1. INDRA and Soma, burn, destroy the demon foe,
send downward, O ye Bulls, those who add gloom to gloom.
Annihilate the fools, slay them and burn them up: chase them
away from us, pierce the voracious ones.
2 Indra and Soma, let sin round the wicked
boil like as a caldron set amid the flames of fire.
Against the foe of prayer, devourer of raw flesh, the vile
fiend fierce of eye, keep ye perpetual hate.
3 Indra and Soma, plunge the wicked in the
depth, yea, cast them into darkness that hath no support,
So that not one of them may ever thence return: so may your
wrathful might prevail and conquer them.
4 Indra and Soma, hurl your deadly crushing
bolt down on the wicked fiend from heaven and from the earth.
Yea, forge out of the mountains your celestial dart
wherewith ye burn to death the waxing demon race.
5 Indra and Soma, cast ye downward out of
heaven your deadly darts of stone burning with fiery flame,
Eternal, scorching darts; plunge the voracious ones within
the depth, and let them sink without a sound.
6 Indra and Soma, let this hymn control you
both, even as the girth encompasses two vigorous steeds -
The song of praise which I with wisdom offer you: do ye, as
Lords of men, animate these my prayers.
7 In your impetuous manner think ye both
thereon: destroy these evil beings, slay the treacherous fiends.
Indra and Soma, let the wicked have no bliss who evermore
assails us with malignity.
8 Whoso accuses me with words of falsehood
when I pursue my way with guileless spirit,
May he, the speaker of untruth, be, Indra, like water which
the hollowed hand compresses.
9 Those who destroy, as is their wont, the
simple, and with their evil natures barm the righteous,
May Soma give them over to the serpent, or to the lap of
Nirrti consign them.
10 The fiend, O Agni, who designs to injure
the essence of our food, kine, steeds, or bodies,
May he, the adversary, thief, and robber, sink to
destruction, both himself and offipring.
11 May he be swept away, himself and
children: may all the three earths press him down beneath them.
May his fair glory, O ye Gods, be blighted, who in the day
or night would fain destroy us.
12 The prudent finds it easy to distinguish
the true and false: their words oppose each other.
Of these two that which is the true and honest, Soma
protects, and brings the false to nothing.
13 Never doth Soma aid and guide the wicked
or him who falsely claims the Warrior's title.
He slays the fiend and him who speaks untruly: both lie
entangled in the noose of Indra.
14 As if I worshipped deities of falsehood,
or thought vain thoughts about the Gods, O Agni.
Why art thou angry with us, Jatavedas? Destruction fall on
those who lie against thee!
15 So may I die this day if I have harassed
any man's life or if I be a demon.
Yea, may he lose all his ten sons together who with false
tongue hath called me Yatudhana.
16 May Indra slay him with a mi weapon, and
let the vilest ofghty
all creatures perish,
The fiend who says that he is pure, who calls me a demon
though devoid of demon nature.
17 She too who wanders like an owl at
night-time, hiding her body in her guile and malice,
May she fall downward into endless caverns. May press-stones
with loud ring destroy the demons.
18 Spread out, ye Maruts, search among the
people: seize ye and grind the Raksasas to pieces,
Who fly abroad, transformed to birds, at night-time, or
sully and pollute our holy worship.
19 Hurl down from heaven thy bolt of stone,
O Indra: sharpen it, Maghavan, made keen by Soma.
Forward, behind, and from above and under, smite down the
demons with thy rocky weapon.
20 They fly, the demon dogs, and, bent on
mischief, fain would they harm indomitable Indra.
Sakra makes sharp his weapon for the wicked: now, let him
cast his bolt at fiendish wizards.
21 Indra hath ever been the fiends'
destroyer who spoil oblations of the Gods' invokers:
Yea, Sakra, like an axe that spilts the timber, attacks and
smashes them like earthen vessels.
22 Destroy the fiend shaped like an owl or owlet,
destroy him in the form of dog or cuckoo.
Destroy him shaped as eagle or as vulture as with a stone, O
Indra, crush the demon.
23 Let not the fiend of witchcraft-workers
reach us: may Dawn drive off the couples of Kimidins.
Earth keep us safe from earthly woe and trouble: from grief
that comes from heaven mid-air preserve us.
24 Slay the male demon, Indra! slay the
female, joying and triumphing in arts of magic.
Let the fools' gods with bent necks fall and perish, and see
no more the Sun when he arises.
25 Look each one hither, look around Indra
and Soma, watch ye well.
Cast forth your weapon at the fiends against the sorcerers
hurt your bolt.
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