The mysteries are questions posed and answered, for Agm and Soma are the two sources of the mspiration that enables the Vcdic poet to find and understand the meaning of the sacrifice and of his life. They ore different sorts of mspir- ation; Agm is Apolloman, explaimng the sacrifice; he repre- sents the cultivated, cooked, cultured aspects of ritual. Soma 15 Dionysian, cxplairung the "wston of life; he represents the Wild, raw, disruptive aspects of ritual. The Vcdic sacrifice embraces them both Agr.i Agni is die subject of many straigbtfonrnrd hymns about the kindling of and offering into the fire; he is mvoked to bring all the gods to the sacrifice (i i) and to mcdkitc between gods and men (t.iG). But scrcral of the hjmns to Agm arc mote enigmatic Uian pamdigmatlc. His blttli (5.1) is described 97 THE RIG VEDA 97 THE RIG VEDA in putposely elliptic references similar to those used to refet to Agni in the Riddle of the Sacrifice (1.164; cf. also 3.31.1-3)* This first 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 98 I Pray to Agni Appropriately placed at the very beginning of the Veda, thia hymn invites Agm, the divine pnest, to come to the sacrifice, 1 I pray to Agni, the household pnest 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 bnng the gods here.
3 Through Agtu one may wm wealth, and growth from day to day, glonous and most abounding m heroic sons.
4 Agm, the sacnficial ntual that you encompass on all sides - only that one goes to the gods.
/ Agm, the pnest with the sharp sight of a poet, the true and most bnlhant, the god will come with the gods.
^ Whatever good you wish to do for the one who worships you, Agm, through you, O Angiras,^ that comes true 7 To you, Agm, who shine.upon darkness, we come day after day,~b‘nngmg'“ our thoughts and homage ^ to you, the king over sacnfices, the shming guardian of the Order, gtowmg in your own house.
9 Be easy for us to reach, like a father,toJiis.son. Abide-wth- ^^.Agm.TocIomrhappi ness NOTES 1. The Anginscs x^crc an ancient family of priests, often identi- fied with Vcdic gods such as Agm and Indra.
1.2(5 Agni and the Cods Tliis h\mn emphasizes the close sjmhiosis Ijctwccn the •acrlficct and Agni, on the one hand, and the sacnficcr and 99 THE RIG VEDA the gods, on the other. Agni is'asked to intercede as a fatlier 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, die 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 diey will praise (i.e. approve of) him (v. 9).
1 Now get dressed in your robes 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.
^ The father sacrifices for his son, the comrade for his comrade, the favourite friend for his friend.^ /}. May Varum, Mitra and Aryaman, proud of their powers, sit upon our sacred grass, as upon Manu’s.® / You who were the first to invoke, rejoice in our friend- ship and hear only these songs.
6 When we offer 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.^ 10 Agm, young spawn of strength, with all the fires take pleasure in this sacrifice and in this speech.
NOTES 1. Vhen Agni becomes the priest, his robes are both the flames and the prayers.
AGNI 2. Many gods ate 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 oficred by Ivlanu, an- cestor 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 Imk, the other gods and the worshippers should enjoy such a mutuality.
j 2 The Birth of Agni The hymn begins with obscure references to unknown myths, the gist of which seems to be that Agni has vamshed. The saenfiaal fire or the domestic fire has suddenly been cxtmguished. This crisis is then gcneraliacd mto a vague danger from which Agm is implored to rescue the worshipper, as well as specific dangers such as emotional conflict bctivccn patents and children (centring upon the vanishmg mother) and the theological problem of the vamshing or otiose god (identified with Varuna m v. 8) The appearance of Agm m the first place is the occasion for speculation on the mystery of creation ex mhtlo, the kindhng of the spark of fire out of thin air (cf. 1.164), =ttid the ‘setting fire’ of Agni (-w. 5-6) becomes a metaphor for the release of the worshipper from constricting angvush.
Indian tradition supplies a spcafic story to account for the vamshing of Agni m the early verses of this hymn The pnest (who also scrr’cd 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 avith him tlic heat of all the fires in the kingdom went out." Thc pnest 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 savorc an oath of truth, the fire re- appeared and burnt the queen. This stor^-, as obscure in us THE RIG VEDA 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.® The people no longer see before them his altered face, hidden by the charioteer.^ 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 lum born when his mother bore him.® ^ 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? ® ^ I saw him moving far away from his field, and his fine herd no longer shining brightly.’ They coidd not grasp him, for he had been bom; the young women became grey with age.® / Who are they® who separate my young man from the cows? They have never had a cowherd, not even a stranger.^® Let those who have seized him set him free. The man of foresight should drive the cattle back to us.
6 The enemy powers^ have hidden among mortals^® the one who is the king of dwellings,^® himself the dwelling-place of men. Let the magic formulas of Atri^^ set him free; let those who revile be themselves reviled.
7 When 3unahsepha was boxmd for a thousand,^® 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 laws^® told me this. Indra discovered AGNl you, for lie knows; he taught me, and so I have come, Agni.
p Agni shines forth with a high hght; by his power he makes all thmgs manifest. He overpowers the godless forces of evil magic; he sharpens his two horns to gore^^ the demons.
JO Let Agm’s bellowings reach to heaven as pieremg 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 wm waters and sunlight with it.
12 ‘The bull with the powerful neck, mcreasing m size and strength, will drive together the possessions of the enemy without opposition.* This is what the immortals said to Agm. Let him grant shelter to the man who spreads the sacred grass; let him grant shelter to the man who oflers oblation.
NOTES NOTES 2 In the same way, all fires die out when Siva is wrongly ac- cused and departs from the Pine Forests 3. In the saenfiaal simile, the lower fire-stick is the mother, that holds back the fire (the child) from the father (the upper stick, or the sacnficer) On the human or anthropomorphic level, the verse describes a common familial conflict / 4 In terms of the traditional gloss (the talc of the king and the priest), the charioteer who hides the fire is the pnest; as a cosmic metaphor, the charioteer is the sun’s chanotcer, or the god Agni himself, and the meaning is that the saenfiaal fire is reabsorbed into Its celestial form.
5 This verse plajs upon the concept of the two mothers of Agni, who IS elsewhere expliatly referred to as ‘having two mothers’ (3.31.2) The first is tlie offiaal queen who bote him; the second is the despised queen or stepmother, the j oung w Oman THE RIG VEDA 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, 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, 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 sacri- ficed 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 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 w. 6-10.
2.35 The Child of the Waters (Apdm Napdt) 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 AGNI 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 Agm is born from the herbs and trees (cf. v. 8). This hymn, the only one dedi- cated entirely to him, plays upon the simultaneous umty and non-umty of the earthly and celestial forms of Agm and the Quid 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, urgmg on his swift horses, will adorn my songs,^ for he enjoys them.
2 We would sing to him this prayer well-fashioned from the heart; surely he will recognize it. With his divine ^ energy, the child of the waters has created all noble creatures.
/ Some flow together, while others flow toward the sea, but the rivers fill the same hollow cavern ® The pure waters surrounded this pure, radiant child of the waters.
4 The young women, the waters, flow around the joung 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.
7 Three women, goddesses,* wish to give food® 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 ome.® 6 The birth of the horse is here’ and in the sun. Guard our patrons from falling prey to malice or injurj’ Wlicn fir away in fortresses of unb.akcd bricl.s,* hatred and false- hoods shall not reach lum.
7 In his own house he keeps the cow who jiclds good milk; he makes his vital force sw ell as he cats the nourish- ing food. Gathering strength m the waters, the child of the waters shines fonh to give riches to his w orshipper.
THE RIG VEDA S True and inexhaustible, he shines fotth in the waters with pure divinity.® Other creatures and plants, his branches, are reborn with their progeny.^® p 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 women^ 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,^ the givers of gold give him food.
21 His face and the lovely secret name of the child of the waters grow when the young women kindle him thus. Golden-hued butter is his food.
22 To him, the closest ftiend among many,^^ we would ofler worship with sacrifices, obeisance, and oblations. I rub his back;^® I bring him shavings; I give him food; I praise him with verses.
2^ Being a bull, he engendered that embryo in the females; 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.^^ 24 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.
2J 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.
NOTES 1. Either he will make them beautiful, or he will reward them, a. 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.
AGNI 6. The "waters arc primaparas or primappavitas, as the child of the waters is their first child; they themselves arc first-born from Brahma, says Sayana.
7. Agm IS often depicted as a horse, who is in turn identified -with the sun, the micro-macrocosmic piarallel 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 bom in the "waters.
8. The sacnficer 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 m his own ‘natural* citadels not made of baked bricks, i.c. 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, Agm causes all creatures and plants to be reborn.
11 The waters of heaven or earth 12. The construction is loose, and may imply cither that it is Agni who IS seated away from his golden womb (cf. 10 121.1) or that the sacrificcrs are seated around him 13. Here the young women arc the ten fingers, not the W'ntcrs The fingers kindle the earthly fire, that gro'ws in the waters (the clouds) secretly and then is fed with butter at the sacnficc.
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 fire-altar. Cf. i 164 1 for the fire-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 scen'S to be other For the use of bult/calf imagery to express this parado"^, cf. 7 101, the hymn to Parjanya. The father becomes an embryo, the middle form of Agni, the lightning that suclj the waters in the clouds ns if they were cow'S, then they lick him as a cow licks a calf.
17. That IS, on earth This is an c.vp1icit statement of the identity of the Child of the Waters with Agni ns the sacrificial fire the for- mer enters the body of the latter.
THE RIG VEDA 10.51 The Gods Coax Agui out of the Wafers 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, ^ 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 bom 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,^ and is, in fact, a variant of it, for it is the golden liquid of fire that is the basis of the Indo- European m5rth of Agni and Soma together.
1 \A god:"] ‘Great was that membrane,® and firm, which enveloped you when you entered the waters. One god, O Agni, knower of creatures, saw aU your various bodies.’
2 [Agni:'] ‘Who saw me? Who among the gods perceived my various bodies?^ O Mitra and Vanina, where are all the fuel-sticks of Agni that lead to the gods?’ ® ^ \Varunaf\ ‘We searched for you in various places, O Agni, knower of creatures, when you had entered into the waters and the plants. It was Yama° who dis- covered you with your many-coloured light which shines beyond the distance of ten days’ journey.’
4 [Agm:] ‘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.’^ / [Varz/na:] ‘Come here. Man,® who loves the gods, wishes to sacrifice. When you have completed the ritual, you dwell in darkness.® Make smooth the paths which lead to the gods; carry the ofierings with a good heart.’
AGNI 6 ‘The brothers of Agni long ago ran back and forth on this task hke a chariot-horse^® upon a road. Fearing this, Varuna, I went far away. I fled Hke a buffalo before the bowstring of a hunter,’ 7 ]The gods ] ‘We will make your life-span free of old age, O Agm, knower of creatures, so that you will not be harmed when you have been harnessed. Then you will carry the portion of the offermg to the gods with a willing heart, O well-born one.’
8 [Agm’'\ ‘Give me alone the pre-sacnfices and the post- sacnfices, the nourishing part of the offering; and the clarified butter out of the waters and the Man out of the plants.ii And let the life-span of Agm be long, O gods.’
y \Tbe gods.l ‘The pre-sacrifices and the post-sacnficcs will be for you alone, the nourishing parts of the offering This whole sacrifice will be for you, Agm; tlie four quarters of the sky will bow to you,’ NOTES 1, For Agni.as child of the waters, see a 35.
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 v hen he hides The gods point out that even there he was not safe from them.
4 Agni has many forms in different places (lightning, sacnfidal fire, the human body, etc ) Cf 10 16, 6 9, and 1.164 1.
5. Mltra and Varuna lead the gods in the search Agm argues that he cannot be seen in the water, because there arc no fuel stichs there to kindle him These are the sticks vhich bring Agm 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 mjth the gods bribe Agm by allowing him to diangc places with Yama, sending Yama to the world of the dead and bringing Agm to the world of the gods 7. That is, he flatlj refuses to become their insoker or priest of the oblation (llotr).
8, Here, ns elsewhere, the word (Manu) maj designate cidier minkind in general or Manu the epoojmous ancestor of mankind.
THE RIG VEDA I tbink the former is the primary meaning, but since Jvfanu is the brother of Yama who has just been mentioned, there may be reson- ances with the latter meaning too.
9. That is, you may rest after serving us. Cf. 6.9.1 and 6.9.7, and 10. Agni is often called a horse, and the expression ‘harnessing’ him to the task of priest (w. 4 and 7) thus takes on more specific relevance.
11. The clarified butter is the essence of the waters, the most pre- cious 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 personi- fied 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.
10.124 Indi’a Lures Agni from Vrtra Indra speaks on behalf of the gods to lure Agni back when he has fled (cf. 10.5 1). Agni is hiding inside a father (perhaps India’s father; cf. 4.18) who is called an Asura, an enemy of the gods though not yet properly a demon; tliis 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 (1.3 2). Varuna and Soma are also said to have been v/ith the Asura and to abandon him when Agni is persuaded to do so. Indra invites Agni to return (v. i), and Agni accepts (v. 2); Varuna and Soma follow (w. 3-4), and are further encouraged by India’s promises (vv. 6—7). The poet then praises Indra for winnmg these allies (w. 8-9).
/ \bidra{\ ‘Agni I Come to this sacrifice of ours, that has five roads, three layers, and seven threads,^ Be our oblation-bearer and go before us. For far too long you have lain in darkness.’
2 \Agm:\ ‘Secretly going away from the non-god,^ being a god and seeing ahead I go to immortality.
AGNI Unkindly I desert him who was kind to me, as I go from my own friends to a foreign tribe/ } ^J/arma'^ ‘When I see the guest of the other branch,® I measure out the many forms of the Law. I give a fiaendly wammg to the Asura father: I am gomg from the place where tliere is no sacrifice to the portion that has the sacrifice.’
^ [Soma:] ‘I have spent many years withm him. Now I choose Indra and desert the father. Agni, Soma, Varuna— they fell away. The power of kmgship has turned around; tliercfore I have come to help.’ * / [Indra:] ‘Varuna, these Asuras have lost their magic powers,® smce you love me. O kmg who separates false from true, come and rule my kingdom.
‘This was the sunlight, this the blessmg, this the hght and the broad middle realm of space ® Come out. Soma, and let us two kill Vftra. With the oblation we sacnficc to you who are the oblation.’’
7 The poet through his vision fixed his form m the sky; Varuna let the waters flow out vuthout usmg force. Like his ® wives, the shining rivers make him comfortable; they swirl his colour® along their current.
S They’® follow his supreme Indra-power;’’ he dwells in those who rejoice m their own nature Choosing him ns all the people choose a king, they h.avc deserted Vftra whom they loathe p They say that the yoke-mate of those full of loathing’® IS a swan who glides in friendship with the divine waters. The poets through tlieir mcditauon have seen Indra dancing to die Anusfubh.
NOTHS 1. For the number mysticism of the sacrifice, cf i tfif.
s. That IS the Asura, Vftra Cf. 10.51,7, vhcrc Apni demands immortality.
} That IS, when Varuna secs that Af>ni is the truest of die Aviras (liis *oun friends’, cf. a. 55. a) rather than the gods (the ‘fo'ctgn THE RIG VEDA 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 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 Vjrtra.
9. Indra, the poet, places his stamp upon his dominion again, both in form and in colour. His colour {yarnd) 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 Dasas.
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.
4-5 The Mystery of uAgni 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 command- ments’, ‘those without Order or truth’, ‘those whose speech is empty and contrary’, who ‘follow a false path’.
AGNI AGNI etc.). Tliere is also an extended pun upon the word padavi, which designates a footprint (v. 3), a ‘deep place’ (hell? - in V. 5), perhaps with a double meaning of ‘this nddle’ (i.e. ‘f^s 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 meamngs are linked: to know the verse (J}adam) is to know how to follow the footprmt (^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 Agm with a bull, with the substance mside the leather-skm 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 PfSni (the earth) or of the cows of dawn, and with the disc of tlie sun or the sun-btrd, the round ‘face of the gods’. Agni’s parents arc sky and earth, or the fire-sucks (v to); in the latter case, he hungers for the offering of butter as a calf hungers for milk, tlie ‘precious substance’ in the udder of Pf§m; as the sun, the calf of the dawn, Agni is followed by her. Thus the solar, sacnficial, and bovine images inter- twine. The gift that Agni gives the poet is the ‘clanfjdng vision’ that secs that Agm 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 find Agm, the sacred fire.
t How shall we with one accord give homage to tlic benevolent Agm Of-all-men? Great light, by his great and full grosvth he has propped up the sky as a buttress props a rampart.
2 Do not reproach tlie self-ruled god who gave this gift to me, for 1 am a simple mortal, wliile he is the cle\cr immortal, the insightful, most manl) and impetuous Agm Of-all-men.
} The strong bull with sharp horns and seed a thousand- fold has a mighty and double tone.* As one reveals the ”5 THE RIG VEDA Mdden footprint of a cow, Agni has declared to me the inner meaning.
^ Let the generous Agni, sharp-toothed with white-hot flame, devour those who break the dear, firm command- ments of Varum and the watchful Mitra.^ / 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.® 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?