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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 242 of 1027

Mandala 3: HYMN VIII Sacrificial Post.

1.GOD-SERVING men, O Sovran of the Forest, with heavenly meath at sacrifice anoint thee. Grant wealth to us when thou art standing upright as when reposing on this Mother’s bosom.

2.Set up to eastward of the fire enkindled, accepting prayer that wastes not, rich in hero. Driving far from us poverty and famine, lift thyself up to bring us great good fortune.

3.Lord of the Forest, raise. thyself up on the loftiest spot of earth. Give splendour, fixt and measured well, to him who brings the sacrifice.

4.Well-robed, enveloped he is come, the youthful: springing to life his glory waxeth greater. Contemplative in mind and God-adoring, sages of high intelligence upraise him.

5.Sprung up he rises in the days’ fair weather, increasing in the men-frequented synod. With song the wise and skilful consecrate him: his voice the God-adoring singer utters.

6.Ye whom religious men have firmly planted; thou Forest Sovran whom the axe hath fashioned,— Let those the Stakes divine which here are standing be fain to grant us wealth with store of children.

7.O men who lift the ladles up, these hewn and planted in the ground, Bringing a blessing to the field, shall bear our precious gift to Gods.

8.Ādityas, Rudras, Vasus, careful leaders, Earth, Heaven, and Prthivi and Air’s mid-region, Accordant Deities shall bless our worship and make our sacrifice’s ensign lofty.

9.Like swan’s that flee in lengthened line, the Pillars have come to us arrayed in brilliant coIour. They, lifted up on high, by sages, eastward, go forth as Gods to the God’s dwelling-places.

10.Those Stakes upon the earth with rings that deck them seem to the eye like horns of horned creatures; Or, as upraised by priests in invocation, let them assist us in the rush to battle.

11.Lord of the Wood, rise with a hundred branches. with thousand branches may we rise to greatness, Tlou whom this hatchct, with an edge well whetted for great felicity, hath brought before us.

Asked of Guide

Why are the sacrificial stakes called a 'Forest Sovran' and praised like a living lord?

The chapter treats the stakes as Forest Sovran because the stakes are ritually alive: they are hewn by the axe, planted, anointed, and “springing to life” so the community can offer sacrifice. The text repeatedly gives them agency and royal titles—“Lord of the Forest,” “lift thyself up”—so the poles function as embodied mediators between worshippers and deities, carrying gifts and blessing the field.

This hymn frames technology and woodcraft as sacred; the crafted posts become gods’ ensigns and battle-supports, their rings like horns and branches like multiplicity of power. This treatment echoes ideas in James Frazer’s The Golden Bough about ritual objects made potent by consecration and communal imagination.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.