the crown; my womb is in the waters, within the sea. Whoever knows thus attains the place of the Goddess. Those gods said: "Homage to the Goddess, to the great Goddess, homage to the Auspicious One always; homage to Nature, the Gracious One — submissive, we have bowed before her"».
f8508b975d3c · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The hymn of Speech is carried to its end, and it contains a line cited more often than any other in debates: ahaṃ suve pitaram asya mūrdhan, “I bring forth the father of this [world] on the crown.”
It is understood in various ways, and it is more honest to say the passage is obscure. Sāyaṇa, the ancient commentator on the Ṛgveda, reads: I bring forth the father — that is, the sky — at the summit of the world. Others see here a direct assertion that Speech precedes all the gods.
The following word, however, aids interpretation more: mama yoniḥ apsu antaḥ samudre, “my womb is in the waters, within the sea.” The speaker has yoni, “womb, origin, birthplace”; that is, she herself originates from somewhere.
The combination of these two half-lines is the exact measure of the hymn. The speaker gives birth — and has her own origin; she is sovereign — and she is the gatherer, saṅgamanī, that is, one who brings together and provides. Not one of these words is a word about the beginningless.
Note, too, the promise: devī-padam āpnoti, “attains the place of the Goddess.” Not “becomes the Goddess” and not “dissolves into her,” but attains a place; and the verb āpnoti, “attains,” presupposes one who journeyed and a place he reached.
And the gods, in reply, do not argue but bow: niyatāḥ praṇatāḥ sma tām, “submissive, we have bowed before her.” This is, in books of this kind, the surest measure of seriousness: where there is bowing, there are two.