PAYU BHARADWAJA

sukta 87

1. I set ablaze Fire of the plenitude, the slayer of the Rakshasas, I approach him as a friend and the widest house of refuge;¹ the Fire has been kindled and grows intense by the workings of the will, may he protect us from the doer of hurt, by the day and by the night.

¹ Or, a widest peace;

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2. O knower of all things born, high-kindled, iron-tusked, touch with thy ray the demon-sorcerers; do violence to him with thy tongue of flame, the gods who kill,^¹ the eaters of flesh, putting them off from us shut them into thy mouth.

3. Destruction, whetting set upon them both thy tusks, the higher and the lower, O thou who art of both worlds,^² thou circle in the mid-air, O king, and snap up in thy jaws the demon-sorcerers.

4. Turning on them by our sacrifices thy arrows, O Fire, by our speech thy javelins, plastering them with thy thunderbolts pierce with these in their hearts the demon-sorcerers who confront us, break their arms.

5. O Fire, tear the skin of the demon-sorcerer; let the cruel thunderbolt slay him in its wrath; rend his limbs, O knower of all things born; hungry for its flesh let the carrion-eater pick asunder his mangled body.

6. Wherever now thou seest him, O knower of all things born, whether standing or walking, or flying on the paths in the

¹ Or, the gods of ignorance, ^² Or, O thou who hast both,

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mid-air, a shooter sharpening his weapon, pierce him with thy arrow.

7. Rescue from the assault of the demon-sorcerer with his spears the man touched by his grasp, O knower of all things born, O Fire, blazing supreme slay these devourers of the flesh; let the brilliant birds of prey eat him up.

8. Here proclaim which is he, O Fire, what demon-sorcerer, who is the doer of this deed? To him do violence with thy blaze, O youthful god, subject him to the eye of thy divine vision.

9. O Fire, guard with thy keen eye the sacrifice, lead it moving forward to the Shining Ones, O conscious thinker; O thou of the divine vision, when thou blazest fierce against the Rakshasas let not the demon-sorcerers overcome thee.

10. Divine of vision, see everywhere the Rakshasa in the peoples, cleave the three peaks of him; his flanks, O Fire, cleave with thy wrath, rend asunder the triple root of the demon-sorcerer.

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11. Triply may the demon-sorcerer undergo thy onrush, he who slays the Truth by falsehood; him overspreading with thy ray, O knower of all things born, fell down in front of him who hymns thee.

12. Set in thy singer, O Fire, the eye with which thou seest the trampler with his hooves, the demon-sorcerer; even as did Atharvan, burn with the divine Light this being without knowledge who does hurt to the Truth.

13. The cursing with which today couples revile each other, the curses which are born in the imprecations of the singers, the arrow which is born from the mind of wrath, with that pierce through the heart the demon-sorcerers.

14. Away from us cleave by thy burning energy the demon-sorcerers, away from us cleave by the heat of thy wrath the Rakshasa, O Fire, away from us cleave by thy ray these slayer gods,^¹ blazing away from us cleave these who glut themselves with menʼs lives.

15. May the gods cleave away today the crooked one, may harsh curses come to confront him, may the shafts enter into the vital part of one who thieves by speech, may he undergo the

^¹ Or, the gods of ignorance,