12. A bull with a thousand horns, Catavedas (fire), endowed with sacrifices of ghee, carrying
X. Cosmogonig and Theosophic Hymns. 209
soma upon his back, rich in heroes, he shall, when
implored, not abandon me, nor may I abandon thee:
abundance in cattle and abundance in heroes procure
for me !
13. Rohita is the generator of the sacrifice, and
its mouth ; to Rohita I offer oblations with voice,
ear, and mind. To Rohita the gods resort with
glad mind : he shall cause me to rise through eleva-
tion derived from the assembly !
14. Rohita arranged a sacrifice for Vuvakarman ;
from it these brilliant qualities have come to me.
Let me announce thy origin over the extent of the
world !
15. Upon thee have ascended the brzhati and the
pahkti (metres), upon thee the kakubh with splendour,
O Gatavedas. Upon thee the vasha/-call, whose
syllables make an ush//ih&, has ascended, upon thee
Rohita with his seed has ascended.
16. This one clothes himself in the womb of the
earth, this one clothes himself in heaven, and in
the atmosphere. This one at the station of the
brown (sun) did attain unto the worlds of light.
1 7. O V^aspati (lord of speech), the earth shall
be pleasant to us, pleasant our dwelling, agreeable
our couches ! Right here life's breath shall be to
our friend; thee, O ParameshMin, Agni shall
envelop in life and lustre !
18. O Va/£aspati, the five seasons that we have,
which have come about as the creation of VLsva-
karman, right here (they and) life's breath shall be
to our friend; thee, O Paramesh/^in, Rohita shall
envelop in life and lustre !
19. O Va/£aspati, good cheer and spirit, cattle in our stable, children in our wombs beget thou ! Right
2IO HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
here life's breath shall be to our friend; thee, O Paramesh/^in, I envelop in life and lustre.
20. God Savitar and Agni shall envelop thee,
Mitra and Vanma surround thee with lustre ! Tread-
ing down all powers of grudge come thou hither :
thou hast made this kingdom rich in liberal gifts.
21. Thou, O Rohita, whom the brindled cow,
harnessed at the side, carries, goest with brilliance,
causing the waters to flow.
22. Devoted to Rohita is Rohmi his mistress,
with beautiful colour (complexion), great, and lustrous:
through her may we conquer booty of every descrip-
tion, through her win every battle !
23. This seat, Rohi/rf, belongs to Rohita; yonder
is the path on which the brindled (female) goes !
Her the Gandharvas and the Kasyapas lead forth,
her the sages guard with diligence.
24. The radiant bay steeds of the sun, the im-
mortal, ever draw the delightful chariot. Rohita,
the drinker of ghee, the shining god, did enter the
variegated heavens.
25. Rohita, the sharp-horned bull, who surpasses
Agni and surpasses Surya, who props up the earth
and the sky, out of him the gods frame the creations.
26. Rohita ascended the heaven from the great flood ; Rohita has climbed all heights.
27. Create (the cow) that is rich in milk, drips
with ghee : she is the milch-cow of the gods that
does not refuse! Indra shall drink the Soma, there
shall be secure possession ; Agni shall sing praises :
the enemies do thou drive out !
28. Agni kindled, spreads his flames, fortified by
ghee, sprinkled with ghee. Victorious, all-conquering
Agni shall slay them that are my rivals !
X. Cosmogonic and Theosophic Hymns. 211
29. He shall slay them, shall burn the enemy that
battles against us ! With the flesh-devouring Agni
do we burn our rivals.
30. Smite them down, O Indra, with the thunder-
bolt, with thy (strong) arm ! Then have I over-
powered my rivals with Agni's brilliant strengths.
31. O Agni, subject our rivals to us; confuse,
O B/zhaspati, the kinsman that is puffed up ! O
Indra and Agni, O Mitra and Vanma, subjected they
shall be, unable to vent their wrath against us !
32. Do thou, god Surya (the sun), when thou
risest, beat down my rivals, beat them down with
a stone : they shall go to the nethermost darkness !
33. The calf of Viri^*, the bull of prayers, carry-
ing the bright (soma) upon his back, has ascended
the atmosphere. A song accompanied by ghee they
sing to the calf; himself brahma (spiritual exalta-
tion) they swell him with their brahma (prayer).
34. Ascend the heavens, ascend the earth ;
sovereignty ascend thou, and possessions ascend
thou ! Offspring ascend thou, and immortality ascend
thou, unite thy body with Rohita !
35. The gods that hold sovereignty, who go
about the sun, with these allied, Rohita, kindly
disposed, shall bestow sovereignty upon thee !
36. The sacrifices purified by prayer lead thee
forth ; the bay steeds that travel upon the road carry
thee : thou shinest across the swelling ocean.
37. In Rohita who conquers wealth, conquers
cattle, and conquers booty, heaven and earth are
fixed. Of thee that hast a thousand and seven
births, let me announce the origin over the extent
of the world !
38. Glorious thou goest to the intermediate direc-
212 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA,
tions and the directions (of space), glorious (in the
sight) of animals and the tribes of men, glorious in
the lap of the earth, of Aditi : may I like Savitar
be lovely !
39. Being yonder thou knowest (what takes place)
here; being here thou beholdest these things. Here
(men) behold the inspired sun that shines upon the
sky.
40. A god thou praisest the gods, thou movest
within the flood. They kindle (him), a universal
fire ; him the highest sages know.
41. Below the superior (region), above the inferior
(region) here, the cow has arisen supporting (her)
calf by the foot. Whither is she turned ; to which
half (of the universe), forsooth, has she gone away ;
where, forsooth, does she beget ? Verily not in this
herd !
42. One-footed, two-footed, four-footed is she ;
eight-footed, nine-footed became she, the thousand-
syllabled (consisting of thousand elements) pankti
(quinary stanza) of the universe : the oceans from
her flow forth upon (the world).
43. Ascending the heaven, immortal, receive
kindly my song ! The sacrifices purified by prayer
lead thee forth ; the bay steeds that travel upon the
road carry thee.
44. That do I know of thee, O immortal, where
thy march is upon the sky, where thy habitation is
in the highest heaven.-
45. Surya (the sun) surveys the sky, Surya the
earth, Surya the waters. Surya is the single eye of
being : he has ascended the great heavens.
46. The broad (directions) where the fagots that fence in (the fire), the earth turned itself into a fire-
X. Cosmogonic and Theosophic Hymns. 213
altar. There Rohita laid on for himself these two fires, cold and heat.
47. Laying on cold and heat, using the moun-
tains as sacrificial posts, the two fires of Rohita who
knows the (heavenly) light, into which (the fires)
rain (flowed) as ghee, carried out the sacrifice.
48. The fire of Rohita who knows the (heavenly)
light is kindled by prayer. From it heat, from it
cold, from it the sacrifice was produced.
49. The two fires swelling through prayer, in-
creased through prayer, sacrificed into with prayer ;
the two fires of Rohita who knows the (heavenly)
light, kindled through prayer, carried out the
sacrifice.
50. One is deposited in truth, the other is kindled
in the waters. The two fires of Rohita who knows
the (heavenly) light, kindled through prayer, carried
out the sacrifice.
51. The fire which the wind brightens up, and
that which Indra and Brahma/zaspati (brighten up),
the two fires of Rohita who knows the (heavenly)
light, kindled through prayer, carried out the
sacrifice.
52. Having fashioned the earth into an altar,
having made the heavens (his) sacrificial reward,
then having made heat into fire, Rohita created all
that has breath through rain (serving) as ghee.
53. Rain fashioned itself into ghee, heat into fire,
the earth into an altar. Then Agni by (his) songs
fashioned the high mountains.
54. Having fashioned by means of songs the high
(mountains), Rohita spake to the earth : In thee all
shall be born, what is and what shall be.
55. The sacrifice first, (and then) what is and
214 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
what shall be was born. From that this all was
born, and whatever here appears, brought hither by
the sage Rohita.
56. He who kicks a cow with his foot, and he
who micturates towards the sun — of thee do I tear
out the root; thou shalt henceforth not cast a
shadow !
57. Thou that passest across me, casting thy
shadow against me, between me and the fire — of
thee do I tear out the root ; thou shalt henceforth
not cast a shadow !
58. He, O god Surya, that to-day passes between
thee and me, upon him our evil dream, our foulness,
and our misfortunes do we wipe off.
59. May we not miss our way, may we not, O
Indra, miss the sacrifice of him that presses the
soma ; may not the powers of grudge intercept us !
60. The (guiding) thread stretched out among the
gods, that accomplishes the sacrifice, that, by pour-
ing oblations, may we attain !
XI, 5. Glorification of the sun, or the primeval principle, as a Brahman disciple.
1. The Brahma/£arin (Brahmanical disciple) moves
inciting both hemispheres of the world ; in him the
gods are harmonised. He holds the heavens and
the earth, he fills the teacher with creative fervour
(tapas).
2. The fathers, the divine folk, and all the gods
severally follow the Brahmaiarin ; the Gandharvas
did go after him, six thousand three hundred and
thirty-three. He fills all the gods with creative
fervour.
X. Cosmogonic and Theosophic Hymns. 215
3. When the teacher receives the Brahma^arin
as a disciple, he places him as a foetus inside (of
his body). He carries him for three nights in his
belly: when he is born the gods gather about to
see him.
4. This earth is (his first) piece of firewood, the
heaven the second, and the atmosphere also he fills
with (the third) piece of firewood. The Brahma-
Mrin fills the worlds with his firewood, his girdle,
his asceticism, and his creative fervour.
5. Prior to the brahma (spiritual exaltation) the
Brahmaiarin was born ; clothed in heat, by creative
fervour he arose. From him sprung the brahma^am
(Brahmanic life) and the highest brahma, and all the
gods together with immortality (amrzta).
6. The Brahma^drin advances, kindled by the
firewood, clothed in the skin of the black antelope,
consecrated, with long beard. Within the day he
passes from the eastern to the northern sea; gather-
ing together the worlds he repeatedly shapes them.
7. The BrahmaMrin, begetting the brahma, the
waters, the world, Pra^apati ParameshMin (he that
stands in the highest place), and Vira^, having
become an embryo in the womb of immortalitv.
having, forsooth, become Indra, pierced the Asuras.
8. The teacher fashioned these two hemispheres
of the world, the broad and the deep, earth and
heaven. These the Brahma^drin guards with his
creative fervour (tapas) : in him the gods are har-
monised.
9. This broad earth and the heaven the Brahma-
>£arin first brought hither as alms. Having made
these into two sticks of firewood he reveres them ;
upon them all beings have been founded.
2l6 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
10. One is on the hither side, the other on the
farther side of the back of the heavens ; secretly are
deposited the two receptacles of the brahma/zam
(Brahmanic life). These the Brahmaiarin protects
by his tapas (creative fervour) ; understanding^ he
performs that brahma (spiritual exaltation) solely.
ii. One on the hither side, the other away from
the earth, do the two Agnis come together between
these two hemispheres (of the world). To them
adhere the rays firmly; the Brahma/£arin by his
tapas (creative fervour) enters into the (rays).
12. Shouting forth, thundering, red, white he
carries a great penis along the earth. The Brahma-
/?arin sprinkles seed upon the back of the earth ;
through it the four directions live.
1 3. Into fire, the sun, the moon, Matamvan (wind),
and the waters, the Brahma/£arin places the firewood;
the lights from these severally go into the clouds,
from them come sacrificial butter, the purusha
(primeval man), rain, and water.
14. Death is the teacher, (and) Varima, Soma, the
plants, milk ; the clouds were the warriors : by these
this light has been brought hither.
^15. Varu/za, having become the teacher, at home
prepares the ghee solely. Whatever he desired
from Pra^apati, that the Brahma^&rin furnished, as
Mitra (a friend) from his own atman (spirit, or
person).
16. The Brahma^arin is the teacher, the Brahma-
/£arin Pra^apati. Pra^apati rules (shines forth, vi
ra^ati) ; Vira^- (heavenly power, or light) became
Indra, the ruler.