Canto 2Mandala Two

Book 3. Part Three: Commentaries and Annotated Translations

[18]

[RV II.4.1–5]

II.4.

Hymn to Agni attributed to Somahuti Bhargava.

5. Sayana gives his two alternatives, “released from sins”

(

) or “having good praise”. Both of these senses

(not

10 as Sayana’s interpretation would

are artificial.

demand) is undoubtedly used for a hymn, but in a special aspect

and must

15of the hymn. The word may come either from

or to

. The present passage in

either be equivalent to

seems to point to the former

20which it is connected with

sense.

. Sy. “having good food”.

from

to be pleased =

25 bliss, happiness.

pleasure, satisfaction and is coupled with

because he is

, a force of

Agni is the

30work inhabiting us that gives perfect pleasure as the result of the

, therefore he is

. All these

working. Because he is

expressions must be taken in sequence. Agni is a force of will

35resident in man that gives a perfect light (

) and therefore

perfect energy of light (

) and therefore perfect pleasure

40(

); because he has these three qualities he is like Mitra, the

Friend of Creatures, the lord of light, love & harmony, who

has the capacity of holding () all things in their proper

place & relation, & this he does on each plane of man because

45, knower of all the planes of the soul on which it is

he is

means who has to be held

successively born. Or else

in man as Mitra. This is better as it gives a better connection in

50sense with the verses that follow.

aAd

55jn

. Divine in man who reflects the divinity. Sayana

says “in all creatures up to the gods”; but cf IV.1.1.

60d

vmAd

jnt

65ts

vmAd

jnt

70c

, “They gave being in

mortals to the god as the reflected divinity who has the prajnana,

the universal reflected divinity conscious in knowledge.” This is

75the sense of

aA in

80aA

$ as applied to the gods who are

formed or become in mortals; that is to say, they throw there

their reflected image or being which is shaped in himself by man.

85Sayana. I call for you Agni, the well-shining, well-praised

or, well-abandoned (by sin), well-fooded guest of people, — the

god who as a friend, or, as the Sun becomes the holder in (all)

beings up to the gods, the knower of things born.

For you I call on the God-Will, guest of the peoples with

90his perfect light, his perfect energy, his perfect pleasures, he who

becomes as the Lord of Love & Harmony, and has to be held

in man as the god in the creature born who reflects in him the

godhead and knows all his births.

95apA

sDT

. Sy.

shTAn

— the place where the waters are to-

100gether = the antariksha.

sDT

= place of session & is used in the

sense of world. This

sDT is the world or seat of the waters and

105may refer either to the upper or lower ocean. Here, however, it

must necessarily indicate the upper ocean.

E7tA doubly, in their manifest human & their secret divine

parts.

110gv. Sy. The Maharshis who preceded us. These are the

Ancestors (the Gritsamadas are Bhargavas); as the Angirasas

are powers of Agni, so the Bhrigus are powers of Surya.

aAyo. Sy. man = yajamana & vikshu =

jAs

115 = his offspring

= the ritwiks! Obviously

aAyo =

mAn

120qFq

in the next line

and means mankind in general, not the Ritwiks.

125vAEn

mA. Sy. takes

130vAEn = all enemies and

m =

135$

ayT

. All this learned ingenuity is entirely wasted.

140B

m either

= all the worlds or all the largenesses, that is the divine worlds

from

145mhs

upwards.

arEt. Sy.

vr or

150fFG

mrZfFl.

arZfFl (there is no

fFG

) is correct, but the idea of the root

155ar

includes not only

Mandala Two

movement, but battle, aspiration & labour. Agni has been set

by the gods in man as the worker & fighter to raise him up to

160immortality. Cf IV.1.1.

vmrEt

Err

165 ..

170jnt

jFrA

175v.

has three senses, 1. rapidity, 2. waste, destruction

as in

jrA old age, and 3. enjoyment, love, adoration as in

180jAr,

jErtA.

Sayana’s rendering. The Bhrigus serving him held him in

the meeting place of the waters (antariksha) in the people (the

Ritwiks) of the man (the Yajamana) and from the place of the

185two; may he, swift-horsed, the lord of the gods (or, the swift-

mover among the gods) overcome very much all (enemies).

I confess I cannot make any sense of Sayana’s rendering. I

render:

“Him setting in the order of the sacrifice the Shining Ances-

190tors established in the session of the waters and doubly in the

peoples of man. May this (flame) with his rapid steeds, the toiler

for the gods, take possession of all the vast worlds.”

The sense is that the Ancestors who incarnated or typified

the powers of the luminous Truth have established him in his

195right place in the sacrifice in such a way that he pervades the

upper ocean, to the superconscient existence, and occupies two

places in man, his conscious mortal being and his secret divine

being. In the mortal man he drives the rapid swiftnesses of the

vital strength upwards to the ocean of the superconscient, for

200he is the aspiring toiler set here to that end by the gods. Let him

then so rise and take possession for man of all the vastnesses,

the different worlds of the divine existence.

205to. S. takes in a double sense, first, as applied to the gods

= when about to go to their home, then as proper to the simile

= as men going for wealth leave a friend to guard their house.

S. says = giving pleasure to the gods. This is ingenious; but

210the Rishi is merely taking up the idea already given in verse 1,

215yo

EdEDqA?y. The gods have set him in man as

a power of love or a power that satisfies because they mean by

him to set Mitra in his home; that is to say this Force contains

the secret Power of Love & Harmony and as it rises to the Truth,

220the home of that Power, reveals itself as that. Cf VI.2.1.

#tvfo'n

Emo

225n

pys

— cf VI.3.1.

230Em

vzZ

sjoqA

pAEs. Meanwhile he shines in the Nights, the states of human

235ignorance, — the Rishi goes on to say, — because he has Mitra’s

light of Truth as well as his power of Love; these darkened states

are full of desire which Agni satisfies by his pleasantness which

increases with his light. Being a power of light, it is full of the

power of discernment,

240dA?y, which belongs to “Mitra of the

purified discernment”.

dFdyt

. S. shines in the Nights that desire or else “illumines

the Nights”.

245dA?y. S.

smD

EytA or

dAtA.

d means discernment, cf Greek

250dx

kw etc, skill, capacity, cf

255dEZ or else strength. The

original sense is to “divide”, & from this we can get the sense of

discerning, that of destruction and therefore of martial strength,

and that of giving which S. here very unnecessarily suggests.

260. S. the

yAgg

h. Rather the human system, the house of

the soul.

Sayana’s rendering. The gods established Agni who satisfies

265them among the human peoples when they were about to seek

their home as men departing to seek wealth establish a friend;

he shines in (or, illumines) the desiring nights, who is a giver for

the giver of the offering in his house (of sacrifice).

I render. “Agni the gods have set in the human peoples,

270a satisfying friend, as seeking to bring Mitra to his home; he

illumines the desire of the billowing Nights, he who for the giver

of the sacrifice dwells in his house as a power of discernment.”

The purpose of the gods and the action of Agni thus ex-

pressed explain verse 2. The vast worlds are the home of Mitra;

275in taking possession of them Agni is fulfilling the purpose of the

gods in setting him here as well as the arrangement made by

the Bhrigus; he is bringing Mitra to his home. And he is able

to do this because he has the light & joy of those worlds in

him; he is the intermediary who brings that light from the divine

280into the human; he shines illumining with it our dark states of

ignorance and for the sacrificer who makes him his envoy to the

gods, he bridges the gulf and turns this light of obscurity into

Mandala Two

the very divine discernment even here in this mortal body ( dm

285).

He also turns, as we see in the next verse, the mortal satisfaction

& pleasure (Ey,

y) into the divine delight.

290r@vA. S.

rmZFyA or

fNdy

8tA. It is difficult to understand why S.

suggests this alternative meaning which makes sheer nonsense

295of the verse.

r@vA, delightful, takes up & develops the idea in

300ys

. The increase of the Force is a delight and as it were

the increase of one’s own self.

305E. Either “the vision of him is of one speeding & burn-

ing” or “his vision is that of one speeding to his goal and seeking

to discern”.

do seems to refer back to

dA?y in the last line

310& in that case must have a kindred sense.

BErB

. S.

EvhrEt =

315k

pyEt. It is rather the “carrying” (B

)

forward & backward of the flame; the complete reduplica-

tion suggests this constant or repeated motion; the word is a

320contraction for

BErBrt

doDvFEt

vArAn

325 . S. shakes his tail (hairs) to get rid of biting

flies; but this makes a meaningless ornament.

$ (Dv

) means any

330violent & impetuous movement; shaking, pouring, streaming,

running. The root

DAv

to run was originally no independent

root, but only a modified form of

335D

$ . When the language became

less fluid,

$ was fixed in the sense of shaking,

340DAv

in that of run-

ning, but in the Veda the community of significance has not yet

been lost.

doDvFEt = runs & takes up the idea in

345EhyAny which

already suggests the figure of the horse so constantly applied to

Agni & Soma.

vAr will then =

vAr

350, supreme boons, blessings,

the desirable things of the Vedic discipline. In the Veda the fluid

variation between masculine & neuter is sufficiently common.

Sayana’s rendering. Delightful is his increase as of the sac-

rificer himself and his appearance as he spreads & burns, he

355who shakes his tongue of flame among the plants (logs), as a

chariot-horse shakes his tail.

Note that in Sayana’s rendering the

v is absolutely

360forced & inappropriate. What is meant by saying that the in-

crease & appearance of the fire on the logs is as pleasant (or as

resonant) as that of the sacrificer himself? I render:

“Delightful is his increasing and is as that of one’s own being

and he has the vision of one hastening (on his path) and seeking

365to discern; when he darts to & fro his tongue upon the growths

of earth (lit. heat-holders) he is as the galloping chariot-horse

and is running towards the supreme boons.”

The sense is that the growth of the Force is a delight & is

as if the growth of one’s own being; his light, his vision is that

370of a power in us hastening like a horse towards a goal, — the

kshaya of Mitra, the vi¸cvani bhuma, — and seeking to discern.

This force is constantly satisfying our desires & increasing its

own heat by enjoying the objects of our material life imaged as

the growths of earth, the plants that hold the heat of life and

375by eating which we get that vital heat & force into us; but in

all this action of devouring desire the Force acts as the Steed

of Life yoked to our chariot and is hastening always towards

the supreme boons, the objects of a higher desire. This mortal

enjoyment is to be strengthened & purified till the Strength is

380ready to convert it into the immortal. This is done, as the Rishi

goes on to state in the next two verses, by the Power lifting itself

from vital desire into mental knowledge. The capacity & the

attempt to discern (dA?y,

do) has to arrive at pure mental

385knowledge (EcEkt

Eck

OErv).

3905.

. S. says

395yy. Such a violent conversion is wholly

unnecessary.

means, as so often, “when” or “because”.

a v

400. S.

mhv

a v means anything vast, vague, chaotic as in

a vEvEht, “covered up in chaos”.

405Avo

pny

y v

410BAsA

415yo

5 VI.4.3.

vnd. Sayana connects this with

420m

and says this means either

the enjoyers connected with me (an awkward construction only

possible to the most bungling & incompetent writers) or else

vnd =

425avnd, that is, those who make a big noise = the praisers!

It means obviously either the seekers or the givers of enjoyment,

probably the former, and refers either to the gods or to the

powers in man that aspire to the bliss (vArAn

430aA

t. S. praised from all sides. I take

in the Veda

435to mean “do, deal, work, labour”, cf Gr.

noc,

pEZ dealer,

Mandala Two

440trafficker, Tamil pan., to do, act. Although this sense is not pre-

served in Sanscrit, it certainly existed in the root and may have

still existed in the Vedic times. “Praise” in many passages gives

no appropriate sense.

uEf yo

445nAEmmFt

. Sayana takes

n =

450uEf y = those

who desire my form,

= a form like his own,

EmmFt =

455EnEm

mFt

We get then “whose greatness my makers of a big sound (prais-

ers) praise and he makes a form like his own for those who

460desire my form.” I confess that I can make no shadow of sense

out of this rendering.

. This word seems to me to be used in two different

senses, first, colour, appearance, (lit. surface from

465v

to cover),

secondly, as here, the supreme world or heaven, whether from

to cover, spread as in

470vzZ (sea or ether) or from

to choose, as in

vAr. In the latter case it means “the supreme desirable state” or

“desirable world”.

475uEf yo

n, as to them desiring = according

to their desire, and the sense will be, “Because or when the

seekers of delight laboured at my chaotic being, he forms (in

it) according to their desire its supreme desirable state.” The

480last verse describes the labour of Agni hastening through mortal

desire to the supreme delight; this verse gives the transformation,

the attainment.

485 . Sayana takes as locative plural, in the pleasant things,

ie ghee, etc; this seems to me forced & improbable. I believe

must be taken as an adjective, formed from the root

490rs

nasalised

u or the root

495 +

= that which is delightful as

is used

500for pleasure in general.

EcEkt

. Sayana takes as passive, “he is distinguished by his

many-coloured light in the pleasant things”, — a clumsy way

indeed of expressing the sense. I take as the middle voice = he

505comes to knowledge of that which is delightful by his varied

light.