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MANDALA III, HYMN 22.
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MANDALA III, HYMN 22. ASHTAKA III, ADHYAYA 1, VARGA 22. 1. This is that Agni with whom the desiring Indra took the pressed Soma into his body. Having obtained thousandfold strength like a horse, a racer”, thou art praised, O Gâta vedas!
21. Thy splendour, O Agni, which dwells in heaven and on earth, in the plants, O worshipful one, and in the waters, wherewith thou hast spread through the wide air-that light of thine is fierce, waving ?, man-beholding.
3. Agni, thou goest to the floods of heaven. Thou hast spoken to the gods who are liberal (?) 1. (Thou goest) to the waters which (dwell) on high in the ether of the sun, and to those which approach below.
4. May the fires of the soil united with those on the hill-sides, without guile graciously accept our sacrifice and plentiful food free from all plague.
5=III, 1, 23.
NOTES. The same Rishi. The metre is Trishtubh, except in verse 4 which is Anushtubh. A conjecture on the ritual use for which the hymn has been composed, see in the note on verse 4.–Verses 1-5 = VS. XII, 47-51; TS. IV, 2, 4, 2. 3; MS. II, 7, 11.–A sort of commentary on this hymn is found in the Satapatha Brâhmana VII, 1, 1, 22 seq.
Verse 1. Note 1. In the traditional text the words, a horse, a racer,' are accusatives. But it is the átya who attains
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