approaching,
And shone forth clothed in garments white and glistening,
Of gold her color, fair to see her look is,
Mother of kine,[95] leader of days she gleameth.

Bearing the gods' eye, she, the gracious maiden,
--Leading along the white and sightly charger[96]
--Aurora, now is seen, revealed in glory,
With shining guerdons unto all appearing.

O near and dear one, light far off our foes, and
Make safe to us our kines' wide pasture-places.
Keep from us hatred; what is good, that bring us,
And send the singer wealth, O generous maiden.

With thy best beams for us do thou beam widely,
Aurora, goddess bright, our life extending;
And food bestow, O thou all goods possessing,
Wealth, too, bestowing, kine and steeds and war-cars

Thou whom Vasistha's[97] sons extol with praises,
Fair-born Aurora, daughter of Dyaus, the bright one,
On us bestow thou riches high and mighty,
--O all ye gods with weal forever guard us.

In the laudation of Varuna the fancy of the poet exhausts itself in
lofty imagery, and reaches the topmost height of Vedic religious
lyric. In the praise of Dawn it descends not lower than to interweave
beauty with dignity of utterance. Nothing in religious poetry more
graceful or delicate than the Vedic Dawn-hymns has ever been written.
In the daily vision of Dawn following her sister Night the poet sees
his fairest goddess, and in his worship of her there is love and
admiration, such as is evoked by the sight of no other deity. "She
comes like a fair young maiden, awakening all to labor, with an
hundred chariots comes she, and brings the shining light; gleam forth,
O Dawn, and give us thy blessing this day; for in thee is the life of
every living creature. Even as thou hast rewarded the singers of old,
so now reward our song" (I. 48).

The kine of Dawn are the bright clouds that, like red cattle, wander
in droves upon the horizon. Sometimes the rays of light, which stretch
across the heaven, are intended by this image, for the cattle-herding
poets employed their flocks as figures for various ends.

The inevitable selfish pessimism of unripe reflection is also woven
into the later Dawn-hymns: "How long will it be ere this Dawn, too,
shall join the Dawns departed? Vanished are now the men that saw the
Dawns of old; we here see her now; there will follow others who will
see her hereafter; but, O Dawn, beam here thy fairest; rich in
blessings, true art thou to fri