7 Let our vision that clarifies through sacrificial power reach him who is the same everywhere; the precious substance of the dappled cow is iu the leather-skin of food, and the disc of the sun has moimted to the head of the earth-cow.
8 What of this speech of mine should I proclaim? They murmur about the secret hidden in the depths: when they have opened the mystery of the cows of dawn, like a door upon a flood, he^ protects the beloved head of the earth-cow, the place of the bird.
y This is that great face of the great gods, that the cow of dawn followed as it went in front. I found it shining in the place of the Order, moving swiftly, swiftly.
10 As he blazed beside his parents with his open mouth,'he “thought of the precious hidden substance of the dappled cow. In the farthest place of the mother, facing the cow, the tongue of the bull, of the flame, stretches forth.
11 When questioned I speak reverently of the Order, if I may, trusting in you who know all creatures. You rule over all this, over aU the riches in heaven and aU the riches on earth.
12 What is ours of this, what riches, what treasure? Tell us, for you understand, you who know all creatures.® Hidden is the farthest end of our road, where we have gone as those who fail follow a false path.
AGNI What are the Itmits? What are the rules? What is the goal? We wish to go there as racehorses speed towards die victory prize. When will the Dawns, goddesses and wives of immortahty, spread over us their hght with the colour of the sun?
14 Those whose speech is empty and contrary, insipid and petty, who leave one unsatisfied, what can they say here, Agm? Unarmed, let them fall defeated, r/ The face of the bull, of this deity kindled for beauty, shone forth m the house. Clothed in white, beautiful in form and rich in- gifts, he glowed hke a home full of riches.
NOTES 1. The bellow of the bull is likened to the two tones of the Vcdic hymn (the high and middle pitch).
2 Varuna and Mitra arc the keepers of the moral law Cf, 5 85.7.
3. A possible reference to Hell (cf 7 104 3) But here the meaning is mote positive (as both ‘deep’ and ‘place’ arc positive terms in this and in other hymns of the JLr^ Veda), and the phrase more likely refers to the world of light under the earth, where the sun moves from West to East at night.
4 Agni 6 9 ihe Yojmg Pocf A young poet, doubting his powers in the ritual compcution (v. 2), seeks mspirauon from Agm himself m solving the nddle of Agm, as usual a nddlc of origins. The first and last verses (and v. 3) speak of the cosmic Agm, the sun that disappears at night (v. i) or tihen he flees* or is simpi) not present before light is created (v. 7). He appears among mortals,as the ritual fire (v 4) and as the power of inspiration (3b-d), that teaches the poet how to surpass his own father (t'v. 2-5); this inspiration transfigures the poet, but also makes him even more aware of tlic impossibility of describing Agm (v. C) THE RIG VEDA 1 The dark day and the bright day, the two realms of space, ^ turn by their own wisdom. As Agni Of-all-men was born, like a king he drove back the darkness with light.
2 I do not know how to stretch the thread, nor weave the cloth, nor what they® weave as they enter the contest. Whose son could speak here such words that he would be above and his father below?
3 He^ is the one who knows how to stretch the thread lLnd^weave~^^~cioA^K^^^ripeak~t^ right ^roj^sTlJe-- whb~undej:s.tands-thisA-is the-^ guardian of immortalij^^ ■though he moyj^ below, another^ he^sees above him.
^ ’‘This~is*^the first priest of the oblation;® look at him. This is the immortal light among mortals. This is the one who was born and firmly fixed, the immortal grow- ing great in his body.
/ He is light firmly fixed for everyone to see,® the thought swiftest among aU who fly. All the gods, with one mind and one will, rightly come to the one source of thought.® 6 My ears fly open, my eye opens, as does this light that is fixed in my heart. My mind flies up, straining into the distance. What shall I say? What shall I think?
7 All the gods bowed to you in fear, Agni, when you hid yourself in darkness.^® May Agni Of-all-men save us with his help; may the immortal save us with his help.
NOTES 2. Night and day, the dark and light sides of the sun, become part of the dark and light halves of the universe.
3. The other sages in the contest. For the image of weaving the 4. Agni himself, or the inspired poet.
5. The thread that stretches from earth to heaven, as well as the thread of inspiration that enables him to weave his poem; a form of the axis mimdi as well as the spiritual link between gods and men.
6. The Hotf of whom Agni is the archetype. The invoker of the gods.
AGNI 7. The ritual 6rc cstabhshcd in the traditioa; also the suif fixed in the sky.
8. The sun, who sees all, is seen by all, and allows everyone to see, g.Agm as the source of inspiration, or the man who knows 10.5 T/je Htddeu Agni Riddles and speculations about the nature of Agni make use of various tropes and metaphors familiar from other hymns, not only the Agm hymns but the cosmological and cosmogomc corpus and the meditations on the sacrifice. The image of the hidden and concealed Agm predommatcs and links the other images.
/ The one sea with many births,^ support of treasures, he sees out of our heart. He chngs to the udder m the lap of the two who are concealed,^ the path of the bird is hidden m the midst of the fountain, z The buffaloes bursting with seed, veilmg themselves have umted with the marcs m the same stable.^ The poets hide the path of the Truth;^ they keep secret their highest ruimcs.
} The two who arc made of Truth yet made of magic have come toEcthcr;-thcv havc^ made 2. child and_givcn birth to him andjnadc him grow. He is the navel of all that moves and is firm.jwho^with.his mind, stretches die thread of the poet.
if For the waves of trudi, die refreshing foods, liavc always clung to the wcll-bom child for reward ® Wearing a cloak, the two world-halves made him grow on butter and food and honey.
/ Full of desire, the wise one brought die seven red sisters out of the honey to see.® Born long ago, he was yol cd in mid-air; seeking a robe to hide him, he found POfttn’s.’
”7 THE RIG VEDA 6 The poets fashioned seven boundaries; he who was ' trapped ® went to only one of them. The pillar of life s vigour, he stands in the nest of the Highest, among the supports at the end of the paths.
7 Non-existence and existence are in the highest heaven, in the lap of Aditi and the birth of Daksa.® Agni is for us the first-born of Truth in the ancient vigour of life: the bull - and also the cow.^® NOTES 1. A double meaning: Agni himself is born many times, and he is responsible for many births.
2. Heaven and earth are the parents of Agni, but so are the two fire-sticks.
3. The flames of Agni are often feminine, but they are also called male buffaloes, bulls, or stallions full of seed; their ‘stable’ (liter- ally, their nest, as in v. 6) is the wood in which they rest together with the females of the breed, also the flames. Or the male and female animals may be the male and female sticks.
4. ftto, often translated as ‘Order’ (cf. 1.164.11, 1.164.37, 1.164.47), in this late hymn, seems better translated as ‘truth’.
5. The magic nourishment is part of the realm of Order or truth, embodied in Agni; these powers nurse him for pay, for the reward of mamtaining their own prosperity and that of the world.
6. The seven sisters are the mares who are Agni’s flames, here said to break out of the sweet butter poured on the fire. They come forth both to see and to be seen, a double meaning often attributed to the sun.
7. Symbolism relating to the birth of the sun, as well as to the concealment of Agni.
8. Literally, suffering from the feeling of being unable to move freely, a word often translated as ‘in anguish’ but here perhaps more literally hemmed in.
9. For existence and non-existence, cf. jo. 129.1; for Dak?a and 10. The androgyny of A^i, already present in a veiled form in verse 2, here becomes explicit. For Parjanya as the bull and cow, SOMA T HE Soma plant is visualized m the Ejt^ Veda as a god and as a liquid, pressed by stones m wooden bowls and filtered through a woollen sieve. These processes are descnbed m some detail (9.74, 10.94) and are the inspiration for a rich cloth of imagery woven by the Vedic poet, an imagery also applied to the flowing of the sacrificial butter (4.58): women uniting with lovers, wild animals attackmg, nvers flovnng to the sea. Soma can be dangerous (8.79.7-8; 8.48.10) but the cflects of drinking Soma are usually admired, or at least sought after: a sense of immense personal power (10 119, particularly valuable in the god Indra), mtimations of immortality (9 113), the assurance of rmmortahty (8.48), and the halluanations of trance (10.136). Soma’s form and activities are referred to in several other hymns m this collection: 8 91, 9.iiz, 10 8j, 10.94, 10.109; the story of his descent from heaven (4.26-7) is the only episode m his mythology narrated m any detail.
8-79 This 'Bdsstless Soma 1 This restless Soma - you try to grab him but he breaks away and overpowers everythmg. He is a sage and a seer inspired by poetry 2 He covers the naked and heals all who are sick. The blind man sees, the lame man steps forth.
3 Soma, ybu are a broad defence agamst those who hate us, both enemies we have made ourselves and those made by others.
4 Through your knowledge and skills, rushing forward you drive out of the sky and the earth the evil deed of the enemy / Let those who seek find what they seek: let them receive the treasure given by the generous and stop the greedy from getting what they want <5" I/Ct him^ find what was lost before, let him push for- ward the man of truth Let him stretch out the life- span that has not yet crossed its span.
7 Be kind and merciful to us. Soma, be good to our heart, without confusmg our powers in your whirlwind.
S King Soma, do not enrage us; do not terrify us, do not wound our heart with dazzling hght.
9 Give help, when you sec the evil plans of the gods m your own house.- Generous king, keep away hatreds, keep away failures.
NOTBS 1. Sorm or the man inspired by Soma.
2 Soma IS asked to intercede for tlic votshipper among the other gods, as Agni often docs 9 74 Soma Pressed w the Bomls This hjmn describes in metaphors the pressing of Soma in the Soma-bowls and die pouring of die juices througlt a THE RIG VEDA THE RIG VEDA filter made of wool. The processes arc likened to the milking of rain out of the clouds and the downpouring of the torrents upon the earth; to the pouring of seed into a womb to produce cWldren; and to the winning of a race. In addition to their function as metaphors, those images serve also to express the goals of life diat the poet hopes will be achieved by the Soma sacrifice: rain, fertility, and wealth. Cows appear in all of these metaphors: as symbols of the milk or water with v/hich the Soma is mb:cd; as clouds from which rain is milked; as women who bear children; and as the prize to be won by the racehorse. Soma appears sometimes as a male animal (calf, horse, bull), sometimes as a female (identi- fied with the cows), like Parjanya and Agni in other hymns; he is further identified with more abstract and general forms such as the navel of Order, the pillar of the sky (licrc identi- fied with the stalk of the “Soma plant), and the pasture or lap of Aditi - the highest heaven (here identified with the Soma bowl). The metaphors intertwine in many ways, as when rain is called the seed of tlie sky or the water in the bowl is called a wave of the cosmic ocean.
T Like a nevr-born child he bellows in the wood,^ the tawny racehorse straining to win the sun. He unites with the sky’s seed that grows great with milk.^ With Idnd thoughts we pray to him for far-reaching shelter.
2 He who is the pHlar of the sky, the well-adorned support, the full stalk that encircles all around, he is the one who by tradition sacrifices to these two great world-halves. The poet® holds together the conjoined pair, and the refreshing foods.
^ The honey of Soma is a great feast; the _wide ^pasture of Aditi is for ^e mam who follows the^right- way. Child of dawn, the bull who rules over the rain here, leader of the waters, worthy of hymns, he is the one who brings help here.
4 Butter and milk are milked from the living cloud; the navel of Order, the ambrosia is born. Together those who SOMA bring fine gifts satisfy him; the swollen men^ piss down the fluid set m motion.
/ The stalk roared as it muted with the wave, ® for man he swells the skm that attracts the gods He places m the lap of Aditi the seed by which we win sons and grand- sons.
Rclendessly they ® flow down mto the filter of a thousand streams; let them have offsprmg m the third realm of the world. Four hidden sprmgs poutmg forth butter carry down from the sky the ambrosia that is the oblation.
7 He takes on a white colour when he strains to wm; Soma, the generous Asura, knows the whole world He chngs to inspired thought and ritual action as he goes forth; let him hurl down from the sky the cask full of water. Now he has gone to the white pot coated by cows; the racehorse has reached the winnmg hne and has won a hundred cows for Kak$Ivat, the man of a hundred ■winters’ Longmg for the gods in their heart, they® hasten forth.
9 Clarifying Soma, when you arc sated with waters your juice runs through the sieve made of woo) Polished by the poets. Soma who brmgs supreme ecstasy, be sweet for Indra to drink.
NOTES 1. Soma as a new-bom calf or horse wanders in the ‘forest’ of the w ooden prcssing-bowls 2 The seed of heaven is the rain that mixes with the milk of the clouds, as Soma mixes wnth the milk in the bow Is Soma is identified w ith. the sun, who is called a poet, propping apart and holding together the pair of sky and earth, his parents.
4 The Maruts arc the swollen men (clouds) who urinate the Soma (a male image) after it has been milked from the clouds (a female image) Soma is the living, androgjaious cloud from which milk and rain arc pressed 5. Soma is the stalk; the wave is the w ater that mixes w ith It Tltc skin of the plant swells like the Icatlicr water-skin 111 cned to the THE RIG VEDA raiit-clouds (cf. 1.85.5, 5 *8 3*7) or the overturned cask (v. 7), both attributes of Parjanya.
6. The streams of Soma likened to rains arc to have their * off- spring’ in the third' realm, for the floods of rain renew themselves in heaven. Cf. T.164, 7. Kak?ivat, said to have been saved by the Alvins (i. 1 1 6.7), may have regained his youth, as did many others helped by the Aivins.
8. The Soma juices, or the priests.
A hymn to the stones that press the Soma juice. Tlie noise that they make while grinding the stalks of the plant, and their action in devouring (i.e. destroying) the fibres while releasing the juices, suggest the actions of animals (cows, bulls, horses) that growl or bellow and swallow the liquid.
1 Let them’- raise their voices, and let us raise our voices. Speak your speech^ to the stones that speak, when you stones, you mountains full of Soma, rush to bring the rhythmic sormd to Indra.
2 They speak in a himdred ways, a thousand ways, howling with their green jaws.^ Working bushy and well to do the good work, the stones have succeeded in eating the oblation even before the priest of the oblation.
^ They speak: they have found the honey. They growl and gnaw on the cooked meat.^ As they snap at the branch of the red tree,® the bulls who have grazed well begin to bellow.
4 They speak loudly, excited by the exhilarating drink. They shout to Indra: they have found the honey. Artfully they danced with the sisters that embrace them,® making the earth echo with their stampings.
/ The eagles have sent their cry up to the sky. Ardently the dark hinds danced in the meadow. They plunge deep to^ the rendezvous with the lower stone; they infuse it with floods of the seed of the sun-bright one.'^ 6 Like brawny draught animals yoked together, these IZ4 .. SOMA bulls lie shaft and pull as a team. When they bellow, panting and chewing the,cud, they sound like race- horses whinnymg.
7 Sing to them that have ten girths,® ten yoke-straps, ten harnesses, ten reins that never wear out, to them that are yoked ten times to bear ten shafts.
S The stones are swift horses; their bridle with ten thongs fits them comfortably. They have tasted the filtered juice of the first pressmg of the Soma jmce rmlked from the stalk.
9 These Soma-eaters kiss Indra’s pair of bays. As they Bulk the stalk they sit upon the ox.® When Indra has drunk the honey they have milked he grows great and acts like a bull.
10 Your stalk is a bull; surely you will not be harmed. You are always overflowmg with nourishment, sated with food. You arc lovely m your splendour hke the daughter of a rich man at whose sacrifice you stones rejoice.
tr Porous or not porous, the stones never tire, never rest, never die; they are never sick or old or shaken by passion; nicely fat, they are free from thirst and desire ra Your fathers^® are entirely firm in age after age; peace- loving, they do not budge from their spot. Untouched by age, the compamons of the tawny one^^ are like the saffron trcc;^® they have made the sky and the earth hsten to dicir uproar The stones speak the same when they are unyoked and when they arc on their journey, with their stampings like the noises of men who dnnk deeply Like those who sow seed and grow grain, they gobble up the Soma v ith- out diminishing it as they lap it up, ^4 They have raised tlicir voices for the sacnficial juice, hke plajfful children jostling a mother. Set free the in- spiration of the one who presses Soma, and let the stones that V. c hold in awe return to being stones THE RIG VEDA NOTES 1. The stones arc first referred to, and then arc addressed after the priests, at the end of the verse.
2. Here the poet addresses the priests, whose chants of invocation to Indra arc equated with tiie noise of the stones that Indra hears.
3. Their jaws arc green with the juice of the Soma plant, also called yellow, red (as in v. 3), or tawny.
4. Soma is here imagined as a sacrificial animal eaten by the stones.
5. Soma, 6. The ten fingers that hold the stones.
7. Soma.
8. The ten fingers again, here imagined as draught animals as in the previous verse.
9. The Soma stalks arc placed upon an oxhide.
10. The mountains, as in verse 1, arc the fathers of the stones.
11. Soma is the tawny one; as he grows in the mountains, they are his companions.
12. The stones (or the mountains) become yellow through con- tact with Soma.
13. That is, lose those awesome qualities that they took on during the ritual and return to being mere stones. The ritual objects must be desanctified after the ritual.
4*58 Buffer The clarified butter is visualized, in. three forms (v. 3) j as the actual butter used as the oblation, as the Soma juice, and as perfected speech in the heart of the poet.
^ wave of honey arose out of the ocean; mingling yfith the stalk,^ it became the elixir of immortality, that ^ the secret name of butter: 'tongue of the gods’, navel of immortality’.
a We will proclaim the name of butter; we will sustain it in this sacrifice by bowing low. When it has been pro- nounced, let the Brahmin priest hear it. This four- horned buffalo 2 has let it slip out.^ ^ Four horns, three feet has he; two heads and seven SOMA hands has he. Bound threefold, the bull bellows The great god has entered mortals.
4 In the cow the gods found the butter that had been divided into three parts and hidden by the Pams.* Indra brought forth one form, SOrya one, and firom the very substance of Vena® they fashioned one.
/ These streams of butter flow from the ocean of the heart,® enclosed by a hundred fences so that the enemy cannot see them. I gaae upon them, the golden reed^ is m their midst 6 Our words flow together like rivers, made clear by understandmg deep withm the heart.® These waves of butter flow like gazelles fleemg before a himter 7 Like whirlpools in the current of a nver, the young streams of butter surge forth and swell with the waves, overtaking the wind like a chestnut racehorse that breaks through the sides of the track.® ^ Smihng, the streams of butter rush to Agm hke beautiful ■women to a festival They touch the fuel-socks, and Agm joyously woos them.
9 I gaze upon them. They are hke girls anomting them- selves with perfumed oil to go to a wedding Where Soma IS pressed, where there is a sacnfice, there the streams of butter arc made clear to Let a fine song of praise flow forth, and a race that wms cows Bring us auspicious nehes Licad this sacrifice of ours to the gods The honeyed streams of butter become clear.
The whole umverse is set in your essence within the ocean, within the heart, in the hfe-span.'® Let us wan your honeyed wave that is brought to the face of the waters as they flow togctlier.
NOTI.S 1, Tlie Soma etnlk mixes w ith the ■a-atcr to make the juice of Jmmomllrj- 1. Soma Is imagined os a buftito and. In the next s 01*0, as a bull.
THE RIG VEDA 3. He emits the secret, the Soma, and his seed, all as butter.
4. Indra released the cows that had been penned up by the Panis (human and demonic enemies of the invading Indo-Aryans), finding the butter (Soma as milk) within them. Cf. 3.31 and 10.108.
5. The seer identified with the sun-bird. Cf. 10.123, 6. The Soma juices, once imbibed, are said to be in the heart, as is the poet’s inspiration.
7. The Soma plant full of butter and seed.
8. Soma is clarified in the filter, butter is clarified by boiling, and thought is clarified in the heart.
9. The track is simultaneously the fence aroxind the race-track, the banks of the river, and the normal channels of thought.
10. The life-span belongs both to butter (that gives immortality, as Soma) and to the poet (whose inspiration, in the ocean that is his heart, gives him immortality).
4.26-7 Soma and Indra and the Eagle These two closely related hymns centre upon the myth of the theft of the elixir of immortality. This Indo-European theme appears in Russia as the fire-bird and in Greece as the myth of Prometheus — for Soma is the ‘fiery juice*, simul- taneously fire and water (Agni-Somau), that gives immortality. Soma is born in heaven (or in the mountains) and closely guarded by demonic powers; an eagle carries Indra to heaven to bring the Soma to men and gods (or an eagle brings the Soma to Indra - cf. 4.18.13), escaping with merely the loss of a single feather from the one shot loosed by the guardian archer.
The first hymn begins with a song of drunken self-praise y Indra (w. 1—4; cf. 10.115) and then tells the story of the eagle (w. 5-7). The second hymn begins with the self- prmse of the eagle (v. i), then a verse spoken by Soma, and a return to the narration of the myth.
I [Indra;] ‘ I was Manu and I was the Sun; 1 1 am Kaksivat, toe wise sage.2 I surpassed Kutsa toe son of Arjuna;^ 1 am the inspired U^anas - look at me I SOMA 2 ‘I gave the earth to the Aryan; I gave rain to the mortal "who made an oflFenng. I led forth the roaring water;® the gods followed after my wish.
i ‘Ecstatic with Soma I shattered the nine and ninety fortresses of Sambara® all at once, finishing off the inhabitant as the hundredth, as I gnve aid to Divodasa Atithigva.
4 ‘O Maruts, the bird shall be supreme above all birds, the swift-flying eagle above all eagles, since by his own dnvmg power that needs no chariot wheels, with his powerful wings he brought to man the oblation loved by the gods,’ / Fluttermg’ as he brought it® down, the bird swift as thought shot forth on the wide path; swiftly the eagle came with the honey of Soma and won fame for that ^ Stretching out m flight, holdmg the stem, the eagle brought the exhilarating and mtoxicating drink ftom the distance. Accompanied by the gods,® the bird clutched the Soma tightly after he took it from that highest heaven 7 When the eagle had taken the Soma, he brought it for a thousand and ten thousand pressmgs at once. The bnngcr of abundance»® left his enemies behind there, ecstatic with Soma, the wise one left the fools.
1 [The eagle ] ‘While soil in the womb, I knew all the generations of these gods. A hundred iron fortresses gm-irdcd mc,-^ but I, the eagle,” swiftly flew away 2 [J’ottfl.-l ‘He” did not drag me out against my will, tor I surpassed him m energy and manly strength. In a flash, the bringcr of abundance left his enemies behind as he outran the winds, svcHing with power.
/ As the caeic came shrieking down from heaven, and as they” led the brmgcr of abundance down from there hkc the uind. as tjtc archer Kr^lnu.” reacting quickly, aimed down at him and let loose bis bovstnng, tap THE RIG VEDA 4 the eagle bearing Indra brought him down like Bhujyu^® from the summits of heaven, stretching out in swift flight. Then a wing feather fell in mid-air^® from the bird as he swooped on the path of flight.
/ The white goblet overflowing with cows* milk, the finest honey, the clear juice offered by the priests^® - now let the generous Indra raise it to drink until ecstatic with Soma; let the hero raise it to drink until ecstatic with Soma.
NOTES 1. In his ecstatic sense of self-importance and omnipotence, Indta identifies himself with various mythic personages; the sun is another form of the prize won by the celestial fire-bird (or, in other variants, the sun is the fire-bird himself), and Manu, the eponymous ancestor of mankind, is the one to whom the Soma is brought 2. Indra identifies himself with the sage whom he inspires. Cf. Kak9ivat in 9,74,8.
3. Indra and Kutsa are sometimes enemies in the Kig Veda^ sometimes allies in feats such as fighting with the serpent §u§na and stealing the solar disc.
4. USanas is an inspired sage and priest.
5. By destroying the fortresses of the demons, Indra releases the waters; cf, 1.32.
6. A demon, the enemy of Indra and of Divodasa; with India’s help, Divodasa destroys the demon’s fortresses that imprison the eagle with the Soma.
7. In fear of the archer shooting at him (4.27.3).
8. The Soma.
9. The gods as the attendants of Indra. ' ' 10. ^dra, perhaps riding on the eagle. Elsewhere (cf. i.i 16.13), the brmger of abundance (Purandhi) is a female divinity.
allusion to the demon’s fortresses (cf. 4.26.3), in w c t e eagle is kept; perhaps the Soma was guarded there and ^ e eag e was kept there after the theft, though Soma may have been imptisMed alone earlier in order to forestaU the theft.
® eagle boasts in response to India’s praise of him (4.26.4). 13. The eagle, or Indra riding on the eagle.
SOMA 14. Probably the gods, 'or perhaps the winds mentioned in the previous verse ^5- A demon placed as guardian over the Soma 16. The ASvins rescued Bhujyu from the ocean, Cf T.116 3-4, ly- The feather turned into a plant used as a substitute for the ooma plant, 18, Half-way between shy and earth, ritual Adhvatyus, responsible for the performance of the Soma 10,119 The Soma-Drinker Praises Himself Under the influence of the drug Soma, a sage or god praises mself 1 The god may be Indra or Agm, though the former more hkely and is supported by the Indian commentarial tradiuon; either god may be mcarnate in the worshipper speaking the hymn As he dnnks, his boasts become progres- sively more Gargantuan.
t This, yes, this is my thought. I will wm® a cow and a horse. Have 1 not drunk Soma?
•2 Like impetuous winds, the drinks have lifted me up. Have I not drunk Soma?
i The dnnks have hfted me up, like swift horses bolting ■with a chanot. Have I not drunk Soma?
■f The prayer has come to me* as a lowing cow comes to her beloved son Have I not drunk Soma?
/ 1 turn tile prayer around in my^ heart, as a whcclwnght turns a chanot scat Have I not drunk Soma?
S Tlic live tribes'* arc no more to me than a mote in tlic eye Have 1 not drunk Soma^ 7 The tvo world hahes® cannot be set against’ a single Ming of mine •* Have I not drunk Soma-* ^ In my vastness, I surpassed the sky and tins last earth Have I not drunk Soma-’ y Ycsl I vill place the earth here, or perhaps there. Ha\c 1 not drunk Soma?
10 II 12 ^3 THE RIG VEDA I will thrash the earth soundly, here, or perhaps there.
Have I not drunk Soma?, One of my wings is in the sky; I have traded the oth below.® Have I not drunk Soma?, I am huge, huge I flying to the cloud. Have I not drum.
Soma?. - I am going^® - a well-stocked house, carrying the oD tion to the gods.^ Have I not drunk Soma?
NOTES 2. The verb can mean to win for oneself or for someone e • Indra is speaking, he wants them for himself; if Agni, to. to the other gods or to give to the poet; if the poet, to ° gods. Since the poet imagines that he has become a god, all o meanings are simultaneously present. _ to 3. As a god, he receives the prayer and ‘turns it aroun ^ decide whether or not to accept it; as a poet, he receives e lu spiration of the prayer and ‘turns it around’ to perfect it.