{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe46/sbe46007.htm","path":"hin/sbe46/sbe46007.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe46/sbe46007.htm","text":"Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46), by Hermann Oldenberg [1897]\nA.\n1. With reverence I shall worship thee who art long-tailed like a horse, Agni, the king of worship.\n2. May he, our son of strength 1, proceeding on his broad way, the propitious, become bountiful to us.\n3. Thus protect us always, thou who hast a full life, from the mortal who seeks to do us harm 1, whether near or afar.\n4. And mayest thou, O Agni, announce to the gods this our newest efficient G\u00e2yatra song.\n5. Let us partake of all booty that is highest and that is middle (i. e. that dwells in the highest and in the middle world); help us to the wealth that is nearest.\n6. O god with bright splendour, thou art the distributor. Thou instantly flowest for the liberal giver in the wave of the river, near at hand.\nB.\n7. The mortal, O Agni, whom thou protectest in battles, whom thou speedest in the races 1, he will command constant nourishment:\n8. Whosoever he may be, no one will overtake him, O conqueror (Agni)! His strength 2 is glorious.\n9. May he (the man), known among all tribes 3, win the race with his horses; may he with the help of his priests become a gainer.\nC.\n10. O Gar\u00e2bodha 1! Accomplish this (task) for every house 2: a beautiful song of praise for worshipful Rudra 3.\n11. May he, the great, the immeasurable, the smoke-bannered, rich in splendour, incite us to (pious) thoughts and to strength.\n12. May he hear us, like the rich lord of a clan, the banner of the gods, on behalf of our hymns, Agni with bright light.\n13. Reverence to the great ones, reverence to the lesser ones! Reverence to the young, reverence to the old 1! Let us sacrifice to the gods, if we can. May I not, O gods, fall as a victim to the curse of my better 2.\nThe hymn is ascribed to Sunahsepa (see note on I, 26). The metre is G\u00e2yatr\u00ee; the last verse is Trishtubh.\nThe laws of arrangement of the Samhit\u00e2 show that this hymn, which has thirteen verses and follows after a hymn of ten verses belonging to the same deity, must be divided into a number of minor hymns. On the question of this division some further light is thrown by the metre. The first six verses and then again the verses 10\u201312 are composed in the trochaic form of the G\u00e2yatr\u00ee metre; of the verses 7\u20139, on the other hand, not a single P\u00e2da shows the characteristics of that metre. I believe, therefore, that the verses 1\u20136 form one hymn by themselves, or possibly two hymns of three verses each. Then follow two hymns: verses 7\u20139, 10\u201312. As to verse 13, which is composed in a different metre, it is difficult to determine its exact nature. It may be a later addition: though in that case\nwe shall hardly be able to explain why it was placed at the end of the hymns addressed to Agni, to which god it contains no reference whatever. Or it may form part of the hymn 10\u201312: in that case we should have to consider this whole hymn, which would then violate the rules of arrangement, as an addition to the original collection.\nWe may add that the S\u00e2ma-veda gives the first twelve verses of this S\u00fbkta so as to form four independent hymns: 1\u20133 = SV. II, 984\u20136; 4. 6. 5 = SV. II, 847\u20139; 7\u20139 = SV. II, 765\u20137; 10\u201312 = SV. II, 1013\u201315. Besides, verse 1 is found in SV. I, 17. Verse 4 = SV. I, 28; T\u00c2r. IV, 11, 8. Verse 7 = VS. VI, 29; TS. I, 3, 13, 2; MS. I, 3, 1. Verse 10 = SV. I, 15. Comp. Bergaigne, Recherches sur l\u2019histoire de la Samhit\u00e2, II, pp. 7\u20138; H. O., Prolegomena, 225\u2013226.\nNote 1. It requires a stronger belief in the infallibility of Vedic text tradition than I possess, not to change s\u00e1vas\u00e2 into s\u00e1vasah. I do not think that I, 62, 9 (s\u00e1nemi sakhy\u00e1m svapasy\u00e1m\u00e2nah s\u00fbn\u00fbh d\u00e2dh\u00e2ra s\u00e1vas\u00e2 sud\u00e1ms\u00e2h) furnishes a sufficient argument against this conjecture.\nNote 1. Grassmann reads agha\u00e2y\u00f3h for the sake of the metre; Prof. Max Muller proposes \u0103gh\u00e2y\u00f4\u0306h. I think that the missing syllable should be gained by disyllabic pronunciation of -\u00e2t in m\u00e1rty\u00e2t or rather m\u00e1rti\u00e2t. Comp. my Prolegomena 185 and the quotations given there in note 1.\nNote 1. It is not my intention to enter here into a new discussion on so frequently discussed a word as v\u00e2ga. I have translated it in verses 7, 9 by 'race,' in verse 8 by 'strength.'\nNote 2. The expression used in verses 7 and 8 should be compared especially with VII, 40, 3. s\u00e1h \u00edt ugr\u00e1h astu marutah s\u00e1h sushm\u00ee\u00b4 y\u00e1m m\u00e1rtyam prishadasv\u00e2h \u00e1v\u00e2tha, ut\u00e1 \u00eem agn\u00edh s\u00e1rasvat\u00ee gun\u00e1nti n\u00e1 t\u00e1sya r\u00e2y\u00e1h paryet\u00e2\u00b4 asti.\nNote 3. Visvakarshani, a frequent epithet of Agni, here refers to the mortal hero protected by Agni; comp. I, 64, 14 (vol. xxxii, p. 108); X, 93, 10 (visv\u00e1karshani sr\u00e1vah).\nNote 1. I think that Ludwig is right in taking Gar\u00e2bodha for a proper name.\nNote 2. Vis\u00e9-vise may possibly depend on yag\u00f1\u00edy\u00e2ya, so that we should have to translate: 'Administer this task: a beautiful song of praise to Rudra who is worshipful for every house.'\nNote 3. Rudra is here a designation of Agni, as the next verses show. Comp. Pischel-Geldner, I, 56.\nNote 1. The word \u00e2sin\u00e1, 'old,' occurring only here, is doubtful. In III, 1, 6; IV, 33, 3; X, 39, 4, sana or sanaya stands in contrast with yuvan. Shall we conjecture n\u00e1mah \u00e2\u00b4 s\u00e1nebhyah?'\nNote 2. The last P\u00e2da of this verse, m\u00e2\u00b4 gy\u00e2\u00b4yasah s\u00e1msam \u00e2\u00b4 vrikshi dev\u00e2h ('May I not, O gods, neglect the praise of the greatest,' Muir, V, 12), offers some difficulty. It may be doubted whether \u00e2\u00b4 vrikshi belongs to \u00e2-vrig or to \u00e2-vrask.\nLet us see what would be the meaning of the passage, if we were to decide for \u00e2-vrig. VIII, 101, 16 the cow speaks: dev\u00ee\u00b4m dev\u00e9bhyah p\u00e1ri ey\u00fash\u00eem g\u00e2\u00b4m \u00e2\u00b4 m\u00e2 avrikta m\u00e1rtyah dabhr\u00e1ket\u00e2h, 'Me the goddess, the cow, who has come hither from the gods, the weak-minded mortal has appropriated.' Satapatha Br\u00e2hmana XIV, 9, 4, 3. ya evam vidv\u00e2n adhopah\u00e2sam karaty \u00e2 sa str\u00een\u00e2m sukritam vri\u1e45kte \u093d tha ya idam avidv\u00e2n adhopah\u00e2sam karaty \u00e2sya striyah sukritam vri\u00f1gate, 'He who knowing this, &c., appropriates the good works of the women. But the women appropriate the good works of him who without knowing this,' &c. In Rig-veda X, 159, 5 also we probably have a form of \u00e2-vrig. There we find the triumphant utterance\nof a wife who has gained superiority over her fellow-wives: \u00e2 avriksham any\u00e2s\u00e2m v\u00e1rkah, 'I have won for myself the splendour of the other wives.' We may conclude from these passages that our P\u00e2da, if \u00e2\u00b4 vrikshi is derived from \u00e2-vrig, would mean: 'May I not draw on myself the curse of my better.'\nOn the other hand we have a great number of passages\u2014they have been collected by Ludwig, IV, 249 seq.\u2014in which the verb \u00e2-vrask appears. Referring the reader for fuller information to Ludwig, I content myself here with selecting one or two of these passages. Taitt. Samh. II, 4, 11, 4. devat\u00e2bhyo v\u00e2 esha \u00e2 vriskyate yo yakshya ity uktv\u00e2 na yagate. In translating this we should remember that vrask means 'to cut down;' \u00e2-vrask, therefore, must be 'to cut down so that the object reaches a certain destination.' I translate therefore: 'He who says, \"I shall sacrifice,\" and does not sacrifice, is cut down for the deities,'\u2014i. e. he is dedicated or forfeited to the deities and is thus destroyed (comp. a different explanation of \u00e2-vrask by Delbr\u00fcck, Altindische Syntax, 143). In other passages not the dative but the locative is used for indicating the being to whom somebody is forfeited; see Atharva-veda XII, 4, 6. 12. 26; XV, 12, 6. 10.\nA Rig-vedic passage containing \u00e2-vrask (with the dative) is X, 87, 18. \u00e2\u00b4 vriskyant\u00e2m \u00e1ditaye dur\u00e9v\u00e2h, 'May the evil-doers be forfeited to Aditi.'\nSeveral times we find the first person aor. med. in the same form as in our passage, \u00e2 vrikshi; see, for instance, the Nivid formula to the Visve dev\u00e2h, S\u00e2\u1e45kh\u00e2yana Srautas\u00fbtra VIII, 21. In this Nivid, the text of which as given by Hillebrandt is not quite identical with that of Ludwig, we read according to Hillebrandt's edition: m\u00e2 vo dev\u00e2 avisas\u00e2 m\u00e2 visas\u00e2yur \u00e2 vrikshi. This m\u00e2 \u2026 \u00e2 vrikshi looks quite similar to our passage. The same may be said of Taittir\u00eeya Samhit\u00e2 I, 6, 6, 1. yat te tapas tasmai te m\u00e2vrikshi. Considering such passages it is difficult not to believe that it is the verb \u00e2 vrask which we have before us in our verse. It must be admitted indeed that the accusative\nsamsam does not agree with the construction of the later Vedic passages. Can the accusative stand in the ancient language of the Rig-veda in the same connection in which we have found the dative and the locative? So that \u00e2-vrask (in the middle or passive) with the accusative would mean: to be cut down in the direction towards another being, i. e. being forfeited to that being? In that case the translation of our passage would be: 'May I not, O gods, fall as a victim to the praise (or rather, to the curse) of my better.' If this explanation of the accusative is thought too bold, we should propose to correct the text so as to get a dative or, which would suit the metre better, a locative: m\u00e2\u00b4 gy\u00e2\u00b4yasah s\u00e1ms\u00e2ya (or s\u00e1mse) \u00e2\u00b4 vrikshi dev\u00e2h.","title":"Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46): I, 27","type":"page"}