Canto 58Payu Bharadwaja · Sukta 87
Book 2. Part Two: Other Hymns to Agni
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;27
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
5day 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 them
with thy tongue of flame, the gods who kill,28 the eaters of
flesh, putting them off from us shut them into thy mouth.
103. Destruction, whetting set upon them both thy tusks, the
higher and the lower, O thou who art of both worlds,29
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
1527 Or, a widest peace;
28 Or, the gods of ignorance,
29 Or, O thou who hast both,
Mandala Ten
speech thy javelins, plastering them with thy thunderbolts
20pierce with these in their hearts the demon-sorcerers who
confront us, break their arms.
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5. O Fire, tear the skin of the demon-sorcerer; let the cruel
45thunderbolt 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.
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656. 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.
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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.
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8. Here proclaim which is he, O Fire, what demon-sorcerer,
120who 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.
Other Hymns to Agni
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9. O Fire, guard with thy keen eye the sacrifice, lead it moving
150forward 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.
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10. Divine of vision, see everywhere the Rakshasa in the peo-
ples, cleave the three peaks of him; his flanks, O Fire, cleave
with thy wrath, rend asunder the triple root of the demon-
sorcerer.
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11. Triply may the demon-sorcerer undergo thy onrush, he who
slays the Truth by falsehood; him overspreading with thy
215ray, O knower of all things born, fell down in front of him
who hymns thee.
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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
245knowledge who does hurt to the Truth.
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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.
270Mandala Ten
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29514. 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,30 blazing away from us cleave these who glut
themselves with men’s lives.
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32515. 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.
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35516. The demon 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.
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17. O thou who hast the divine vision, let not the demon-
380sorcerer 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.
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18. May the demon-sorcerers drink poison from the Ray-Cows,
30 Or, the gods of ignorance,
Other Hymns to Agni
405may 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.
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19. Ever dost thou crush the demon-sorcerer, O Fire, never have
435the 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.
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46020. 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.
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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
485thy friend, ageless protect from old age, immortal protect
us who are mortals, O Fire.
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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.
505Mandala Ten
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 couples; I whet thee to sharp-
ness, inviolate, with my thoughts, O illumined sage; awake.
51025. 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