Table Of Contents
CREATION
DEATH
THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE
THE HORSE SACRIFICE
GODS OF THE SACRIFICE: AGNI AND SOMA
SOMA
INDRA
GODS OF THE STORM
SOLAR GODS
SKY AND EARTH
VARUNA
RUDRA AND VISNU
REALIA
WOMEN
INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS
GODS OF THE SACRIFICE: AGNI AND SOMA
AGNI and Soma are linked in many ways. As fire and liquid, they are complementary oppositions that unite in the Indo-European concept of the fiery liquid, the elixir of immortality (the ambrosia). As ritual elements, they are invoked more often than any other gods of the Rig Veda, as the embodiments of the sacrificial fire and the sacrificial drink. As metaphorical symbols, they are the centre of a complex set of speculations about the nature of the cosmos, taking the form of riddles about something that is lost and then found. The mythologies differ in that the mystery of Agni is the mystery of his birth as well as of his rebirth when he leaves the gods and must be brought back, while the mystery of Soma is the mystery of his descent from heaven. These mythologies join in the image of the sun-bird, a form of Agni (the Indo-European fire-bird), who brings the Soma to earth (cf. 10.123 and 10.177)’
The mysteries are questions posed and answered, for Agni and Soma are the two sources of the inspiration that enabels the Vedic poet to find and understand the meaning of the sacrifice and of his life. They are different sorts of inspiration: Agni is Apollonian, explaining the sacrifice; he represents the cultivated, cooked, cultured aspects of ritual. Soma is Dionysian, explaining the vision of life; he represents the wild, raw, disruptive aspects of ritual. The Vedic sacrifice embraces them both. Agni Agni is the subject of many straightforward hymns about the kindling of and o ering into the re; he is invoked to bring all the gods to the sacrifice (1.1) and to mediate between gods and men (1.26). But several of the hymns to Agni are more enigmatic than paradigmatic. His birth (5.2) is described in purposely elliptic references similar to those used to refer to Agni in the Riddle of the Sacrifice (1.164; cf. also 3.31.1-3). This rst appearance of Agni is then linked to subsequent appearances after he has been lost, occasions when he hides (10.5), usually in the waters (10.51), the place of his birth (2.35), or in the body of the arch-enemy of the gods (10.124). The birth and recovery of Agni are two aspects of a great mystery (4.5) that Agni himself inspires the poet to solve(6-9). 1.1 I Pray to Agni Appropriately placed at the very beginning of the Rig Veda, this hymn invites Agni, the divine priest, to come to the sacrifice. 1 I pray to Agni, the household priest who is the god of the sacrifice, the one who chants and invokes and brings most treasure. 2 Agni earned the prayers of the ancient sages, and of those of the present, too; he will bring the gods here.
3 Through Agni one may win wealth, and growth from day to day, glorious and most abounding in heroic sons.
4 Agni, the sacrificial ritual that you encompass on all sides – only that one goes to the gods.
5 Agni, the priest with the sharp sight of a poet, the true and most brilliant, the god will come with the gods.
6 Whatever good you wish to do for the one who worships you, Agni, through you, O Angiras,1 that comes true.
7 To you, Agni, who shine upon darkness, we come day after day, bringing our thoughts and homage
8 to you, the king over sacrifices, the shining guardian of the Order, growing in your own house.
9 Be easy for us to reach, like a father to his son. Abide with us, Agni, for our happiness.
NOTES
1. The Angirases were an ancient family of priests, often identified with Vedic gods such as Agni and India.1.26 Agni and the Gods
This hymn emphasizes the close symbiosis between the sacrificer and Agni, on the one
hand, and the sacrificer and the gods, on the other. Agni is asked to intercede as a father
would sacrifice for his son, implying a cooperation among worshippers as well as between
worshippers and gods. When Agni is pleased, the sacrificer has a ‘good fire’, and when the
sacrificer has a good fire, the gods have a good fire (i.e. they rejoice in a good sacrifice),
and so they become generous. The mortal praises Agni and hopes that he will praise (i.e.
speak on behalf of) the mortal in turn, even as the mortal praises the gods and hopes that
they will praise (i.e. approve of) him (v. 9).
1 Now get dressed in your robes,1 lord of powers and master of the sacrificial food, and
offer this sacrifice for us.
2 Young Agni, take your place as our favourite priest with inspirations and shining
speech.
3 The father sacrifices for his son, the comrade for his comrade, the favourite friend for
his friend.2
4 May Varuna, Mitra and Aryaman, proud of their powers, sit upon our sacred grass, as
upon Manu’s.3
5 You who were the first to invoke, rejoice in our friendship and hear only these songs.
6 When we o er sacrifice to this god or that god, in the full line of order, it is to you
alone that the oblation is offered.
7 Let him be a beloved lord of tribes for us, a favourite, kindly invoker; let us have a
good fire and be beloved.
8 For when the gods have a good fire, they bring us what we wish for. Let us pray with a
good fire.
9 So let praises flow back and forth between the two, between us who are mortals and
you, the immortal.4
10 Agni, young spawn of strength, with all the fires take pleasure in this sacrifice and in
this speech.
1. When Agni becomes the priest, his robes are both the flames and the prayers.
2. Many gods are asked to behave like friends or fathers ; here, it is also suggested that
one person might sacrifice on behalf of another, and Agni is asked to do this on behalf
of the worshipper.
3. A reference to the primeval sacrifice offered by Manu, ancestor of mankind.
4. The verse, which is elliptic, implies both that Agni and the worshipper should enjoy a
mutuality of praise and that, through that link, the other gods and the worshippers
should enjoy such a mutuality.
The hymn begins with obscure references to unknown myths, the gist of which seems to
be that Agni has vanished. The sacrificial fire or the domestic fire has suddenly been
extinguished. This crisis is then generalized into a vague danger from which Agni is
implored to rescue the worshipper, as well as specific dangers such as emotional conflict
between parents and children (centring upon the vanishing mother) and the theological
problem of the vanishing or otiose god (identified with Varuna in v. 8). The appearance of
Agni in the first place is the occasion for speculation on the mystery of creation ex nihilo,
the kindling of the spark of fire out of thin air (cf. 1.164), and the ‘setting fire’ of Agni
(vv. 5-6) becomes a metaphor for the release of the worshipper from constricting anguish.
Indian tradition supplies a specific story to account for the vanishing of Agni in the
early verses of this hymn.1 The priest (who also served as a charioteer – even as Agni is
the ‘conveyor’ of the oblation) of a certain king quarrelled with him over the murder of a
male child. Feeling himself falsely accused, the priest left the kingdom in anger, and with
him the heat of all the fires in the kingdom went out.2 The priest was finally called back,
and on his return he declared that the king’s wife had concealed the heat of the fire. When
the priest swore an oath of truth, the fire reappeared and burnt the queen. This story, as
obscure in its own way as the hymn it purports to gloss, and most probably a late
afterthought, does at least indicate some ways in which the imagery of the birth of a
concealed child and the kindling of an extinguished sacrificial fire are intertwined in the
hymn.
1 The young mother secretly keeps the boy tightly swathed and does not give him to the
father.3 The people no longer see before them his altered face, hidden by the
charioteer.4
2 Who is the boy that you are carrying, young woman? The chief queen, not the
stepmother, gave him birth, for the embryo grew for many autumns. I saw him born
when his mother bore him.5
3 I saw him with his golden teeth and pure colour, testing his weapons far from his field,
and I gave him the ambrosia that sets one free. What can those who have no Indra, no
hymns, do to me?6
4 I saw him moving far away from his field, and his fine herd no longer shining brightly.7
They could not grasp him, for he had been born; the young women became grey with
age.8
5 Who are they9 who separate my young man from the cows? They have never had a
cowherd, not even a stranger.10 Let those who have seized him set him free. The man of
foresight should drive the cattle back to us.
6 The enemy powers11 have hidden among mortals12 the one who is the king of
dwellings,13 himself the dwelling-place of men. Let the magic formulas of Atri14 set him
free; let those who revile be themselves reviled.
7 When Sunahsepha was bound for a thousand,15 you set him free from the stake, for he
sacrificed with fervour. In the same way, Agni, set us free from our bonds when you
have settled down here, O wise priest of the oblation.
8 For when you grew angry you went away from me; the guardian of the laws16 told me
this. Indra discovered you, for he knows; he taught me, and so I have come, Agni.
9 Agni shines forth with a high light; by his power he makes all things manifest. He
overpowers the godless forces of evil magic; he sharpens his two horns to gore17 the
demons.
10 Let Agni’s bellowings reach to heaven as piercing weapons to destroy the demons. His
angry glare breaks forth in ecstasy of Soma. The obstacles of the godless cannot hold
him back.
11 Inspired with poetry I have fashioned this hymn of praise for you whose very nature is
power, as the skilled artist fashions a chariot. If you receive it with pleasure, Agni, let
us win waters and sunlight with it.
12 ‘The bull with the powerful neck, increasing in size and strength, will drive together
the possessions of the enemy without opposition.’ This is what the immortals said to
Agni. Let him grant shelter to the man who spreads the sacred grass; let him grant
shelter to the man who o ers oblation.
1. Cf. 10.51 and 10.124.
2. In the same way, all fires die out when Siva is wrongly accused and departs from the
Fine Forests.
3. In the sacrificial simile, the lower fire-stick is the mother, that holds back the fire
(the child) from the father (the upper stick, or the sacrifice!). On the human or
anthropomorphic level, the verse describes a common familial conflict.
4. In terms of the traditional gloss (the tale of the king and the priest), the charioteer
who hides the fire is the priest ; as a cosmic metaphor, the charioteer is the sun’s
charioteer, or the god Agni himself, and the meaning is that the sacrificial fire is
reabsorbed into its celestial form.
5. This verse plays upon the concept of the two mothers of Agni, who is elsewhere
explicitly referred to as ‘having two mothers’ (3.31.2). The first is the official queen
who bore him; the second is the despised queen or stepmother, the young woman
mentioned in v. i, who carries the child away; she is the one whom the priest accuses of
concealing the fire.
6. The poet argues that since he has performed the pious act of offering the oblation,
and has had a vision of Agni, he is protected. Cf. 8.48.3.
7. The herd is the mass of flames, and the priest is the herder who has left them. Cf. the
cow who has left her calf and the herd, 1.164.17.
8. The most likely interpretation of this verse is that ‘they’ are the flames that cannot
hold on to the vanishing Agni and therefore become grey ashes.
9. ‘They’ in the first phrase seems to refer to men who take the young man (Agni) away
from the cows (the flames, his mothers) ; in the second phrase, ‘they’ are the flames that
lack even a foreign priest (the priest in exile).
10. The departed priest.
11. The men who stole the fire, or the demons who threaten the worshipper.
12. Priests, who are the mortal guardians of Agni.
13. Agni, the domestic hearth.
14. A Vedic priest.
15.A reference to the myth in which Sunahsepha was to be sacrificed in place of a
thousand cattle but was rescued by a priest (a form of Agni). Cf. the scapegoat for the
corpse-(10.16.4) and for the horse (1.162.2-4).
16.Varuna, when angered, abandons his devotee (7.86); he is the otiose god, who
betrays Agni (10.124).
17. Agni appears as a bull, in this and the next verse, as well as in v. 12. The demons,
human enemies of the Aryans, rival priests, and godless people are all lumped together
as suitable victims for the wrath of Agni in vv. 6-10.
The Child of the Waters is often identified with Agni, as the form of fire that appears as
the lightning born of the clouds. But he is a deity in his own right, who appears in the
Avesta as a spirit who lives deep in the waters, surrounded by females, driving swift
horses. As the embodiment of the dialectic conjunction of fire and water, the child of the
waters is a symbol central to Vedic and later Hindu cosmology. Sayana remarks that his
name designates the grandson rather than the son of the waters (cf. Greek nepos) : the
herbs and trees are born from the waters, and Agni is born from the herbs and trees (cf. v.
8). This hymn, the only one dedicated entirely to him, plays upon the simultaneous unity
and non-unity of the earthly and celestial forms of Agni and the Child of the Waters.
1 Striving for the victory prize, I have set free my eloquence; let the god of rivers gladly
accept my songs. Surely the child of the waters, urging on his swift horses, will adorn
my songs,1 for he enjoys them.
2 We would sing to him this prayer well-fashioned from the heart; surely he will
recognize it. With his divine2 energy, the child of the waters has created all noble
creatures.
3 Some flow together, while others flow toward the sea, but the rivers fill the same
hollow cavern.3 The pure waters surrounded this pure, radiant child of the waters.
4 The young women, the waters, flow around the young god, making him shine and
gazing solemnly upon him. With his clear, strong flames he shines riches upon us,
wearing his garment of butter, blazing without fuel in the waters.
5 Three women, goddesses,4 wish to give food 5 to the god so that he will not weaken. He
has stretched forth in the waters; he sucks the new milk of those who have given birth
for the first time.6
6 The birth of the horse is here7 and in the sun. Guard our patrons from falling prey to
malice or injury. When far away in fortresses of unbaked bricks,8 hatred and false hoods
shall not reach him.
7 In his own house he keeps the cow who yields good milk; he makes his vital force swell
as he eats the nourishing food. Gathering strength in the waters, the child of the waters
shines forth to give riches to his worshipper.
8 True and inexhaustible, he shines forth in the waters with pure divinity.9 Other
creatures and plants, his branches, are reborn with their progeny.10
9 Clothed in lightning, the upright child of the waters has climbed into the lap of the
waters as they lie down. The golden-hued young women11 flow around him, bear ing
with them his supreme energy.
10 Golden is his form, like gold to look upon; and gold in colour is this child of the
waters. Seated away from his golden womb,12 the givers of gold give him food.
11 His face and the lovely secret name of the child of the waters grow when the young
women13 kindle him thus. Golden-hued butter is his food.
12 To him, the closest friend among many,14 we would offer worship with sacrifices,
obeisance, and oblations. I rub his back;15 I bring him shavings; I give him food; I praise
him with verses.
13 Being a bull, he engendered that embryo in the females ;16 being a child, he sucks
them, and they lick him. The child of the waters, whose colour never fades, seems to
enter the body of another here.17
14 He shines for ever, with undarkened flames, remaining in this highest place. The
young waters, bringing butter as food to their child, themselves enfold him with robes.
15 O Agni, I have given a good dwelling-place to the people ; I have given a good hymn
to the generous patron. All this is blessed, that the gods love. Let us speak great words
as men of power in the sacrificial gathering.
1. Either he will make them beautiful, or he will reward them.
2. As a form of Agni, the child of the waters is an Asura, a high divinity.
3. That is, the ocean.
4. The three mothers of Agni, the waters of the three worlds.
5. Soma or butter.
6. The waters are primaparas or primagravitas, as the child of the waters is their first
child; they themselves are first-born from Brahma, says Sayana.
7. Agni is often depicted as a horse, who is in turn identified with the sun; the micro-
macrocosmic parallel is enriched by Agni’s simultaneous terrestrial and celestial forms,
and those of the waters (‘here’). Moreover, the sun, like the child of the waters, is born
in the waters.
8. The sacrificer asks to be protected by Agni, who is safe even when among enemies
who do not control fire and so do not fire their bricks, or who (as the sun) is safe from
his enemies when he is in his own ‘natural’ citadels not made of baked bricks, i.e. the
clouds.
9. Here the Child of the Waters is a god (deva), not an Asura.
10. Other fires on earth are regarded as branches of Agni, who also appears in plants;
on another level, Agni causes all creatures and plants to be reborn.
11. The waters of heaven or earth.
12. The construction is loose, and may imply either that it is Agni who is seated away
from his golden womb (cf. 10.121.1) or that the sacrificers are seated around him.
13. Here the young women are the ten fingers, not the waters. The fingers kindle the
earthly fire, that grows in the waters (the clouds) secretly and then is fed with butter at
the sacrifice.
14. Literally, the lowest, that is the most intimate friend of men among the many gods,
and therefore enjoying intimate services as described in the rest of this verse.
15. That is, the re-altar. Cf. 1.164.1 for the re-altar as the back of fire.
16. The child of the waters engenders himself. He is father and son, pervading a body
that belongs to someone who merely seems to be other. For the use of bull/calf imagery
to express this paradox, cf. 7.101, the hymn to Parjanya. The father becomes an
embryo, the middle form of Agni, the lightning that sucks the waters in the clouds as if
they were cows; then they lick him as a cow licks a calf.
17. That is, on earth. This is an explicit statement of the identity of the Child of the
Waters with Agni as the sacrificial fire: the former enters the body of the latter.
This hymn is based upon the myth of the finding of the lost Agni. In this particular
episode, it appears that Agni’s three brothers have perished in the service of the gods
(mediating, serving as priests, carrying the oblation to the gods, as is the task of the
sacred fire); in fear of being destroyed in the same way, Agni fled and hid in the waters,
the place of his birth,1 but the gods found him there again. The myth is thus both a
conversation between the gods, asking him to return to them, and a dialogue on the
dangers of being born at all, since life involves old age and death. The myth of the finding
of the lost Agni is an analogue to the myth of the finding of the stolen Soma,2 and is, in
fact, a variant of it, for it is the golden liquid of fire that is the basis of the Indo-European
myth of Agni and Soma together.
1 [A god:] ‘Great was that membrane,3 and firm, which enveloped you when you entered
the waters. One god, O Agni, knower of creatures, saw all your various bodies.’
2 [Agni:] ‘Who saw me? Who among the gods perceived my various bodies?4 O Mitra and
Varuna, where are all the fuel-sticks of Agni that lead to the gods?’5
3 [Varuna:] ‘We searched for you in various places, O Agni, knower of creatures, when
you had entered into the waters and the plants. It was Yama6 who discovered you with
your many-coloured light which shines beyond the distance of ten days’ journey.’
4 [Agni :] ‘ I fled because I feared the role of oblation-giver, so that the gods would not
harness me to it, O Varuna. My bodies entered various places; I, Agni, have ceased to
consider this task.’7
5 [Varuna:] ‘Come here. Man,8 who loves the gods, wishes to sacrifice. When you have
completed the ritual, Agni, you dwell in darkness.9 Make smooth the paths which lead
to the gods; carry the offerings with a good heart’
6 [Agni:] ‘The brothers of Agni long ago ran back and forth on this task like a chariot-
horse10 upon a road. Fearing this, Varuna, I went far away. I fled like a buffalo before
the bowstring of a hunter.’
7 [The gods:] ‘We will make your life-span free of old age, O Agni, knower of creatures, so
that you will not be harmed when you have been harnessed. Then you will carry the
portion of the offering to the gods with a willing heart, O well-born one.’
8 [Agni:] ‘Give me alone the pre-sacrifices and the post-sacrifices, the nourishing part of
the offering; and the clarified butter out of the waters and the Man out of the plants.11
And let the life-span of Agni be long, O gods.’
9 [The gods:] ‘The pre-sacrifices and the post-sacrifices will be for you alone, the
nourishing parts of the offering. This whole sacrifice will be for you, Agni; the four
quarters of the sky will bow to you.’
1. For Agni as child of the waters, see 2.35.
2. Cf. notes on 4.26-7.
3. The word denotes the covering of the embryo in the womb. Agni is the embryo of the
waters and so returns to the womb when he hides. The gods point out that even there
he was not safe from them.
4. Agni has many forms in different places (lightning, sacrificial fire, the human body,
etc.). Cf. 10.16, 6.9, and 1.164.1.
5. Mitra and Varuna lead the gods in the search. Agni argues that he cannot be seen in
the water, because there are no fuel-sticks there to kindle him. These are the sticks
which bring Agni to the gods through the oblation, and the sticks by which he carries
the oblation from man to the gods.
6. In one retelling of the myth the gods bribe Agni by allowing him to change places
with Yama, sending Yama to the world of the dead and bringing Agni to the world of
the gods.
7. That is, he flatly refuses to become their invoker or priest of the oblation (Hot?).
8. Here, as elsewhere, the word (Manu) may designate either mankind in general or
Manu the eponymous ancestor of mankind. I think the former is the primary meaning,
but since Manu is the brother of Yama who has just been mentioned, there may be
resonances with the latter meaning too.
9. That is, you may rest after serving us. Cf. 6.9.1 and 6.9.7, and 10.124.1.
10. Agni is often called a horse, and the expression ‘harnessing’him to the task of priest
(vv. 4 and 7) thus takes on more specific relevance.
11. The clarified butter is the essence of the waters, the most precious of fluids, and also
something that is placed in the waters (in ritual and in cosmogonies, the golden seed –
another form of Agni himself- in the waters). The Man of the plants may be the
personified god who is the best of the plants (Soma) or the corpse that is given to Agni
in the funeral (cf. 10.16) or that is dispersed among the plants (10.16.3). Finally, Man is
the ‘best’ of the plants (SB 7.2.4.26) as butter is the best of the fluids.
Indra speaks on behalf of the gods to lure Agni back when he has fled (cf. 10.51). Agni is
hiding inside a father (perhaps Indra’s father; cf. 4.18) who is called an Asura, an enemy
of the gods though not yet properly a demon; this Asura is eventually identified with the
demon Vrtra. Thus the hymn combines the myth of finding Agni (10.51) with the myth of
killing Vrtra (1.32). Varuna and Soma are also said to have been with the Asura and to
abandon him when Agni is persuaded to do so. Indra invites Agni to return (v. 1), and
Agni accepts (v. 2); Varuna and Soma follow (vv. 3-4), and are further encouraged by
Indra’s promises (vv. 6-7). The poet then praises Indra for winning these allies (vv. 8-9).
1 [Indra:] ‘Agni! Come to this sacrifice of ours, that has five roads, three layers, and seven
threads.1 Be our oblation-bearer and go before us. For far too long you have lain in
darkness.’
2 [Agni:] ‘Secretly going away from the non-god,2 being a god and seeing ahead I go to
immortality. Unkindly I desert him who was kind to me, as I go from my own friends to
a foreign tribe.’
3 [Varuna:] ‘When I see the guest of the other branch,3 I measure out the many forms of
the Law. I give a friendly warning to the Asura father: I am going from the place where
there is no sacrifice to the portion that has the sacrifice.’
4 [Soma:] ‘I have spent many years within him. Now I choose Indra and desert the father.
Agni, Soma, Varuna -they fall away. The power of kingship has turned around;
therefore I have come to help.’4
5 [Indra:] ‘Varuna, these Asuras have lost their magic powers,5 since you love me. O king
who separates false from true, come and rule my kingdom.
6 ‘This was the sunlight, this the blessing, this the light and the broad middle realm of
space.6 Come out, Soma, and let us two kill Vrtra. With the oblation we sacrifice to you
who are the oblation.’7
7 The poet through his vision fixed his form in the sky; Varuna let the waters flow out
without using force. Like his 8 wives, the shining rivers make him comfortable; they
swirl his colour9 along their current.
8 They10 follow his supreme Indra-power;11 he dwells in those who rejoice in their own
nature. Choosing him as all the people choose a king, they have deserted Vrtra whom
they loathe.
9 They say that the yoke-mate of those full of loathing12 is a swan who glides in
friendship with the divine waters. The poets through their meditation have seen Indra
dancing to the Anustubh.
1. For the number mysticism of the sacrifice, cf. 1.164.
2. That is the Asura, Vrtra. Cf. 10.51.7, where Agni demands immortality.
3. That is, when Varuna sees that Agni is the guest of the Asuras (his ‘own friends’; cf.
2.35.2) rather than the gods (the ‘foreign tribe’), and that therefore the Asuras have the
sacrifice, Varuna measures out (i.e. formulates and creates) the ritual laws for the gods.
4. That is, realizing that the gods are getting the upper hand again, Soma the king
returns to assist at their sacrifice.
5. The power of illusion particularly associated with Asuras such as Vrtra; cf. 1.32.4.
6. Apparently Indra is telling Varuna and Soma that all the powers of light that belong
to the gods are once again theirs, now that the dark power of the Asuras has been
overcome.
7. Cf. sacrificing the sacrifice to the sacrifice, 10.90.16.
8. Indra’s wives, the waters that he frees when he kills Vrtra.
9. Indra, the poet, places his stamp upon his dominion again, both in form and in
colour. His colour (varna) is both the sign that typifies his species (gods in contrast with
Asuras) and, perhaps, the bright colour of the gods and Aryans in contrast with the
darkness of the Asuras and Däsas.
10. The waters.
11. Indra’s power consists in the forces of his nature (kingship, fertility, sacrifice, etc.) ;
he rejoices in these and in people who, in their turn, rejoice in their own particular
powers and nature.
12. That is, those who loathe Vrtra have as their helper (yoke mate) Indra, here
visualized by the poet as a swan dancing in the waters. Those who loathe Vrtra are
primarily those who desert him (Agni, Soma, Varuna), as well as the waters whom
Indra has released and the worshippers who rejoice in Indra’s victory.
This obscure hymn may be an indirect description of an oral contest about Agni. The poet
or poets tantalize us with oblique references to a secret revealed by Agni and revealing
Agni; this secret is alluded to with expressions such as ‘the gift’ (v. 2), ‘the inner meaning’
(v. 3), ‘this thought so high and deep’ (v. 6), ‘the vision that illuminates’ (v. 7), ‘this
speech of mine’ (v. 8). The opponents of the poet appear in various pejorative forms
(‘those who break the commandments’, ‘those without Order or truth’, ‘those whose
speech is empty and contrary’, who ‘follow a false path’, etc.). There is also an extended
pun upon the word padam, which designates a footprint (v. 3), a ‘deep place’ (hell? -in v.
5), perhaps with a double meaning of ‘this riddle’ (i.e. ‘this mysterious verse’), the place of
the sun-bird (v. 8), the Order (v. 9) and the cow (v. 10), and a path (v. 12). These
meanings are linked: to know the verse (padam) is to know how to follow the footprint
(padam) along the path (padam) to the sacred place (padam) of the sun-bird, who is the
symbol of the Order and is in turn symbolized by the cow.
The actual content of the secret concerns the identity of Agni with a bull, with the
substance inside the leather-skin of food (a metaphor for an udder or the clouds or the
earth or the human stomach, the latter being the site, in later Hinduism, of the digestive
fire ‘Of-all-men’), with the calf of the dappled cow Prsni (the earth) or of the cows of
dawn, and with the disc of the sun or the sun-bird, the round ‘face of the gods’. Agni’s
parents are sky and earth, or the fire-sticks (v. 10); in the latter case, he hungers for the
offering of butter as a calf hungers for milk, the ‘precious substance’ in the udder of Prsni;
as the sun, the calf of the dawn, Agni is followed by her. Thus the solar, sacrificial, and
bovine images intertwine. The gift that Agni gives the poet is the ‘clarifying vision’ that
sees that Agni is always present in all of these forms. To find the secret is to find the cows,
or their milk, or to find the hidden sun – to fond Agni, the sacred fore.
1 How shall we with one accord give homage to the benevolent Agni Of-all-men? Great
light, by his great and full growth he has propped up the sky as a buttress props a
rampart.
2 Do not reproach the self-ruled god who gave this gift to me, for I am a simple mortal,
while he is the clever immortal, the insightful, most manly and impetuous Agni Of-all-
men.
3 The strong bull with sharp horns and seed a thousand-fold has a mighty and double
tone.1 As one reveals the hidden footprint of a cow, Agni has declared to me the inner
meaning.
4 Let the generous Agni, sharp-toothed with white-hot flame, devour those who break the
dear, firm commandments of Varuna and the watchful Mitra.2
5 Wilful as women without brothers, wicked as wives who deceive their husbands, those
who are evil, without Order or truth, have engendered this deep place.3
6 O Agni, who makes things clear, who am I, that upon me when I have broken no
commandments you have boldly placed like a heavy burden this thought so high and
deep, this fresh question with seven meanings for the offering?
7 Let our vision that clarifies through sacrificial power reach him who is the same
everywhere; the precious substance of the dappled cow is in the leather-skin of food,
and the disc of the sun has mounted to the head of the earth-cow.
8 What of this speech of mine should I proclaim? They murmur about the secret hidden
in the depths: when they have opened the mystery of the cows of dawn, like a door
upon a food, he4 protects the beloved head of the earth-cow, the place of the bird.
9 This is that great face of the great gods, that the cow of dawn followed as it went in
front. I found it shining in the place of the Order, moving swiftly, swiftly.
10 As he blazed beside his parents with his open mouth, he thought of the precious
hidden substance of the dappled cow. In the farthest place of the mother, facing the
cow, the tongue of the bull, of the flame, stretches forth.
11 When questioned I speak reverently of the Order, if I may, trusting in you who know
all creatures. You rule over all this, over all the riches in heaven and all the riches on
earth.
12 What is ours of this, what riches, what treasure? Tell us, for you understand, you who
know all creatures.5 Hidden is the farthest end of our road, where we have gone as
those who fail follow a false path.
13 What are the limits? What are the rules? What is the goal? We wish to go there as
racehorses speed towards the victory prize. When will the Dawns, goddesses and wives
of immortality, spread over us their light with the colour of the sun?
14 Those whose speech is empty and contrary, insipid and petty, who leave one
unsatisfied, what can they say here, Agni? Unarmed, let them fall defeated.
15 The face of the bull, of this deity kindled for beauty, shone forth in the house. Clothed
in white, beautiful in form and rich in gifts, he glowed like a home full of riches.
1. The bellow of the bull is likened to the two tones of the Vedic hymn (the high and
middle pitch).
2. Varuna and Mitra are the keepers of the moral law. Cf. 5.85.7.
3. A possible reference to Hell (cf. 7.104.3). But here the meaning is more positive (as
both ‘deep’ and ‘place’ are positive terms in this and in other hymns of the Rig Veda),
and the phrase more likely refers to the world of light under the earth, where the sun
moves from West to East at night.
4. Agni.
5. Jatavedas. Cf. 10.16.
A young poet, doubting his powers in the ritual competition (v. 2), seeks inspiration from
Agni himself in solving the riddle of Agni, as usual a riddle of origins. The first and last
verses (and v. 5) speak of the cosmic Agni, the sun that disappears at night (v. 1) or when
he flees1 or is simply not present before light is created (v. 7). He appears among mortals
as the ritual fire (v. 4) and as the power of inspiration (5b-d), that teaches the poet how to
surpass his own father (vv. 2-3); this inspiration transfigures the poet, but also makes him
even more aware of the impossibility of describing Agni (v.6).
1 The dark day and the bright day, the two realms of space,2 turn by their own wisdom.
As Agni Of-all-men was born, like a king he drove back the darkness with light.
2 I do not know how to stretch the thread, nor weave the cloth, nor what they3 weave as
they enter the contest. Whose son could speak here such words that he would be above
and his father below?
3 He4 is the one who knows how to stretch the thread and weave the cloth; he will speak
the right words. He who understands this5 is the guardian of immortality; though he
moves below another, he sees above him.
4 This is the first priest of the oblation;6 look at him. This is the immortal light among
mortals. This is the one who was born and firmly fixed,7 the immortal growing great in
his body.
5 He is light firmly fixed for everyone to see,8 the thought swiftest among all who fly. All
the gods, with one mind and one will, rightly come to the one source of thought.9
6 My ears fly open, my eye opens, as does this light that is fixed in my heart. My mind
flies up, straining into the distance. What shall I say? What shall I think?
7 All the gods bowed to you in fear, Agni, when you hid yourself in darkness.10 May Agni
Of-all-men save us with his help; may the immortal save us with his help.
1. Cf. 10.51 and 10.124.
2. Night and day, the dark and light sides of the sun, become part of the dark and light
halves of the universe.
3. The other sages in the contest. For the image of weaving the sacrifice, cf. 10.130.1-2.
4. Agni himself, or the inspired poet.
5. The thread that stretches from earth to heaven, as well as the thread of inspiration
that enables him to weave his poem; a form of the axis mundi as well as the spiritual
link between gods and men.
6. The Hotr of whom Agni is the archetype. The invoker of the gods.
7. The ritual fire established in the tradition; also the sun fixed in the sky.
8. The sun, who sees all, is seen by all, and allows everyone to see.
9. Agni as the source of inspiration, or the man who knows Agni.
10. Cf. 10.51.5 and 10.124.1.
Riddles and speculations about the nature of Agni make use of various tropes and
metaphors familiar from other hymns, not only the Agni hymns but the cosmological and
cosmogonic corpus and the meditations on the sacrifice. The image of the hidden and
concealed Agni predominates and links the other images.
1. The one sea with many births,1 support of treasures, he sees out of our heart. He clings
to the udder in the lap of the two who are concealed;2 the path of the bird is hidden in
the midst of the fountain.
2 The buffaloes bursting with seed, veiling themselves have united with the mares in the
same stable.3 The poets hide the path of the Truth;4 they keep secret their highest
names.
3 The two who are made of Truth yet made of magic have come together; they have
made a child and given birth to him and made him grow. He is the navel of all that
moves and is firm, who with his mind stretches the thread of the poet.
4 For the waves of truth, the refreshing foods, have always clung to the well-born child
for reward.5 Wearing a cloak, the two world-halves made him grow on butter and food
and honey.
5 Full of desire, the wise one brought the seven red sisters out of the honey to see.6 Born
long ago, he was yoked in mid-air; seeking a robe to hide him, he found Püsan’s.7
6 The poets fashioned seven boundaries; he who was trapped8 went to only one of them.
The pillar of life’s vigour, he stands in the nest of the Highest, among the supports at
the end of the paths.
7 Non-existence and existence are in the highest heaven, in the lap of Aditi and the birth
of Daksa.9 Agni is for us the first-born of Truth in the ancient vigour of life: the bull –
and also the cow.10
2. Heaven and earth are the parents of Agni, but so are the two fire-sticks.
3. The flames of Agni are often feminine, but they are also called male buffaloes, bulls,
or stallions full of seed; their ‘stable’ (literally, their nest, as in v. 6) is the wood in
which they rest together with the females of the breed, also the flames. Or the male and
female animals may be the male and female sticks.
4. Rta, often translated as ‘Order’ (cf. 1.164.11, 1.164.37, 1.164.47), in this late hymn,
seems better translated as ‘truth’.
5. The magic nourishment is part of the realm of Order or truth, embodied in Agni;
these powers nurse him for pay, for the reward of maintaining their own prosperity and
that of the world.
6. The seven sisters are the mares who are Agni’s flames, here said to break out of the
sweet butter poured on the fire. They come forth both to see and to be seen, a double
meaning often attributed to the sun.
7. Symbolism relating to the birth of the sun, as well as to the concealment of Agni.
8. Literally, suffering from the feeling of being unable to move freely, a word often
translated as ‘in anguish’ but here perhaps more literally hemmed in.
9. For existence and non-existence, cf. 10.129.1; for Daksa and Aditi, cf. 10.72.4.
10. The androgyny of Agni, already present in a veiled form in verse 2, here becomes
explicit. For Parjanya as the bull and cow, see 5.83 and 7.101.
NOTES
5.2 The Birth of Agni
NOTES
2.35 The Child of the Waters (Apam Napat)
NOTES
10.51 The Gods Coax Agni out of the Waters
NOTES
10.124 Indra Lures Agni from Vrtra
NOTES
4.5 The Mystery of Agni
NOTES
6.9 Agni and the Young Poet
NOTES
10.5 The Hidden Agni
NOTES
1. A double meaning: Agni himself is born many times, and he is responsible for many
births.
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