Aitareyabrahmana 6.18

6.18

These very Sampāta hymns Viśvāmitra saw first. Vāmadeva produced those which had been seen by Viśvāmitra: 'Thus to thee, O Indra, wielder of the vajra, here', 'What has Indra enjoyed of ours and what does he desire?', 'How has the great one grown? Of which hotṛ priest?'. He flew along quickly to them. Because he flew along quickly, that is the nature of the Sampāta hymns as Sampātas. Viśvāmitra considered: 'The Sampāta hymns that I saw, Vāmadeva has produced. Which hymns as Sampātas, matching them, should I now produce?' He produced these hymns as Sampātas matching them: 'Born straightway, the youthful bull', 'Indra, breaker of strongholds, overcame the Dāsa with chants', 'Offer now this oblation for gaining', 'Soma-possessing friends seek thee', 'The guiding conductor went to the daughter's child', 'Gaze upon the thought like a carpenter.' Bharadvāja [produced]: 'He who alone is worthy of invocation among peoples'; Vasiṣṭha: 'Who, like a fierce bull with sharp horns', 'Forth have the prayers risen in desire for fame'; Nodhās: 'To him indeed, the powerful, the swift'. Having recited these six-day stotriyam-verses at the morning pressing, they recite the ahīna hymns at the midday pressing. These are the ahīna hymns: 'Let the true, dreg-drinking bounteous one come'—possessing truth, the Maitrāvaruṇa [recites]; 'To him indeed, the powerful, the swift', 'Prayers most generously offered unto Indra', 'O Indra, the Gotamas have made prayers'—possessing brahman, the Brāhmaṇācchaṃsin [recites]; 'The guiding conductor—they produced the conductor'—possessing the conductor, the Achāvāka [recites]. Regarding this they say: 'Why does the Achāvāka recite this hymn possessing the conductor on both kinds of days, on departing days and on returning days?' Powerful indeed is this Ṛgvedic verse; this hymn possesses the conductor. A draft ox indeed carries the yokes to which it is harnessed. Therefore the Achāvāka recites this hymn possessing the conductor on both kinds of days, on departing days and on returning days. They are on five days: on the twenty-fourth day, on the Abhijit, on the Viṣuvant, on the Viśvajit, and on the Mahāvrata. Ahīna indeed are these days, for nothing is omitted on them. Departing indeed are these days, non-returning; therefore they recite them on these days. When they recite them, [they think]: 'May we obtain the un-deficient heavenly worlds, of every form, completely endowed.' When they recite them, they summon Indra with them, just like a bull to a cow in heat. And when they recite them for the continuation of the ahīna sacrifice, they thereby continue the ahīna sacrifice.