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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 728 of 1027

Mandala 9: HYMN V. Āprīs.

1.ENKINDLED, Pavamana, Lord, sends forth his light on, every side In friendly show, the bellowing Bull.

2.He, Pavamana, Self-produced, speeds onward sharpening his horns: He glitters through the firmament.

3.Brilliant like wealth, adorable, with splendour Pavamana shines, Mightily with the streams of meath.

4.The tawny Pavamana, who strews from of old the grass with might, Is worshipped, God amid the Gods.

5.The golden, the Celestial Doors are lifted with their frames on high, By Pavamana glorified.

6.With passion Pavamana longs for the great lofty pair, well-formed Like beauteous maidens, Night and Dawn

7.Both Gods who look on men I call, Celestial Heralds: Indra’s Self Is Pavamana, yea, the Bull.

8.This, Pavamana’s sacrifice, shall the three beauteous Goddesses, Sarasvatī and Bhāratī and Iḷā, Mighty One, attend. 9 1 summon Tvaṣṭar hither, our protector, champion, earliest-born, Indu is Indra, tawny Steer; Pavamana is Prajāpati. 10 O Pavamana, with the meath in streams anoint Vanaspati, The ever-green. the golden-hued, refulgent, with a thousand boughs. 11 Come to the consecrating rite of Pavamana, all ye Gods,— Vāyu, Sūrya, Bṛhaspati, Indra, and Agni, in accord.

Asked of Guide

Why does the hymn call Pavamana both a bull and a cleanser?

The hymn names Pavamana as the bellowing Bull and as one who sends forth light and streams of meath, making him both a vigorous, generative force and a purifying current. It says he is “Self-produced” and “glitters through the firmament,” tying his cleansing flow to cosmic, creative power that renews growth and lifts the “Celestial Doors.”

The poem links that cleansing to worship and rite: goddesses—Sarasvatī, Bhāratī, Iḷā—and gods—Vāyu, Sūrya, Bṛhaspati, Indra, Agni—attend his sacrifice, which treats Pavamana as purifier and progenitor together. This mirrors how other Vedic hymns, like portions of the Ṛgveda and later hymns addressed to Agni, present sacrificial fire or sacred streams as both life-giving and sanctifying.

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