1. I TAKE within me Agni first, for increase of my wealth, good offspring, manly strength: So may the Deities wait on me.
2. Thou art the waters’ back, the womb of Agni, around the ocean as it swells and surges. Waxing to greatness, resting on the lotus, spread forth in amplitude with heaven’s own measure.
3. Eastward at first was Brahma generated. Vena o’erspread the bright Ones from the summit, Disclosed his deepest nearest revelations, womb of existent and of non-existent.
4. In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, born Only Lord of all created being. He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven. Worship we Ka the God with our oblation.
5. The Drop leaped onward through the earth and heaven, along this place and that which was before it.I offer up, throughout the seven oblations, the Drop still moving to the common dwelling.
6. Homage be paid to Serpents unto all of them that are on earth, To those that dwell in air, to those that dwell in sky be homage paid.
7. To those that are the demons’ darts, to those that live upon the trees, To all the Serpents that lie low in holes be adoration paid.
8. Or those that are in heaven’s bright sphere, or those that dwell in the Sun’s beams: Serpents, whose home has been prepared in waters, homage unto them!
9. Put forth like a wide-spreading net thy vigour: go like a mighty King with his attendants. Thou, following thy swift net, shootest arrows: transfix the fiends with darts that burn most fiercely.
10. Forth go in rapid flight thy whirling weapons: follow them closely glowing in thy fury. Spread with thy tongue the wingèd flames, O Agni: unfettered cast thy firebrands all around thee.
11. Send thy spies forward, fleetest in thy motion: be, ne’er deceived, the guardian of this people From him who, near or far, is bent on evil, and let no trouble sent from thee o’ercome us.
12. Rise up, O Agni, spread thee out before us, burn down our foes, thou who hast sharpened arrows. Him, blazing Agni! who hath worked us mischief, consume thou utterly like dried-up stubble.
13. Rise, Agni, drive off those who fight against us: make manifest thine own celestial vigour. Slacken the strong bows of the demon-driven: destroy our foemen whether kin or stranger. I settle thee with Agni’s fiery ardour.
14. Agni is head and height of heaven, the Master of the earth is he: He quickeneth the waters’ seed. I settle thee with the great strength of Indra.
15. Thou art the leader of the rite and region to which with thine auspicious teams thou tendest. Thy light-bestowing head to heaven thou liftest, making thy tongue the oblation-bearer, Agni!
16. Steady art thou, sustainer, laid by Visvakarman in thy place. Let not the ocean nor the bird harm thee: unshaking, steady earth.
17. Thee let Prajâpati settle on the waters’ back, in Ocean’s course, Thee the capacious, widely spread. Thou art the Wide One: spread thee wide
18. Thou art the earth, the ground, thou art the all-sustaining Aditi, she who supporteth all the world. Control the earth, steady the earth, do thou the earth no injury.
19. For all breath, out-breath; through-breath, upward-breathing, for high position, for prescribed observance, May Agni keep thee safe with great well-being, with the securest shelter. As aforetime with Angiras, with that Deity lie steady.
20. Upspringing from thine every joint, upspringing from each knot of thine,Thus with a thousand, Dûrvâ! with a hundred do thou stretch us out.
21. Thou spreading with a hundred, thou that branched with a thousand shoots, Thee, such, with our oblation will we worship, O celestial Brick.
22. Thy lights, O Agni, in the Sun that with their beams o’erspread the sky,— With all of those assist thou us to-day to light and progeny.
23. Lights of yours in the Sun, O Gods, or lights that are in kine and steeds, O Indra-Agni, with all those vouchsafe us light, Brihaspati!
24. The Far.-Refulgent held the light. The Self-Refulgent held the light. Thee, luminous, may Prajâpati settle upon the back of Earth. Give, to all breathing, all the light, to out-breath, to diffusive breath. Thy Sovran Lord is Agni. With that Deity, as with Angiras, lie firmly settled in thy place.
25. Madhu and Mâdhava, the two Spring seasons—thou art the innermost cement of Agni. May Heaven and Earth, may Waters, Plants and Agnis help, separate, accordant, my precedence. May all the Fires ’twixt heaven and earth, one-minded, well-fitted, gather round these two Spring seasons, As the Gods gathering encompass Indra: firm with that Deity, Angiras-like, be seated.
26. Thou art Ashâdhâ, Conquering One. Conquer our foemen, conquer thou the men who fain would-fight with us. A thousand manly powers hast thou: so do thou aid and quicken me.
27. The winds waft sweets, the rivers pour sweets for the man who keeps the Law: So may the plants be sweet for us.
