rr The twelve-spoked wheel of Order rolls around and aroimd the sky and never ages. Seven hundred and twenty sons in pairs rest on it, O Agni. ra Some say that the father with his five feet and twelve shapes dwells in his fullness m the farther half of the sky. But others here say that the far-seemg one m the seven-wheeled, eix-spoked chanot moves m the near half.® Ip All the worlds rest on this five-spoked wheel that rolls around and around. Though heavy-laden, its axle does Rot get hot, nor has it ever broken m its naves.
14 The unageing wheel rolls out on its nm; the ten yoked horses draw it up the outstretched path. All the worlds are kept m motion on the eye of the sun, that moves on though shrouded m dark space. ij They say that besides those bom m pairs there is a seventh born alone,® while the six sets of twins are the sages bom from the gods. The sacrifices for them are firmly set, but they change their forms and waver as he stands firm.
They ate female, but people tell me they arc male.*® He who has eyes secs this, but the bhnd one docs not understand The poet who is his son lias understood this well; the one who knows it would be his father’s fadicr. 17 Beneath what is above, and above what is beneath, the cow went upward, holdmg her calf by the foot.** In what direction and to what half of tlic sky has she gone away? Where did she give birth? Not widiin the herd.
Whoever here knows his father** beneath what is above 77 THE RIG VEDA afld above what is beneath — who with such mystical insight can here proclaim the source from which the mind of god was born?
Those that are in the future they say are in the past; those that are in the past they say are in the future.^^ The things that you and Indra did, Soma, stiU pull the axle pole of space as though yoked to it.
20 bltds, triends jomedjtogether, clutch the samejxee^ fruit ptherjooks-on— without eating.i^ 21 ^XTiere the birds sing unbhnkingly about their share of u^ortahty among the wise, there the mighty herdsman^s of the whole world, the wise one, entered me, the fool.
aa The birds that eat honey nest and brood on that tree on whose tip, they say, is the sweet fruit. No one who does not know the father eats that.
Only those gain immortality who know that the Gayatrl toot is based on the Gayatri hymn, or that the Tristubh toot is made from the Tristubh hymn, or that the Jagat foot is based on the Jagat hymn.
With the GayattI foot they fashion a hymn: with the ^ u the Tristubh foot a strophe; with With th^ ^ n or four feet they fashion a speech.
rr wSth'T 6 fixed the stream in the sky.l® In the ^tTh“ discovered the sun. They say the wS? dm h°Z that the milker ifwWT P°t of milk is set on the fire - hi her heart for hT'Slf^erS ^vius and grow 8reate;fotg‘^drrr£r cow has lowed at her blLing calf, snuffling at his 78 THE ELEMENTS OF -SACRIFICE head to make him low. Longmg for tus warm mouth, she lows and swells with milk.
2$ The one that encloses the cow hums; she that is set over the spluttering flame lows. With her hissmg she has put down the mortal; becommg lightning, she has thrown off the cloak.
}o Life that breathes now hes still and yet moves fast, rush- ing but firmly fixed m the midst of the resting places.^® The life of Ae dead one wanders as his nature wills. The immortal comes from the same womb as the mortal.
32 I have seen the cowherd who never tires, moving to and fro along the paths. Clothing himself in those that move toward the same centre but spread apart, he rolls on and on mside the worlds.
32 He who made him knows nothing of him He who saw him - he vamshes from him. Enclosed withm the mother’s womb, yet full of progeny, he entered Destruction.
33 The sky is my father, here is the navel that gave me birth. This great earth is my mother, my close km. The womb for me was between the two bowls*® stretched apart; here the father placed the embryo m the daughter.
34 I ask you about the ferthest end of the earth, I ask you about the navel of the umverse. I ask you about the semen of the stallion bursting with seed; I ask you about the final abode of Speech.
33 This altar is the farthest end of the earth; this sacrifice is the navel of the umverse. This Soma is the semen of the stallion bursting with seed, this Brahmin priest is the final abode of Speech 3^ The seven half-embryos portion out the semen of the world at 'Vi5nu’s command Wise in their thoughts and their heart, themselves surrounded, they surround it on all sides 37 1 do not know just what it is that I am like. I wander about concealed and wrapped in thought. When the first born of Order came to me, I won a share of this Speech.
79 THE RIG VEDA The one who is compelled as his own nature wills goes away and comes back; the immortal came from the same womb as the mortal.^^ The two constantly move in opposite directions; when people perceive the one, they do not perceive the other.
$9 The undying syllable of the song is the final abode where aU the gods have taken their seat. What can one who does not know this do with the song? Only those who know it sit together here.
40 Be happy eatog good fodder, and then we will be happy too. ® O inviolable cow, eat grass and drink pure water as you graze for ever.
41 The buflEalo-cow lowed as she fashioned the flowing waters; she who has a thousand syllables in the final 42 The quarters of the sky live on the oceans that flow out o ^ 2^1 directions. The whole universe exists ^ough the undying syllable that flows from her.
, ^ ^ stance I saw the cowdung smoke midway between what is above and what is below. The heroes roasted the dappled buU.24 These were the first ritual 44 4J 46 47 long-^ired ones^e reveal themselves at the one During the year, one of them shaves; ^^^'Tthing with his powers; of one the onrush IS visibk, but the form is not.
dn secret, humans.
bkd^t in mor, J J. 1 ^ speak of what is One The tcHow Yama, Matari^van.
the ^rk nath ^ °^ed in waters fly up to the sky on Order and at n ^^^tied from the home of er^ and at once the earth was drenched with butter.
80 THE ELEMENTS OE SACRIFICE 4S Twelve fellies, one wheel, three naves - who has under- Btood this? Three hundred and sixty are set on it like poles that do not loosen.
49 Your inexhaustible breast,’ Sarasvati,®'^ that flows with the food of life, that you use to nourish all that one could ■wish for, fceely giving treasure and wealtb and beautiful gifts - bring that here for us to suck.
JO The gods sacrificed to the sacrifice with the sacrifice. These became the first ntual laws. These great powers ■went to the dome of heaven where dwell the Sadhyas, the anaent gods J-f The same water travels up and down day after day. ^bile the ram-clouds enliven the earth, the flames enhven the sky.*® J2 The great heavenly bird with wonderful "wings, the beautiful embryo of the waters and the plants, that dehghts us with rams overflowmg — I call to him for help.
NOTES 1. The first brother is the oblauon fire with his grey beard of smoke; the second is the southern fire, hungry because it seldom receives the oblation, the third is the domestic fire that is ‘fed’ the butter oblation Agm is the Lord of All Tribes, and his sons arc the priests a For the magic powers of the three naves, cf. the cunng of 3* The newborn sun or fire has bones (the male element) though it is bom from the boneless one (the female, who gives soft things - blood, breath, spirit), the earth 4 The footprints of the gods nwy be the sacrificial laws, which arc ‘w oven’ when the gods as poet-priests perform the sacrifice, by weaving their words 5 The mother of the sun is Dawn, who is pierced by ber father as well as the sun’s father, the Sky; recoiling from incest, she ncTctthtlcss docs what must be done (the ‘Order’) and is praised for this 6 The calf searches for the mother who has abandoned him.
THE RIG VEDA as the mothers of Indra and Vivasvan (another form of the sun) abandon them in Vedic mythology. The three stages of the journey are one-tenth of the thi^-stage journey that the sun traverses every twenty-four hours; or they are the three-day journey of the 7. The three mothers and fathers are the three earths and three skies as parents of the sun, here identified with the Absolute. Speech does not inspire every priest, though she is present in them all.
8. The sun is imagined either as supreme in heaven, or as ruling only the lower half, the upper being the abode of Speech.
9. In Vedic mythology, Aditi gives birth to the immortal Adityas in pairs, while she rejects the sun, Vivasvan, bom alone (cf. 10.72.8—9). In the ritual, there are twelve paired months and one odd one, the intercalary month which interrupts the sequence and causes the others to ‘change and waver’.
10. The androgyny of the creators appears, on the ritual level, in the fact that the months (a masculine term in Sanskrit) are pro- creative. The second half of the verse puns upon the father of the sun (the sky) and the father of the poet who competes with and surpasses his own father. Cf. 6.9.2.
11. The dawn cow, between sky (above) and earth (below), has er calf at her heels as she kicks him away; she is alone because she has abandoned him.
la. His father refers both to the poet who knows his own father and the one who knows the sun’s father.
13. The rituals of the past become the rituals of the future; the deeds of the gods still remain effective for us now.
14. On the tree of knowledge and immortality, some eat and some cannot.
herdsman or the cowherd.
1 ^ ‘ deeds are attributed to Indra or the creator in other nymns. ^yatri has three feet, here identified with the kindling-sticks of fire.
f divine obstetrician and embodiment of twilight ritual in giving birth that hr.il the milk that swells in her udder is the milk off hrr rn’ ^ Pot smgg ^ chant, and the cow (the milk) throws boils over.
c cat and rebirth of the mortal, or of the mortal sun.
82 THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE The testing-places of the sun. or fire are sky, earth, and the waters, or just the waters 19. The sun who disappears from the sky (his father), or the breath of life that disappears from the dead body (of the mortal or the mortal sun), 20 The two bowls, literally wooden bowls for Soma, are sky and earth. Cf. 1.160 i.
21. The seven creators or priests fashion the sun from the seed split by the father when he incestuously embraces his daughter. Or the Adityas fashion the sun from the misformed embryo; while they themselves are still embryos ‘ surrounded’ in the womb, they ‘surround’, i.e form mto a ball, the semen 22, The soul that is reborn accordmg to its nature, or the sun. The immortal soul/sun and the mortal body/dead sun or night are on opposite sides of the carth/mind at any given time.
23 Here and in the neirt: two verses the cow w Speech.
24 Soma (explicitly mentioned m verse 35) is the buU. The final phrase also appears as to 90.16.
25 Three forms of Ago! with flames for hair, or three ecstaoc sages (cf. TO 136 i). The former mterpretation is supported by the second half of the verse* Fire shaves the earth, the sim watches, the wmd’s path is perceived, but the wmd itself is mvisible. Cf.
26 This verse closely resembles 10 90 4 27. Sarasvati as goddess of Speech and as the river m the sky (cf. V. 25) and on earth.
29. Ram falls from the sun m the sky m return for flame from the sacrifice on earth.
THE HORSE SACRIFICE As the supreme symbol of the victorious Indo-Europeans, the horse looms large in. the 'Rig Veda, and many gods are called horses - Indra, Dadhikra, Surya, Agm, Soma, the Dawn, and others. In addition to its role as significr, however, the horse also appears as signified in a group of hymns about the sacrifice of the consecrated stallion, a ceremony that was to become the subject of fiir more detailed and lengthy discussion m the texts of the Brahmanas a few centuries later.
The horse m the Rig Veda is at least three things at once; a real, material creature whose domestication enabled the Indo- Aryans to conquer the Indo-European world, a race- horse that tan m profane and sacred contests; and a preaous sacrificial victim In these three hymns, the horse - m all three of these aspects — is praised, killed, and lamented.
1.163 Hymn to the Horse The sacrificial horse is identified with the sun and fire; here he is also identified with sever^ other gods, as well as with the earthly racehorse (who is himself a figure with whom many gods are identified).
I When you whinnied for the first time, as you were bom coming forth from the ocean or firom the celestial source,^ with the wings of an eagle and the forelegs of an antelope - that, Swift Runner, was your great and awesome bit&.
•2 Yama gave him and Trita harnessed him, Indra was the first -to mount him, and the Gandharva grasped his reins You gods® fashioned the horse out of the sun.
i Swift Runner, you ate Yama; you arc Aditya; you are Tnta, through the hidden design ® You ate hke and not hke Soma.* They say you have three bonds in the sky.® 4 They say you have three bonds m the sky, three in the waters, and three withm the ocean.® And to me you appear. Swift Runner, hke Varuna, that is said to be your highest birth.
/ These arc the places where they rubbed you down when you were victonous; here arc the marks where you put down your hooves. Here I saw your lucky reins, which the Guardians of the Order keep safely.
^ Prom afar, m my heart I recognized your soul, the bud'' flymg below the sky. I saw your winged head snorting on the dustlcss paths easy to travel.® ? Here I saw your highest form eager for nourishment in the place of the cow ® As soon as a mortal gets the food that you enjoy, the great devourer of plants awakens him.'® S The chanot follows you. Swift Runner, the young man follows, the cow follows, the love of young girls follov.'s. Tlie troops follow your friendship*’ The gods en- trusted vinlc power to you.
Hut mane is golden;*® lus feet arc bronze. He is swift 87 9 THE RIG VEDA as thought, faster than India. The gods have come to eat the oblation of the one who was the first to mount the swift runner.^^ 10 The celestial coursers, revelling in their strength, fly in ^ line like wild geese, the ends held back while the middle surges forward, when the horses reach the racecourse of the sky.
11 Your body flies. Swift Runner; your spirit rushes like wind. Your mane,^^ spread in many directions, flickers and jumps about in the forests.^^ 12 The racehorse has come to the slaughter, pondering wi& his heart turned to the gods. The goat, his kin,^® is led in front; behind come the poets, the singers.
i^ The swift runner has come to the highest dwelling- place, to his father and mother. May he go to the gods today and be most welcome, and then ask for the things that the worshipper wishes for.
NOTES 1. A possible reference to the sun bom in the ocean and also bom from the waters in the sky, 2. The Vasus are a group of gods associated with the sun.
3. Perhaps the magic power of the sacrifice, or the secret power associated with the mysterious Trita, or simply the Vedic power of secret equivalences.
4. As Agni, he is both likened to and contrasted with Soma through the mechanism of parallel oppositions and the Vedic concept of liquid fire or the fiery liquid; as a sacrificial animal, he is joined with Soma in the ritual dimension.
5. The bonds are the three gods named in the first sentence of this verse.
6. The three bonds are multiples of the bond in each of three places named: the sky (v. 3, and the ‘highest birth’ in Varuna), the waters (v. 1, and perhaps also v. 5, where the gods bathed the celestial horse), and the ocean (v. i, and also implicit in the birth from Varuna, god of the ocean).
7. The sun as a bird.
8. The paths that lead to the stm.
The cow on three levels: as a symbol of the sim in the sky; as THE HORSE SACRIFICE the COWS won by the victonous lacehorse; and as the cattle -won in taids on horseback.
10. A mystenous sentence, Agni, who devours plants (in forest files), awakens man every morning (as the sun), the herbivorous horse also devours plants, and is awakened every morning to be fed. The worshipper who ‘feeds’ the sacnfiaal fire (or offers oblations to the sun) is ‘awakened’ when he arrives in heaven, ^1 of these arc possible (as the final ‘him’ must be supphed and has no clear referent).
11. A martial procession behind the war-horse, a sacrificial procession behmd the consecrated stallion, a triumphant pro- cession behind the racehorse 12. The mane (literally, the ‘horns’) of the horse as a metaphor for the rays of the sun.
13. The one’ would be Indra, rider of the solar horse according to Verse 2, but here it would seem to designate the earthly king, the Owner of the earthly horse.
14* Here the rays are scattered by the fohage.
15. Either a scapegoat for the sacnfiaal horse (cf. 1 162.2-3), or lust a compamon for the racehorse (as racehorses often have goats, to this day).
The Sacrifice of the Horse Stnkmgly concrete m its detail, this hymn describes the onedent Indian horse sacrifice, bcgmnmg with the ceremonial procession of the horse with the scapegoat, leading to the actual slaughter (w, 1-7). It then dwells upon the material instruments of sac^ce which arc to accompany the horse to heaven.
I hlitra, Varuna, Aryaman the Active,^ Indra the ruler of the Ebhus,® and tlic Maruts® - let them not fail to heed us when wc proclaim in the assembly the heroic deeds of the racehorse who was born of the gods.* J Wlicn they lead die firmly grasped offering‘s in front of die horse diat is coveted uadi cloths and heirlooms, the dappled goat goes bleating straight to the dear dwelling of Indra and I’Osan.
j This goat for all the gods is led forward with the race- 8p THE RIG VEDA horse as the share for Pusan. When they lead forth the •welcome offering® with the charger, Tvastr urges him on to great fame.
^ When, as the ritual law ordains, the men circle three times, leading the horse that is to be the oblation on the path to the gods, the goat who is the share for Pusan goes first, annormcing the sacrifice to the gods.
/ The Invoker,® the ofBciating priest, the atoner,’ the fire-ktndler, the holder of the pressing-stones, the reciter, the priest who prays — fiU your bellies with this well-prepared, well-sacrificed sacrifice.
6 The hewers of the sacrificial stake and those who carry it, and those who carve the knob ® for the horse’s sacrificial stake, and those who gather together the things® to cook the charger — let their approval encourage us.
7 The horse •with his smooth back went forth into the fields of the gods, just when I made my prayer. The inspired sages exult in him. We have made him a welcome companion at the banquet of the gods.
S The charger’s rope and halter, the reins and bridle on his head, and even the grass that has been brought up to his mouth — let all of that stay with you^® even among the gods.
y Whatever of the horse’s flesh the fly has eaten, or what- ever stays stuck to the stake or the axe, or to the hands or nails of the slaughterer^ - let all of that stay with you^® even among the gods.
10 Whatever food remains in his stomach, sending forth gas, or whatever smell there is from his raw flesh ^ - let the slaughterers make that well done; let them cook the sacrificial animal until he is perfectly cooked.
11 Whatever runs off your body when it has been placed on the spit and roasted by the fire, let it not lie there in the earth or on the grass, but let it be given to the gods who long for it. ^ 7^ Thosc^“ who sec that the racehorse is cooked, who say, Tt smells goodl Take it awayP, and who wait for the 90 THE HORSE SACRIFICE doling out of the flesh of the charger — let their approval encourage us.
The testing fork for the cauldron that cooks the flesh, the pots for pouring the broth, the cover of the bowls to keep It warm, the hooks, the dishes - all these attend the horse.
14 The place where he walks, where he rests, where he roUs, and the fetters on the horse’s feet, and what he has drunk and the fodder he has eaten — let all of that stay with you“ even among the gods.
1/ Let not the fire that reeks of smoke darken you, nor the red-hot cauldron spht into pieces. The gods receive the horse who has been sacrificed, worshipped, con- secrated, and sanctified with the cry of ‘Va^atl’^ The cloth that they spread beneath the horse, the upper covering, the golden trappings on him, the halter and the fetters on his feet — let these things that are his own bind the horse among the gods.
17 If someone riding you has struck you too hard with heel or whip when you shied, I make all these thmgs well agam for you with prayer,it as they do^* with the oblation’s ladle m sacrifices.
I S The axe cuts through the thirty-four nbs of the race- horse who IS the companion of the gods. Keep the hmbs undamaged and place them m the proper pattern. Cut them apart, calhng out piece by piece.^® One IS the slaughterer of the horse of Tvajtr; two restram him. Tins is the rule. As many of your limbs ns I set out, accordmg to tlic rules, so many balls I oficr into the fire.'’
30 Let not your dear soul burn you'® as yon go away. Let not the axe do lasting harm to your body. Let no greedy, clumsy slaughterer hack in the wrong place and damage your limbs w ith his knife. _ 3T You do not really die tlirough this, nor arc jou liarmcd. You go to the gods on paths pleasant to go on. Tlic tvo bay stallions, the two roan marcs'* arc now >ouc 9' 22 THE RIG VEDA chariot mates. The racehorse has been set in the donkey’s yoke.
Let this racehorse bring us good cattle and good horses, male children and all-nourishing wealth. Let Aditi rnake us free from sin.^® Let the horse with our offerings achieve sovereign power for us.
NOTES 1. This may be an epithet of Vayu or Agni, or the name of a distinct god, or an epithet of Aryaman.
2. The Rbhus are the craftsmen of the gods.
5. This may be a list of five gods or of seven, depending upon whether one takes the adjectival terms as epithets or separate names.
4. Sayana says the horse was bom from the essential forms or many gods, a common form of mythological creation.
5. This almost certainly refers to the goat, though the commen- tary suggests that it might be the remains of the burnt offering made the night before.
6. The Invoker is the Hotr priest, often identified with Agni. Cf.
i.i.i.
7. This term may designate the priest who portions out the offerings or the one who performs expiations for ritual errors or personal misdeeds (cf, v. 17). Here, as in verse i, there may be five or seven terms, depending upon whether one takes the adjectival terms (here the third and seventh) as descriptions or separate titles.
8. A piece of wood attached crosswise at the top of the stake.
9. These utensils would be the pot, the wood, etc.
TO. Here the horse is directly addressed.
It. Cf. the hope that the human corpse will be made whole (io.r6.6) and properly cooked (10.16.1—2).
12. These are the priests who cat the horse (cf. v. 5).
13. The cry that is made when the offering is presented to the gods. Cf. 10.14.3 ft'r use of Svahal, a similar call.
14. The Brahmins who repair the errors committed in the course of the sacrifice, 13. Thirty-four of the horse’s ribs (he has thirty-six) are distri- buted, one to the sun, one to the moon, five to the planets, and twenty-seven to the constellations.
THE HOESE SACRIFICE i6. The priest dames ^ch part as he cuts it, and deckres the dryinity to -whom it is dedicated.
^7" These are probably balls of rice that the wives of the lung give to the stallion, they may also be balls of meat.
18. That IS, do not be sad 19. The two bay stallions are the horses of Indra, the two roan Maruts, and the donkey belongs to the 20- This IS both a general wish for expiation and a specific wish to be cleansed of the sm of killing the horse.
Rs^uiem for a Horse This hymn is a funerary ferewell to a beloved horse. Against interpretation, later Indian rommentanal tradition sug- gested that the subject of the hymn was the poet’s dead son, called ‘Victorious Racehorse’ (Vajm), and it is worthy ? the horse is said to travel to heaven, put on a new 0 y, and dwell happily there afterwards, just as the dead ^ another hymn (10.14). But the equine character 0 the verses is unmistakable. The hymn may refer to aparticu- r ntual, possibly even to the immolation of a sacred horse; l^rsc 3 opens with the exact phrase used at the beginning of the horse sacrifice. It may also be based upon the deification nf a great racehorse, as is suggested by the hymn’s rccumng nte of the metaphor of winmng heaven as one wins a race (though here it must be noted that the Rig l^eda often refers to other goals - wealth, sons, long life — won as one wins a race).! The idea of a hymn to a horse is not in itself un- Vcdic; the R/g J'^eda knows other divine horses, such as DadhlktS, Tark$ya, and Etaia The horses of hcas'cn arc obliquely alluded to m verse 4, where they arc said to have more powers than the Fathers and to have been given special mental power by the gods before taking on their heavenly bodies; vc«c 5 may even imply that all living Creatures arc somehow' bound to or encompassed by the powers of these celestial cquincs. who gallop around a race- course made of the apace betaveen ski and cartli.
Verses j-ja describe tlie horse’s tranihtion to hcaacn.
THE RIG VEDA where he is given a' new body, gathering into it the qualities that it had on earth (verse 4). He changes into this body as the sun changes its form (verse 2); the sun is also alluded to as the 'light beyond’ (verse i), mediating between Ae Hght here (fire, probably the funeral pyre) and the third hght (the light in the world of the dead). The ‘god who finds the light’ (verse 6) may also be the sun; it may, how- ever, be the spirit who leads the horse to the world of the dead, the third fight; in general, the term often refers to Agni, Soma, or the Fathers, any of whom would be appropri- ate here. The final verses speak of the body in more general terms, contrasting the body put on in heaven with the body left on earth in the form of of&pring.
j This is your one fight, and there beyond is your other; merge with the third fight. By merging with a body, grow lovely, dear to the gods in the highest birthplace.
2 Victorious racehorse, let your body, carrying a body,^ bring blessings to us and safety to you. Staying straight,® so that you may carry the great gods, change your own fight as one does in heaven.
^ You are a victorious racehorse with the power to win victory; go happily to the mares who long for you. Go happily to fame and heaven; go happily to the first orders and truths, go happily to the gods, go happily to your flight.
4 Even the Fathers have no control over their ^ majesty; le gods have placed the power of understanding in the gods. 5 Tliey^ have gathered togetlier all things ^at shine, and these have entered their ^ bodies again.
/ With their great powers they have circled all the middle realm of space, measuring out ancient domains never measured before. All creatures arc bound to their bodies.® They shower down their offspring in many ways.
if By the tlurd action, and in two ways,’ the sons have set m place the god « who finds the light. The fathers have established their own offspring as paternal power.
94 THE HORSE SACRIFICE like a thread stretched out amone those who are to- follow.
7 As if on a ship sailing through high water to all horizons of the earth, crossing over all dangers with case, Brhaduktha® has through his great power estab- lished his own offspring among those who are to follow and those who have come before.
NOTES , image of the horse carrying a nder (a body carr3ring a ° y) suggests the fire carrymg the dead body to heaven and going uu (v. 3) to carry the oblation to the gods, Cf. Agnl, the horse, as c conveyer, in 1.26 i, 3.2 1 and 10 51.6.
3. Both straight on the path and with a straight (1 e. un- co apsed) back under the weight 4‘ They’ are the horses, the shining things enter the horses’ Che god-inspired powers enter their mmds.
5 Tke gods m heaven give mspiration to the ‘gods’ newly dc, the horses who succeed in reaching heaven , may refer to the heavenly horses of verses 4—3 or imply each creature is bound to his own body . y* third action is the begetting of children, the ‘debt’ each irindu must pay to the Fathers (the first two debts being Vedlc study, paid to the sages, and sacrifice, paid to the gods) The ‘two ^a^ys may refer to sons and fathers, achieving their ends on earth (by chiidrcn) and m heaven (by ritual).
8. The sim is here called an Asura, an ancient god 9 Name of the sage to whom the hymn is attributed 95 GODS OF THE SACRIFICE:' AGNI AND SOMA Agni and Soma are linked in many ways. As fire and liquid, •key arc complementary oppositions that unite in the Indo- European concept of the fiery liquid, the elixir of immortality (the ambrosia). As ntual elements, they are mvoked more often than any other gods of the Kig Veda, as the embodiments of the sacrificial fire and the sacrificial dnnk. As metaphorical symbols, they are the centre of a complex set of speculations about the nature of the cosmos, takmg the form of nddles about something that is lost and then found The mythologies differ in that the mystery of Agm is the mystery of his burth 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 m the Image of the sun-bird, a form of Agm (the Indo-European fire-bird), who brings the Soma to earth (cf. 10.123 and 10.177).