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MANDALA III, HYMN 5.
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7. Agni has approached the place rich in ghee (the altar), with broad passages, (the place) longing (for him), longing (himself). He the resplendent, bright, tall purifier has made his two parents ? new again and again.
8. As soon as born he has grown by the grass ", when the sprouting (grass-)blades strengthen him with ghee. Like waters beautiful on their precipitous path, Agni, being in the lap of his parents, has escaped into wide space.
9. Receiving praise the vigorous one 1 has shone forth with his fuel, on heaven's summit, on the earth's navel. May Agni worthy of being magnified, (being) Mitra and Måtarisvan, the messenger, carry hither the gods that they may receive our sacrifice.
10. The tall one has, by (receiving) fuel, upheld the firmament, Agni, becoming the highest of lights, when Mâtarisvan for the sake of the Bhrigus? kindled the carrier of oblations, (Agni) who dwelt in secret. I1 = III, 1, 23.
NOTES. The same Rishi and metre.—No verse occurs in the othcr Samhitâs.
Verse 1. Note 1. On pada-ví, comp. Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 299.
Verse 3. Note 1. Mitra has here and in verse 4 two meanings: it is the name of the god Mitra, with whom Agni is identified (Bergaigne, Religion Védique, III, 134 seq.), and it means also 'friend' or 'ally' (comp. H. O., Religion des Veda, 186, note 1). See von Bradke, Dyaus Asura, p. 13.
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