Praśna I, Paṭala 5, Section 18

1.^[1] 'May Indra and Agni make you go. May the two Aśvins protect you. Bṛhaspati is your herdsman. May Pūṣan drive you back again'— this (verse) he recites over the cows when they go away (to their pasture-grounds), and (the verse), 'May Pūṣan go after our cows' (Taitt. Saṃh. IV, 1, 11, 2).

2. With (the verse), 'These cows that have come hither, free from disease and prolific, may they swim (full of wealth) like rivers; may they pour out (wealth), as (rivers discharge their floods) into the ocean'—he looks at the cows, when they are coming back.

3.^[2] With (the formula), 'You are a stand at rest; may I (?) become your stand at rest. You are immovable. Do not move from me. May I not move from you, the blessed ones'—(he looks at them) when they are standing still.

4. With (the formula), 'I see you full of sap. Full of sap you shall see me'—(he looks at them) when they are gone into the stable, and with (the formula), 'May I be prosperous through your thousandfold prospering.'

5.^[3] Then having put wood on the fire amid the cows, and having performed the rites down to the Vyāhṛti (oblations), he makes oblations of milk with (the verses),

'Blaze brightly, O Jātavedas, driving destruction away from me. Bring me cattle and maintenance from all quarters of the heaven. Svāhā!

'May Jātavedas do no harm to us, to cows and horses, to men and to all that moves. Come hither, Agni, fearlessly; make me attain to welfare! Svāhā!'—

And with (the two verses), 'This is the influx of the waters,' and 'Adoration to thee, the rapid one, the shining one' (Taitt. Saṃh. IV, 6, 1, 3).

6. Then follow oblations with the verses), 'This, O Varuṇa' (&c.; see I, 2, 8, 16, down to the end of the Sūtra).

End of the Fifth Paṭala.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

18, 1 seq. Comp. Śāṅkhāyana III, 9; Gobhila III, 6; Āśvalāyana II, 10.

[2]:

The Mantra is very corrupt. I think it ought to be corrected somehow in the following way: saṃsthā stha saṃsthā vo bhtūyāsam acyutā stha ma mac cyoḍhvam māhaṃ bhavatībhyaś cyoshi. Comp. also Dr. Kirste's note.

[3]:

In the second verse I propose to change abibhrad into p. 186 abibhyad; comp. Atharva-veda XIX, 65, 1: ava tāṃ jahi harasā Jātavedo^ऽbibhyad ugro^ऽ rciṣā divam ā roha sūrya. The last words of this verse should be śriyam mā pratipādaya, or something similar.