Varga XV.

SÚKTA IV. (XCIII.)

INDRA and AGNI are the deities: the Rishi and metre as before.

1. Slayers of enemies, INDRA and AGNI, be pleased to-day by this pious and newly recited praise: repeatedly do we invoke you both, who are worthy of invocation; you are the chief bestowers of food promptly upon him who solicits (it of you).

2. You two are desired of all, the demolishers of (hostile) strength,* augmenting together, increasing in vigour, lords of the wealth of corn: do you grant us substantial invigorating food.1

3. Those sage offerers of oblations, who, desiring your favour, celebrate the sacrifice with holy rites, hasten to worship you, like horses to battle, repeatedly invoking INDRA and AGNI.

4. The pious sage, desiring your favour, glorifies you with praises for the sake of formerly enjoyed † riches, accompanied by celebrity: INDRA and AGNI, slayers of VRITRA, bearers of the thunderbolt, exalt us with precious donations.

1 Prinktam vájasya sthavirasya ghrishweh is explained annasya sthúlasya ṣatrúnám gharshakasya, ídriṣam annam prayachhatam, give us such food as is coarse, the destroyer of enemies.

* Sáyaṇa seems to explain șavasáná hi bhútam as, “ye acted like an army breaking enemies," (cf. Paņ. iii. 1, 11, várt.)

+ Rather, "riches desirable even in olden time," púrvam eva sanbhajaniyam.

5. As two large, mutually defiant (armies), emulous in corporal vigour,2 may contend in war, so do you destroy, by the devout, those who are not devoted to the gods in sacrifice, and, by the man who presents libations, (him who does not offer).

6. Come with gracious minds, INDRA and AGNI, to Varga XVI. this our Soma libation: ye are never regardless of us,

therefore I propitiate you with constant (sacrificial) viands.

7. Kindled, AGNI, by this adoration, do thou recommend us to MITRA, VARUNA, and INDRA: whatever sin we may have committed, do thou expiate, and may ARYAMAN, ADITI (and MITRA) remove it (from us).

8. Diligently celebrating these rites, may we, AGNI (and INDRA), at once arrive at your food: let not INDRA, VISHNU, the MARUTS, abandon us; and do you (gods) ever cherish us with blessings.

SUKTA V. (XCIV.)

The deities and Rishi as before; the metre of the twelfth verse is Anushṭubh, of the rest Gáyatrí.

1. This chief praise, INDRA and AGNI, proceeds Varga XVII.

1 Sam yan mahi mithatí spardhamáne tanúruchá súrasátá yataite, we have here a set of feminine duals without a substantive, literally two large reviling rivalling may strive together in the best copies there is a blank, which is also left in the printed edition, but in some copies we have sene, two armies.

Varga XVIII.

(copiously) from me your worshipper, like rain from

a cloud.1

2. Hear, INDRA and AGNI, the invocation of the worshipper; accept his adoration; recompense, lords, his pious acts.

3. Leaders of (rites), INDRA and AGNI, subject us not to wickedness, nor to calumny, nor to the reviler. 4. Desiring protection, we offer copious oblations and praise to INDRA and AGNI, and prayers with holy rites.2

5. Many are the sages who propitiate (INDRA and AGNI) in this manner for (their) protection, mutually striving for the acquirement of food.

6. Eager to offer praise, bearing (sacrificial) food, desirous of wealth, we invoke you, INDRA and AGNI, with praises, in the celebration of holy acts.

7. Overcomers of (hostile) men, INDRA and AGNI, come with food (to be bestowed) upon us: let not the malevolent have power over us.

8. Let not the malice of any hostile mortal reach us; grant us, INDRA and AGNI, felicity.

9. We solicit you both for wealth, comprising cattle, gold* and horses: may we obtain it of you, INDRA and AGNI.

1 This and the two next stanzas occur in the Sáma-Veda, II. 266-268.

2 Ibid. 11. 150-152.

*

Sáyana explains hiranyavat as suvarṇair yuktam, cf. vol. iii. p. 272.

10. When adoring leaders (of rites), invoke you two, lords of horses, on the Soma being offered, (come hither).

and

11. Utter destroyers of VRITRA, exhilarated (by the Soma), you who are worshipped with prayers hymns and songs, (come hither).1

12. Destroy with your fatal (weapons) the mortal who is malignant, ignorant, strong, rapacious: destroy him like a water jar, with your weapons.

SÚKTA VI. (XCV.)

The divinity is SARASWATÍ, and in the third stanza SARASWAT: the Rishi is VASISH THA; the metre Trishṭubh.

1. This SARASWATÍ, firm as a city made of iron,3 Varga XIX. flows rapidly with (all) sustaining water, sweeping away in its might all other waters, as a charioteer (clears the road).

1

2. SARASWATÍ, chief and purest of rivers, flowing

Angúshair, ághoshair anyais stotraih, with clamours, with other praises: Mahídhara, Yajush, 33. 76, explains it laukikavákstomaih, with praises in worldly or vernacular speech, not that of the Veda.

2 Ábhogam, the scholiast says, is he who enjoys good things taken from the worshippers.

3 Dharuṇam áyasí púḥ, ayasá nirmitá puríva: dharuṇam for dharuná, dhárayitrí, supporter: what is meant by the comparison is not very obvious.

* Sáyana and Mahídhara take vṛitra-hantamá as ávarakánám hantritamau, the latter adds pápmanám.

from the mountains to the ocean,' understood the request of NÁHUSHA, and distributing riches among the many existing beings, milked for him butter and water.2

3. The showerer SARASWAT,3 the friend of man, a showerer (of benefits), even whilst yet a child, (continually) increases among his adorable wives (the rains): he bestows upon the affluent (worshippers) a vigorous son; he purifies their persons (to fit them) for the reception (of his bounties).

4. May the auspicious and gracious SARASWATÍ hear (our praises) at this sacrifice, approached as she is with reverence and with bended knees, and most liberal to her friends with the riches she possesses.

5. Presenting to thee, SARASWATÍ, these oblations with reverence (may we receive from thee affluence) :* be gratified by our praise; and may we, being retained in thy dearest felicity, ever recline upon thee, as on a sheltering tree.

2

1 Yati giribhya á samudrát is the text.

According to the legend, king Náhusha, being about to perform a sacrifice for a thousand years, prayed to Saraswati, who thereupon gave him butter and water, or milk, sufficient for that period.

3 Sayana says Saraswat is the wind Váyu in the firmament, madhyastháno Váyuh Saraswat.

4 The text has only yushmad á, but an inseparable prefix, standing alone implies, in the Veda, the verb also: therefore says the scholiast, á is for ádadímahi, may we receive: the rule is upasargaṣruter yogyakriyádhyáhárah, an upasarga in the Veda is the indication of the conjunct verb.