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Rig Veda · 618 of 1027
1.SING forth and laud Parjanya, son of Heaven, who sends the gift of rain May he provide our pasturage.
2.Parjanya is the God who forms in kine, in mares, in plants of earth, And womankind, the germ of life.
3.Offer and pour into his mouth oblation rich in savoury juice: May he for ever give us food.
Asked of Guide
Why is Parjanya praised as the giver of life and rain in this short hymn?
The hymn calls Parjanya “son of Heaven” and directly links him to rains that “send the gift of rain” and secure “pasturage,” making his role as provider literal: rain creates fodder and sustains herds. Verse two expands that provision into biological terms, saying Parjanya “forms in kine, in mares, in plants of earth, / And womankind, the germ of life,” so the deity is named as a proximate cause of fertility across species.
The ritual response follows the cosmology: offerings are made to Parjanya so he “for ever give us food,” tying sacrificial feeding to reciprocal fertililty. This action echoes themes in the Atharva Veda and later sacrificial texts that treat rain and fertility deities as sustained by human libation and praise.
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