{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe46/sbe46009.htm","path":"hin/sbe46/sbe46009.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe46/sbe46009.htm","text":"Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46), by Hermann Oldenberg [1897]\n1. We implore 1 with well-spoken words the vigorous 2 Agni who belongs to many people 3, to the clans that worship the gods 4, whom other people (also) magnify.\n2. Men have placed Agni (on the altar) as the augmenter of strength. May we worship thee, rich in sacrificial food. Thus be thou here to-day gracious to us, a helper in our striving for gain, O good one!\n3. We choose thee, the all-possessor, as our messenger and as our Hotri. The flames of thee, who art great, spread around; thy rays touch the heaven.\n4. The gods, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, kindle thee, the ancient messenger. The mortal, O Agni, who worships thee, gains through thee every prize.\n5. Thou art the cheerful Hotri and householder, O Agni, the messenger of the clans. In thee all the firm laws are comprised which the gods have made 1.\n6. In thee, the blessed one, O Agni, youngest god, all sacrificial food is offered. Sacrifice then thou who art gracious to us to-day and afterwards 1, to the gods that we may be rich in valiant men.\n7. Him, the king, verily the adorers approach reverentially. With oblations men kindle Agni, having overcome all failures.\n8. Destroying the foe 1, they (victoriously) got through Heaven and Earth and the waters; they\nhave made wide room for their dwelling. May the manly (Agni) 2, after he has received the oblations, become brilliant at the side of Kanva; may he neigh as a horse in battles.\n9. Take thy seat; thou art great. Shine forth, thou who most excellently repairest to the gods. O Agni, holy god, emit thy red, beautiful smoke, O glorious one!\n10. Thou whom the gods have placed here for Manu as the best performer of the sacrifice, O carrier of oblations, whom Kanva and Medhy\u00e2tithi, whom Vrishan and Upastuta 1 (have worshipped,) the winner of prizes.\n11. That Agni's nourishment has shone brightly whom Medhy\u00e2tithi and Kanva have kindled on behalf of Rita 1. Him do these hymns, him do we extol.\n12. Fill (us with) wealth, thou self-dependent one, for thou, O Agni, hast companionship with the gods. Thou art lord over glorious booty. Have mercy upon us; thou art great.\n13. Stand up straight for blessing us, like the god Savitri, straight a winner of booty, when we with our worshippers and with ointments 1 call thee 2 in emulation (with other people).\n14. Standing straight, protect us by thy splendour from evil; burn down every ghoul 1. Let us stand straight that we may walk and live. Find out our worship 2 among the gods.\n15. Save us, O Agni, from the sorcerer, save us from mischief, from the niggard. Save us from him\nwho does us harm or tries to kill us, O youngest god with bright splendour!\n16. As with a club 1 smite the niggards in all directions, and him who deceives us, O god with fiery jaws. The mortal who makes (his weapons) very sharp by night, may that impostor not rule over us.\n17. Agni has won abundance in heroes, Agni prosperity (for Kanva). Agni and the two Mitras (i. e. Mitra and Varuna) have blessed Medhy\u00e2tithi, Agni (has blessed) Upastuta in the acquirement (of wealth) 1.\n18. Through Agni we call hither from afar Turvasa, Yadu, and Ugradeva. May Agni, our strength against the Dasyu, conduct Navav\u00e2stva, Brihadratha, and Turv\u00eeti 1.\n19. Manu has established thee, O Agni, as a light for all people. Thou hast shone forth with Kanva, born from Rita, grown strong, thou whom the human races worship.\n20. Agni's flames are impetuous and violent; they are terrible and not to be withstood. Always burn down the sorcerers, and the allies of the Y\u00e2tus, every ghoul 1.\nThe authorship of this hymn, and of the whole collection to which it belongs (I, 36\u201343), is ascribed to Kanva Ghaura. Numerous passages show indeed that it was the family of the Kanvas, or rather, to speak more accurately, a branch of that family, among which this group of hymns has been composed. But it is as great a mistake in this as in\na number of similar cases to accept the founder of one of the great Br\u00e2hmanical families as an author of Vedic poems. Comp. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morg. Gesellschaft, XLII, 215 seq.\nThe metre is alternately Brihat\u00ee and Satobrihat\u00ee, so that the hymn consists of strophes (Prag\u00e2tha) of two verses. Verse 1 = SV. I, 59. Verse 9 = VS. XI, 37; TS. IV, 1, 3, 3 (V, 1, 4, 5); T\u00c2r. IV, 5, 2 (V, 4, 6); MS. II, 7, 3; IV, 9, 3. Verse 13 = SV. I, 57; VS. XI, 42; TS. IV, 1, 4, 2 (V, 1, 5, 3); MS. II, 7, 4. Verses 13, 14 = TB. III, 6, 1, 2; T\u00c2r. IV, 20, 1; MS. IV, 13, 1. Verse 19 = SV. I, 54.\nNote 1. Literally, we entreat for you. Comp. on this use of the pronoun vah, Delbr\u00fcck, Altindische Syntax, 206. See also Neisser, Bezzenberger's Beitr\u00e4ge, XX, 64.\nNote 2. The meaning of yahv\u00e1 cannot be determined with full certainty.\nNote 3. There is no sufficient reason to change with Ludwig (IV, 254) pur\u00fbn\u00e2\u00b4m to P\u00fbr\u00fbn\u00e2\u00b4m, and thus to convert the metrically correct P\u00e2da into an irregular one.\u2014Comp. Bollensen, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellschaft, XXII, 593.\nNote 4. On devayat\u00ee\u00b4n\u00e2m, comp. Lanman, p. 399.\nNote 1. 'On thee all the eternal works are united, i. e. depend, which the gods have wrought; such as sun, stars, lightning.' M. M.\nNote 1. With the third P\u00e2da compare the third P\u00e2da of verse 2. It is a galita.\nNote 1. The word 'the foe' (vritra) alludes to the name of the demon conquered by Indra; see H. O., Religion des Veda, 135, note 2.\nNote 2. The metre would become more correct by reading vrishabh\u00e1h instead of vr\u00edsh\u00e2. Or Vr\u00edshani, 'with Vrishan'? Comp. verse 10.\nNote 1. Medhy\u00e2tithi or Medh\u00e2tithi is very frequently mentioned in connection with Kanva.\nVrishan is taken as a proper name by Boehtlingk-Roth and by Grassmann (not by Ludwig) in VI, 16, 15. Possibly they are right, but in no case can Vrishan of the sixth book, named by the side of Dadhya\u00f1k and Atharvan, be identified with any probability with the Vrishan mentioned in our passage, who evidently belongs to the ancestors of the Kanvas.\nUpastuta is mentioned again together with Kanva and Medhy\u00e2tithi in verse 17 of our hymn, together with Kanva in VIII, 5, 25. Comp. I, 112, 15; VIII, 103, 8; X, 115, 8. 9; Bergaigne, Rel. V\u00e9d., II, 448.\nNote 1. Comp. I, 139, 2. y\u00e1t ha ty\u00e1t mitr\u00e2varun\u00e2v rit\u00e2\u00b4t \u00e1dhi \u00e2dad\u00e2\u00b4the \u00e1nritam sv\u00e9na many\u00fan\u00e2; X, 73, 5. m\u00e1ndam\u00e2nah rit\u00e2\u00b4t \u00e1dhi.\nNote 1. A\u00f1g\u00edbhih can possibly mean 'who have salved themselves.' There is no reason to think of the anointing of the y\u00fbpa (sacrificial post), to which S\u00e2yana refers the word.\nNote 2. On vi-hv\u00e2, comp. Pischel-Geldner, I, 144. There must be a technical reason, unknown to me, for the connection in which this verb repeatedly occurs, as is the case in our passage, with the noun v\u00e2ghat: comp. III, 8, 10 (see below); VIII, 5, 16. purutr\u00e2\u00b4 kit h\u00ed v\u00e2m nar\u00e2 vihv\u00e1yante man\u00eesh\u00ednah v\u00e2gh\u00e1dbhih asvin\u00e2 \u00e2\u00b4 gatam.\nNote 1. The exact meaning of atr\u00edn is unknown.\nNote 2. Geldner's conjectures on duvas seem rather bold\nto me (Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVII, 233). Comp. vol. xxxii, pp. 203\u2013206 (I, 165, 14).\nNote 1. On ghan\u00e9va, see Lanman, Noun-Inflection, 334.\nNote 1. On Medhy\u00e2tithi and Upastuta, see the note on verse 10. Aufrecht (Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVI, 612) believes that in mitr\u00f3t\u00e1 an abbreviation of the name Mitr\u00e2tithi (X, 33, 7) is contained; he translates: 'Agni has promoted Mitr\u00e2tithi, Medhy\u00e2tithi, and Upastuta in the acquirement of wealth.' This is very ingenious, but I do not think that the reason which Aufrecht gives is sufficient: it cannot be understood, he says, why Mitra (or Mitra and Varuna) should be mentioned in a hymn exclusively addressed to Agni. But similar cases are quite frequent.\u2014Prof. Max M\u00fcller writes: 'Could mitr\u00e2 stand for mitr\u00e2ni? Agni has protected his friends and also Medhy\u00e2tithi.' Comp. also Lanman, p. 342.\nNote 1. On Turvasa and Yadu, comp. Muir, V, 286; Bergaigne, II, 354 seq.; Zeitschr. der D. Morg. Ges. XLII, 220. There is not the slightest reason for Ludwig's statement (IV, 254) that this hymn is a 'gebet um sig f\u00fcr den auf einem kriegszuge befindlichen Turva\u00e7ak\u00f6nig.'\nUgradeva is not mentioned again. On Navav\u00e2stva and Brihadratha, comp. X, 49, 6; VI, 20, 11; on Turv\u00eeti, the materials collected by Bergaigne, Rel. V\u00e9d., II, 358 seq.\nNote 1. See verse 14, note 1.","title":"Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46): I, 36","type":"page"}