II Purandhi is a divinity connected with abundance and child- birth, sometimes associated or even idenUfied with Indra (cf.
4 26 7, 4.27 2, 2 58 10) Here she is a woman whom the Aivins assist in giving birth (cf. 5 78.16, which refers to a woman with an impiotcnt husband) 12. Viipala IS the name of Khela’s raang marc restored by the Aivins 1}. The she-wolf for whom Rjraiva slaughtered the rams is said to have been one of the donkeys of the Aivins in disguise.
14 The Aivins, brothers of SQry5, are also her husbands, win- ning her in a chanot-racc competition Cf 10 85.8-9, 10 85.15-16; cf also 10 102 for a woman chanotccr.
15 Bharadvlja was the pnest of Divod-Isa; the bull and dolphm arc 5'okcd both as a proof of the Aisins’ power and to pull the chariot on land and vatcr. For the unusual chariot animals, cf.
16 Probably the wife of Jahnu, a great sage.
17. VistupO uas the son of Viivaka Knniya.
18. Rebha was dead in the water, killed by several diOcrent methods, and the Aivins brought him back to life.
THE RIG VEDA 5.78 The Rescue of At7'l The first set of three verses invokes the Alvins; the second triad tells of Atri’s rescue; the third prays for the success- ful birth of a child. These three parts are closely inter- related, for the Alvins ‘delivered’ Atri from a pit as the child is delivered from the womb. The tale of Atri is known in several different variants, but the basic plot is that certain enemies kept Atri away from his wife at night, locked in a pit, a box, or a room in his own house; every morning they would take him out. After suffering in this way for a long time, Atri conceived the idea of praising the Asvins, the physicians - particularly the obstetricians - of the gods (w. 1-3); they came to him, took him out, and vanished; Atri made love to his wife but then went back into the pit at dawn as before, for he was afraid. In the pit he was inspired with the verses telling of his rescue (w. 4~6). Whether the child whose birth is to be protected in the final three verses is the result of Atri’s stolen visit to his wife seems unlikely; rather, the tale of Atri is told to provide a model for any happy delivery, 1 Alvins, unfailing ones,i come to us; do not turn away. Fly here like two swans to the Soma-juice.
2 Alvins, like two gazelles, like two buffaloes to the grassy meadow, fly here like two swans to the Soma-juice.
^ Asvins, rich in prizes, enjoy the sacrifice and grant our wish. Fly here like two swans to the Soma-juice.
4 As Atri climbed down into the pit^ and called to you like a woman in need of help,^ then you Alvins came with the fresh, welcome speed of an eagle.
/ Open, O tree,^ like the womb of a woman giving birth.® Asvins, hear my cry and set free the man seven times unmanned.’® 6 When the sage seven times unmanned was frightened and in need, with your magic spells you Asvins bent tlie tree together and apart.?
SOLAR GODS 7 As the "wind stirs up a lotus pond on all sides, so let the child in your womb stir and come out when it is ten months old.
S As the wind and the wood and the ocean stir, so let the ten-month-old child come down together with the afterbuth.
y When the boy has lain for ten months m the mother, let him come out ahvc and unharmed, ahve from the hving woman.
NOTES T. The Nasatyas ate ‘ true’ or unfailing in that they do what they say they will do, 2. Elsewhere in the Rig Vtda Atri is rescued by the Aivms from n fiery pit. Cf 1.1168 3. The word particularly designates a-woman m pangs of labour. This forms a further Imk with the last three verses.
4. The tree may be the wooden box or the wooden door of the room in which Atti is confined.
5. A further, and this time cxpliat, link with the last three verses.
6. This may bean epithet of Atti (Saptavadhn) or of another man rescued by the Aivins Atri and Saptavadhn appear together on other occasions, where it seems mote likely that thej' arc a pair rather than a single character. But Atn himself is 'unmanned’ (literally, castrated, the term used to refer to a steer In contrast with a bull - cf. 1.52 7 and 10 loz 7, 10 102.12) by those uho keep him from his wife. The tu o men arc thus closely parallel, if not identical.
7. The image of splitting apart the tree - pressing its sides to- gether and then stretching them apart - to let Atn out is another birth metaphor I'-io Airt and the host Sun Tins hymn may describe the cxpcncncc of an eclipse (vcnc 3 seems best interpreted m this light) or the m)th of the finding of the tun at the time of creation - or, in classical mythic fashion, both at once. Tlie first four verses intokc THE RIG VEDA indta; verses i~6 describe the mythic deeds of Indra, over- lapping with verses 6-9 describing the role of the high priest Atri both in assisting Indra and in accomplishing the miracle himself.
1 Come, lord of Soma,^ come and drink the Soma that has been pressed by the stones, O Indra, bull with bulls, 2 greatest killer of Vrtra.
2 The pressing-stone is a bull; the ecstasy is a bull; the pressed-out Soma is a bull, O Indra, bull with bulls, greatest killer of Vpxa.
^ As a bull I call to you, the bull with the thunderbolt, with various aids, O Indra, bull with bulls, greatest killer of Vrtra.
4 Impetuous bull with the thunderbolt, the king who breathes hard as he overpowers the mighty, Vrtra- slayer and Soma-drinker — let him yoke his two bay horses and come here to us. Let Indra drink to ecstasy in the midday Soma pressing.
/ When the demon of sunlight® pierced you, Sun,^ with darkness, then aU creatures looked like a confused man who does not know where he is.
6 As you, Indra, struck down the sunlight-demon’s magic spells that were turning beneath the sky,® then Atri with the fourth incantation® found the sun that had been hidden by the darkness pitted against the sacred order.’
7 8 w/7;] ‘Let not the attacker swallow me up in his jealous spite and terrifying rage, for I am yours, Atri. xou are my friend,® whose favour is real.® I hope that oth you and King Varuna will help me now.’
^ S priest Atri set the pressing-stones to work and onoure the gods with devout obeisance, seeking to an^ protection. He set the eye of the sun in heaven disappeaiT ^ spells of the demon of sunlight had sunUght demon p creed with darkness, for no others could do this.
SOLAR GODS NOTES 1 Indra is the lord of Soma, the best Soma-drmker.
2. The bulls ate the Maruts 3 Svarhhanu, ‘sunlight’, is a demon (Asura) who devours the sun, either in the course of its annual waning, or m its daily settmg, or in Its occasional eclipses In later mythology he becomes Rahu, who devours both the sun and the moon. He is a ‘sunlight’ demon ^ whose name is constructed like the name of the cookie-monster’* he cats sunhght as the monster cats cookies.
4 SQrya 5 The sun could not shme down to earth as the magic placed a barner beneath it.
6 Later texts tell that the first three spells did not work. Sayana suggests that this may also be a reference to the first four stanzas of this hymn, that invoke Indra.
7. The sacred law or order the way of nature, would not have made the sun dark at that time This seems to imply an eclipse rather th,an some natural darkening of the sun in winter or at night.
8 A pun on ‘friend’ and the name of the god Ivlitra, ally of Vanina 9. That is, whatever you help me with is sure to come true.
1.50 The Stm, Stlrya The Sun in this hymn dnves a chanot whose rays (also called banners) arc said to be seven mares In his fiery aspect, he is identified with Agni ‘Knowet of Creatures’ Qatavedas), and through the recurrent image of scemg and bemg seen and givmg light that allows others to see he is further identt- fied with Varuna, the eye of the gods.
J His brilliant banners draw upwards the god who knows all creatures, so that everyone may see the sun.
3 Tlic constellations, along with the mghts, steal away like tliicvcs, making v*ay for the sun who gazes on everyone.
j The ray's that arc his banners have become visible from the distance, shining over mankind like blazing fires 4 Crossing space, you arc tlic maker of lightf seen by THE RIG VEDA everyone, O sun. You illumine the whole, wide realm of space.
/ You rise up facing all the groups of gods, facing man- kind, facing everyone, so that they can see the sunlight.
6 He is the eye with which, O Purifying Varuna, you look upon the busy one^ among men.
7 You cross heaven and the vast realm of space, O sun, measuring days by nights, looking upon the generations.
8 Seven bay mares carry you in the chariot, O sun god with hair of flame, gazing from afar.
$ The sun has yoked the seven splendid daughters of the chariot; he goes with them, who yoke themselves.
10 We have come up out of darkness, seeing the higher light around us, going to the sun, the god among gods, the highest light.
11 As you rise today, O sun, you who are honoured as a friend, climbing to the highest sky, make me free of heartache and yellow pallor. 2 12 Let us place my yellow pallor among parrots and thrushes, or let \is place my yellow pallor among other yellow birds in yellow trees.
i^ Tills Aditya^ has risen with all his dominating force, hurling my hateful enemy down into my hands. Let me not fall into my eneiny’s hands I P^UTES I. A probable reference to the diligent sacrificer.
hence thp i® analogous to yellow sunlight; ace Ac sums invoked to dispense homoeopathic medicine.
A Vena both with Soma plays upon Vena’s identification th Soma and with the sun, more particularly with the SOLAR GODS sun-bird that is (or wins) Soma (cf. 4.26-7). The pressing of Soma, the nsmg of the sun, and the burth of speech and inspiration (cf. 1.164) run as parallel themes through the hymn.
1 This Vena drives forth those who are pregnant with the dappled one.^ Enveloped in a membrane of light,^ he measures out the realm of space. In the umon of the waters and the sun, the mspired pnests hek him with prayers as if he were a calf.® 2 Vena whips the wave high out of the ocean.^ Bom of the clouds, the back of the loved one has appeared,® shining on the crest at the highpoint of Order. The women® cry out to the common womb.
3 The calf’s many mothers from the same nest stand lowing at their common child Striding to the crest of Order, the voices hek the honeyed drink of immortality.
4 Knowmg his form, the inspired ones yearn for him, for they have come towards the bellow of the wild ammal, the buffalo.’ Gomg on the right path, they have climbed to the nver. The divme youths have found the immortal names.® / The nymph,® the woman, smibng at her lover bears him to the highest heaven. The lover movds m the wombs of the lover. Vena sits on the golden wing.’® Longing” for you m their heart, they saw you flying to the dome of the sky as an eagle, the goIdcn-winged messenger of Varun,!, the bird luistcmng mto the womb of Yoma.
7 Then the divmc youtli*® climbed straight back up into the dome of tlic sky bconng his many-coloured weapons. Dressing himself in a perfumed robe, lookmg Iilc sunlight, he gives birth to his own names.”
S Wlicn the drop comes to the ocean,” looking upon the uadc expanse with the eje of a aailturc, tlicn the sun, rejoicing in the clear hght, takes on his own names in the third realm.
THE RIG VEDA NOTES T. The dappled one (Pf^ni) is both the Soma stalk, brightly coloured, and the sun, represented as a dappled bull; the pregnant ones are thus the waters that mix with the Soma and the dawns that hold the sun, and Vena is said to bring them forth simultaneously.
2. As an embryo (the image projected from the first half of the verse), Soma is born in a burst of light (a membrane; cf. 10.5 i.i), as is the sun, who is the subject of the second sentence in the verse, while the third refers primarily to Soma.
3. Soma is often likened to a new-born calf licked by a cow, as is 4. The sage brings the wave of sacred speech out of the ocean of the heart; the sun rises from the ocean, and Soma is mixed with the waters.
5. The loved one is Soma, immediately identified with the shin- ing sun.
6. The women are either the voices and sacred speeches of the priests, calling to Soma (the womb of Order), or the streams of milk that mix with Soma. Both of these similes are extended in the next verse.
7. Soma is the buffalo who roars as he mingles with the waters.
8. The Gandharvas are the ones who reveal the secrets of the gods. Demigods associated with power and fertility, they are often identified with Soma, as is the case here, or the sun, as in the follow- ing verse. ^ 9. The nymph, or Apsaras, as the beloved of the Gandharva, represents the Dawn, who loves the sun, or the waters or Speech, who love Soma.
10. Vena as the sun bears Soma on golden wings. The metaphor continues in the next verse, 11. ‘Longing’ {venantas), a pun on the name of Vena.
I a. Here the divine youth (Gandharva) primarily represents the sun, in the second half of the verse. Soma is primary, the sun secondary.
13. By revealing his names, he reveals his forms.
14. Vena is Soma in the first half of the hymn, flying from the ocean t ough the wide expanse of space, to become the sun in the second half of the hymn, in the third realm that is heaven.
SOLAR GODS 10.177 The Bird The imagery of this hymn is closely tied to that of the Vena hymn. This is regarded as a magic-dispeUing (myabbedd) mcantation.
1 The wise see m their heart, in their spirit, the bird anomted'- with the magic of the Asura. The poets see him mside the ocean; the sages seek the footprmts 'o£ his rays.® 2 The bird carries in his heart Speech that the divine youth® spoke of inside the womb. The poets guard this reve- lation that shines like the sun m the footprmt of Order.
j I have seen the cowherd who never tires, moving to and fro along the paths, aothmg himself in those that move towards the same centre but spread apart,^ he rolls on and on inside the worlds.
Trh ' noted for their magic, possess a miraculous balm of othc^^^*^° npon the eyes, makes the bearer mvisible to the eyes a ^®na as the sun is hidden mside the waters.
i- cre, ns in 10 123 4, the Gandharva (the sun) ‘tcvc.a1s’ the scacts of the gods This secret is often told while the speaker is still in the womb. Cf. 4 27 1 and 4 18 r.
4* The waters and rays This verse is taken from i 164 5^* which expands upon the riddle of the sun-bird ’•4® Bfisan on the B.oad ^u^an presides over roads and journeys. He is one of the Aditjas and therefore a soHr though this aspect of his character is seldom cmphasircd.
r Tnserse the v-nys, PO«n. and keep away anguish, O child of the unliarncsslng.* Sia> vith us, O god, going before us.
THE RIG VEDA ; 7 8 xo The evil, vicious wolf who threatens us, Pusan, chase him away from the path.
The notorious highwayman, the robber who plots in ambush, drive him far away from the track.
Trample with your foot the torch of the two-tongued slanderer, whoever he may be.
Worker of wondets,^ full of good council, O Pusan, we beg you for that help with which you encouraged our fathers.
You bring every good fortune and are the best bearer of the golden sword. Make riches easy for us to win.
Lead us past our pmsuers; make our paths pleasant and easy to travel. Find for us here, Pusan, the power of understanding.
Lead us to pastures rich in grass; let there be no sudden fever on the journey. Find for us here, Pusan, the power of understanding.
Use your powers, give fully and lavishly, give eagerly and fill the belly. Find for us here, Pusan, the power of understanding.
We do not reproach Pusan, but sing his praises with well-worded hymns. We pray to the worker of wonders to give us riches.
NOTES 1. The releasing or unyoking of the horses at journey’s end or at nightfaU; by extension, perhaps, the release of the worshipper from evil or misfortune or exhaustion, the tight spot (amhas) or 2. An epithet \isually given to the A§vins, implying wonders wroug t tn order to be helpful to human worshippers.
•55 Ptisan } Child of the XJnhartiessing^ X Cnme, burnmg child of the unharnessing. Let the two o us e joined together. Be for us the charioteer of Order.^ SOLAR GODS 2 Best of charioteers, lord of great wealth, friend with braided hair, we pray to you for nches.
^ You are a stream of nches, a heap of wealth, O burning one with goats for horses,* foend of this and that in- spired smger.
^ Pu5an widi goats for horses, the pnzc-winner who is called the lover of his sister,* him we would praise.
/ I have spoken of him who is his mother’s suitor; let him hear, he who is his sister’s lover, the brother of Indra, and my fnend.
6 Let the sure-footed goats who pull his chariot brmg PQjan to us, carrymg here the god who is the glory of the people.
NOTES l. Perhaps the one who carries us to Order (rta), or who drives Order to us a. The goat, sacred to Pusan (cf. i.iCz j-4), draws his chariot in place of the usual horse.
3 Apparently Dawn (Usas) was the sister of Pusan as well as his mother (v. 5), and, finally, the object of his (perhaps unrequited?) love The A4vms arc also unsuccessful suitors and brothers of SOryi (10 85). This incestuous tangle arises m part out of the fact that dusk, dawn, and twilight arc natural siblings m close contact with the sun, and dawn * gives birth’ to the sun in one sense and is bom from hun in another.
Savitr at Swisct Savity 'the impeller’, ‘dnver’, or ‘goadcr’, is the god of the sun at morning and the setting sun, tlic latter aspect often cmpliastzcd in the hymns.
■*' This god Savitf, the driver,* has risen up manv times to goad us on - this is liis work. Now lie apportion*; 10 the gwis the ]cv cl,* and to those who offer the oblation he gi\ cs a sliarc in Itappincss.
THE RIG VEDA z So that all will obey him, the god with broad hands stands upright and stretches out his two arms before him. Even the waters obey his command; even the wind stops in his orbit.
^ Even the one who travels with swift horses^ now un- harnesses them; hc*^ has stopped even the wanderer^ from going on. He has put an end to the voracious hunger even of those who cat serpents.® Night has come by Savitr’s command.
^ She who weaves'^ has rolled up again what was stretched out. The skilful worker has laid down the work half- completed. He® stirs and stands up; he has set apart the different times. With his thoughts gathered, the god Savitr has come.
/ He who lives in a house ® goes off into various dwellings, all his life. The glow of fire springs up and spreads out. The mother gives her son the best portion, be- cause of the longing that Savitr has stirred up in him.^® 6 He who went away because he wished to get something has now come back; the desire of all who wander turns to home. All of them, leaving their work uncompleted, have followed the command of the divine Savitr.
7 Those whose portion you decreed to be water are in the waters;^ the hunters spread out over the dry land. The trees belong to the birds; no one transgresses these commands of this god Savitr.^® 8 Varuna goes to the watery womb that he loves best, after rushing about restlessly from one blink of the eye to the neict. Every bird and beast goes to his nest or pen; Savitr has dispersed each creature to its proper resting-place.
9 He whose law is not broken by Indra, nor by Varuna or Mitra, nor by Aryaman or Rudra, nor even by the orces of evil ~ that god Saviti: I call upon for happiness, bowmg low.
10 Stining up Good Luck^® and Thought and Abxmdance — an may Praise-of-Men,^^ the husband of goddesses, SOLAR GODS "help US - -when blessings come and nches pile up let us be dear to the god Savitf.
n From the sky, from the waters, from the earth let there come to us that bounty that we long for and that you give, that brmgs happmess to those who praise and to your fncndji® smger whose praises reach far, O Savitf.
NOTES 1 That is, the driver of the chariot. The same epithet is also sup- plied to Agm in 3 31.1 2 Both immortality and the sacrificial oficring.
3 Simultaneously Savitr in his chariot and any man on earth, who unyokes now that night has come.
4. Only Savitr is meant here 5. Either one who wanders about as he wishes to do, or one who has strayed from the path 6 Probably birds of prey.
7. Both night, conUnued from verse 3, here ‘rolling up’ the sun- light, and the woman who takes up her weaving now that night has come 8. Only Savitf here, who demarcates the dificrcnt seasons and hours.
9 Both the householder who goes home nt night, and the domes- tic fire (mentioned in the next part of the verse) that ‘arrives’ in the house at evening 10 That is, the setting sun makes the boy hungry.
II. The animals who seek water-holes at the end of the day, the hunters, by contrast, arc hunting on the drj land.
12 Several overlapping meanings' no one destroys tlic trees; no one, not even the trees, disobcjs Savitr’s command to rest at night.
15 Good Luck (Bhaga) is often personified as a god, but here he appears with other personifications regarded more as abstractions — thought (dhT) and abundance (Purandhi) 14 The praise that is bestowed upon men (NarKatpsa), rather than hv them.
ij. Tliit It, the author of this hymn.
THE RIG VEDA Savitr at Night X I call first to Agni for well-being; I call Mitra and Varuna here to help. I call on Night ^ that gives rest to all that moves; I call on the god Savitr for aid.
2 When he turns through the dark dust and gives rest to the immortal and the mortal, the god Savitr who watches all creatures comes with his golden chariot, i The god goes forward; he goes upward; he who is worshipped goes with his two bright bay horses. The god Savitr comes from the far distance, driving away aU evils.
4 The god Savitr, who is worshipped, mounts his high chariot that is covered with pearls, painted wdth all colours, fastened with golden pins; shining brightly, he puts on his vital power for the dark dusts.^ / The black horses with white feet have looked at the people, puUing the chariot with the golden shafts in front. tribes, all worlds, rest always in the lap of the divine Savitr.
6 There are three skies: two are the lap of Savitr, and the last is the one that controls men, in the world of Yama. Immortal things rest on him like a chariot wheel on a lynch-pin. Let him who imderstands this proclaim It here.
7 ^e eagle has looked over the middle realms of space; eis the Asura who leads well and is spoken of in secret, mere is the sun now? Who knows? To what sky has his ray stretched?
He h^ looked upon the eight peaks of the earth, and on & t ree plains a league wide, and the seven rivers, e golden-eyed Savitr has come, bringing to the worshipper the treasures that he longs for.
<^en-h^ded Savitr moves bushy between the two, een sky and earth. He drives away disease and bids da^k through the SOLAR GODS IQ Let the merciful and helpful Asura, the good leader with golden hands, come towards us. Routmg the demons^ and sorcerers, the god to whom we smg has taken his place against the evening.
II On your ancient paths, Savitf, that arc dustless and well made m the mid^e realm of space, on those paths that are good to go on come to us today, and protect us, and speak a blessmg on us, O god.
NOTES 1. Here and in other verses of this hymn, Savitf appears m his nocturnal aspect (as Dawn often docs), moving through the dark dust or haze of night.
i That IS, he uses his powers of brightness to cross the dark spaces of night j. Raksases, flcsh-catmg demons on earth, not the mighty Asuras of heaven.
to tz7 Night This is the only Rig Vcdic hymn dedicated to the goddess of mght, sister of Dawn and, hke Dawn, a bnght creature, full of coloured stars, in contrast with the feared darkness of black mght that is bamshed (w. 5 and 7).
I The goddess Night has drawn near, looking about on many sides witli her eyes.* She has put on all her glories.
i Tlie immortal goddess has 611ed the wide space,* the depths and the heights. She stems the tide of darkness unih her light.
$ The goddess has drawn near, pushing aside her sister the twilight.* Darlmcss, too, will gi\c waj.
4 As jou came near to us today, we turned homeward to rest, as birds go to ihcir home m a tree.
} People who h\c in villages Imc gone home to rest, and animals with feet, and animals w ith v. mgs, c\ cn the ever- Bcatchmg htwLs, THE RIG VEDA 6 Ward off the she-wolf and the wolf; ward off the thief. O night full of waves, be easy for us to cross over.'^ 7 Darkness - palpable, black, and painted^ — has come upon me. O Dawn, banish it like a debt.® 8 I have driven this hymn to you as the herdsman drives cows.’ Choose and accept it, O Night, daughter of the sky, like a song of praise to a conqueror.
NOTES 1. The stars, 2. Between sky and earth.
3. The actual term used here is dawn, but it probably indicates twilight in general, more specifically here the evening twilight, or even the entire day (as in the Vedic expression ‘dawn and night’ meaning ‘day and night’). On the other hand, if one takes it liter- ally as dawn, it may mean that the Night keeps dawn away because darkness must depart when dawn appears. Cf. 1.92. ii, where Dawn pushes Night aside.
4. The verb ‘to cross’ is frequently applied to a transition from one period of time to another. Its primary meaning is to cross from one bank of a river to another, and here it may recall the epithet full of waves, ’ depicting Night as a dangerous body of water that one must cross. Cfi 1.92,6.
5. Night is here regarded as a material mass painted with stars or actually painting them herself.
6. The implication is that light (often compared to wealth) should banish ^rkness as money banishes the poet’s debts; or Dawn may CO ect the debt of the night, that is, make good what darkness had incurred or ‘exact’ the darkness from Night as one would exact money owing.
7. An elliptic image, but clear in the Vedic context that associates cows with light, the herdsman gives back at night the cows that he has kept all day.
SKY AND EARTH The Sky (Dyaus) was an important god in Indo-European mythology and remained so in Greece, m the figure of Zeus. In India, his scope is greatly reduced, most aspects of his mythology being taken over by India, but he remains enshtmed m several hymns as one half of the androgynous pair, Sky-and-Earth (often expressed as a single noun m the dual). This pair is essential not only to the cosmogony (1.160) but to the safety and well-bemg of mortals on earth, ■who invoke then help as one would ask parents for comfort (1.185). Like parents, too, they are descnbed as bemg made of food and nourishment for mankind (6.70).
i.i6o Skf and 'Earth These divinities, referred to in the dual, are alternately characterized as male and female, parents of the sun, or as two sisters.
1 Sky and earth, these two who are good for everyone, hold the Order and bear the poet of space.^ Between the two goddesses, the two bowls that give birth magnificently, the pure sun god moves accordmg to the laws of nature.
2 Wide and roomy, strong and inexhaustible, the father and mother protect the universe. The two world-halves arc as bold as two wonderful girls® when their father® dresses them m shapes and colours, } The son of these parents,* their clever charioteer with the power to make thmgs clear, purifies the umverse by magic® From the dappled milk-cow and the bull with good seed,® every day he milks the milk that is his ^ seed. 4 Most artful of the artful gods, he® gave birth to the two world-halves that are good for everyone. He measured apart the two realms of space® with his power of in- spiration and fixed them in place with undccaying pillars / Sky and earth, you mighty pair whose praises we have sung, grant us great fame and high sovereignty, by which we may extend our rule over the peoples for ever. Give us enormous force.
MOTES MOTES J. The sun, In tlic space between shy and canh, a. These arc the two goddestes of the previous verse, nhy and earth ns two bowls j. Tvajjr or the creator.
The sun, child of thy and earth at parents again.
5 Tlic run's magic dispels datKnesa, thus both clatifjlng and purifying the world THE RIG VEDA 6 The dappled cow (PfSiji) is the earth, the buU the sky.
7. The mdL is the child, the sun; ‘his’ seed ttftB Pto^b y merely to the bull but to the joint, androgynous feature g a fluid simultaneously milk (from her) and seed 8. Probably Tva§tr or the creator. If it is the sun | birth to his own parents, an idea not without precedent m tnei^^ Veda. The sun is the subject of the second half of the verse.
9. Between sky and earth.
1.185 Gmf'd Us frow the Monstrous Abyss'^ 1 Which of these two was first, and which came later? How were they born? Who, O poets, really knows. They themselves bear whatever has a name. The two halves of the day^ roll past one another like two w cs s.
2 These two® who do not move, who have no cot, receive the teeming embryo^ that moves and has fe^ like a natural son in the parents’ lap. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
^ I call upon Aditi’s gift® that dispels evil and repels assault, the celestial, awe-inspiring gift that saves us from violent death. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
We wish to please the two world-halves whose sons arc the gods, the two among the gods who free us from suffering and help the helpless, with the two rotating halves of the days. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
/ 'Ilic two young women, true sisters who ioin in the lap of their parents,*" share a common boundary'^ and kiss the navel of the world.® Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
t \\ uh truth 1 call upon the two wide and high mansions ® vho give birth with the help of the gods, the two whose trew arc lovely and who have received immortality. SI y and canh, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
7 iih revcrcftcc in this sacrifice I speak in prayer to the SKY AND EARTH two who are wide, vast, and massive, whose boundaries are fex distant, who havmg received immortality brmg good fortune and dispel evil. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
8 Whatever wrong we have ever done to the gods, or to an old friend, or to the master of the house, for all of these let the thought m this hymn be an apology. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.
9 Let both sides of the praise of heroes^ be land to me. Let both of them^“ stay near me with help and favour. There is plenty for the patron who is more generous than a stranger.^® Let us become ecstatic, O gods, and m- vigorated by the drink of ecstasy.
10 I have m my wisdom spoken this truth to heaven and earth, so that they will hear it first Let them protect us from the blame and evil that we face. Let frther and mother guard us with helpmg favours Let this come truc,^'* what I have said here in prayer to you, sky and earth, father and mother. Become the closest of the gods with your helping favours Let us find the drink whose lusaous drops give strength and ecstasy.
NOTES