Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46), by Hermann Oldenberg [1897], at sacred-texts.com

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MANDALA III, HYMN 23.

ASHTAKA III, ADHYÂYA 1, VARGA 23.

1. Produced by attrition, well preserved in his abode, the young sage, the leader of worship, Agni ever young in the forests 1 that grow old—Gâtavedas, has here assumed immortality 2.

2. The two Bharatas 1, Devasravas and Devavâta, in the midst of wealth have produced by attrition Agni the skilful (god). Agni, look forth with mighty wealth, and then be 2 for us a guide of food day by day.

3 1. The ten fingers have brought him to the birth, the ancient, beloved (Agni), well born in his mothers 2. Praise, O Devasravas, the Agni of Devavâta who 3 should be the lord of people.

4. I have laid 1 thee 2 down in the best (place) of the earth 3, in the place of Ilâ 3, in the auspiciousness of days. O Agni, as the god who has belonged to Manus 4, shine with wealth on the Drishadvatî, on the Âpayâ, on the Sarasvatî.

5 = III, 1, 23.

NOTES.

The Rishis are Devasravas Bhârata and Devavâta Bhârata (see verse 2); the metre is Trishtubh (verse 5 Satobrihatî).—No verse occurs in the other Samhitâs.

Verse 1.

Note 1. The 'forests' are the fuel. 'Does the poet mean: Never consumed in the consumed wood or forests,

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i. e. the fire burns and is kept alive while the wood is burnt up?' M. M.

Note 2. Or, 'he has received the drink of immortality'—which may refer to the ghee offered in the fire.

Verse 2.

Note 1. On the tribe of the Bharatas having their seats, as verse 4 seems to show, on the borders of the Sarasvatî and of the Drishadvatî, see H. O., Buddha (first edition), 413 seq.

Note 2. This is an imperative in -tât, signifying, as Delbrück has shown (Syntaktische Forschungen, III, 2 seq.; Altindische Syntax, 363), an injunction to be carried out after something else has been done or has happened. Agni is first to look about (ví pasya), and shall then become (bhavatât) a guide of food, i. e. he shall lead plenty of food to the worshipper's house.—Prof. Max Müller translates ishâ´m netâ´, 'a guide to food.'

Verse 3.

Note 1. Should this Satobrihatî, standing alone among Trishtubh verses, be considered as forming a distich together with verse 2? Comp. H. O., Die Hymnen des Rigveda, vol. i, p. 102, note 7.

Note 2. The woods.

Note 3. Agni, not Devavâta, is referred to.

Verse 4.

Note 1. Or, 'he has laid.' The form may be first or third person, present or perfect.

Note 2. Agni is addressed.

Note 3. The best place of the earth, the place of Ilâ (i. e. of the nourishment coming from the cow, of the ghee offered into Agni) is the sacrificial ground or more especially the spot on which the sacrificial fire is established.

Note 4. Or 'to men.' The Padapâtha has mâ´nushe, but mâ´nushah seems more probable.