Inspirations

I Pray to Agni

1 I pray to Agni, the household priest 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 bring the gods here.

3 Through Agni one may win wealth, and growth from day to day, glorious and most abounding in heroic sons.

4 Agni, the sacrificial ritual that you encompass on all sides – only that one goes to the gods.

5 Agni, the priest with the sharp sight of a poet, the true and most brilliant, the god will come with the gods.

6 Whatever good you wish to do for the one who worships you, Agni, through you, O Angiras, that comes true.

7 To you, Agni, who shine upon darkness, we come day after day, bringing our thoughts and homage

8 to you, the king over sacrifices, the shining guardian of the Order, growing in your own house.

9 Be easy for us to reach, like a father to his son. Abide with us, Agni, for our happiness.

Agni and the Gods

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.

3 The father sacrifices for his son, the comrade for his comrade, the favourite friend for his friend.

4 May Varua, Mitra and Aryaman, proud of their powers, sit upon our sacred grass, as upon Manu’s.

5 You who were the first to invoke, rejoice in our friendship 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 Agni, young spawn of strength, with all the fires take pleasure in this sacrifice and in this speech.

The Birth of Agni

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 him born when his mother bore him.

3 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?

4 I s

aw him moving far away from his field, and his fine herd no longer shining brightly. They could not grasp him, for he had been born; the young women became grey with age.

5 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 Sunasepha was bound 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.