Hymns to the Mystic Fire

[21]

RV IV.1.1

त्वां ह्यग्ने सदमित्समन्यवो देवासो देवमरतिं न्येरिर इति कत्वा न्येरिरे । अमर्त्यं यजत मर्त्येष्वा देवमादेवं जनत प्रचेतसं विश्वमादेवं जनत प्रचेतसं ॥

IV.1 Thee it is, O Flame, whom the gods with one passion have ever sent in as the divine worker; therefore by the will they sent thee in; O Lord of sacrifice, (or they sacrificed), the divine and immortal in mortals they brought to birth as the conscious knower divine within, they brought to birth the universal, the conscious knower divine within.

त्वां हि thee indeed, अग्ने O Agni, समन्यवो देवासो the gods together-minded or like-passioned सदमित् ever indeed न्येरिरे sent in देवं the god, अरतिं the striver, इति therefore न्येरिरे they sent him in क्रत्वा by the will or the work. यजत O sacrificial one, मर्त्येषु आ in mortals, जनत they brought to birth अमर्त्यं the immortal, देवं the god, आदेवं the in-divine, प्रचेतसं the wise knower, विश्वं the universal, आदेवं जनत प्रचेतसं—as before.

अग्ने, त्वां हि सदमित् समन्यवो देवासो देवमरतिं
सर्वदैव समानहृदया देवाः देवम्
इति कत्वा न्येरिरे । यजत, मर्त्येषु अमर्त्यं देवं प्रचेतसमादेवं जनत विश्वं प्रचेतसं आदेवं जनत

समन्यवः. S. मन्यु = स्पर्धा vying with their equals. मन्यु means passion, especially wrath; in the Veda it seems to vary between the general significance of mind, the particular significance, "emotional mind" and the still more particularised sense "anger". Cf मानः = mind, wrath, resentment (अभिमानः), pride. मनः is the mind generally, but more the sensational, emotional and

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perceptive than the thought mind; the termination यु giving the idea of motion, effort, tendency, desire tends naturally to stress the word towards the emotional significances.

देवासो देवं. S. द्योतमानं. The gods are certainly the Shining Ones as opposed to the dark Titans, but I see no reason in this passage, or in any other, to give it its etymological sense of shining to the exclusion of its natural sense. S. seems to think it means, "they shining him ". Rather it is "they godheads him a godhead".

अरतिं. S. शीघ्रं गंतारं. There is nothing to indicate swiftness. अर् may mean to move, travel, to fight, to strive, to labour, to plough, to lead, to excel. I take it as connected in sense in the Veda with the words अर्य, अरि, आर्य and since the text immediately adds इति क्रत्वा = कर्मणा I understand it in the sense of "worker", or rather "striver". Agni is the divine worker or warrior.

इति. S. says "the gods send him to war, therefore men send him to call the gods or carry the oblation". This seems to me sufficiently pointless and incoherently antithetical to satisfy even the most learnedly ingenious taste. There is nothing in the text to indicate that gods are the subject of the first न्येरिरे, men of the second; on the contrary since we have देवासः as subject of first न्येरिरे and no other noun in the clause of repetition, we must take it as subject also of the second. Neither is it indicated that there is a different object for each sending. On the contrary इति indicates a common idea between the clauses; because they sent him as देवमरतिं the divine worker, therefore it was क्रत्वा by the work (of the Aryan?) or by the working power, strength or the will that they sent him. In other words Agni is the divine and immortal force that labours in the mortal, brought in, created either by the sacrificial work, the तपस्या of the mortal himself or by the will-force of the gods pouring itself into the mortal.

न्येरिरे. S. always takes नि = नितरां. It certainly means in the Veda "in", "within" or "into", cf निहित, निण्य, निधि. "Send in" is here most appropriate because of जनत in the next line. The bringing to birth & the sending in are one action differently described or rather two stages of one action.

यजत. S. यजनीय. But यजत like यजत्र may also be active = यज्यु.

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Cf भरत which has an active sense. I am not sure that यजत here is not a verb, like जनत.

मर्त्येषु आ. आ gives here the sense of place.

आदेवं. Cf देवान् आ कृ, आ भू in the Veda. आ gives the idea of the divine element entering into and occupying and being possessed by the mortal. I do not understand S's आगंतारं.

विश्वं. S's व्याप्तं = present all over the world in various sacrifices is a ritualist ingenuity. विश्व simply means all-pervading or universal.

प्रचेतसं. Sayana thinks this means "knowing the ritual". प्रचेताः is the later प्रज्ञः. Agni is the Wise One, the Knower or Perceiver of all objects of knowledge. There is nothing in the text or in the Veda to limit its sense to that of ritualistic expertness.