Mircea Eliade – Patterns in Comparative religion

To state the case in brief, water symbolises the whole of potentiality; it is fons et origo, the source of all possible existence.

'Water, thou art the source of all things and of all existence!' says one Indian text, summing up the long Vedic tradition.  Waters are the foundations of the whole world; they are the essence of plant life, the elixir of immortality like the amrta; they ensure long life and creative energy, they are the principle of all healing and so on.

'May the waters bring us well being!'  the Vedic priest used to pray.

'The waters are indeed healers; the waters drive away and cure all illnesses'

Principle of what is formless and potential, basis of every cosmic manifestation, container of all seeds, water symbolises the primal substance from which all forms come and to which they will return either by their own regression or in a cataclysm.