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I, 13. Apri Hymn

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"Vedic Hymns, Part Ii (sbe46)\", by Hermann Oldenberg [1897],

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Ma
\"N"D"Ala I, Hymn 13.

Ash
\"T"Aka I, Adhyya 1, Varga 24-25.

Pr Hymn.

1 1.
Being well lighted, O Agni, bring us hither the gods to the man rich in sacrificial food, O Hot"ri", purifier, and perform the sacrifice.

2.
Tannapt 1! make our sacrifice rich in honey and convey it to-day to the gods, O sage, that they may feast.

3. I
invoke here at this sacrifice Nar"s"a"m"sa 1, the beloved one, the honey-tongued preparer of the sacrificial food.

4. O
magnified 1 Agni! Conduct the gods hither in an easy-moving chariot. Thou art the Hot"ri" instituted by Manus 2.

5.
Strew, O thoughtful men, in due order 1 the sacrificial grass, the back (or surface) of which is sprinkled with butter, on which the appearance of immortality 2 (is seen).

6.
May the divine gates open, the increasers of "Ri"ta, which do not stick together, that to-day, that now the sacrifice may proceed.

7. I
invoke here at this sacrifice Night and Dawn, the beautifully adorned goddesses, that they may sit down on this our sacrificial grass.

8. I
invoke these two divine Hot"ri"s 1, the sages with beautiful tongues. May they perform this sacrifice for us.

9. I
\"l" ('Nourishment'), Sarasvat, and Mah ('the great one') 1, the three comfort-giving goddesses, they who do not fail, shall sit down on the sacrificial grass.

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10. I
invoke hither the foremost, all-shaped Tvash"t"ri" to come hither; may he be ours alone.

11. O
tree 1, let the sacrificial food go, O god, to the gods. May the giver's splendour be foremost.

12.
Offer ye the sacrifice with the word Svh to Indra in the sacrificer's house. Thereto I invoke the gods.

Notes.

The hymn is ascribed, as the whole collection to which it belongs, to Medhtithi K"n"va (see the note on the preceding hymn). Its metre is Gyatr. Verses 1-4 = Sv. Ii, 697-700. Verse 9 = Rv. V, 5, 8. Verse 10 = Ts. Iii, 1, 11, 1; Tb. Iii, 5, 12, 1; Ms. Iv, 13, 10.

The hymn belongs to the class of pr hymns, which were classed by the ancient arrangers of the Sa"m"hit among the Agni hymns. The pr hymns, consisting of eleven or twelve verses, were destined for the Pray"g"a offerings of the animal sacrifice (comp. H. O., Zeitschrift der D. Morg. Gesellschaft, Xlii, 243 seq.). They were addressed, verse by verse in regular order, partly to Agni, partly to different spirits or deified objects connected with the sacrifice, such as the sacrificial grass, the divine gates through which the gods had to pass on their way to the sacrifice, &c. The second verse was addressed by some of the "Ri"shi families to Tannapt by some to Nar"s"a"m"sa; in some of the hymns we find two verses instead of one (so that the total number of verses becomes twelve instead of eleven) addressed the one to Tannapt, the other to Nar"s"a"m"sa. Bergaigne (Recherches sur l'histoire de la Liturgie Vdique, p. 14) conjectures that some of the "Ri"shi families had only seven Pray"g"as. This opinion is based on the identical appearance of four verses (8-11) in the pr hymns of the Vi"s"vmitras (III, 4) and of the Vasish"th"as (vii, 2), and on the diversity of metres used in two other pr hymns, IX, 5 and II, 3. To me this conjecture, though very ingenious, does not seem convincing.

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With the text of the pr hymns should be compared the corresponding Praishas of the Maitrvaru"n"a priest, i. e. the orders by which this priest directed the Hot"ri" to pronounce the Pray"g"a invocations. The text of these Praishas is given Taitt. Brhm. Iii, 6, 2.

Comp. on the character and the historical and ritual position of the pr hymns, Max Mller, Hist. Anc. Sansc. Literature, p. 403 seq.; Roth, Nirukta, notes, p. 121 seq.; Weber, Indische Studien, X, 89 seq.; Ludwig V, 315 seq.; Hillebrandt, Das Altindische Neu- und Vollmondsopfer, 94 seq.; Schwab, Das Altindische Thieropfer, 90 seq.; Bergaigne, Recherches sur l'histoire de la Liturgie Vdique, 13 seq.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Comp. Delbrck, Syntactische Forschungen, I, 97.


Verses 2, 3.

Note 1. Does Tannapt, lit. 'son of the body,' mean, as Roth and Grassmann believed, 'son of his own self' (comp. I, 12, 6. agnn agn"h" sm idhyate, 'by Agni Agni is kindled'), or is the meaning 'le propre fils' (Bergaigne, Rel. Vdique Ii, 100)? Nar"s"a"m"sa, which is nearly identical with the Avestic Nairysaha, means 'the song of men,' or 'praised by men' (Bergaigne, l. l. I, 305; M. M.'s note on Vii, 46, 4). In Iii, 29, 11 it is said of Agni: He is called Tannapt as the foetus of the Asura; he becomes Nar"s"a"m"sa when he is born.' Of course an expression like this is by no means sufficient to prove that the sacrificial gods Tannapt and Nar"s"a"m"sa, as invoked in the pr hymns, are nothing but forms of Agni. Expressions which are constantly repeated in the pr verses show that the work of Tannapt, and likewise that of Nar"s"a"m"sa, consisted in spreading gh"ri"ta or 'honey' over the sacrifice.

Verse 4.

Note 1. 'Magnified' is "li"th; comp. the note on I, 1, 1. The third, or if both Tannapt and Nar"s"a"m"sa are invoked, the fourth verse of the pr hymns is regularly addressed to Agni with this epithet "li"ta.

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Note 2. Manurhita, 'instituted by Manus,' not 'by men.' See Bergaigne, Religion Vdique, I, 6, 5 seq.

Verse 5.

Note 1. On nushk, comp. Pischel, Vedische Studien, Ii, 125.

Note 2. The last Pda is translated by Grassmann, 'wo der unsterbliche sich zeigt' (comp. Bergaigne, R.v. I, 194, note 1); by Ludwig, 'auf dem man das unsterbliche sieht.' To me it seems impossible to decide, so as to leave no doubt, whether am"r"tasya is masculine or neuter. Comp. also Atharva-veda V, 4, 3; 28, 7; Xix, 39, 6-8, in which passages the phrase am"r"tasya "k"ksha"n"am recurs.

Verse 8.

Note 1. The two divine Hot"ri"s are mentioned in the Rig-veda only in the eighth (or seventh) verse of the prsktas and besides in two passages, X, 65, 10; 66, 13, which do not throw any light on the nature of these sacrificial gods. They are called "g"tavedas Vii, 2, 7, purohitau X, 70, 7, bhisha"g" V"g". Sa"m"h. Xxviii, 7. As regards the duality of these divine counterparts of the human Hot"ri" priest, possibly the 'two Hot"ri"s' should be understood as the Hot"ri" and the Maitrvaru"n"a; the latter was the constant companion and assistant of the former in the Vedic animal sacrifice. Comp. Schwab, Altindisches Thieropfer, 96, 114, 117, H. O., Religion des Veda, 391.

Comp. on the two divine Hot"ri"s also Bergaigne, R.v. I, 233 seq.

Verse 9.

Note 1. On I"l", see H. O., Religion des Veda, pp. 72, 326.--With regard to Mah Bergaigne (Rel. Vdique, I, 322) has pronounced the opinion that 'Bhrat et Mah, qui, tantt se remplacent, tantt se juxtaposent tout en paraissant ne compter que pour une, se confondent aux yeux des "ri"shis.' But Pischel (Ved. Studien, II, 84 seq.) has shown that the eminent French scholar was wrong, and that really Mah ('the great one') is independent of Bhrat. Pischel's

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own opinion that Mah is a name of the goddess Dhisha"n", does not seem to me to be established by sufficient reasons.--On the meaning of these three goddesses Prof. Max Mller writes: 'I should not fix on Nourishment as the true meaning of I"l". Originally those three goddesses seem to be local: I"l", the land or daughter of Manu, the Sarasvat, and another river here called Mah.'

Verse 11.

Note 1. To me it seems evident that the tree, or, to translate more literally, the lord of the forest (vanaspati) invoked in this pr verse can only be the sacrificial post (ypa) to which the victim was tied before it was killed. The ypa is called vanaspati in the Rig-veda (III, 8, t. 3. 6. ii) as well as in the more modern Vedic texts (for inst., Taitt. Sa"m"h. I, 3, 6, 1).--In the pr hymn, IX, 5 (verse 10), the vanaspati is called sahasraval"s"a: with this should be compared Iii, 8, 11 (addressed to the ypa): vnaspate "s"atval"s"a"h" v roha sahsraval"s"h" v vaym ruhema, 'O lord of the forest, rise with a hundred offshoots; may we rise with a thousand offshoots!'--In the pr hymn, X, 70 (verse 10), the rope (ra"s"an) is mentioned by which the vanaspati should tie the victim; comp. with this expression the statements of the ritual texts as to the ra"s"an with which the victim is tied to the ypa; Schwab, Das Altindische Thieropfer, 8r. Comp. also especially Taittirya Brhma"n"a Iii, 6, 11, 3.--In the pr hymns the vanaspati is frequently invoked to let loose the victim; in connection therewith mention is made of the sacrificial butcher ("s"amit"ri"), see Ii, 3, 10; Iii, 4, 10; X, 110, 10, and comp. V"g". Sa"m"hit Xxi, 21; Xxviii, 10. The meaning of these expressions becomes clear at once, if we explain the vanaspati as the sacrificial post. When they are going to kill the victim, they loosen it from the post; the post, therefore, can be said to let it loose. Then the butcher ("s"amit"ri") leads the victim away. See the materials collected by Schwab, Thieropfer, p. 100 seq., and comp. also H. O., Religion des Veda, 257.
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