Rig-Veda Sanhitá: A Collection of Ancient Hindu Hymns, Constituting the Second Ashtaka, or Book, of the Rig-Veda; The Oldest Authority for the ... From the Original Sanskrit (Classic Reprint)

384 Pages·2018·19.084 MB·English

by  H. H. Wilson

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RIG-VEDA
SANHI^^.,,,,^
DEC 14
1910
A COLLECTION OF V^/j, "^^*^'^-
ANCIENT HINDU HYMNS
CONSTITUTING
THE SECOND ASHTAKA, OR BOOK,
OF THE
RIG-VEDA;
THE OLDEST AUTHORITT FOB THE RELIGIOUS A\D SOCIAL
INSTITUTIONS OF THE HINDUS.
TBANSLATED FBOM THE OBIGINAL SANSEBIT.
By H. H. WILSON, M.A., F.KS.,
MemhfroftheTtoyalAsiatic Society, ofthe AsiaticSocietiesofCalcutta and Pari*,anilofthe
Ot-iental Society of Germany; Foreign Memberqfthe Nnfional Jnntitute nfFravce';
MemberoftheImperialAcademiesofPefenburf/hand Vienna,andoftheIto/jal
AcademiesofMiiniehandBerlin; Ph.D.Brealaa;M.D.Marburg,Sfc,
andBodenProfessorofSannkritinthe UniversityqfOj-ford.
IPuMfsJifll «n>tr tj)t patronagt c^ t?!C tSTourt of ISucctors o! tijc ISastEnDIa OToinpanp.
LONDON:
ALLEN
AVm. H. and CO.,
LEADENHALL STREET.
7,
1854.

THE
SECOND ASHTAKA, OR BOOK,
OP THB
RIG -VEDA,

INTEODUCTION.
The publication of the text of the second division
of the Rig-Veda by Professor MUller, aifords safe
authority for the continuance of the translation,
which is therefore now oiiered to the public, under
the same liberal patronage of the Court ofDirectors
of the East-India Company under which the pre-
ceding volume appeared, and without which itwould
probably have been withheld from the press little
:
interest in the work having been manifested in this
country, however indispensable the Vedas may be
to an accurate knowledge of the religious opinions
of the ancient world, and of the primaeval institu-
tions of the Hindus.
The view which has been taken in the introduc-
tion to the former volume, of the religion and
mythology of the people of India, and of their
social condition, fifteen centuries at the least prior
to Christianity, as derivable from the Veda, is con-
firmed by the further particulars furnished in the
present volume. The worship is that of fire and
the elements : it is patriarchal and domestic, but is
celebrated through the agency of a rather imposing
body of priests, although it consists of little more
VOL. II. b
VI INTRODUCTION.
than the presentation, through fire, of clarified
butter and thejuice of the Sojna plant, to the gods,
•who are invoked to be present, whose power and
benevolence are glorified, whose protection against
enemies and misfortunes is implored, whose dis-
pleasure and auger are deprecated, and who are
solicited to bestow food, cattle, riches, and posterity
upon the individuals who conduct the worship, or
on whose behalf it is performed : occasional intima-
tions of the hope of happiness hereafter occur, but
they are not frequent, nor urgent, and the main
objects of every prayer und hymn are the good
things of this present life.
The chief individual objects of worship are the
same as in the former volume, even in a still
more engrossing proportion of the hundred and
:
eighteen hymns of the Second Ashtaka, thirty are
dedicated to Aoni in his own form or subordinate
manifestations, whilst to Tndra by himself or with
other divinities, and especially with the winds or
the Maruts^ his attendants, there are appropriated
thirty-nine of the remaining hymns, six are ad-
:
dressed to the AswiNS, five to Mitra and Varuna,
five to Brihaspati and Braiimanaspati, five to the
Viswadevas, and three to Vayu Vishnu has two,
;
the Dawn two. Heaven and Earth three : tlie rest
are distributed, for the most part singly, amongst a
variety of personations, some of which are divine, as
RuDRA,Varuna, Savitri, theA'dityas, and Pushan,
each having one hymn some of the objects are
:
human beings, as the Bdjd Swanaya who is the