All Gods Law-strengtheners, invoked and lauded, and Texts recited by the sages, help us! 54 These hymns that drop down fatness, with the ladle I ever offer to the Kings Adityas. May Mitra, Aryaman, and Bhaga hear us, the mighty Varuna, 55 Seven Rishis are established in the body: seven guard it evermore with care unceasing. Seven waters seek the world of him who lies asleep: two sleepless Gods are feast-fellows of him who wakes. 56 O Brahmanaspati, arise. God-fearing men, we pray to thee. May they who give good gifts, the Maruts, come to us. Indra, be thou most swift with them. 57 Now Brahmanaspati speaks forth aloud the solemn hymn of praise, Wherein Indra and Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, the Gods have made their dwelling-place. 58 0 Brahmanaspati, be thou controller of this our hymn, and prosper thou our children. All that the Gods regard with love is blessed. Loud may we speak, with brave sons, in assembly. He who sate down. Mighty in mind. A share of good, O Lord of Food. Father who made us. 54 R. V. II. 27. 1. Amṣa: the Distributer; one of the Âdityas. 55 Seven Rishis: here meaning the vital breathings. Seven guard it: touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell, mind, and intellect. Waters: pervaders, according to Mahidhara; meaning the vital airs. World: the soul or self. Two sleepless Gods: Inbreath and Outbreath. 56, 57 R. V. I. 40. 1, 5. 58 R. V. II. 23. 19. With heroes: with brave sons about us who will give us confidence. The four Pratik as that follow are taken, respectively, from XVII. 17, 26, 27, and XI. 83. BEGONE the Panis, hence away, rebellious, scorners of the Gods! The place is his who poured the juice. 2 Let Savitar approve a spot upon the earth for thy remains : And let the bulls be yoked for it. 3 Let Vâyu purify. Let Savitar purify. With Agni's glitter. With Savitar's lustre. Let the bulls be unyoked. 4 The Holy Fig Tree is your home, your mansion is the Parṇa Tree: Winners of cattle shall ye be if ye regain for me this man. 5 Let Savitar lay down thy bones committed to the Mother's lap. Be pleasant to this man, O Earth. 6 Here in the God Prajâpati, near water, Man, I lay thee down: May his light drive mishap from us. 7 Go hence, O Death, pursue thy special pathway apart from that which Gods are wont to travel. To thee I say it who hast eyes and hearest: Touch not our offspring, injure not our heroes, This Book is connected with the Pitriyajña or Sacrifice to the Fathers or Ancestral Manes (II. 29. 34), containing chiefly formulas to be used at funeral ceremonies. See R. V. X. 14; 16; 18; and Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V. pp. 291–297. 1 Begone: addressed to the Papis, Pisâchas and other evil spirits that haunt the ground prepared for the cremation of the corpse. Cf. R. V. X. 14. 9. His: the deceased householder's who in his life time duly worshipped the Gods with libations of Soma juice. 2 Remains: the bones and ashes which are to be buried. Let the bulls be yoked six in number, to a plough with which furrows are driven from the south or north side of the ground, to keep evil spirits at a distance. 3 Four furrows are drawn, with a formula for each. 4 Addressed to the various plants whose seeds he sows. The formula, taken from R. V X. 97. 5, is repeated from XII. 79. Sacrificial vessels and implements are made of the Asvattha or Ficus Religiosa and the Parṇa, Palâșa, or Butea Frondosa, which are therefore said to be the home of plants used in religious ceremonies. 5 The collected bones and ashes are laid down in the middle of the prepared ground. 6 Man: the name of the deceased is to be supplied. The last line of the formula is the burden of R. V. I. 97, 1-8. Mishap from us: our sin, according to Mahîdhara. 7 R. V. X. 18. 1. Death: Mrityu, distinct from Yama the judge and ruler of the departed. Our offspring; meaning here, says Sâyaṇa, female our sons and grandsons. offspring. Our heroes: 8 Pleasant to thee be wind and sun, and pleasant be the bricks to thee. Pleasant to thee be the terrestrial fires: let them not scorch thee in their flames. 9 Prosper for thee the regions and the waters, and let the seas for thee be most propitious. Auspicious unto thee be Air. Prosper all Quarters well for thee! 10 On flows the stony flood: hold fast each other, keep yourselves up, my friends, and pass the river. Here let us leave the powers that brought no profit, and cross the flood to Powers that are auspicious. 11 Drive away evil, drive away fault, sorcery, and guiltiness. Do thou, O Apâmârga, drive the evil dream away from us. 12 To us let waters and the plants be friendly, to him who hates us, whom we hate, unfriendly. 13 For our prosperity we touch the ox the son of Surabhi. Be bearer and deliverer to us as Indra to the Gods. 14 Looking upon the loftiest light, etc., as in XX. 21. 15 Here I erect this rampart for the living: let none of these, none other, reach this limit. May they survive a hundred lengthened autumns, and may they bury Death beneath this mountain. 16 Agni, thou pourest life, etc., as in XIX. 38. 8 The deceased householder is addressed. are laid down towards each quarter of the sky, cf. R. V. X. 16. 1 :--Burn him not up, nor quite not his body or his skin be scattered. The bricks: three of which Let them not scorch thee: consume him, Agni: let 10 R. V. X. 53. 8. The original verse contains words of encouragement to the bearers who with the funeral procession are crossing a stream. Here the natural stream is represented by a ditch cut for the purpose, filled with water and covered with aquatic plants and Kusa grass, into which stones are cast. 11 Purificatory and benedictive formulas follow. Apimárga: (from mrij, to cleanse or wipe, with apa +â) Achyranthes Aspera. a biennial plant frequently used in medicine, in incantations or countercharms, and in sacrifices. See The Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Index. 12 Repeated from VI. 22 and XX. 19. 13 Surabhi: the Cow of Plenty, regarded as the mother of all bovine cattle. See The Râmâyaṇa, II. 74. : 15 This rampart a mound of earth (or, according to some, a brand or enclosing-stick from the Southern Fire) raised by the Adhvaryu as a line of demarcation between the dead and the living, limiting, as it were, the jurisdiction of Death until the natural time for his approach. This mountain: the mound or ridge so raised. 17 Waxing with sacrifice live long, O Agni, with butter on thy face and homed in fatness. When thou hast drunk the cows' fair savoury butter, guard, as a father guards his son, these people. 18 These men have led about the ox, have duly carried Agni round, And raised their glory to the Gods. Who will attack them with success? 19 I drive Corpse-eating Agni to a distance: sin-laden let him go to Yama's kingdom. Here let this other, Jatavedas, carry oblation to the Deities, foreknowing. 20 Carry the fat to Fathers, Jâtavedas, where, far away, thou kuowest them established. Let rivulets of marrow flow to meet them, and let their truthful wishes be accomplished. All-hail! 21 Pleasant be thou to us, O Earth, without a thorn, our resting-place. Vouchsafe us shelter reaching far. May thy light drive mishap from us. 22 Born art thou, Agni, from this man: let him again be born from thee, For Svarga's world, the man I name. All-hail! 18 The ox: see verse 13. The text, taken from R. V. X. 15. 5, is a giving over or recommendation of the people to divine protection. 19 A. V. XII. 2. Corpse-eating Agni: Agni Kravyâd, the fire that consumes the bodies of the dead, to be extinguished as soon as the cremation is completed. This other: the friendly sacrificial fire. 21 R. V. I. 22. 15. The additional concluding line is repeated from verse 6. 22 Born.... from this man: generated or produced by the deceased householder at the Agnyâdhâna or ceremonial establishment of his own sacrificial fires. See I. 1, note; III. 1, note. Born from thee: reproduced from the funeral fire for new life in Svarga or heaven. A full and excellent account of the old Indian funeral ritual will be found in Madame Ragozin's Vedic India (Story of the Nations Series) pp. 349–359. See also Max Müller, India, What can it Teach us? pp. 231-342. REFUGE I take in Speech as Rich; refuge in Mind as Yajustext; refuge in Breath as Sâma-chant; refuge in Hearing and in Sight. Speech-energy endowed with strength, inbreath and outbreath are in me. 2 Whatever deeply-sunk defect I have of eye, or mind, or heart, that may Brihaspati amend! Gracious to us be he, Protector of the world. 3 Earth! Ether! Heaven! May we attain that excellent, etc., as in III. 35. 4 With what help will he come to us etc., as in XXVII. 39. 5 What genuine, etc., as in XXVII. 40. 6 Do thou who art, etc., as in XXVII. 41. 7 0 Hero, with what aid dost thou delight us, with what succour bring Riches to those who worship thee? 8 Indra is king of all that is: may weal attend our bipeds and our quadrupeds. 9 Gracious be Mitra unto us, and Varuņa and Aryaman; Indra, Brihaspati be kind, and Vishnu of the mighty stride. 10 Pleasantly blow the wind for us, may Sûrya warm us pleasantly. Pleasantly, with a roar, the God Parjanya send the rain on us. 11 May days pass pleasantly for us, may nights draw near delightfully. Befriend us with their aids Indra and Agni, Indra and Indra and Pûshan be our help in battle, Indra and Soma 12 May the celestial Waters, our helpers, be sweet for us to drink, And flow with health and strength to us. This Book contains preliminary formulas-chiefly prayers for long life, unimpaired faculties, health, strength, prosperity, security, tranquillity, and contentment-of the Pravargya ceremony which is a preparatory rite of the Soma sacrifice. See Sacred Books of the East, XII. 44; XXVI. 104. 7 R. V. VIII. 82. 19. O Hero: Indra is addressed. 9 R. V. I. 90. 9. 10 The first line is taken from A. V. VII. 69. 1, as is also the first line of the following verse. 11 Befriend us: taken from R. V. VII. 35. 1. |