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Ṛṣi Dīrghatamas Aucathya
6 Verses
Meter: jagatī
pra vaḥ pāntamandhaso dhiyāyate mahe śūrāya viṣṇave cārcata |
yā sānuni parvatānāmadābhyā mahastasthaturarvateva sādhunā ||
tveṣamitthā samaraṇaṃ śimīvatorindrāviṣṇū sutapā vāmuruṣyati |
yā martyāya pratidhīyamānamit kṛśānorasturasanāmuruṣyathaḥ ||
tā īṃ vardhanti mahyasya pauṃsyaṃ ni mātarā nayati retase bhuje |
dadhāti putro.avaraṃ paraṃ piturnāma tṛtīyamadhi rocane divaḥ ||
tat-tadidasya pauṃsyaṃ ghṛṇīmasīnasya traturavṛkasya mīḷhuṣaḥ |
yaḥ pārthivāni tribhirid vighāmabhiruru kramiṣṭorughāyāya jīvase ||
dve idasya kramaṇe svardṛśo.abhikhyāya martyo bhuraṇyati |
tṛtīyamasya nakirā dadharṣati vayaścana patayantaḥ patatriṇaḥ ||
caturbhiḥ sākaṃ navatiṃ ca nāmabhiścakraṃ na vṛttaṃ vyatīnravīvipat |
bṛhaccharīro vimimāna ṛkvabhiryuvākumāraḥ pratyetyāhavam ||
(note: please research other sources for additional context & meaning that this latest academic translation does not explore)
Translation:
1. Announce in chant the drink from the stalk to the great champion who exercises insight [=Indra] and to Viṣṇu,
the two undeceivable ones who stand on the back of the mountains mightily like (riders) on a steed heading straight to the goal.
2. The turbulent clashing of you two vehement ones is right to the point: it makes wide space for you two soma-drinkers, o Indra and Viṣṇu,
who cause (the arrow) to go wide just as it is being aimed at the mortal, the shot of the shooter Kr̥ śānu.
3. These (females) strengthen that great masculine nature of his; he leads his two mothers down to enjoy the semen.
The son sets in place the lower and the higher names of the father and the third name in the luminous realm of heaven.
4. It is just this very masculine nature of his that we sing—of him, the forceful rescuer who gives rewards and keeps the wolf away,
who strode widely across the earthly (regions) with just three paces, for the wide-ranging to live.
5. On catching sight of just two strides of him of sunlike appearance, a mortal bestirs himself.
His third no one will dare, not even the winged birds in their flight.
6. With the four times ninety names [=days], he has caused the paired
(horses) [=days and nights] to quiver like a wheel set rolling. Having a lofty body, measuring out (the realms?) with verses, the youth
who is no boy returns to the challenge.
Commentary:
This hymn starts by praising Indra and Viṣṇu jointly (vss. 1–2), but by verse 3 (pace the Anukramaṇī) it is entirely Viṣṇu’s. The beginning seems to offer alternative sce- narios for the creation of the wide space that is ordinarily attributed to Viṣṇu’s three strides. In verse 1 the two gods standing on the back of the mountains seem to enlarge the space, and in verse 2 their clash (presumably with unnamed enemies) creates breathing room, while they also deflect the arrow of the archer Kr̥ śānu, whose presence here is not explained. (Kr̥ śānu is best known as the archer who shoots at the falcon that steals the soma from heaven; cf. IV.27.3, IX.77.2.)
The first half of verse 3 showcases two contrastive pairs: unspecified females (possibly hymns?) who strengthen his masculine nature, and (by implication) a son who induces his two mothers (Heaven and Earth?) to enjoy the semen. The para- doxical quality of these actions is clear, but the exact contents are not. The second half of the verse introduces the “three” so characteristic of Viṣṇu, though used of names, not strides; nonetheless, the same expansion of space, into highest heaven, seems to be at issue. Verse 4 seems almost like a “repair” of verse 3: it is clear in 4a who is tending to “his great masculine nature” (unlike 3a), and in the second half we have the familiar three strides, not three names. Verse 5 continues the theme of the three strides, while a different numerological topic, the year, closes the hymn (vs. 6).
The paired verses 3 and 4, with their mysteries and paradoxes, appear to consti- tute an omphalos.