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17. To thee, AGNI, may we, who are of exalted rank, offer many perpetual oblations, (employing) means, (prayer and praise,) attracting thee to the sacrifice.

18. Do thou, who art imperishable, bear these most acceptable oblations to the presence of the assembly of the gods; and may our fragrant (offering) gratify them severally.

19. Relinquish us not, AGNI, to the want of male offspring: nor to deficient clothing: nor to such destruction leave us not to hunger, nor to the Rakshasas: expose us not, observer of truth, to evil, whether in the house or in the forest.

20. Bestow upon me, AGNI, quickly, abundant wholesome food: send sustenance, divine AGNI, to those who are opulent in oblations: may we, both (priests and employer,) be comprehended in thy munificence: do you ever cherish us with blessings.1

21. Shine with bright lustre, AGNI, son of strength, Varga XXVII. thou who art earnestly invoked, and of pleasant aspect consume not the begotten son with whom thou art associated: let not our male offspring, beneficial to man, perish.

22. Command not the fires kindled by the priests with which thou art united to work us evil: let not

1 Yúyam páta swastibheh sadá na, the burthen of numerous Súktas, both prior and subsequent: yúyam is considered equivalent to twam, the plural being put honorifically for the singular; but in a subsequent recurrence of the passage, verse 25, the scholiast interprets it, thou and thy attendants, yúyam twat parivárás cha sarve.

Varga I.

the displeasure, even in error, of thee, the son of strength, who art divine, fall upon us.

23. Radiant AGNI, the mortal who offers oblations to the immortal becomes affluent: that deity (AGNI) favours the presenter of (sacrificial) wealth, to whom the devout solicitant inquiring applies.1

24. AGNI, who art cognisant of our solemn and auspicious (worship), bring to the worshippers abundant riches, whereby, mighty AGNI, we, blessed with uncontracted life, and excellent male descendants, may be happy.

25. Bestow upon me, AGNI, quickly, abundant wholesome food:2 send sustenance, divine AGNI, to those who are opulent in oblations: may we, both (priests and employer,) be comprehended in thy munificence: do you ever cherish us with blessings.

ADHYAYA II.

MANDALA VII. CONTINUEd.

ANUVÁKA I. CONTINUED.
SÚKTA II. (II.)

The deities are the Apris; the metre is Trishṭubh.
1. Be gratified, AGNI, by the (sacred fire) kindled3

1 Yam súrir arthí prichchhamána, &c., the inquirer is supposed to ask, either where is the liberal giver of the wealth for which he prays, or who is that Agni to whom the petition is to be addressed.

2 This is a repetition of verse 20.

3 Samiddham: here, as usual, it implies one of the Ápris, or forms of fire, although used as an epithet.

by us to-day, emitting abundant adorable smoke: touch with thy scorching flames the celestial summit: combine with the rays of the sun.

2. We celebrate with sacrifices the greatness of the adorable NARASANSA amongst those who are divinities, the performers of good works, the bright-shining, the upholders of rites, who partake of both kinds of oblations.1

3.2 Let us ever worship the AGNI who is to be adored by us; the mighty, the dextrous, the messenger passing between heaven and earth, the speaker of truth, kindled (of old) by MANU, as now by men, that (he may come) to the solemnity.

4. The worshippers bearing the sacred grass offer it with reverence, upon their knees, to AGNI: worship him, priests, with oblations, invoking him to (sit down) on the spotted (grass), smeared with clarified butter.

5. The devout performers of holy rites, desirous of chariots, have had recourse to the doors (of the sacri

1 Oblations of ghi and libations of Soma, or other offerings. Nir. VIII. 6.

2 Tanúnapát, who usually comes next, is omitted, because, according to Sáyana, the Súkta is called an Ápri Súkta, Ápra sabdoktatwán-idam Tanunápad rahitam.

3

ĺlenyam Agnim is the Ilita of the other Ápri Súktas: the verb is mahema in the first person plural, the scholiast says, substituted for the second, do you (priests) worship.

The doors are always named amongst the Apris: the second half of the stanza is obscurely constructed, although the sense may be made out, Púrvi ṣiṣum na mátará riháné sama

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Varga II.

ficial chamber): (the ladles), placed to the east, are plying the fire with ghi at sacrifices, as the mother cows lick the calf, or as rivers (water the fields).

6. May the two youthful females, the divine and mighty day and night, the invoked of many, the possessed of wealth, seated on the sacred grass, entitled to adoration, be with us like an easily-milked cow for our welfare.

7. I am minded to adore you two sages, the ministrants at sacrifices of men, from whom wealth is derived when the worship is being celebrated, convey our offspring aloft, and acquire (for our use) the precious (treasures preserved) amongst the gods.

8. May BHÁRATÍ, associated with the BHARATIS; ILA with gods and men; and AGNI' and Saraswati with the Saraswatas; may the three goddesses sit down before us upon this sacred grass.

gruvo na samaneshu-anjan: literally, the prior (or eastern) calf like two mothers licking rivers, like in sacrifices they anoint: the scholiast explains púrví-prágagre juhúpabhṛitau, the two ladles-the juhú and upabhṛit-placed at sacrifices with their ends to the east.

1 Ilá devebhir-manushyebhir agnih: the scholiast here changes the order, and associates Ilá with men, and Agni with the gods; but, as before remarked, it is not clear what Agni has to do here amongst the goddesses, unless the name were in apposition with Ilá, the Agni Ilá. This, and three following verses, are repeated from the second Ashtaka, see vol. II. p. 330 in such cases Sáyana does not usually repeat his comments, but here he says, as some interval has occurred he does so summarily: he does so, also, with one or two variations of explanation of no great importance.

9. Divine TWASHTRI, being well pleased, give issue to our procreative vigour, whence (a son) manly, devout, vigorous, wielder of the Soma-bruising stone, and reverencing the gods, may be born.

10. VANASPATI, bring the gods nigh: may AGNI, the immolater, prepare the victim: let him who is truth officiate as the ministering priest, for verily he knows the birth of the gods.

11. AGNI, kindled (into flame), come to our presence in the same chariot with INDRA, and with the swift-moving gods: may ADITI, the mother of excellent sons, sit down on the sacred grass, and may the immortal gods be satisfied with the reverentiallyoffered oblation.

SUKTA III. (III.)

The deity is AGNI; the metre as before.

1. Appoint (gods) the most adorable, divine, Varga III. AGNI, consentient with (all other) fires, your messenger at the sacrifice: him who is permanently present amongst men, the observer of truth, who is crowned with flame, the purifier, whose food is butter.1

2. When, like a neighing steed about to feed upon the forage, (AGNI) springs up from the vast-enclosing (forest), then the wind fans his flame: and black, (AGNI), is thy course.

2

3. The kindled undecaying flames of thee, the

1 Sáma-Veda, 11. 569.

2 Sáma-Veda, 11. 570; Yajur-Veda, 15. 62.

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