96 Like women at a gathering fair to look on and gently smiling,

they incline to Agni.

The streams of holy oil attain the fuel, and Jâtavedas joyfully receives them.

97 As maidens deck themselves with gay adornment to join the bridal feast, I now behold them.

Where Soma flows and sacrifice is ready, thither the streams of holy oil are running.

98 Send to our eulogy a herd of cattle: bestow upon us cxcellent possessions.

Bear to the Gods the saorifice we offer: the streams of oil flow pure and full of sweetness.

99 The universe depends upon thy power and might within the sea, within the heart, within all life.

May we attain that sweetly-flavoured wave of thine, brought, at this gathering, o'er the surface of the floods.

98 Send to our enlogy a herd of cattle: this is Sâyana's explanation. The Gods are addressed and prayed to reward the singers.

99 Thy power: Agni's. Within the sea: in the aerial ocean, the firmament, in which Agni is present as lightning. Within the heart as Vaiṣvânara, belonging to all men. Within all life as the vital principle, or heat. The wave is the flowing butter of the oblation.

BOOK THE EIGHTEENTH.

MAY my strength and my gain, and my inclination and my influence, and my thought and my mental power, and my praise and my fame, and my renown and my light, and my heaven prosper by sacrifice.

2 May my breathing and my out-breathing, and my throughbreathing and my vital spirit, and my thought and my reflection, and my voice and my mind, and my eye and my ear, and my ability and my strength prosper by sacrifice.

3 May my energy and my force, and my self and my body, and my shelter and my shield, and my limbs and my bones, and my joints and my members, and my life and old age prosper by sacrifice.

my

4 May my preeminence and my overlordship, and my wrath and my angry passion, and my violence and my impetuosity, and my victorious power and my greatness, and my breadth and my width, and my height and my length, and my increase and my improvement prosper by sacrifice. 5 May my truth and my faith, and my cattle and my wealth, and my goods and my pleasure, and my play and my enjoyment, and my children and my future children, and my hymn and my pious act prosper by sacrifice.

6 May my religious rite and my immortality, and my freedom from consumption and my freedom from disease, and my life and my longevity, and my freedom from enemies and my freedom from danger, and my happiness and my lying down, and my fair dawn and my fair day prosper by sacrifice.

7 May my controller and my supporter, and my security and my firmness, and my goods and my pleasure, and my knowledge and my understanding, and my begetting and my propagation, and my plough and my harrow prosper by sacrifice.

This Book contains the formulas for the performance of the ceremony called Vasordhârâ, the Stream or Shower of Riches, a sort of Consecration Service for Agni as King on the completion of the Fire-altar which is identified with him. The Sacrificer offers an uninterrupted series of four hundred and one oblations of clarified butter poured from a large ladle of Udumbara wood, while the Adhvaryu recites the formulas which are to gain for the Sacrificer all the temporal and spiritual blessings therein indicated.

8 May my welfare and my comfort, and what I hold dear and what I desire, and my love and my gratification, and my enjoyment and my substance, and my happiness and my felicity, and my higher bliss and my fame prosper by

sacrifice.

9 May my vigour and my pleasantness, and my milk and my sap, and my butter and my honey, and my meal in company and my drinking in company, and my ploughing and my husbandry, and my superiority and my preëminence prosper by sacrifice.

10 May my wealth and my property, and my prosperity and my growth, and my pervading power and my lordship, and my abundance and my greater abundance, and my bad harvest and my unwasted crop, and my food and my satiety prosper by sacrifice.

11 May my gain and my future gain, and what I have and what I shall have, and my good road and my good path, and my success and my succeeding, and my achievement and my contrivance, and my thought and my good counsel prosper by sacrifice.

12 May my rice-plants and my barley, and my beans and my sesamum, and my kidney-beans and my vetches, and my millet and my Panicum Milliaceum, and my Panicum Frumentaceum and my wild rice, and my wheat and my lentils prosper by sacrifice.

13 May my stone and my clay, and my hills and my mountains, and my pebbles and my trees, and my gold and my bronze, and my copper and my iron, and my lead and my tin prosper by sacrifice.

14 May my fire and my water, and my creepers and my plants, and my plants with culture-ripened fruit and my plants with fruit ripened without culture, and my domestic animals and my wild animals, and my substance and my future substance, and my belongings and my power be produced by sacrifice.

15 May my treasure and my dwelling, and my religious service and my ability to perform it, and my object and my course, and my way and my going prosper by sacrifice. 16 May my Agni and my Indra, and my Soma and my Indra, and my Savitar aud my Indra, and my Sarasvati and my Indra, and my Pûshan and my Indra prosper by sacrifice.

12 Panicum: there are no English names for the two cereals thus designated. Roxburgh describes sixty-two species of the genus.

16 He offers with this and the two following formulas the Ardhendra or Half-Indra oblations to twelve deities, each of whom is coupled with Indra.

17 May my Mitra and my Indra, and my Varuna and my Indra,

and my Dhâtar and my Indra, and my Maruts and my Indra, and my All-Gods and my Indra prosper by sacrifice, 18 May my earth and my Indra, and my Air and my Indra, and my Sky and my Indra, and my Half-months and my Indra, and my Lunar Mansions and my Indra, and my Sky-regions and my Indra prosper by sacrifice.

19 May my Amşu and my Rasmi, and my Adhipati and my Upâmşu, and my Antaryâma and my Aindra- Vâyaya, and my Maitra-Varuna, and my Asvina and my Pratiprasthâna, and my Sukra and my Manthin proper by sacrifice, 20 May my Agrayana and my Vaiṣvadeva, and my Dhruva and my Vaiṣvâuara, and my Aindrâgna and my Mahâvaisvadeva, and my Marutvatiya and my Nishkevalya, and my Sâvitra and my Sârasvata, and my Pâtnîvatą and my Hâriyojana prosper by sacrifice.

21 May my ladles and my cups, and my Vâyu vessels and my Soma reservoirs, and my pressing-stones and my two pressboards, and my Pûtabhṛit and my Adhavaniya, and my altar and altar-grass, and my Avabhṛitha and my cries of Good-speed prosper by sacrifice,

22 May my Agni and my Gharma, and my Arka and my Sûrya, and my Prâņa and my Aṣvamedha, and my Prithivî and my Aditi, and my Diti and my Sky, and my fingers, powers, and sky-regions prosper by sacrifice,

19 Three sets of oblations called Grahas follow with their respective formulas enumerating pairs of Soma cups and sets of sacrificial implements. Most of the Soma cups or libations have been mentioned in VII. 1–89, notes. The names of the sacrificial implements also have occurred in preceeding Books.

21 Cries of Good-speed: exclamations of Svagâ, a benedictory sacrificial formula.

22 He offers two sets of oblations called Yajñakratus or Sacrificial Rites with formulas enumerating objects connected with certain special ceremo nies. Agni: the Agnichayana or construction of the Fire:altar, or the Agnishtoma (Praise of Agni. See VI. 29, note), Gharma: the Caldron, re: presenting the Pravargya ceremony. See I. 22. Arka: the offering of a cake to Indra with Arka the Sun. Sûrya: an oblation to that God. Prina: the Gavimayana or Procession of the Cows (see VIII. 41), a solemn sacrificial session usually of twelve months' duration. Asvamedha: the Horse-Sacrifice. See XXII-XXV. Prithivi, Aditi, Diti, Sky; offerings to these deities; Diti being a mere abstraction, the antithesis to Aditi, representing limitation as Aditi represents infinity. See X. 16, note. Fingers: explained by Mahîdhara as viratpurushavayavah, members of Purusha, Embodied Spirit, or Cosmic Man, See R. V. X. 90. Powers: sakvariyaḥ ṣaktayaḥ, according to Mahidhara,

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23 May my vow and my seasons, and my austere devotion, and my day and night, thighs and knees, and two Great Rathantaras prosper by sacrifice.

24 May my One and my Three, and my Three and my Five, and my Five and my Seven (and similarly up to thirtythree) prosper by sacrifice.

25 May my Four and my Eight and my Twelve (and similarly up to forty-eight) prosper by sacrifice

26 May my eighteen-months steer and my eighteen-months heifer, and my two-year bull and cow (and similarly up to four-year) prosper by sacrifice.

27 May my six-year bull and my six-year cow, and my bull and my barren cow, and my young bull and my calf-slipping cow, and my ox and my milch-cow prosper by sacrifice. 28 To strength, Hail! To Gain, Hail! To After-born, Hail! To Power, Hail! To Vasu, Hail! To the Lord of Days, Hail! To the Failing Day, Hail! To the Failing Sprung from the Transitory, Hail! To the Transitory sprung from the Final, Hail! To the Final Mundane, Hail! To the Lord of the World, Hail! To the Sovran Lord, Hail! To Prajâpati, Hail! This is thy kingdom. Thou art a guiding controller for the friend. Thee for vigour, thee for rain, thee for the sovran lordship of creatures.

29 May life succeed through sacrifice. May life-breath thrive by sacrifice. May the eye thrive by sacrifice. May the ear thrive by sacrifice. May the voice thrive by sacrifice. May the mind thrive by sacrifice. May the self thrive by sacrifice. May Brahma thrive by sacrifice. May light succeed by sacrifice. May heaven succeed by sacrifice. May the hymn thrive by sacrifice. May sacrifice thrive by sacrifice; And laud and sacrificial text, and verse of praise and Sâma chant, The Brihat and Rathantara.

24 This formula enumerates the Stomas, or Hymns of Praise consisting of uneven numbers of verses.

25 Enumerates the even-versed Stomas, each number after the first increasing by four.

26, 27 Formulas for two sets of Age Libations, enumerating cattle in advancing stages of their lives.

28 Formulas for the Name Libation ceremony, fanciful names of the months, etc. being applied to Agni of whom the months are manifestations. Cf. IX. 20. Strength: meaning March-April. Gain: April-May. After-born: May-June, and so on. Cp. IX. 20. Prajapati: as Genius of the Year. The friend: the Sacrificer. Thee: I besprinkle and consecrate.

29 He offers the Kalpa or Success Libation with formulas, containing the verb kirip, to succeed, prosper, thrive, repeated from IX, 21.