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Ṛṣi Dīrghatamas Aucathya
5 Verses
Meter: jagatī
bhavā mitro na śevyo ghṛtāsutirvibhūtadyumna evayā u saprathāḥ |
adhā te viṣṇo viduṣā cidardhya stomo yajñaścarādhyo haviṣmatā ||
yaḥ pūrvyāya vedhase navīyase sumajjānaye viṣṇave dadāśati |
yo jātamasya mahato mahi bravat sedu śravobhiryujyaṃ cidabhyasat ||
tamu stotāraḥ pūrvyaṃ yathā vida ṛtasya gharbhaṃ januṣāpipartana |
āsya jānanto nāma cid vivaktana mahaste viṣṇo sumatiṃ bhajāmahe ||
tamasya rājā varuṇastamaśvinā kratuṃ sacanta mārutasya vedhasaḥ |
dādhāra dakṣamuttamamaharvidaṃ vrajaṃ ca viṣṇuḥ sakhivānaporṇute ||
ā yo vivāya sacathāya daivya indrāya viṣṇuḥ sukṛte sukṛttaraḥ |
vedhā ajinvat triṣadhastha āryaṃ ṛtasya bhāghe yajamānamābhajat ||
(note: please research other sources for additional context & meaning that this latest academic translation does not explore)
Translation:
1. Become kindly like an ally [/Mitra]—you with ghee as your drink, traveling your ways, extensive and having far-reaching brilliance.
Then for you, o Viṣṇu, praise can be brought to success only by one who knows, and sacrifice can be made to succeed by one who offers an oblation.
2. Whoever will do service to the ancient ritual expert and to the newer one, to Viṣṇu together with the Wives (of the Gods),
who will speak of his birth, the great birth of the great one, just he will surpass in renown even his yokefellow.
3. You praisers, carry him to term in the way that is known—the ancient one who is by birth the embryo of truth.
Recognizing him, announce his very names. Let us share in the favor of you who are great, o Viṣṇu.
4. That resolve of his does king Varuṇa follows, that do the Aśvins, the resolve of the ritual expert associated with the Maruts.
Viṣṇu upholds the highest skill that knows the days, when with his comrade(s) he opens up the pen.
5. The divine one, Viṣṇu, who sought for Indra to accompany him, sought for the one of good action as the one who acts (even) better,
the ritual expert, possessing the three seats, he enlivened the Ārya. He apportioned to the sacrificer a portion of truth.
Commentary:
The primary deed of Viṣṇu, his claim to fame—the three strides—is not mentioned directly in this hymn. Instead, he is presented as a protean divinity, likened to or identified with a number of other gods, especially Agni. This superimposition begins with the first pāda of verse 1, where he is compared to Mitra, and in verse 2b the association with the Wives of the Gods immediately brings Tvaṣṭar to mind. In verse 4d he is identified either with Indra/Br̥ haspati or with an Aṅgiras in the allusion to the Vala myth, and earlier in that verse (pāda b) “the ritual expert associated with the Maruts” may be a reference to Indra, who may be called “ritual expert of the Maruts” (vedho marútām) in I.169.1. But the primary association appears to be with Agni. The title “ritual expert,” though used of other gods (like Indra, see above), is especially characteristic of Agni, and the references to Viṣṇu as embryo and to his birth (vss. 2–3) are typical Agni themes (compare 3b especially with VI.48.5, of the birth of Agni). The “three seats” in verse 5 also recalls Agni with his three hearths, and this word may in fact signal the point of contact between Viṣṇu and Agni, since “three” is the number that defines Viṣṇu’s great deed, and the “three seats” could be the three footprints left by his strides. (See the footprints as places in I.154.4–6.)
The theme of Viṣṇu’s multiple identities is announced, in typically oblique fashion, in the middle verse of this hymn: “recognizing him, announce his very names” (3c).