Upanishads · Prāṇāgnihotra 1.3
॥
Devanāgarī
या ओषधयः सोमराज्ञीर्बह्वीः शतविचक्षणाः । बृहस्पतिप्रसूतास्ता नो मुञ्चत्वंहसः
Transliteration (IAST)
yā oṣadhayaḥ somarājñīrbahvīḥ śatavicakṣaṇāḥ | bṛhaspatiprasūtāstā no muñcatvaṃhasaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
याः ओषधयः सोम-राज्ञीःyāḥ oṣadhayaḥ soma-rājñīḥherbs, whose king is Soma
बह्वीः शत-विचक्षणाःbahvīḥ śata-vicakṣaṇāḥmany, distinguished a hundredfold
बृहस्पति-प्रसूताः ताःbṛhaspati-prasūtāḥ tāḥborn of Bṛhaspati, they
नः मुञ्चतु अंहसःnaḥ muñcatu aṃhasaḥlet them free us from distress
Translation
Herbs, whose king is Soma, many, distinguished a hundredfold, born of Bṛhaspati — let them free us from distress.
Version
68e01bcae20b · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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A verse of the Ṛgveda is cited (10.97.18), and it is worth saying where it comes from, for this changes the reading. The whole Ṛgvedic hymn 10.97 is a hymn to herbs: a healer addresses the medicinal plants, calls them mothers, asks their help for the sick, and says: "the herbs in which Soma is king — they number a hundred and a thousand." That is, before us is a healing charm addressed to plants.
And here it is placed over food. The correspondence turns out precise and not forced. Food is indeed a plant; and everything said of medicinal herbs applies to what lies on the plate.
Let us dwell on the word aṃhasaḥ, "from distress," from which deliverance is sought. Aṃhas means "narrowness, constriction, distress," and from the same root come our words "narrow" and "anguish." That is, what is asked for is not health and not satiety, but a way out of narrowness.
The Vaiṣṇava side honors this word and points out that its opposite, uru, "wide," enters into the names of the Lord: Urukrama, "the wide-strider," discussed when reading the Jābāla-darśana (1.23). Let us add what follows from this and deserves keeping. Salvation, in the most ancient Vedic language, is spaciousness, and bondage is narrowness; and so all these books, for all their abstraction, in the end speak of something very simple: that it should not be cramped.