III, 22

Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46), by Hermann Oldenberg [1897], at sacred-texts.com

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MANDALA III, HYMN 22.

ASHTAKA III, ADHYÂYA 1, VARGA 22.

1. This is that Agni with whom the desiring Indra took the pressed Soma into his body. Having obtained thousandfold strength like a horse, a racer 1, thou art praised, O Gâtavedas!

2 1. Thy splendour, O Agni, which dwells in heaven and on earth, in the plants, O worshipful one, and in the waters, wherewith thou hast spread through the wide air—that light of thine is fierce, waving 2, man-beholding.

3. Agni, thou goest to the floods of heaven. Thou hast spoken to the gods who are liberal (?) 1. (Thou goest) to the waters which (dwell) on high in the ether of the sun, and to those which approach below.

4. May the fires of the soil united with those on the hill-sides 1, without guile graciously accept our sacrifice and plentiful food free from all plague.

5 = III, 1, 23.

NOTES.

The same Rishi. The metre is Trishtubh, except in verse 4 which is Anushtubh.—A conjecture on the ritual use for which the hymn has been composed, see in the note on verse 4.—Verses 1–5 = VS. XII, 47–51; TS. IV, 2, 4, 2. 3; MS. II, 7, 11.—A sort of commentary on this hymn is found in the Satapatha Brâhmana VII, 1, 1, 22 seq.

Verse 1.

Note 1. In the traditional text the words, 'a horse, a racer,' are accusatives. But it is the átya who attains

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[paragraph continues] (san) the vâ´ga and who is called vâgín (comp. M. M., vol. xxxii, pp. 116, 442, and on sápti, ibid. p. 102): see I, 130, 6; III, 2, 7; 38, 1 (V, 30, 14; IX, 93, 1; 96, 15, &c.); VII, 24, 5; IX, 43, 5; 82, 2; 85, 5; 86, 3; 96, 20; X, 96, 10 (I, 52, 1, and III, 2, 3 do not contradict this). Pischel (Vedische Studien, I, 105) believes that átyam ná stands for átyah ná, which seems impossible to me. But I think that we should correct the text and read átyah ná sáptih. The preceding accusatives have caused the blunder.

Verse 2.

Note 1. Comp. Grassmann, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XVI, 165.

Note 2. Comp. ketúh arnaváh sû´ryasya, VII, 63, 2.

Verse 3.

Note 1. In the translation of dhíshnya I have followed Pischel, Vedische Studien, II, 87, though this translation is quite uncertain. Should the meaning be: 'the gods who dwell on the dhishnya altars'?

Verse 4.

Note 1. Agni purîshya, i. e. the fire dwelling in the soil (comp. Roth in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVI, 64), is mentioned very frequently in the Mantras belonging to the Agnikayana, i. e. to the construction of the brick altar. Agni is considered as residing in the soil used at that rite. Now in the Yagus texts the whole of our hymn occurs among the texts to be recited at the Agnikayana (Taitt. Samh. IV, 2, 4, 2, &c.; comp. also Âsvalâyana Srautasûtra IV, 8, 20). Perhaps we may conjecture, therefore, that the Agnikayana rite in its simplest form was known already in the Rig-veda period, and that our hymn was destined for it.—The prâvana fires (fires dwelling on the hill-sides) may be the fires dwelling in the rivers which run down the pravanas or descents.