MANDALA I, HYMN 189.

ASHTAKA II, ADHYAYA 5, VARGA 10-11.

1. Agni! Lead us to wealth on a good path, O god who knowest all rules. Drive away from us sin which leads us astray. We will offer to thee the fullest praise.

2. Agni! Thou who art young, help us safely across all difficulties. Be for us a broad, large, wide stronghold, for our kith and kin, with luck and weal .

3. Agni! Drive away from us all plagues. (Then) they shall plague peoples who do not stand under Agni's protection. (Give) us back again the earth, O god, together with all the immortals, O worshipful one, that it may go well with us.

4. Protect us, Agni, with thy unwearied guardians, thou who flamest in thy beloved seat. May no danger, O youngest of the gods, attain thy praiser, not now nor in future, O mighty one!

5. Do not deliver us, O Agni, to the harmful foe, to the greedy one, to the impostor, to misfortune. Do not surrender us, O mighty one, to one who has teeth, who bites, nor to one who has no teeth, nor to one who will hurt us.

6. May a (god) like thee, O Agni, who art born according to Rita, being praised spread out a shelter for the body (of the worshipper that protects) from every one who tries to harm or to revile him. For thou, O god, art a descrier of everything that leads us astray.

7 . Thou, O Agni, distinguishing both (kinds of men, the pious and the impious, or the Aryans and the Dasyus ), eagerly approachest (Aryan) men at (the time of) the advancing (day) , O worshipful one. At (the time of) rest thou hast become governable to the man (or, to Manu; or, thou art to be praised by men ); thou art to be smoothed down like a horse by the Usigs.

8. We have pronounced our invocations, I the son of Mana , before this mighty Agni. May we obtain (our wishes) through a thousand Rishis. May we find a food-giving ... rich in quickening rain .

NOTES.

The same Rishi. Metre, Trishtubh.--Verse 1 = VS. V, 36; VII, 43; XL, 16; TS. I, 1, 14, 3; 4, 43, 1; TB. II, 8, 2, 3; TA. I, 8, 8; MS. I, 2, 13; IV, 10, 2; 14, 3. Verse 2 = TS. I, 1, 14, 4; TB. II, 8, 2, 5; TA. X, 2, 1; MS. IV, 10, 1; 14, 3. Verse 3 = TB. II, 8, 2, 4; MS. IV, 14, 3.

Verse 2.

Note [1:189:2:1]1. 'For health and wealth,' M. M.; see vol. xxxii, p. 193.

Verse 3.

Note [1:189:3:1]1. If the accent is correct (Samh. abhyamanta, Pad. abhi amanta), the clause, though containing no subordinating word, must be understood as standing in logical dependence on the following, or--which in our case seems more probable--on the preceding clause. Examples of this kind have been collected by Delbruck, Altindische

[paragraph continues] Syntax, p. 43.--That krishti'h should be nominative is very improbable; comp. Lanman, Noun-Inflection, 393. See also Leo Meyer, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XVI, 9.

Verse 6.