Hymns from the Rig Veda

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Hymns from the Rig Veda

Hymns from the Rig Veda

 

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Of the several Vedic texts, the Rig Veda is most fundamental to Indian thought,

the others dealing with more particular matters such as the sacrificial

formulas, melodies, and magic. Composed over a long period of time and coming

into their present form between 1500 and 1000 b.c.e., the Vedic hymns were

eventually attributed to the divine breath or to a vision of the seers.

 

 

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Creation Hymn

A time is envisioned when the world was not, only a watery chaos (the dark,

" indistinguishable sea " ) and a warm cosmic breath, which could give an impetus

of life. Notice how thought gives rise to desire (when something is thought of

it can then be desired) and desire links non-being to being (we desire what is

not but then try to bring it about that it is). Yet the whole process is

shrouded in mystery.

 

 

Where do the gods fit in this creation scheme?

 

 

The non-existent was not; the existent was not at that time. The atmosphere was

not nor the heavens which are beyond. What was concealed? Where? In whose

protection? Was it water? An unfathomable abyss?

 

There was neither death nor immortality then. There was not distinction of day

or night. That alone breathed windless by its own power. Other than that there

was not anything else.

 

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. All this was an

indistinguishable sea. That which becomes, that which was enveloped by the void,

that alone was born through the power of heat.

 

Upon that desire arose in the beginning. This was the first discharge of

thought. Sages discovered this link of the existent to the nonexistent, having

searched in the heart with wisdom.

 

Their line [of vision] was extended across; what was below, what was above?

There were impregnators, there were powers: inherent power below, impulses

above.

 

Who knows truly? Who here will declare whence it arose, whence this creation?

The gods are subsequent to the creation of this. Who, then, knows whence it has

come into being?

 

Whence this creation has come into being; whether it was made or not; he in the

highest heaven is its surveyor. Surely he knows, or perhaps he knows not.

 

 

 

 

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To Agni (Fire)

 

Agni, the god of fire, whose name is the common word for fire, is a terrestrial

deity, only loosely anthropomorphic. He is most often compared to animals, with

wood for his food and melted butter for his drink. He is the mouth by which the

gods consume those items during the sacrifice. He is born from wood (as two

sticks are rubbed together), but then devours his parents. As " Lord of the

House, " he is a guest in human dwellings in the form of the domestic fire.

 

 

How is Agni supposed to " bring the gods here " ?

 

 

 

 

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I call upon Agni, the one placed in front, the divine priest of the sacrifice,

the invoker, the best bestower of gifts.

Agni is worthy of being called upon by seers past and present: may he bring the

gods here!

 

Through Agni may one obtain wealth and prosperity day by day, splendid and

abounding in heroic sons.

 

O Agni, the sacrifice and work of the sacrifice, which you encompass on all

sides--that alone goes to the gods.

 

May Agni, the invoker who has the powers of a sage, true and most brilliant in

glory, come here, a god with the gods!

 

Whatsoever favor you wish to do for a worshipper, Agni, that favor of yours

surely comes true, O Angiras [member of a priestly family].

 

O Agni, you who gleam in the darkness, to you we come day by day, with devotion

and bearing homage;

 

to you, ruler of the sacrifices, keeper of the Rta [cosmic law], brightly

shining, growing in your abode.

 

So, be of easy access to us, Agni, as a father to his son. Abide with us for our

well-being.

 

 

 

 

--

To Indra

 

Indra is a sky god and a war god who holds the earth and the heavens apart, on

occasion making the earth tremble. As the counterpart of Zeus for the Greeks or

Jupiter for the Romans, he is the god of the thunderstorm, who vanquishes

drought and darkness. He is the most frequently mentioned god in the Veda, the

most nationalistic, and the most anthropomorphic. The serpent which he slew was

a demon of drought, who had bottled up the streams; but Indra shattered the

mountain, releasing the streams like pent up cows. " The lowly Dasa color " whom

he has " put in hiding " presumably refers to the indigenous peoples of northern

India who had been overcome by the Aryan invaders and either moved into the

forests or migrated southward.

 

 

What is Indra supposed to do for the weary, the weak, the needy priest (a

Brahman, of course) and the singer?

 

 

 

 

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The one who is first and possessed of wisdom when born; the god who strove to

protect the gods with strength; the one before whose force the two worlds were

afraid because of the greatness of his virility: he, O people, is Indra.

The one who made firm the quaking earth; the one who made fast the shaken

mountains; the one who measured out wide the atmosphere; the one who propped up

heaven: he, O people, is Indra.

 

The one who, having killed the serpent, released the seven rivers; the one who

drove out the cows by undoing Vala, (1) the one who generates fire between two

rocks, victor in battles: he, O people, is Indra.

 

The one by whom all things here were made moving; the one who put in hiding the

lowly Dasa color; the one who, like a gambler who has won the stake, has taken

the enemy's possessions: he, O people, is Indra.

 

The one who is the terrible one, about whom they ask " Where is he? " and they say

of him, " He is not! " He diminished the enemy's possessions like stakes [at a

game]. Put your faith in him: he, O people, is Indra.

 

The one who is the impeller of the weary, of the weak, of the Brahman seeking

aid, the singer; the one with goodly mustaches who is the helper of him who

works the stones, who has pressed the Soma (2): he, O people, is Indra.

 

The one in whose control are horses, cows, villages, all chariots; the one who

has caused to be born the sun, the dawn; the one who is the waters' leader: he,

O people, is Indra.

 

The one whom the two lines of battle, coming together, call upon separately, the

nearer and the farther, both foes; even the two who have mounted the same

chariot call upon him individually: he, O people, is Indra.

 

The one without whom people do not conquer; the one to whom, when fighting, they

call for help; the one who is a match for everyone; the one who shakes the

unshakable: he, O people, is Indra.

 

 

 

 

--

Purusa, the Cosmic Person

 

This is one of the latest compositions in the Rig Veda, as it suggests a sort of

pantheistic philosophy. Purusa is a cosmic giant, of whom the gods and the

cosmos itself are composed; yet he is also the object of the sacrifice to the

gods. From him then are derived the gods in the heaven and, from the remainder,

all the rest of what is, both the living and the non-living.

 

 

The top four castes are supposed to have been derived from Purusa: the Brahmans,

the Rajanya (or Ksatriya), the Vaisya, and the Sudra. Which body parts are

associated with each group, and what seems to be the significance of those

parts?

 

 

 

 

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Thousand-headed is Purusa, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed. Having covered the

earth on all sides, he stood above it the width of ten fingers.

Only Purusa is all this, that which has been and that which is to be. He is the

lord of the immortals, who grow by means of [ritual] food.

 

Such is his greatness, yet more than this is Purusa. One-quarter of him is all

beings; three- quarters of him is the immortal in heaven.

 

Three-quarters of Purusa went upward, one-quarter of him remained here. From

this [one-quarter] he spread in all directions into what eats and what does not

eat.

 

From him the shining one was born, from the shining one was born Purusa. When

born he extended beyond the earth, behind as well as in front.

 

When the gods performed a sacrifice with the offering Purusa, spring was its

clarified butter, summer the kindling, autumn the oblation.

 

It was Purusa, born in the beginning, which they sprinkled on the sacred grass

as a sacrifice. With him the gods sacrificed, the demi-gods, and the seers.

 

From that sacrifice completely offered, the clotted butter was brought together.

It made the beasts of the air, the forest and the village.

 

From that sacrifice completely offered, the mantras [Rig Veda] and the songs

[samaveda] were born. The meters were born from it. The sacrificial formulae

[Yajurveda] were born from it.

 

From it the horses were born and all that have cutting teeth in both jaws. The

cows were born from it, also. From it were born goats and sheep.

 

When they divided Purusa, how many ways did they apportion him? What was his

mouth? What were his arms? What were his thighs, his feet declared to be?

 

His mouth was the Brahman [caste], his arms were the Rajanaya [Ksatriya caste],

his thighs the Vaisya [caste]; from his feet the Sudra [caste] was born.

 

The moon was born from his mind; from his eye the sun was born; from his mouth

both Indra and Agni [fire]; from his breath Vayu [wind] was born.

 

From his navel arose the air; from his head the heaven evolved; from his feet

the earth; the [four] directions from his ear. Thus, they fashioned the worlds.

 

Seven were his altar sticks, three times seven were the kindling bundles, when

the gods, performing the sacrifice, bound the beast Purusa.

 

The gods sacrificed with the sacrifice to the sacrifice. These were the first

rites. These powers reached the firmament, where the ancient demi-gods and the

gods are.

 

Translated by Michael Myers

 

 

 

 

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(1) The cave in which the cattle were imprisoned.

(2) A beverage made from the juice of a plant (probably a hallucinogenic

mushroom) and used in religious ceremonies; also a god.

 

 

 

 

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This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul

Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers

Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published

by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at

Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for

educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

 

 

Paul Brians

Department of English

Washington State University

Pullman 99164-5020

This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. If, after examining

the table of contents of the complete volume, you are interested in considering

it for use at your own campus, please contact Paul Brians.

 

 

This page has been accessed times since December 18, 1998.

 

 

 

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Hymns from the Rig VedaThe Creation Hymn from the Rig Veda is one of the most

insightful

expression of Brahman that there has ever been. Thank you for this

reference.

 

Vinaire