{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe46/sbe46026.htm","path":"hin/sbe46/sbe46026.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe46/sbe46026.htm","text":"Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46), by Hermann Oldenberg [1897]\n1. What supplication is to thy mind's taste 1? What (pious) thought may be, O Agni, most agreeable to thee? Or who has won for himself thy wisdom by sacrifices? Or with what thoughts may we worship thee 2?\n2. Come hither, Agni, sit down here as a Hotri. Become our undeceivable leader 1. May Heaven and Earth, the all-embracing, protect thee. Offer the sacrifice to the gods that they may be highly gracious to us.\n3. Burn down all sorcerers, O Agni; become a protector of the sacrifices against imprecations. And. conduct hither the lord of Soma (Indra) with his two bay horses. We have prepared hospitality for him, the good giver.\n4. With words procuring offspring, carrying thee (to our sacrifice) with my mouth 1, I call 2 thee hither, and thou shalt sit down here with the gods. Perform the service of a Hotri and of a Potri 3, O worshipful one. Be thou a giver and a father 4 of riches.\n5. As thou didst perform sacrifice to the gods with the sacrificial food of the wise Manu 1, a sage together with sages, thus, O highly truthful Hotri, perform thou the sacrifice to-day, O Agni, with thy joy-giving sacrificial ladle 2.\nThe same Rishi. Metre, Trishtubh.\nNote 1. S\u00e2yana takes v\u00e1ra in the sense of 'holding back' (comp. I, 143, 5), and makes m\u00e1nasah depend on v\u00e1r\u00e2ya. He says, 'he agne te tava manaso var\u00e2ya niv\u00e2ran\u00e2y\u00e2sm\u00e2sv. avasth\u00e2pan\u00e2ya kopetir bhuvat k\u00eedrisam upagamanam bhavet.' The modern translators are evidently right in assigning to v\u00e1ra the meaning of 'wish' or the like (comp. VII, 59, 2. y\u00e1h vah v\u00e1r\u00e2ya d\u00e2\u00b4sati), but they differ as to whether m\u00e1nasah should be taken as belonging to v\u00e1r\u00e2ya or to \u00fapetih. Ludwig translates, 'Welches nahen des geistes ist gegenstand der wal dir?' Grassmann, 'Welch Nahen ist nach deines Herzens Wunsche?' My opinion is that the tradition of the text is not quite free from suspicion. My doubts are based on VI, 21, 4. k\u00e1s te yag\u00f1\u00e1h m\u00e1nase s\u00e1m v\u00e1r\u00e2ya, 'What sacrifice (O Indra) is agreeable to thy mind, to thy wish?' Here we have a question addressed to the god, beginning with k\u00e1s te, quite similar to the question of our poet, which begins with k\u00e2\u00b4 te. We have the word s\u00e1m, as in our passage s\u00e1mtam\u00e2. We have v\u00e1r\u00e2ya exactly as in our passage. We have, by the side of v\u00e1r\u00e2ya, a case-form of m\u00e1nas as in our passage. But we have the dative m\u00e1nase instead of the genitive m\u00e1nasah. We may add that there are some other passages in which a dative of a similar meaning stands likewise by the side of v\u00e1r\u00e2ya: thus, VIII, 82, 3. \u00e1ram v\u00e1r\u00e2ya many\u00e1ve bh\u00fbvat te indra s\u00e1m (comp. bhuvat agne s\u00e1mtam\u00e2 in our passage) hrid\u00e9, 'May it be, O Indra, according to thy wish and thy mood, may it be agreeable to thy heart;' VIII, 84, 4. v\u00e1r\u00e2ya deva many\u00e1ve, 'to thy wish, O god, to thy mood.'\nAll this tends to raise the supposition that in our\npassage also we should read m\u00e1nase v\u00e1r\u00e2ya, which datives seem to depend on s\u00e1mtam\u00e2. We should then translate, 'What supplication, what (pious) thought may be, O Agni, most agreeable to thy mind and to thy wish?'\nNote 2. This seems to be a P\u00e2da of the defective type, with four syllables before the caesura and ending as if there were five syllables before the caesura; comp. my Prolegomena, 68 seq. It would be easy, however, to restore the normal metrical form, for instance, by reading t\u00fabhyam instead of te.\nNote 1. Purah-et\u00e2\u00b4, literally, 'he who goes before somebody.'\nNote 1. It would be unnatural to give to the medium \u00e2\u00b4 huve the passive sense and not to translate it, as it must be translated in so many passages, 'I call (thee) hither.' But, if so, it is very difficult to avoid the conclusion that v\u00e1hnih \u00e2s\u00e2\u00b4 ('he who carries somebody with his mouth;' comp. I, 129, 5; VI, 11, 2; 16, 9; VII, 16, 9; X, 115, 3 see vol. xxxii, pp. 42 seq.) refers here not to Agni, the divine carrier, but to the human priest, who with his mouth, i. e. by his songs, carries Agni to his sacrifice. V\u00e1hni is used very frequently indeed of human worshippers, and generally the transferring of epithets of the divine priest Agni to human priests, and vice versa, is quite to the taste of Vedic poets.\u2014Comp. on \u00e2\u00b4 huve and v\u00e1hnih \u00e2s\u00e2\u00b4, Neisser, Bezzenberger's Beitr\u00e4ge, XVIII, 320 seq.; XX, 69, and below, I, 127, 8, note 1; S. B. E., vol. xxxii, p. 42. See also Delbr\u00fcck, Altindische Syntax, 473, who very rightly observes: es liegt kein Grund vor, dem huv\u00e9 den Character einer ersten Person zu versagen.\nNote 2. On the accent of huv\u00e9, on which Ludwig bases very bold conclusions, see Delbr\u00fcck, Altindische Syntax, 41; Weber, Indische Studien, XIII, 73.\nNote 3. Comp. X, 3, 3.\u2014On the priestly functions of the\n[paragraph continues] Potri, see Weber, Indische Studien, X, 141, 366, 376 seq.; H. O., Religion des Veda, 391.\nNote 4. On these vocatives, see Delbr\u00fcck, Altindische Syntax, 106.\nNote 1. Manus is here a proper name; comp. Bergaigne, I, 65 seq. On his priestly character, comp. H. O., Religion des Veda, 275.\nNote 2. On guh\u1e7d\u00e2, comp. Pischel, Ved. Studien, II, 113. The ladle is meant for the flame of Agni.","title":"Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46): I, 76","type":"page"}