PRAPATHAKA II
The Preparation of the Ground for the Fire
iv. 2. 1.
a. Thou art the step of Visnu, overcoming hostility, mount the Gayatri metre, step along the earth, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of Visnu, overcoming imprecations, mount the Tristubh metre, step along the atmosphere, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of Visnu, overcomer of the enemy, mount the Jagati metre, step along the sky, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the stop of Visnu [1], overcomer of the foe, mount the Anustubh metre, step along the quarters, excluded is he whom we hate.
b. Agni hath cried, like Dyaus thundering,
Licking the earth, devouring the plants
Straightway on birth he shone aflame,
He blazeth with his light within the firmaments.
c. O Agni, returner, to us return
With life, with radiance, with gain, with wisdom, with offspring, with wealth.
d. O Agni [2], O Angiras, a hundred be thy returns,
A thousand thy movements;
With the increase of their increase
Do thou bring back for us what is lost,
Bring back to us wealth.
e. Return with strength,
Return, O Agni, with food and life;
Again guard us on all sides.
f. Return with wealth,
O Agni, fatten with the stream,
All-gaining on every side.
g. Unloose from us, O Varuna, the highest,
The lowest, the midmost knot [3];
Then may we, O Aditya, in thy rule,
Be guiltless before Aditi.
h. I have drawn thee, thou hast become within,
Be thou firm and motionless,
Lot all the folk desire thee;
In him establish the kingship.
i. In greatness hath he arisen erect in the van of the dawns;
Emerging from the darkness, he hath come with the light;
Agni, with radiant brilliance, fair limbed,
On birth hath filled every seat.
k. Do thou sit down in the lap of this mother [4],
O Agni, knowing all the ways;
Consume her not with light nor with heat,
Within her shine with pure radiance.
l. O Agni, with glow
Within thine own seat of the pan,
Heating with her blaze,
Be thou, O all-knower, auspicious.
m. Becoming auspicious to me, O Agni,
Do thou sit down auspicious;
Having made all the quarters auspicious,
Sit here on thine own birthplace.
n. The gander seated in purity, the bright one seated in the atmosphere,
The Hotr seated at the altar, the guest seated in the house,
Seated among men, seated in the highest, seated in holy order, seated in the firmament,
Born of the waters, born of the cows, born of holy order, born of the mountain, the great holy order.
iv. 2. 2.
a. From the sky was Agni first born,
From us secondly he who knoweth all,
In the waters thirdly the manly,
The pious man singeth of him, the undying, as he kindleth him.
b. We know thy three places threefold, O Agni,
We know thy seat that is established in many places;
We know thy highest name in secret;
We know the spring whence thou hast come.
c. The manly souled kindleth thee in the ocean, in the waters,
In the breast of the sky, O Agni, he who gazeth on men;
Thee standing in the third region [1],
In the birthplace of holy order, the steers inspirited.
d. Agni hath cried, like Dyaus thundering,
Licking the earth, devouring the plants;
Straightway on birth he shone aflame,
He blazeth with his light within the firmaments.
e. Eager, purifying, the envoy, the wise one,
Agni, the immortal, hath been established among men;
He beareth and darteth forward his ruddy smoke;
The sky he attaineth with his pure radiance.
f. The banner of the whole world, the germ [2],
Filled on birth the firmaments;
Even the firm mountain he cleft passing over,
When the five peoples sacrificed to Agni.
g. Receptacle of prosperity, supporter of riches,
Granter of thoughts, guardian of the Soma,
Son of the bright one, of strength, the king
Is resplendent within the waters, kindled before the dawns.
h. He who first maketh for thee to-day, O thou of wondrous radiance,
A cake rich in ghee, O god Agni;
Do thou bear him ever on to the better,
To glory allotted by the gods, O youngest one [3].
i. Give him portion, O Agni, in praises;
Give him portion in every hymn that is sung,
Dear shall he be before Surya, dear before Agni
With what is born, what is to be born shall he be victorious.
k. Thee, O Agni, the sacrificers through the days
Bear as many riches desirable;
With thee desiring wealth,
Eagerly they revealed the stall rich in kine.
l. Shining like gold, he hath become widely resplendent,
For glory shining with immortal life;
Agni became immortal in his strength,
What time prolific Dyaus begat him.
iv. 2. 3.
a. O Lord of food, accord us food,
Uninjurious, impetuous;
Do thou further the donor,
Bestow strength on our bipeds, our quadrupeds.
b. May the All-gods thee,
O Agni, bear up with their thoughts;
Be thou to us most propitious,
With kindly face, abounding in light,
c. Come forward, O Agni, rich in light,
With auspicious rays;
Shining with great radiance,
Harm not our offspring with thy body.
d. With kindling-wood serve Agni,
Awaken the guest with ghee;
In him [1] offer oblations.
e. Far-famed is this Agni of Bharata,
Since his great light shineth like the sun;
He who overcame Puru in battle
Hath shone forth, the heavenly guest, propitious for us.
f. O ye waters divine, accept these ashes;
Place them on a resting-place, in the fragrant region
To him may the ladies with noble spouses bow;
Like a mother her son, do ye kindly bear him.
g. In the waters, O Agni, is thy seat [2],
Thou enterest the plants;
Being in the germ thou art born again.
h. Thou art the germ of plants,
The germ of trees,
The germ of all things,
O Agni, thou art the germ of the waters.
i. With ashes having satisfied thy birthplace
And the waters, on the earth, O Agni,
In unison with thy mothers,
Full of light hast thou again taken thy seat.
k. Having again come to thy seat,
And to the waters, to the earth, O Agni,
Within her thou liest, most auspicious,
As on the lap of a mother.
l. Return with strength [3],
Return, O Agni, with food and life;
Again guard us on all sides.
m. Return with wealth,
O Agni, fatten with the stream,
All-gaining on every side.
n. May the Adityas, the Rudras, the Vasus, kindle thee again;
The Brahmans again with offerings, O bringer of wealth;
With ghee do thou increase our bodies;
May the wishes of the sacrificer become true.
o. Hearken to this our call, that is offered, O youngest one,
Of the most generous one, O thou that hast power;
One hateth, one praiseth.
As praiser I praise thy body, O Agni.
p. Be thou a bounteous patron,
Giver of riches, lord of riches;
Repel from us the foes.
iv. 2. 4.
a. Go hence depart, creep away, hence,
Ye that are here of old and ye that are new,
Yama hath given this resting-place of earth,
The Pitrs have made this world for him.
b. Thou art the ash of Agni, thou art the dust of Agni.
c. Thou art accord, fulfilling love; in me be the fulfilling of thy love.
d. Be united your dear bodies,
Be united your dear hearts,
Be your breath united [1],
United my body.
e. This is that Agni in whom as a belly
Indra placed the pressed Soma eagerly;
Thou art praised, O all-knower, for winning
Booty a thousandfold, like a swift steed.
f. O Agni, thou comest to the wave of the sky,
To the gods thou speakest, those of the altar;
The waters above in the realm of the sun,
And those below wait (on thee).
g. O Agni, thy radiance in the sky, the earth,
The plants [2], or the waters, O holy one,
That whereby thou didst outspread the broad atmosphere,
Glittering is thy gleam, moving and men espying.
h. May the Agnis of the dust
In unison with those of the floods
Accept the oblation offered,
The rich healthful viands.
i. As food, O Agni, accord to the sacrificer
The gain of a cow, wondrous enduring;
Be to us a son, a scion, full of life;
This, O Agni, be thy lovingkindness towards us.
k. This is thy due place of birth,
Whence born thou didst shine,
Mount it, O Agni, knowing it [3],
And make our wealth increase.
l. Thou art a piler; in the manner of Angiras be firm with that deity.
m. Thou art a piler round; in the manner of Angiras be firm with that deity.
n. Fill the world, fill the hole, do thou sit down auspicious;
Indra and Agni and Brhaspati
Have placed thee on this birthplace
o. The dappled kine, streaming with milk,
Mix the Soma,
Clans in the birthplace of the gods,
In the three realms of sky.
