iv. 2. 5.
a. Be united, be in harmony, in affection,
Radiant, with kindly thought,
Clothed in food and strength,
United have I made your minds, your ordinances, your hearts.
b. O Agni of the dust be overlord for us;
Bestow food and strength on the sacrificer.
c. Thou, O Agni, art of the dust,
Rich, full of increase,
Making all the regions propitious
Thou hast sat down on thine own birthplace.
d. Be ye of one mind for us,
One dwelling [1], spotless;
Harm not the sacrifice, nor the lord of the sacrifice, O all-knowers;
Be ye two auspicious to-day unto us.
e. As a mother her son, the earth,
The pan, hath borne Agni of the dust in his own birthplace
In unison with the All-gods, the seasons,
Let Prajapati, all-worker, release it.
f. The bright light
Born beyond this firmament,
May that convey us beyond our foes,
O Agni Vaiçvanara, hail!
g. Homage to thee, O Nirrti of every form [2],
Loosen ye this bond made of iron;
Do thou in accord with Yama and Yami
Mount this highest vault.
h. The bond that Nirrti, the goddess,
Bound on thy neck, not to be loosened,
This I loosen for thee as from the middle of life;
Then living, let loose, do thou eat the food.
i. Thee in whose cruel mouth here I make offering,
For the loosening of these bonds,
As ‘earth’ men know thee,
As ‘Nirrti’ [3], I know thee on every side.
k. Seek the man who poureth not offering nor sacrifices;
The road of the thief and robber thou followest;
Seek another than us, that is thy road;
Homage be to thee, O Nirrti, O goddess.
l. Praising Nirrti, the goddess,
Like a father his son, I weary her with my words;
She who knoweth all that is born,
Discerneth, the lady, every head.
m. Abode and collector of riches,
Every form she discerneth with might [4],
Like the god Savitr of true laws,
Like Indra, she standeth at the meeting of the ways.
n. Make firm the straps,
Fasten the buckets;
We shall drain the well full of water,
That never is exhausted, never faileth.
o. The well with buckets fastened,
With strong straps, that yieldeth abundantly,
Full of water, unexhausted, I drain.
p. The sages yoke the ploughs;
They stretch apart the yokes,
Wise with goodwill among the gods.
q. Yoke the ploughs, stretch apart the yokes,
Here sow in the womb made ready the seed [5]
Through our song be there audience with profit for us;
May the ripe (grain) be brought low by the sickle.
r. The plough, of keen share,
Propitious, with well-polished handle,
Plougheth up a cow, a sheep,
And a fat blooming maid,
A chariot support with a platform.
s. With prosperity may our ploughs cleave the ground,
With prosperity may the ploughers go round the yokes;
Prosperity (may) Parjanya (give) with honey and milk,
And do ye, O Çuna and Sira, accord prosperity to us.
t. Wishes, O milker of wishes, do thou milk
To Mitra and Varuna;
To Indra, to Agni, to Pusan,
To the plants, and to offspring.
u. The furrow anointed with ghee, with honey,
Approved by the All-gods, the Maruts,
Full of strength, swelling with milk,
Do thou, O furrow, turn towards us with milk.
iv. 2. 6.
a. The plants born
Three generations before the gods,
Of the brown ones I celebrate
The seven and a hundred abodes.
b. A hundred, O mother, are your abodes,
A thousand too your shoots,
Therefore do ye, with a hundred powers,
Make him whole for me.
c. With flowers, with shoots,
Fruit-bearing and without fruit,
Like steeds victorious
The plants are strong to help.
d. ‘Plants’, O ye mothers,
I hail you, O goddesses;
Go bearing away defilement,
Defilement [1] destroying.
e. In the Açvattha is your seat,
In the Parna is your dwelling made;
Cows shall in truth be your share
If ye shall gain this man.
f. In that in strength I seize
These plants in my hand,
The soul of the disease perisheth,
As before one that taketh alive.
g. When the plants come together
Like princes at the assembly,
Sage is the physician called,
Slayer of Raksases, overpowerer of diseases.
h. Remover is your mother by name,
And ye are helpers;
Ye are winged streams [2];
Remove whatever is unwell.
i. Let one of you aid another,
Let one be of assistance to another;
All the plants in unison
Do ye further this speech of mine.
k. The strength of the plants hath arisen
Like cows from the pasturage,
Of them that are fain to win gain,
To the self of thee, O man.
I. Beyond all obstacles,
Like the thief the pen, they have strode,
The plants have shaken away
Every defilement in the body.
m. Those [3] that have mounted thy self,
That have entered every limb,
May they repel thy disease,
Like a dread intercessor.
n. O disease, do thou fly forth
With the eagle, the blue jay (kikidivi)
With the rush of the wind,
With the whirlwind do thou disappear.
o. Rich in steeds, rich in Soma,
Full of strength, full of power,
I have found all the plants
For his safety.
p. The fruitful, the fruitless,
The flowering, the flowerless,
Impelled by Brhaspati,
May they free us from tribulation.
q. The [4] plants whose king is Soma,
And which have entered the earth,
Of them thou art the highest,
Impel us to long life.
r. Falling from the sky
The plants said,
‘He, whom we reach while in life,
Shall not come to ill.’
s. Those that hear now
And those that are gone far away,
Coming all together here
Give ye him healing.
t. May the digger of you come to no ill,
Nor he for whom I dig you;
May all our bipeds and quadrupeds
Be free from disease.
u. The plants hold converse
With Soma, the king,
‘The man for whom the Brahman prepares (us),
We, O king, bring to safety.’
iv. 2. 7.
a. May I be harm us not who is father of earth
Or who, of true law, created the sky,
And he who created the great bright waters;
To what god shall we offer with oblation?
b. Turn towards (us), O earth,
With the sacrifice, with milk;
Over thy caul let Agni, aroused, creep.
c. O Agni, that of thee which is pure, which is bright,
Which is cleansed, which is fit for offering,
That we bear to the gods.
d. Food and strength do I take hence [1],
From the abode of holy order, from the birthplace of immortality.
May it enter us, in cattle and in plants;
I abandon decline, lack of food, and ill-health.
e. O Agni, strength and fame are thine,
Thy rays shine mightily, O rich in light;
O thou of broad radiance, with thy might, strength worthy of laud,
Thou bestowest on the worshipper, O sage.
f. Do thou extend over men, O Agni,
Ruling over wealth for us, O immortal one;
Thou art the master of a glorious form,
Thou fillest glorious wealth.
g. O son of strength, O all-knower,
Rejoice in our fair praises [2], being adored in our prayers;
In thee have they placed food, rich in seed,
Of wondrous aid, of prosperous birth.
h. With pure radiance, with bright radiance,
With undiminished radiance, thou comest forth with thy light;
Visiting thy parents thou aidest them;
Thou fillest both worlds.
i. The righteous, the bull, common to all men,
Agni, men place before them for favour,
Thee with their speech, that art ready to hear and most extending,
The divine, the generations of men.
k. Preparer of the sacrifice, the wise,
Who ruleth for great gain,
The giver of the Bhrgus, the eager, skilled in the sacrifice
Thou fillest glorious wealth.
l. Ye are pilers, ye are pilers around, do ye pile upwards as a support,
with that deity, sit ye firm in the manner of Angiras.
m. Swell up, let thy strength be gathered
From all sides, O Soma.
Be strong in the gathering of might.
n. Let thy milk draughts, thy strength be united,
The mightinesses of him who overcometh the foe;
Swelling for immortality, O Soma,
Place in the sky the highest glories,
iv. 2. 8.
a. He hath overcome every foe, every enemy;
That Agni saith, that saith Soma too;
Brhaspati, Savitr, say this of me,
Pusan hath placed me in the world of good action.
b. When first thou didst cry on birth,
Arising from the ocean or the dust,
The wings of the eagle, the limbs of the gazelle,
That is thy famed birth, O steed.
c. Thou art the back of the waters, the birthplace of Agni,
The ocean swelling on either side;
Growing to might [1] as the lotus flower,
Do thou extend in width with the measure of heaven.
d. The holy power born first in the east
Vena hath disclosed from the shining boundary,
He hath revealed its fundamental nearest forms,
The womb of being and of not being.
e. The golden germ first rose;
Born he was the only lord of creation;
He supporteth the earth and the sky;
To what god shall we offer with oblation.
f. The drop hath fallen on the earth [2], the sky,
On this seat, and on the one which was aforetime;
The drop that wandereth over the third seat
I offer in the seven Hotras.
g. Homage to the serpents
Which are on the earth,
The serpents in the atmosphere, in the sky,
To those serpents homage.
h. Those that are there in the vault of the sky,
Or those who are in the rays of the sun,
Those whose seat is made in the waters,
To those serpents honour.
i. Those that are the missiles of sorcerers,
Or those that are among the trees,
Or those that lie in the wells,
To those serpents honour.
