MANDALA III, HYMN 18.

ASHTAKA III, ADHYAYA 1, VARGA 18.

1. Be kind, O Agni, when we approach thee, as a friend a friend, as parents , a straight leader. For full of deceit are the tribes of men: burn thou against (all) malign powers so that they turn back.

2. Burn, O Agni, the nearer enemies, burn the curse of the distant evil-doer. Burn, O Vasu, seeing the unseen ones. May thy never-ageing, never-tiring flames spread out.

3. Wishing for (thy blessings), O Agni, by fuel and ghee I offer this sacrificial food for (the attainment of) advancing power and of strength; worshipping thee with my spell as far as I have power (I offer) this divine prayer for the attainment of hundred(fold blessings).

4. (Shining) forth with thy flame, O son of strength, praised (by us), bestow mighty vigour on those who toil for thee, bright luck and welfare, O Agni, on the Visvamitras! We have cleaned thy body many times.

5. Give us treasures, O best gainer of riches: such indeed art thou, Agni, when thou hast been kindled. In the blessed praiser's house thou hast placed, together with wealth, thy mighty(?) arms , thy marvellous shapes.

NOTES.

The same Rishi and metre.--Verse 2 = TA. IV, 5, 5. Verse 3 = AV. III, 15, 3.

Verse 1.

Note [3:18:1:1]1. It is rather strange that Agni is compared with the two parents. Generally it is the two Asvins, or Heaven and Earth, or the pair of Indra and Varuna, &c.. who are compared with father and mother (see Hirzel, Gleichnisse und Metaphern im Rigveda, 71 seq.). No doubt in our verse the dual was chosen on account of the metre.--I do not think that Bollensen (Orient und Occident, II, 473) and Kirste (Bezzenberger's Beitrage, XVI, 297) are right in believing that a dative of pitri is found here, and in translating: 'as a good (son) to his father.'

Verse 2.

Note [3:18:2:1]1. The meaning of aya'sah is doubtful; comp. Brugmann in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXIV, 24 seq.; M. M., vol. xxxii, p. 371 (VI, 66, 5); von Bradke, Festgruss an Roth, 124.

Verse 5.

Note [3:18:5:1]1. On sripra, see I, 96, 3, note 3. Karasna must mean something like 'arm,' though the exact meaning is doubtful. In VIII, 32, 10 the compound sriprakarasna occurs. Prof. Max Muller writes: 'Thou hast brightly assumed a body with soft arms or with stretched-out arms, if we do not read sriprakarasna.'