Rig Veda

Text & Audio

MAṆḌALA 1

Sūkta 74

2. Audio

▪   by South Indian brahmins
▪   by Sri Shyama Sundara Sharma and Sri Satya Krishna Bhatta. Recorded by © 2012 Sriranga Digital Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

1. Circa 1915¹

1.74.1 अस्मे = in us. आरे अस्मे च शृण्वते ॥. The god hearing within the man.

1.74.3 रण in sense of battle? but “delight” is also possible.

1.74.4 वेषि हव्यानि वीतये — वीति = journey cf दूत

cf 6 वहासि ताँ इह देवान् प्रशस्तये । हव्या सुश्चंद्र वीतये ॥

दस्मत् effective दस्मत्कृणोष्यध्वरं

1.74.7 शृण्वे. Passive = श्रूयते

योः = going न योरुपब्दिरश्व्यः शृण्वे रथस्य

1.74.9 विवाससि. द्युमत्सुवीर्यं बृहदग्ने विवाससि । देवेभ्यो देव दाशुषे ॥

2. 1913 – early 1914²

1.74.1. As we move forward to the path of the sacrifice let us speak out the word of our thought to Agni who hears us from afar and from within.

1.74.2. He who supreme (ancient, first) in the worlds of our action that pour forth the clarity meeting together (or, when our labours that drip their fruit combine together), protects for the giver his attaining (or movement).

1.74.3. Yea, let all³ creatures born (be able to) say, “Up Agni comes into being, slayer of Vritras, conqueror of our wealth in battle after battle.”

1.74.4. He whose messenger thou art to his home, thou takest his offerings on their journey (or, takest his offerings on thy journey to be eaten by the gods, or comest to the offerings); thou makest effective his path of sacrifice.

1.74.5. Him men call the man complete in his offering, complete in his gods, complete in his base of sacrifice, O Angiras, O Son of Force.

1.74.6. Thou bringest both those gods here that we may express them and bearest, O rich in delight, the offerings on their journey (or, to be expressed and to eat the offerings).

1.74.7. No tramp is heard of the horses of thy chariot in its going when thou goest on thy embassy, O Agni.

1.74.8. By thee fostered the horse of life goes undeviating, each one after that which preceded it, and the giver of sacrifices progresses, O Agni.

1.74.9. Yea, and thou lodgest throughout his being for the giver and his gods, O God, Agni, a vast and luminous completeness of energy.

The Hymn is a hymn of the Adhwara Yajna, the Sacrifice of the Path. Agni, the Divine Will-Force or Power of Consciousness, is the deity.

1.74.1. The Gotamas, illumined minds, are to proceed to the path of the sacrifice; let them then give voice to the thought in them which is to be the governing word of their progress for the Divine Will-Force to use; that Force hears the word and responds whether as the deity realised within or as the deity of the universe seated in the highest and most distant worlds.

1.74.2. The Divine Will-Force is the first and supreme among divine powers; it protects our movement in the sacrifice from plane to plane and all the planes of our being on which the Work proceeds come together in a conscious harmony and stream forth their riches in response to our giving.

1.74.3. Let this Divine Force manifest itself so that all shall say, “It is born and rises on high, slaying all the hostile powers that obstruct our progress and winning wealth on new wealth for the soul in battle after battle.”

1.74.4. These results are attained, because the Divine Will-Force becomes a compelling envoy who carries our offerings on their journey to the goal which is our home and the home of the gods, the divine plane of the Truth, thus it makes the sacrifice of the path effective; the worlds meet together and drip their riches under the compulsion of the all-creative, all-manifesting Truth of Surya Savitri.

1.74.5. The man then becomes perfect in his sacrifice; the offering is effective, the godheads are completely manifested, the base of sacrifice in the soul includes all the various planes of our being. The Divine Force, the Angiras, the puissance of Seer Will and the Son of Strength overpowering the Panis and Vritras, effects this completeness.

1.74.6. He is the envoy & effects the great commerce between earth & heaven, bringing the gods down from the higher planes so that they may be manifested in man in the terrestrial and taking our offerings, the fruits of our terrestrial life upwards to be divinised, transformed into the divine essence, eaten, in the Vedic image, by the gods. That transformation is effected in the perfect bliss of the Divine Will-Force.

1.74.7–8. This great going & coming is effected in a silent spiritual rapidity; there is no rumour or clamour at all of the trampling hooves of the Vital Forces in their swiftness; but the chariot of the movement gallops swiftly.

1.74.9. Finally, the Divine Will-Force lodges in all our being for the benefit of the soul itself and of the gods who work in him, a complete and utter heroic energy, vast with the vastness of the Truth & luminous with its light.

1.74.1. अध्वरं. According to Sayana, the word is अ-ध्वरं from ध्वृ to hurt, and means unhurt by the Rakshasas etc. But the word unhurt thus used could never have become by itself a synonym for sacrifice, as a अध्वर has done. Throughout the Veda a अध्वरं is associated with the idea of movement on the path to the goal, and it is therefore more reasonable to connect it with a अध्वन् a path; the adhvara is the sacrifice that travels on the paths of the divine journey (अध्वनो देवयानान्) and reaches the heavens of the gods. We have the words a अध्वन् , sky, and a अध्वर, sky; which show that the two words are from the same root and of a similar formation. That root is evidently an old root अध् , no longer formed as a verb, which must have had the same sense as अत् . We have also a lost root अथ् surviving in अथर्यति, to move constantly and अथर्यु, moving. For the Adhwara Yajna see Appendix I.

उपप्रयंतो अध्वरं. Coming to the sacrifice of the path with the progressive movement which belongs to the sacrifice, प्रयति अध्वरे.

आरे अस्मे च. Sayana takes च rather unnaturally with the whole phrase because he could not understand the distinction “afar and in us”. There is always the distinction in the Veda between the far and the near, दूरे .. अंति in the planes of our being, the क्षेत्र or field of conscious existence, and the nearest, नेदिष्ठ, is within ourselves, अंतः.

शृण्वते. The hearing of the mantra by the gods always implies a response, the divine accepting the human thought and replying to it by its own vibrations. See 1.10.4, एहि स्तोमाँ अभि स्वर । अभि गृणीह्यारुव । ब्रह्म च नो वसो सचा । इंज्ञं च वर्धय ॥ which gives in a few words the theory of the divine acceptance of the Mantra.

1.74.2. स्नीहितीषु. Sayana takes as “slaying”, “those who slay” and he explains that Agni protects the sacrificer’s wealth गय when the peoples who hurt come together in the battle to destroy or plunder. His note is वधकारिणीषु — ष्णिह स्नेहने । स्नेहयतीति वधकर्मसु पठितः । स्नेह्यंते हिंस्यंते प्रजा आभिरिति स्नेहितयः ॥ The ordinary senses of स्निह् are (1) to be moist, wet, fluid; (2) to be thick, dense; (3) to be thickly fluid, so viscous, oily, greasy, fat; (4) by figure, to be full of love, affection, kindness; (5) to flow or make flow thickly, or continuously, anoint etc. We may compare स्नु to ooze, trickle, flow, stream & स्निट् to go, where the sense of motion comes out more clearly. स्नेहः in the Veda seems to be used for the thick-flowing ghrita. स्निह् here may mean then to drip the richness of the ghrita, cf the घृतस्नु of Indra’s horses etc, — or to move in a dense mass or to adhere together; the कृष्टयः come together and become cohesive or come together and move in a mass.

कृष्टिषु. This latter sense of स्नीहितीषु = शश्वत्सु would apply if कृष्टि means either people or the powers that labour in us; the sense of cohesion, if कृष्टि means the worlds which are the field of the working. For the sense of कृष्टि see Appendix II.

पूर्व्यः. Literally first or pristine. But in the Veda पूर्व्यः, प्रथमः often mean first also in the sense of supreme. Agni is the original power of the world and therefore the supreme power.

गयं. S. takes the word sometimes as wealth, sometimes as house. गयः must have meant originally movement, the mover or the goal of movement. If it is the object of movement, it may mean क्षयः, the home to which we go; but it would more naturally be either the thing attained by the movement, the spiritual wealth, or that which comes to us, still meaning the wealth; or else the movement itself.

3. 1913 – early 1914⁴

1.74.1 उपप्रयंतः. S. उपेत्य प्रकर्षेण गच्छंतः which he considers equivalent to beginning and carrying out perfectly. I take अध्वरः in the sense of the sacrifice that travels to the gods by the divine path, that of the Truth; the offerings also so travel & the sacrificer. Therefore उपप्रयंतो अध्वरं यज्ञं means “entering upon (उप) and proceeding forward (प्र) with the sacrifice on its journey”. The right performance of the sacrifice is a right progress to the godhead and the Truth.

मंत्रं. S. मननीयं स्तोत्रं; rather वचनीयं मननं. त्र expresses either the action or the means. “Let us express (by the word) the thought in our minds,” ie the thing we are meditating, the truth of the godhead we are seeking to express (शास, उक्थ, गीः, वचः, प्रशस्ति) and to fix in ourselves (स्तोम, धी).

आरे अस्मे च. Far (from a distance) and in us. Sayana gets rid of the idea by taking च = अपि and attaching it to a आरे, who hears us even from afar. I prefer to take the natural order and the plain sense of the words. The distinction of far and near or far and within is common enough in the Veda; Agni is also constantly spoken of as in mortals, विक्षु, मर्त्येषु; that this does not mean simply among — or here “from far and from among us” — is shown by 1.60.2 where Agni is described as विश्पतिर्विक्षु वेधाः and the विक्षु is explained by तं .. हृद आ जायमानं. Agni created by the human Ritwiks and born from the heart cannot be the sacrificial fire or lightning, but must be the inner flame, the godhead within, who is also the cosmic godhead who hears from without, आरे.

शृण्वते. What is meant by the god hearing the thought? Not merely that he hears physically the Vedic hymn and comes to the sacrifice. As we see from other Suktas, this hearing is a response; it is the turning of the Godhead to the God-seeker; it is the answer of the Truth, सत्यमृतं, to the thought and word in the mind of man. The god hearing the mantra means that the divine truth it seeks to express comes and illumines and dwells in the mentality; the Word becomes a chariot of the godhead, रथं न, a robe that he wears, वासः, a dwelling he inhabits, ओकः. So long as the Word is not heard by the god, does not call him into itself to manifest his status and working in the mental realisation it produces, it is not effective, nor is the realisation a true seeing.

Sayana’s rendering.

Approaching and carrying on the sacrifice let us speak the hymn to Agni who hears us even from a distance.

Psychological rendering.

Advancing on the journey of the sacrifice let us express the thought to the Flame who heareth us from afar and heareth from within.

1.74.2 This rik is full of difficulties; we are in doubt about the meaning of three important words, स्नीहितिः, कृष्टिः & गयः. Sayana renders “when the killing peoples come together (to attack), he guards the wealth for the sacrificer.” The one strong objection to this version is that it has absolutely nothing to do with what comes before or what goes after and this is contrary to the rule of Vedic construction.

कृष्टिषु. This is rendered “people”, but it is doubtful whether it has fundamentally or always that sense. कृष् is originally a derivative of कृ, like वक्ष् from वह् , स्पृश् from स्पृ etc and only intensifies its sense. कृ is, originally, do, make, hurt, cut, divide (कृत् , कॄ); कृष् is to do any strong or forceful labour, eg to drag, draw (कर्षण), plough (कृषि) — senses which survive, and to hurt, waste with the various results of being hurt, killed, wasted still preserved in various significances of words like कृष्ण. If कृष्टि means people, it must be from the original sense of cultivator or labourer. In the Veda it seems to me that it meant (like चर्षणि, intensive of चर्), one who does the works of sacrifice; but also it means in certain passages, earths, worlds, places where work (of cultivation or other) is done, — just as क्षिति means sometimes an earth or world inhabited or the people dwelling in it or those possessing it. It is this sense of earths or worlds which obtains here; कृष्टयः means the worlds in which the five human peoples, पंचकृष्टीः, labour at the work of the Aryan. These worlds are described as coming together, meeting so as to become one. The idea of the seven rivers, various earths, different planes coming together is common enough in the Veda; eg कथा न क्षोणीः समारत, “How should not the earths come together (at the command of Indra)?” They unite their various movements or workings, welding their distinct laws and types into a harmony.

स्नीहितीषु. S. चधकारिणीषु. ष्णिह स्नेहने — स्नेहयतीति वधकर्मसु पठितः. But is it so? That sense is very doubtful. स्निह् like स्निट् means to love, but that sense cannot be certainly proved in the Veda; स्निट् means to go, move (cf स्नु to flow) and स्नेहः means in the Veda a thick, fat or oily dropping or flowing; finally स्निह् means to stick, cleave, be thick, compact etc. It is ossible that स्नीहितयः means (the worlds) that move compactly together or adhere to each other and it will then describe the result of the coming together and moving together संजग्मानासु.

गयं. गय may mean either “movement, march” or “that which is attained” = धनं or “that which is reached” = आश्रयः, शर्म, गृहं, in which case it will be equivalent in sense to the Vedic क्षयः. It is easy to see that any of these might be threatened whether by a banded attack of hostile people or in the psychological sense by the disturbance of a new combined movement of the “earths”. If the latter is the sense of the first two padas, then गय must mean either movement or abiding-place: in the former case, the Seer-Will, Agni, guards the movement of the sacrificer travelling to the Truth-plane and harmonises it with the new-combined general movement; in the latter he keeps for him his abiding-place or his goal, which has practically the same sense. If it is “the peoples assembling to slay”, then the psychological sense is that the powers (people) of the regions which the divine traveller seeks to overpass unite to oppose and destroy him and the Seer-Will protects his march or his goal or his spiritual gains and possessions from their attack. We have then in this phrase the basis of the image of ten nations combined against the Tritsus, “those who seek to pass beyond”.

1.74.3 जंतवः. Sayana जाताः सर्वे ऋत्विजः. “Agni has risen, let people (priests) speak (hymn him).” Sayana’s glosses are always those of the pedant; जंतवः, “creatures, those born”, is a most general term and obviously intended to be quite wide in its connotation, not confined to a particular class of men. No one says “let men say”, when he means “let the priests chant”. The sense is “let all men born see and declare that Agni the Vritra-slayer has risen up into birth”. The manifestation of the Flame is to be so great that the whole world will bear witness to it. There is no idea of chanting the hymn ब्रुवंतु. Cf 1.4.5, उत ब्रुवंतु नो निदो निरन्यतश्चिदारत.

वृत्रहा. Sayana, bound by his rendering of कृष्टिषु as men, has to take वृत्र ° = आवरकाणां शत्रूणां; but वृत्रहा applied thus formally to the gods can mean only slayer of Vritra or at the most slayer of Vritra and his hosts. That Agni is, like Indra, Saraswati and others, a slayer of Vritra and releaser of the waters, there are several passages of the Veda to show, eg 1.59.6, यं पूरवो वृत्रहणं सचंते । वैश्वानरो दस्युमग्निर्जघन्वाँ अधूनोत्काष्ठा अव शंबरं भेत् . If, therefore, the कृष्टयः of the last verse are the assailing peoples who attack on the path & the same battles are referred to here, they cannot be men, but must be Vritra-powers. The Dasyus are called दासीर्विशः, but not thus vaguely कृष्टयः. उत probably brings in a new idea; not only is the sacrificer to be guarded in his march to the goal of the Truth, but Vritra the Coverer and his hosts who withhold the wealth of the Truth must be slain so that wealth on new wealth may be won in battle after battle.

Sayana’s rendering.

Let all the born (ritwiks) declare (praise) him, Agni has been born, slayer of the enveloping enemies, conqueror of (the enemy’s) wealth in all battles.

Psychological rendering.

Yea and let men say, “The Flame that slays the Coverer has risen into birth, conqueror of our wealth in fight after fight.”

1.74.4 क्षये. S. the house of sacrifice. It is rather the house generally, not here the goal or habitation to which he is proceeding, but that in which he is at present lodged, the adhara or dwelling-place of the soul, — the body with life and mind. This is the house of sacrifice, the triple सधस्थ. It is possible however that दूतः क्षये may be “messenger to the home” of Agni and the gods, the Truth-plane, which is also the goal of the pilgrim sacrifice.

वेषि. S. गमयसि, though elsewhere in a similar context, he renders it कामयसे. वीतये he takes as भक्षणाय. “Thou carriest the offerings to the gods for their eating.” वेषि often means to go or come, but it cannot be here “thou comest to eat his offerings”, हव्यानि accusative after वीतये, because that is not the office of the messenger. It is to carry the offering to the gods and to bring the gods to the sacrifice. वेषि .. वीतये suggests that वीतये may also have here the sense of motion, “thou comest (or, goest) for the taking thither of the offerings.” Either interpretation is possible and it is difficult to choose.

दस्मत् . S. सर्वदर्शनीयं, visible to all; but this has no sense and no connection with the rest of the context. There must be some connection between the taking of the offerings and the making दस्मत् the sacrifice. I have taken दस्म consistently = effective, achiever, from दस् to do, perform, cf दंसः action, दास a slave, and दस्मत् must be taken in the same sense; “thou makest effective the journeying sacrifice”. It is evident that the carrying of the offerings to the gods is the first necessary effectivity of the अध्वर; the various offerings first, ie all human powers and activities directed Godwards, are lifted to the Truth and return as enriched being and power, — this is the first achievement and effectivity: next, the whole sacrifice reaches the godhead, man’s entire being, power, consciousness is accepted by the divine Truth, — this is the second achievement and effectivity: last, the man himself attains that plane and lives upon it, divine, स्वराट् , सम्राट् , immortal; this is the क्षयः, the third and last effectivity, completing the अध्वर यज्ञ. The suffix मत् to a verbal stem is a peculiar and early form unless indeed दस् was originally a noun = action as well as a verb.

1.74.5 अङ्गिरः. S. अङ्गनादिगुणयुक्ताग्ने; he treats it as equivalent in meaning to the name अग्नि itself. But Angiras has a special sense in the Veda; Agni is the original Angiras and the seven seers are the powers of the luminous Flame, his children. The Angiras is the Seer who seeks the Light by the force of the will and finds first the Word as the mouths of Brihaspati, then the Light itself as the army of Indra. Agni Angiras is the Seer-Puissance; that as the messenger makes the human activities acceptable to the Truth and the sacrifice effective.

यहो. S. पुत्र. Has this sense of यहु any other reality than the idea of the commentators and grammarians that the phrase सहसो यहो in which alone it occurs must be equivalent to सहसः सूनो? यह्व, यह्वी in the Veda means mighty, puissant; should not यहु be kin in sense, the puissant, the master? On the other [hand] the connection between the epithet Angiras, Seer-Puissance, and the description “Son of Force” is very close, eg 5.11.6, त्वामग्ने अंगिरसो गुहा हितमन्वविंदंछिश्रियाणं वनेवने । स जायसे मथ्यमानः सहो महत्त्वामाहुः सहसस्पुत्रमंगिरः ॥

सुबर्हिषं. S. शोभनयज्ञं. I cannot accept Sayana’s frequent rendering of बर्हिः as यज्ञ. It means figuratively the seat of sacrifice and literally, from बृह् , the extension, the outspreading, the wide fullness of the inner state upon which the work of the sacrifice is founded and on which the gods take their seat. It is, in the physical sacrifice, the thing outspread, स्तीर्णं बर्हिः, and, this being the sacred doorva grass, it came to mean the doorva. It is connected in sense with बृहत् , बर्हणा and often means a mass, stream, crest of light or force etc, anything spread wide or streaming out, thus the wide ether, the outstreaming peacock’s tail, water flowing in a mass, a stream of flame, the बर्हींषि of Agni, radiating light. All its senses can be traced back to the one original sense of extension or wide fullness. So also the verbal senses of बर्ह् come from the idea of a heavy pervading pressure; it means to cover, spread, crush, overtop and so be preeminent or excel; to give in the sense of lavishing, cf रा; to speak, from the sense of outbreathing. बर्हिः as a seat comes, like all the rest, from this sense of spreading widely and thickly or fully.

There are three elements given here for the sacrifice, the perfect offering, the effective godhead, the entire purity and fullness of the seat on which the godhead shall base himself and his working — psychologically, a pure, wide state of the soul.

Sayana’s rendering.

He in whose house thou art a messenger, whose offerings thou carriest to be eaten (by the gods) and whose sacrifice thou makest to be seen by all, him indeed, O Angiras, son of Force, all men speak of as having good offerings, a good godhead and a good sacrifice.

Psychological rendering.

When in man’s dwelling-place thou art the envoy, thou takest his offerings to be enjoyed by the gods (or thou comest to carry his offerings) and thou makest effective the journey of his sacrifice; him verily men speak of as perfect in his oblations, perfect in his godheads present, perfect in the wide seat of his sacrifice.

1.74.6 सुश्चंद्र. S. शोभनाह्लादन. चंद्र has two senses, “shining” and “delightful”, both present in all the names of the Soma, चंद्र, सोम, इंदु; but it is the sense “delight” which it usually carries in the Veda.

वहासि. In the early Aryan tongue the long and short syllable were entirely interchangeable and traces of this linger in the Veda — चरथ, चराथ; भवसि, भवासि; पथः, पाथः. Sayana takes as imperative, but it is obviously a continuation of the statements वेषि, कृणोषि, and now आवहासि.

प्रशस्तये. The प्रशस्ति is the expressing or manifesting of the god by the word, not yet his birth or creation, but a temporary mental realisation by the thought. It is not merely praise; there is no need for the gods to be carried to the sacrifice to be praised; but certainly the word must be an assertion of the powers, functions, characteristics of the godhead.

हव्या .. वीतये. Sayana takes आगतेभ्यो हव्यानि भक्षणाय प्रापय; but there is no प्रापय and we cannot extract one from आवहासि which gives the quite different idea of bringing from heaven. हव्यानि is an accusative governed by the verbal force in वीतये, a common Vedic construction, eg चक्रिं विश्वानि चक्रये. 1.9.2.

ताँ. The gods there in heaven of whom you are the envoy.

वीतये. Here it seems necessary to take as “eating” or “enjoying”, otherwise we shall have to translate the last pada separately, “Come, O perfect in delight, for the carrying of the oblations”; but this gives an insufficient coherence.

There are always two aspects of Agni’s embassy which seem to be inconsistent with each other, one the bringing of the gods to eat of the oblations in the house of the sacrificer, the other the taking of the oblations to be eaten by the gods in mid-air or heaven. In the physical sacrifice it may be said that the fire first carries the consumed offerings into the air to be eaten in their subtle parts by the gods of heaven and mid-air, then the gods are attracted by the voice and light of the flame and come to eat the rest of the offerings at the sacrifice itself. But this is not satisfactory. And what is meant by the fire carrying the gods from heaven to the place of sacrifice, — vahasi, vehis? That corresponds to no possible physical fact. Psychologically, the sense is clear enough. The Seer-Will first bears man’s activities to the higher planes by his purified consecration of them to the Godhead. This is the first part of the embassy. Then comes the time for the descent of the divine Powers into the human mind & body, at first temporary, to enjoy there the activities offered to them, each activity to its proper god, then permanent by the creation, birth, growth (तातिः, वीतिः, अवः) of the divinities in the human being, each conducting his own proper activity first मनुष्वत् in the human type, then in the human divine, as Usha is described देवि मानुषि, O divine and human. In all these stages it is Will-with-Knowledge that leads. That summons and brings, in a way carries the gods in their descent, supports them in their workings.

Sayana’s rendering.

O thou of the good delighting, bring hither those gods for the praise and give them the oblations for their eating.

Psychological rendering.

And thou bringest hither those gods for their expression by the word, O perfect in delight, for the enjoying of the oblations.

1.74.7 Sayana explains that this absence of sound is due to the swiftness of the chariot. This cannot be the explanation: a swift chariot is likely to make a greater noise than a slow one. Either the phrase means simply that it is not a physical, but figurative or immaterial horses & chariot that are meant; or else the emphasis is on अश्व्यः. Aśwa, the horse, is the Pranic power and swiftness of Pranic activity brings with it usually a disturbance and tumult pleasant or unpleasant in the being, but Agni’s being the horses of the purified Prana, there is no disturbing sound of their gallop. उपब्दिः is, I think, an ear-oppressing clamour, din. That this is the sense is proved, I think, by the next verse where the image of the horse is again taken up and the idea varied. The horse of Agni is वाजी अह्रयः, the undeviating horse, that which does not go crookedly, that is the Pranic energy not stumbling into sin, error, false desire, but galloping on the straight path ऋजुना पथा of the Truth.

कच्च्न. Sayana कदाचन; more probably “at all”, “in any way”.

यासि दूत्यं. S. देवानां दूतत्वं प्राप्नोषि, but I think this is a purely Vedic construction meaning practically यासि दूतयात्रां, the दूत्यं being loosely made the object of यासि as a sort of cognate accusative, not because it is strictly so, but from a general idea of its sense, because the दूत्य here is in its essence यान or यात्रा, a going.

Sayana’s rendering.

O Agni, no sound of thy moving car is ever heard made by horses when thou becomest the (gods’) envoy.

Psychological rendering.

No sound of horses is heard at all from thy chariot in its motion, when O Agni, thou goest on thy embassy.

1.74.8 In the metre of this verse त्वोतः has to be taken as a trisyllable and अह्रयः separated from वाजी.

त्वोतः — see Appendix for अव् = foster, increase. Even with Sayana’s rendering of the rest of the verse “fostered” gives a better sense than “protected from harm”.

अह्रयः. Sayana’s लज्जारहितः is absurd. हृ is used in the sense of crookedness as well as ह्वृ in the Veda, cf जुहुराण crooked. If not, we must take हृ not in the sense of shame, but of a violent emotion; it means joy and wrath as well as shame, or any disturbance of the emotional being. अह्रयः must then be taken with दाश्वान् , the sacrificer becomes full of the divine plenitudes, free from all violent emotions and so goes forward on his journey प्र अस्थात् .

अभि पूर्वस्मादपरः. S. यः पुरुषः पूर्वस्मात् स्वस्मादधिकारादपरो निकृष्टो भवति; he now becomes rich in food and free from shame. This is one of those forced & ingenious interpretations which illustrate the learning of the commentator, but not the text. पूर्वस्मादपरः can only mean “a later after the former” or if पूर्व means superior, a lower after the higher, but never an inferior to the former, because then the sense-correlation of पूर्व & अपर is entirely lost; nor is there any hint of any अधिकार in the text. There must be either a later वाजी (or दाश्वान्) opposed to a former or an inferior दाश्वान् opposed to a superior दाश्वान् . In the latter case, the sense may be “the sacrificer inferior to the supreme sacrificer advances when fostered by thee and becomes वाजी like the one who was superior to him.” But this is very forced and clumsy. More naturally it would mean, if we suppose only one clause, “The later sacrificer after the former”, that is, “one sacrificer after another goes forward (प्र) fostered by thee to the goal (अभि), full of plenitude, straight in his course.” It is possible, however, to take वाजी in the sense of horse, the Pranic अश्व and अभि will stand for a verb; “fostered by thee, one steed of thine following its leader, undeviating, reaches the goal; the sacrificer (as the result of Agni’s journeying) passes forward on his journey.”

प्र अस्थात् . Sayana takes अभि = ऐश्वर्यमभिप्राप्य and प्रास्थात् = प्रतितिष्ठति सर्वोत्कृष्टो भवति. Neither can stand. Too much is read by him into अभि and the second preposition is प्र not प्रति; the verse speaks of प्रस्थान not प्रतिष्ठा. Sayana quite missed the Vedic image of the sacrificial journey or ascent to Swar and is therefore always at a loss when this idea becomes prominent.

Sayana’s rendering.

The man that has become lower than his former position, now giving thee offerings and being protected by thee becomes rich in food and free from shame and thus attaining is established.

Psychological rendering.

Fostered by thee, steed following after steed undeviating reaches the goal, (so), O Flame, the giver of the sacrifice goes ever forward.

or

Fostered by thee, the later sacrificer following him who went before (or simply sacrificer after sacrificer) goes forward undeviating, rich in the plenitudes.

1.74.9 सुवीर्यं. Sayana takes शोभनवीर्योपेतं धनं. I see no धनं anywhere in the verse, and therefore take सुवीर्यं as a noun, सु + वीर्यं as in सुनयः, सुप्रयोगः, सुपथ् etc. Even when सुवीर्यं occurs entirely by itself as in 1.94.2, Sayana renders it as शोभनवीर्योपेतं धनं; yet nothing is commoner in the Veda than the idea of strength and the prayer for strength. Here the vast and luminous energy is the pranic force made a vastness by the vastness of the Truth-will, ऋतं बृहत् and full of the light of the supreme knowledge, ऋतं ज्योतिः.

विवाससि. Sayana abandons his favourite परिचरसि and interprets गमयितुमिच्छसि — प्रापयसीति यावत् basing himself on the sense of वा to go. वास् (वस्) means either to dwell or to shine. विवाससि means either thou makest to dwell or thou makest to shine widely in all the being. It is difficult to decide, for द्युमत् favours “shine” and बृहत् favours “dwell”.

देव. Sayana द्योतमानाग्ने. Sayana feels that an importance is attached to the appellation, but misses the equal importance of the collocation देवेभ्यो देव. To him who gives to the godheads, the Seer-Will representing the divine existence responds with the gift of light, of power, of vastness.

Sayana’s rendering.

Also, O shining Agni, to him who gives to the gods, thou bringest a shining wealth endowed with good energy.

Psychological rendering.

Yea, and for him who giveth to the divine Ones, thou, O divine, O Flame, lodgest wide in all his being a perfect forcefulness vast and illumined.

¹ CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 455-456. (Part 4 № 5).

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² CWSA.– Vol. 16.– Hymns to the Mystic Fire.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2013, pp. 138-140; 555-559. (Part 2; Part 3 № 13).

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³ Cursive by Sri Aurobindo.– Ed.

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⁴ CWSA.– Vol. 16.– Hymns to the Mystic Fire.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2013, pp. 559-582. (Part 3 № 14). 1-st published: Sri Aurobindo: Archives & Research: a biannual journal.– Volume 5, No1 (1981, April), pp. 3-8.; Sri Aurobindo: Archives & Research: a biannual journal.– Volume 2, No2 (1978, December), pp. 125-147.

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