ATHARVAVEDA

Kanda XII: Sukta 1

[This is a selection from the original Hymn which is some­what longer. There is here a double series of numbering of the slokas, put side by side – except those that have the same number in the original as well as the selection; the first one gives the order of the slokas as selected: the other one refers to the number as in the original text.]

(I)

THE vast Truth, the Mighty Law, the Consecration, the austere Will, the Word, the Sacrifice – these uphold the Earth. She is the guardian of our past and of our future. May she create for us the wide Realm.

(2)

Man offers no barrier: many are the hills and dales and plains (ups and downs and levels) there; of multiple varie­ties are the plants she nourishes. May the Earth spread wide for us; on us may she bestow the plenitudes.

(3)

In her are the oceans and rivers and all the waters – In her, aliments have grown and the people as well, in her all

this lives, breathes and moves; may the wide Earth give us her very first yield to drink.

(4)

Fourfold are the expanses to which this Earth turns; in her have grown the food and the human workers: she nourishes in various ways, she breathes, she moves. May the wide Earth establish us in Light and in the Matter.

(5)

Here in ancient days our ancient fathers did their deeds. Here the Gods routed the Asuras. This is the home of kine and horses and birds. May the Earth bestow upon us en­joyments and splendours.

(6)

She contains all things. She holds the very Substance. She is the Foundation. Gold-breasted, she harbours the World. She harbours the whole world. The vast Earth carries in her Agni, the all-power. May she under the protection of lndra establish us in his riches.

(7)

Her the unsleeping Gods give protection eternally; the Vast Earth, the unfailing giver of all things, may she pour out for us the milk, the sweet delight, the honey, and sprinkle us with the lustre.

(8)

In the beginning she was as water on the bosom of the ocean; men of intelligence with their creative formations

followed her in her wake. The heart of Earth lay immortal, robed with Truth, in the highest spaces; may the wide Earth establish for us strength and a flaming energy in the supreme kingdom.

(9)

There the waters move all around equally night and day and flow unerringly.

That wide material earth opulent in her streams yields water like milk, may she pour upon us a shower of lustres.

(10)

The twin Aswins have measured her out; upon her Vishnu strode wide. Indra, the Lord of the Lights, for his own sake, has freed her of enemies.

That wide material earth of ours as a mother to her son pours out her sweet drink for us.

(11)

May the hills, the snowy ranges, the forests bring happiness to thee, O Earth.

Brown or black or red, in all forms upon this wide secure Earth that is protected by Indra (the Divine Mind), I stand firm and conquer, unslain, unhurt.

O Earth, that which is thy middle, that which is thy navel, and those lofty formations of thine, establish them in us. Flow towards us, O Mother Earth; I am the son of the Earth, the God Rain (Parjanya) is my father, may he bring fulfilment to us.

(13)

There on a high ground the universal workers stand en­circling the altar, there they conduct the sacrifice; there the stakes are planted straight and luminous before the offering is made; may the wide Earth herself grow and make us grow.

(14)

They that hate us, O Earth, they that war with us, they that obstruct us by their thought or by their missile (weapon), may our land forestall them and subdue them.

(I5)

Born of thee, the mortals move in thee. Thou nourishest the twin-seats and the fourfold seats. Thine are these five human races for whose sake, for these mortals, the sun rises and spreads with his rays the immortal Light.

(16)

May this whole world of creatures give us their yield (the sweet drink). O Earth, establish in me the sweetness of speech (the Word).

(17)

S4e begets all things, the Mother of healing plants, the firm, the wide Earth, upheld by the Divine Law, full of bliss, full of happiness: upon this earth may we live and move ever and ever.

(18)

A mighty abode thou hast become mightiness itself: a great, speed and vibration and energy are thine. The great Indra

protects thee unfailingly, O wideness, illumine us with that perfect sight as of gold. May none bring hurt to us.

(19)

Upon the earth they offered to the Gods the sacrifice and the oblation perfectly prepared. Upon earth men, mortals, live by their own inner nature and outer need (self-nature and food). May that wide earth establish in us the vital force and a long span of life. May Earth grace me with a ripe old age.

(20)

The aroma, O Earth, that rises out of thee, that which the healing plants and that which the waters carry, that which delights the heavenly beings and the celestial nymphs, with that make me sweet-scented, O Earth, may none bring harm to us.

(21)

That expanse which is to thy east and that which is to thy north and that, O wide Earth, that which is below and that too which is behind, may all bring bliss to me who am moving here, may there be no stumbling for me, a dweller upon this wide Earth.

(22)

O Earth, that which I am digging out of thee, may it grow forthwith; O Purifier, let me not disturb thy heart nor thy soul.

(23)

The Earth carries multiple riches in her cavern, may she yield to me jewel and gold. Giver of wealth may the Goddess

bestow upon us wealth; in her delight, in a happy mind may she establish them in us.

(24)

Whatever villages and forests are there, whatever gatherings and meetings, to all, for your sake, may we speak beautiful words.

(25)

O vast Mother, firmly established I am, implant in me the supreme good; O seer, in conscious union with the heaven, establish upon the wide Earth the supreme beauty.

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