Mandala 6

Brbu hath set himself above the Panis, o'er their highest head, Like the wide bush on Ganga's bank. ~ Rigveda

The sixth Mandala of the Rigveda has 75 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra. Most hymns in this book are attributed to the bārhaspatya family of Angirasas, especially to Bharadvaja. It is one of the "family books", the oldest core of the Rigveda, which were composed in early vedic period.

Quotes

• With Bow let us win kine, with Bow the battle, with Bow be victors in our hot encounters. The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman: armed with the Bow may we subdue all regions.
  • m. 6, hymn LXXV

• Brbu hath set himself above the Panis, o'er their highest head,
  Like the wide bush on Ganga's bank.
  • Rigveda VI.45.31 (translated by R. Griffith)

• She, the holy follower of Universal Order, [Sarasvatī,] has spread us all [the five tribes of the Vedic people (stanza 12)] beyond enmities, beyond the other [seven] sister-rivers, as the sun spreads out the days.
  • Rigveda (VI. 61.9): sấ no víśvā áti dvíṣaḥ svásṝ anyā ṛtấvarī, átann áheva sṹryaḥ. cited in Kazanas, N. (2015). Vedic and IndoEuropean studies. Aditya Prakashan. , chapter 3. and A Reply to Koenraad Elst by Kazanas.

• [The composer begs the river Sarasvatī:] "let us not go from thee to distant countries".
  • Rigveda 6.61.14, Quoted in [1]

• After smiting two Dåsas, he distributes the vast bounty seized from them, which includes “ten horses, ten casks, ten garments [...] ten chariots with side-horses, a hundred cows” (6.47.23–24).
  • quoted in Danino, M. (2019). Demilitarizing the Rigveda: a scrutiny of Vedic horses, chariots and warfare., STUDIES IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Journal of the Inter-University Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences VOL. XXVI, NUMBER 1, SUMMER 2019

• Two wagon-teams, with damsels, twenty oxen, O Agni, Abhyåvartin Chåyamåna, The liberal Sovran, giveth me. This guerdon of P®ithu’s seed is hard to win from others.
  • RV 6.27.8: (in Lal, B. B. (2005). Can the Vedic people be identified archaeologically?–An approach. IT, 31, 173-194.)

Quotes about Mandala 6

• Book 6, again, knows of the west (including the Yavyavatp) but once mentions even the Ganga in an unsuspicious hymn [a hymn not suspected to be an addition].
  • M Witzel, Rgvedic history: poets, chieftains and polities, 1995