(Op.D. ugráḥ; O.R.K. ugraḥ ⌊accentless!⌋). The comm. renders a, b thus: "the mighty one, Agni, looks near by upon the birth of the gods, Indra etc., as in a noisy (kṣumati = çabdavati) herd (yūthā being = yūthe) of kine a master sees his own cattle (paçvas)": or, he says, it is the consuming fire that is addressed: "O Agni, this sacrificer who is being consumed by thee, mighty by thy favor, in a noisy cattle-crowd, looks upon the birth of the gods as upon herds of cattle (paçvas); the sense being that the gods come to light in the neighborhood of him who has gone to the world of the gods." This is the kind of help that the commentator gives in a difficult passage. Urváçīs is to him the Apsarases, Urvaçī etc.; and akṛpran = akalpayan, which means upabhoktuṁ samarthā bhavanti. Aryás = svāmī. The verse can be forced into the compass of forty syllables (11 + 8: 10 + 11 = 40), as the Anukr. estimates it.
*⌊The RV. verse has been discussed by Bloomfield, JAOS. xx.1, p. 183. He renders c, d thus: "Even for mortal men Urvaçīs ere fashioned for the production of the noble lower Āyu." He takes akṛpran as 'there were formed,' aor. pass. of kṛp = kḷp: of. the akalpayan of our comm. and the kḷptās of Sāyaṇa on RV. He explains: Just as Urvaçī, the goddess Cloud, produces the celestial fire, so the fire-drills (called urváçīs) produce for mortals the terrestrial sacrificial fire (úpara āyú).
24. We have made [sacrifices] for thee; we have been very active; the illuminating (vi-bhā) dawns have shone upon [our] rite (ṛtá); all that is excellent which the gods favor; may we talk big at the council, having good heroes.
The first half-verse is, without variant, RV. iv. 2. 19 a, b; the second half is, also without variant, RV. ii. 23. 19 c, d (and VS. xxxiv. 58 c, d). Many of the mss., however, (including our Bs.O.K.) combine in a-b to abhūma rtám. The comm. has in b the strange reading avasvan (voc.: = avanavan or pālaka).
25. Let Indra with the Maruts protect me from the eastern quarter; arm-moved [is] the earth, as it were to the sky above; to the world-makers, the road-makers, do we sacrifice, whoever of you are here, sharing in the oblation of the gods.