Hymn 1

1 Truth, high and potent law, the consecrating rite, devotion, the holy word and worship uphold the earth. O God, Lord of all that is and is to be, make ample space and room for us on the earth.

2 Not over-crowded by the crowd of Adam's children, she who has many heights and floods and level plains, she who bears plants endowed with many varied powers: O Lord, spread her wide and let her favour us.

3 In whom the sea, and the great river, and the waters, in whom our food and corn-lands have their being, in whom this all that breathes and moves is active: O Lord, assign us foremost rank and station on this earth!

4 Lady of the earth's four regions, in whom our food and corn-lands have their being, nurse in each place of breathing, moving creatures: O Lord, vouchsafe us kine with milk that fails not!

5 On whom the men of old before us battled, on whom the righteous fought against the hostile wicked, the varied home of bird, and kine and horses: O Lord, vouchsafe us luck and splendour on this earth!

6 Firm standing-place, all-bearing, store of treasures, gold-breasted, harbourer of all that moves, bearing the fire that serves all men: O Lord, give us great possessions.

7 May the earth be always protected with ceaseless care by angels who never slumber.

8 She who at first was water in the ocean, whom with their wondrous powers the sages followed, compassed about with truth, and everlasting: O Lord, bestow upon us lustre, and grant us power in loftiest dominion.

9 On whom the running universal waters flow day and night with never-ceasing motion: O Lord, with many streams pour milk to feed us, bedew us with a flood of splendour.

10 She whom God measured out and spread, whom the Mighty freed from all foemen: O Lord, let the earth pour out her milk for us.

11 Auspicious be thy woodlands, auspicious be thy hills and snow-clad mountains. Unslain, unwounded, unsubdued, I have set foot upon the earth, brown, black, ruddy and every-coloured, the firm earth that God guards from danger.

12 O Lord, from the earth Thou createdst us, and unto her Thou wilt return us. May all forces that have issued from the earth be to us a blessing; breathe upon us; and may He who sends the rain promote me.

13 Earth, on whose surface they enclose the place of worship, and all who perform it spin the thread of devotion; in whom the stakes of worship, resplendent, are fixed and raised on high before the offering: O Lord, make us prosper on this earth.

14 The man who hates us, who fights against us, who threatens us with thought or deadly weapon, make him powerless, as Thou hast done aforetime.

15 Produced from the earth, on it move mortal creatures; it bears them, both quadruped and biped. All peoples are God's; for them, though mortal, the sun as it rises spreads with its rays the light that is life-giving.

16 In concert may these creatures yield us blessings. With honey of discourse, O Lord, endow me.

17 Kind, ever gracious be the earth we tread on, the firm earth, borne up by Thy order, mother of plants and herbs, the all-producer.

18 A vast abode hast Thou made her, the mighty. Great stress is on her, press and agitation, but with unceasing care God guards her. So make us shine, O Lord, with the splendour of gold. Let no man look on us with hatred.

19 Fire is in the earth, in plants; the waters hold fire in them, in the stones is fire; fire abides deep in men; fires abide in cows and steeds, by God's design.

20 Fire gives shine and heat in heaven: the spacious air is God's creation; men enkindle fire for their use.

21 O God, sharpen me and give me splendour!

22 On earth they offer devotion and dressed offerings for God's sake. Men, mortals, live upon the earth by food in their accustomed way. May He grant us breath and vital power; O Lord, give me life of long duration!

23 Scent that has risen from the earth, the fragrance which growing herbs and plants and waters carry, therewith make me sweet, O Lord; let no man hate me.

24 Thy scent which entered and possessed the lotus, the scent prepared at the marriage feast, scent which the righteous of old collected, therewith make me sweet: let no man hate me.

25 Thy scent in women and in men, the luck and light that is in males, that is in heroes and in steeds, in sylvan beasts and elephants, the splendid energy of maids, therewith do Thou unite us. Let no man look on us with hate.

26 Rock, earth and stone and dust, this earth is held together, firmly bound. To God, who made this earth rich with treasure, I have paid my adoration.

27 Hither we call upon God, who holds firm the all-supporting earth, on which the trees, lords of the wood, stand evermore immovable.

28 Sitting at ease or rising up, standing or going on our way, with our right foot and with our left we will not reel upon the earth.

29 I speak to God for the earth, the purifier, the patient, who grows strong through the holy word. O Lord, may we recline on the earth that bears strength, increase, a portioned share of food, and fatness.

30 Purified for our bodies flow the waters; we put away what would defile us. I cleanse myself, O Lord, with that which cleanses.

31 O Lord, let her eastern and northern regions, those lying southward and those lying westward, be propitious to me in all my movements. Long as I tread the ground let me not stumble.

32 Drive us not from the west or east, drive us not from the north or south. Be gracious unto us, O Lord: let not the robbers find us; keep the deadly weapon far away.

33 Long as, on the earth, I look around, possessing the sun as a friend, so long, through each succeeding year, let not my power of vision fail.

34 When, as I lie, I turn upon my right side and my left, when stretched at all our length we lay our ribs upon her who meets us, do us no injury there, O Lord, who furnishest a bed for all.

35 Let what I dig from the earth rapidly spring and grow again. O Purifier, let me not pierce through her vitals or her heart.

36 O Lord, may Thy summer, and Thy rains, and autumn, Thy winter, and Thy dewy frosts, and spring-time, Thy years and ordered seasons, and day and night pour out for us abundance.

37 Under the Mighty Lord, and not under the serpent, the earth holds the fires that lie within the waters, and gives up the God-blaspheming rebels.

38 Base of the seat and sheds, on whom the stake of worship is reared, on whom the priests who know the sacred formulas recite their hymns and chant their psalms, and ministers are busied that devotion may be offered to God;

39 on whom the ancient sages, they who made the world, sang forth the cows, seven worshippers, by session, with their fervent zeal and devotion.

40 May God assign to us the opulence for which we yearn. May He share and aid the task, and lead the way.

Hymn 1 (continued)

41 May God make the earth, whereon men sing and dance with varied shout and noise, whereon men meet in battle, and the war-cry and the drum resound, drive off our foemen and rid me of my foes.

42 On the earth is food, barley and rice, and to God all peoples belong. Reverence to Him, whose rain is the life of the earth!

43 May God, the Lord of Life, make the earth, which bears all things, pleasant to us on every side, the earth on whose plain men wage war.

44 May God, who stores His treasure in many a place on the earth, gold, gems and riches, Giver of opulence, grant great possessions to us, bestowing them with love and favour.

45 Earth, bearing folk of many a varied language, with divers rites as suits their dwelling-places: O Lord, pour, like a constant cow that never fails, a thousand streams of treasure to enrich me!

46 The snake, the sharply stinging scorpion, lying concealed, bewildered, chilled with the cold of winter, the worm, each thing that in the rains revives and stirs: O Lord, keep creeping things from creeping on us! With all things gracious bless Thou us.

47 Thy many ways on which the people travel, the road for car and wain to journey over, thereon meet both the good and bad; that pathway may we attain without a foe or robber. With all things gracious bless Thou us.

48 Supporting both the foolish and the weighty, the earth receives the dead, both the good and the evil.

49 Thy sylvan beasts that love the woodlands, man-eaters, forest-haunting lions and tigers, hyena, wolf, misfortune and evil, drive from us; chase the wicked to a distance.

50 The devils and the evil spirits that follow them, keep these, O Lord, far from us.

51 To the earth the winged bipeds fly together, birds of each various kind, the swans, the eagles; on it the wind comes rushing, rousing the dust and causing trees to tremble, and flame pursues the blast hither and thither.

52 Earth, upon which are settled, joined together, the night and day, the dusky and the ruddy, compassed by the rain about her: happily may God stablish us in each delightful dwelling-place.

53 By God's leave heaven, earth and the realm of middle air have granted me this ample room; by His grace fire, sun and waters give me mental power.

54 By God's help I am victorious, steadfast, overcoming, a conqueror on every side.

55 There, when the angels named the earth at God's command, spreading her wide expanse as she was broadening eastward, then into her passed many a charm and glory; by His decree the world's four regions were made.

56 In hamlets and in woodland, and in all assemblages on earth, in gatherings, meetings of the folk, we will speak glorious things of Thy bounty.

57 Leader and head of all the world, delightful, the trees' protectress and the plants' upholder.

58 Whatever I say I speak with honey-sweetness; whatever I behold, for that they love me.

59 Mild, gracious, sweetly odorous, milky, with nectar in her breast: may God bestow His benison upon me, with milk.

60 A useful vessel, hid, when, for enjoyment, God made her manifest to living creatures.

61 Thou art the vessel that contains the people, granter of the wish, far-spreading. God supplies thee with whatsoever thou lackest.

62 Let thy breasts, free from sickness and consumption, be produced, O Lord, for our advantage. Through long-extended life, wakeful and watching still, may we be Thy grateful servants.

63 O Lord, set me happily in a place secure; of one accord with the heavens, set me in glory and in wealth.

Hymn 2

21 May death pass them by in its appointed time, apart from the pathway which the righteous travel. Great grow the number of these men around us!

22 Divided from the dead are these, the living; now is our calling on God successful. We have gone forth for dancing and for laughter: may we with brave sons speak to the assembly.

23 Here I set this boundary for the living: let none of these, none other, reach this limit. May they survive a hundred lengthened autumns, and may they bury death beneath this mountain.

24 Live your full lives and find old age delightful, all of you striving, one behind the other. May God, the Maker of fair things, be gracious, and lead your whole lives on to full existence.

25 As the days follow days in close succession, as with the seasons duly come the seasons, as each successor fails not his foregoer, so constitute the lives of these, O Ordainer!

26 Gather your strength, my friends; the stream flows stony: acquit yourselves as men, and cross the river. Abandon here the powers that were malignant, and let us cross to powers exempt from sickness.

27 Rise up erect, cross over, my companions: the stream is stony that flows here before us. Abandon here the powers that were ungracious, and let us cross to powers benign and friendly.

28 Becoming pure and bright and purifying, begin the hymn of praise to God by His beautiful names, for splendour. May we rejoice, o'erpassing troublous places, with all our heroes through a hundred winters.

29 On pathways swept by wind, directed upward, passing beyond the lower, on the higher, have the righteous departed passed, by God's leave.

30 Prolonging your existence to farther times, ye came hither. May death keep to its appointed term; then may we, living, speak to the assembly.

31 Let these women with goodly husbands adorn themselves with fragrant balm and unguent, decked with fair jewels, tearless, sound and healthy.

32 With my gift I distinguish between the departed and the living, and with my prayer set apart their several portions. I give food that fails not as charity on behalf of the departed, and to these men I give life of long duration.

40 From any evil we have done, act of impurity or sin, let the waters purge me.

41 By pathways travelled by the righteous these waters, well-knowing, from below have mounted upward. High on the summit of the raining mountain the ancient rivers, fresh and new, are flowing.

45 Prolong the lives of those who live, O Lord. Let the dead go unto the world of the departed. As a goodly household fire burn up malignity; give this man a dawn brighter than all the mornings.

46 Subdue all our adversaries, O Lord; give us strength and provision and possessions.

47 Hold fast to the Mighty Lord, furtherer, satisfier: He will release you from disgrace and trouble. With Him drive back the shaft that flies against you.

48 Hold fast to the Mighty One who will uplift you from disgrace and trouble. Enter the ship of the Light-giver; let us flee from poverty over all the six expanses.

49 Long-lasting, bearing undiseased and happy sleepers, be ours, O bed.

Hymn 3

1 Mount the skin. Go thither: summon those whom thou lovest, one and all, to meet thee. Strong as ye were when first ye met each other, still be your strength the same in the Garden.

2 So strong your sight, so many be your powers, so great your force, your energies so many. May ye be rewarded, O ye couple, for the pious offerings which you are now preparing.

3 Together in this world, on the pathway to God, together be ye in the Garden. Invite, made pure with means of purifying, whatever seed of yours has been developed.

4 Do ye, O children, unite yourselves with the pure waters, meeting this living man, ye life-sustainers. Allot to them the offering your mother is making ready, which they call lasting.

5 That which your mother and your father, to banish sin and uncleanness from their lips, are cooking, that offering with a hundred streams, sky-reaching, has in its might pervaded earth and heaven.

6 Live with your sons, when life on earth is ended; live in the sphere most rich in light and sweetness. In the Garden won by the devout make both the worlds, earth and heaven, your habitation.

7 Approach the eastern, yea, the eastern region: this is the sphere to which the faithful turn. Your cooked offering, set forth in the fire, together, wife and husband, meet to guard it.

8 Now, as your steps approach the southern quarter, move in your circling course about this vessel. Herein, may God mightily protect your cooked offering.

9 Best of the regions is indeed this western, wherein God, the gracious Lord, reigns. Thither resort for rest, follow the pious. Then be rewarded, O ye couple.

10 Ever victorious is the northern region: may the east quarter set us first and foremost. May we abide with all our members perfect.

11 This steadfast earth is God's. To Him be reverence! To me and to my sons may He be gracious. Guard Thou, O Lord, all-bounteous, our cooked offering as an active warder.

12 Embrace us with Thy mercy. Here on the earth let kindly breezes fan us. Let the offering these two cook here, O Lord, bear witness to our truthfulness and zealous devotion.

13 If a dark bird has come to us and, stealing the hanging morsel, settled in his dwelling, or if a servant, wet-handed, smearing the pestle and the mortar, has cleansed the waters,

14 this pressing-stone, broad-based and strength-bestowing, made pure by cleansing means, shall chase the evil away. Mount on the skin: afford us great protection. Let not the children's sin fall on wife and husband.

15 With the aid of the angels, banishing devils and evil spirits, the pestle is come hither. It shall rise up and send its voice out loudly. May we win all the worlds with God's help.

17 To the Garden may God lead us: there may we dwell beside our wife and children. Let not destruction, let not malignity come hither and subdue us.

18 We have subdued that sinful-hearted tempter. Thou shalt speak sweetly, having chased the darkness. Let not the wooden gear made ready fail us, nor harm the grain of rice that pays due worship.

19 Soon to be, decked with butter, all-embracing, come to this world wherewith birth unites thee. Seize the winnowing-fan which rains have nourished, and let this separate the chaff and refuse.

20 God has marked out and measured three worlds, heaven yonder, and the earth, and air's mid-region. Grasp ye the stalks and in your hands retain them: let them be watered and again be winnowed.

21 Manifold, various are the shapes of offerings. Thou growest uniform by great abundance. The stone will cleanse as one who cleanses raiment.

22 Earth upon earth I set thee. This thy body is consubstantial, but in form it differs. Whatever has been worn off or scratched in fixing, leak not thereat: I mend it.

23 Thou for thy son shalt yearn as yearns a mother. I lay thee down and with the earth unite thee. Conjoined with the vessels and butter may pot and jar stand firmly on the altar.

24 Eastward may God the Light preserve thee as he cooks; southward may the Mighty, girt with the winds, guard thee; may the All-Seeing strengthen and support thee westward; and may the Provider hold thee together on the north.

25 Drops flow, made pure by filters, from the rain-cloud: to heaven and earth and to the worlds they travel. May God the Mighty light them up, poured in the vessel, lively and steadfast, quickening living creatures.

26 From heaven they come, they visit earth, and rising from earth unite themselves with air's mid-region. Purified, excellent, they shine in beauty. Thus may they lead us to the Garden.

27 Excellent and supreme, alike in conformation, brilliant and refulgent and lasting, as such, enjoined, well-guarding, water-givers, dress ye the offering for wife and husband.

28 Numbered, they visit earth, these drops of moisture, commensurate with plants and vital breathings. Unnumbered, scattered, beautiful in colour, the bright ones have pervaded all refulgence.

29 Heated, they rage and boil in agitation, they cast about their foam and countless bubbles, like a fond woman when she sees her husband, what time ye waters and these rice-grains mingle.

30 Take up these rice-grains lying at the bottom: let them be blent and mingled with the waters. This water I have measured in the vessel, if as mid-points the rice-grains have been meted.

31 Present the sickle: quickly bring it hither. Let them cut plants and joints with hands that harm not. So may the plants be free from wrath against us, they over whose realm God's provision has dominion.

32 Strew fresh grass for the boiled rice to rest on: fair let it be, sweet to the eye and spirit. Hither come the pious, and sitting here taste in proper season this offering!

34 In sixty autumns may the guardian of the household seek to gain heavenly light by his cooked offering. On this may sons and elders live dependent.

36 All wishes that have blessed those with fulfilment, having won all the worlds, have met together. Let them plunge in both stirring-spoon and ladle: raise this and set it in a single vessel.

37 Pour out the covering butter, spread it eastward; sprinkle this vessel over with the fatness. Greet this, ye righteous, with gentle murmur, as lowing cows welcome their tender suckling.

38 Thou hast poured oil and made the worlds: let heaven, unequalled, be spread out in wide extension. Herein be cooked the offering; may the righteous receive their share.

39 Whatever thy wife, away from thee, makes ready, or what, O wife, apart from thee, thy husband, combine it all: let it be yours in common while ye produce one world with joint endeavour.

40 All these now dwelling on the earth, my offspring, these whom this woman here, my wife, has borne me, invite them all unto the vessel: knowing their kinship have the children met together.

41 Swollen with savoury meath, the stream of treasures, sources of life-sustaining plenty, blent with fatness: God's provision retains all these. In sixty autumns the guardian of the household may desire them.

42 Let the guardian of the household cherish this treasure. Our offering, presented, seeking God's favour, has risen in three portions: one for God's cause, one for kinsfolk, one for the learned.

43 May God banish the God-denying evil one; let no devil drink here. We drive him off, we keep him at a distance; may the angels pursue him!

44 This sweet offering I present, mingled with butter, to the learned and the pious. With pure hands, never laid roughly on a scholar, go, pious couple, to the Garden.

45 Of this I have obtained the noblest portion from that same world whence the Lord Most High gave it. Pour forth, besprinkle butter rich in fatness: the share of the learned is here before us.

46 To God, to truth, to holy devotion this treasure we consign, this rich deposit. At play, in meeting, let it not desert us; never let it give out to anyone besides me.

47 I cook the offering, I present it: only my wife attends the holy service. A youthful world, a son, has been begotten. Begin a life that brings success and triumph.

48 There is no fault in this, no reservation, none when it goes with friends in close alliance. We have laid down this vessel in perfection: the cooked offering shall re-enter him who cooked it.

49 To those we love may we do acts that please them; may those who hate us be turned away. Cow, ox, and strength of every kind approach us! Thus let them banish untimely death of human beings.

50 The fires know each other: the fire that enters the plants and the fire of the rivers of the air, and all the lights that shine and glow in heaven are God's. Gold is the light of him who cooks the offering.

51 Man is naked by his birth; of other animals not one is naked. God clothes him with might for raiment; the mouth of the offering is a home-woven vesture.

52 Whatever falsehood thou hast spoken at dice, in meeting, whatever through desire of riches, ye two, uniting in this one devotion, let all impurity be washed away.

53 Win thou the rain; approach the favour of God. Around thee shalt thou make the smoke rise upward. Soon to be, decked with butter, all-embracing, come to this world wherewith one birth unites thee.

54 In many a shape has heaven transformed its body, as in itself is known, of varied colour. Cleansing the bright, the dark form has it banished: the red form in the fire to thee I offer.

55 We present this offering of ours to God, Lord of the eastern region, Protector from every harm; may His angels preserve it from aggression. To full old age may destiny conduct us; may full old age deliver us to death. Then may we be with our prepared offering.

56 We present this offering of ours to God, Lord of the southern region, Protector from every harm; may His angels preserve it from aggression. To full old age may destiny conduct us; may full old age deliver us to death. Then may we be with our prepared offering.

57 We present this offering of ours to God, Lord of the western region, Provider of food; may His angels preserve it from aggression. To full old age may destiny conduct us; may full old age deliver us to death. Then may we be with our prepared offering.

58 We present this offering of ours to God, Lord of the northern region, Giver of provision; may His angels preserve it from aggression. To full old age may destiny conduct us; may full old age deliver us to death. Then may we be with our prepared offering.

59 We present this offering of ours to God, Lord of the steadfast region below; may His angels preserve it from aggression. To full old age may destiny conduct us; may full old age deliver us to death. Then may we be with our prepared offering.

60 We present this offering of ours to God, Lord of the upper region, Giver of the rain; may His angels preserve it from aggression. To full old age may destiny conduct us; may full old age deliver us to death. Then may we be with our prepared offering.

Hymn 4

1 The gift shall be his word; and straightway they have set apart the cow for the learned who beg the boon, the cow that brings sons and progeny.

2 He trades and traffics with his sons, and in his cattle suffers loss, who will not give the cow to the children of the righteous when they beg.

10 The cow is produced for the pious and the needy when first she springs to life; hence to the learned she must be given: this they call guarding one's private wealth.

11 The cow created by God belongs to those who come to ask for her; they call it an outrage on the learned when one retains her as his own.

12 He who withholds the cow from the children of the righteous who ask the gift is made a stranger to the pious, and subject to the wrath of the learned.

13 Then let him seek another cow, whatever his profit be in this; the cow not given harms a man when he denies her at their prayer.

14 Like a rich treasure stored away in safety is the cow of the learned. Therefore men come to visit her, with whomsoever she is born.

15 So when the learned come unto the cow they come unto their own, for this is her withholding, to oppress these in the life to come.

18 The man who has no knowledge of her udder and the teats thereof, she yields him milk with these, if he has purposed to bestow the cow.

19 If he withholds the cow they beg, she lies rebellious in his stall. Vain are the wishes and the hopes which he, withholding her, would gain.

25 The cow deprives of progeny and makes poor in cattle him who retains in his possession her whom the learned have solicited.

34 As molten butter, held at length, drops down from the scoop, so falls away from the light of God he who gives no cow to the learned.

35 A good milker, she comes nigh to him in the world to come; to him who gave her as a gift the cow grants every hope and wish.

36 In the Garden the gift fulfils each wish for him who gave her up; but hell, they say, is for the man who, when they beg, bestows her not.

48 This, O learned ones, is your devotion: thus should one think when he is asked, what time they beg from him the cow that is a burden in the withholder's house.

51 The men of evil counsel who advise refusal of the gift, miscreants, through their foolishness are subjected to God's wrath.

Hymn 5

1 Created by toil and holy devotion, found by piety, resting in right, 2 invested with truth, surrounded with honour, compassed about with glory, 3 girt round with inherent power, fortified with faith, protected by consecration, set apart in devotion, the world her resting-place, 4 the word of God her guide, the learned her lord and ruler: 5 of the ruler who takes to himself this scholar's cow and oppresses the scholar,

6 the glory, the heroism and the favouring fortune depart; 7 the energy and vigour, the power and might, the speech and mental strength, the glory and duty; 8 devotion and princely sway, kingship and people, brilliance and honour, and splendour and wealth; 9 long life and goodly form, and name and fame, inbreathing and expiration, and sight and hearing; 10 milk and flavour, and food and nourishment, and right and truth, and action and fulfilment, and children and cattle: 11 all these blessings of a ruler depart from him when he oppresses the scholar and takes to himself the scholar's cow.