Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/42

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14
AGRICULTURE, PASTURE, AND COMMERCE

"O Lord of the Field! bestow on us sweet and pure and butter-like and delicious and copious rain, even as cows give us milk. May the Lords of the water bless us.

"May the plants be sweet unto us; may the skies and the rains and the firmament be full of sweetness; may the Lord of the Field be gracious to us. We will follow him, uninjured by enemies.


PLOUGHING IN ANCIENT INDIA.
From a Buddhist sculpture.

"Let the oxen work merrily; let the men work merrily; let the plough move on merrily. Fasten the traces merrily; ply the goad merrily.

"O Suna and Sira! accept this hymn. Moisten this earth with the rain you have created in the sky.

"O fortunate Furrow! proceed onwards, we pray unto thee; do thou bestow on us wealth and an abundant crop.

"May Indra accept this Furrow; may Pushan lead her onwards. May she be filled with water, and yield us corn year after year.

"Let the ploughshares turn up the sod merrily; let the men follow the oxen merrily; may Parjanya moisten the earth with sweet rains. O Suna and Sira! bestow on us happiness."