SUKTA 1

1. High and vast the Fire stood in front of the dawns; issuing out of the darkness he came with the Light: Fire, a perfect body of brilliant lustre, filled out at his very birth all the worlds.

2. Thou art the child born from earth and heaven, the child beautiful carried in the growths of earth; an infant many-hued, thou goest forth crying aloud from the mothers around the nights and the darknesses.

3. Vishnu knowing rightly the supreme plane of this Fire, born in his vastness, guards the third (plane); when in his mouth they have poured the milk (of the cow), conscious they shine here towards his own home.

4. Hence the mothers who bear that draught come with their food to thee, and thou growest by the food: to them the same, but other in their forms, thou comest (returnest) again, then art thou Priest of the call in human beings.

5. The Priest of the call of the pilgrim-rite with his many- hued chariot, in the brilliant ray of intuition of sacrifice on sacrifice, Fire the guest of man who takes to himself the half of each god in might and glory.

6. Putting on robes, putting on forms, Fire in the navel-centre of the earth is born a ruddy flame, in the seat of Revelation. O King, as the Priest set in front sacrifice to the gods.

7. Ever, O Fire, thou hast stretched out earth and heaven, as their son thou hast built up thy father and mother: O ever young, journey towards the gods who desire thee; then bring them to us, O forceful Flame!

SUKTA 2

1. Satisfy the desire of the gods, O thou ever young, do sacrifice here, a knower of its order and its times, O master of the order and time of things, [[In the exoteric sense, "rtu" seems to mean the rites of the sacrifice.]] with those who are divine priests of the order of the work thou, O Fire, art the strongest for sacrifice.

2. Thou comest to men's invocation, thou comest to the purification, thou art the thinker, the giver of the riches, the possessor of the Truth: may we make the offerings with svaha; may Fire, availing, do the sacrifice, a god to the gods.

3. We have come to the path of the gods, may we have power to tread it, to drive forward along that road. The Fire is the knower, let him do sacrifice; he verily is the Priest of the call, he makes effective the pilgrim-sacrifices and the order of our works.

4. Whatever we may impair of the laws of your workings, O gods, we in our ignorance maiming your workings who know, all that may the Fire who is a knower make full by that order in time with which he makes effective the gods.

5. What in thee sacrifice mortals in the ignorance of their minds, poor in discernment, cannot think out, that the Fire knows, the Priest of the call, the finder of the right-will, strongest of sacrificants and does the sacrifice to the gods in the order and times of the truth.

6. The father brought thee to birth, the force of all pilgrim-sacrifices, the many-hued ray of intuition; so do thou win for us by sacrifice in the line of the planes with their god heads, their desirable and opulent universal forces.

7. Thou whom heaven and earth, thou whom the waters, thou whom the form-maker, creator of perfect births, have brought into being; O Fire, luminously along the path of the journey of the Fathers, knowing it beforehand, high-kindled blaze.

SUKTA 3

1. He is seen high-kindled, the master ruling all, the traveller, the terrible, he who creates perfectly right understanding, awake to knowledge he shines wide with a vast lustre; driving the ruddy bright cow he comes to the dark one.

2. When he overspread with his body the black night and the dappled dawn bringing to birth the young maiden born from the great Father, pillaring the high-lifted light of the sun, the traveller shines out with the riches [[Or, the shining ones]] of heaven.

3. He has come closely companioning her, happy with her happy, a lover he follows behind his sister; Fire spreading out with his lights full of conscious knowledge overlays her beauty with his ruddy shining hues.

4. His movements flaming send forth as if vast callings of Fire the beneficent comrade in the march of this mighty and adorable flame, the vast and beautiful his radiances blazing have waked to knowledge.

5. His blazings as he shines stream like sounds of bright heaven in its vastness; with his greatest, most splendid and opulent lights at play he travels to heaven.

6. His strengths are those of a thunderbolt seen in the hurling, they neigh aloud in their teams; he, the traveller, most divine, shines wide-pervading with his ancient ruddy chanting fires.

7. So carry for us, so take thy seat, the mighty traveller of the young earth and heaven, Fire the swift and vehement with his swift and vehement horses, - - so mayst thou come to us here.

SUKTA 4

1. To thee I sacrifice, to thee I send forth my thought so that thou mayst manifest thyself adorable at our call; thou art like a fountain in the desert to longing men, O ancient king, O Fire.

2. O ever- young flame, towards thee men move, like herds that go to a warm pen; thou art the messenger of gods and mortals, thou movest between them vast through the luminous world.

3. The mother bears thee like an infant child clinging cherishingly to thee, increasing thee to be a conqueror; headlong down over the dry land he goes rejoicing, he is fain to go like an animal let loose.

4. O thou who art conscious and free from ignorance, ignorant are we and we know not thy greatness, thou only knowest. Covert he lies, he ranges devouring with his tongue of flame, he licks the young earth and is the master of her creatures.

5. Anywhere he is born new in eternal wombs; he stands in the forest hoary-old with smoke for his banner: a bull unbathed he journeys to the waters and mortals who are conscious lead him on his way.

6. Two robbers abandoning their bodies, rangers of the forest, have planted him in his place with ten cords. This is thy new thinking, O Fire, yoke thyself to it with thy illumining limbs like a chariot.

7. Thine is this wisdom-word, O knower of all things born, and this prostration, this utterance is thine; may it have ever the power to make thee grow. Guard all that are offspring of our begetting, guard undeviatingly our bodies.

SUKTA 5

1. One sole ocean holding all the riches, born in manifold births from our heart it sees all; there cleaves to the teat in the lap of the two secret ones in the midst of the fountain source the hidden seat of the being.

2. The stallions inhabiting a common abode, the great stallions have met with the mares. The seers guard the seat of the Truth, they hold in the secrecy the supreme Names.

3. The two mothers in whom is the Truth, in whom is the mage-wisdom, formed him and brought to birth like an infant child, they have put him firm in his place and make him grow. Men found in him the navel-centre of all that is moving and stable and they weave by the mind the weft of the seer.

4. Him well-born the routes of the Truth and its ancient impulsions close companion for the plenitude. Heaven and earth give lodging to him whose dwelling is above them, [[Or, as their inhabitant,]] they make him grow by the lights and foods of their sweetnesses.

5. Desiring the seven shining sisters, the knower bore on high their sweetnesses that he might have vision; he who was born from of old laboured within in the mid-world, he wished for and found the covering of the all-fostering sun.

6. The seers fashioned the seven goals, [[Or, the seven frontiers,]] towards one of them alone goes the narrow and difficult road. A pillar of the supreme being in its abode, he stands at the starting-out of the ways, in the upholding laws.

7. He is the being and non- being in the supreme ether, in the birth of the Understanding in the lap of the indivisible mother. Fire comes to us as the first-born of the Truth, he is the Bull and milch-Cow in the original existence.

SUKTA 6

1. This is he in whose peace, [[ Or, house of refuge,]] and in his approach to it grows by his guardings the worshipper of the Fire, who encompasses all and is spread everywhere luminous with the largest lights of the wise. [[Or, with his largest lights for the wise.]]

2. Fire, who shines perpetual, possessor of the Truth, luminous with divine lights, he who follows out the works of a comrade for his comrades like a courser running straight to his goal.

3. He who has power for every advent of godhead, who has power for the outbreak of the dawn and is the life of all, Fire in whom our thinkings are cast as offerings, his chariot goes unhurt and he supports all his strengths.

4. Increasing by his strengths, rejoicing in his illuminations he goes a swift galloper towards the gods; he is the rapturous Priest of the call, strong to sacrifice with his tongue of flame, inseparable from the gods the Fire sheds on them his light.

5. Him fashion for you with your words and your obeisances as if Indra quivering at the dawn-ray, him whom illumined sages voice with their thoughts, the knower of all things born, the overpowering Flame.

6. Thou in whom all the Riches meet together in the plenitude like horses by their gallopings in their speed towards the goal, the protections most desired by Indra to us make close, O Fire.

7. Now, indeed, taking thy seat in thy greatness, O Fire, in thy very birth thou hast become the one to whom we must call; the gods walked by the ray of thy intuition, then they grew and were the first and supreme helpers.

SUKTA 7

1. Found for us felicity of earth and heaven and universal life that we may worship thee with sacrifice, O god; O doer of works, may we keep close to thy perceptions of knowledge; guard us, O god, with thy wide utterances.

2. For thee these thoughts are born, O Fire, towards thee they voice our achievement of riches with its horses of power and herds of light when the mortal upheld by his thoughts following thee attains to thy enjoyment, O Fire, perfectly born, O shining One.

3. I think of the Fire as my father, my ally, my brother, ever my comrade; I serve the force of vast Fire, his bright and worshipped force of the Sun in heaven.

4. O Fire, effective in us are thy thoughts and conquerors of our aims: he whom thou deliverest, thou the eternal Priest of the call in the house, who art that driver of the red horses, possessed of the Truth, possessor of the much store of riches, may happiness be his through the shining days.

5. The Fire founded by the heavens [[Or, with his lights]] as our friend and the means for our works, the ancient Priest of the pilgrim-rites, the lover men brought into being by the strength of their two arms and seated within as the Priest of the call in beings.

6. Thyself sacrifice in heaven to the gods, for what shall man immature in thought and unconscious of the knowledge do of thy work? Even as thou didst sacrifice in the order and times of the Truth, a god to the gods, O perfectly born Fire, so sacrifice to thy body.

7. O Fire, become our guardian and protector, become the creator of our growth and of our growth the upholder, O mighty One, give to us what we shall give as offerings to the gods, and unfailing our bodies deliver.

TRISHIRAS TWASHTRA

SUKTA 8

1. The Fire journeys on with his vast ray of intuition, the Bull bellows to earth and heaven; he has reached up to the highest extremities of heaven, the mighty one has grown in the lap of the waters.

2. The Bull of the heights, [[Or, the humped-Bull,]] the new-born rejoiced, the unfailing child worker rejoiced and shouted aloud; in the formation of the gods he does his exalted works and comes the first in his own abodes.

3. He who grasps the head of the father and mother they set within in the pilgrim-sacrifice, a sea from the Sun- world; in his path are the shining rays that are the foundations of the Horse of Power and they accept embodiment in the native seat of the Truth.

4. O shining One, thou comest to the front of dawn after dawn, thou hast become luminous in the Twins; thou holdest the seven planes for the Truth bringing Mitra to birth for thy own body.

5. Thou becomest the eye of the vast Truth; when thou journeyest to the Truth thou becomest Varuna, its guardian; thou becomest the child of the waters, O knower of all things born, thou becomest the messenger of the man in whose offering thou hast taken pleasure.

6. Thou art the leader of the sacrifice and leader to the midworld to which thou resortest constantly with thy helpful team of mares; thou upholdest in heaven thy head that conquers the Sun-world, thy tongue thou makest, O Fire, the carrier of our offerings.

7. By his will Trita in the secret cave desiring by his movements the thinking of the supreme Father cherished in the lap of the Father and Mother, speaking the companionword, seeks his weapons.

8. Trita Aptya discovered the weapons of the Father and missioned by Indra went to the battle; he smote the Three headed, the seven- rayed and let loose the ray-cows of the son of Twashtri the form-maker.

9. Indra, the master of beings, broke that great upstriving meditating force and cast it downward and making his own the ray-cows of Twashtri's son of the universal forms he took away from him his three heads.

HAVIRDHANA ANGI

SUKTA 11

1. Mighty from the mighty, strong and inviolable, he milked by the milking of heaven the streams of the Indivisible; Varuna knew all by his right thought. A lord of sacrifice, may he perform the order of the rites of the sacrifice.

2. May the Gandharvi speak to me and the Woman born from the Waters, may her protection be around my mind midst the roar of the river; may the indivisible mother establish us in the heart of our desire: my brother the greatest [[Or, the eldest]] and first declares it to me.

3. She the happy, and opulent and glorious, dawn has shone out for man bringing the Sun-world with her. When they gave birth to this Fire, an aspirant doing the will of the aspirants for the discovery of knowledge.

4. Now the Bird, the missioned Hawk, has brought the draught of the great and seeing wine to the pilgrim-sacrifice. When the Aryan peoples chose the doer of works, Fire the Priest of the call, then the thought was born.

5. Ever art thou delightful like grasses to that which feeds on them, O Fire, doing well with thy voices of invocation the pilgrim-sacrifice for man when thou givest utterance to the plenitude of the word of the illumined sage, as one who has conquered, thou comest with thy multitude.

6. Upward lift the Father and Mother; the lover aspires to his enjoyment, rejoicing he obeys the urgings from his heart: a bearer of the word he speaks and jocund longs for the good work, the Mighty One puts forth his strength and is illumined by the Thought.

7. O Fire, O son of Force, the mortal who attains to thy right thinking goes forward and hears the truth beyond; holding the impelling force, borne by the horses of power, luminous and mighty he seeks to possess the heavens.

8. When, O Fire, takes place that sacrificial assembly, O master of sacrifice, the assembly divine among the gods, when thou distributest the ecstasies, O lord of nature, an opulent portion bring to us.

9. Hear us, O Fire, in thy house, in the hall of thy session, yoke the galloping car of the Immortal; bring to us heaven and earth, parents of the gods; let none of the gods be away from us and mayst thou be here.

SUKTA 12

1. Heaven and earth are the first to hear and by the Truth become possessed of the true speech when the god fashioning the mortal for the sacrificial act takes his seat as his Priest of the call and turned towards its own force moves towards it.

2. A god encompassing the gods with the Truth, carry our offering, the first to awake to the knowledge; erect, thy light rises by the kindling with smoke for thy banner; thou art the rapturous eternal Priest of the call strong by speech for the sacrifice.

3. When perfectly achieved is the immortality of the godhead, the immortality of the Light, men born in this world hold wide earth and heaven; all the gods follow in the track of that sacrificial act [[Or, sacrificial word]] of thine when the white cow is milked of her stream of divine Light.

4. O earth and heaven, I sing to you the word of illumination, pouring your light make my work grow, may the two firmaments hear me; when the days and the heavens have come by the guidance of the force, may the Father and Mother quicken us here with the sweetness of the wine.

5. On something in us the king has laid hold; what have we done that transgresses his law who can know? Even if the Friend is dealing crookedly with the gods there is as if a call to us as we go, there is upon us a plenitude.

6. Hard to seize by the mind in this world is the name of the immortal because he puts on features and becomes divergent forms; he who grasps perfectly with his mind and his thought seizes its controlling law, him, O Fire, O mighty One, undeviatingly protect.

7. The discovery of knowledge in which the gods find their rapture they hold in the house of the radiant sun; they have set in the sun its light, in the moon its rays and both circle unceasingly around its illumination.

8. The thought in which the gods meet together, when it is occult we know not of it. May Mitra and the indivisible mother and the godhead of the creative sun declare us sinless to Varuna.

9. Hear us, O Fire, in thy house, in the hall of thy session, yoke the galloping car of the Immortal; bring to us heaven and earth, parents of the gods; let none of the gods be away from us and mayst thou be here.

VIMADA AINDRA OR PRAJAPATYA OR VASUKRIT VASUKRA

SUKTA 20

1. Bring to us a happy mind.

2. 1 pray the Fire, the friend who is irresistible in his own command, in whose law the white rays attend on the Sun-world, serve the teat of the mother.

3. Fire whom face to face a home of light, one who brings the ray of intuition by his lustre they increase; he blazes with his row of flaming tusks.

4. He comes to us as a noble path for men when he travels to the ends of heaven; he is the seer and he lights up the sky. [[Or, the cloud.]]

5. Accepting the oblation of man he stands high exalted in the sacrifice, a skilful craftsman; he goes in our front building our home.

6. He is our secure foundation, he is our offering, he is the sacrifice; his path goes swiftly to its goal: the gods call Fire with its adze.

7. I desire from the Fire, powerful for the sacrifice the work of the supreme bliss; [[Or, the work that brings the supreme bliss;]] they speak of him as the living son of the stone. [[Or, of the Rock, or the Peak.]]

8. Whatever men are with us may they in all ways abide in happiness making the Fire to grow by the offerings.

9. Black is his movement and white and luminous and crimsonred, it is large and straight and glorious; golden of form the father brought into being.

10. So, O Fire, rapturous thou bearest thy thinking mind, O son of energy, companioning the immortals, coming to us thou bearest thy words and thy right thinkings, thou bringest impelling force, energy, happy worlds of habitation, all. [[Or, Vimada, the rapturous one, coming carries to thee, O Fire, his thinking mind, to thee his words and his right thinkings, brings etc.]]

SUKTA 21

1. By our self- purifications we elect thee, the Fire as our Priest of the call, for the sacrifice where strewn is the grass, -- in the intoxication of your rapture, -- intense with thy purifying light of flame, -- and thou growest to greatness.

2. Those who have achieved possession of the Horse, are very close to thee and glorify thee; the ladle goes to thee, -- in the intoxication of your rapture, -- direct, carrying the oblation, O Fire, -- and thou growest to greatness.

3. In thee the upholding laws reside; sprinkling out their contents as with ladle black forms and white -- in the intoxication of your rapture -- all glories thou holdest -- and thou growest to greatness.

4. O forceful and immortal Fire, whatever wealth thou deemest fit, that for the winning of the plenitudes, -- in the intoxication of your rapture, -- bring to us a wealth of various lights in the sacrifices, -- and thou growest to greatness.

5. The Fire born from Atharvan knows all seer- wisdoms, he becomes the messenger of the luminous sun, -- in the intoxication of your rapture, -- dear and desirable to the lord of the law, -- and thou growest to greatness.

6. Thee they pray in the sacrifices, O Fire, as the pilgrim-sacrifice goes on its way; all desirable treasures -- in the intoxication of your rapture -- thou foundest for the giver, and thou growest to greatness.

7. Thee as the Priest of the rite in the sacrifices men have seated, O Fire, beautiful, luminous of front, -- in the intoxication of your rapture, -- bright and, with thy eyes, most conscious of knowledge, -- and thou growest to greatness.

8. O Fire, with thy bright light of flame thou spreadest the wide Vast, clamouring thou becomest the bull, -- in the intoxication of your rapture, -- and settest the child of the womb in the sisters, -- and thou growest to greatness.

VATSAPRI BHALANDANA

SUKTA 45

1. Above heaven was the first birth of the Fire, over us was his second birth as the knower of all things born, his third birth was in the waters, a god-mind; him continuously one kindles and with one's thought perfectly fixed on him adores.

2. O Fire, we know the triple three of thee, we know thy seats borne widely in many planes, we know thy supreme Name which is in the secrecy, we know that fount of things whence thou camest.

3. He of the god-mind kindled thee in the Ocean, within the Waters, he of the divine vision kindled thee, O Fire, in the teat of heaven; the mighty ones made thee to grow where thou stoodest in the third kingdom, in the lap of the waters.

4. Fire cried aloud like heaven thundering, he licked the earth revealing its growths: when kindled and born, at once he saw all this that is; he shines out with his light between earth and heaven.

5. An exalter of glories, a holder of the riches, a manifester of thinking mind, a guardian of the wine of delight, a shining One, the son of force, the king in the Waters, he grows luminous as he burns up in the front of the dawns.

6. The ray of intuition of the universe, the child in the womb of the world, in his coming to birth he filled earth and heaven; going beyond them he rent even the strong mountain when the peoples of the five births sacrificed to the fire.

7. An aspirant and traveller and wise of mind, a purifying flame, the Fire who is set within as the immortal in mortals, he sends forth and carries a ruddy smoke striving with his bright flame of light to reach heaven.

8. Visible, golden of light, widely he shone; resplendent in his glory he is life hard to violate: the Fire by his expandings became immortal when heaven with its strong seed had brought him to birth.

9. O god, O happy light, O Fire, he who has prepared for thee the luminous honeycomb [[Or, the cake of light]] him lead forward towards a more opulent state, O youthful godhead, even to the bliss enjoyed by the gods.

10. O Fire, bestow on him his share in the things of inspired knowledge, in word upon word as it is spoken: he becomes dear to the sun, dear to Fire; upward he breaks with what is born in him, upward with the things that are to be born.

11. O Fire, men who sacrifice to thee day after day hold in themselves all desirable riches; desiring the treasure in thy companionship, aspiring, they burst open the covered pen of the Ray-Cows.

12. The Fire has been affirmed in their lauds by the sages, he who is full of bliss for men, the Universal Godhead, guardian of the wine of delight. Let us invoke earth and heaven free from hostile powers; found in us, O gods, a wealth full of hero- mights.

SUKTA 46

1. The great Priest of the call has been born; the knower of the heavens, he who is seated in man, may he take his seat in the lap of the waters: he who upholds us and who is held in us, rules for thee his worshipper thy expandings and thy riches and is the protector of thy body.

2. They worshipped him in the session of the waters, as if the cow of vision lost they followed him by his tracks; where he hid in the secret cavern, aspiring with obeisance the Flame Seers, the wise thinkers desired and found him.

3. Him greatly desiring Trita, son of the master of wide riches, [[Trita the triple born from the All-pervading Substance,]] found on the head of the light unslayable; he is born the youth who increases the felicity in our mansions and becomes the navel-centre of the luminous world.

4. In their aspiration they created him by their obeisance and set him in men as the rapturous Priest of the call, the sacrificer ever-moving forward, the leader of the pilgrim-sacrifices, the traveller, the carrier of the offering, the purifying Flame.

5. He has come into being and leading him like a golden-maned war-horse, the great, the victorious, the founder of the Light, men ignorant, one who is free from ignorance, the render of the cities, the child of the forests, whose wealth is the illumined word [[Or, the illumination]] -- they established the thought.

6. May Trita in the homesteads holding all firmly [[Or, setting himself firmly]] take his session in his native seat within and all-encompassing; thence, a dweller in man's home, taking all into his grasp, by a wide law of his action, by unrestrained movements he journeys to the gods.

7. His ageless and purifying fires are the defenders of our homes, lifting their luminous smoke; white-flaming, dwellers in the Tree, they are our strengtheners and supporters and like winds and like wine.

8. Fire carries with his tongue the illumination of wisdom, he carries in his consciousness earth's discoveries of knowledge; him men hold the illuminating and purifying rapturous Priest of the call most strong for sacrifice.

9. This is the Fire to whom earth and heaven gave birth; and the waters, the form-maker and the Flame-Seers by their strengths, and life that grows in the mother and the gods have fashioned for man desirable, first and supreme, a master of sacrifice.

10. Thou art he whom the gods have set as the carrier of the offerings and men with their many desires as the lord of sacrifice; so do thou, O Fire, found in thy journeying wide expansion for him who lauds thee and making him divine gather in him many glorious things.

DEVAS AND AGNI SAUCHIKA

SUKTA 51

1. Large was the covering and it was dense in which thou wert wrapped when thou didst enter into the waters; one was the god who saw thee but many and manifold were thy bodies which he saw, O Fire, O knower of all things born.

2. Which of the gods was he who saw everywhere my bodies in many forms? O Mitra and Varuna, where then dwell all the blazings of the Fire which are paths of the gods?

3. We desire thee, O Fire, O knower of all things born, when thou hast entered manifoldly into the growths of the earth and into the waters; there the lord of the law grew aware of thee, O thou of the many diverse lights, shining luminous beyond the ten inner dwelling-places.

4. O Varuna, fearing the sacrificants' office that so the gods might not yoke me to that work; so my bodies entered manifoldly, for I, Fire, was not conscious of this goal of the movement.

5. Come to us; the human being, god-seeking, is desirous of sacrifice, he has made all ready but thou dwellest in the darkness, O Fire. Make the paths of the journeying of the gods easy to travel, let thy mind be at ease, carry the offerings.

6. The ancient brothers of the Fire chose this goal to be reached as charioteers follow a path; therefore in fear I came far away, O Varuna. I started back as a gaur from the bowstring of the archer.

7. Since we make thy life imperishable, O Fire, O knower of all things born, so that yoked with it thou shalt not come to harm, then with thy mind at ease thou canst carry their share of the offering to the gods, O high-born Fire.

8. Give me the absolutes that precede and follow the sacrifice as my share of the oblation packed with the energy; give me the light from the waters and the soul from the plants and let there be long life for the Fire, O gods.

9. Thine be the absolute precedents and consequents of the sacrifice, the portions packed with energy of the oblation; thine, O Fire, be all this sacrifice; may the four regions bow down to thee.

SUMITRA VADHRYASHWA

SUKTA 69

1. Happy are the seeings of the Fire of the gelded Horse, pleasurable his guidance, delightful his approaches; when the friendly peoples set him ablaze in their front, fed with the oblations of the Light he flames up for his worshipper.

2. The Light is the increasing of the Fire of the gelded Horse, Light is his food, Light is his fattening: fed with the oblation of the Light wide he spread; he shines as the Sun when there is poured on him its running stream.

3. The force of flame which thinking man, which the friendly one, set ablaze, this is that new force, O Fire; so opulently shine, so accept our words, so take the plenitude by violence, so found here the inspired knowledge.

4. That flame of thine of old which the gelded Horse, when prayed, set blazing high, O Fire who art that flame, this too accept; as that flame, become the protector of our stable erections and the protector of our bodies, guard this giving of thine which is here in us.

5. Become full of light, O gelded Horse, and become our protector, let not the assault of men pierce thee; thou art like a hero, a violent overthrower and the good Friend: lo, I have uttered the names of the Fire of the gelded Horse.

6. Thou hast conquered the riches of the plains and the riches of the mountain, the destroyer foemen, and the Aryan freemen: like a hero art thou, a violent overthrower of men, O Fire, mayst thou overcome those who battle against us.

7. This Fire is the long Thread, the vast Bull, one with a thousand layers and a hundred leadings, he is the Craftsman; luminous in men luminous, made bright by the hands of men, may he flame out in the strivers after godhead, in the friendly people. [[In the Sumitras, the name of the Rishi; but throughout the hymn there is a double or symbolic meaning in the names.]]

8. In thee is the good milch-cow, O knower of all things born, as if unstayingly equal in its yield, giving its nectar-milk. O Fire, thou art set alight by men who have the intuitive judgment, strivers after godhead, the friendly people.

9. Even the immortal gods proclaim thy greatness, O knower of all things born, O Fire of the gelded Horse. That which I sought by questioning, coming to the human peoples, thou hast conquered by men who grow by thee. [[Or, who make thee grow in them.]]

10. Thee, as the father carries his son in his lap so the gelded Horse carried and tended thee, O Fire; O youthful god, accepting his fuel thou didst conquer even the supreme and mighty.

11. Fire has ever conquered the enemies of the gelded Horse by men who have pressed the Soma-wine; O thou of the bright diverse lights, thou hast broken and cast down the foe that was equal and the foe that was mighty and thou hast given him increase.

12. This Fire is the slayer of the enemies of the gelded Horse, lit from of old and to be invoked with obeisance; so do thou assail those who attack him, both the uncompanioned and the one with many companions, O Fire of the gelded Horse.

SUKTA 70

1. O Fire, accept the fuel I give thee; in the seat of revelation take joy in the luminous Thought: on the high top of earth, in the brightness of the days, become high uplifted by worship of sacrifice to the gods, O strong of will!

2. May he who travels in front of the gods, he who voices the godhead, come here with his horses of universal forms; pure and most divine, may he hasten with our obeisance on the path of the Truth to the gods.

3. Men bringing their offerings ask for the Fire everlasting to be their envoy: so do thou with thy horses strong to bear and thy swiftly moving car bring to us the gods; take here thy seat as the Priest of the call.

4. May the seat acceptable to the gods spread wide in us and all its long horizontal length become fragrant. Occupy that seat, O god, with a mind not inclining to wrath, and to the gods with Indra for their greatest offer sacrifice.

5. Touch either heaven's superior peak or swing wide open with all the extent of earth, O doors of aspiration, who desire the chariot of the gods hold in your greatness and by the great the divine car.

6. Let the two divine daughters of heaven, formed beautifully, dawn and night, sit in their native seat; O dawn and night, O you who aspire, may the gods aspiring sit on your wide lap, O blissful ones.

7. High stands up the stone of the pressing, high the Fire is kindled, may it touch the vast and the seats dear to us in the lap of the infinite mother; O you who are vicars and ordinants of the rite in this sacrifice, you twain who have greater knowledge, may you win for us by sacrifice the Treasure.

8. O ye three goddesses, sit on the superior seat which we have made delightful for you; may the mother of Revelation and the two goddesses with the luminous feet accept our firmly placed offerings and our human worship of sacrifice.

9. O divine maker of forms, since thou hast reached beauty in thy works, since thou hast become companion in thy being to the Angiras seers, forward then to the goal of the journeyings of the gods, for thou knowest it! Aspiring, perfect in ecstasy, sacrifice to the gods, O giver of the treasure.

10 O Tree, knowing the goal of the journeying of the gods, bear us to it binding with the radiant cord. May the godhead fashion the offerings in which he takes pleasure: may heaven and earth protect our call.

11. O Fire, bring Varuna to our sacrifice, Indra from heaven, the Life-Gods from mid-air; may all the lords of sacrifice sit on our sacred seat, may the immortal gods take rapture in the svaha.

AGNI SAUCHIKA OR VAISHWANARA OR SAPTI VAJAMBHARA

SUKTA 79

1. I have seen the greatness of this great one, the Immortal in the mortal peoples. The jaws of this abundant eater, separate and held apart, are brought close together, devouring, insatiable.

2. His head is in the secrecy, his eyes wide apart, insatiable he eats up the forest with his tongue of flame. They bring together his foods for him with the pacings of their feet, their hands of obeisance are outstretched in the peoples.

3. Desiring the secret place of the mother farther beyond he crawls like a child over the wide growths of earth. One finds him shining like ripe corn, licking away the hurts, within in her lap.

4. O heaven and earth, I declare to you that Truth of you, - - in his very birth the child of your womb devours his parents. I am mortal and know not of the godhead; Fire is the all-conscious knower and he is the thinker.

5. He who sets swiftly for him his food casts on him the outpourings of light by which he is nourished, for him he sees with a thousand eyes: O Fire, thou frontest us on every side.

6. What omission or sin hast thou done before the gods, I ask thee, O Fire, for I know not. In his play unplaying a tawny lion, eating only to devour, he has cut all asunder limb by limb, as a knife cuts the cow.

7. He who is born in the forests has yoked his horses tending all ways but caught back by straight-held reins. Mitra, well-born, has distributed to him the treasures and he has grown to completeness increasing in every member.

SUKTA 80

1. Fire gives to us the Horse that carries the plenitude, Fire gives the Hero who has the inspired hearing and stands firm in the work; Fire ranges through earth and heaven revealing all things, Fire gives the Woman, the tenant of the city, [[Or, the many-thoughted,]] from whose womb is born the hero.

2. May there be a happy fuel for Fire at his labour, Fire enters into the great earth and heaven: Fire urges on one who is all alone in his battles, Fire cleaves asunder the multitude of the enemy.

3. Fire has protected the ear [["Tyam", "that other" ear, the inner ear which listens to inspired knowledge.]] of the worshipper, [[Sayana takes the two words "jaratah", "karnam" as if they were one indicating the name of the Rishi "Jaratkarna".]] Fire burnt out the Waster [[Sayana renders "jarutha" "a demon".]] from the waters; Fire delivered Atri within the blaze, [[Sayana renders "in the hot cauldron in the earth".]] Fire united man's sacrifice with its progeny. [[Sayana renders "gave progeny to the Rishi Nrimedha".]]

4. May Fire in the hero's shape give us the Treasure, may Fire give us the sage who wins the thousands; Fire has extended the offering in heaven, his are the planes upheld separately in many spaces.

5. Fire the sages with their utterances call to every side, to Fire men call who are opposed in their march, to Fire the Birds flying in mid-air; Fire encircles the thousands of the Ray Cows.

6. Fire the peoples pray who are human, Fire men of different birth who dwell as neighbours, Fire brings the Gandharvi to the path of the Truth, the Fire's path of the ray-cows is settled in the Light.

7. The divine craftsmen have fashioned the Wisdom-Word for the Fire, the Fire we have declared as a vast purification. O ever- youthful Fire, protect thy worshipper; O Fire, win for him by sacrifice the great Treasure.

PAYU BHARADWAJA

SUKTA 87

1. I set ablaze Fire of the plenitude, the slayer of the Rakshasas, I approach him as a friend and the widest house of refuge; [[Or, a widest peace;]] the Fire has been kindled and grows intense by the workings of the will, may he protect us from the doer of hurt, by the day and by the night.

2. O knower of all things born, high-kindled, iron-tusked, touch with thy ray the demon-sorcerers; do violence to him with thy tongue of flame, the gods who kill, [[Or, the gods of ignorance,]] the eaters of flesh, putting them off from us shut them into thy mouth.

3. Destruction, whetting set upon them both thy tusks, the higher and the lower, O thou who art of both worlds, [[Or, O thou who hast both,]] thou circle in the mid-air, O king, and snap up in thy jaws the demon-sorcerers.

4. Turning on them by our sacrifices thy arrows, O Fire, by our speech thy javelins, plastering them with thy thunderbolts pierce with these in their hearts the demon-sorcerers who confront us, break their arms.

5. O Fire, tear the skin of the demon-sorcerer; let the cruel thunderbolt slay him in its wrath; rend his limbs, O knower of all things born; hungry for its flesh let the carrion-eater pick asunder his mangled body.

6. Wherever now thou seest him, O knower of all things born, whether standing or walking, or flying on the paths in the mid-air, a shooter sharpening his weapon, pierce him with thy arrow.

7. Rescue from the assault of the demon-sorcerer with his spears the man touched by his grasp, O knower of all things born, O Fire, blazing supreme slay these devourers of the flesh; let the brilliant birds of prey eat him up.

8. Here proclaim which is he, O Fire, what demon-sorcerer, who is the doer of this deed? To him do violence with thy blaze, O youthful god, subject him to the eye of thy divine vision.

9. O Fire, guard with thy keen eye the sacrifice, lead it moving forward to the Shining Ones, O conscious thinker; O thou of the divine vision, when thou blazest fierce against the Rakshasas let not the demon-sorcerers overcome thee.

10. Divine of vision, see everywhere the Rakshasa in the peoples, cleave the three peaks of him; his flanks, O Fire, cleave with thy wrath, rend asunder the triple root of the demon sorcerer.

11. Triply may the demon-sorcerer undergo thy onrush, he who slays the Truth by falsehood; him overspreading with thy ray, O knower of all things born, fell down in front of him who hymns thee.

12. Set in thy singer, O Fire, the eye with which thou seest the trampler with his hooves, the demon-sorcerer; even as did Atharvan, burn with the divine Light this being without knowledge who does hurt to the Truth.

13. The cursing with which today couples revile each other, the curses which are born in the imprecations of the singers, the arrow which is born from the mind of wrath, with that pierce through the heart the demon-sorcerers.

14. Away from us cleave by thy burning energy the demon sorcerers, away from us cleave by the heat of thy wrath the Rakshasa, O Fire, away from us cleave by thy ray these slayer gods, [[Or. the gods of ignorance,]] blazing away from us cleave these who glut themselves with men's lives.

15. May the gods cleave away today the crooked one, may harsh curses come to confront him, may the shafts enter into the vital part of one who thieves by speech, may he undergo the onset of each and every one, the demon-sorcerer.

16. The demon-sorcerer who feeds on the flesh of human beings, who feeds on horses and on cattle, the one who carries away the milk of the Cow unslayable, cut asunder their necks with the flame of thy anger, O Fire.

17. O thou who hast the divine vision, let not the demon sorcerer partake of the yearly milk of the shining cow; O Fire, whichever of them would glut himself on the nectar him pierce in front in his vital part with thy ray of light.

18. May the demon- sorcerers drink poison from the Ray-Cows, may they be cloven asunder who are of evil impulse before the infinite mother, may the divine sun betray them to thee, may they be deprived of their share of the growths of earth.

19. Ever dost thou crush the demon-sorcerer, O Fire, never have the Rakshasas conquered thee in the battles; burn one by one from their roots the eaters of raw flesh, may they find no release from thy divine missile.

20. O Fire, do thou guard us from above and from below, thou from behind and from the front; may those most burning ageless flames of thine blazing burn one who is a voice of evil.

21. From behind and from in front, from below and from above, a seer by thy seer-wisdom protect us, O king; a friend protect thy friend, ageless protect from old age, immortal protect us who are mortals, O Fire.

22. O forceful Fire, let us think of thee, the illumined sage as a fortress around us, one violent of aspect, slayer from day to day of the crooked ones.

23. Consume with poison the crooked Rakshasas; O Fire, burn them with thy keen flame, with thy fiery-pointed spears.

24. Burn the bewildered demon-sorcerer couples; I thee whet to sharpness, inviolate, with my thoughts, O illumined sage; awake.

25. O Fire, cleave asunder their wrath with thy flame of wrath to every side; break utterly the strength, the energy of the Rakshasa, of the demon-sorcerer.

ARUNA VAITAHAVYA

SUKTA 91

1. Adored by those who are wakeful, the dweller in the house is kindled in the house aspiring in the seat of revelation, the sacrificant of every offering, one Supreme, [[Or, one desirable,]] wide of being, wide in light, a perfect friend to the man who seeks his friendship.

2. In his visioned glory he lodges as the guest in every house, as a bird in forest and forest; he disdains not the peoples, universal he dwells in being and being, common to all he dwells in man and man.

3. Thou art discerning in thy judgments, strong of will in thy workings of will, O Fire, an omniscient seer in thy seer- wisdoms; a possessor of riches thou rulest sole over all the riches nourished by earth and by heaven.

4. Thou hast known and reached thy luminous native seat where is the order of the Truth in the plane of revelation; free from stain of evil have come thy perceptions of knowledge like the white brilliances of the dawns, [[Or, like the advents of the dawns,]] like rays of the sun.

5. Thy glories like lightnings from a storm cloud break into light of knowledge brilliant like the rays of intuition of the dawns; when loosed on the growths of earths and woods of pleasance thou seekest out thyself the food for thy mouth. [[Or, heapest food in thy mouth.]]

6. Him the growths of earth held as a child in the womb in whom was the order of the Truth, the Waters become the mothers of that Fire who gave him birth; he is the common child with whom the pleasance-woods and the plants of earth are pregnant and they are delivered of him always.

7. Missioned, fanned by the wind when swiftly entering into thy food thou spreadest wide after thy desire, thy ageless hosts, as thou becomest, toil like chariot-warriors far apart.

8. Fire the creator of wisdom, the accomplisher of the discovery of knowledge, Fire the Priest of the call, the all-embracing thinker, him they choose universal in the little offering, him in the great, -- not another, O Fire, than thou.

9. The ordainers of the work, they who desire thee, choose thee as Priest of the call in their discoveries of knowledge when the seekers of the godhead hold thy delight, [[Or, set before thee the things of thy delight,]] human beings who have plucked for thee the sacred grass of thy seat and have brought their offerings.

10. O Fire, thine are the call and the offering, thine the purification and the order of the sacrifice, thine the lustration; thou art the fire-bringer for the seeker of the Truth. The annunciation is thine, thou becomest the pilgrim-rite [[Or, thou art the priest of the pilgrim-rite:]] thou art the Priest of the Word and the master of the house in our home.

11. [[Translation not found in MSS.]]

12. For him these thoughts and utterances go forth from us, these words high and hymns of illumination and these high lauds and meet together seeking the riches for the master of riches, for the knower of all things born, and his desire is towards them.

13. I would speak to the ancient One a laud new to his desire, may he hear us; may it avail to touch his heart deep within like a wife beautifully robed for her lord's desire.

14. Fire to whom are loosed and offered our horses, our bulls and oxen and heifers and our rams, to Fire the nectar-drinker who bears on his beak the Soma-wine, to the ordainer of things, I beget a thinking full of beauty from my heart.

15. An oblation has been offered into thy mouth, O Fire, as if clarified butter in a ladle, as if Soma-wine in a bowl. Found in us the treasure in which are the heroes and which wins for us the plenitudes, -- the treasure excellent [[Or, high-proclaimed]] and glorious and vast.

JAMADAGNI BHARGAVA OR RAMA JAMADAGNYA

SUKTA 110

1. High-kindled today in the house of the human being, thou doest sacrifice a god to the gods, O knower of all things born; bring them to us as one who has knowledge, O friendly Light; for thou art the messenger, the seer, the thinker.

2. O son of the body, revealing the paths of our journeyings to the Truth make them sweet with the Wine of Delight, O thou with thy high tongue of flame; enriching with our thoughts the mantras and the sacrifice set our pilgrim-sacrifice in the gods.

3. One prayed and adored, O Fire, calling them to us arrive, companioned by the Shining Ones, O mighty One, thou art the summoner of the gods, so, missioned, strong to sacrifice, do them sacrifice.

4. An ancient seat of sacred grass is plucked this morn, in the direction of this earth, in front of the days, wide it spreads beyond a supernal seat of happy ease for the gods and the mother infinite.

5. Widely expanding may they spring apart making themselves beautiful for us as wives for their lords; O divine doors, vast and all-pervading, be easy of approach to the gods.

6. Let night and day come gliding to us and queens of sacrifice, sit close together in their place of session, the two divine women, great and golden, holding a supreme glory of brilliant form, --

7. the two divine priests of the call, also, the first and perfect in speech building the sacrifice of man that he may do worship, doers of the work impelling to the discoveries of knowledge, pointing by their direction to the ancient Light.

8. May Bharati come swiftly to our sacrifice, Ila awakening to knowledge here like a human thinker, and Saraswati, the three goddesses, -- may they sit, perfect in their works, on this sacred seat of happy ease.

9. He who fashioned in their forms this earth and heaven, the Parents, and fashioned all the worlds, him today and here, O missioned Priest of the call, do thou worship, strong for sacrifice, having the knowledge, even the divine maker of forms.

10. Revealing by thy self- power the goal of the gods, release towards it in the order of the Truth our offerings. Let the tree and the divine accomplisher of the work and the Fire take the taste of the offering with the sweetness and the light.

11. As soon as he was born Fire measured out the shape of the sacrifice and became the leader who goes in front of the gods. In the speech of this Priest of the call which points out by its direction the Truth, may the gods partake of the oblation made svaha.

UPASTUTA VARSHTIHAVYA

SUKTA 115

1. Marvellous is the power to upbear of this young, this infant god, for he goes not to his two mothers to drink their milk, even though one without teats of plenty brought him to birth then as now, from the first he did his carrying, performing his mighty embassy.

2. Fire, verily, is established, a giver and mighty doer of works, he clings to the trees with his blazing tusks achieving the pilgrim-sacrifice with his besieging tongue of flame, he is like a snorting bull, master in his pasturage.

3. He is to you like a bird settled on a tree, like the divine moon-flow of the Soma-plant, like a clamorous spreading ocean; he is as one who carries in his mouth of flame, exuberant in strength, mighty in the way of his works, rushing on his paths.

4. O ageless Fire, when thou rangest the spaces in thy will to burn, there are all around thee as if unsinking winds like joyful fighters, having the command for the seeking they march towards the warrior of the triple world. [[Or, Trita the warrior.]]

5. This is the Fire, friend of the seer, himself the greatest of seers, who delivers from the inner foe; may Fire guard the speakers of the word, Fire the illumined seers, may he give his protection to them and to us.

6. O high-born, thou art he who moves swiftly in the wake of the knower of all things born, the Fire forceful and most full of the plenitude and even in the waterless desert for him who is there and desires it and is full of greatness, winnest by the violence of thy bow that which is supreme.

7. This is the Fire who is lauded accompanied by mortal illumined seers, the Shining One, [[Or, the master of riches,]] strong and glad by men, they who are seekers of the Truth, and like well-established friends, like the heavens with their lights have power on human beings.

8. "O son of energy, O forceful One", so adores thee the mighty speech of Upastuta, thee let us laud, by thee may we be armed with the heroes, holding more and more an ever longer life.

9. Thus have extolled thee, O Fire, the sons of Vrishtihavya, the Upastuta Rishis; [[Or, sages, extolled;]] protect them and the illuminates who speak the word, rising on high they have attained with the cry of vasat, vasat, with the cry of obeisance.

CHITRAMAHAS VASlSHTHA

SUKTA 122

l. I voice the Shining One with its richly varied lights, [[Or, greatnesses,]] the fair and happy, the guest in whom is nothing hostile; Fire, the Priest of the call, the master of the house gives the healing forces that sustain the world, he gives us the hero- energy.

2. O Fire, take pleasure in my word, let thy joy respond to it, for thou knowest all discoveries of knowledge, O strong will! Robed in light, put out a path for the Word, the gods have begotten all according to thy law of works.

3. Encompassing the seven planes, O immortal, giving to the giver, to the doer of good deeds, grow great; [[Or, exalt him;]] O Fire, with riches full of hero-strength crowding on him, accept the man who has come to thee with the fuel.

4. The seven givers of the offering pray the lord of plenitudes, the supreme Ray of intuition, the vicar of the sacrifice, Fire, the Bull with the luminous back who hears our words, the god who on him who satisfies him with gifts bestows fullness of heroic might.

5. Thou art the first and supreme messenger, as such when thou art called be rapturous for immortality: thee the lifepowers make resplendent in the house of the giver, thee with their lauds the flame-seers made to shine out wide.

6. In one to whom sacrifice is dear, for the giver of sacrifice, milking the force that is a good milch-cow, the force that founds all, O strong will, O Fire, thrice pouring light, illumining the Truths, circling round our house and our sacrifice thou puttest forth thy strength of will.

7. Thee, O Fire, making their messenger men have offered sacrifice in the outshining of this dawn; thee the gods have increased for their growing to greatness making bright the oblation of light in the pilgrim-sacrifice.

8. The Vasishthas called thee within them; full of plenitude, voicing the Fire, ordainers of works in the discoverings of knowledge; uphold the increasing of the riches in the doers of the sacrifice, do you ever guard us with all kinds of weal.

AGNI PAVAKA

SUKTA 140

1. O Fire, thy inspiration and thy growth and thy lights blaze in their greatness, O thou who shinest out with thy lustres; O great luminousness, O seer, thou foundest by thy strength for the giver a plenitude of utterance.

2. Purifying is thy flaming energy, bright is thy energy, indeficient is thy energy as thou ascendest with thy light -- a son thou rangest and protectest the Parents and thou joinest together earth and heaven.

3. O son of energy, O knower of all things born, well-founded rejoice in our perfect utterances and our thinkings; in thee they have joined together impelling forces of many forms, richly varied in their prospering, born to charm and beauty.

4. O immortal Fire, ruling over creatures born, spread in us thy Riches; thou art master of [[Or. thou shinest out from]] thy body of vision and thou satest thy conquering will.

5. A thinker, an arranger of sacrifice, a master of great achievement thou foundest a bounty of delight and a great and fortunate impulsion and conquering Riches.

6. Men have set in front this great Truth-possessing and allseeing Fire for the bliss; thee who hast the ear that hears our words voice, wide- extended, one divine throughout the human generations.

MRIDIKA VASISHTHA

SUKTA 150

l. Already kindled thou art kindled again for the gods, O carrier of the offering, come along with the sons of Aditi and with the Rudras and with the Shining Ones, come to us for grace.

2. Accepting this sacrifice, this word come to us, we who are mortals call thee, O high-kindled Fire, we call thee for grace.

3. Thee I voice with my thought, the knower of all things born, in whom are all desirable things, O Fire, bring to us the gods whose law of working is dear to us, dear to us for their grace.

4. Fire, the god, became the vicar priest of the gods, Fire the human Rishis have kindled, Fire I call in the conquest of the riches of the vast, gracious for the conquest of the riches.

5. Fire protected Atri and Bharadwaja and Gavishthira, protected for us Kanwa and Trasadasyu in the battle, Fire Vasishtha the vicar priest calls, the vicar priest calls him for grace.

KETU AGNEYA

SUKTA 156

1. May our thoughts speed the Fire on his way like a swift galloper in the battles, by him may we conquer every kind of wealth.

2. The army by which we may make ours the Ray-Cows under thy guard, that army send to us [[Or, speed for us]] for the getting of plenty.

3. Bring to us, O Fire, a stable wealth of the Ray-Cows and the horses of power, reveal heaven, turn away from us the evil Trafficker.

4. O Fire, make to ascend the ageless traveller-star, the sun in heaven upholding the Light for me.

5. O Fire, thou art the ray of intuition in creatures, most dear, most glorious, seated in the centre. [[Or, in the lap of the mother.]] Awake, founding his expansion who lauds thee.

VATSA AGNEYA

SUKTA 187

1. Send forth the word to the Fire, the bull of the worlds, [[Or, of the peoples,]] may he carry us through beyond the hostile forces.

2. He who shines beyond the desert across the supreme Beyond, may he carry us through beyond the hostile forces.

3. He who destroys the Rakshasas, the bull with the brilliant light, may he carry us through beyond the hostile forces.

4. He who looks upon all the worlds and sees them wholly, may he carry us through beyond the hostile forces.

5. Fire who is born brilliant on the further shore of this world, may he carry us through beyond the hostile forces.

SAMVANANA ANGIRASA

SUKTA 191

1. O Fire, O strong one, as master thou unitest us with all things and art kindled high in the seat of revelation; do thou bring to us the Riches.

2. Join together, speak one word, let your minds arrive at one knowledge even as the ancient gods arriving at one knowledge partake each of his own portion.

3. Common Mantra have all these, a common gathering to union, one mind common to all, they are together in one knowledge; I pronounce for you a common Mantra, I do sacrifice for you with a common offering.

4. One and common be your aspiration, united your hearts, common to you be your mind, -- so that close companionship may be yours.