HOMAGE be paid unto thy wrath, O Rudra, homage to thy shaft: to thy two arms be homage paid.

2With that auspicious form of thine, mild, Rudra! pleasant to behold, Even with that most blessèd form, look, Mountain-haunter! here on us.

3The shaft which, Mountain-haunter, thou art holding in thy hand to shoot, Make that auspicious, Mountain-Lord! Injure not man nor moving thing.

4O Dweller on the Mountain, we salute thee with auspicious hymn; That all, yea, all our people may be healthy and well-satisfied.

5The Advocate, the first divine Physician, hath defended us. Crushing all serpents, drive away all Yâtudhânis down below.

6That most auspicious One whose hue is coppery and red and brown, And those, the Rudras who maintain their station in the regions, who surround him in a thousand bands, of these we deprecate the wrath.

7May he who glides away, whose neck is azure, and whose hue is red, He whom the herdsmen, whom the girls who carry water have beheld, may he when seen be kind to us.

8Homage to him the Azure-nested, the thousand-eyed, the bountiful, Yea, and his spirit ministers — to them I offer reverence.

9Loosen thy bowstring, loosen it from thy bow’s two extremities, And cast away, O Lord Divine, the arrows that are in thy hand.

10Now stringless be Kapardin’s bow, his quiver hold no pointed shaft. The shafts he had have perished and the sheath that held his sword is bare.

11Thy weapon, O Most Bountiful, the bow that resteth in thy hand, — With that, deprived of power to harm, protect thou us on every side.

12So may the arrow of thy bow, in all directions, pass us by, And in a place remote from us lay thou the quiver that thou hast.

13Having unbent thy how O thou hundred-eyed, hundred-quivered One! And dulled thy pointed arrows’ heads, be kind and gracious unto us.

14To thy fierce weapon, now unstrung, be reverent obeisance paid. Homage be paid to both thine arms, and to thy bow be reverence!

15Do thou no injury to great or small of us, harm not the growing boy, harm not the full grown man. Slay not a sire among us, slay no mother here, and to our own dear bodies, Rudra! do no harm.

16Harm us not in our seed or in our progeny, harm us not in our life or in our cows or steeds. Slay not our heroes in the fury of their wrath. We with oblations ever call on only thee.

17Homage to the golden-armed leader of hosts, lord of the

1regions, to the trees with their green tresses, to the Lord of beasts be homage; homage to him whose sheen is like green grass, homage to the radiant Lord of paths, homage to the golden-haired wearer of the sacrificial cord, homage to the Lord of the well-endowed.

18Homage to the brown-hued piercer,