Vedas give prime importance to water and there is an important
story as to how rivers appeared on earth. All the waters were once captured by
the serpent demon Virtra. Symbolically, Vritra represents drought and chaos.
Life started to disappear from earth without water. There
was utter chaos.
Then, Indra, the leader of the celestial beings, took on
Vritra.
A fierce battle ensued between Indra and Vritra. At the end
of the epic struggle, Indra killed Vritra with his mighty weapon, the thunderbolt.
All waters and rivers were then released. They then flowed
down to earth, who were invoked as goddesses and worshiped for renewing life
on earth.