{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/wyv/wyvbk29.htm","path":"hin/wyv/wyvbk29.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk29.htm","text":"The Texts of the White Yajurveda, tr. Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1899]\nDECKING the treasure-house of prayers, O Agni, enkindled,\n pouring forth sweet-tasted butter,\n Swift-moving, bearing curd, O J\u00e2tavedas, bear what they\n love to the Gods\u2019 habitation.\n 2 Balming the paths that lead to heaven with fatness, let the\n Steed go unto the Gods well-knowing.\n Courser, the Quarters of the sky attend thee! Bestow thou\n food upon this Sacrificer.\n 3 Thou, Steed, art meet for laud and veneration; swift, fit for\n sacrifice art thou, O Courser.\n In concert with the Gods and Vasus Agni Omniscient waft\n thee a contented bearer!\n 4 Pleased with much Sacred Grass which we have scattered\n wide spread upon the earth, a pleasant carpet,\n Joined with the Gods may Aditi, accordant, bestowing bliss\n award it happy fortune.\n 5 May these your Doors divine that wear all colours, auspicious,\n with uplifted leaves unfolding,\n Lofty and closely fitted and sonorous, rich in adornment,\n offer easy passage.\n 6 Your two Dawns rich in gold and varied colour, travelling\n on \u2019twixt Varuna and Mitra,\n Acquainted with the face of sacrifices, I settle here within\n the home of Order.\n 7 Your two chief Hotars have I pleased, bright-coloured, borne\n on one car, Gods who behold all creatures,\n Those who prepare your rules and ordinances and make you\n see the light by their direction.\n 8 Bh\u00e2rat\u00ee with \u00c2dityas love our worship! Sarasvat\u00ee with\n Rudras be our helper,\n And Id\u00e2 in accord, invoked with Vasus! Goddesses, place\n our rite among the Immortals.\n9 The God-devoted son Tvashtar produces: from Tvashtar\n springs to life your fleet-foot Courser.\n Tvashtar gave being to this All about us. Priest, worship\n here the mighty work's achiever.\n 10 Let the Steed seek his home, and balmed with butter go of\n himself unto the Gods in season.\n To the Gods\u2019 world Vanaspat\u00ee, well-knowing, bear our oblations\n which the fire has tasted!\n 11 Thou, waxing by Praj\u00e2pati's strong fervour, born quickly,\n guardest sacrifice, O Agni.\n With consecrated offering go, preceding, and let the S\u00e2dhyas,\n Gods, eat our oblation.\n 12 What time, first springing into life, thou neighedst, proceeding\n from the sea or cloudy vapour,\n Limbs of the deer hadst thou, and eagle pinions. O Steed,\n thy birth is high and must be lauded.\n 13 This Steed, bestowed by Yama, Trita harnessed, and Indra\n was the first to mount and ride him.\n His bridle the Gandharva grasped. O Vasus, from out the\n Sun ye fashioned forth the Courser.\n 14 Yama art thou, O Horse; thou art \u00c2ditya; Trita art thou\n by secret operation.\n From Soma thou art thoroughly divided. They say there\n are three bonds in heaven that hold thee.\n 15 Three bonds, they say, thou hast in heaven to bind thee,\n three in the waters, three within the ocean.\nTo me thou seemest Varuna, O Courser, there where they\n say is thy sublimest birthplace.\n 16 Here, Courser, are the places where they groomed thee;\n here are the traces of thy hooves as winner.\n Here have I seen the auspicious reins that guide thee, which\n those who guard the holy Law keep safely.\n 17 Thyself from far I recognized in spirit, a Bird that from\n below flew through the heaven.\n I saw thy head still soaring, striving upward by paths unsoiled\n by dust, pleasant to travel.\n 18 Here I beheld thy form matchless in beauty, eager to win\n thee food at the Cow's station.\n Whene\u2019er a man brings thee to thine enjoyment, thou\n swallowest the herbs, most greedy eater.\n 19 After thee, Courser, come the car, the bridegroom, the kine\n come after, and the charm of maidens.\n Full companies have followed for thy friendship: the pattern\n of thy vigour Gods have followed.\n 20 His horns are golden and his feet are iron. Less fleet than\n he, though swift as thought, was Indra.\n The Gods came only to the oblation-banquet of him who\n mounted first of all the Courser.\n 21 Symmetrical in flank, with rounded haunches, mettled like\n heroes, the celestial Coursers\n Put forth their strength like swans in lengthened order when\n they, the Steeds, have reached the heavenly causeway.\n 22 A body formed for flight hast thou, O Charger; swift as the\n wind in motion is thy spirit.\n Thy horns are spread abroad in all directions; they move\n with restless beat in wildernesses.\n23 The strong Steed hath come forward to the slaughter, pondering\n with a mind directed God-ward.\n The goat who is his kin is led before him: the sages and the\n singers follow after.\n 21 The Steed is come unto the noblest mansion, is come unto\n his Father and his Mother.\n This day shall he approach the Gods, most welcome: then\n he declares good gifts to him who worships.\n 25 Thou in the house of man this day enkindled worshippest\n Gods, a God, O J\u00e2tavedas.\n Wealthy in friends! observant, bring them hither. Thou\n art a sapient envoy, full of wisdom.\n 26 Tan\u00fbnap\u00e2t, fair-tongued, with sweet mead balming the\n paths and ways of Order, make them pleasant.\n Convey our sacrifice to heaven, exalting with holy thoughts\n our hymns of praise and worship.\n 27 With sacrifice to these we with laudations will honour holy\n Nar\u00e2samsa's greatness\u2014\n To these the pure, most wise, the thought-inspirers, Gods\n who enjoy both sorts of our oblations.\n 28 Invoked, deserving laud and adoration, O Agni, come accordant\n with the Vasus.\n Thou art, O vigorous One, the Gods\u2019 Invoker, so, best of\n Sacrificers, bring them quickly.\n 29 By rule the Sacred Grass is scattered eastward, a robe to\n clothe the earth when dawns are breaking.\n Widely it spreads around and far extended, fair for the Gods\n and bringing peace and freedom.\n 30 Let the expansive Doors be widely opened, like wives who\n deck their beauty for their husbands.\n Lofty, celestial, all-impelling Portals, admit the Gods and\n give them easy access.\n31 Pouring sweet dews, let holy Night and Morning, each\n close to each, be seated at their station\u2014\n Lofty, celestial Dames, with gold to deck them, assuming\n all their fair and radiant beauty.\n 32 Come the two chief celestial sweet-voiced Hotars, arranging\n sacrifice for man to worship,\n As singers who inspire us in assemblies, showing the eastward\n light with their direction!\n 33 Let Bh\u00e2rat\u00ee come quickly to our worship, and Id\u00e2 showing\n like a human being.\n So let Sarasvat\u00ee and both her fellows, deft Goddesses, on\n this fair grass be seated.\n 34 Hotar more skilled in sacrifice, bring hither with speed today\n God Tvashtar, thou who knowest,\n Even him who framed these two, the Earth and Heaven,\n the Parents, with their forms, and every creature.\n 35 Send to our offerings which thyself thou balmest the\n Companies of Gods in ordered season.\n Agni, Vanaspat\u00ee, the Immolator sweeten our offered gift\n with mead and butter.\n 36 Agni as soon as he was born made ready the sacrifice and\n was the Gods\u2019 preceder.\n May the Gods eat our offering consecrated according to the\n true Priest's voice and guidance.\n 37 Thou, making light where no light was, and form, O men!\n where form was not,\n Wast born together with the Dawns.\n 38 The warrior's look is like a thunderous rain-cloud's when,\n armed with mail, he seeks the lap of battle.\n Be thou victorious with unwounded body: so let the thickness\n of thine armour save thee.\n 39 With Bow let us win kine, with Bow the battle, with Bow\n be victors in our hot encounters.\n The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman: armed with\n the Bow may we subdue all regions.\n40 Close to his ear, as fain to speak, She presses, holding her\n well-loved Friend in her embraces.\n Strained on the Bow, She whispers like a woman\u2014this\n Bow-string that preserves us in the combat.\n 41 These, meeting like a woman and her lover, bear,\n mother-like, their child upon their bosom.\n May the two Bow-ends, starting swift asunder scatter, in\n unison, the foes who hate us.\n 42 With many a son, father of many daughters, He clangs and\n clashes as he goes to battle.\n Slung on the back, pouring his brood, the Quiver vanquishes\n all opposing bauds and armies.\n 43 Upstanding in the Car the skilful Charioteer guides his\n strong Horses on whitherso\u2019er he will.\n See and admire the strength of those controlling Reins which\n from behind declare the will of him who drives\n 44 Horses whose hoofs rain dust are neighing loudly, yoked to\n the Chariots, showing forth their vigour.\n With their forefeet descending on the foemen, they, never\n flinching, trample and destroy them.\n 45 Car-bearer is the name of his oblation, whereon are laid his\n Weapons and his Armour.\n So let us here, each day that passes, honour the helpful Car\n with hearts exceeding joyful.\n 46 In sweet association lived the fathers who gave us life,\n profound and strong in trouble,\n Unwearied, armed with shafts and wondrous weapons, free,\n real heroes, conquerors of armies.\n47 The Br\u00e2hmans, and the Fathers meet for Soma draughts,\n and, graciously inclined, unequalled Heaven and Earth.\n Guard us from evil, P\u00fbshan! guard us strengtheners of\n Law! let not the evil-wisher master us.\n 48 Her tooth a deer, dressed in an eagle's feathers, bound with\n cow-hide, launched forth, She flieth onward.\n There where the heroes speed hither and thither, there may\n the arrows shelter and protect us.\n 49 Avoid as thou whose flight is straight, and let our bodies\n be as stone.\n May Soma kindly speak to us, and Aditi protect us well.\n 59 He lays his blows upon their backs, He deals his strokes\n upon their thighs.\n Thou Whip who urgest horses, drive sagacious chargers in\n the fray.\n 51 It compasses the arm with serpent windings, fending away\n the friction of the bowstring:\n So may the Brace, well skilled in all its duties, guard manfully\n the man from every quarter.\n 52 Lord of the Wood, be firm and strong in body: be, bearing\n us, a brave victorious hero.\n Show forth thy strength, compact with straps of leather,\n and let thy rider win all spoils of battle.\n 53 Its mighty strength was borrowed from the heaven and earth\n its conquering force was brought from sovrans of the wood.\n Honour with holy gifts the Car like Indra's bolt, the Car\n bound round with straps, the vigour of the floods.\n 54 Thou bolt of Indra, Vanguard of the Maruts, close knit to\n Varuna and Child of Mitra,\u2014\n As such, accepting gifts which here we offer, receive, O Godlike\n Chariot, these oblations.\n 55 Send forth thy voice aloud through earth and heaven, and\n let the world in all its breadth regard thee;\n O Drum, accordant with the Gods and Indra, drive thou\n afar, yea, very far, our foemen.\n56 Thunder out strength and fill us fall of vigour: yea, thunder\n forth and drive away all dangers.\n Drive hence, O War-drum, drive away misfortune: thou art\n the Fist of Indra: show thy firmness.\n 57 Drive hither those, and these again bring hither: the\n War-drum speaks aloud as battle's signal.\n Our heroes, winged with horses, come together. Let our\n car-warriors, Indra, be triumphant.\n 58 The black-necked victim belongs to Agni; the ewe to\n Sarasvat\u00ee; the brown victim is Soma's; the dusky P\u00fbshan's;\n the white-backed is Brihaspati's; the dappled belongs to\n the All-Gods; the red to Indra; the spotted to the Maruts;\n the strong-bodied to Indra-Agni; one with white marks below\n to Savitar; to Varuna a black ram with one white foot\n 59 To Agni An\u00eekav\u00e2n is sacrificed a red-marked ox; two with\n white spots below are for Savitar; two with silvery navels\n for P\u00fbshan; two yellow hornless he-goats for the All-Gods;\n a spotted one for the Maruts; the black-faced he-goat is\n Agni's; the ewe is Sarasvat\u00ee's; the ram is Varuna's.\n 60 To Agni of the G\u00e2yatr\u00ee, of the Trivrit hymn and of the\n Rathantara S\u00e2man is to be offered a rice-cake on eight\n potsherds; to Indra of the Trishtup, the Pa\u00f1chadasa\n hymn and the Brihat S\u00e2man one on eleven potsherds; to\n the All-Gods of the Jagat\u00ee, the Seventeenfold hymn\n and the Vair\u00fbpa S\u00e2man, one on twelve potsherds; to\n Mitra-Varuna of the Anushtup, the Ekavimsa hymn, and\n the Vair\u00e2ja S\u00e2man, a mess of curdled milk; to Brihaspati\n of the Pankti metre, the Trinava hymn, and the S\u00e2kvara\n S\u00e2man, an oblation of rice boded in milk; to Savitar of\n the Ushnih, the Thirty-threefold hymn, and the Raivata\n S\u00e2man, a rice-cake on eight potsherds; a mess of boiled\n rice is to be made for Praj\u00e2pati; the same for Vishnu's\n Consort Aditi; to Agni Vaisv\u00e2nara is to be offered a \n rice-cake on twelve potsherds, and to Anumati one on eight.","title":"White Yajur Veda: Book XXIX","type":"page"}