HYMN LXXXVII. Agni.
1. I BALM with oil the mighty Raksas-slayer; to the most famous Friend I come for shelter
Enkindled, sharpened by our rites, may Agni protect us in the day and night from evil.
2. O Jatavedas with the teeth of iron, enkindled with thy flame attack the demons.
Seize with thy longue the foolish gods’ adorers: rend, put within thy mouth the raw-flesh caters.
3. Apply thy teeth, the upper and the lower, thou who hast both, enkindled and destroying.
Roam also in the air, O King, around us, and with thy jaws assail the wicked spirits.
4. Bending thy shafts through sacrifices, Agni, whetting their points with song as if with whetstones,
Pierce to the heart therewith the Yatudhanas, and break their arms uplifed to attack thee.
5. Pierce through the Yatudhana’s skin, O Agni; let the destroying dart with fire consume him.
Rend his joints, Jatavedas, let the cater of flesh, flesh-seeking, track his mangled body.
6. Where now thou seest Agni Jatavedas, one of these demons standing still or roaming,
Or flying on those paths in air’s midregion, sharpen the shaft and as an archer pierce him.
7. Tear from the evil spirit, Jatavedas, what he hath seized and with his spears hath captured.
Blazing before him strike him down, O Agni; let spotted carrion-eating kites devour him.
8. Here tell this forth, O Agni: whosoever is, he himself, or acteth as, a demon,
Him grasp, O thou Most Youthful, with thy fuel. to the Mati-seer’s eye give him as booty.
9. With keen glance guard the sacrifice, O Agni: thou Sage, conduct it onward to the Vasus.
Let not the fiends, O Man-beholder, harm thee burning against the Raksasas to slay them.
10. Look on the fiend mid men, as Man-beholder: rend thou his three extremities in pieces.
Demolish with thy flame his ribs, O Agni, the Yatudhana’s root destroy thou triply.
11. Thrice, Agni, let thy noose surround the demon who with his falsehood injures Holy Order.
Loud roaring with thy flame, O Jatavedas, crush him and cast him down before the singer.
12. Lead thou the worshipper that eye, O Agni, wherewith thou lookest on the hoof-armed demon.
With light celestial in Atharvan’s manner burn up the foot who ruins truth with falsehood.
13. Agni, what curse the pair this day have uttered, what heated word the worshippers have spoken,
Each arrowy taunt sped from the angry spirit,-pierce to the heart therewith the Yatudhanas.
14. With fervent heat exterminate the demons; destroy the fiends with burning flame, O Agni.
Destroy with fire the foolish gods’ adorers; blaze and destrepy the insatiable monsters.
15. May Gods destroy this day the evil-doer may each hot curse of his return and blast him.
Let arrows pierce the liar in his vitals, and Visva’s net enclose the Yatudhana.
16. The fiend who smears himself with flesh of cattle, with flesh of horses and of human bodies,
Who steals the milch-cow’s milk away, O Agni,-tear off the heads of such with fiery fury.
17. The cow gives milk each year, O Man-regarder: let not the Yatudhana ever taste it.
If one would glut him with the biesting, Agni, pierce with thy flame his vitals as he meets thee.
18. Let the fiends drink the poison of the cattle; may Aditi cast off the evildoers.
May the God Savitar give them up to ruin, and be their share of plants and herbs denied them.
19. Agni, from days of old thou slayest demons: never shall Raksasas in fight o’ercome thee.
Burn up the foolish ones, the flesh-devourers: let none of them escape thine heavenly arrow.
20. Guard us, O Agni, from above and under, protect us fl-om behind us and before us;
And may thy flames, most fierce and never wasting, glowing with fervent heat, consume the sinner.
21. From rear, from front, from under, from above us, O King, protect us as a Sage with wisdom.
Guard to old age thy friend, O Friend, Eternal: O Agni, as Immortal, guard us mortals.
22. We set thee round us as a fort, victorious Agni, thee a Sage,
Of hero lineage, day by day, destroyer of our treacherous foes.
23. Burn with thy poison turned against the treacherous brood of Raksasas,
O Agni, with thy sharpened glow, with lances armed with points of flame.
24. Burn thou the paired Kimidins, brun, Agni, the Yatudhana pairs.
I sharpen thee, Infallible, with hymns. O Sage, be vigilant.
25. Shoot forth, O Agni, with thy flame demolish them on every side.
Break thou the Yatudhana’s strength, the vigour of the Raksasa.
HYMN LXXXVIII. Agni.
1. DEAR, ageless sacrificial drink is offered in light-discovering, heaven-pervading Agni.
The Gods spread forth through his Celestial Nature, that he might bear the world up and sustain it.
2. The world was swallowed and concealed in darkness: Agni was born, and light became apparent.
The Deities, the broad earth, and the heavens, and plants, and waters gloried in his friendship.
3. Inspired by Gods who claim our adoration, I now will laud Eternal Lofty Agni,
Him who hath spread abroad the earth with lustre, this heaven, and both the worlds, and air’s mid-region.
4. Earliest Priest whom all the Gods accepted, and chose him, and anointed him with butter,
He swiftly made all things that fly, stand, travel, all that hath motion, Agni Jatavedas.
5. Because thou, Agni, Jatavedas, stoodest at the world’s head with thy refulgent splendour,
We sent thee forth with hymns and songs and praises: thou filledst heaven and earth, God meet for worship.
6. Head of the world is Agni in the night-time; then, as the Sun, at morn springs up and rises.
Then to his task goes the prompt Priest foreknowing the wondrous power of Gods who must be honoured.
7. Lovely is he who, kindled in his greatness, hath shone forth, seated in the heavens, refulgent.
With resonant hymns all Gods who guard our bodies have offered up oblation in this Agni.
8. First the Gods brought the hymnal into being; then they engendered Agni, then oblation.
He was their satrifice that guards our bodies: him the heavens know, the earth, the waters know him.
9. He, Agni, whom the Gods have generated, in whom they offered up all worlds and creatures,
He with his bright glow heated earth and heaven, urging himself right onward in his grandeur.
10. Then by the laud the Gods engendered Agni in heaven, who fills both worlds through strength and vigour.
They made him to appear in threefold essence: he ripens plants of every form and nature.
11. What time the Gods, whose due is worship, set him as Surya, Son of Aditi, in heaven,
When the Pair, ever wandering, sprang to being, all creatures that existed looked upon them.
12. For all the world of life the Gods made Agni Vaisvanara to be the days’ bright Banner,-
Him who hath spread abroad the radiant Mornings, and, coming with his light, unveils the darkness.
13. The wise and holy Deities engendered Agni Vaisvanara whom age ne’er touches.
The Ancient Star that wanders on for ever, lofty and. strong, Lord of the Living Being.
14. We call upon the Sage with holy verses, Agni Vaisvanara the ever-beaming,
Who hath surpassed both heaven and earth in greatness: lie is a God below, a God above us.
15. I have heard mention of two several pathways, ways of the Fathers and of Gods and mortals.
On these two paths each moving creature travels, each thing between the Father and the Mother.
16. These two united paths bear him who journeys born from the head and pondered with the spirit
He stands directed to all things existing, hasting, unresting in his fiery splendour.
17. Which of us twain knows where they speak together, upper and lower of the two rite-leaders?
Our friends have helped to gather our assembly. They came to sacrifice; who will announce it?
18. How many are the Fires and Suns in number? What is the number of the Dawns and Waters?
Not jestingly I speak to you, O Fathers. Sages, I ask you this for information.
19. As great as is the fair-winged Morning’s presence to him who dwells beside us, matarisvan!
Is what the Brahman does when he approaches to sacrifice and sits below the Hotar.
HYMN LXXXIX. Indra.
1. I WILL extol the most heroic Indra who with his might forced earth and sky asunder;
Who hath filled all with width as man’s Upholder, surpassing floods and rivers in his greatness.
2. Surya is he: throughout the wide expanses shall Indra turn him, swift as car-wheels, hither,
Like a stream resting not but ever active he hath destroyed, with light, the blackhued darkness.
3. To him I sing a holy prayer, incessant new, matchless, common to the earth and heaven,
Who marks, as they were backs, all living creatures: ne’er doth he fail a friend, the noble Indra.
4. I will send forth my songs in flow unceasing, like water from the ocean’s depth, to Indra.
Who to his car on both its sides securely hath fixed the earth and heaven as with an axle.
5. Rousing with draughts, the Shaker, rushing onward, impetuous, very strong, armed as with arrows
Is Soma; forest trees and all the bushes deceive not Indra with their offered likeness.
6. Soma hath flowed to him whom naught can equal, the earth, the heavens, the firmament, the mountains,-
When heightened in his ire his indignation shatters the firm and breaks the strong in pieces.
7. As an axe fells the tree so be slew Vrtra, brake down the strongholds and dug out the rivers.
He cleft the mountain like a new-made pitcher. Indra brought forth the kine with his Companions.
8. Wise art thou, Punisher of guilt, O Indra. The sword lops limbs, thou smitest down the sinner,
The men who injure, as it were a comrade, the lofty Law of Varuna and Mitra.
9. Men who lead evil lives, who break agreements, and injure Varuna, Aryaman and Mitra,-
Against these foes, O Mighty Indra, sharpen, as furious death, thy Bull of fiery colour.
10. Indra is Sovran Lord of Earth and Heaven, Indra is Lord of waters and of mountains.
Indra is Lord of prosperers and sages Indra must be invoked in rest and effort.
11. Vaster than days and nights, Giver of increase, vaster than firmament and flood of ocean,
Vaster than bounds of earth and wind’s extension, vaster than rivers and our lands is Indra.
12. Forward, as herald of refulgent Morning, let thine insatiate arrow fly, O Indra.
And pierce, as ’twere a stone launched forth from heaven, with hottest blaze the men who love deception.
13. Him, verily, the moons, the mountains followed, the tall trees followed and the plants and herbage.
Yearning with love both Worlds approached, the Waters waited on Indra when he first had being.
14. Where was the vengeful dart when thou, O Indra, clavest the demon ever beat on outrage?
When fiends lay there upon the ground extended like cattle in the place of immolation?
15. Those who are set in enmity against us, the Oganas, O Indra, waxen mighty,-
Let blinding darkness follow those our fbemen, while these shall have bright shining nights to light them.
16. May plentiful libations of the people, and singing Rsis’ holy prayers rejoice thee.
Hearing with love this common invocation, come unto us, pass by all those who praise thee.
17. O Indra, thus may we be made partakers of thy new favours that shall bring us profit.
Singing with love, may we the Visvamitras win daylight even now through thee, O Indra.
18. Call we on Maghavan, auspicious Indra, best hero in the fight where spoil is gathered,
The Strong who listens, who gives aid in battles, who slays the Vrtras, wins and gathers riches.
HYMN XC. Purusa.
1. A THOUSAND heads hath Purusa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.
On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide.
2. This Purusa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be;
The Lord of Immortality which waxes greater still by food.
3. So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Purusa.
All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in heaven.
4. With three-fourths Purusa went up: onefourth of him again was here.
Thence he strode out to every side over what cats not and what cats.
5. From him Viraj was born; again Purusa from Viraj was born.
As soon as he was born he spread eastward and westward o’er the earth.
6. When Gods prepared the sacrifice with Purusa as their offering,
Its oil was spring, the holy gift was autumn; summer was the wood.
7. They balmed as victim on the grass Purusa born in earliest time.
With him the Deities and all Sadhyas and Rsis sacrificed.
8. From that great general sacrifice the dripping fat was gathered up.
He formed the creatures of-the air, and animals both wild and tame.
9. From that great general sacrifice Rcas and Sama-hymns were born:
Therefrom were spells and charms produced; the Yajus had its birth from it.
10. From it were horses born, from it all cattle with two rows of teeth:
From it were generated kine, from it the goats and sheep were born.
11. When they divided Purusa how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
12. The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made.
His thighs became the Vaisya, from his feet the Sudra was produced.
13. The Moon was gendered from his mind, and from his eye the Sun had birth;
Indra and Agni from his mouth were born, and Vayu from his breath.
14. Forth from his navel came mid-air the sky was fashioned from his head
Earth from his feet, and from his car the regions. Thus they formed the worlds.
15. Seven fencing-sticks had he, thrice seven layers of fuel were prepared,
When the Gods, offering sacrifice, bound, as their victim, Purusa.
16. Gods, sacrificing, sacrificed the victim these were the carliest holy ordinances.
The Mighty Ones attained the height of heaven, there where the Sidhyas, Gods of old, are dwelling.
