Vedic Hymns, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 32)

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‘TMi

1 ALl

ee, es

pen ie

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THE

SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST

[32]

Fondo HENRY FROWDE

OxFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE

AMEN CORNER, E.C.

y/ THE

SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST

TRANSLATED

BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS

AND EDITED BY

F. MAX MULLER

vol. “xen | |

@rford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1891

[ All rights reserved }

Orford

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

VEDIC HYMNS

TRANSLATED BY

F. MAX MULLER

PART I

HYMNS TO THE MARUTS, RUDRA, VAYU, AND VATA

@rford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1891

[All rights reserved |

INTRODUCTION

COHTEN TS,

PREFACE TO THE First EDITION

Hymns, TRANSLATION AND NoTEs :—

Mandala X,

121, 6, TQ, 37; 38, 39; 64, 85; 86, 87, 88, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 34, 52; 53> 54, 55; 56, 57) 58, 59

The Unknown God Indra and the Maruts Agni and the Maruts . The Maruts

The Maruts and Indra The Maruts

?

2. :

Dialogue between Indra and Agastya .

The Maruts

106 126 154 159 169 179 209 272 279 286 289 293 295 312 319 325 333 337 34° 343 347

vill CONTENTS.

Mandala V, 60, Agni and the Maruts .

, 61, The Maruts » 87, ” vi.” 6, 9 VII, 56, * 9? 57> 99 9 58, 33

» 59, Lhe Maruts — Rudra VIII, 7, The Maruts

39 20, 99 3) 94, 99 X, 77; ‘i bP] 78, 99 I, 43, Rudra 5, 114,

II, 33, Rudra, the Father of the Maruts. VI, 74, Soma and Rudra VII, 46, Rudra I, 3, Vern » 134, 29 X, 168, Vata jy tee

APPENDICES :— I. Index of Words. II. List of the more important Deleon quoted in the Preface and in the Notes. III]. A Bibliographical List of the more important Publications on the Rig-veda .

Corrigenda

Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Translations of the Sacred Books of the East .

553

INTRODUCTION.

I finished the Preface to the first volume of my trans- lation of the Hymns to the Maruts with the following words :

‘The second volume, which Iam now preparing for Press, will contain the remaining hymns addressed to the Maruts. The notes will necessarily have to be reduced to smaller dimensions, but they must always constitute the more im- portant part in a translation or, more truly, in a deciphering of Vedic hymns.’

This was written more than twenty years ago, but though since that time Vedic scholarship has advanced with giant steps, I still hold exactly the same opinion which I held then with regard to the principles that ought to be followed by the first translators of the Veda. I hold that they ought to be decipherers, and that they are bound to justify every word of their translation in exactly the same manner in which the decipherers of hieroglyphic or cuneiform inscriptions justify every step they take. I therefore called my translation the first traduction raisonnée. I took as an example which I tried to follow, though well aware of my inability to reach its excellence, the Commentaire sur le Yasna by my friend and teacher, Eugene Burnouf. Burnouf considered a commentary of 940 pages quarto as by no means excessive for a thorough interpretation of the first chapter of the Zoroastrian Veda, and only those unacquainted with the real difficulties of the Rig-veda would venture to say that its ancient words and thoughts required a less painstaking elucidation than those of the Avesta. In spite of all that has been said and written to the contrary, and with every wish to learn from those who think that the difficulties of a translation of Vedic hymns have been unduly exaggerated by me, I cannot in the least

x VEDIC HYMNS.

modify what I said twenty, or rather forty years ago, that a mere translation of the Veda, however accurate, intelligible, poetical, and even beautiful, is of absolutely no value for the advancement of Vedic scholarship, unless it is followed by piéces justificatives, that is, unless the translator gives his reasons why he has translated every word about which there can be any doubt, in his own way, and not in any other.

It is well known that Professor von Roth, one of our most eminent Vedic scholars, holds the very opposite opinion. He declares that a metrical translation is the best com- mentary, and that if he could ever think of a translation of the Rig-veda, he would throw the chief weight, not on the notes, but on the translation of the text. ‘A translation, he writes, ‘must speak for itself. As a rule, it only re- quires a commentary where it is not directly convincing, and where the translator does not feel secure.’

Between opinions so diametrically opposed, no com- promise seems possible, and yet I feel convinced that when we come to discuss any controverted passage, Professor von Roth will have to adopt exactly the same principles of translation which I have followed.

On one point, however, I am quite willing to agree with my adversaries, namely, that a metrical rendering would convey a truer idea of the hymns of the Vedic Azshis than a prose rendering. When I had to translate Vedic hymns into German, I have generally, if not always, endeavoured to clothe them in a metrical form. In English I feel unable to do so, but I have no doubt that future scholars will find it possible to add rhythm and even rhyme, after the true meaning of the ancient verses has once been determined. But even with regard to my German metrical translations, I feel in honesty bound to confess that a metrical transla- tion is often an excuse only for an inaccurate translation. If we could make sure of a translator like Riickert, even the impossible might become possible. But as there are few, if any, who, like him, are great alike as scholars and poets, the mere scholar seems to me to be doing his duty better when he produces a correct translation, though in

INTRODUCTION. x1

prose, than if he has to make any concessions, however small, on the side of faithfulness in favour of rhythm and rhyme. If a metrical, an intelligible, and, generally speaking, a beautiful translation were all we wanted, why should so many scholars clamour for a new translation, when they have that by Grassmann? It rests on Bohtlingk and Roth’s Dictionary, or represents, as we are told, even a more advanced stage of Vedic scholarship. Yet after the well-known contributors of certain critical Journals had repeated ever so many times all that could possibly be said in praise of Grassmann’s, and in dispraise of Ludwig’s translation, what is the result? Grassmann’s metrical translation, the merits of which, considering the _ time when it was published, I have never been loth to acknowledge, is hardly ever appealed to, while Ludwig’s prose rendering, with all its drawbacks, is universally con- sidered as the only scholarlike translation of the Rig-veda now in existence. Time tries the troth in everything. There is another point also on which I am quite willing to admit that my adversaries are right. ‘No one who knows anything about the Veda, they say, ‘would think of attempting a translation of it at present. A translation of the Rig-veda is a task for the next century.’ No one feels this more strongly than I do; no one has been more un- willing to make even a beginning in this arduous under- taking. Yet a beginning has to be made. We have to advance step by step, nay, inch by inch, if we ever hope to make a breach in that apparently impregnable fortress. If by translation we mean a complete, satisfactory, and final translation of the whole of the Rig-veda, I should feel inclined to go even further than Professor von Roth. Not only shall we have to wait till the next century for such a work, but I doubt whether we shall ever obtain it. In some cases the text js so corrupt that no conjectural criticism will restore, no power of divination interpret it. In other cases, verses and phrases seem to have been jumbled together by later writers in the most thoughtless manner. My principle therefore has always been, Let us translate what we can, and thus reduce the untranslateable

Xil VEDIC HYMNS.

portion to narrower and narrower limits. But in doing this we ought not to be too proud to take our friends, and even our adversaries, into our confidence. A translation on the sic volo sic jubeo principle does far more harm than good. It may be true that a judge, if he is wise, will deliver his judgment, but never propound his reasons. But a scholar is a pleader rather than a judge, and he is in duty bound to propound his reasons.

In order to make the difference between Professor von Roth’s translations and my own quite clear, I readily accept the text which he has himself chosen. He took one of the hymns which I had translated with notes (the 165th hymn of the first Mazdala), and translated it himself metrically, in order to show us what, according to him, a really perfect translation ought to be*. Let us then compare the results.

On many points Professor von Roth adopts the same ren- derings which I had adopted, only that he gives no reasons, while I do so, at least for all debatable passages. First of all, I had tried to prove that the two verses in the begin- ning, which the Anukramavzi ascribes to Indra, should be ascribed to the poet. Professor von Roth takes the same view, but for the rest of the hymn adopts, like myself, that distribution of the verses among the singer, the Maruts, and Indra which the Anukramazi suggests. I mention this be- cause Ludwig has defended the view of the author of the Anu- kramazi with very strong arguments. He quotes from the Taitt. Br. II, 7, 11, and from the Tazdya Br. XXI, 14, 5, the old legend that Agastya made offerings to the Maruts, that, with or without Agastya’s consent, Indra seized them, and that the Maruts then tried to frighten Indra away with lightning. Agastya and Indra, however, pacified the Maruts with this very hymn.

Verse l. The first verse von Roth translates as follows : ‘Auf welcher Fahrt sind insgemein begriffen Die altersgleichen mitgebornen Marut? Was wollen sie? woher des Wegs? Das Pfeifen Der Manner klingt: sie haben ein Begehren.’

• Z. D. M. G., 1870, XXIV, p. 301.

INTRODUCTION. Xill

Von Roth here translates subh by Fahrt, journey. But does subh ever possess that meaning? Von Roth himself in the Dictionary translates subh bySchoénheit, Schmuck, Bereitschaft. Grassmann, otherwise a strict adherent of von Roth, does not venture even to give Bereitschaft, but only endorses Glanz and Pracht. Ludwig, a higher autho- rity than Grassmann, translates subh by Glanz. I say then that to translate subh by Fahrt, journey, may be poetical, but it is not scholarlike. On the meanings of subh I have treated I, 87, 3,note 2. See also Gaedicke, Accusativ, p. 163.

But there comes another consideration. That mimikshire is used in the sense of being joined with splendour, &c. we see from such passages as I, 87, 6, bhanu-bhiZ sam mimikshire, i. e. ‘they were joined with splendour, and this is said, as in our passage, of the Maruts. Prof. von Roth brings forward no passage where mimikshire is used in the sense in which he uses it here, and therefore I say again, his rendering may be poetical, but it is not scholarlike,

To translate arfanti sushmam by ‘das Pfeifen klingt,’ is, to say the least, very free. Sushma comes, no doubt, from svas, to breathe, and the transition of meaning from breath to strength is intelligible enough. In the Psalms we read (xviii. 15),‘At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the earth were discovered.’ Again (Job iv. 9), ‘ By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed ;’ Isaiah xi. 4,‘ And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.’ Wrestlers know why breath or wind means strength, and even in the expression ‘ une ceuvre de longue haleine,’ the original intention of breath is still perceived. In most passages therefore in the Rig-veda where sushma occurs, and where it means strength, prowess, vigour, we may, if we like, translate it by breath, though it is clear that the poet himself was not always aware of the etymological meaning of the word. Where the sound of sushma is mentioned (IX, 50, 1; X, 3,6, &c.), it means Clearly breath. But when, as in VI, 19, 8, sushma has the adjectives dhanaspr/t, sudaksha, we can hardly translate it by anything but strength. When, therefore,

XiV VEDIC HYMNS.

von Roth translates sushma by whistling, and arfanti by sounding, I must demur. Whistling is different from breathing, nor do I know of any passage where ark with sushma or with any similar word for sound means simply to sound a whistle. Why not translate, they sing their strength, i.e. the Maruts, by their breathing or howl- ing, proclaim themselves their strength? We find a similar idea in I, 87, 3, ‘the Maruts have themselves glorified their greatness.’ Neither Grassmann nor Ludwig venture to take sushma in the sense of whistle, or arfanti in the sense of sounding. Bergaigne seems to take vvzshaza“ as a genitive, referring to Indra, ‘ils chantent la force a Indra,’ which may have been the original meaning, but seems hardly appropriate when the verse is placed in the mouth of Indra himself (Journ. Asiat. 1884, p. 199). Sushma never occurs as an adjective. The passages in which von Roth admits sushma as an adjective are not adequate. Does mitgeboren in German convey the meaning of sani/ak, ‘of the same nest ?’ Verse 2.

The second verse contains few difficulties, and is well rendered by von Roth: ‘An wessen Spriichen freuen sich die Jungen? Wer lenkt die Marut her zu seinem Opfer? Gleich Falken streichend durch den Raum der Liifte— Wie bringt man sie mit Wunscheskraft zum Stehen ?’

Verse 3.

The third verse is rendered by von Roth: ‘Wie kommt es, Indra, dass du sonst so munter, Heut’ ganz alleine fahrst, sag an Gebieter! Du pflegtest auf der Fahrt mit uns zu plaudern; Was hast du wider uns, sprich, Rosselenker !’

Von Roth takes kita’ in a causal sense, why? I believe that kuta# never occurs in that sense in the Rig-veda. If it does, passages should be produced to prove it.

Mahinaz can never be translated by ‘sonst so munter.’ This imparts a modern idea which is not in the original.

INTRODUCTION. XV

SubhAnatz does not mean auf der Fahrt,and plaudern, adopted from Grassmann, instead of sam przkkhase, intro- duces again quite a modern idea. Ludwig calls such an idea ‘abgeschmackt, insipid, which is rather strong, but not far wrong.

Verse 4. Von Roth:

‘Ich liebe Spriiche, Wiinsche und die Tranke, Der Duft steigt auf, die Presse ist geriistet ; Sie flehen, locken mich mit ihrem Anruf, Und meine Fiichse fithren mich zum Mahle.’

It is curious how quickly all difficulties which beset the first line seem to vanish in a metrical translation, but the scholar should face the difficulties, though the poet may evade them.

To translate sishmaz iyarti by ‘der Duft steigt auf,’ the flavour of the sacrifices rises up, is more than even Grass- mann ventures on. It is simply impossible. Benfey (Entstehung der mit r anlautenden Personalendungen, p. 34) translates: ‘My thunderbolt, when hurled by me, moves mightily.’

Again, prabhvztak me adriz does not mean die Presse ist geriistet. Where does Indra ever speak of the stones used for pressing the Soma as my stone, and where does prabhvztaz ever mean geriistet?

Verse 5. Von Roth: ‘So werden wir und mit uns unsre Freunde (Nachbarn), Die freien Manner, unsre Riistung nehmen, Und lustig unsre Schecken alsbald schirren. Du kommst uns eben ganz nach Wunsch, o Indra.’ The first lines are unnecessarily free, and the last decidedly wrong. Howcan svadhdm anu hi nak babhitha mean ‘ Du kommst uns eben ganz nach Wunsch?’ Svadha does not mean wish, but nature, custom, wont (see I, 6, 4, note 2; and Bergaigne, Journ. Asiat. 1884, p. 207). Babhitha means ‘thou hast become,’ not ‘ thou comest.’

XVI VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 6.

Von Roth:

‘Da war’s auch nicht so ganz nach Wunsch, o Maruts, Als ihr allein mich gegen Ahi schicktet!

Ich aber kraftig, tapfer, unerschrocken, Ich traf die Gegner alle mit Geschossen.’

The only doubtful line is the last. Von Roth’s former translation of nam, to bend away from, to escape from (cf. gevyw and bhug), seems to me still the right one. He now translates ‘I directed my arrow on every enemy, when the genitive, as ruled by anamam, requires-confirmation. As to sam adhatta I certainly think von Roth’s last interpreta- tion better than his first. In the Dictionary he explained samdha in our passage by to implicate. Grassmann trans- lated it by to leave or to desert, Ludwig by to employ. I took it formerly in the usual sense of joining, so that yat mam é¢kam samddhatta should be the explanation of svadha, the old custom that you should join me when I am alone. But the construction is against this, and I have therefore altered my translation, so that the sense is, Where was that old custom you speak of, when you made me to be alone, i.e. when you left me alone, in the fight with Ahi? The udatta of 4namam is not irregular, because it is preceded by hi.

Verse 7, Von Roth: :

‘Gewaltiges hast du gethan im Bunde Mit uns, o Held, wir mit vereinter Starke, Gewaltiges vermogen wir, du miachtiger Indra, wenn es uns Ernst ist, ihr Gesellen.’

By this translation, the contrast between ‘thou hast done great things with us, and ‘ Now let us do great things once more, is lost. Kyvzzdvama expresses an exhortation, not a simple fact, and on this point Grassmann’s metrical transla- tion is decidedly preferable.

Verse 8.

Von Roth:

‘Vritra schlug ich mit eigner Kraft, ihr Marut, Und meine Wuth war’s, die so kithn mich machte,

INTRODUCTION. XVil

Ich war’s, der—in der Faust den Blitz—dem Menschen Den Zugang bahnte zu den blinkenden Gewéassern.’ This is a very good translation, except that there are some syllables too much in the last line. What I miss is the accent on the I. Perhaps this might become stronger by translating : ‘Ich schlug mit eigner Kraft den Vyvztra nieder, Ich, Maruts, stark durch meinen Zorn geworden ; Ich war’s, der blitzbewaffnet fur den Menschen Dem lichten Wasser freie Bahn geschaffen.’

Verse 9. Von Roth: ‘Gewiss, nichts ist was je dir widerstiinde, Und so wie du gibts keinen zweiten Gott mehr, Nicht jetzt, noch kiinftig, der was du vermdochte: Thu’ denn begeistert was zu thun dich liistet.’

Here I doubt about begeistert being a true rendering of pravrzddha, grown strong.. As to karishya% instead of karishya, the reading of the MSS., Roth is inclined to adopt my conjecture, as supported by the analogous passage in IV, 30, 23. The form which Ludwig quotes as analogous to karishyam, namely, pravatsyam, I cannot find, unless it is meant for Apast. Srauta S. VI, 27, 2, namo vosstu pravatsyam iti Bahvrzkak, where however pravatsyam is probably meant for pravatsam.

Grassmann has understood devata rightly, while Roth’s translation leaves it doubtful.

Verse 10. Von Roth: ‘So soll der Starke Vorrang mir allein sein: Was ich gewagt, vollfiihr’ ich mit Verstandniss. Man kennt mich als den Starken wohl, ihr Marut, An was ich rihre, Indra der bemeistert’s.’

Von Roth has adopted the translation of the second line, which I suggested in a note; Ludwig prefers the more abrupt construction which I preferred in the translation. It is difficult to decide.

[32] b

XVIil VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 11. Von Roth:

‘Entziickt hat euer Riihmen mich, ihr Marut, Das lobenswerthe Wort, das ihr gesprochen, Fiir mich—den Indra—fiir den freud’gen Helden, Als Freunde fiir den Freund, fiir mich—von selbst ihr.’ The last words fiir mich—von selbst ihr are not very clear, but the same may be said of the original tanvé tantibhiz. I still adhere to my remark that tanu, self, must refer to the same person, though I see that all other translators take an opposite view. Non liquet.

Verse 12. Von Roth: ‘Gefallen find ich, wie sie sind, an ihnen, In Raschheit und in Frische unvergleichlich. So oft ich euch, Marut, im Schmuck erblickte, Irfreut’ ich mich und freue jetzt an euch mich.’

This is again one of those verses which it is far easier to translate than to construe. A#&santa me may mean, they pleased me, but then what is the meaning of #Aadayatha ka niinam, ‘may you please me now,’ instead of what we should expect, ‘ you do please me now.’ In order to avoid this, I took the more frequent meaning of #/ad, to appear, and translated, ‘ you have appeared formerly, appear to me now.

To translate anedyah sravak 4 ishak dadhanaZ, by ‘in Raschheit und in Frische unvergleichlich,’ is poetical, but how does it benefit the scholar? I take 4 dha in the sense of bringing or giving, as it is often used; cf. II, 38, 5. This is more compatible with {sha%, food, vigour. - I am not certain that anédyaz can mean blameless. Roth s.v. derives anedya from a-nedya, and nedya from nid. But how we get from nid to nedya, he does not say. He suggests anedya or anedyasravak asemendations. I sug- gested anedyam. But I suspect there is something else behind all this. Anediyak may have been intended for ‘having nothing coming nearer,’ and like an-uttama, might express excellence. Or anedyak may have been an adverb, not nearly.

INTRODUCTION. X1X

These are mere guesses, and they are rather contradicted by anedyaZ, used in the plural, with anavadyaz. Still it is better to point out difficulties than to slur them over by translating ‘in Raschheit und in Frische unvergleichlich.’ It is possible that both Roth and Sayama thought that anedyaz was connected with nediyaZ; but what scholars want to know is the exact construction of a sentence.

Von Roth: Verse 13.

‘Ist irgendwo ein Fest fiir euch bereitet, So fahrt doch her zu unsrer Schaar, ihr Schaaren! Der Andacht Regungen in uns belebend, Und werdet Zeugen unserer frommen Werke.’ In this verse there is no difficulty, except the exact meaning of apivdtayantaz, on which I have spoken in

note I. Verse 14. Von Roth:

‘Wo dankbar huldigend der Dichter lobsingt, Hier wo uns Manya’s Kunst zusammenfiihrte,

Da kehret ein, ihr Marut, bei den Frommen, Euch gelten ja des Beters heil’ge Spriiche.’

Prof. von Roth admits that this is a difficult verse. He translates it, but again he does not help us to construe it. Grassmann also gives us a metrical translation, but it differs widely from von Roth's:

‘Wenn wie zur Spende euch der Dichter herlockt,

Und der Gesang des Weisen uns herbeizog, &c.; and so does Geldner’s version, unless we are to consider this as an improved rendering from von Roth’s own pen:

‘Wenn uns des Manya Kunst zur Feier herzieht,

Wie Dichter ja zu Festen gerne rufen,’ &c.

Here Geldner conjectures duvasyé for duvasydt, and

takes duvase as an infinitive.

isa Dashes Verse 15. ‘ Geweiht ist euch der Preis, Marut, die Lieder, Des MAanya, des Mandarasohns, des Dichters, Mit Labung kommt herbei, mir selbst zur Starkung [Gebt Labung uns und wasserreiche Fluren].’

b2

XX VEDIC HYMNS.

How tanvé vaydm is to mean ‘mir selbst zur Starkung’ has not been explained by von Roth. No doubt tanvé may mean mir selbst, and vayam zur Starkung; but though this may satisfy a poet, scholars want to know how to construe. It seems to me that Roth and Lanman (Noun-inflection, p. 552) have made the same mistake which I made in taking ishdm for an accusative of ish, which ought to be isham, and in admitting the masculine gender for vvigana in the sense of Flur.

I still take ydsish¢a for the 3 p. sing. of the precative Atmanepada, like ganishish¢a and vanishishfa. With the preposition ava, ydsisish7Zaz in IV, 1, 4, means to turn away. With the preposition 4 therefore ydsishZa may well mean to turn towards, to bring. If we took ydsishéa as a 2 p. plur. in the sense of come, we could not account for the long i, nor for the accusative vayam. We thus get the meaning, ‘ May this your hymn of praise bring vay4m,’ i.e. a branch, an offshoot or offspring, tanvé, for ourselves, isha, together with food. We then begin a new sentence: ‘May we find an invigorating autumn with quickening rain. It is true that isha, as a name of an autumn month, does not occur again in the Rig-veda, but it is found in the Satapatha-brahmava. Vvrigdna, possibly in the sense of people or enemies, we have in VII, 32, 27, ag#zatah vriganahk, where Roth reads wrongly ag#ata vrigana; V, 44,1(?); VI, 35,5. Girdd4nu also would be an appropriate epithet to isha.

Professor Oldenberg has sent me the following notes on this difficult hymn. He thinks it is what he calls an Akhyana-hymn, consisting of verses which originally formed part of a story in prose. He has treated of this class of hymns in the Zeitschrift der D. M. G. XXXIX, 60 seq, He would prefer to ascribe verses 1 and 2 to Indra, who addresses the Maruts when he meets them as they return from a sacrifice. In this case, however, we should have to accept riramama as a pluralis majestaticus, and I doubt whether Indra ever speaks of himself in the plural, except it may be in using the pronoun na&.

In verse 4 Professor Oldenberg prefers to take prd-

INTRODUCTION. XXi

bhrzto me adriz in the sense of ‘the stone for pressing the Soma has been brought forth,’ and he adds that me need not mean ‘my stone,’ but ‘brought forward for me.’ He would prefer to read sishmam iyarti, as inIV, 17, 12; X, 75, 3, though he does not consider this alteration of the text necessary.

Professor Oldenberg would ascribe vv. 13 and 14 to Indra. The 14th verse would then mean, ‘After Manya has brought us (the gods) hither, turn, O Maruts, towards the sage.’ Of this interpretation I should like to adopt at all events the last sentence, taking varta for vart-ta, the 2 p. plur. imperat. of vvzt, after the Ad class.

The text of the Maitrayazi Samhita, lately published by Dr. L. von Schroeder, yields a few interesting various readings: v. 5, ekam instead of etan; v. 12, srava instead of srava; and v. 15, vayamsi as a variant for vayam, which looks like a conjectural emendation.

A comparison like the one we have here instituted between two translations of the same hymn, will serve to show how useless any rendering, whether in prose or poetry, would be without notes to justify the meanings of every doubtful word and sentence. It will, no doubt, disclose at the same time the unsettled state of Vedic scholarship, but the more fully this fact is acknowledged, the better, I believe, it will be for the progress of our studies. They have suffered more than from anything else from that baneful positivism which has done so much harm in hieroglyphic and cuneiform researches. That the same words and names should be interpreted differently from year to year, is perfectly in- telligible to every one who is familiar with the nature of these decipherments. What has seriously injured the credit of these studies is that the latest decipherments have always been represented as final and unchangeable. Vedic hymns may seem more easy to decipher than Babylonian and Egyptian inscriptions, and in one sense they are. But when we come to really difficult passages, the Vedic hymns often require a far greater effort of divination than the hymns addressed to Egyptian or Babylonian deities. And there is this additional difficulty that when we deal with

XXil VEDIC HYMNS.

inscriptions, we have at all events the text as it was engraved from the first, and we are safe against later | modifications and interpolations, while in the case of the Veda, even though the text as presupposed by the Prati- sakhyas may be considered as authoritative for the fifth century B.C., how do we know what changes it may have undergone before that time? - Nor can I help giving expression once more to misgivings I have so often ex- pressed, whether the date of the Pratisdkhyas is really beyond the reach of doubt, and whether, if it is, there is no other way of escaping from the conclusion that the whole collection of the hymns of the Rig-veda, including even the Valakhilya hymns, existed at that early time®. The more I study the hymns, the more I feel staggered at the conclusion at which all Sanskrit scholars seem to have arrived, touching their age. That many of them are old, older than anything else in Sanskrit, their grammar, if nothing else, proclaims in the clearest way. But that some of them are modern imitations is a conviction that forces itself even on the least sceptical minds. Here too we must guard against positivism, and suspend our judgment, and accept correction with a teachable spirit. No one would be more grateful for a way out of the maze of Vedic chronology than I should be, if a more modern date could be assigned to some of the Vedic hymns than the period of the rise of Buddhism. But how can we account for Buddhism without Vedic hymns? In the oldest Buddhist Suttas the hymns of three Vedas are constantly referred to, and warnings are uttered even against the fourth Veda, the Athabbana?’. The Upanishads also, the latest pro- ductions of the Brahmava period, must have been known to the founders of Buddhism. From all this there seems to be no escape, and yet I must confess that my conscience quivers in assigning such compositions as the Valakhilya

hymns to a period preceding the rise of Buddhism in India.

• See Preface to the first edition, p. xxxii.

» Tuvazakasutta, ver. 927; Sacred Books of the East, vol. x, p. 176; Intro- duction, p. xiii.

INTRODUCTION. XXill

I have often been asked why I began my translation of the Rig-veda with the hymns addressed to the Maruts or the Storm-gods, which are certainly not the most attractive of Vedic hymns. I had several reasons, though, as often happens, I could hardly say which of them determined my choice.

First of all, they are the most difficult hymns, and therefore they had a peculiar attraction in my eyes.

Secondly, as even when translated they required a con- siderable effort before they could be fully understood, I hoped they would prove attractive to serious students only, and frighten away the casual reader who has done so much harm by meddling with Vedic antiquities. Our grapes, I am glad to say, are still sour, and ought to remain so for some time longer.

Thirdly, there are few hymns which place the original character of the so-called deities to whom they are addressed in so clear a light as the hymns addressed to the Maruts or Storm-gods. There can be no doubt about the meaning of the name, whatever difference of opinion there may be about its etymology. Marut and maruta in ordinary Sanskrit mean wind, and more particularly a strong wind, differing by its violent character from vayu orvata*. Nordothe hymns themselves leave us in any doubt as to the natural phe- nomena with which the Maruts are identified. Storms which root up the trees of the forest, lightning, thunder, and showers of rain, are the background from which the Maruts in their personal and dramatic character rise before oureyes. In one verse the Maruts are the very phenomena of nature as convulsed by a thunderstorm; in the next, with the slightest change of expression, they are young men, driving on chariots, hurling the thunderbolt, and crushing

• the clouds in order to win the rain. Now they are the sons of Rudra and Pyvzsni, the friends and brothers of Indra, now they quarrel with Indra and claim their own rightful share of praise and sacrifice. Nay, after a time the storm- gods in India, like the storm-gods in other countries,

• The Vayus are mentioned by the side of the Maruts, Rv. II, 11, 14.

XXIV VEDIC HYMNS.

obtain a kind of supremacy, and are invoked by them- selves, as if there were no other gods beside them. In most of the later native dictionaries, in the Medini, Visva, Hemakandra, Amara, and Anekarthadhvanimazgari, Marut is given asa synonym of deva, or god in general *, and so is Maru in Pali. 2 But while the hymns addressed to the Maruts enable us to watch the successive stages in the development of so-called deities more clearly than any other hymns, there is no doubt one drawback, namely, the uncertainty of the etymology of Marut. The etymology of the name is and always must be the best key to the original intention of adeity. What- ever Zeus became afterwards, he was originally conceived as Dyaus, the bright sky. Whatever changes came over Ceres in later times, her first name and her first conception was Sarad, harvest. With regard to Marut I have myself no doubt whatever that Mar-ut comes from the root M&, in the sense of grinding, crushing, pounding (Sk. mrzati, hissayam, part. mirza, crushed, like mrzdita; Amur and amuri, destroyer). There is no objection to this etymology, either on the ground of phonetic rules, or on account of the meaning of Marut®. Professor Kuhn’s idea that the name of the Maruts was derived from the root MA&, to die, and that the Maruts were originally conceived as the souls of the departed, and afterwards as ghosts, spirits, winds, and lastly as storms, derives no support from the Veda. Another etymology, proposed in Bohtlingk’s Dictionary, which derives Marut from a root M&, to shine, labours under two disadvantages; first, that there is no such root in Sanskrit °; secondly, that the lurid splendour of the light- ning is but a subordinate feature in the character of the Maruts. No better etymology having been proposed, I still maintain that the derivation of Marut from M&, to pound, to smash, is free from any objection, and that the original conception of the Maruts was that of the crushing, smash- ing, striking, tearing, destroying storms.

« Anundoram Borooah, Sanskrit Grammar, vol. iii, p. 323. » See Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357 seq. © Marti is a word of very doubtful origin.

INTRODUCTION. XXV

It is true that we have only two words in Sanskrit formed by the sufix ut, marut and garut in garut-mat, but there are other suffixes which are equally restricted to one or two nouns only. This ut represents an old suffix vat, just as us presupposes vas, in vidus (vidushi, vidush- tara) for vid-vas, nom. vid-van, acc. vidvamsam. In a similar way we find side by side parus, knot, parvan, knot, and parvata, stone, cloud, presupposing such forms as *parvat and parut. If then by the side of parut, we find Latin pars, partis, why should we object to Mars, Martis as a parallel form of Marut? I do not say the two words are identical, I only main- tain that the root is the same, and the two suffixes are mere variants. No doubt Marut might have appeared in Latin as Marut, like the neuter cap-ut, capitis (cf. prae-ceps, prae-cipis, and prae-cipitis); but Mars, Martis is as good a derivation from MM as Fors, Fortis is from GHM Dr. von Bradke (Zeitschrift der D.M.G., vol. xl, p. 349), though identifying Marut with Mars, proposes a new derivation of Marut, as being originally *Mavrzt, which would correspond well with Mavors. But *Mavrzt has no meaning in Sanskrit, and seems grammatically an impossible formation.

If there could be any doubt as to the original identity of Marut and Mars, it is dispelled by the Umbrian name cerfo Martio, which, as Grassmann” has shown, corre- sponds exactly to the expression sardha-s maruta-s, the host of the Maruts. Such minute coincidences can hardly be accidental, though, as I have myself often remarked, the chapter of accidents in language is certainly larger than we suppose. Thus, in our case, I pointed out that we can observe the transition of the gods of storms into the gods of destruction and war, not only in the Veda, but likewise in the mythology of the Polynesians; and yet the similarity in the Polynesian name of Maru can only be accidental ¢.

® Biographies of Words, p. 12. © Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xvi, p. 190; and note to Rv. I, 37,1, p. 70. ¢ M. M., Science of Religion, p. 255.

XXVvi VEDIC HYMNS.

And I may add that in Estonian also we find storm-gods called Marutu uled or maro, plural marud®*.

Fourthly, the hymns addressed to the Maruts seemed to me to possess an interest of their own, because, as it is difficult to doubt the identity of the two names, Marut and Mars, they offered an excellent opportunity for watching the peculiar changes which the same deity would undergo when transferred to India on one side and to Europe on the other. Whether the Greek Ares also was an offshoot of the same root must seem more doubtful, and I contented myself with giving the principal reasons for and against this theory”.

Though these inducements which led me to select the hymns to the Maruts as the first instalment of a translation of the Rig-veda could hardly prevail with me now, yet I was obliged to place them once more in the foreground, because the volume containing the translation of these hymns with very full notes has been used for many years as a text book by those who were beginning the study of the Rig- veda, and was out of print. In order to meet the demand for a book which could serve as an easy introduction to Vedic studies, I decided to reprint the translation of the hymns to the Maruts, and most of the notes, though here and there somewhat abbreviated, and then to continue the same hymns, followed by others addressed to Rudra, Vayu, and Vata. My task would, of course, have been much easier, if I had been satisfied with making a selec- tion, and translating those hymns, or those verses only, which afford no very great difficulties. As it is, I have grappled with every hymn and every verse addressed to the Maruts, so that my readers will find in this volume all that the Vedic poets had to say about the Storm- gods. |

In order to show, however, that Vedic hymns, though they begin with a description of the most striking phe- nomena of nature, are by no means confined to that

® Bertram, Ilmatar, Dorpat, 1871, p. 98. » Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357.

INTRODUCTION. XXVil

narrow sphere, but rise in the end to the most sublime conception of a supreme Deity, I have placed one hymn, that addressed to the Unknown God, at the head of my collection. This will clear me, I hope, of the very unfair suspicion that, by beginning my translation of the Rig-veda with hymns celebrating the wild forces of nature only, I had wished to represent the Vedic religion as nature-worship and nothing else. It will give the thoughtful reader a foretaste of what he may expect in- the end, and show how vast a sphere of religious thought is filled by what we call by a very promiscuous name, the Veda.

The MS. of this volume was ready, and the printing of it was actually begun in 1885. A succession of new calls on my time, which admitted of no refusal, have delayed the actual publication till now. This delay, however, has been compensated by one very great advantage. Beginning with hymn 167 of the first Mazdala, Professor Oldenberg has, in the most generous spirit, lent me his help in the final revision of my translation and notes. It is chiefly due to him that the results of the latest attempts at the interpre- tation of the Veda, which are scattered about in learned articles and monographs, have been utilised for this volume. His suggestions, I need hardly say, have proved most valuable; and though he should not be held responsible for any mistakes that may be discovered, whether in the translation or in the notes, my readers may at all events take it for granted that, where my translation seems unsatisfactory, Professor Oldenberg also had nothing better to suggest.

Considering my advancing years, I thought I should act in the true interest of Vedic scholarship, if for the future also I divided my work with him. While for this volume the chief responsibility rests with me, the second volume will contain the hymns to Agni, as translated and an- notated by him, and revised by me. In places where we really differ, we shall say so. For the rest, we are willing to share both blame and praise. Our chief object is to help forward a critical study of the Veda, and we are well

XXViil VEDIC HYMNS.

aware that much of what has been done and can be done in the present state of Vedic scholarship, is only a kind of reconnaissance, if not a forlorn hope, to be followed here- after by a patient siege of the hitherto impregnable fortress of ancient Vedic literature.

F. MAX MULLER.

OXFORD: 6th Dec. 1891.

PREFACE Bete ELE, Eo ek ee ELON,

WHEN some twenty years ago I decided on undertaking the first edition of the two texts and the commentary of the Rig-veda, I little expected that it would fall to my lot

ce a kun: to publish also what may, without presump-

lation of the tion, be called the first translation of the hee Sgt ancient sacred hymns ofthe Brahmans. Such

is the charm of deciphering step by step

the dark and helpless utterances of the early poets of India, and discovering from time to time behind words that for years seemed unintelligible, the simple though strange expressions of primitive thought and primitive faith, that it required no small amount of self-denial to decide in favour of devoting a life to the publishing of the materials rather than to the drawing of the results which those materials supply to the student of ancient language and ancient religion. Even five and twenty years ago, and without waiting for the publication of Sayaza’s com- mentary, much might have been achieved in the interpreta- tion of the hymns of the Rig-veda. With the MSS. then accessible in the principal libraries of Europe, a tolerably correct text of the Samhita might have been published, and these ancient relics of a primitive religion might have been at least partially deciphered and translated in the same way in which ancient inscriptions are deciphered and translated, viz. by a careful collection of all grammatical forms, and by a complete intercomparison of all passages in which the same words and the same phrases occur. When I resolved to devote my leisure to a critical edition of the text and commentary of the Rig-veda rather than to an independent study of that text, it was chiefly from a conviction that the traditional interpretation of the Rig-veda, as embodied in the commentary of Sdyavza and other works of a similar

XXX VEDIC HYMNS.

character, could not be neglected with impunity, and that sooner or later a complete edition of these works would be recognised as a necessity. It was better therefore to begin with the beginning, though it seemed hard sometimes to spend forty years in the wilderness instead of rushing straight into the promised land.

It is well known to those who have followed my literary publications that I never entertained any exaggerated opinion as to the value of the traditional interpretation of the Veda, handed down in the theological schools of India, and preserved to us in the great commentary of Sayama. More than twenty years ago, when it required more courage to speak out than now, I expressed my opinion on that sub- ject in no ambiguous language, and was blamed for it by some of those who now speak of Sayava as a mere drag in the progress of Vedic scholarship. Even a drag, however, is sometimes more conducive to the safe advancement of learning than a whip; and those who recollect the history of Vedic scholarship during the last five and twenty years, know best that, with all its faults and weaknesses, Sdyaza’s commentary was a sine qua non for a scholarlike study of the Rig-veda. I do not wonder that others who have more recently entered on that study are inclined to speak disparagingly of the scholastic interpretations of Sayavza. They hardly know how much we all owe to his guidance in effecting our first entrance into this fortress of Vedic lan- suage and Vedic religion, and how much even they, without being aware of it, are indebted to that Indian Eustathius. I do not withdraw an opinion which I expressed many years ago, and for which I was much blamed at the time, that Sdyavza in many cases teaches us how the Veda ought not to be, rather than how it ought to be understood. But for all that, who does not know how much assistance may be derived from a first translation, even though it is imperfect, nay, how often the very mistakes of our pre- decessors help us in finding the right track? If now we can walk without Sayaza, we ought to bear in mind that five and twenty years ago we could not have made even our first steps, we could never, at least, have gained a firm

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXXi

footing without his leading strings. If therefore we can now see further than he could, let us not forget that we are standing on his shoulders.

I do not regret in the least the time which I have devoted to the somewhat tedious work of editing the commentary of Sayava, and editing it according to the strictest rules of critical scholarship. The Veda, I feel convinced, will occupy scholars for centuries to come, and will take and maintain for ever its position as the most ancient of books in the library of mankind. Such a book, and the com- mentary of such a book, should be edited once for all; and unless some unexpected discovery is made of more ancient MSS., I do not anticipate that any future Bekker or Dindorf will find much to glean for a new edition of Sayama, or that the text, as restored by me from a collation of the best MSS. accessible in Europe, will ever be materially shaken*. It has taken a long time, 1 know; but those who find fault with me for the delay, should remember that few

® Since the publication of the first volume of the Rig-veda, many new MSS. have come before me, partly copied for me, partly lent to me for a time by scholars in India, but every one of them belonged clearly to one of the three families which I have described in my introduction to the first volume of the Rig-veda. In the beginning of the first Ash¢aka, and occasionally at the beginning of other Ashzakas, likewise in the commentary on hymns which were studied by native scholars with particular interest, various readings occur in some MSS., which seem at first to betoken an independent source, but which are in reality mere marginal notes, due to more or less learned students of these MSS. Thus after verse 3 of the introduction one MS. reads: sa praha nvtpati, ragan, sdyawaryo mamanugah, sarvam vetty esha vedéndm vyakhy4- trztvena, yugyatam. The same MS., after verse 4, adds: ityukto madhavar- yeva virabukkamahipatiz, anvasat sdyaikaryam vedarthasya prakAsane.

I had for a time some hope that MSS. written in Grantha or other South- Indian alphabets might have preserved an independent text of Sayavzea, but from some specimens of a Grantha MS. collated for me by Mr. Eggeling, I do not think that even this hope is meant to be realised. The MS. in question contains a few independent various readings, such as are found in all MSS., and owe their origin clearly to the jottings of individual students. When at the end of verse 6, I found the independent reading, vyutpannas tavata sarva riko vyakhyatum arhati, I expected that other various readings of the same character might follow. But after a few additions in the beginning, and those clearly taken from other parts of Sayaza’s commentary, nothing of real importance could be gleaned from that MS. I may mention as more important specimens of | marginal notes that, before the first puna kidv7sam, on page 44, line 24 (1st ed.), this MS. reads: athava yag@asya devam iti sambandha/, yag#asya prakasakam ityarthas, purohitam iti przthagviseshazam. And again, page 44, line 26,

XXXIl VEDIC HYMNS.

scholars, if any, have worked for others more than I have done in copying and editing Sanskrit texts, and that after all one cannot give up the whole of one’s life to the colla- tion of Oriental MSS. and the correction of proof-sheets. The two concluding volumes have long been ready for Press, and as soon as I can find leisure, they too shall be printed and published *.

In now venturing to publish the first volume of my trans- lation of the Rig-veda, I am fully aware that the fate which awaits it will be very different from that of my edition of the text and commentary. It is a mere contribution towards a better understanding of the Vedic hymns, and though I hope it may give in the main a right rendering of the sense of the Vedic poets, I feel convinced that on many points my translation is liable to correction, and will sooner or later be replaced by a more satisfactory one. It is difficult to explain to those who have not themselves worked at the Veda, how it is that, though we may under- stand almost every word, yet we find it so difficult to lay hold of a whole chain of connected thought, and to discover expressions that will not throw a wrong shade on the original features of the ancient words of the Veda. We have, on the one hand, to avoid giving to our translations too modern a character, or paraphrasing instead of trans- lating ; while, on the other, we cannot retain expressions which, if literally rendered in English or any modern tongue, would have an air of quaintness or absurdity totally foreign to the intention of the ancient poets. There are, as all Vedic scholars know, whole verses which, as yet, yield no sense whatever. There are words the meaning of

before puna kidvzsam, this MS. adds: athava vztvigam ritvigvid (vad) yagfa- nirvahakam hotéram devanaim ahvataram ; tatha ratnadhatamam. In the same line, after ratnanaém, we read ramawiyadhananam va, taken from page 46, line 2. Various readings like these, however, occur on the first sheets only, soon after the MS. follows the usual and recognised text. [This opinion has been considerably modified after a complete collation of this MS., made for me by Dr. Winternitz.] For the later Ashfakas, where all the MSS. are very deficient, and where an independent authority would be of real use, no Grantha MS. has as yet been discovered,

® They have since been printed, but the translation has in consequence been delayed,

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXXIil

which we can only guess. Here, no doubt, a continued study will remove some of our difficulties, and many a passage that is now dark, will receive light hereafter from a happy combination. Much has already been achieved by the efforts of European scholars, but much more remains to be done; and our only chance of seeing any rapid progress made lies, I believe, in communicating freely what every one has found out by himself, and not minding if others point out to us that we have overlooked the very passage that would at once have solved our difficulties, that our conjectures were unnecessary, and our emendations wrong. True and honest scholars whose conscience tells them that they have done their best, and who care for the subject on which they are engaged far more than for the praise of benevolent or the blame of malignant critics, ought not to take any notice of merely frivolous censure. There are mistakes, no doubt, of which we ought to be ashamed, and for which the only amende honorable we can make is to openly confess and retract them. But there are others, particularly in a subject like Vedic interpretation, which we should forgive, as we wish to be forgiven. This can be done without lowering the standard of true scholarship or vitiating the healthy tone of scientific morality. Kindness and gentleness are not incompatible with earnestness,—far from it !—and where these elements are wanting, not only is the joy embittered which is the inherent reward of all bona fide work, but selfishness, malignity, aye, even-un- truthfulness, gain the upper hand, and the healthy growth of science is stunted. While in my translation of the Veda and in the remarks that I have to make in the course of my commentary, I shall frequently differ from other scholars, I hope I shall never say an unkind word of men who have done their best, and who have done what they have done in a truly scholarlike, that is, in a humble spirit. It would be unpleasant, even were it possible within the limits assigned, to criticise every opinion that has been put forward on the meaning of certain words or on the con- struction of certain verses of the Veda. I prefer, as much as possible, to vindicate my own translation, instead of

[32] Cc

XXXIV VEDIC HYMNS.

examining the translations of other scholars, whether Indian or European. SAyavza’s translation, as rendered into Eng- lish by Professor Wilson, is before the world. Let those who take an interest in these matters compare it with the translation here proposed. In order to give readers who do not possess that translation, an opportunity of comparing it with my own, I have for a few hymns printed that as well as the translations of Langlois and Benfey* on the same page with my own. Everybody will thus be enabled to judge of the peculiar character of each of these translations. That of Sadyaza represents the tradition of India; that of Langlois is the ingenious, but thoroughly uncritical, guess- work of a man of taste; that of Benfey is the rendering of a scholar, who has carefully worked out the history of some words, but who assigns to other words either the traditional meaning recorded by Sayaza, or a conjectural meaning which, however, would not always stand the test of an inter- comparison of all passages in which these words occur. I may say, in general, that Sayava’s translation was of great use to me in the beginning, though it seldom afforded help for the really difficult passages. Langlois’ translation has hardly ever yielded real assistance, while I sincerely regret that Benfey’s rendering does not extend beyond the first Mandala. | It may sound self-contradictory, if, after confessing the help which I derived from these translations, I venture to call my own the first translation of the ber en Rig-veda. The word translation, however, raisonnée. has many meanings. I mean by translation, not a mere rendering of the hymns of the Rig-veda into English, French, or German, but a full account of the reasons which justify the translator in assigning such a power to such a word, and such a meaning to such a sentence. I mean by translation a real deciphering, a work like that which Burnouf performed in his first attempts at a translation of the Avesta,—a traduction raisonnée, if | such an expression may be used. Without such a process,

• In the new edition, Langlois’ translation has been omitted, and those of Ludwig and Grassmann have been inserted occasionally only.

:

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXXV

without a running commentary, a mere translation of the ancient hymns of the Brahmans will never lead to any solid results. Even if the translator has discovered the right meaning of a word or of a whole sentence, his mere transla- tion does not help us much, unless he shows us the process by which he has arrived at it, unless he places before us the pieces justificatives of his final judgment. The Veda teems with words that require a justification ; not so much the words which occur but once or twice, though many of these are difficult enough, but rather the common words and particles, which occur again and again, which we understand to a certain point, and can render in a vague way, but which must be defined before they can be trans- lated, and before they can convey to us any real and tangible meaning. It was out of the question in a trans- lation of this character to attempt either an imitation of the original rhythm or metre, or to introduce the totally foreign element of rhyming. Such translations may follow by and by: at present a metrical translation would only be an excuse for an inaccurate translation.

While engaged in collecting the evidence on which the meaning of every word and every sentence must be founded, I have derived the most important assistance from the Sanskrit Dictionary of Professors Bohtlingk and Roth, which has been in course of publication during the last sixteen years. The Vedic portion of that Dictionary may, I believe, be taken as the almost exclusive work of Professor Roth, and as such, for the sake of brevity, I shall treat it in my notes. It would be ungrateful were I not to acknow- ledge most fully the real benefit which this publication has conferred on every student of Sanskrit, and my only regret is that its publication has not proceeded more rapidly, so that even now years will elapse before we can hope to see it finished. But my sincere admiration for the work per- formed by the compilers of that Dictionary does not prevent me from differing, in many cases, from the explanations of Vedic words given by Professor Roth. If I do not always criticise Professor Roth’s explanations when I differ from him, the reason is obvious. A dictionary without a full

e 2

XXXVI VEDIC HYMNS.

translation of each passage, or without a justification of the meanings assigned to each word, is only a preliminary step ~ to atranslation. It represents a first classification of the meanings of the same word in different passages, but it gives us no means of judging how, according to the opinion of the compiler, the meaning of each single word should be made to fit the general sense of a whole sentence. I do not say this in disparagement, for, in a dictionary, it can hardly be otherwise; I only refer to it in order to explain the difficulty I felt whenever I differed from Professor Roth, and was yet unable to tell how the meaning assigned by him to certain words would be justified by the author of the Dictionary himself. On this ground I have throughout preferred to explain every step by which I arrived at my own renderings, rather than to write a running criticism of Professor Roth’s Dictionary. My obligations to him I like to express thus once for all, by stating that whenever I found that I agreed with him, I felt greatly assured as to the soundness of my own rendering, while whenever I differed from him, I never did so without careful con- sideration.

The works, however, which I have hitherto mentioned, though the most important, are by no means the only ones that have been of use to me in preparing my translation of the Rig-veda. The numerous articles on certain hymns, verses, or single words occurring in the Rig-veda, published by Vedic scholars in Europe and India during the last thirty years, were read by me at the time of their publica- tion, and have helped me to overcome difficulties, the very existence of which is now forgotten. If I go back still further, I feel that in grappling with the first and the greatest of difficulties in the study of the Veda, I and many others are more deeply indebted than it is possible to say, to one whose early loss has been one of the greatest mis- fortunes to Sanskrit scholarship. It was in Burnouf’s lectures that we first learnt what the Veda was, and how it should form the foundation of all our studies. Not only did he most liberally communicate to his pupils his valuable MSS., and teach us how to use these tools, but the results

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXXVIi

of his own experience were freely placed at our service, we were warned against researches which he knew to be useless, we were encouraged in undertakings which he knew to be full of promise. His minute analysis of long passages of Sayaza, his independent interpretations of the text of the hymns, his comparisons between the words and grammatical forms, the thoughts and legends of the Veda and Avesta, his brilliant divination checked by an inexorable sense of truth, and his dry logical method enlivened by sallies of humour and sparks of imaginative genius, though not easily forgotten, and always remembered with gratitude, are now beyond the reach of praise or blame. Were I to criticise what he or other scholars have said and written many years ago, they might justly complain of such criticism. It is no longer necessary to prove that Nabhanedish¢ha cannot mean ‘new relatives,’ or that there never was a race of Etendhras, or that the angels of the Bible are in no way connected with the Angiras of the Vedic hymns; and it would, on the other hand, be a mere waste of time, were I to attempt to find out who first discovered that in the Veda deva does not always mean divine, but sometimes means brilliant. In fact, it could not be done.

In a new subject like that of the interpretation of the Veda, there are certain things which everybody discovers who has eyes to see. Their discovery requires so little research that it seems almost an insult to say that.they were discovered by this or that scholar. Take, for instance, the peculiar pronunciation of certain words, rendered neces- sary by the requirements of Vedic metres. I believe that my learned friend Professor Kuhn was one of the first to call general attention to the fact that semivowels must fre- quently be changed into their corresponding vowels, and that long vowels must sometimes be pronounced as two syllables. It is clear, however, from Rosen’s notes to the first Ash¢aka (I, 1, 8), that he, too, was perfectly aware of this fact, and that he recognised the prevalence of this rule, not only with regard to semivowels (see his note to RV. I, 2,9) and long vowels which are the result of Sandhi, but likewise with regard to others that occur in the body of a

XXXVIII VEDIC HYMNS.

word. ‘Animadverte,’ he writes, ‘tres syllabas postremas vocis adhvarazam dipodiae iambicae munus_ sustinentes, penultima syllaba praeter iambi prioris arsin, thesin quoque sequentis pedis ferente. Satis frequentia sunt, in hac prae- sertim dipodiae iambicae sede, exempla syllabae natura longae in tres moras productae. De qua re nihil quidem memoratum invenio apud Pingalam aliosque qui de arte metrica scripserunt: sed numeros ita, ut modo dictum est, computandos esse, taciti agnoscere videntur, quum versus una syllaba mancus non eos offendat.’

Now this is exactly the case. The ancient grammarians, as we shall see, teach distinctly that where two vowels have coalesced into one according to the rules of Sandhi, they may be pronounced as two syllables; and though they do not teach the same with regard to semivowels and long vowels occurring in the body of the word, yet they tacitly recognise that rule, by frequently taking its effects for granted. Thus in Sitra 950 of the Pratisakhya, verse IX, III, 1, is called an Atyash/i, and the first pada is said to consist of twelve syllables. In order to get this number, the author must have read,

aya rua harinyA pundnah. Immediately after, verse IV, 1, 3, is called a Dhvzti, and the first pada must again have twelve syllables. Here there- fore the author takes it for granted that we should read,

sakhe sakhdyam abhy 4 vavritsva?. No one, in fact, with any ear for rhythm, whether Saunaka and Pingala, or Rosen and Kuhn, could have helped ob- serving these rules when reading the Veda. But it is quite a different case when we come to the question as to which words admit of such protracted pronunciation, and which do not. Here one scholar may differ from another according to the view he takes of the character of Vedic metres, and here one has to take careful account of the minute and

• See also Stitra 937 seq. I cannot find any authority for the statement of Professor Kuhn (Beitrage, vol. iii, p. 114) that, according to the Rik-pratisakhya, it is the first semivowel that must be dissolved, unless he referred to the remarks of the commentator to Sitra 973.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXXIX

ingenious observations contained in numerous articles by Professors Kuhn, Bollensen, Grassmann, and others.

With regard to the interpretation of certain words and sentences too, it may happen that explanations which have taxed the ingenuity of some scholars to the utmost, seem to others so self-evident that they would hardly think of quoting anybody’s name in support of them, to say nothing of the endless and useless work it would entail, were we obliged always to find out who was the first to propose this or that interpretation. It is impossible here to lay down general rules:—each scholar must be guided by his own sense of justice to others and by self-respect. Let us take one instance. From the first time that I read the fourth hymn of the Rig-veda, I translated the fifth and sixth verses :

uta bruvantu naf nidak# nihz anyatak fit arata, dadhanaZ indre it duvah, uta nak su-bhagan arth vokéyu dasma krish¢dyat, sydma it indrasya sarmazi.

1. Whether our enemies say, ‘Move away elsewhere, you who offer worship to Indra only, —
2. Or whether, O mighty one, all people call us blessed : may we always remain in the keeping of Indra.

About the general sense of this passage I imagined there could be no doubt, although one word in it, viz. arth, re- quired an explanation. Yet the variety of interpretations proposed by different scholars is extraordinary. First, if we look to Sayama, he translates:

1. May our priests praise Indra! O enemies, go away from this place, and also from another place! Our priests (may praise Indra), they who are always performing wor- ship for Indra.

2. O destroyer of enemies! may the enemy call us pos- sessed of wealth; how much more, friendly people! May we be in the happiness of Indra!

Professor Wilson did not follow Sayavza closely, but translated :

1. Let our ministers, earnestly performing his worship,

xl VEDIC HYMNS.

exclaim: Depart, ye revilers, from hence and every other place (where he is adored).

2. Destroyer of foes, let our enemies say we are pros- perous: let men (congratulate us). May we ever abide in the felicity (derived from the favour) of Indra. —

Langlois translated:

I. Que (ces amis), en fétant Indra, puissent dire: Vous, qui étes nos adversaires, retirez-vous loin d’ici.

2. Que nos ennemis nous appellent des hommes fortunés, placés que nous sommes sous la protection d’Indra.

Stevenson translated :

1. Let all men again join in praising Indra. Avaunt ye profane scoffers, remove from hence, and from every other place, while we perform the rites of Indra.

2. O foe-destroyer, (through thy favour) even our enemies speak peaceably to us, the possessors of wealth; what wonder then if other men do so. Let us ever enjoy the happiness which springs from Indra’s blessing.

Professor Benfey translated :

1. And let the scoffers say, They are rejected by every one else, therefore they celebrate Indra alone.

2. And may the enemy and the country proclaim us as happy, O destroyer, if we are only in Indra’s keeping®.

Professor Roth, s.v. anyata%, took this word rightly in the sense of ‘to a different place, and must therefore have taken that sentence ‘move away elsewhere’ in the same sense in which I take it. Later, however, s.v. ar, he cor- rected himself, and proposed to translate the same words by ‘you neglect something else.’

Professor Bollensen (Orient und Occident, vel. ii, p. 462),

® T add Grassmann’s and Ludwig’s renderings: Grassmann: Mag spottend sagen unser Feind: ‘Kein Andrer kiimmert sich um sie; Drum feiern Indra sie allein.’ Und gliicklich mégen, Machtiger ! Die Freundesstamme nennen uns, Nur wenn wir sind in Indra’s Schutz. Ludwig: Mogen unsere tadler sagen: sogar noch anderes entgeht euch (dabei), wenn ihr dienst dem Indra tut. Oder moge uns gliickselige nennen der fromme, so nennen, o wundertater, die (fiinf) volker, in Indra’s schutze m6gen wir sein.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xli

adopting toa certain extent the second rendering of Professor Roth in preference to that of Professor Benfey, endeavoured to show that the ‘something else which is neglected,’ is not something indefinite, but the worship of all the other gods, except Indra.

It might, no doubt, be said that every one of these trans- lations contains something that is right, though mixed up with a great deal that is wrong; but to attempt for every verse of the Veda to quote and to criticise every previous translation, would be an invidious and useless task. In the case just quoted, it might seem right to state that Professor Bollensen was the first to see that ariZ should be joined with krzsh¢ayaf, and that he therefore proposed to alter it to ariZ,as anom. plur. But on referring to Rosen, I find that, to a certain extent, he had anticipated Professor Bol- lensen’s remark, for though, in his cautious way, he abstained from altering the text, yet he remarked: Possitne arih pluralis esse, contracta terminatione, pro arayak?

After these preliminary remarks I have to say a few Plan of the words on the general plan of my translation.

work, I do not attempt as yet a translation of the whole of the Rig-veda, and I therefore considered myself at liberty to group the hymns according to the deities to which they are addressed. By this process, I believe, a great advan- tage is gained. We see at one glance all that has been said of a certain god, and we gain a more complete insight into his nature and character. Something of the same kind had been attempted by the original collectors of the ten books, for it can hardly be by accident that each of them begins with hymns addressed to Agni, and that these are followed by hymns addressed to Indra. The only excep- tion to this rule is the eighth Mavdala, for the ninth being devoted to one deity, to Soma, can hardly be accounted an exception. But if we take the Rig-veda as a whole, we find hymns, addressed to the same deities, not only scattered about in different books, but not even grouped together when they occur in one and the same book. Here, as we lose nothing by giving up the old arrangement, we

xlii VEDIC HYMNS.

are surely at liberty, for our own purposes, to put together such hymns as have a common object, and to place before the reader as much material as possible for an exhaustive study of each individual deity.

I give for each hymn the Sanskrit original* in what is known as the Pada text, i.e. the text in which all words (pada) stand by themselves, as they do in Greek or Latin, without being joined together according to the rules of Sandhi. The text in which the words are thus joined, as they are in all other Sanskrit texts, is called the Samhita text. Whether the Pada or the Samhit4 text be the more ancient, may seem difficult to settle. As far as I can judge, they seem to me, in their present form, the product of the same period of Vedic scholarship. The Pratisdkhyas, it is true, start from the Pada text, take it, as it were, for granted, and devote their rules to the explanation of those changes which that text undergoes in being changed into the Samhita text. But, on the other hand, the Pada text in some cases clearly presupposes the Saszhita text. It leaves out passages which are repeated more than once, while the Samhita text always repeats these passages; it abstains from dividing the termination of the locative plural su, whenever in the Samhita text, i.e. according to the rules of Sandhi, it becomes shu; hence nadishu, agishu, but ap-su; and it gives short vowels instead of the long ones of the Samhita, even in cases where the long vowels are justified by the rules of the Vedic language. It is certain, in fact, that neither the Pada nor the Samhita text, as we now possess them, represents the original text of the Veda. Both show clear traces of scholastic influences. But if we try to restore the original form of the Vedic hymns, we shall certainly arrive at some kind of Pada text rather than at a Samhita text; nay, even in their present form, the original metre and rhythm of the ancient hymns of the AXzshis are far more perceptible when the words are divided, than when we join them together throughout according to the rules of Sandhi. Lastly, for practical purposes, the Pada text is far superior to the Samhita text in which the final

® This is left out in the second edition.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xiii

and initial letters, that is, the most important letters of words, are constantly disguised, and liable therefore to different interpretations. Although in some passages we may differ from the interpretation adopted by the Pada text, and although certain Vedic words have, no doubt, been wrongly analysed and divided by Sakalya, yet such cases are comparatively few, and where they occur, they are interesting as carrying us back to the earliest attempts of Vedic scholarship. In the vast majority of cases the divided text, with a few such rules as we have to observe in reading Latin, nay, even in reading Pali verses, brings us certainly much nearer to the original utterance of the ancient Azshis than the amalgamated text.

The critical principles by which I have been guided in editing for the first time the text of the Rig-veda, require

Principles of @few words of explanation, as they have lately

criticism. been challenged on grounds which, I think, rest on a complete misapprehension of my previous state- ments on this subject.

As far as we are able to judge at present, we can hardly speak of various readings in the Vedic hymns, in the usual sense of that word. Various readings to be gathered from a collation of different MSS., now accessible to us, there are none. After collating a considerable number of MSS., I have succeeded, I believe, in fixing on three representative MSS., as described in the preface to the first volume of my edition of the Rig-veda. Even these MSS. are not free from blunders,—for what MS. is ?—but these blunders have no claim to the title of various readings. They are lapsus calami, and no more; and, what is important, they have not become traditional *.

• Thus X, 101, 2, one of the Pada MSS. (P 2) reads distinctly yag#am pra kyinuta sakhaya/, but all the other MSS. have nayata, and there can be little doubt that it was the frequent repetition of the verb krz in this verse which led the writer to substitute krzwuta for nayata. No other MS., as far as I am aware, repeats this blunder. In IX, 86, 34, the writer of the same MS. puts ragasi instead of dhavasi, because his eye was caught by rag4 in the preceding line. X,16,5, the same MS. reads sam gakkhasva instead of gakkhatam, which is supported by S 1, S 2, P 1, while S 3 has a peculiar and more important reading, gakkhatat. X, 67, 6, the same MS. P 2 has vi 4akartha instead of vi dakarta.

A number of various readings which have been gleaned from Pandit Tara-

xliv VEDIC HYMNS.

The text, as deduced from the best MSS. of the Samhita text, can be controlled by four independent checks. The first is, of course, a collation of the best MSS. of the Samhita text.

The second check to be applied to the Samhita text is a comparison with the Pada text, of which, again, I possessed at least one excellent MS., and several more modern copies.

The third check was a comparison of this text with Sayava’s commentary, or rather with the text which is presupposed by that commentary. In the few cases where the Pada text seemed to differ from the Samhita text, a note was added to that effect, in the various readings of my edition ; and the same was done, at least in all important cases, where Sayaza clearly followed a text at variance

with our own.

_ The fourth check was a comparison of any doubtful passage with the numerous passages quoted in the Prati- sakhya.

These were the principles by which I was guided in the critical restoration of the text of the Rig-veda, and I believe I may say that the text as printed by me is more correct than any MS. now accessible, more trustworthy than the text followed by Sayama, and in all important points identi- cally the same with that text which the authors of the

natha’s Tuladanadipaddhati (see Triibner’s American and Oriental Literary Record, July 31, 1868) belong to the same class. They may be due either to the copyists of the MSS. which Pandit Tarénatha used while compiling his work, or they may by accident have crept into his own MS. Anyhow, not one of them is supported either by the best MSS. accessible in Europe, or by any passage in the Pratisakhya.

RV. IX, 11, 2, read devayu instead of devayut . IX, 11,4, ,, arkata * arkate P. IX, 14, 2, ,, yadi sabandhavah os yaddiptabandhavak ”. TX, 16, 3, ,, anaptam ie anuptam >, IX, 17,2, ,, suvanasa s stuvanasa . IX, 21, 2, ,, prav~zzvanto ie prav7znvato », IX, 48, 2, ,, samvrikta is samyukta », IX, 49,1, ,, no*pam A no yam . IX, 54,3, >, saryak a stiryam ». IX, 59, 3, 5, sida ni . sidati ».

» As printed by Pandit Taranatha.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xlv

Pratisakhya followed in their critical researches in the fifth or sixth century before our era. I believe that starting from that date our text of the Veda is better authenticated, and supported by a more perfect apparatus criticus, than the text of any Greek or Latin author, and I do not think that diplomatic criticism can ever go beyond what has been achieved in the constitution of the text of the Vedic hymns. Far be it from me to say that the editio princeps of the text thus constituted was printed without mistakes. But most of these mistakes are mistakes Aufrecht’s ; A : Romanised Re- Which noattentive reader could fail to detect. Taaateg Cases like II, 35, 1, where gégishat instead of goshishat was printed three times, so as to perplex even Professor Roth, or II, 12, 14, where sasa- mandm occurs three times instead of sasamandm, are, I believe, of rare occurrence. Nor do I think that, unless some quite unexpected discoveries are made, there ever will be a new critical edition, or, as we call it in Germany, a new recension of the hymns of the Rig-veda. If by col- lating new MSS., or by a careful study of the Pratisakhya, or by conjectural emendations, a more correct text could have been produced, we may be certain that a critical scholar like Professor Aufrecht would have given us such a text. But after carefully collating several MSS. of Pro- fessor Wilson’s collection, and after enjoying the advantage of Professor Weber’s assistance in collating the MSS. of the Royal Library at Berlin, and after a minute study of the Pratisdkhya, he frankly states that in the text of the Rig-veda, transcribed in Roman letters, which he printed at Berlin, he followed my edition, and that he had to correct but a small number of misprints. For the two Mazdalas which I had not yet published, I lent him the very MSS. on which my edition is founded ; and there will be accordingly but few passages in these two concluding Mazdalas, which I have still to publish, where the text will materially differ from that of his Romanised transcript. No one, I should think, who is at all acquainted with the rules of diplomatic criticism, would easily bring himself to

xlvi VEDIC HYMNS.

touch a text resting on such authorities as the text of the Rig-veda. What would a Greek scholar give, if he could say of Homer that his text was in every word, in every syllable, in every vowel, in every accent, the same as the text used by Peisistratos in the sixth century B.c.! A text thus preserved in its integrity for so many centuries, must remain for ever the authoritative text of the Veda. To remove, for instance, the eleven hymns 49-59 in the eighth Mazdala from their proper place, or count them by Valakhilya themselves as Valakhilya* hymns, seems to as han me, though no doubt perfectly harmless, little short of a critical sacrilege. Why Sdayaza does not explain these hymns, I confess I do not know”; but what- ever the reason was, it was not because they did not exist at his time, or because he thought them spurious. They are regularly counted in Katydyana’s Sarvanukrama, though here the same accident has happened. One commentator, Shadgurusishya, the one most commonly used, does not explain them ; but another commentator, Gagannatha, does explain them, exactly as they occur in the Sarvanukrama, only leaving out hymn 58. That these hymns had some- thing peculiar in the eyes of native scholars, is clear enough. They may for a time have formed a separate collection, they

• The earliest interpretation of the name Valakhilya is found in the Taittiriya- arazyaka, I, 23. We are told that Pragdpati created the world, and in the process of creation the following interlude occurs :

sa tapoxtapyata. sa tapas taptva sariram adhtinuta, tasya yan mazsam Asit tatosruzah ketavo vatarasana rzshaya udatish¢fan. ye nakhah, te vaikha- nasah. ye balah, te balakhilyaz.

He burned with emotion. Having burnt with emotion, he shook his body. From what was his flesh, the zshis, called Aruzzas, Ketus, and Vatarasanas, sprang forth. His nails became the Vaikhanasas, his hairs the Balakhilyas.

The author of this allegory therefore took bala or vala in valakhilya, not in the sense of child, but identified it with bala, hair.

The commentator remarks with regard to tapas: natra tapa upavasadirfipam, kimtu srash¢avyam vastu kidvzsam iti paryalokanartipam.

» A similar omission was pointed out by Professor Roth. Verses 21-24 of the 53rd hymn of the third Mazdala, which contain imprecations against Vasishtha, are left out by the writer of a Pada MS., and by a copyist of Sayaza’s commentary, probably because they both belonged to the family of Vasishtha, See my first edition of the Rig-veda, vol. ii, p. lvi, Notes.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xl vii

may have been considered of more modern origin *. I shall go even further than those who remove these hymns from the place which they have occupied for more than two thousand years. I admit they disturb the regularity both of the Mazdala and the Ash/zaka divisions, and I have pointed out myself that they are not counted in the ancient Anukramavis ascribed to Saunaka; (History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 220.) But,on the other hand, verses taken from these hymns occur in all the other Vedas?; they are mentioned by name in the Brahmazas (Ait. Br. V, 15; VI, 24), the Aranyakas (Ait. Ar. V, 10, p. 445), and the Sitras (Asv. Srauta Sitras, VIII, 2, 3), while they are never included in the manuscripts of Parisishzas or Khilas or apocryphal hymns, nor mentioned by Katydyana as mere Khilas in his Sarvanukrama. Eight® of them are men- tioned in the Brzhaddevata, without any allusion to their apocryphal character : Parazy ashéau tu siktany rzshivam tigmategasdm, Aindrazy atra tu shadvimsah pragatho bahudaivataz. Rig antyagner akety agniz siryam antyapado gagau. Praskazvas ka prishadhras ka pradad yad vastu kimkana Bharid iti tu siktabhyam akhilam parikirtitam. Aindrazy ubhayam ity atra sha/ dgneyat paravi tu. ‘The next eight hymns belong to Azshis of keen intel- lect *; they are addressed to Indra, but the 26th Pragatha

• Sayaza (RV. X, 88, 18) quotes these hymns as VAalakhilya-samhita. In the Mahabharata XII, 59; 110 seq. the Valakhilyas are called the ministers of King Vainya, whose astrologer was Garga, and his domestic priest Sukra ; see Kern, Brzhat-samhita, transl. p. 11.

» This is a criterion of some importance, and it might have been mentioned, for instance, by Professor Bollensen in his interesting article on the Dvipada Virag hymns ascribed to Pardsara (I, 65-70) that not a single verse of them occurs in any of the other Vedas.

© Sdyava in his commentary (RV. X, 27, 15) speaks of eight, while in the Ait. Ar. V, to, the first six are quoted (containing fifty-six verses, comm.), as being used together for certain sacrificial purposes.

• Lest Saunaka be suspected of having applied this epithet, tigmategas, to the Valakhilyas in order to fill the verse (padaptiraz4rtham), I may point out that the same epithet is applied to the Valakhilyas in the Maitry-upanishad 2, 3. The nom. plur. which occurs there is tigmategas4#, and the commentator remarks: tigmategasas tivrategasosty(irgitaprabhavak ; tegasd ityevamvidha etakkhakhasanketapathas khandasah sarvatra. See also Maitr. Up. VI, 29.

xl viii VEDIC HYMNS.

(VIII, 54, 3-4, which verses form the 26th couplet, if count- ing from VIII, 49,1) is addressed to many gods. The last verse (of these eight hymns), VIII, 56, 5, beginning with the words akety agniz, is addressed to Agni, and the last foot celebrates Sirya. Whatsoever Praskazva and Prisha- dhra gave (or, if we read przshadhraya, whatever Praskazva gave to Przshadhra), all that is celebrated in the two hymns beginning with bhirit. After the hymn addressed to Agni (VIII, 60), there follow six hymns addressed to Indra, beginning with ubhayam.’

But the most important point of all is this, that these hymns, which exist both in the Pada and Samhita texts, are quoted by the Pratisékhya, not only for general purposes, but for special passages occurring in them, and nowhere else. Thus in Sitra 154, hetayad is quoted as one of the few words which do not require the elision of a following short a. In order to appreciate what is implied by this special quotation, it is necessary to have a clear insight into the mechanism of the Pratisakhya. Its chief object is to bring under general categories the changes which the sepa- rate words of the Pada text undergo when joined together in the Arsht Samhita, and to do this with the utmost brevity possible. Now the Sandhi rules, as observed in the Samhita of the Rig-veda, are by no means so uniform and regular as they are in later Sanskrit, and hence it is some- times extremely difficult to bring all the exceptional cases under more or less general rules. In our passage the author of the Pratisikhya endeavours to comprehend all the passages where an initial a in the Veda is not elided after a finale or o. Inordinary Sanskrit it would be always elided, in the Sazhita it is sometimes elided, and sometimes not. Thus the Pratisakhya begins in Sdtra 138 by stating that if the short a stands at the beginning of a pada or foot, it is always elided. Why it should be always elided in the very place where the metre most strongly requires that it should be pronounced, does not concern the author of the Pratisikhya. He is a statistician, not a grammarian, and he therefore simply adds in Sitra 153 the only three excep- tional passages where the a, under these very circumstances,

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xlix

happens to be not elided. He then proceeds in Siatra 139 to state that a is elided even in the middle of a pada, pro- vided it be light, followed by y or v, and these, y or v, again followed by a light vowel. Hence the Sazzhita writes te svadan, sos yam, but not sikshanto=vratam, for here the a of avratam is heavy; nor mitramaho-svadyéat, for here the a following the v is heavy

Then follows again an extension of this rule, viz. in the _ case of words ending in Avo. After these, a short a, even if followed by other consonants besides y or v, may be elided, but the other conditions must be fulfilled, i.e. the short a must be light, and the vowel of the next syllable must again be light. Thus the Samhita writes indeed gavo sbhitaZ, but not gavosgman, because here the a is heavy, being followed by two consonants.

After this, a more general rule is given, or, more cor- rectly, a more comprehensive observation is made, viz. that under all circumstances initial a is elided, if the preceding word ends in aye, ayak, ave, or avak. As might be expected, however, so large a class must have numerous exceptions, and these can only be collected by quoting every word ending in these syllables, or every passage in which the exceptions occur. Before these exceptions are enumerated, some other more or less general observations are made, providing for the elision of initial a. Initial a, according to Siitra 142, is to be elided if the preceding word is va, and if this vad is preceded by 4, na, pra, kva, kitrah, savité, eva, or kak. There is, of course, no intel- ligible reason why, if these words precede vak, the next a should be elided. It is a mere statement of facts, and, generally speaking, these statements are minutely accurate. There is probably no verse in the whole of the Rig-veda where an initial a after vaz is elided, unless these very words precede, or unless some other observation has been made to provide for the elision of the a. For instance, in V, 25,1, we find vak preceded by akkfa, which is not among the words just mentioned, and here the Samhita does not elide the a of agnim, which follows after vaz. After all these more or less general observations as to the elision of

[32] d

ae VEDIC HYMNS.

an initial a are thus exhausted, the author of the Prati- sAkhya descends into particulars, and gives lists, first, of words the initial a of which is always elided ; secondly, of words which, if preceding, require under all circumstances the elision of the initial a of the next word, whatever may have been said to the contrary in the preceding Sutras. Afterwards, he gives a number of passages which defy all rules, and must be given on their own merits, and as they stand in the Samhita. Lastly, follow special exceptions to the more or less general rules given before. And here, among these special exceptions, we see that the author of the Pratisdkhya finds it necessary to quote a passage from a Valakhilya hymn in which hetaya% occurs, i.e. a word ending in ayaz, and where, in defiance of Sitra 141, which required the elision of a following initial a under all circum- stances (sarvatha), the initial a of asya is not elided; VIII, 50, 2, Samhita, satanika hetayoasya. It might be objected that the Pratisakhya only quotes hetaya/ as an exceptional word, and does not refer directly to the verse in the Valakhilya hymn. But fortunately hetayaz occurs but twice in the whole of the Rig-veda; and in the other passage where it occurs, I, 190, 4, neither the rule nor the exception as to the elision of an initial a, could apply. The author of the Pratisakhya therefore makes no distinc- tion between the Valakhilya and any other hymns of the Rig-veda, and he would have considered his phonetic statistics equally at fault, if it had been possible to quote one single passage from the hymns VIII, 49 to 59, as con- travening his observations, as if such passages had been alleged from the hymns of Vasish¢/a or Visvamitra.

It would lead me too far, were I to enter here into similar cases in support of the fact that the Pratisikhya makes no distinction between the Valakhilya and any other hymns of the Rig-veda-sawhita *. But I doubt whether the bearing of this fact has ever been fully realised. Here we see that the absence of the elision of a short a which follows after a word ending in aya, was considered of sufficient importance

® The Pratisakhya takes into account both the Sakala and Bashkala sakhas, as may be seen from Sitra 1057.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. li

to be recorded in a special rule, because in most cases the Samhita elides an initial a, if preceded by a word ending in ayahk. What does this prove? It proves, unless all our views on the chronology of Vedic literature are wrong, that in the fifth century B.C. at least, or previously rather to the time when the Pratisikhya was composed, both the Pada and the Samhita texts were so firmly settled that it was im- possible, for the sake of uniformity or regularity, to omit one single short a; and it proves a fortiori, that the hymn in which that irregular short a occurs, formed at that time part of the Vedic canon. I confess I feel sometimes frightened by the stringency of this argument, and I should like to see a possibility by which we could explain the addition, not of the Valakhilya hymns only, but of other much more modern sounding hymns, at a later time than the period of the Pratisikhyas. But until that possibility is shown, we must abide by our own conclusions; and then I ask, who is the critic who would dare to tamper with a canon of scripture of which every iota was settled before the time of Cyrus, and which we possess in exactly that form in which it is described to us by the authors of the Pratisakhyas? -I say again, that Iam not free from mis- givings on the subject, and my critical conscience would be far better satisfied if we could ascribe the Pratisakhya and all it presupposes to a much later date. But until that is done, the fact remains that the two divergent texts, the Pada and Sazzhité, which we now possess, existed, as we now possess them, previous to the time of the Pratisdkhya. They have not diverged nor varied since, and the vertex to which they point, starting from the distance of the two texts as measured by the Pratisakhya, carries us back far beyond the time of Saunaka, if we wish to determine the date of the first authorised collection of the hymns, both in their Pada and in their Samhita form.

Instances abound, if we compare the Pada and Sazmzhita texts, where, if uniformity between the two texts had been the object of the scholars of the ancient Parishads, the lengthening or shortening of a vowel would at once have removed the apparent discordance between the two tradi-

d2

lii VEDIC HYMNS.

tional texts. Nor should it be supposed that such minute discordances between the two, as the length or shortness of a vowel, were always rendered necessary by the require- ments of the metre, and that for that reason the ancient students or the later copyists of the Veda abstained from altering the peculiar spelling of words, which seemed re- quired by the exigencies of the metre in the Saszhita text, but not in the Pada text. Though this may be true in some cases, it is not so in all. There are short vowels in the Samhita where, according to grammar, we expect long vowels, and where, according to metre, there was no neces- sity for shortening them. Yet in these very places all the MSS. of the Samhita text give the irregular short, and all the MSS. of the Pada text the regular long vowel, and the authors of the Pratisikhyas bear witness that the same minute difference existed at their own time, nay, previous to their own time. In VII, 60, 12, the Samhita text gives:

iyam deva purohitir yuvabhyam yagzéshu mitravaruzav akari.

This primacy, O (two) gods, was made for you two, O Mitra and Varuma, at the sacrifices!

Here it is quite clear that deva is meant for a dual, and ought to have been deva or devau. The metre does not require a short syllable, and yet all the Samhita MSS. read deva, and all the Pada MSS. read deva; and what is more important, the authors of the Pratisakhya had to register this small divergence of the two texts, which existed in their time as it exists in our own *.

Nor let it be supposed, that the writers of our MSS. were so careful and so conscientious that they would, when copying MSS., regulate every consonant or vowel according to the rules of the Pratisikhya. This is by no means the case. The writers of Vedic MSS. are on the whole more accurate than the writers of other MSS., but their learning does not seem to extend toa knowledge of the minute rules of the Pratisékhya, and they will commit

• See Pratisikhya, Sfitra 309 seqq., where several more instances of the same kind are given. I should prefer to take devapurohiti as one word, but that was not the intention of the authors of the Samzhita and Pada texts.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. lili

occasionally the very mistakes against which they are warned by the Pratisakhya. Thus the Pratisakhya (Sitra 799) warns the students against a common mistake of changing vaiyasva into vayyasva, i.e. by changing ai to a, and doubling the semivowel y. But this very mistake occurs in S2, and another MS. gives .vaiyyasva. See p. lvi.

If these arguments are sound, and if nothing can be said against the critical principles by which I have been guided

Aufrechts in editing the text of the Rig-veda, if the

mistakes. fourfold check, described above, fulfils every requirement that could be made for restoring that text which was known to Sayava, and which was known, probably 2000 years earlier, to the authors of the Pratisakhyas, what can be the motives, it may fairly be asked, of those who clamour for a new and more critical edition, and who imagine that the editio princeps of the Rig-veda will share the fate of most of the editiones principes of the Greek and Roman classics, and be supplanted by new editions founded on the collation of other MSS.? No one could have rejoiced more sincerely than I did at the publi- cation of the Romanised transliteration of the Rig-veda, carried out with so much patience and accuracy by Pro- fessor Aufrecht. It showed that there was a growing interest in this, the only true Veda; it showed that even those who could not read Sanskrit in the original Devan4- gari, wished to have access to the original text of these ancient hymns ; it showed that the study of the Veda had a future before it like no other book of Sanskrit literature. My learned friend Professor Aufrecht has been most unfairly charged with having printed this Romanised text meinsciente velinvito. My edition is publici juris, like any edition of Homer or Plato, and anybody might, with proper acknowledgment, have reprinted it, either in Roman or Devanagari letters. But far from keeping me in ignorance of his plan, Professor Aufrecht applied to me for the loan of the MSS. of the two Mazdalas which I had not yet published, and I lent them to him most gladly, because, by seeing them printed at once, I felt far less

liv VEDIC HYMNS.

guilty in delaying the publication of the last volumes of my edition of the text and commentary. Nor could anything have been more honourable than the way in which Pro- fessor Aufrecht speaks of the true relation of his Romanised text to my edition. That there are misprints, and I, speak- ing for myself, ought to say mistakes also, in my edition of the Rig-veda, I know but too well; and if Professor Aufrecht, after carefully transcribing every word, could honestly say that their number is small, I doubt whether other scholars will be able to prove that their number is large. I believe I may with the same honesty return Pro- fessor Aufrecht’s compliment, and considering the great difficulty of avoiding misprints in Romanised transcripts, I have always thought and I have always said that his reprint of the hymns of the Veda is remarkably correct and accurate. What, however, I must protest against, and what, I feel sure, Professor Aufrecht himself would equally protest against, is the supposition, and more than supposi- tion of certain scholars, that wherever this later Latin transcript differs from my own Devanagari text, Professor Aufrecht is right, and Iam wrong; that his various readings rest on the authority of new MSS., and constitute in fact a new recension of the Vedic hymns. Against this supposi- tion I must protest most strongly, not for my own sake, but for the sake of the old book, and, still more, for the sake of the truth. No doubt it is natural to suppose that where a later edition differs from a former edition, it does so inten- tionally ; and I do not complain of those who, without being able to have recourse to MSS. in order to test the authority of various readings, concluded that wherever the new text differed from the old, it was because the old text was atfault. In order to satisfy my own conscience on this point, I have collated a number of passages where Pro- fessor Aufrecht’s text differs from my own, and I feel satisfied that in the vast majority of cases, I am right and he is wrong, and that his variations do not rest on the authority of MSS. I must not shrink from the duty of making good this assertion, and I therefore proceed to an examination of such passages as have occurred to me on

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. lv

occasionally referring to his text, pointing out the readings both where he is right, and where he is wrong. The differences between the two texts may appear trifling, but I shall not avail myself of that plea. On the contrary, I quite agree with those scholars who hold that in truly critical scholarship there is nothing trifling... Besides, it is in the nature of the case that what may, by a stretch of the word, be called various readings in the Veda, must be con- fined to single letters or accents, and can but seldom extend to whole words, and never to whole sentences. I must therefore beg my readers to have patience while I endeavour to show that the text of the Rig-veda, as first published by me, though by no means faultless, was nevertheless not edited in so perfunctory a manner as some learned critics seem to suppose, and that it will not be easy to supplant it either by a collation of new MSS., such as are accessible at present, or by occasional references to the Pratisakhya.

I begin with some mistakes of my own, mistakes which I might have avoided, if I had always consulted the Pratisakhya, where single words or whole passages of the Veda are quoted. Some of these mistakes have been removed by Professor Aufrecht, others, however, appear in his transcript as they appear in my own edition.

I need hardly point out passages where palpable mis- prints in my edition have been repeated in Professor Aufrecht’s text. I mean by palpable misprints, cases where a glance at the Pada text or at the Saszhita text or a reference to Sdyaza’s commentary would show at once what was intended. Thus, for instance, in VI, 15, 3, vridhé, as I had printed in the Samhita, was clearly a misprint for vyzdhd, as may be seen from the Pada, which gives vridha, and from Sayaza. Here, though Professor Aufrecht repeats vvzdhé, I think it hardly necessary to show that the authority of the best MSS. (S 2 alone contains a correction of vv7dhdé to vvzdhé) is in favour of vridhah, whatever we may think of the relative value of these two readings. One must be careful, however, in a text like that of the Vedic hymns, where the presence or absence of a single letter or accent begins to become

lvi VEDIC HYMNS.

the object of the most learned and painstaking discussions, not to claim too large an indulgence for misprints. A misprint in the Samhita, if repeated in the Pada, or if admitted even in the commentary of Sayaza, though it need not be put down to the editor’s deplorable ignorance, becomes yet a serious matter, and I willingly take all the blame which is justly due for occasional accidents of this character. Such are, for instance, II, 12, 14, sasamanam instead of sasamanam; I, 124, 4, sudhyuvaf, in the Pada, instead of sundhyuvaz; and the substitution in several places of a short u instead of a long f in such forms as sisavama, when occurring in the Pada; cf. I, 166, 14; 167, 9.

It is clear from the Pratisékhya, Sfitra 819 and 163, 5, that the words {iti indra in IV, 29, 1, should not be joined together, but that the hiatus should remain. Hence dtindra, as printed in my edition and repeated in Professor Aufrecht’s, should be corrected, and .the hiatus be pre- served, as it is in the fourth verse of the same hymn, iti itthd. MSS. S1, S 3 are right; in S 2 the words are joined.

It follows from Siitra 799 that to double the y in vaiyasva is a mistake, but a mistake which had to be pointed out and guarded against as early as the time of the Pratisikhya. In VIII, 26, 11, therefore, vaiyyasvasya, as printed in my edition and repeated in Professor Auf- recht’s, should be changed to vaiyasvasya. MSS.S1,S3 are right, likewise P 1, P 2; but S 2 has the double mistake vayyasvasya, as described in the Pratisakhya; another MS. of Wilson’s has vaiyy. The same applies to VIII, 23, 24, and VIII, 24,23. P 1 admits the mistaken spelling vayyasva.

Some corrections that ought to be made in the Pada- pazha only, as printed in my edition, are pointed out in a note to Siitra 738 of the Pratisakhya. Thus, according to Sitra 583, 6, sriya4zZ in the Pada text of II, 10, 2, should be changed to sruyaz. MSS. P 1, P 2 have the short u.

In V, 7, 8, I had printed suziz shma, leaving the a of

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. -|vii

shma short in accordance with the Pratisékhya, Stitra 514, where a string of words is given before which sma must not be lengthened, and where under No. 11 we find yasmai. Professor Aufrecht has altered this, and gives the 4 as long, which is wrong. The MSS. S1, S 2, S 3 have the short a.

Another word before which sma ought not to be length- ened is mavate. Hence, according to Sfitra 514, 14, I ought not to have printed in VI, 65, 4, shma mavate, but shma mavate. Here Professor Aufrecht has retained the long a, which is wrong. MSS. S 1, S 2, S 3 have the short a.

It follows from Sitra 499 that in I, 138, 4, we should not lengthen the vowel of si. Hence, instead of asyd 0 shi wa Upa sataye, as printed in my edition and repeated by Professor Aufrecht, we should read asy4 i shi za upa sataye. S1,S 2,S 3 have short u®.

In VII, 31, 4, I had by mistake printed viddhi instead of viddhi. The same reading is adopted by Professor Auf- recht (II, p. 24), but the authority of the Pratisdkhya, Stitra 445, can hardly be overruled. S 1, S 2, S 3 have viddhi.

While in cases like these, the PratisAkhya is an authority which, as far as I can judge, ought to overrule the authority of every MS., however ancient, we must in other cases depend either on the testimony of the best MSS. or be guided, in fixing on the right reading, by SaAyaza and the rules of grammar. I shall therefore, in cases where I cannot consider Professor Aufrecht’s readings as autho- titative improvements, have to give my reasons why I adhere to the readings which I had originally adopted.

In V, 9, 4, I had printed by mistake purt yé instead of puri yd. I had, however, corrected this misprint in my edition of the Pratisakhya, 393, 532. Professor Aufrecht decides in favour of puri with a short u, but against the authority of the MSS., S 1, S 2, S 3, which have puri.

• In the same verse, I, 138, 4, the shu in 6 shu tv should not be lengthened, for there is no rule, as far as I can see, in the Pratisakhya that would require the lengthening of sti before tva. See Pratisakhya, 491.

Lvili 3 | VEDIC HYMNS.

It was certainly a great mistake of mine, though it may seem more excusable in a Romanised transcript, that I did not follow the writers of the best MSS. in their use of the Avagraha, or, I should rather say, of that sign which, as far as the Veda is concerned, is very wrongly designated by the name of Avagraha. Avagraha, according to the Prati- sakhya, never occurs in the Samhita text, but is the name given to that halt, stoppage, or pause which in the Pada text separates the component parts of compound words. That pause has the length of one short vowel, i.e. one matra. Of course, nothing is said by the Pratisdkhya as to how the pause should be represented graphically, but it is several times alluded to as of importance in the recitation and accentuation of the Veda. What we have been in the habit of calling Avagraha is by the writers of certain MSS. of the Samhita text used as the sign of the Vivrctti or hiatus. This hiatus, however, is very different from the Avagraha, for while the Avagraha has the length of one matra, the Vivrztti or hiatus has the length of 4 matra, if the two vowels are short; of 4 matra, if either vowel is long; of # matra, if both vowels are long. Now I have several times called attention to the fact that though this hiatus is marked in certain MSS. by the sign s, I have in my edition omitted it, because I thought that the hiatus spoke for itself and did not require a sign to attract the attention of European readers ; while, on the contrary, I have inserted that sign where MSS. hardly ever use it, viz. when a short initial a is elided after a final e or 0; (see my remarks on pp. 36, 39, of my edition of the Pratisakhya.) Although I thought, and still think, that this use of the sign s is more useful for. practical purposes, yet I regret that, in this one particular, I should have deviated from the authority of the best MSS., and caused some misunderstandings on the part of those who have made use of my edition. If, for instance, I had placed the sign of the Vivrztti, the =, in its proper place, or if, at least, I had not inserted it where, as we say, the initial a has been elided after e or 0, Professor Bollensen would have seen at once that the authors of the Pratisdkhyas fully agree with him in looking on this change, not as an

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. lix

elision, but as a contraction. If, as sometimes happens, final o or e remain unchanged before initial short a, this is called the Pa#kala and Prak#ya padavritti (Sitra 137). If, on the contrary, final o or e become one (ekibhavati) with the initial short a, this is called the Abhinihita sandhi (Siitra 138). While the former, the hiatus of the Pa#fala and Eastern schools, is marked by the writers of several MSS. by the sign s, the Abhinihita sandhi, being a sandhi, is not marked by any sign ?.

I, 3,12. ragati (Aufr. p. 2) instead of ragati (M. M. vol. i, p. 75) is wrong.

I,7, 9. ya ékak (Aufr. p. 5) should be ya ékak (M. M. vol. i, p. 110), because the relative pronoun is never without an accent. The relative particle yatha may be without an accent, if it stands at the end of a pada; and though there are exceptions to this rule, yet in VIII, 21, 5, where Pro- fessor Aufrecht gives yatha, the MSS. are unanimous in favour of yatha (M. M. vol. iv, p. 480). See Phi¢-sitra, ed. Kielhorn, p. 54.

I, 10,11. 4 tt (Aufr. p. 7) should be 4 ta (M. M. vol. i, p- 139), because 4 is never without the accent.

I, 10, 12. gush¢ah, which Professor Aufrecht specially mentions as having no final Visarga in the Pada, has the Visarga in all the MSS. (Aufr. p. 7, M. M. vol. 1, p- 140.)

I, 11, 4. kavir (Aufr. p. 7) should be kavir (M. M. vol. i, p- 143).

I, 22, 8, read radhamsi.

I, 40, 1 and 6. There is no excuse for the accent either on tvémahe or on vdsema, while sa#af in I, 51, 11, ought to have the accent on the first syllable.

I, 49, 3. Rosen was right in not eliding the a in divo antebhyak. S1,S 2, S 3 preserve the initial a, nor does the Pratisdkhya anywhere provide for its suppression.

I, 54, 8. kshatram (Aufr. p. 46) is a mere misprint for kshatram.

• As to the system or want of system, according to which the Abhinihita sandhi takes place in the Samhita, see p. xlviii seq.

lx VEDIC HYMNS.

I, 55, 7- vandanasrud (Aufr. p. 47) instead of vandanasrud (M. M. vol. i, p. 514) is wrong.

I, 57, 2. samasita instead of samasita had been corrected in my reprint of the first Mazdala, published at Leipzig. See Bollensen, Zeitschrift der D. M. G., vol. xxii, p. 626.

I, 61, 7, read vishzuh ; I, 64, 2, read sukayak; I, 64, 5, read dhitayaz.

I, 61, 16. Rosen had rightly printed hariyogand with a long a both in the Samhita and Pada texts, and I ought not to have given the short a instead. All the MSS.,S 1, S 2, 5 3, P 1, and P 2, give the long 4. Professor Auf- recht gives the short a in the Pada, which is wrong.

I, 67, 2 (4). vidantim (M. M. vol. i, p. 595) is perfectly right, as far as the authority of the MSS. and of Sayama is concerned, and should not have been altered to vindantim (Aufr. p. 57).

I, 72, 2, read vatsdm ; I, 72, 6, read pasdfi; I, 76, 3, read dhakshy ; I, 82, 1, read yada.

I, 83, 3. Rosen was right in giving asamyattak. I gave asamyatahk on the authority of P 1, but all the other MSS. have tt.

I, 84, 1. indra (Aufr. p. 68) cannot have the accent on the first syllable, because it does not stand at the beginning of a pada(M.M. vol.i, p.677). Thesame applies to indra, VI, 41, 4,(Aufr. p. 429) instead of indra (M. M. vol. iii, p. 734); to agne, I, 140, 12, (Aufr. p. 130) instead of agne (M. M. vol. ii, p. 133). In III, 36, 3, on the contrary, indra, being at the head of a pada, ought to have the accent on the first syllable, indra (M. M. vol. ii, p. 855), not indra (Aufr. p. 249). The same mistake occurs again, III, 36, 10 (Aufr. p. 250); IV, 32, 7,(Aufr. p. 305); IV, 32, 12, (Aufr. p. 305); VIII, 3, 12, (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 86). In V, 61, 1, naraz should have no accent ; whereas in VII, 91, 3, it should have the accent on the first syllable. In VIII, 8, 19, vipanyt should have no accent, and Professor Aufrecht gives it correctly in the notes, where he has likewise very properly removed the Avagraha which I had inserted.

I, 88, 1, read yata (M. M. vol. i, p. 708), not yatha (Aufr. p. 72).

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xi

I, 90, 1, read vzguniti; I, 94, 11, read yavasddo (M. M. vol. i, p. 766), not yayasddo (Aufr. p. 80).

I, 118, 9. abhibhitim (Aufr. p. 105) instead of abhibhitim (M. M. vol. i, p. 957) cannot be right, considering that in all other passages abhibhiti has the accent on the second syllable. S 1, S 2,S 3 have the accent on the i.

I, 128, 4. ghrétasrir (Aufr. p. 117) instead of ghrdtasrir (M. M. vol. ii, p. 52) is wrong.

I, 144, 2, read parivyztaz (M. M. vol. ii, p. 155) instead of parivr7ztahz (Aufr. p. 133).

I, 145, 5. Professor Aufrecht (p. 134) gives upamasydm, both in the Samhita and Pada texts, as having the accent on the last syllable. I had placed the accent on the penulti- mate, (Pada, upa-mdsy4m, vol. ii, p. 161,) and whatever may be the reading of other MSS., this is the only possible accentuation. S 1,5 2,5 3 have the right accent.

I, 148, 4. piri (Aufr. p. 136) instead of purdizi (M. M. vol. ii, p. 170) does not rest, as far as I know, on the autho- rity of any MSS. S1,S 2, S 3 have purizi.

I, 151, 7. gakkhatho (Aufr. p. 137) should be gakkhatho (M. M. vol. ii, p. 181).

I, 161, 12, All the Pada MSS. read pra abravit, sepa- rating the two words and accentuating each. Though the accent is irregular, yet, considering the peculiar construc- tion of the verse, in which pra and pro are used as adverbs rather than as prepositions, I should not venture with Professor Aufrecht (p. 144) to write pra abravit. The MSS. likewise have 4 agagan, I, 161, 4; and pra agaZ, VIII, 48, 2, not pra aga, as Aufrecht gives in his second edition. , :

I, 163, 11. dhragiman (Aufr. p. 147) instead of dhragi- man (M. M. vol. ii, p. 245) is wrong.

I, 163,13. gamya (Aufr. p. 148) instead of gamyd (M. M. vol. ii, p. 246) is wrong.

I, 164,17, read pareza (M. M. vol. ii, p. 259) instead of paréva (Aufr. p. 149).

I, 164, 38. The first ikyu% ought to have the accent, and has it in all the MSS., (Aufr. p. 151, M. M. vol. ii, p. 278.)

I, 165, 5. A mere change of accent may scem a small

‘Axi MOET VEDIC HYMNS.

matter, yet it is frequently of the highest importance in the interpretation of the Veda. Thus in I, 165, 5, I had, in accordance with the MSS. S 1, S 2, S 3, printed étan (vol. ii, p. 293) with the accent on the first syllable. Pro- fessor Aufrecht alters this into etaén (p. 153), which, no doubt, would be the right form, if it were intended for the accusative plural of the pronoun, but not if it is meant, as it is here, for the accusative plural of éta, the speckled deer of the Maruts.

I, 165, 15. ydsishza (Aufr. p. 154) instead of ydsish¢a (M. M. vol. ii, p. 298) is not supported by any MS.

I, 169, 7, instead of patayanta (Aufr. p. 158), read pata- yanta (M. M. vol. ii, p. 322).

1,174, 7. kiydvakam (Aufr. p. 162) should be kiyava#am (M. M. vol. ii, p. 340).

I, 177, 1. yukta, which I had adopted from MS. S 3 (prima manu), is not supported by other MSS., though P 2 reads yuttkaé. Professor Aufrecht, who had retained yukta in the text, has afterwards corrected it to yuktvd, and in this he was right. In I, 177, 2, gahi for yahi is wrong.

I, 188, 4. astrivan (Aufr. p. 171) instead of astrzvan (M. M. vol. ii, p. 395) can only be a misprint.

II, 29, 6. kartad (Aufr. p. 203) instead of kartéd (M. M. vol. ii, p. 560) is wrong.

II, 40, 4. Aakra (Aufr. p. 214) instead of kakra (M. M. vol. ii, p. 614) is wrong.

III, 7, 7. gu% (Aufr. p. 226) instead of guk (M. M. vol. ii, p- 666) is wrong ; likewise III, 30, 10, gaz (Aufr. p. 241) instead of gaz (M. M. vol. ii, p. 792).

III, 17, 1. igyate (Aufr. p. 232) instead of agyate (M. M. vol. ii, p. 722) is impossible.

III, 47, 1. Professor Aufrecht (p. 256) puts the nomina- tive indro instead of the vocative indra, which I had given (vol. ii, p. go2). I doubt whether any MSS. support that change (S 1, S 2, S 3-have indra), but it is clear that Sayava takes indra as a vocative, and likewise the Nirukta.

III, 50, 2. Professor Aufrecht (p. 258) gives asya, both in the Samhita and Pada, without the accent on the last syl- lable. But all the MSS. that I know (S 1, 5S 2,S 3, P 1,

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixili

P 2) give it with the accent on the last syllable (M. M. vol. ii, p. 912), and this no doubt is right. The same mis- take occurs again in III, 51, 10, (Aufr. p. 259); IV, 5, 11, (Aufr. p. 281); IV, 36, 2, (Aufr. p. 309); V, 12, 3, (Aufr. p. 337); while in VIII, 103, 9, (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 195) the MSS. consistently give asya as unaccented, whereas Pro- fessor Aufrecht, in this very passage, places the accent on the last syllable. On the same page (p. 259) amandan, in the Pada, is a misprint for Amandan.

III, 53, 18. asi (Aufr. p. 262) instead of asi(M. M. vol. ii, p- 934) is wrong, because hi requires that the accent should remain on asi. S1,S 2,S 3, Pi, P 2 have asi.

IV, 4, 7. sva dyushe (Aufr. p. 279) instead of sva ayushi (M. M. vol. iii, p. 37) is not supported by any good MSS., nor required by the sense of the passage. S 1, S 2,S 3, P 1, P 2 have 4yushi.

IV, 5, 7- arupitam, in the Pada, (Aufr. p. 280) instead of arupitam (M. M. vol. iii, p. 45) is right, as had been shown in the Pratisékhya, Sfitra 179, though by a misprint the long 4 of the Samhita had been put in the place of the short a of the Pada.

IV, 5, 9. read gauk (M. M. vol. iii, p. 46) instead of gok (Aufr. p. 281).

IV, 15, 2. yati, with the accent on the first syllable, is supported by all MSS. against yati (Aufr. p. 287). The same applies to yati in IV, 29, 2, and to varante in IV, 31, 9.

IV, 18, 11. ami, without any accent (Aufr. p. 293), instead of ami (M. M. vol. iii, p. 105) is wrong, because amt? is never unaccented.

IV, 21, 9. no, without an accent (Aufr. p. 296), instead of no (M. M. vol. iii, p. 120) is wrong.

IV, 26, 3. atithigvam (Aufr. p. 300) instead of atithigvam (M, M. vol. iii, p. 140) and VI, 47, 22, atithigvasya (Aufr. p. 437) instead of atithigvdsya (M. M. vol. iii, p. 776) are wrong, for atithigva never occurs again except with the accent on the last syllable. The MSS. do not vary. Nor do they vary in the accentuation of kitsa: hence kutsdm (Aufr. p. 300) should be kutsam (M. M. vol. iii, p. 139).

lxiv VEDIC HYMNS.

IV, 36, 6. Professor Aufrecht (p. 309) has altered the accent of avishu% into avisht%, but the MSS. are unanimous in favour of avishuz (M. M. vol. iii, p. 181).

Again in IV, 41, 9, the MSS. support the accentuation of d4gman (M. M. vol. iii, p. 200), while Professor Aufrecht (p. 313) has altered it to agman.

IV, 42, 9. adasat, being preceded by hi, ought to have the accent; (Aufrecht, p. 314, has adasat without the accent.) For the same reason, V, 29, 3, dvindat (M. M. vol. iii, p. 342) ought not to have been altered to avindat (Aufr. p. 344).

IV, 50, 4. vyéman is a misprint for vyOman.

V,15,5- Professor Aufrecht (p. 338) writes dirgham instead of ddgham (M. M. vol. iii, p. 314). This, no doubt, was done intentionally, and not by accident, as we see from the change of accent. But ddédgham, though it occurs but once, is supported in this place by all the best MSS., and has been accepted by Professor Roth in his Dictionary.

V, 34, 4. prayato (Aufr. p. 351) instead of prayata (M. M. vol. iii, p. 371) is wrong.

V, 42, 9. visarmazam (Aufr. p. 358) instead of visar- mazam (M. M. vol. iii, p. 402) is wrong.

V, 44, 4. parvazé (Aufr. p. 360) instead of pravané (M. M. vol. iii, p. 415) is wrong.

V, 83, 4. vanti (Aufr. p. 389) instead of vanti (M. M. vol. iii, p. 554) is supported by no MSS.

V, 85, 6. Asizkanti# (Aufr. p. 391) instead of asizkantiz (M. M. vol. iii, p. 560) is not supported either by MSS. or by grammar, as sizk belongs to the Tud-class. On the same grounds ishayantaz, VI, 16, 27 (M. M. vol. iii, p. 638), ought not to have been changed to ishaydntak (Aufr. p. 408), nor VI, 24, 7, avakarsayanti (M. M. vol. iii, p. 687) into avakarsayanti (Aufr. p. 418).

VI, 46, 10, read girvavas (M. M. vol. iii, p. 763) instead of girvamas (Aufr. p. 435).

VI, 60, 10. krznoti (Aufr. p. 450) instead of krzzoti (M. M. vol. iii, p. 839) is wrong.

VII, 40, 4. aryama apaz (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 35), in the Pada, instead of aryamd apak (M. M. vol. iv, p. 81) is wrong.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, Ixv

VII, 51, 1. Adityaném (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 40) instead of Adityanam (M. M. vol. iv, p. 103) is wrong.

VII, 64, 2. idm (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 50) instead of i/am (M. M. vol. iv, p. 146) is wrong. In the same verse gopaz in the Pada should be changed in my edition to gopa.

VII, 66, 5. yd (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 51) instead of yé (M. M. vol. iv, p. 151) is indeed supported by S 3, but evidently untenable on account of atipiprati.

VII, 72, 3. In abudhran Professor Aufrecht has pro- perly altered the wrong spelling abudhnan ; and, as far as the authority of the best MSS. is concerned (S 1,8 2, S 3), he is also right in putting a final fi, although Pro- fessor Bollensen prefers the dental n; (Zeitschrift der D.M. G., vol. xxii, p. 599.) The fact is that Vedic MSS. use the Anusviara dot for final nasals before all class-letters, and leave it to us to interpret that dot according to the letter which follows. Before I felt quite certain on this point, I have in several cases retained the dot, as given by the MSS., instead of changing it, as I ought to have done according to my system of writing Devanagari, into the corresponding nasal, provided it represents an original n. In I, 71,1, S 2, S 3 have the dot in agushran, but S 1 has dental n. In IX, 87, 5, asv¢gran has the dot; i.e. S 1 has the dot, and nf, dental n joined to kk; S 2 has nkh without the dot before the n; S 3 has the dot, and then kh. In IV, 24, 6, the spelling of the Samhita avivenam tam would leave it doubtful whether we ought to read avivenan tam or avivenam tam; S 1 and S 8 read avivenam tam, but S 2 has avivenan tam; P 2 has avi-venan tam, and P 1 had the same originally, though a later hand changed it to avi-venam tam. In IV, 25, 3, on the contrary, S 1 and S 3 write avivenam; S 2, avivenam; P1and P 3, avi-venam. What is intended is clear enough, viz. avi- venan in IV, 24,6; avi-venam in IV, 25, 3. [In the new edition avivenam has been left in both passages. |

VII, 73, 1. asvina (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 56) instead of asvina (M. M. vol. iv, p. 176) is wrong. On the same page, dhishvye, VII, 72, 3, should have the accent on the first syllable.

VII, 77, 1. In this verse, which has been so often dis-

[32] e

lxvi | VEDIC HYMNS.

cussed (see Kuhn, Beitrage, vol. iii, p. 472 ; Bohtlingk and Roth, Dictionary, vol. ii, p. 968; Bollensen, Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 463), all the MSS. which I know, read karayai, and not either far&thai nor gardyai.

VIII, 2, 29. kirizam (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 84) instead of karizam (M. M. vol. iv, p. 308) does not rest on the authority of any MSS., nor is it supported by Sayama.

VIII, 9, 9. Professor Aufrecht has altered the very important form akukyuvimahi (M. M. vol. iv, p. 389) to akukyavimahi (vol. ii, p. 98). The question is whether this was done intentionally and on the authority of any MSS. My own MSS. support the form 4Zuéyuvimahi, and I see that Professor Roth accepts this form.

VIII, 32, 14. ayantaram (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 129) instead of dyantaram (M. M. vol. iv, p. 567) is wrong.

VIII, 47, 15. dushvapnyam (Aufr. vol. ii, p. 151) is not so correct as dudshvapnyam (M. M. vol. iv, p. 660), or, better, dushshvapnyam (Pratisakhya, Sdtras 255 and 364), though it is perfectly true that the MSS. write dushvapnyam.

[I ought to state that all these errata have been corrected by Professor Aufrecht in his second edition. ]

In the ninth and tenth Mazdalas I have not to defend myself, and I need not therefore give a list of the passages where I think that Professor Aufrecht’s text is not sup- ported by the best MSS. My own edition of these Mazda- las will soon be published, and I need hardly say that where it differs from Professor Aufrecht’s text, Iam pre- pared to show that I had the best authorities on my side.

Professor Aufrecht writes in the second edition of his Romanised text of the Rig-veda (p. iv): ‘Um den Herren,

My own die diese Druckfehler in majorem gloriam

mpeiakes- suam mit so grosser Schonung hervor- gehoben haben, einen Gegendienst zu erweisen, bemerke ich einige derselben.’ Dieser Gegendienst, so gut er gemeint war, ist leider nicht sehr bedeutend ausgefallen, auch nicht immer in majorem gloriam Catonis.

In I, 161, 2, Professor Aufrecht objects to faturas krinotana. I felt doubtful about it, and in the commentary I printed f#aturak krzzotana. In IV, 33, 5, the reading

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixvii

katus kara is sanctioned by the authority of the Pratisa- khya, Sitra 281, 4.

In I, 181, 5, Aufrecht prefers mathra; Sayaza, Boht- lingk and Roth, and I prefer mathna.

In II, 11, 10, he has discovered that girvit was meant for girvat. Whitney still quotes girvit.

In III, 9, 4, he has discovered that apsu should be =psu; but this had been already corrected.

In III, 25, 2, the final a of vaha ought to be long in the Samhita.

In IV, 19, 4, instead of drz/ha ni read drz/hani.

In VII, 33, 2, instead of avrzzita read svrzmita.

In VII, 35, 13, the Visarga in devagopas% should be deleted.

In VII, 42, 2, the Anusvara in yumkshva should be deleted.

In VIII, 2, 30, the anudattatara should be shifted from the ultimate to the penultimate, dadhiré, not dadhire.

In VIII, 51, 3, avishyanta was meant for arishyantam.

In VIII, 55, 5, for na read 4. The MSS. vary in both cases.

In IX, 108, 7, in vanakraksha, the kra was printed as rz. Professor Aufrecht might have seen it correctly printed in the index. Sdayavza read vanarzksha.

In X, 28, 11, Professor Aufrecht thinks that the Pada should have godhaz instead of godha. I think godha is right, in spite of Professor Aufrecht’s appeal to the silence of the Pratisakhya. The fact is that godhaz never occurs, while eodha occurs in the preceding verse, and again VIII, 69, 9.

After such a flourish of trumpets, we expected more from Professor Aufrecht ; still we must learn to be grateful even for small mercies.

Having said so much in vindication of the text of the Rig-veda as published by me, and in defence of my prin- ciples of criticism which seem to me so self-evident as hardly to deserve the name of canones critici, I feel bound at the same time both to acknowledge some in- accuracies that have occurred in the index at the end of each volume, and to defend some entries in that index which have been challenged without sufficient cause.

G2

Ixviil VEDIC HYMNS.

It has been supposed that in the index at the end of my fourth volume, the seventeenth verse of the 34th hymn in Sayawa’s the seventh Mazdala has been wrongly gas Gaga tee assigned to Ahi Budhnya, and that one half nukramavi. only of that verse should have been reserved for that deity. I do not deny that we should be justified in deriving that sense from the words of the Anukramazika, but I cannot admit that my own interpretation is untenable. As Sayaza does not speak authoritatively on the subject, I followed the authority of Shadgurusishya. This commen- tator of the Anukramawika says: atra ka abgdm ukthair ahim grzvisha ity ardharkosbganamno®* devasya stutiZ; ma noshir budhnya ity ardharfoshirbudhnyandmno devasya ». Another commentator says: abg4m ukthair ardharko shiz ; -uttaro ma noshir ity ahir budhnyaz. From this we learn that both commentators looked upon the Dvipadds as ardharfas or half-verses, and ascribed the whole of verse 16 to Ahir abgah, the whole of verse 17 to Ahir budhnyaZ. it will be seen from an accurate examination of Sdyavza’s commentary on verse 17, that in the second interpretation of the second half of verse 17, he labours to show that in this portion, too, Ahir budhnyak may be considered as the deity. It is perfectly right to say that the words of the Anu- kramazika, abgam ahe%, signify that the verse beginning with abgam, belongs to Ahi. But there was no misprint in my index. It will be seen that Shadgurusishya goes even beyond me, and calls that deity simply Abga, leaving out Ahi altogether, as understood, I was anxious to show the distinction between Abga AhiZ and Ahir BudhnyadZ, as the deities of the two successive verses, and I did not expect that any reader could possibly misinterpret my entry °. With regard to hymns gi and 92 of the seventh Ma- ndala, it is true, that in the index I did not mention that certain verses in which two deities are mentioned (91, 2;

• IT find that Mr. Macdonell in his edition of the Sarvanukramavt? reads ardharkoshinamno. If this is right, part of my argument would fall.

» MS. Wilson 379 has, ardharfo nadmano daivatasya, and in the margin shi. Ahirbudhnya seems to have been taken as one word.

¢ The editor of the Bombay edition of the text of the Rig-veda assigns verse 16 to Ahi, verse 17 to Ahirbudhnya.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. lxix

4-73; 92, 2), must be considered as addressed not to Vayu alone, but to Vayu and Indra. It will be seen from Sayaza’s introduction to hymn go, that he, too, wrongly limits the sentence of the Anukramawika, aindryas ka ya dvivaduktaZ, to the fifth and following verses of hymn go, and that he never alludes to this proviso again in his intro- ductory remarks to hymn g1 and 92, though, of course, he explains the verses, in which a dual occurs, as addressed to two deities, viz. Indra and Vayu. The same omission, whether intentional or unintentional, occurs in Shad- gurusishya’s commentary. The other commentary, how- ever, assigns the verses of the three hymns rightly. The subject has evidently been one that excited attention in very early days, for in the Aitareya-brahmamza, V, 20, we actually find that the word vam which occurs in hymn go, 1, and which might be taken as a dual, though Sayama explains it as a singular, is changed into te *.

In hymn VII, 104, rakshohavau might certainly be added as an epithet of Indra-Somau, and Shadgurusishya clearly takes it inthat sense. The Anukramavika says: indrdsomaé pazadhikaindrasomam rakshoghnam sapabhisdpaprayam.

In hymn VIII, 67, it has been supposed that the readings Samada and Samada instead of Sammada and Sammada were due to a misprint. This is not the case. That I was aware of the other spelling of this name, viz. Sammada and Sammada, I had shown in my History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (2nd ed.), p. 39, where I had translated the passage of the Sankhayana-siitras in which Matsya Sam- mada occurs, and had also called attention to the Asvala- yana-siitras X, 7,and the Satapatha-brahmaza XIII, 3, 1,1,

• The interpunction of Dr. Haug’s edition (p. 128) should be after te. Shadgurusishya says: ata eva brahmavastitrayok praiige vayavyatvadya pra viraya sufayo dadrire» vam iti dvivafanasthane ta ity ekavakanapachah kritah, vam ity uktaw ed aindratvam ka sydd iti. Possibly the same change should be made in Asvaldyana’s Srauta Siitras, VIII, 11, and it has been made by Rama Narayavza Vidydaratna. The remark of the commentator, however, dadrire ta iti prayogapa¢hah, looks as if vam might have been retained in. the text. The MSS. I have collated are in favour of te.

Mr. Macdonell (Sarvanukramazi, p. 133) inserts ta iti after dadrire.

Ixx } VEDIC HYMNS.

where the same passage is found. I there spelt the name Sammada, because the majority of the MSS. were in favour of that spelling. In the edition of the Asvalayana-sitras, which has since been published by Rama Naradyaza Vidy4a- razya, the name is spelt Samada. My own opinion is that Sammada is the right spelling, but that does not prove that Sayavza thought so; and unless I deviated from the prin- ciples which I had adopted for a critical restoration of Sayama’s text, 1 could not but write Sdmada in our passage. B 1 and B 4 omit sdmada, but both give samadakhyasya ; Ca. gives likewise samadakhyasya, and A. semadakhyasya. This, I believe, was meant by the writer for sammada- khyasya, for in the passage from the Anukramawi both A. and Ca. give simmado. I then consulted the commentary of Shadgurusishya, and there again the same MS. gave twice sdmmada, once sdmada, which is explained by samadakhyamahaminaragaputraZ. A better MS. of Shad- gurusishya, MS. Wilson 379, gives the readings sammado, sAmmada, and sammadakhyasya. The other commentary gives distinctly samanda. [I have adopted sammada in the new edition. |

In IX, 68, Professor Aufrecht adopts what he considers the bold reading Vatsapri; I prefer to be timid and allow Sayaza his own reading Vatsapri; see Sarvanukramazvi, ed. Macdonell, pp. 34, 146.

It will be seen from these remarks that many things have to be considered before one can form an independent judgment as to the exact view adopted by Sdyawa in places where he differs from other authorities, or as to the exact words in which he clothed his meaning. Such cases occur again and again. Thus in IX, 86, I find that Pro- fessor Aufrecht ascribes the first ten verses to the Akrzshéas, whereas Sayama calls them Akrish/as. It is perfectly true that the best MSS. of the Anukramazik4 have AkrishZa, it is equally true that the name of these Akvdshfas is spelt with a short ain the Harivasmsa, 11,533, but an editor of Sayaza’s work is not to alter the occasional mistakes of that learned commentator, and Sayava certainly called these poets Akrishéas.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxi

Verses 21-30 of the same hymn are ascribed by Professor Aufrecht to the Przsniyaz. Here, again, several MSS. support that reading; and in Shadgurusishya’s commen- tary, the correction of przsniyak into prisnayahk is made by a later hand. But Sayama clearly took przsnayak for a nominative plural of przsni, and in this case he certainly was right. The Dictionary of Bohtlingk and Roth quotes the Mahabharata, VII, 8728, in support of the peculiar reading of przsniya, but the published text gives przsnayah. Professor Benfey, in his list of poets (Ind. Stud. vol. iii, p. 223), gives przsniyoga as one word, not przsniyoga, as stated in the Dictionary of Bohtlingk and Roth, but this is evidently meant for two words, viz. przsnayo:gahk. How- ever, whether przsniyaz or przsnayak be the real name of these poets, an editor of Sdyavza is bound to give that reading of the name which Sayava believed to be the right one, i. e. przsnayahk *.

Again, in the same hymn, Professor Aufrecht ascribes verses 31-40 to the Atris. We should then have to read tritiyestrayahk. But Sayama read trztiye trayah,and ascribes verses 31—40 to the three companies together of the Azshis mentioned before. On this point the MSS. admit of no doubt, for we read: aturthasya fa dasarkasya akrish¢a masha ityadidvinamanas trayo gava drash¢arak. I do not say that the other explanation is wrong; I only say that, whether right or wrong, Sadyava certainly read trayaZ, not atrayaz; and an editor of Sdyavza has no more right to correct the text, supported by the best MSS., in the first and second, than in the third of these passages, all taken from one and the same hymn.

But though I insist so strongly on a strict observance of the rules of diplomatic criticism with regard to the text

Old mistakes Of the Rig-veda, nay, even of Sdyawa, I inthetext. insist equally strongly on the right of in- dependent criticism, which ought to begin where diplo-

• Professor Aufrecht in his new edition of the text (1877) adopts the more timid reading présnayak. See also Brzhat-Samhita, transl. by Kern, p. 2: Sikata’ prisnayo garga valakhilya marifipaz bhrigavo shgirasas kaiva stikshmas kanye maharshayah,

Ixxii VEDIC HYMNS.

matic criticism ends. Considering the startling antiquity which we can claim for every letter and accent of our MSS., so far as they are authenticated by the Pratisakhya, to say nothing of the passages of many hymns which are quoted verbatim in the Brahmamzas, the Kalpa-sitras, the Nirukta, the Brzhaddevata, and the Anukramazis, I should deem it reckless to alter one single letter or one single accent in an edition of the hymns of the Rig-veda. As the text has been handed down to us, so it should remain; and whatever alterations and corrections we, the critical Mle&kZas of the nineteenth century, have to propose, should be kept distinct from that time-hallowed inheritance. Unlikely as it may sound, it is true nevertheless that we, the scholars of the nineteenth century, are able to point out mistakes in the text of the Rig-veda which escaped the attention of the most learned among the native scholars of the sixth century B.c. No doubt, these scholars, even if they had perceived such mistakes, would hardly have ventured to correct the text of their sacred writings. The authors of the Pratisakhya had before their eyes or ears a text ready made, of which they registered every peculiarity, nay, in which they would note and preserve every single irregularity, even though it stood alone amidst hundreds of analogous cases. With us the case is different. Where we see a rule observed in 99 cases, we feel strongly tempted and sometimes justified in altering the 100th case in accordance with what we consider to be a general rule. Yet even then I feel convinced we ought not to do more than place our conjectural readings below the textus receptus of the Veda,—a text so ancient and venerable that no scholar of any historical tact or critical taste would venture to foist into it a conjectural reading, however plausible, nay, however undeniable.

Sthatis Zaré- _Lhere can be no clearer case of corruption

tham. in the traditional text of the Rig-veda than,

for instance, in I, 70, 4, where the Pada text reads:

vardhan yam pirviz kshapaZ vi-ripaz sthatuz ka ratham vita-pravitam.

All scholars who have touched on this verse, Professors Benfey, Bollensen, Roth, and others, have pointed out that

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. lxxili

instead of #a rdtham, the original poet must have said karatham. The phrase sthatud £aratham, what stands and moves, occurs several times. It is evidently an ancient phrase, and hence we can account for the preservation in it of the old termination of the nom. sing. of neuters in 72, which here, as in the Greek pdp-rup or pdp-rvs, masc., appears as ur or us, while in the ordinary Sanskrit we find 72 only. This nom. sing. neut. in us, explains also the common geni- tives and ablatives, pituZ, matuZ, &c., which stand for pitur-s, matur-s. This phrase sthatt% faratham occurs:

I, 58, 5. sthatuz kardtham bhayate patatrizah.

What stands and what moves is afraid of Agni.

I, 68, 1. sthatui% Zaratham akttin vi firzot.

He lighted up what stands and what moves during every night.

I, 72, 6. pastin a sthatrén fardtham ka pahi.

Protect the cattle, and what stands and moves!

Here it has been proposed to. read sthatu% instead of sthatv7n, and I confess that this emendation is very plaus- ible. One does not see how past, cattle, could be called immobilia or fixtures, unless the poet wished to make a distinction between cattle that are kept fastened in stables, and cattle that are allowed to roam about freely in the homestead. This distinction is alluded to, for instance, in the Satapatha-brahmama, XI, 8, 3, 2. saurya evaisha pasuz syad iti, tasmad etasminn astamite pasavo badhyante; badhnanty ekan yathagosh¢Zam, eka upasamAayanti.

I, 70, 2. garbhak a sthatam garbhak faratham, (read sthatram, and see Bollensen, Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 462.)

He who is within all that stands and all that moves.

The word aratha, if it occurs by itself, means flock, movable property:

III, 31, 15. at it sakhi-bhya% faratham sdm airat.

He brought together, for his friends, the flocks.

VIII, 33, 8. puru-traé Zaratham dadhe.

He bestowed flocks on many people.

X, 92, 13. pra nak pishd kardtham—avatu.

May Pishan protect our flock!

Ixxiv VEDIC HYMNS.

Another idiomatic phrase in which sthatu occurs is sthatuk gdgatak, and here sthatuz is really a genitive :

IV, 53, 6. gagata# sthatud ubhayasya yak vasi.

He who is lord of both, of what is movable and what is immovable.

VI, 50, 7. visvasya sthatus gdgatah gdnitriZ.

They who created all that stands and moves.

VII, 60, 2. visvasya sthatuk gagatah ka gopah.

The guardians of all that stands and moves. Cf. X, 63, 8.

I, 159, 3. sthatuz za satyam gagatak ka dharmazi pu- trasya pathak padam advaydvinak.

Truly while you uphold all that stands and moves, you protect the home of the guileless son. Cf. II, 31, 5.

But although I have no doubt that in I, 70, 4, the original poet said sthatu% garatham, I should be loath to suppress the evidence of the mistake and alter the Pada text from ka ratham to karatham. The very mistake is instructive, as showing us the kind of misapprehension to which the collectors of the Vedic text were liable, and enabling us to judge how far the limits of conjectural criticism may safely be extended. |

A still more extraordinary case of misunderstanding on the part of the original compilers of the Vedic texts,

and likewise of the authors of the Pratisa-

khyas, the Niruktas, and other Vedic treatises, has been pointed out by Professor Kuhn. In an article of his, ‘ Zur altesten Geschichte der Indogermanischen Volker ’ (Indische Studien, vol. i, p. 351), he made the following observation: ‘The Lithuanian laukas, Lett. lauks, Pruss. laukas,all meaning field, agree exactly with the Sk. lokas, world, Lat. locus, Low Germ. (in East-Frisia and Olden- burg) louch, léch, village. All these words are to be traced back to the Sk. uru, Gr. edpts, broad, wide. The initial u is lost, as in Goth. rims, O.H.G. rimi, rimin (Low Germ. rime, an open uncultivated field in a forest), and the r changed into]. In support of this derivation it should be observed that in the Veda loka is frequently preceded by the particle u, which probably was only sepa- rated from it by the Diaskeuaste, and that the meaning is

UVloka.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxv

that of open space.’ Although this derivation has met with little favour, I confess that I look upon this remark, except- ing only the Latin locus, i.e. stlocus, as one of the most ingenious of this eminent scholar. The fact is that this particle u before loka is one of the most puzzling occurrences in the Veda. Professor Bollensen says that loka never occurs without a preceding u in the first eight Mazdalas, and this is perfectly true with the exception of one passage which he has overlooked, VIII, 100, 12, dyauz dehi lokam vagraya vi-skabhe, Dyu! give room for the lightning to step forth! Professor Bollensen (1. c. p. 603) reads vrztraya instead of vagraya, without authority. He objects to dyauZ as a vocative, which should be dyatZ; but dyauk may be dyoh, a genitive belonging to vagraya, in which case we should translate, Make room for the lightning of Dyu to step forth!

But what is even more important is the fact that the occurrence of this unaccented u at the beginning of a pada is against the very rules, or, at least, runs counter to the very observations which the authors of the Pratisakhya have made on the inadmissibility of an unaccented word in such a place, so that they had to insert a special provi- sion, Prat. 978, exempting the unaccented u from this obser- vation: anudattam tu pddadau novargam vidyate padam, ‘no unaccented word is found at the beginning of a pada except u!’ Although I have frequently insisted on the fact that such statements of the Pratisikhya are not to be considered as rules, but simply as more or less general statistical accumulations of facts actually occurring in the Veda, I have also pointed out that we are at liberty to found on these collected facts inductive observations which may assume the character of real rules. Thus, in our case, we can well understand why there should be none, or, at least, very few instances, where an unaccented word begins a pada. We should not begin a verse with an enclitic particle in any other language either; and as in Sanskrit a verb at the

• On locus, see Corssen, Krit. Beitr. p. 463, and Aussprache, 2nd ed., p. 810. Corssen does not derive it from a root st4 or sth4, but identifies it with Goth. strik-s, Engl. stroke, strecke.

Ixxvi VEDIC HYMNS.

beginning of a pada receives ipso facto the accent, and as the same applies to vocatives, no chance is left for an un- accented word in that place, except it be a particle. But the one particle that offends against this general observation is u, and the very word before which this u causes this metrical offence, is loka. Can any argument be more tempting in favour of admitting an old form uloka instead of u loka? Lokam is preceded by u in I, 93, 6 ; II, 30, 6; (asmin bhaya-sthe krzzutam u loka4m, make room for us, grant an escape to us, in this danger!) IV, 17, 17; VI, 23,3; 7 (with urim); 47, 8(urim naZ lokam, or ulokdm ?); 73,2; VII, 20, 2; 33, 5 (with urum); 60, 9 (with urum); 84, 2 (with urim); 99, 4 (with urim); IX, 92,5; X, 13, 23 16, 4 (sukv#tam u lokam); 30, 7; 104, 10; 180, 3 (with urum). Loké is preceded by u in III, 29, 8; V,1, 6; loka- krtt, IX, 86, 21; X, 133, 1. In all remaining passages u loka is found at the beginning of a pada: lokad, III, 37, 11; lokam, III, 2, 9 (u lokam u dvé (iti) ipa gamim fyatuZ); V, 4, 11; loka-kvitnim, VIII, 15, 4; IX, 2, 8. The only passages in which loka occurs without being preceded by u, are lokam, VI, 47, 8 (see above); VIII, 100,12; X, 14, 9; 85, 20 (amrétasya) ; lok&Z, IX, 113, 9; lokdn, X, 90, 14; loké, IX, 113, 773 X, 85, 24.

It should be remembered that in the Gathds the u of words beginning with urv® does not count metrically (Hiibschmann, Ein Zoroastrisches Lied, p. 37), and that in Pali also uru must be treated as monosyllabic, in such pas- sages as Mahav., p. 2, line 5. The same applies to passages in the Rig-veda, such as I, 138, 3; VII, 39, 3, where the metre requires uru to be treated as one syllable. In IX, 96, 15, the original reading may have been urur iva, instead of uru-iva.

Considering all this, I feel as convinced as it is possible to be in such matters, that in all the passages where u loka occurs and where it means space, carriére ouverte, free- dom, we ought to read uloka; but in spite of this I could never bring myself to insert this word, of which neither the authors of the Brahmavzas nor the writers of the Pratisakhyas or even later grammarians had any idea, into the text. On

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxvil

the contrary, I should here, too, consider it most useful to leave the traditional reading, and to add the corrections in the margin, in order that, if these conjectural emendations are in time considered as beyond the reach of doubt, they may be used as evidence in support of conjectures which, without such evidence, might seem intolerable in the eyes of timid critics.

There remains one difficulty about this hypothetical word uloka, which it is but fair to mention. If it is derived from uru, or, as Professor Bollensen suggests, from urvaé or urvak, the change of va into o would require further support. Neither maghon for maghavan, nor durowa for dura-vava are strictly analogous cases, because in each we have an a preceding the va oru. Strictly speaking, uroka presupposes uravaka, as sloka presupposes sravaka, or 6ka, house, avaka (from av, not from u&). It should also be mentioned that a compound such as RV. X, 128, 2, urulokam (scil. antari- ksham) is strange, and shows how completely the origin of loka was forgotten at the time when the hymns of the tenth Mazdala were composed. But all this does not persuade us to accept Ascoli’s conjecture (Lezioni di Fonologia Compa- rata, p. 235), that as uloga (but not uloka) is a regular Tamil form of loka, uloka in the Veda might be due to a reaction of the aboriginal dialects on the Vedic Sanskrit. We want far more evidence before admitting such a reaction during the Vedic period.

The most powerful instrument that has hitherto been applied to the emendation of Vedic texts, is the metre.

Metrical Metre means measure, and uniform measure,

criticism. and hence its importance for critical pur- poses, as second only to that of grammar. If our know- ledge of the metrical system of the Vedic poets rests on a sound basis, any deviations from the general rule are rightly objected to; and if by a slight alteration they can be removed, and the metre be restored, we naturally feel inclined to adopt such emendations. Two safeguards, however, are needed in this kind of conjectural criticism. We ought to be quite certain that the anomaly is impos- sible, and we ought to be able to explain to a certain extent

Ixxvill VEDIC HYMNS,

how the deviation from the original correct text could have occurred. As this subject has of late years received con- siderable attention, and as emendations of the Vedic texts, supported by metrical arguments, have been carried on on a very large scale, it becomes absolutely necessary to re- examine the grounds on which these emendations are supposed to rest. There are, in fact, but few hymns in which some verses or some words have not been challenged for metrical reasons, and I feel bound, therefore, at the very beginning of my translation of the Rig-veda, to express my own opinion on this subject, and to give my reasons why in so many cases I allow metrical anomalies to remain which by some of the most learned and ingenious among Vedic scholars would be pronounced intolerable.

Even if the theory of the ancient metres had not been so carefully worked out by the authors of the Pratisakhyas and the Anukramavzis, an independent study of the Veda would have enabled us to discover the general rules by which the Vedic poets were guided in the composition of their works. Nor would it have been difficult to show how constantly these general principles are violated by the introduction of phonetic changes which in the later Sanskrit are called the euphonic changes of Sandhi, and according to which final vowels must be joined with initial vowels, and final consonants adapted to initial consonants, until at last each sentence becomes a continuous chain of closely linked syliables.

It is far easier, as I remarked before, to discover the original and natural rhythm of the Vedic hymns by reading them in the Pada than in the Sazzhita text, and after some practice our ear becomes sufficiently schooled to tell us at once how each line ought to be pronounced. We find, on the one hand, that the rules of Sandhi, instead of being generally binding, were treated by the Vedic poets as poetical licences only; and, on the other, that a greater freedom of pronunciation was allowed even in the body of words than would be tolerated in the later Sanskrit. Ifa syllable was wanted to complete the metre, a semivowel might be pronounced as a vowel, many a long vowel might

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxix

be protracted so as to count for two syllables, and short vowels might be inserted between certain consonants, of which no trace exists in the ordinary Sanskrit. If, on the contrary, there were too many syllables, then the rules of Sandhi were observed, or two short syllables contracted by rapid pronunciation into one; nay, in a few cases, a final m or s, it seems, was omitted. It would be a mistake to suppose that the authors of the Pratisékhyas were not aware of this freedom allowed or required in the pronunciation of the Vedic hymns. Though they abstained from intro- ducing into the text changes of pronunciation which even we ourselves would never tolerate, if inserted in the texts of Homer and Plautus,in the Pali verses of Buddha, or even in modern English poetry, the authors of the Pratisakhya were clearly aware that in many places one syllable had to be pronounced as two, or two as one. They were clearly aware that certain vowels, generally considered as long, had to be pronounced as short, and that in order to satisfy the demands of the metre, certain changes of pronunciation were indispensable. They knew all this, but they did not change the text. And this shows that the text, as they describe it, enjoyed even in their time a high authority, that they did not make it, but that, such as it is, with all its incongruities, it had been made before their time. In many cases, no doubt, certain syllables in the hymns of the Veda had been actually lengthened or shortened in the Samhita text in accordance with the metre in which they are composed. But this was done by the poets themselves, or, at all events, it was not done by the authors of the Pratisikhya. They simply register such changes, but they do not enjoin them, and in this we, too, should follow their example. It is, therefore, a point of some importance in the critical restoration and proper pronunciation of Vedic texts, that in the rules which we have to follow in order to satisfy the demands of the metre, we should carefully distinguish between what is sanctioned by ancient autho- rity, and what is the result of our own observations. This I shall now proceed to do.

First, then, the authors of the Pratisakhya distinctly admit

Ixxx VEDIC HYMNS.

that, in order to uphold the rules they have themselves laid down, certain syllables are to be pronounced as two syllables. We read in Sitra 527: ‘Ina deficient pada the right number is to be provided for by protrac- tion of semivowels (which were originally vowels), and of contracted vowels (which were originally two independent vowels)’ It is only by this process that the short syllable which has been lengthened in the Samhita, viz. the sixth, or the eighth, or the tenth, can be shown to have occupied and to occupy that place where alone, according to a former rule, a short syllable is liable to be lengthened. Thus we read :

Vytha.,

I, 161, 11. udvatsvasma akrzzotana trizam. This would seem to be a verse of eleven syllables, in which the ninth syllable na has been lengthened. This, however, is against the system of the Pratisikhya. But if we pro- tract the semivowel v in udvatsv, and change it back into u, which it was originally, then we gain one syllable, the whole verse has twelve syllables, na occupies the tenth place, and it now belongs to that class of cases which is included ina former Sitra, 523. The same applies to X, 103, 13, where we read: preta gayata narak.

This is a verse of seven syllables, in which the fifth syllable is lengthened, without any authority. Let us protract preta by bringing it back to its original component elements pra ita, and we get a verse of eight syllables, the sixth syllable now falls under the general observation, and is lengthened in the Saszhita accordingly.

The same rules are repeated in a later portion of the Pratisakhya. Here rules had been given as to the number of syllables of which certain metres consist, and it is added (Sitras 972, 973) that where that number is deficient, it should be completed by protracting contracted vowels, and by separating consonantal groups in which semivowels (originally vowels) occur, by means of their corresponding vowel.

The rules in both places are given in almost identically

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxxi

the same words, and the only difference between the two passages is this, that, according to the former, semivowels are simply changed back into their vowels, while, according to the latter, the semivowel remains, but is separated from the preceding consonant by its corresponding vowel.

These rules therefore show clearly that the authors of the Pratiskhya, though they would have shrunk from altering one single letter of the authorised Samhita, recog- nised the fact that where two vowels had been contracted into one, they might yet be pronounced as two; and where a vowel before another vowel had been changed into a semivowel, it might either be pronounced as a vowel, or as a semivowel preceded by its corresponding vowel. More than these two modifications, however, the Pratisakhya does not allow, or, at least, does not distinctly sancti6n. The commentator indeed tries to show that by the wording of the Siatras in both places, a third modification is sanc- tioned, viz. the vocalisation, in the body of a word, of semi- vowels which do not owe their origin to an original vowel. But in both places this interpretation is purely artificial. Some such rule ought to have been given, but it was not given by the authors of the Pratisakhya. It ought to have been given, for it is only by observing such a rule that in I, 61, 12, gor na parva vi radA tiraskA, we get a verse of eleven syllables, and thus secure for da in rada the eighth place, where alone the short a could be lengthened. Yet we look in vain for a rule sanctioning the change of semivowels into vowels, except where the semivowels can rightly be called kshaipra-varva (Sidtra 974), i.e. semivowels that were origin- ally vowels. The independent (svabhavika) semivowels, as e.g. the v in parva, are not included ; and to suppose that in Stitra 527 these semivowels.were indicated by varza is impossible, particularly if we compare the similar wording of Saitra 974?.

• It will be seen from my edition of the Pratisaékhya, particularly from the extracts from Uvasa, given after Sfitra 974, that the idea of making two syllables out of go, never entered Uvara’s mind. M. Regnier was right, Professor Kuhn (Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 187) was wrong. Uvafa, no doubt, wishes to show that original (svabhavika) semivowels are liable to vytiha, or at least

[32] f

Ixxxil VEDIC HYMNS.

We look in vain, too, in the Pratisakhya for another rule according to which long vowels, even if they do not owe their origin to the coalescence of two vowels, are liable to be protracted. However, this rule, too, though never dis- tinctly sanctioned, is observed in the Pratisakhya, for unless its author observed it, he could not have obtained in the verses quoted by the Pratisakhya the number of syllables which he ascribes to them. According to Sitra 937, the verse, RV. X, 134, 1, is a Mahapankti, and consists of six padas, of eight syllables each. In order to obtain that number, we must read :

samragam farshavinim.

We may therefore say that, without allowing any actual change in the received text of the Sahita, the Pratisa- khya distinctly allows a lengthened pronunciation of certain syllables, which in the Pada text form two syllables; and we may add that, by implication, it allows the same even in cases where the Pada text also gives but one instead of two syllables. Having this authority in our favour, I do not think that we use too much liberty if we extend this modified pronunciation, recognised in so many cases by the ancient scholars of India themselves, to other cases where it seems to us required as well, in order to satisfy the metrical rules of the Veda.

Secondly, I believe it can be proved that, if not the authors of the Pratisdkhya, those at least who constituted

Shortening of the Vedic text which was current in the

long vowels. ancient schools and which we now have before us, were fully aware that certain long vowels and diphthongs could be used as short. The authors of the Pratisakhya remark that certain changes which can take place before a short syllable only, take place likewise before the word no, although the vowel of this ‘no’ is by them supposed to be long. After having stated in Sitra 523 that the eighth syllable of hendecasyllabics and dodeca- syllabics, if short, is lengthened, provided a short syllable

to vyavaya; but though this is true in fact, Uvata does not succeed in his attempt to prove that the rules of the Pratisaékhya sanction it.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IxxXxili

follows, they remark that for this purpose na or no is treated as a short syllable:

X, 59, 4. dyu-bhiz hitaz garima su nak astu, (Samh. si no astu.)

Again, in stating that the tenth syllable of hendecasyl- labics and dodecasyllabics, if short, is lengthened, provided a short syllable follows, the same exception is understood to be made in favour of na& or no, as a short syllable:

VII, 48, 4. nu devdsak varivak kartana nak, (Samh. kartana no, bhita no, &c.)

With regard to e being shortened before a short a where, according to rule, the a should be elided, we actu- ally find that the Samhita gives a instead of e in RV. VIII, 72, 5. véti stdtave ambydim, Samh. véti stdtava ambydm. (Pratis. 177, 5.)

’ I do not ascribe very much weight to the authority which we may derive from these observations with regard to our own treatment of the diphthongs e and o as either long or short in the Veda, yet in answer to those who are incredulous as to the fact that the vowels e and o could ever be short in Sanskrit, an appeal to the authority of those who constituted our text, and in constituting it clearly treated o as a short vowel, may not be without weight. We may also appeal to the fact that in Pali and Prakvzt every final o and e can be treated as either long or short’. Starting from this we may certainly extend this observa- tion, as it has been extended by Professor Kuhn, but we must not extend it too far. It is quite clear that in the same verse e and o can be used both as long and short. I give the Samhita text:

I, 84, 17. ka ishate | tugyate ko bibhaya ko mamsate | santam indram ko anti, kas tokdya | ka ibhayota rdye adhi bravat | tanve ko gandya.

® See Lassen, Inst. Linguee Pracriticee, pp. 145, 147, 151 ; Cowell, Vararudi, Introduction, p. xvii. Kedarabha¢/a says: Pazinir bhagavan prakvitalakshazam api vakti samskr7tad anyat, dirghaksharam fa kutrakid ekAm matrém upaititi. Secundum d’Alwisium commentator docet sermonem esse de litteris Sanscriticis eeto. Cf. Pischel, De Grammaticis prakriticis, 1874.

{2

Ixxxiv - VEDIC HYMNS.

But although there can be no doubt that e and o, when final, or at the end of the first member of a compound, may be treated in the Veda as anceps, there is no evidence, I believe, to show that the same licence applies to a medial or initial e oro. In IV, 45, 5, we must scan

usrak garante prati vasto# asvind,

ending the verse with an epitritus tertius instead’ of the usual dijambus ®*.

Thirdly, the fact that the initial short a, if following upon a word ending in o or e, is frequently not to be elided, is clearly recognised by the authors of the Pratisakhya (see p. xlviii). Nay, that they wished it to be pronounced even in passages where, in accordance with the requirements of the Pratisakhya, it had to disappear in the Samhita text, we may conclude from Sitra 978. It is there stated that no pada should ever begin with a word that has no accent.- The exceptions to this rule are few, and they are discussed in Sitras 978-987. But if the initial a were not pronounced in I, 1, 9, sa% nak pita-iva siindave agne su-upayanaZ bhava, the second pada would begin with sgne, a word which, after the elision of the initial a, would be a word without an accent®,

Fourthly, the fact that other long vowels, besides e and oO, may under certain circumstances be used as short in the Veda, is not merely a modern theory, but rests on no less an authority than Pazini himself.

@ See Professor Weber’s pertinent remarks in Kuhn’s Beitrage, vol. iii, p. 394. T do not think that in the verses adduced by Professor Kuhn, in which final o is considered by him as an iambus or trochee, this scanning is inevitable. Thus we may scan the Samhita text :

I, 88, 2. rukmo na kitrah svadhitivan.

I, 141, 8. ratho na yatat sikvabhih krito.

I, 174, 3. simho na dame : apamsi vastoh.

VI, 24, 3- aksho na Rakryoh sara bezhan

ee Be ino ragann aratiz samiddho. .

This leaves but one of Professor Kuhn’s examples (Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 192) unexplained: I, 191, 1. kankato na kankato, where iva for na would remove

the difficulty.

b This subject, the shortness of e and o in the Veda, has been admirably treated by Mr. Maurice Bloomfield, ‘ Final as before Sonants,’ Baltimore, 1882. Reprinted from the American Journal of Philology, vol. iii, No. I.

«

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxxv

Pazini says, VI, 1, 127, that i, u, 7z (see RV. Bh. IV, 1, 12) at the end of a pada (but not in a compound®) may remain unchanged, if a different vowel follows, and that, if long, they may be shortened. He ascribes this rule, or, more correctly, the first portion of it only, to Sdkalya, Pratisakhya 155 seq.” Thus £akri atra may become fakri atra or kakry atra. Madht atra may become madht atra or madhv atra. In VI, 1, 128, PAzini adds that a, i, u, 72 may remain unchanged before vz, and, if long, may be shortened, and this again according to the teaching of Sakalya, i.e. Pratisikhya 136° Hence brahma vrzshiz be- comes brahma rzshiz or brahmarshiZ; kumari rzsyak be- comes kum§ri rzsyak or kumary visyahk. This rule enables us to explain a number of passages in which the Samzhita text either changes the final long vowel into a semivowel, or leaves it unchanged, when the vowel is a pragrzhya vowel. To the first class belong such passages as I, 163, 12; IV, 38, 10, vagt arva, Samh. vagyarva; VI, 7, 3, vagi agne, Sawzh. vagyagne; VI, 20, 13, pakthi arkath, Samh. pakthyarkaiz ; IV, 22, 4, sushmi 4 gdh, Samh. sushmyd gdh. In these pas- sages i is the termination of a nom. masc. of a stem ending in in. Secondly, IV, 24, 8, patni ak&ha, Samh. patnydkkha ; IV, 34, 1, devi 4hnam, Samh. devydhnam; V, 75, 4, vaniki a-hita, Samh. vanzikyahita; VI, 61, 4, avitr? avatu, Sash.

avitryavatu. In these passages the? is the termination of

feminines. In X, 15, 4, iti arvak, Sah. dtyarvak, the final i of the instrumental fiti ought not to have been changed into a semivowel, for, though not followed by iti, it is to be treated as pragrzhya; (Pratis. 163, 5.) It is, however,

• There are certain compounds in which, according to Professor Kuhn, two vowels have been contracted into one short vowel. This is certainly the opinion of Hindu grammarians, also of the compiler of the Pada text. But most of them would admit of another explanation. Thus dhanvarvzasah, which is divided into dhanva-arvasah, may be dhanu-arwasah (RV. V, 45, 2). Dhanargam, divided into dhana-arkam, may have been dhana-viZam (RV. X, 46,5). Satarkasam (RV. VII, 100, 3) may be taken as sata-7zkasam instead of sata-arkasam.

» In the Pratisakhya the rule which allows vowel before vowel to remain unchanged, is restricted to special passages, and in some of them the two vowels are savarvza; cf. Sitra 163.

© Cf. Vagasan, Pratisikhya, IV, 48 ; Indische Studien, vol. ix, 309; vol. x, 406.

Ixxxvi VEDIC HYMNS.

mentioned as an exception in Sitra 174, 9. The same applies to II, 3, 4, védi iti asyim, Samh. védyasyim. The pragrzhya i ought not to have been changed into a semi- vowel, but the fact that it had been changed irregularly, was again duly registered in Sfitra 174, 5. These two pragrzhya i therefore, which have really to be pronounced short, were irregularly changed in the Sazzhita into the semivowel ; and as this semivowel, like all semivowels, may take vyavaya, the same object was attained as if it had been written by a short vowel. With regard to pragrvzhya fi, no such indication is given by the Samhita text; but in such passages as I, 46, 13, sambhii iti sam-bha 4 gatam, Sah. sambht 4 gatam; V, 43, 4, baht iti ddrim, Sawh. baht adrim, the pragvzhya t of the dual can be used as short, like the i of madhi atra, given as an example by the commen- tators of Pavzini.

To Professor Kuhn, I believe, belongs the merit of having extended this rule to final 4. That the a of the dual may become short, was mentioned in the Pratisdkhya, Sitra 309, though in none of the passages there mentioned is there any metrical necessity for this shortening (see p. lii). This being the case, it is impossible to deny that where this 4 is followed by a vowel, and where Sandhi between the two vowels is impossible, the final 4 may be treated as short. Whether it must be so treated, depends on the view which we take of the Vedic metres, and will have to be discussed hereafter. I agree with Professor Kuhn when he scans:

V1; 63; 1. kva tya valgd puru-hata adya, (Samh. puru- hitadya); and not kva tya valgf puruhatadya, although we might quote other verses as ending with an epitritus primus.

IV, 3, 13. ma vesasya pra-minatak ma Apeh, (Samh. mape“,) although the dispondeus is possible. :

I, 77, 1. katha ddsema agnaye kd asmai, (Samh. kAsmai.)

VI, 24, 5. aryah vasasya pari-eta asti.

Even in a compound like tva-tita, I should shorten the first vowel, e. g.

X, 148, 1. tmana tana sanuydma tva-ataz, although the passage is not mentioned by the Pratisakhya

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxxvii

among those where a short final vowel in the eighth place is not lengthened when a short syllable follows ®.

But when we come to the second pada of a Gayatri, and find there a long a, and that long 4 not followed by a vowel, I cannot agree with Professor Kuhn, that the long 4, even under such circumstances, ought to be shortened. We may scan :

V, 5, 7. vatasya patman i/ita daivya hotara manushaz.

The same choriambic ending occurs even in the last pada of a Gayatri, and is perfectly free from objection at the end of the other padas.

So, again, we may admit the shortening of au to oin sano avye and sano avyaye, as quoted in the Pratisakhya, 174 and 177, but this would not justify the shortening of au to av in Anush/Zubh verses, such as

V, 86, 5. martdya devau adabha,

amsa-iva devau arvate, while, with regard to the Trish¢ubh and Gagati verses, our views on these metres must naturally depend on the difficul- ties we meet with in carrying them out systematically.

There is no reason for shortening 4a in

V, 5, 10. devandm guhyA ndmAni.

It is the second pada of a Gayatri here; and we shall see that, even in the third pada, four long syllables occur again and again.

For the same reason I cannot follow Dr. Kuhn in a number of other passages where, for the sake of the metre, he proposes to change a long 4 into a short one. Such passages are in the Pada text:

mt, 40, 11. didyavah tigma-mtirdhanah, not miardhdanad.

I, 15, 6. rztuna yagf#am AsAthe, not Asdthe.

V, 66, 2. samyak asuryam AsAte, not Asate.

my OF, I. varshish¢kam kshatram asathe, not asathe. See Beitrage, vol. iii, p. 122.

I, 46, 6. tam asme rasatham isham, not rasatham isham.

• I see that Professor Kuhn, vol. iv, p. 186, has anticipated this observation

in eshfau, to be read A-ishzau.

Ixxxvill VEDIC HYMNS.

IV, 32, 23. babhra yameshu sobhete, not sobhete.

IV, 45, 3. uta priyam madhune yu@gathim ratham, not yuagatham ratham.

V. 74, 3. kam akkha yuagathe ratham, not yuagathe ratham.

IV, 55, I. dyavabhiimi (iti) adite trasithim naZ, not tra- sitham nav.

V, 41, 1. vétasya va sadasi trdsithdm naf, not trdsithim © nah. 3

I must enter the same protest against shortening other long vowels in the following verses which Professor Kuhn proposes to make metrically correct by this remedy:

I, 42, 6. hirazyavdsimat-tama, not vasimat-tama.

Here the short syllable of gazasri-bhiz in V, 60, 8, cannot be quoted as a precedent, for the i in gavasri, walking in companies, was never long, and could therefore not be shortened. Still less can we quote nari-bhyak as an instance of a long 7 being shortened, for nari-bhyaz is derived from nariz, not from nari, and occurs with a short i even when the metre requires a long syllable; I, 43, 6. nvi-bhyak nari-bhyah gave. The fact is, that in the Rig- veda the forms ndarishu and nari-bhyaZ never occur, but always narishu, nari-bhyaz; while from vasi we never find any forms with short i, but always vdsishu, vasi-bhiz.

Nor is there any justification for change in I, 25, 16. gdvahk na gavytitiZ anu, the second pada of a Gayatri. Nor in: V, 50; 3. rikshak na vak marutak simi-van amak. In most of the passages mentioned by Professor Kuhn on p. 122, this peculiarity may be observed, that the eighth syllable is short, or, at all events, may be short, when the ninth is long:

V1,44; 21- vrishne te induh vrishabha pipaya.

I, 73, 1. syona-si# atithiZ na privdnas.

VIL, 13, 1. bhare havi# na barhishi privdnad.

II, 28, 7. enak krinvantam Asura. bhrivanti.

Before, however, we can settle the question whether in

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ixxxix

these and other places certain vowels should be pronounced as either long or short, we must settle the more general

Metre and question, what authority we have for requir-

Grammar. jing a long or ashort syllable in certain places of the Vedic metres.

If we declare ourselves free from all authority, either grammatical or metrical, we may either sacrifice all grammar to metre, or all metre to grammar. We may introduce the strictest rules of metre, determining the length or shortness of every syllable, and then ignore all rules of grammar and quantity, treat short syllables as long, or long ones as short, and thus secure the triumph of metre. Or, we may allow great latitude in Vedic metres, particularly in certain padas,and thus retain all the rules of grammar which determine the quantity of syllables. It may be said even that the result would really be the same in either case, and that the policy of ‘thorough’ might perhaps prove most useful in the end. It may be so here- after, but in the present state of Vedic scholarship it seems more expedient to be guided by native tradition, and to study the compromise which the ancient students of the Veda have tried to effect between grammar on one side and metre on the other.

Now it has generally been supposed that the Pratisakhya teaches that there must be a long syllable in the eighth or tenth place of Traish¢zubha and Gagata, and in the sixth place of Anush¢ubha padas. This is not the case. The Pratisakhya, no doubt, says, that a short final vowel, but not any short syllable, occupying the eighth or tenth place in a Traish¢ubha and Gagata pada, or the sixth place ina Gayatra pada, is lengthened, but it never says that it must -be lengthened ; on the contrary, it gives a number of cases where it is not so lengthened. But, what is even more important, the Pratisékhya distinctly adds a proviso which shows that the ancient critics of the Veda did not consider the trochee as the only possible foot for the sixth and seventh syllables of Gayatra, or for the eighth and ninth, or tenth and eleventh syllables of Traishtubha and Gagata padas. They distinctly admit that the seventh and the

DS aa VEDIC HYMNS.

ninth and the eleventh syllables in such padas may be long, and that in that case the preceding short vowel is not lengthened. We thus get the iambus in the very place which is generally occupied by the trochee. According to the Pratisakhya, the general scheme for the Gayatra would

be, not only 6

• +++ {+ i +, but also 67
• +++] 4+ 4-4; and for the Traish¢zubha and Gagata, not only

8 +++4|+4 jolt cop Loa eq py, but also .o. t+++4|/+'4+ 4+ 4/-—+ + (4). And again, for the same pdadas, not only Io ll ++ ++]/+ +++ /4+-v(4), but also eats +++ 4+[+ + 4+ + | + 4-(+).

Before appealing, however, to the Pratisékhya for the establishment of such a rule as that the sixth syllable of Anushzubha and the eighth or tenth syllable of Trai- sh¢ubha and Gagata pddas must be lengthened, provided a short syllable follows, it is indispensable that we should have a clear appreciation of the real character of the Prati- sakhya. If we carefully follow the thread which runs through these books, we shall soon perceive that, even with the proviso that a short syllable follows, the Pratisakhya never teaches that certain final vowels must be lengthened. The object of the Pratisaékhya, as I pointed out on a former occasion, is to register all the facts which possess a phonetic interest. In doing this, all kinds of plans are adopted in order to bring as large a number of cases as possible under general categories. These categories are purely technical and external, and they never assume, with the authors of the Pratisikhya, the character of general rules. Let us now, after these preliminary remarks, return to the Sitras 523 to 535, which we discussed before. The Pratisakhya simply says that certain syllables which are short in the

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XCl

Pada, if occupying a certain place in a verse, are lengthened in the Samhita, provided a short syllable follows. This looks, no doubt, like a general rule which should be carried out under all circumstances. But this idea never entered the minds of the authors of the Pratisakhya. They only give this rule as the most convenient way of registering the lengthening of certain syllables which have actually been lengthened in the text of the Samhita, while they remain short in the Pada; and after having done this, they proceed to give a number of verses where the same rule might be supposed to apply, but where in the text of the Samhita the short syllable has not been lengthened. After having given a long string of words which are short in the Pada and long in the Sazzhita, and where no intelligible reason of their lengthening can be given, at least not by the authors of the Pratisakhya, the Pratisikhya adds in Sitra 523, ‘The final vowel of the eighth syllable is lengthened in padas of eleven and twelve syllables, provided a syllable follows which is short in the Sazzhita. As instances the commentator gives (Samhita text) :

I, 32, 4. taditna sdtrum na Kila vivitse.

I, 94,1. d4gne sakhyé ma rishama vayam tava.

Then follows another rule (Sitra 525) that ‘The final vowel of the tenth syllable in padas of eleven and twelve syllables is lengthened, provided a syllable follows which is short in the Samhita.’ As instances the commentator gives :

ek | A

Ill, 54, 22. Sha visvA sumdnd didihi nav.

1, 34; 9. dva radrd asiso hantana vadhas.

Lastly, a rule is given (Satra 526) that ‘The final vowel of the sixth syllable is lengthened in a pdda of eight syllables, provided a syllable follows which is short :’

Oe ego Ld

Es 5, 10. isano yavaya vadhdm.

If the seventh syllable is long no change takes place: IX, 67, 30. 4 pavasva deva soma.

While we ourselves should look upon these rules as

xcli VEDIC HYMNS.

founded in the very nature of the metre, which, no doubt, to a certain extent they are, the authors of the Pratisakhya use them simply as convenient nets for catching as many cases as possible of lengthened syllables actually occurring in the text of the Samhita. For this purpose, and in order to avoid giving a number of special rules, they add in this place an observation, very important to us as throwing light on the real pronunciation of the Vedic hymns at the time when our Samhita text was finally settled, but with them again a mere expedient for enlarging the preceding rules, and thus catching more cases of lengthening at one haul. They say in Sitra 527, that in order to get the right number of syllables in such verses, we must pro- nounce sometimes one syllable as two. Thus only can the lengthened syllable be got into one of the places required by the preceding Sitra, viz. the sixth, the eighth, or the tenth place, and thus only can a large number of lengthened syllables be comprehended under the same general rule of the Pratisakhya. In all this we ourselves can easily recog- nise a principle which guided the compilers of the Samhita text, or the very authors of the hymns, in lengthening syllables which in the Pada text are short, and which were liable to be lengthened because they occupied certain places on which the stress of the metre would naturally fall. We also see quite clearly that these compilers, or those whose pronunciation they tried to perpetuate, must have pronounced certain syllables as two syllables, and we naturally consider that we have a right to try the same expedient in other cases where to us, though not to them, the metre seems deficient, and where it could be rendered perfect by pronouncing one syllable as two. Such thoughts, however, never entered the minds of the authors of the Pratisakhyas, who are satisfied with explaining what is, according to the authority of the Samhita, and who never attempt to say what ought to be, even against the authority of the Samhita. While in some cases they have ears to hear and to appreciate the natural flow of the poetical lan- guage of the Azshis, they seem at other times as deaf as the adder to the voice of the charmer. | |

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XClil

A general rule, therefore, in our sense of the word, that the eighth syllable in hendecasyllabics and dodecasyllabics, the tenth syllable in hendecasyllabics and dodecasyllabics, and the sixth syllable in octosyllabics should be lengthened, rests in no sense on the authority of ancient grammarians. Even as a mere observation, they restrict it by the con- dition that the next syllable must be short, in order to pro- voke the lengthening of the preceding syllable, thereby sanctioning, of course, many exceptions; and they then proceed to quote a number of cases where, in spite of all, the short syllable remains short*. In some of these quota- tions they are no doubt wrong, but in most of them their statement cannot be disputed.

As to the eighth syllable being short in hendecasyllabics and dodecasyllabics, they quote such verses as,

VI, 66, 4. antar ({ti) santaz avadydni pundnad.

Thus we see that in VI, 44, 9, varshiyas vayak krinuhi sakibhih, hi remains short; while in VI, 25, 3, gahi vrishnyAni krinuhi pardkat, it is lengthened in the Samhita, the only difference being that in the second passage the accent is on hi.

As to the tenth syllable being short in a dodecasyllabic, they quote

II, 27, 14. adite mitra varuva uta mri/a.

As to the tenth syllable being short in a hendecasyllabic, they quote

II, 20,1. vayam te vayahk indra viddhi su nah.

As to the sixth syllable being short in an octosyllabic, they quote

VIII, 23, 26. maha visvan abhi sataz.

A large number of similar exceptions are collected from

® “Wo die achtsilbigen Reihen mit herbeigezogen sind, ist es in der Regel bei solchen Liedern geschehen, die im Ganzen von der regelmassigen Form weniger abweichen, und fiir solche Falle, wo auch das Pratisikhya die Langung der sechsten Silbe in achtsilbigen Reihen vorschreibt, namlich wo die siebente von Natur kurz ist. Die achtsilbigen Reihen bediirfen einer erneuten Durch- forschung, da es mehrfach schwer fallt, den Sawzhitatext mit der Vorschrift der Pratisakhya in Ubereinstimmung zu bringen.’? Kuhn, Beitrige, vol. iii, p. 450; and still more strongly, p. 458.

XCiV VEDIC HYMNS.

528, 3 to 534, 94, and this does not include any cases where the ninth, the eleventh, or the seventh syllable is long, instead of being short, while it does include cases where the eighth syllable is long, though the ninth is not short, or, at least, is not short according to the views of the collectors of these passages. See Siitra 522, 6.

Besides the cases mentioned by the Prdatisdkhya itself, where a short syllable, though occupying a place which would seem to require lengthening, remains short, there are many others which the Pratisikhya does not mention, be- cause, from its point of view, there was no necessity for doing so. The Pratisikhya has been blamed? for omitting such cases as I, 93, 6, urus yag#dya kakrathtr u lokam; or I, 96, 1, deva agnim dharayan dravizodam. But though occupying the eighth place, and though followed by a short syllable, these syllables could never fall under the general observation of the Pratisékhya, because that general ob- servation refers to final vowels only, but not to short syllables in general. Similar cases are I, 107, 1°; 122, 9; 130, 103 359,06? ESA ts TSS, Ot 10s, 2s 107, ros Tee 173, 64° 490; 3 208, 3 106, 6, tc.

If, therefore, we say that, happen what may, these metrical rules must be observed, and the text of the Veda altered in order to satisfy the requirements of these rules, we ought to know at all events that we do this on our own responsibility, and that we cannot shield ourselves behind the authority of Saunaka or Katyayana. Now it is well known that Professor Kuhn?” has laid down the rule that the Traish¢ubha padas must end in a bacchius or amphibrachys u-, and the Gagata paddas in a dijambus or pzon secundus u-v¥. With regard to Anushtubha padas, he requires the dijambus or pzon secundus v—v™ at the end of a whole verse only, allowing greater freedom in the formation of the preceding pdadas. In a later article,

® «Daz kommt, dass der uns vorliegende Samzhitatext vielfaltig gar nicht mit Saunaka’s allgemeiner Regel iibereinstimmt, indem die Verlangerung kurzer Silben nicht unter den Bedingungen eingetreten ist, die er vorschreibt.’ Kuhn, Beitrage, vol. ili, p. 459.

Beitrage zur Vergleichenden Sprachforschung, vol..iii, p. 118.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XCV

however, the final pada, too, in Anushtubha metre is allowed greater freedom, and the rule, as above given, is strictly maintained with regard to the Traish¢ubha and Gagata padas only.

This subject is so important, and affects so large a number of passages in the Veda, that it requires the

The four prin. Most careful examination. The Vedic metres,

cipal Padas. though at first sight very perplexing, are very simple, if reduced to their primary elements. The authors of the Pratisakhyas have elaborated a most com- plicated system. Counting the syllables in the most mechanical manner, they have assigned nearly a hundred names to every variety which they discovered in the hymns of the Rig-veda*. But they also observed that the con- stituent elements of all these metres were really but four, (Satras 988, 989) :

1. The Gayatra pada, of eight syllables, ending in U-.

2. The Vairdga pada, of ten syllables, ending in —-.

3. The Traishtubha pada, of eleven syllables, ending

in ——.

4. The Gagata pAda, of twelve syllables, ending in v-.

Then follows an important rule, Sitra 990: ‘The pen- ultimate syllable,’ he says, ‘in a Gayatra and Gagata pada is light (laghu), in a Vairaga and Traish¢ubha pada heavy (guru).’ This is called their vrztta.

This word vritta, which is generally translated by metre, had evidently originally a more special meaning. It meant the final rhythm, or if we take it literally, the turn of a line, for it is derived from vvzt, to turn. Hence vritta is the same word as the Latin versus, verse; but I do not wish to decide whether the connection between the two words is historical, or simply etymological. In Latin, versus is always supposed to have meant origin- ally a, furrow, then a line, then a verse. In Sanskrit the metaphor that led to the formation of vrztta, in the sense of final rhythm, has nothing to do with ploughing. If, as I have tried to prove (Chips from a German Workshop,

Vritta =versus.

• See Appendix to my edition of the Pratisakhya, p. ccclvi.

XCVI1 VEDIC HYMNS.

vol. i, p. 84), the names assigned to metres and metrical language were derived from words originally referring to choregic movements, vvztta must have meant the turn, i.e. the last step of any given movement; and this turn, as determining the general character of the whole movement, would naturally be regulated by more severe rules, while greater freedom would be allowed for the rest.

Having touched on this subject, I may add another fact in support of my view. The words Trishfubh and Anushfubh, names for the most common metres, are generally derived from a root stubh, to praise. I believe they should be derived from a root stubh, which is pre- served in Greek, not only in orvdedds, hard, orvpediw, to strike hard, but in. the root ocreud, from which oréudvaor, stamped or pressed olives or grapes, and doreudyjs, untrodden (grapes), then unshaken; and in oréuBw, to shake, to ram, _ otoBéw, to scold, &c. In Sanskrit this root is mentioned in the DhatupazZa X, 34, shtubhu stambhe, and it exists in a parallel form as stambh, lit. to stamp down, then to fix, — to make firm, with which Bopp has compared the German stampfen, tostamp ; (Glossarium, s.v.stambh.) I therefore. look upon Trish¢ubh as meaning originally tripudium, (sup- posing this word to be derived from tri and pes, according to the expression in Horace, pepulisse ter pede terram, Hor. Od. iii. 18,) and I explain its name ‘ Three-step,’ by the fact that the three last syllables U— vu, which form the character- istic feature of that metre, and may be called its real vrztta or turn, were audibly stamped at the end of each turn or strophe. I explain Anushéubh, which consists of four equal padas, each of eight syllables, as the ‘ After-step, because each line was stamped regularly after the other, possibly by two choruses, each side taking its turn. There is one passage in the Veda where Anushzubh seems to have preserved this meaning:

X, 124, 9. anu-stubham anu farkiryamazam indram ni kikyuk kavayak manishd.

Poets by their wisdom discovered Indra dancing to an Anushéubh.

In V, 52, 12, &Aandah-stubhak kubhanydvahk utsam 4

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XCVIi

kirfzahk nritu#, in measured steps (i.e. stepping the metre) and wildly shouting the gleemen have danced toward the spring.

Other names of metres which point to a similar origin, i.e. to their original connection with dances, are Pada- pankti, ‘Step-row;’ Nyanku-sarizi, ‘Roe-step;’ Abhisdrivi, ‘Contre-danse,’ &c.

If now we return to the statement of the Pratisakhya in reference to the vvzttas, we should observe how careful its author is in his language. He does not say that the penultimate is long or short, but he simply states, that, from a metrical point of view, it must be considered as light or heavy, which need not mean more than that it must be pronounced with or without stress. The fact that the author of the Pratisékhya uses these terms, laghu and guru, instead of hrasva, short, and dirgha, long, shows in fact that he was aware that the penultimate in these pddas is not invariably long or short, though, from a metrical point of view, it is always heavy or light.

It is perfectly true that if we keep to these four pddas, (to which one more pada, viz. the half Vairaga, consisting of five syllables, might be added,) we can reduce nearly all the hymns of the Rig-veda to their simple elements which the ancient poets combined together, in general in a very simple way, but occasionally with greater freedom. The most important strophes, formed out of these padas, are,

1. Three Gayatra padas=the Gayatri, (24 syllables.)

2. Four Gayatra padas=the Anush¢ubh, (32 syllables.)

3. Four Vairaga padas=the Virag, (40 syllables.)

4. Four Traishzubha padas=the Trish¢ubh, (44 syllables.)

5. Four Gagata padas=the Gagati, (48 syllables.)

Between the Gayatri and Anush¢ubh strophes, another strophe may be formed, by mixture of Gayatra and Gagata padas, consisting of 28 syllables, and commonly called Ushzih; likewise between the Anushfubh and the Virag, a strophe may be formed, consisting of 36 syllables, and commonly called Brzhati.

In a collection of hymns, however, like that e the Rig- veda, where poems of different ages, different places, and

[32] §

XCVII1 - -<VWEDIC HYMNS.

different families have been put together, we must be prepared for exceptions to many rules. Thus, although the final turn of the hendecasyllabic Traishfubha is, as a rule, the bacchius, u—-, yet if we take, for instance, the 77th hymn of the tenth Mazdala, we clearly perceive another hendecasyllabic pada of a totally different struc- ture, and worked up into one of the most. beautiful strophes by an ancient poet. Each line is divided into two halves, the first consisting of seven syllables, beingan exact counterpart of the first member of a Saturnian verse (fato Romae Metelli); the second a dijambus, answering boldly to the broken rhythm of the first member. We have, in fact, a Trish¢zubh where the turn or the three-step, u—-, instead of being at the end, stands in the middle of the line.

X, 77, 1-5, in the Pada text:

1. abhra-prusha/ na vaka prusha vasu,

havishmantah na yag#ah vi-ginushah | &c.

Another strophe, the nature of which has been totally misapprehended by native metricians, occurs in IV, 10. It is there called Padapankti and Mahdpadapankti; nay, attempts have been made to treat it even as an Ushzih, or as a kind of Gayatri. The real character of that strophe is so palpable that it is difficult to understand how it could have been mistaken. It consists of two lines, the first embracing three or four feet of five syllables each, having the ictus on the first and the fourth syllables, and resembling the last line of a Sapphic verse. The second line is simply

® Professor Kuhn (vol. iii, p. 450) is inclined to admit the same metre as varying in certain hymns with ordinary Traish¢ubha padas, but the evidence he brings forward is hardly sufficient. Even if we object to the endings vu -v-— and --v-, V, 33, 4, may be a Gagata, with vytha of dasa, the remark quoted from the Pratisikhya being of no consequence on such points ; and the same remedy would apply to V, 41, 5, with vytiha of eshe. In VI, 47, 31, vytha of asvaparzaih; in I, 33, 9, vytiha of indra and rodasi ; in II, 24, 5, vytha of madbhizZ would produce the same effect ; while in I, 121, 8, we must either admit the Traishfubha vrztta — uU — or scan

dhukshan. In III, 58, 6, I should admit vytiha for nard; in IV, 26, 6, for

mandram; in I, 100, 8, for gyotih, always supposing that we consider the ending — — v — incompatible with a Trish/ubh verse. - :

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XC1X

a Trishfubh. It is what we should call an asynartete strophe, and the contrast of the rhythm in the first and second lines is very effective. I am not certain whether Professor Bollensen, who has touched on this metre in an article just published (Zeitschrift der D. M. G., vol. xxii, p- 572), shares this opinion. He has clearly seen that the division of the lines, as given in the MSS. of the Samhita text, is wrong; but he seems inclined to admit the same rhythm throughout, and to treat the strophe as consisting of four lines of five syllables each, and one of six syllables, which last line is to submit to the prevailing rhythm of the preceding lines. If we differ, however, as to the internal architecture of this strophe, we agree in condemning the interpretation proposed by the Pratisakhya ; and I should, in connection with this, like to call attention to two im- portant facts: first, that the Sazhita text, in not changing, for instance, the final t of martat, betrays itself as clearly later than the elaboration of the ancient theory of metres, later than the invention of such a metre as the Padapankti ; and secondly, that the accentuation, too, of the Samhita is thus proved to be posterior to the establishment of these fanciful metrical divisions, and hence cannot throughout claim so irrefragable an authority as certainly belongs to it in many cases. I give the Samhita text:

1. Agne tam adyalasvam na stomaiktkratum na bhadram,

hridisprisam ridhyamA ta ohaih. 2, Adhd hy agnetkrator bhadrasya\dakshasya sddhod, rathir vitasya brihato babhiitha, &c.

_ Now it is perfectly true that, as a general rule, the syllables composing the vritta or turn of the different metres, and described by the Pratisakhya as heavy or light, are in reality long or short. The question, however, is this, have we a right, or are we obliged, in cases where that syllable is not either long or short, as it ought to be, so to alter the text, or so to change the rules of pro- nunciation, that the penultimate may again be what we wish it to be?

_. If we begin with the Gayatra pada, we have not to read

g 2

Cc VEDIC HYMNS.

long before we find that it would be hopeless to try to crush the Gayatri verses of the Vedic Rzshis on this Pro- crustean bed. Even Professor Kuhn very soon perceived that this was impossible. He had to admit that in the Gayatri the two first padas, at all events, were free from this rule, and though he tried to retain it for the third or final pada, he was obliged after a time to give it up even there. Again, it is perfectly true, that in the third pada of the Gayatri, and in the second and fourth paddas of the AnushZubh strophe, greater care is taken by the poets to secure a short syllable for the penul- timate, but here, too, exceptions cannot be entirely removed. We have only to take such a single hymn as I, 27, and we shall see that it would be impossible to reduce it to the uniform standard of Gayatri padas, all ending in a dijambus.

Gayatra Padas.

' But what confirms me even more in my view that such strict uniformity must not be looked for in the ancient

Conjectural hymns of the Azshis, is the fact that in many

emendations. cases it would be so very easy to replace the irregular by a regular dipodia. Supposing that the original poets had restricted themselves to the dijambus, who could have put in the place of that regular dijambus an irregular dipodia? Certainly not the authors of the Pratisdkhya, for their ears had clearly discovered the general rhythm of the ancient metres; nor their pre- decessors, for they had in many instances preserved the tradition of syllables lengthened in accordance with the requirements of the metre. I do not mean to insist too strongly on this argument, or to represent those who handed down the tradition of the Veda as endowed with anything like apaurusheyatva. Strange accidents have happened in the text of the Veda, but they have generally happened when the sense of the hymns had ceased to be understood ; and if anything helped to preserve the Veda from greater accidents, it was due, I believe, to the very fact that the metre continued to be understood, and that oral tradition, however much it might fail in other respects, had at all events to satisfy the ears of the hearers. I should

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. cl

have been much less surprised if all irregularities in the metre had been smoothed down by the flux and reflux of oral tradition, a fact which is so apparent in the text of Homer, where the gaps occasioned by the loss of the digamma, were made good by the insertion of unmeaning particles ; but I find it difficult to imagine by what class of men, who must have lived between the original poets and the age of the Pratisakhyas, the simple rhythm of the Vedic metres should have been disregarded, and the sense of rhythm, which ancient people possess in a far higher degree than we ourselves, been violated through crude and pur- poseless alterations. I shall give a few specimens only. What but a regard for real antiquity could have induced people in VIII, 2, 8, to preserve the defective foot of a Gayatri verse, samdne adhi bharman? Any one acquainted with Sanskrit would naturally read samdne adhi bharmazi. But who would have changed bharmazi, if that had been there originally, to bharman? I believe we must scan samane adhi bharman, or samane adhi bharman, the pzon tertius being a perfectly legitimate foot at the end of a Gayatri verse. In X, 158, 1, we can understand how an accident happened. The original poet may have said: Saryo no divas pdtu pdtu vato antarikshat, agnir nak parthivebhyaz. Here one of the two patu was lost. But if in the same hymn we find in the second verse two feet of nine instead of eight syllables each, I should not venture to alter this except in pronunciation, because no reason can be imagined why any one should have put these irregular lines in the place of regular ones.

In V, AI, 10, grinite agnir etari na siishaiz, sokishkeso ni rivAti vand, every modern Pandit would naturally read vanani instead of vana, in order to get the regular Trish¢ubh metre. But this being the case, how can we imagine that even the most ignorant member of an ancient Parishad should wilfully have altered vandni into vand? What sur- prises one is, that vand should have been spared, in spite of every temptation to change it into vanani: for I cannot doubt for one moment that vana is the right reading, only

Cll VEDIC HYMNS.

that the ancient poets pronounced it vand. Wherever we alter the text of the Rig-veda by conjecture, we ought to be able, if possible, to give some explanation how the mis- take which we wish to remove came to be committed. Ifa passage is obscure, difficult to construe, if it contains words which occur in no other place, then we can understand how, during a long process of oral tradition, accidents may have happened. But when everything is smooth and easy, when the intention of the poet is not to be mistaken, when the same phrase has occurred many times before, then to sup- pose that a simple and perspicuous sentence was changed into a complicated and obscure string of words, is more difficult to understand. I know there are passages where we cannot as yet account for the manner in which an evi- dently faulty reading found its way into both the Pada and Samhita texts, but in those very passages we cannot be too circumspect. If we read VIII, 40, 9, pdarvish fa indro- pamatayas parvir uta prasastayah, nothing seems more tempting than to omit indra, and to read parvish Za upama- tayah. Nor would it be difficult to account for the insertion of indra; for though one would hardly venture to call it a marginal gloss that crept into the text—a case which, as far as I can see, has never happened in the hymns of the Rig-veda—it might be taken for an explanation given by an Akarya to his pupils, in order to inform them that the ninth verse, different from the eighth, was addressed to Indra. But however plausible this may sound, the question remains whether the traditional reading could not be main-

tained, by admitting synizesis of opa, and reading parvish fa indropaimdtayak: i Fora similar synizesis of — u, see III,

6, 10. praki adhvareva tasthatu/, unless we read praky

adhvareva. Another and more difficult case of synizesis occurs in VII, 86, 4. ava tvanend namasA tura(/) iydm. It would be easy to conjecture tvarey4m instead of tura iydm, but tvareydm, in the sense of ‘let me hasten, is not Vedic. The choriambic ending, however, of a Trish¢ubh

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. ciii

can be proved to be legitimate, and if that is the case, then

even the synizesis of tura, though hard, ought not to be regarded as impossible.

fe 73,8: 5, 4 vimsatya trimsata yahy arvan,

wm oS. _ wv _ — Ratvarimsata haribhir yuganaz,

| >!

pa#kasata surathebhir indra, 4 shashzya saptatya somapeyam, | Professor Kuhn proposes to omit the 4 at the beginning of the second line, in order to have eleven instead of twelve syllables. By doing so he loses the uniformity of the four padas, which all begin with 4, while by admitting synizesis of haribhiZ all necessity for conjectural emendation dis- appears. If the poets of the Veda had objected to a pzon quartus (¥Uvv-) at the end of a GAayatri, what could have been

easier than to change IV, 52, 1, divo adarsi duhita, into adarsi duhit4 divaz? or X, 118, 6, adabhyam grthapatim, into grzhapatim adabhyam?

If an epitritus secundus (~ v——) had been objectionable in the same place, why not say VI, 61, Io, stomya bhiit sarasvati, instead of sarasvati stomya bhit? Why not VIII, 2, 11, revantam hi srivomi tvd, instead of revantam hi tva srinomi?

If an ionicus a minore (vy v—-—) had been excluded from that place, why not say I, 30, 10 , garitribhyahk sakhe vaso, instead of sakhe vaso garitribhyah? ort, 41,2; varuvasya

mahi psarah, instead of mahi psaro varuzasya? Ii a dispondeus (—~—-—-—) was to be avoided, then V, 68, 3,

mahi vam kshatram deveshu, might easily have been re- placed by deveshu vam kshatram mahi, and VIII, 2, 10, sukra Asiram yakante, by sukra yAfanta Asiram.

If no epitritus primus (v —- ——) was allowed, why not say VI, 61, 11, nidas pdtu sarasvati, instead of sarasvati nidas patu, or VIII, 79, 4, dvesho yavir aghasya Rit, instead of yavir aghasya kid dveshak?

Civ VEDIC HYMNS.

Even the epitritus tertius (-— u—) might easily have been avoided by dropping the augment of apam in X, 119, I-13, kuvit somasy4p4m iti. It is, in fact, a variety of less frequent occurrence than the rest, and might possibly be eliminated with some chance of success.

Lastly, the choriambus (— v u—) could have been removed in III, 24, 5, sisthi nak stnumatas, by reading siinumatas sisthi na, and in VIII, 2, 31, sanad amrikto dayate, by reading amrikto dayate sanat.

But I am afraid the idea that regularity is better than irregularity, and that in the Veda, where there is a possibility, the regular metre is to be restored by means of conjectural emendations, has been so ably advocated by some of the most eminent scholars, that a merely general argument would now be of no avail. I must therefore give as much evidence as I can bring together in support of the contrary opinion; and though the process is a tedious one, the importance of the consequences with regard to Vedic criticism leaves me no alternative. With regard, then, to

Seven the final dipodia of Gayatri verses, I still Gayatra Vr7ttas. hold and maintain, that, although the dijambus is by far the most general metre, the following seven varieties have to be recognised in the poetry of the Veda?:

Lowe =, << PRI AS ry Ge ee ee ha a es ee ee 6. eh ee 7 8. —UuU-

I do not pretend to give every passage in which these varieties occur, but I hope I shall give a sufficient number in support of every one of them. I have confined myself almost entirely to the final dipodia of Gayatri verses, as the Anushéubha verses would have swelled the lists too much.

§ 2 vvu-=, I, 12, 9. tasmai pavaka mrilaya. (Instead of mrdlaya, it has been proposed to read mardaya.)

I, 18,9. divo na sadmamakhasam. I, 42, 43 46,2; 97, 1-8; II, 11, 3; 27, 10; IV, 15, 73

® See some important remarks on these varieties in Mr. J. Boxwell’s article ‘On the Trish¢ubh Metre,’ Journal Asiat. Soc. Beng., 1885, p. 79.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, CV

Bhat $9525: 5599-75 45 SRG Y W4-F Gs 125-41, 3; OI, 11; 64,5; 65, 43 82, 9; VI, 16, 173 16,18; 16, 45; oy 273. 0, 43 VIN, 15,443 06; @s. VIIT,G, 355. 6, 42; 32,10; 44,28; 45, 31; 72,6; 72,13; 80,13 83,33; 93, mre 1X, 61,5; 64,25 X, 118; 6.

§ 3. — Vf ee os

I, 22, 11. akkhinnapatrak sakantdm.

I, 30, 13. kshumanto ydbhir madema.

by 43.0% 00, 1: 00,47.190, 4: V,-19, 35 70,3; VI,-61, Oe Wiss, %, Ss ide. Rett 2, 39> 3 19: 2-34: 2, 15; 2, 16; 2,173; 2, 29; 2, 30; 2, 32; 2, 33; 2, 36; ey 7.30: 7, 333 16,43 30, G3 11, 4; 16, 33, 16, 45 a5. 10,7200, 2; 72-8 Bi, 1; Bi, 9; 81,45 84, 7; 81, 9; 94; 23 IX, 62, 53 X, 20,43 20, 7:

§ 4. Se es

I, 3, 8. usra iva svasarazi.

I, 27,4. agne deveshu pra vokah.

I, 30, 10; 30,15; 38,7; 38,8; 41,7; 43,7; II, 6,2; mit, 97, $3: V, 92,73 VI,.165 35% 16, 46; 61, 12; VITI,.4, Om, Oy 2, 85 2°98 5 8, 15; %, ATS 2, 2a: 2, 29; 2, 26 2,353 16,2; 16,6; 16,8; 71,93 79,33; IX, 21,5; 62,6; mo a1; X, 20, 55 285, 15 185, 23° 185, 3.

§5.----.

I, 2,7. dhiyam ghritakim sddhanta.

I, 3, 4. azvibhis tana pitdsat.

a, 27,33. 99,:'33 IT, 6,14; TL, 41, 83. Vj..68, 3; 68, 4; sil, 2 10; 2,24; 16, 13 16, 125 79, a; EX, 66, 17; X, ae, 6; 20, 8.

§6.u---.

I, 15,6. vitund yagf#am Asathe.

I, 38, 2. kva vo gdvo na razyanti (see note to I, 38, 2).

I, 38,9; 86,9; III, 27,2; 41, 3; IV, 32, 23; V, 68, 5; 70,2; VI,61,11; VIII, 2,20; 2,25; 7,32; 26,193; 79,4; 79, 5; 81,63; X, 158, 4.

CVI VEDIC HYMNS.

§ }s riser I, 10, 8. sam ga asmabhyam dhiinuhi. I, 12, 5. agne tvam rakshasvinah. I, 37,153 43, 8; 46,6; III, 62, 7; IV, 30, 21; V, 86,5; VIII, 5: 323 3s 353 X, 119, I-13; 144, 4-

SOc cree

I, 2, 9. daksham dadhate apasam (or § 2).

I, 6, 10. indram maho va ragasah.

1,27, 0; 30, 215° 41, 9; 90, TI, 24, 5; V,-10, &; 70, 1; YO, 43: 62; 8; ViIT, 2, 273° 2, 41; 16, 0; SR 43 67; 19; 81, &s Br, Os EX, as, a.

But although with regard to the Gayatra, and I may add, the Anushtubha pddas, the evidence as to the variety Traish‘ubha and Of their vrzttas is such that it can hardly be Gagata Padas. resisted, a much more determined stand has been made in defence of the vrztta of the Traish- tubha and Gagata padas. Here Professor Kuhn and those who follow him maintain that the rule is absolute, that the former must end in u-v, the latter in U—vU-, and that the eighth syllable, immediately preceding these syllables, ought, if possible, to be long. Nor can I deny that Professor Kuhn has brought forward powerful argu- ments in support of his theory, and that his emendations of the Vedic text recommend themselves by their great ingenuity and simplicity. If his theory could be carried out, I should readily admit that we should gain something. We should have throughout'the Veda a perfectly uniform metre, and wherever we found any violation of it, we should be justified in resorting to conjectural criticism.

The only question is at what price this strict uniformity can be obtained. If, for instance, in order to have the regular vrzttas at the end of Traishtubha and Gagata lines, we were obliged to repeal all rules of prosody, to allow almost every short vowel to be used as long, and every long vowel to be used as short, whether long by nature or by position, we should have gained very little, we

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. evil

should have robbed Peter to pay Paul, we should have removed no difficulty, but only ignored the causes which created it. Now, if we examine the process by which Professor Kuhn establishes the regularity of the vvzttas or final syllables of Traishzubha and Gagata padas, we find, in ‘addition to the rules laid down before, and in which he is supported, as we saw, to a great extent by the Pratisakhya and Pavini, viz. the anceps nature of e and o, and of a long final vowel before a vowel, the following exceptions or metrical licences, without which that metrical uniformity at which he aims, could not be obtained :

Prosodial 1. The vowel o in the body of a word is to

Licences. he treated as optionally short :

32. 26, 8. prati vastor usr (see Trish. § 5).

Here the o of vasto# is supposed to be short, although it is the Guva of u, and therefore very different from the final e of sarve or Aste, or the final o of sarvo for sarvas or mano for manas*. It should be remarked that in Greek, too, the final diphthongs corresponding to the e of sarve and Aste are treated as short, as far as the accent is concerned. Hence dmovxot, rémrerar, and even yvépar, nom. plur. In Latin, too, the old terminations of the nom. sing. o and u, instead of the later us, are short. (Neue, Formenlehre, § 23 seq.) :

VI, 51, 15. gopa ama.

Here the o of gopa is treated as short, in order to get v—v— instead of ——v-, which is perfectly legitimate at the end of an Ushzih.

2. The long i and @ are treated as short, not only before vowels, which is legitimate, but also before consonants.

VII, 62, 4. dyavabhimi adite trasithavn nak (see Trish¢. § 5).

The forms isiya and rasiya in VII, 32, 18, occur at the end of octosyllabic or Gayatra pddas, and are therefore

• A very strong divergence of opinion is expressed on this point by Professor Bollensen. He says: ‘O und E erst spiter in die Schrifttafel aufgenommen, bewahren ihre Lange durch das ganze indische Schriftenthum bis ins Apa- bhravzsa hinab. Selbstverstindlich kann kurz o und e im Veda erst recht nicht zugelassen werden.’ Zeitschrift der D. M. G., vol. xxii, P. 574.

CViil VEDIC HYMNS.

perfectly legitimate, yet Professor Kuhn would change

them too, into istya and rasiya. In VII, 28, 4, even may? is treated as mayi (see Trishz. § 5); and in VII, 68, 1, vitam as vitam. If, in explanation of this shortening of vitam, vihi is quoted, which is identified with vihi, this can hardly be considered as an argument, for vihi occurs where no short syllable is required, IV, 48,1; II, 26, 2; and where, therefore, the shortening of the vowel cannot be attributed to metrical reasons.

3. Final m followed by an initial consonant is allowed to make no position, and even in the middle of a word a nasal followed by a liquid is supposed to make positio debilis. Several of the instances, however, given in support, are from Gayatra padas, where Professor Kuhn, in some of his later articles, has himself allowed greater latitude; others admit of different scanning, as for instance,

I, 117, 8. mahak kshowasya asvind kamvaya.

Here, even if we considered the dispondeus as illegiti- mate, we might scan kazvaya, for this scanning occurs in other places, while to treat the first a as short before xv seems tantamount to surrendering all rules of prosody.

4. Final n before semivowels, mutes, and double n before

vowels make no position*. Ex. III, 49, 1. yasmin visva (Trishz, § 5); 1,174, § yasmi# Aakan ; I, 186, 4. sasmin(n) didhan >.

5. Final Visarga before sibilants makes no position ®. Ex. IV, 21, 10. satyah samra¢ (Trishz. § 5). Even in I, 63, 4.

® Professor Kuhn has afterwards (Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 207) modified this view, and instead of allowing a final nasal vowel followed by a mute to make positio debilis, he thinks that the nasal should in most cases be omitted altogether.

b Here a distinction should be made, I think, between an n before a con- sonant, and a final n following a short vowel, which, according to the rules of Sandhi, is doubled, if a vowel follows. In the latter case, the vowel before the n remains, no doubt, short in many cases, or, more correctly, the doubling of the n does not take place, e.g. I, 63, 4; 186, 4. In other places, the doubling seems preferable, e.g. I, 33, 11, though Professor Kuhn would remove it altogether. Kuhn, Beitrage, vol. ili, p. 125.

¢ Here, too, according to later researches, Professor Kuhn would rather omit the final sibilant altogether, loc. cit. vol. iv, p. 207.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, Cix

kodih sakha (probably a GAgata), and V, 82, 4. sAvih sau- bhagam (a Gay. § 7), the long i is treated as short, and the short a of sakha is lengthened, because an aspirate follows.

6. S before mutes makes no position. Ex. VI, 66, 11.

ugra aspridhran (Trish¢. § 3). 7. S before # makes no position. Ex. visvaskandrah, &c.

8. Mutes before s make no position. Ex. rakshas, accord- ing to Professor Kuhn, in the seventh Mazdala only, but

see I, 12, 5; kutsa, &c.

9. Mutes before r or v make no position. Ex. susipra, dirghasrut.
10. Sibilants before y make no position. Ex. dasyin.
11. R followed by mutes or sibilants makes no position. Ex. Ayur givase, khardih, varshishzham.
12. Words like smaddishdin, &c. retain their vowel short before two following consonants. We now proceed to consider a number of prosodial rules

which Professor Kuhn proposes to repeal in order to have a long syllable where the MSS. supply a short:

1, The vowel 77 is to be pronounced as long, or rather as ar. ex. 1, 12, 9. tasmai pavaka mrdlaya is to be read mardaya ; ¥V) 33; Fo. samvaranasya risheh is to be read arshe#. But why not samvaranasya : Pisheh (i.e. siarshe) ?

2. The a privativum may be lengthened. Ex. agarah, amritah.

_3: Short vowels before Jiquids may be long. Ex. nara, taruta, tarati, marutam, harivah, arushi, dadhur iha, suvita (p. 471).

4 Short vowels before nasals may be lengthened. Ex. ganan, sanitar, tant, upa nak.

5. Short vowels before the ma of the superlative may be lengthened. Ex. nritama.

6. The short a in the roots sam and yam, and in am (the termination of the accusative) may be lengthened.

CX VEDIC HYMNS.

7. The group ava is to be pronounced aua. Ex. avase

becomes auase; savita becomes sauita; nava becomes naua. v wv NY —

8. The group aya is to be changed into aia or ea. Ex.

vy ww YY _- wwe

nayasi becomes naiasi. g. The group va is to be changed into ua, and this ua to be treated as a kind of diphthong and therefore long.

Ex. kanvatamak becomes ‘karaatamah ; varuzak becomes Garuvah.

10. The short vowel in the reduplicated syllable of per- fects is to be lengthened. Ex. tatanah, dadhire.

11. Short vowels before all aspirates may be lengthened. Ex. rathak becomes rathaz; sakha becomes sakha.

12. Short vowels before h and all sibilants may be lengthened. Ex. mahini becomes mahini ;.usigam becomes usigdm ; rishate becomes rishate; dasat becomes dasat.

13. The short vowel before t may be lengthened. Ex. vagavatah becomes vagavatak; atithiz becomes atithiz.

14. The short vowel before d may be lengthened. Ex.

udaram becomes udaram; ud ava becomes ud ava. 15. The short vowel before p may be lengthened. Ex.

apam becomes apim; tapushim becomes tapushim; gvri- hapatim becomes grzhapatim.

16. The short vowel before g and g may be lengthened. Ex. sAnushag asat becomes sdnushag asat; yunagan be-

comes yunagan.

Let us now turn back for one moment to look at the slaughter which has been committed! Is there one single rule of prosody that has been spared? Is there one single short syllable that must always remain short, or a long syllable that must always remain long? If all re- strictions of prosody are thus removed, our metres, no doubt, become perfectly regular. But it should be remem- bered that these metrical rules, for which all this carnage has been committed, are not founded upon any a priori principles, but deduced by ancient or modern metricians from those very hymns which seem so constantly to violate

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. cXI

them. Neither ancient nor modern metricians had, as far as we know, any evidence to go upon besides the hymns of the Rig-veda ; and the philosophical speculations as to the origin of metres in which some of them indulge, and from which they would fain derive some of their unbending rules, are, as need hardly be said, of no consequence whatever. I cannot understand what definite idea even modern writers connect with such statements as that, for instance, the Trish¢ubh metre sprang from the Gagati metre, that the eleven syllables of the former are an abbreviation of the twelve syllables of the latter. Surely, metres are not made artificially, and by addition or subtraction. Metres have a natural origin in the rhythmic sentiment of different people, and they become artificial and arithmetical in the same way as language with its innate principles of law and analogy becomes in course of time grammatical and artificial. To derive one metre from another is like deriving a genitive from a nominative, which we may do indeed for grammatical purposes, but which no one would venture to do who is at all acquainted with the natural and independent production of grammatical forms. Were we to arrange the Trishzubh and Gagati metres in chronological order, I should decidedly place the Trish¢ubh first, for we see, as it were before our eyes, how sometimes one foot, sometimes two and three feet in a Trishzubh verse admit an additional syllable at the end, particularly in set phrases which would not submit to a Trish¢ubh ending. The phrase sam no bhava dvipade sam katushpade is evidently a solemn phrase, and we see it brought in without hesitation, even though every other line of the same strophe or hymn is Trish¢ubh, i.e. hendeca- syllabic, not dodecasyllabic. See, for instance, VI, 74, 1; VII, 54,1; X, 85, 44; 165, 1. However, I maintain by no means that this was the actual origin of Gagati metres; I only refer to it in order to show the groundlessness of metrical theories which represent the component elements, a foot of one or two or four syllables as given first, and as afterwards compounded into systems of two, three or four such feet, and who therefore would wish us to look upon the hendecasyl- labic Trish¢ubh as originally a dodecasyllabic Gagati, only

CXli | VEDIC HYMNS.

deprived of its tail. If my explanation of the name of Tri- shzubh, i. e. Three-step, is right, its origin must be ascribed to a far more natural process than that of artificial amputation. It was to accompany a choros, i.e. a dance, which after advancing freely for eight steps in one direction, turned back (vrztta) with three steps, the second of which was strongly marked, and would therefore, whether in song or recitation, be naturally accompanied by a long syllable. It certainly is so in the vast majority of Trishtubhs which have been handed down to us. But if among these verses we find a small number in which this simple and palpable rhythm is violated, and which nevertheless were preserved from the first in that imperfect form, although the tempta- tion to set them right must have been as great to the ancient as it has proved to be to the modern students of the Veda, are we to say that nearly all, if not all, the rules that determine the length and shortness of syllables, and which alone give character to every verse, are to be sus- pended? Or, ought we not rather to consider, whether the ancient choregic poets may not have indulged occasionally in an irregular movement? We see that this was so with regard to Gayatri verses. We see the greater freedom of the first and second padas occasionally extend to the third ; and it will be impossible, without-intolerable violence, to remove all the varieties of the last pada of a Gayatri of which I have given examples above, pages civ seqq.

It is, of course, impossible to give here all the evidence that might be brought forward in support of similar freedom Traishtubha in Trishzubh verses, and I admit that the

idioms number of real varieties with them is smaller than with the Gayatris. In order to make the evidence which I have to bring forward in support of these varieties as unassailable as possible, I have excluded nearly every pada that occurs only in the first, second, or third line of a strophe, and have restricted myself, with few exceptions, and those chiefly referring to padas that had been quoted by other scholars in support of their own theories, to the final padas of Trish¢ubh verses. Yet even with this limited evidence, I think I shall be able to establish at least three

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CXlil

varieties of Trishtubh. Preserving the same classification which I adopted before for the Gayatris, so as to include the important eighth syllable of the Trish¢ubh, which does not properly belong to the vrztta, I maintain that class 4. uv-—-, class 5. -——-—, and class 8. -uwu-— must be recognised as legimate endings in the hymns of the Veda, and that by recognising them we are relieved from nearly all, if not all, the more violent prosodial licences which Professor Kuhn felt himself obliged to admit in his theory of Vedic metres.

§ 4. A AJ se oe

The verses which fall under § 4 are so numerous that after those of the first Mazdala, mentioned above, they need not be given here in full. They are simply cases where the eighth syllable is not lengthened, and they cannot be supposed to run counter to any rule of the Prati- sakhya, for the simple reason that the Pratisakhya never gave such a rule as that the eighth syllable must be lengthened, if the ninth is short. Examples will be found in the final pada of Trishtubhs: II, 30,6; III, 36, 4; 53, 153 54,123 IV,1,16; 2,7; 9511; 4,123 6,13 2; 437,73 II, 53 17,33 23,6; 24,23 27,1; 28,53 55,53 57, %3 Vol, 2; VI,17, 10; 23,83; 23,7; 25,53 29,6; 33,1; 62,1; 63, 7; VII, 21,5; 28,33 42,4; 56,15; 60,10; 84,2; 92,4; mast... 23 ::96,05 LX, 92, 5 5. O1,.333:12 3 74, 35.117, Jr

In support of § 5. -— —-—, the number of cases is smaller, but it should be remembered that it might be considerably increased if I had not restricted myself to the final pada of each Trish¢ubh, while the first, second, and third pddas would have yielded a much larger harvest:

Peace

I, 89, 9. ma no madhyé ririshatayur gantof.

I, 92, 6. supratika saumanasdyagigah.

[, 114,53 117,23 122, 1; 122, 8; 186, 3; II, 4,2; III, 49, 2; IV,-3, 93 26,63 V, 41, 143. VI, 25, 2; 66,11; VII, 8, é 84; OB 2s 91,9; 78)35 99,°7°; IX, 90, 4; X, ‘7 2.

[32] h

CX1V VEDIC HYMNS.

I do not wish to deny that in several of these lines it would be possible to remove the long syllable from the ninth place by conjectural emendation. Instead of ayur in I, 89, 9, we might read Ayu; in I, 92, 6, we might drop the augment of agigar; in II, 4, 2, we might admit syni- zesis in aratir, and then read gira-asvah, as in 3; Yay, fa. In VI, 25, 2, after eliding the a of ava, we might read dasizZ. But even if, in addition to all this, we were to admit the possible suppression of final m in asmabhyam, mahyam, and in the accusative singular, or the suppres- sion of s in the nominative singular, both of which would be extreme measures, we should still have a number of cases which could not be righted without even more vio- lent remedies. Why then should we not rather admit the occasional appearance of a metrical variation which certainly has a powerful precedent in the dispondeus of Gayatris? I am not now acquainted with the last results of metrical criticism in Virgil, but, unless some new theories now prevail, I well recollect that spondaic hexameters, though small in number, much smaller than in the Veda, were recognised by the best scholars, and no emendations attempted to remove them. If then in Virgil we read,

‘Cum patribus populoque, penatibusque et magnis dis,’ why not follow the authority of the best MSS. and the tradition of the Pratisékhyas and admit a dispondeus at the end of a Trishtubh rather than suspend, in order to meet this single difficulty, some of the most fundamental rules of prosody?

I now proceed to give a more numerous list of Trai- shtubha padas ending in a choriambus, — vu vu -, again con- fining myself, with few exceptions, to final padas:

§8. -vuu-. I, 62, 3. sam usriydbhir vavasanta nara. I, 103, 4. yad dha stinué sravase nama dadhe. 1, 221508. 122, 30" %:474,5; 290, 23 Al, 4.32 3 45 oe 143. 1V,.2, 29°%s 255-43 39)-23 Vs -$0,-123: 41, 43: 43,455

® ‘Nur eine Stelle habe ich mir angemerkt, wo das Metrum dam verlangt.’

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CXV

VI, 4,73 10,55 11,43 13,1"; 13, 1%; 20,1; 20,195 29,43 33, 33 33, 53 44, IL; 49, 12; 68, 5; 68, 7; VII, 19, 10; 62, 4; IX, 97, 26; X, 55, 8; 99,9; 108, 6; 169, I.

It is perfectly true that this sudden change in the rhythm of Trishfubh verses, making their ending iambic instead of trochaic, grates on our ears. But, I believe, that if we admit a short stop after the seventh syllable, the intended rhythm of these verses will become intelligible. We remarked a similar break in the verses of hymn X, 77, where the sudden transition to an iambic metre was used with great effect, and the choriambic ending, though less effective, is by no means offensive. It should be remarked also, that in many, though not in all cases, a caesura takes place after the seventh syl- lable, and this is, no doubt, a great help towards a better delivery of these choriambic Trish/ubhs.

While, however, I contend for the recognition of these three varieties of the normal Trish¢ubh metre, I am quite willing to admit that other variations besides these, which occur from time to time in the Veda, form a legitimate subject of critical discussion.

§ 2. VvuUU =, Trishzubh verses, the final pada of which ends in UUVv -, I should generally prefer to treat as ending in a Gagata

pada, in which this ending is more legitimate. Thus I should propose to scan:

ve ww _ ww we { v w ve — I, 122, 11. prasastaye mahina rathavate. ooo ai ok —-— — wo, fu wv wv = III, 20, 5. vasin rudrafi Adityan iha huve. ww _ — _ ww we WY ow 4 ww vw wy — V, 2,1. purak pasyanti nihitam (tam) aratau. ww — weww wv - ! ww vw ww o- VI, 13, 5. vayo vrtkayaraye gasuraye. § tS ee ee I should propose the same medela for some final pddas of Trishzubhs apparently ending in u — U —. We might indeed, as has been suggested, treat these verses as single instances of that peculiar metre which we saw carried out in the whole of hymn X, 77, but at the end of a verse the ad-

Kuhn, Beitrige, vol. iv, p. 180; Bollensen, Zeitschrift der D. M. G., vol. xxii, P. 587. h 2

CXVvi VEDIC HYMNS.

mission of an occasional Gagata pada is more in accordance with the habit of the Vedic poets. Thus I should scan: vw — wv — ww ~~ | ww — Ne — V; 33, 4. vrzsha samatsu dasasya nama Ait *. ars aig ane eg Pe lt ge ee a

V, 41, 5°. raya eshesvase dadhita dhif.

After what I have said before on the real character of the teaching of the Pratisakhya, I need not show again that the fact of Uvaza’s counting ta of dadhita as the tenth syllable is of no importance in determining the real nature of these hymns, though it is of importance, as Professor Kuhn re- marks (Beitrage, vol. iii, p. 451), in showing that Uvaza con- sidered himself at perfect liberty in counting or not counting, for his own purposes, the elided syllable of avase.

we w , vw ww ww _ I ww = wv — VII, 4,6. mapsavaz pari shadima maduvaz. §6.u---.

_Final padas of Trishtubhs ending in u — — — are very scarce. In VI, 1, 4, :

bhadrayam te razayanta samdrishéau, it would be very easy to read bhadraydm te samdrishfau ramayanta; and in X, 74, 2,

dyaur na varebhi# krimavanta svaih, we may either recognise a Gagata pada, or read

dyaur na vdrebhiz ky-iavanta svaih, which would agree with the metre of hymn X, 77.

§7.--u-. Padas ending in — — v — do not occur as final in any

Traishtubha hymn, but as many Gagata padas occur in

the body of Traish¢ubha hymns, we have to scan them as dodecasyllabic :

I, 63, 4%. tvam ha tyad indra Rodik sakha.

IV, 26, 6°. paravatak sakuno mandram madam.

The adjective pavaka which frequently occurs at the end of final and internal padas of Trishtubh hymns has always

® Professor Kuhn has finally adopted the same scanning, Beitrage, vol. iv, p- 184.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CXVil

to be scanned pavaka. GE TV) 55:9 3: VA, Su@t 20; 43 $1, 35 Vis 35:13 939, 1"; 56; 125: X, 46,-7°.

I must reserve what I have to say about other metres of the Veda for another opportunity, but I cannot leave

Omission of this subject without referring once more to a

finalm ands. metrical licence which has been strongly advocated by Professor Kuhn and others, and by the admission of which there is no doubt that many diffi- culties might be removed, I mean the occasional omission of a final m and s, and the subsequent contraction of the final and initial vowels. The arguments that have been brought forward in support of this are very powerful. There is the general argument that final s and m are liable to be dropt in other Aryan languages, and par- ticularly for metrical purposes. There is the stronger argu- ment that in some cases final s and m in Sanskrit may or may not be omitted, even apart from any metrical stress. In Sanskrit we find that the demonstrative pronoun sas appears most frequently as sa (sa dadati), and if followed — by liquid vowels, it may coalesce with them even in later Sanskrit. Thus we see saisha for sa esha, sendra# for sa indrak sanctioned for metrical purposes even by PaAzini, VI, 1, 134. We might refer also to feminines which have s in the nominative singular after bases in t, but drop it after bases in i. We find in the Samhita text, V, 7, 8, svadhitiva, instead of svadhitiZ-iva in the Pada text, sanc- tioned by the Pratisakhya 259; likewise IX, 61, 10, Sam- hita, bhtimy 4 dade, instead of Pada, bhimiz 4 dade. But before we draw any general conclusions from such in- stances, we should consider whether they do not admit of a grammatical instead of a metrical explanation. The nominative singular of the demonstrative pronoun was sa before it was sas; by the side of bhimizZ we have a secondary form bhtiimi; and we may conclude from sva- dhiti-van, I, 88, 2, that the Vedic poets knew of a form svadhiti, by the side of svadhitiz.

As to the suppression of final m, however, we see it admitted by the best authorities, or we see at least alter- nate forms with or without m, in tubhya, which occurs

CXViil VEDIC HYMNS,

frequently instead of tubhyam®, and twice, at least, with- out apparently any metrical reason’, We find asmdka instead of asmaékam (I, 173, 10), yushmdka instead of yushmdkam (VII, 59, 9-10), yagadhva instead of ydgadh- vam (VIII, 2, 37) sanctioned both by the Sazhita and Pada texts °

If then we have such precedents, it may well be asked why we should hesitate to adopt the same expedient, the omission of final m and s, whenever the Vedic metres seem to require it. Professor Bollensen’s remark, that Vedic verses cannot be treated to all the licences of Latin scanning“, is hardly a sufficient answer; and he himself, though under a slightly different form, would admit as much, if not more, than has been admitted on this point by Professors Kuhn and Roth. Ona priori grounds I should by no means feel opposed to the admission of a possible elision of final s or m, or even n; and my only doubt is whether it is really necessary for the proper scanning of Vedic metres,

My own opinion has always been, that if we admit on a larger scale what in single words can hardly be doubted by anybody, viz. the pronunciation of two syllables as one, we need not fall back on the elision of final consonants in order to arrive at a proper scanning of Vedic metres. On this point I shall have to say a few words in conclusion, because I shall frequently avail myself of this licence, for the purpose of righting apparently corrupt verses in the hymns of the Rig-veda ; and I feel bound to explain, once for all, why I avail my- self of it in preference to other emendations which have been proposed by scholars such as Professors Benfey, Kuhn, Roth, Bollensen, and others.

The merit of having first pointed out some cases where

Synizesis,

• TI, §4 93 135, 23 Ill, 42, 8; V, 11, §; VII, 22, 7; VII, 51, 9; 76, 8; 8a, 8; IX, 6a, 27; 86, 30; X, 316, x.

» I-33, 83 Vide, 4

© See Bollensen, Orient und Occident, vol. iii, p. 459; Kuhn, Beitrige, vol, iv, p. 199.

“ Orient und Occident, vol. iv, p. 449.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CX1X

two syllables must be treated as one, belongs, I believe, to Professor Bollensen in his article, ‘Zur Herstellung des Veda,’ published in Benfey’s Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 461. He proposed, for instance, to write hyand instead of hiydnd, IX, 13, 6; dhydnd instead of dhiyand, VIII, 49, 5; sdhyase instead of sahiyase, I, 71, 4; y4nd instead of iy4nd, VIII, 50, 5, &c. The actual alteration of these words seems to me unnecessary; nor should we think of resorting to such violent measures in Greek where, as far as metrical purposes are concerned, two vowels have not unfrequently to be treated as one.

That iva counts in many passages as one syllable is admitted by everybody. The only point on which I differ is that I do not see why iva, when monosyllabic, should be changed to va, instead of being pronounced quickly, or, to adopt the terminology of Greek grammarians, by synizesis *. Synizesis is well explained by Greek scholars as a quick pronunciation of two vowels so that neither should be lost, and as different thereby from synaloephe, which means the contraction of two vowels into one’, This synizesis is by no means restricted to iva and a few other words, but seems to me a very frequent expedient resorted to by the ancient Rishis.

Originally it may have arisen from the fact that language allows in many cases alternate forms of one or two sylla- bles, As in Greek we have double forms like dAeyewwds and ddyewds, yadaxtopdyos and yAaxtodpayos, mernvds and mrnvds, muxivds and muxvds °, and as in Latin we have the shortening

• Synizesis in Greek applies only to the quick pronunciation of two vowels, if in immediate contact ; and not, if separated by consonants, Samprasdrava might seem a more appropriate term, but though the grammatical process designated in Sanskrit by Samprasfrava offers some analogies, it could only by a new definition be applied to the metrical process here intended.

A. B. p. 835, 30. éort 58 ey rots Kowois pérpos Kat 4 Kadroupévn ouver- puvnois f Kar ovvitnois Aéyera. “Orav yap pavndvrwy émddAndos yévnras % mpopopd, Tore yiverar % avvitnois els play avAdrdaBhv. Arapépe be cvvadouphs’ h pev yap ypappdrov tori Kromh, 4h 68 xpbvov" Kal h pry avvadouph, ds A€ye- ra, paivera, % 52 ob. Mehlhorn, Griechische Grammatik, § 101. Thus in

NeomrdAeuos we have synizesis, in NoumrdAeuos synseresis. © Cf, Mehlhorn, Griechische Grammatik, § 57.

CXX VEDIC HYMNS.

or suppression of vowels carried out on the largest scale ®, we find in Sanskrit, too, such double forms as przthvi or pvzthivi, adhi and dhi, api and pi, ava and va. The occur- rence of such forms which have nothing to do with metrical considerations, but are perfectly legitimate from a gram- matical point of view, would encourage a tendency to treat two syllables—and particularly two short syllables—as one, whenever an occasion arose. There are, besides, in the Vedic Sanskrit a number of forms where, as we saw, a long syllable has to be pronounced as two. In some of these cases this pronunciation is legitimate, i.e. it preserves an original dissyllabic form which in course of time had become monosyllabic. In other cases the same process takes place through a mistaken sense of analogy, where we cannot prove that an original dissyllabic form had any existence even in a prehistoric state of language. The occurrence of a number of such alternate forms would naturally leave a general im- pression in the minds of poets that two short syllables and one long syllable were under certain circumstances inter- changeable. So considerable a number of words in which a long syllable has to be pronounced as two syllables has been collected by Professors Kuhn, Bollensen, and others, that no doubt can remain on this subject. Vedic poets, being allowed to change a semivowel into a vowel, were free to say nasatya and nisatyd, VITE, 5; 3; prithivyds and prithivyas ; pitrok and pitro#, I, 31, 4. They could separate compound words, and pronounce ghvitanna/ or ghrita-annah, VII, 3,1. They could insert a kind of shewa or svarabhakti in words like simne or sdmne, VIII, 6, 47; dhdamne or dhamne, VIII, 92, 25; ardvzak and aravaah, IX, 63, 5. They might vary between panti and pantis I, 41, 2; ydthana and yathana, I, 39, 3; nidhdto# and nidhatof, I, 41, 9; tredha and tredh, I, 34, 8; devaz and devah (besides devasah), 15299 24; rodasi and el 1,93; 93 59,43 64,93 and rodasyoA, I, 33, 5; 59, 23 117, 103

@ See the important chapters on ‘ Kiirzung der Vokale’ and ‘ Tilgung der Vokale’ in Corssen’s ‘ Aussprache des Lateinischen ;’ and more especially his remarks on the so-called irrational vowels in Plautus, ibid. vol. ii, p. 70.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CXXi

VI, 24, 3; VII, 6, 2; X, 74, 1% Need we wonder then if we find that, on the other hand, they allowed themselves

to pronounce pr?thivi as s prithivi, I, 104, 6;. Val; 34 7; 3 99; 33

dhrishvava as dh tehobava. V, 43,14: suvdna as suvana ? There is no reason why we should change the spelling of suvana into svana. The metre itself tells us at once where suvana is to be pronounced as two or as three syllables. Nor is it possible to believe that those who first handed down and afterwards wrote down the text of the Vedic hymns, should have been ignorant of that freedom of pro- nunciation. Why, there is not one single passage in the whole of the ninth Mazdala, where, as far as I know, su- vana should not be pronounced as dissyllabic, i.e. as

suvana; and to suppose that the scholars of India did not know how that superfluous syllable should be re- moved, is really taking too low an estimate of men like Vyafi or Saunaka.

But if we once admit that in these cases two syllables separated by a single consonant were pronounced as one and were metrically counted as one, we can hardly resist the evidence in favour of a similar pronunciation in a large number of other words, and we shall find that by the admission of this rapid pronunciation, or of what in Plautus we should call irrational vowels, many verses assume at once their regular form without the necessity of admitting the suppression of final s, m, n, or the introduction of other prosodial licences. To my mind the most convinc- ing passages are those where, as in the Atyash¢i and similar hymns, a poet repeats the same phrase twice, alter- ing only one or two words, but without endeavouring to avoid an excess of syllables which, to our mind, unless we resort to synizesis, would completely destroy the uni- formity of the metre. Thus we read:

ee a Oe ee ee

I, 133, 6. aptrushaghno s pratita stira satvabhif,

trisaptaiz sira satvabhiz.

• Professor Bollensen in some of these passages proposes to read rodasios.

In I, 96, 4, no change is necessary if we read visim, Zeitschrift der D. M. G., vol, xxii, p. 587.

CXXIl VEDIC HYMNS.

Here nospra must be pronounced with one ictus only, in order to get a complete agreement between the two iambic diameters.

I, 134, 5. ugra ishavanta bhurvavi,

apam ishanta bhurvami. As ishanta never occurs again, I suspect that the original reading was ishavanta in both lines, and that in the second line ishazanta, pronounced rapidly, was mistaken for ishanta. Is not bhurvami a locative, corresponding to the datives in vane which are so frequently used in the sense of infinitives ? See note to I, 6,8, page 47 seq. In I, 138, 3, we must read:

ahe/amana urusamsa sari bhava,

vage-vage sari bhava. In I, 129, 11, adha hi tvd ganita giganad vaso, 30 rakshohavam tv giganad vaso,

we might try to remove the difficulty by omitting vaso at the end of the refrain, but this would be against the general character of these hymns. We want the last word vaso, if possible, at the end of both lines. But, if so, we must admit two cases of synizesis, or, if this seems too clumsy, we must omit tva.

I shall now proceed to give a number of other examples in which the same consonantal synizesis seems necessary in order to make the rhythm of the verses perceptible to our ears as it was to the ears of the ancient Azshis.

The preposition anu takes synizesis in

I, 127, 1. ghrztasya vibhrdsh¢im anu vash/i sokisha. Cf. ed, 1

The preposition abhi:

I, 91, 23. rayo bhagam sahasavann abhi yudhya.

Here Professor Kuhn changes sahasdvan into sahasvah, which, no doubt, is a very simple and very plausible emen- dation. But in altering the text of the Veda many things have to be considered, and in our case it might be objected that sahasva# never occurs again as an epithet of Soma.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CXXili

As an invocation sahasva% refers to no deity but Agni, and even in its other cases it is applied to Agni and Indra only. However, I do not by any means maintain that sahasva/ could not be applied to Soma, for nearly the same argu- ments could be used against sahasdvan, if conjecturally put in the place of sahasvak; I only wish to point out how everything ought to be tried first, before we resort in the Veda to conjectural emendations. Therefore, if in our pas- sage there should be any objection to admitting the syni- zesis in abhi, I should much rather propose synizesis of sahasavan, than change it into sahasvak. There is synizesis in maha, e.g. I, 133, 6. avar maha indra dadvzhi srudhi nak. Although this verse is quoted by the Pratisdkhya, Sitra 522, as one in which the lengthened syllable dhi of srudhi does not occupy the tenth place, and which therefore re- quired special mention, the original poet evidently thought otherwise, and lengthened the syllable, being a syllable liable to be lengthened, because it really occupied the tenth place, and therefore received a peculiar stress.

The preposition pari: VI, 52, 14. ma vo vakAmsi parikakshydai vokam, sumneshv id vo antamad madema.

Here Professor Kuhn (Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 197) begins the last pada with vokam, but this is impossible, unless we change the accent of vokam, though even then the separa- tion of the verb from ma and the accumulation of two verbs in the last line would be objectionable. -

Hari is pronounced as hari:

VII, 32,12. ya indro harivan na dabhanti tam ripac.

II, 18, 5. 4 Aatvarimsatd haribhir yugdnah.

Hence I propose to scan the difficult verse I, 167, 1, as follows :

sahasram ta indra-fitayo nah, ae

sahasram isho harivo gfirtatamas®,

• As to the scanning of the second line see p. cxiv.

CXXIV VEDIC HYMNS.

YY = =

sahasram rayo madayadhyai,

vw we ww

sahasriva upa no yantu vagah.

That the final o instead of as is treated as a short syllable we saw before, and in I, 133, 6, we observed that it was liable to synizesis. We see the same in

wv wv we oe gst. _ vw — ~ - _ I, 175, 6. maya ivapo na trzshyate babhitha.

oe ee ae

V, 61,16. 4 yagfiydso vavrittana.

The pragvzhya i of the dual is known in the Veda to be liable in certain cases to Sandhi. If we extend this licence beyond the limits recognised by the Pratisékhya, we might scan

VI, 52, 14. ubhe rodasy apam napa ka manma, or we might shorten the i before the a, and admitting synizesis, scan : a

ubhe rodasi apam napak ka manma.

In III, 6, 10, we must either admit Sandhi between praki and adhvaréva, or contract the first two syllables of adhvaréva.

The o and e of vocatives before vowels, when changed into av or a(y), are liable to synizesis:

ae ie eke ee ane IV, 48, 1. vayav 4 kandrevza rathena (Anush/¢ubh, c.)

A

IV, 1, 2. sa bhrdtaram varuzam agna 4 vavritsva.

The termination avak also, before vowels, seems to count as one syllable in V, 52, 14, divo va dhrishvava ogasd, which would render Professor Bollensen’s correction (Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 480), dhyzshztogasa, unnecessary.

Like ava and iva, we find aya and iya, too, in several words liable to be contracted in pronunciation; e.g. vayam, Vi, 2%, §;..ayam, £, 127, 4; .tyam, VIL,.66, 3°: 2. 196, 74 (unless we read vorsme); X,129,6. Professor Bollensen’s proposal to change iyam to im, and ayam to 4m (Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 461), would only cause obscurity, - without any adequate gain, while other words would by a similar suppression of vowels or consonants become simply irrecognisable. In I, 169, 6, for instance, 4dha has to be

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. CXXV

pronounced with one ictus; in VI, 26, 7, sadhavira is tri- syllabic. In VI, 10,1, we must admit synizesis in adhvaré ; in I, 161, 8, either in udakdm or in abravitana; I, IIo, g, in ~tbhumdn; VIII, 79, 4, in divak; V, 4, 6, in nrztama (unless we read sosgne); I, 164,17, in parak; VI, 15, 14, in pavaka; I, 191, 6; VII, 34, 73; 99, 3, in prithivi; II, 20, 8, in plrak; VI, 10, 1, in prayat{; VI, 17, 7, in brzhat ; IX, 19, 6, in bhiyasam ; I, 133, 6, in maha; II, 28, 6; IV, 1,2; VI, 75, 18, in varuza; III, 30, 21, in vyzshabha; VII, 41, 6, in vaginak; II, 43, 2, in sisumatiZ; VI, 51, 2, in sanutar; VI, 18, 12, in sthavirasya, &c.

These remarks will, I hope, suffice in order to justify the ‘principles by which I have been guided in my treatment of the text and in my translation of the Rig-veda. I know I shall seem to some to have been too timid in retaining whatever can possibly be retained in the traditional text of these ancient hymns, while others will look upon the emen- dations which I have suggested as unpardonable temerity. Let everything be weighed in the just scales of argument. Those who argue for victory, and not for truth, can have no hearing in our court. There is too much serious work to be done to allow time for wrangling or abuse. Any dic- tionary will supply strong words to those who condescend to such warfare, but strong arguments require honest labour, sound judgment, and, above all, a genuine love of truth.

The second volume, which I am now preparing for Press, will contain the remaining hymns addressed to the Maruts. The notes will necessarily have to be reduced to smaller dimensions, but they must always constitute the more im- portant part in a translation or, more truly, in a deciphering of Vedic hymns.

F. MAX MULLER.

PARKS END, OXFORD: March, 1869.

VEDIC HYMN >.

VEDIC. EY AEN S.

MANDALA X, HYMN 121. ASHTAKA VIII, ADHYAYA 7, VARGA 3-4.

To THE UnkNown Gop.

1. In the beginning there arose the Golden Child (Hirazya-garbha'); as soon as born, he alone was the lord of all that is. He stablished the earth and this heaven:—Who is the’God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

2. He who gives breath, he who gives strength, whose? command all the bright gods revere, whose shadow? is immortality, whose shadow is death :-— Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

3. He who through his might became the sole king of the breathing and twinkling! world, who governs all this, man and beast :—Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ? |

4. He through whose might! these snowy moun- tains are, and the sea, they say, with the distant river (the Rasa?), he of whom these regions are indeed the two arms :—Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

5. He through whom the awful heaven and the earth were made fast’, he through whom the ether was stablished, and the firmament; he who measured the air in the sky?:—Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

[32] B

2 VEDIC HYMNS.

6. He to whom heaven and earth’, standing firm by his will, look up, trembling in their mind; he over whom the risen sun shines forth :—Whao is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

7, When the great waters! went everywhere, holding the germ (Hirazya-garbha), and generating light, then there arose from them the (sole?) breath of the gods :—Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

8. He who by his might looked even over the waters which held power (the germ) and generated the sacrifice (light!), he who alone is God above all gods?:—Who is the God to whom we shall

• offer sacrifice ?

9. May he not hurt us, he who is the begetter of the earth, or he, the righteous, who begat the heaven; he who also begat the bright and mighty waters :—Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ?

[10'. PragApati, no other than thou embraces all these created things. May that be ours which we desire when sacrificing to thee: may we be lords of wealth !]

NOTES ¢ SJ 121. 3

hy OTE Sd.

This hymn is ascribed to Hirazyagarbha Pragapatya, and is supposed to be addressed to Ka, Who, i.e. the Unknown God.

First translated in my History of Ancient Sanskrit Litera- ture, 1859, p. 569; see also Hibbert Lectures, 1882, p. 301; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, IV, p. 15.

Ee Verse 1=VS. XIII, 4; XXIII, 1; XXV, 10; TS. IV, meee. 2.8.2; AVIV, 27. —.

we Ov, AAV, 19; 1S. 1V, 1, 8,4; VI, 5, 17:35 wey. 1V,2,1; XIII, 3, 24.

eres $22 Vo AX, 2; XV, 11; TS. TV, 1, 8,4; mar. 5, 16,1; AV. IV, 2, 2.

Verse 4= VS. XXV, 12; TS. IV, 1, 8,4; AV. IV, 2, 5.

Verse 5=VS. XXXII, 6; TS. IV, 1, 8,5; AV. IV, 2, 4.

Verse 6= VS. XXXII, 7; TS. IV, 1, $5; AV. TV, 2, 3.

Verse. 7=VS. XXVIII, 25; XXXII, 7; TS. Il, 2, 12,1; aV,.¢, 6, 5: EA, F, 29, 6; AV. TV, 2, 6.

Verse $= VS. XXVIII, 26; XAXATI. 7; TS.-FV, 1, 8, 6.

Verse 9: VS. XII, 102; TS. FV, 2, 7, 1,

Verse 10=VS. X, 20; XXIII, 65; TS. I, 8, 14, 2; III, eo. 15. 118. 1,23 Il, 5, 7,1; AV. VU, 79,4; 80, 3.

This is one of the hymns which has always been sus- pected as modern by European interpreters. The reason is clear. To us the conception of one God, which pervades the whole of this hymn, seems later than the conception of many individual gods, as recognised in various aspects of nature, such as the gods of the sky, the sun, the storms, or the fire. And in a certain sense we may be right, and language also confirms our sentiment. In our hymn there ate several words which do not occur again in the Rig- veda, or which occur in places only which have likewise been suspected to be of more modern date. Hirazyagarbha

be

4 VEDIC HYMNS.

itself is an dma€ deyduevov. Sam avartata is found only in the last Mazdala, X, 90, 14; 129, 4. Bhdta also, in the sense of what is, occurs in the tenth Mazdala only. It is used three times (X, 55, 2; 58, 12; 90, 2) as opposed to bhavya, i.e. what is and what will be; and once more in the sense of all that is (X, 85, 17). Atmad&Z, in the sense of giving life, is another dmaé Xeydpevov. Prasish is re- stricted to Mandalas I (I, 145, 1), IX (IX, 66, 6; 86, 32), and our passage. Himavat, dma€ Aeyduevov. The repeti- tion of the relative pronoun in verses 2 and 4 is unusual. In the tenth verse the compound yat-kamaz is modern, and the insertion of etaéni between tvat and anydaZ is at all events exceptional. The passage V, 31, 2 is not parallel, because in tvat indra vdsya# anydat, the ablative tvat is governed by vasyad. In VI, 21, 10, na tvavan anyas amrita tvat asti, anya is separated from tvat by a vocative only, as in VIII, 24, 11.

But when we say that a certain hymn is modern, we must carefully consider what we mean. Our hymn, for instance, must have existed not only previous to the Brahmaza period, for many Brahmazas presuppose it, but previous to the Mantra period also. It is true that no verse of it occurs in the SAma-veda, but in the Sdma-veda-brahmamza IX, 9, 12, vetse I at least is mentioned*®. Most of its verses, however, occur in the Vagasaneyi-samzhita, in the Taittirtya- samhita, and in the Atharva-veda-samhita, nay, the last verse, to my mind the most suspicious of all, occurs most frequently in the other Samhitas and Brahmamzas.

But though most of the verses of our hymn occur in other Samhitas, they do not always occur in the same order.

In the Vag. Samzh. we have the first verse in XIII, 4, but no other verse of our hymn follows. We have the first verse again in XXIII, 1, but not followed by verse 2, but by verse 3 (XXIII, 3)". Then we have verse I once more

a The last line is here, tasmai ta indo havisha vidhema, let us sacrifice to him with thy oblation, O Soma! b Var. lect. nimeshata/.

NOTES. X, 121. 5

in XXV, 10, followed by verse 3 (XXV, 11), by verse 4 (XXV, 12), and then by verse 2 (XXV, 13).

We have verses 5, 6,7, 8in VS. XXXII, 6 and 7, and verses 7 and 8 in VS. XXVII, 25 and 26, while verse g is found in XII, 102 only*, and the last verse in X, 20°, and XXIII, 65.

In the Taitt. Saszhita the verses follow more regularly, still never quite in the same order as in the Rig-veda. In TS. IV, 1, 8, 3°, we have verses 1 to 8, but verse 3 before verse 2, and verse 6 before verse 5, while verse 9 resale in OV 2, 9,3

InTS. v. 3 stands before v. 2,in VII, 5, 16,1, and VII, 5,17, 1.

In TS. II, 2, 12, the pratikas of verses 1, 7, 10 are quoted in succession.

Verse 7 occurs with important various readings in TA. I, 23, 8, Apo ha yad brzhatir garbham ayan daksham dadhana ganayantiz svayambhum, tata imésdhyasrzyanta sargaz.

Lastly in the AV. we find verses 1.to 7 from IV, 2, 1, to IV, 2, 7, but arranged in a different order, viz.as 2, 3, 6, 5, 4, 7, 1, and with important various readings.

Verse 2, yO’ 3 syése dvipddo yds #atushpadak, as third pada; also in XIII, 3, 24.

Verse 3, eké raga; ydsya khdyamrttam ydsya mrityuh, as third pada.

Verse 4, yasya visve; samudré ydsyarasdm id ahuz; imas ha.

Verse 5, yasya dyaur urvi prithivi 4a mahi ydsyada urva- 1 ntariksham, yasydsau sro vitato mahitva.

Verse 6, avatas kaskabhané bhiyasane rddasi ahvayethdm (sic), yasyasat pantha ragaso vimdnaZ.

Verse 7, po agre visvam Avan garbham dadhana amr/ta ritaghah, yasu devishv adhi deva Asit.

Verse 10, visva ripai paribhir gagdna, see VII, 79, 4, and 80, 3.

We are justified, therefore, in looking upon the verses, composing this hymn, as existing before the

@ Var. lect. ma ma, satyd4dharma vy4na/, prathamé for brzhatiZ.

b Var. lect. rip&i for bhfit&ni.

© Var. lect., ver. 5, drzdhé, dual for drz/hd; ver. 6, uditau vyéti for Udito vibhati; ver. 8, agnim for yag#am.

6 VEDIC HYMNS.

final arrangement of the four Samhitds, and if we persist in calling a hymn, dating from that period, a modern hymn, we must make it quite clear that, according to the present state of our knowledge, such a hymn cannot well be more modern than 1000 B.C. Besides the variations in the arrangement of the verses of our hymn, the very considerable various readings which we find in the VS., TS., and AV. are highly instructive, as showing the frequent employment of our hymn for sacrificial purposes. In several cases these various readings are of great importance, as we shall see. Verse 1.

MUIR: Hirazyagarbha arose in the beginning’; born,

he was the one lord of things existing. He established

the earth and this sky: to what god shall we offer our oblation ?

LUDWIG: Hirazyagarbha hat zuerst sich. gebildet, er ward geboren als einziger herr alles gewordenen, dise erde und disen himel halt er; Ka, dem gotte, méchten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. Hirazyagarbha* has been translated in different ways, and it would perhaps be best to keep it as a proper name, which it is in later times. It means literally the golden embryo, the golden germ or child, or born of a golden womb, and was no doubt an attempt at naming the sun. Soon, however, that name became mythological. The golden child was supposed to have been so called because it was Pragdapati, the lord of creation, when dwelling as yet in the golden egg, and Hirawyagarbha became in the end a recognised name of Pragapati, see Say. on X, 121, 1. All this is fully explained by Sayama, TS. IV, 1, 8, 3; IV, 2, 8,2; by Mahidhara,VS. XIII, 4.

Verse 2.

MuIR: He who gives breath, who gives strength,

whose command all, [even] the gods, reverence, whose.

shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death: to what god shall we offer our oblation ?

a M. M., India, What can it teach us? pp. 144, 162.

NOTES, X, I21; 3. 7

Lupwic: Geber des lebendigen hauches, geber der kraft, zu des unterweisung alle gétter sich einfinden, des glanz die unsterblichkeit, dessen der tod ist; Ka, dem gotte, mdchten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. In order to account for the repetition of yasya, Sayava and Mahidhara take visve for men, and devas for gods.

Note 2. It is difficult to say what is meant by kaya, shadow. I take it in the sense of what belongs to the god, as the shadow belongs to a man, what follows him, or is determined by him. In that sense Sayama also takes it, TS. IV, 1, 8, 4, yasya pragapates khayavat svadhinam amrvztam, moksharipam, mrztyu%, prazinam marazam api, yasya khayeva svadhinak; and, though not quite so clearly, in RV. X,121, 2. Mahidhara on the contrary takes khaya in the sense of refuge, and says, whose shadow, i.e. whose worship, preceded by knowledge, is amrzta, immortality, a means of deliverance*, while ignorance of him is death, or leads to samsara.

Verse 3.

Muir: Who by his might became the sole king of the breathing and winking world, who is the lord of this two- footed and four-footed [creation]: to what god shall we offer our oblation?

LuDwIG: Der des atmenden, augenbewegenden leben- digen durch seine grosze der einzige konig geworden; der verfiigt iiber disz zwei- und vier-fiiszige, Ka, dem gotte, mochten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. It is difficult to say whether nimishataZ means twinkling or sleeping. It has both meanings as to wink has in English. Sayaza (X, 121, 3; TS. IV, 1, 8, 4) and Mahidhara (VS. XXIII, 3°) explain it by winking. This may be right as expressing sensuous per- ception, in addition to mere breathing. In X, I9g0, 2, visvasya mishatdéd vasi means, lord of all that winks, i.e.

® muktihetu, not yuktihetu, as Weber prints. b Is nimeshdéto in XXIII, 3, a varia lectio, or an asuddha? In XXV, 13, we read nimishato.

8 VEDIC HYMNS.

lives. The later idea, that the gods do not wink, has nothing to do with our passage.

Verse 4,

Muir: Whose greatness these snowy mountains, and the sea with the Rasa (river), declare,—of whom these regions, of whom they are the arms: to what god shall we offer our oblation ?

LupwWIG: Dessen die schneebedeckten (berge, die Hima- van) vermdge seiner grésze, als des eigentum man ocean und Rasa nennt, des dise himelsgegenden, des arme sie, Ka, dem gotte, méchten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. Muir’s translation, which suggests itself very naturally to a European mind, is impossible, because mahitva cannot be either mahitvam (as Sdyava also and Mahidhara suggest), or mahitvani; and because 4huz% does not mean declare. Otherwise nothing could be better than his rendering: ‘Whose greatness these snowy moun- tains, and the sea with the Rasa (river), declare.’

Mahitva, as Sayaza also rightly perceives, TS. IV, 1, 8, 4, is a very common instrumental (see Lanman, Noun- inflection, pp. 335-6), and the same mahitva must be sup- plied for samudram. We might make the whole sentence dependent on ahu/ without much change of meaning. The Atharva-veda text supplies a lectio facilior, but not therefore melior.

Note 2. The Rasa is a distant river, in some respects like the Greek Okeanos. Dr. Aufrecht takes it as a name of the milky way, Z. D. M. G. XIII, 498: see Muir, S. T. I, p> 373, Nn. IQ.

Verse 5.

MuIR: By whom the sky is fiery, and the earth fixed, by whom the firmament and the heaven were established, who in the atmosphere is the measurer of the aerial space : to what god shall we offer our oblation?

LupDWIG: Durch den gewaltig der himel und fest die erde, durch den gestiitzt Svar, und das gewolbe, der die rdume im mittelgebiete ausgemeszen, Ka, dem gotte, mochten wir mit havis aufwarten.

NOTES. X, I21, 6. 9

Note 1. In this verse I decidedly prefer the reading of the Atharva-veda, yena dyaur ugra przthivi ka drilhe. It seems not a lectio facilior, and we avoid the statement that the heaven has been made ugra. Ugra, as applied to dyaus, means awful and grand, as an inherent quality rather, and not simply strong. See Ludwig, Notes, p. 441.

Note 2. Ragaso vimanaz has been fully discussed by Muir, S. T. IV, p. 71, but it is difficult to find a right translation for it, because the cosmography of the Veda is so different from our own (see I, 6, 9, note 1, and I, 19, 3, note 1). I think we may translate it here by the air, or even by space, particularly the bright air in the sky, the sky (antariksha or nabhas) being between heaven (dyu) and earth (przthivi), while svaZ and naka are still higher than the heaven (dyu), svaZ being sometimes explained as the abode of the sun, the ether, or empyrean, naka, the firmament, as svarga (Mahidhara); or sva% as svarga, and naka as Aditya (Sadyaza). Vimana is here simply the measurer, though vima, from meaning to measure, is apt to take the meaning of to make, which is an excuse for Sayaza’s rendering, ‘ who makes the rain in the sky.’

The Atharva-veda rendering is very free, and certainly no improvement.

Verse 6.

Muir: To whom two contending armies, sustained by his succour, looked up, trembling in mind; over whom the risen sun shines: to what god shall we offer our oblation ?

Lupwic: Auf den die beiden schlachtreihen durch (ihre) begirde aufgestellt in ordnung ihren blick richten, zitternd, im geiste, wo dariiber hin aufgegangen Sira ausstralt, sae dem gotte, méchten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. It would be well to read rdédasi for krandasi (which B. R. explain by ‘two armies’), and the various reading in AV. IV, 2, 3 decidedly points in that direction. But even if krandasi stands, it must be taken in the same sense as rodasi. Uditauvyetiin TS. IV, 1, 8,5 is explained by udayavishaye vividham gakkhati.

IO VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 7.

MvuIrR: When the great waters pervaded the universe containing an embryo, and generating fire, thence arose the one spirit (asu) of the gods: to what god shall we offer our oblation?

LupwiG: Als die groszen waszer kamen, die allen keim in sich faszten, zeugend den Agni, da kam zu stande der sdtter einziger lebensgeist ; Ka, dem gotte, médchten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. The waters here referred to have to be under- stood as the waters in the beginning of the creation, where, as we read (RV. X, 129, 3), ‘everything was like a sea without a light,’ or, as the Satapatha-brahmava (XI, 1, 6, 1) says, ‘everything was water and sea.’ These waters held the germ*, and produced the golden light, the sun”, whence arose the life of all the gods, viz. Pragapati. The Atharva- veda adds a verse which repeats the same idea more clearly: Apo vatsam ganayantir garbham agre samairayan, tasyota gayamdnasyélba asid dhirawyayaZ, ‘In the beginning the waters, producing a young, brought forth an embryo, and when it was being born, it had a golden covering.’ The sun- rise serves here as elsewhere as an image of the creation.

Note 2. Grassmann proposes to omit eka, because it is absent in the Maitrayawi Sakha. The metre shows the same.

Verse 8. Murr: He who through his greatness beheld the waters which contained power, and generated sacrifice, who was

the one god above the gods: to what god shall we offer our oblation ?

LuDWIG: Der in seiner grésze sogar die waszer iiber- schaute, wie sie die fahigkeit besitzend erzeugten das opfer, der der einzige gott war iiber den gottern, Ka, dem gotte, méchten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Note 1. In dakshasm dddhana ganayantir yagiam, we have a repetition of what was said in the preceding verse,

a See RV. X, 82, 5-6. b See RV. X, 72, 7.

NOTES. X, I2I, 10. II

daksham standing for garbham, yagiam for agnim, which is actually the reading of TS. The Atharva-veda does not contain this verse, which is used as an anya vikalpita yagya in TS.

Note 2. It is curious that one of the most important sentences in the Rig-veda, yo deveshv adhi deva eka Asit, should have been changed in the Atharva-veda IV, 2, 6 into yasu devishv adhi deva Asit, ‘ over which divine waters there was the god.’ See Ludwig, Notes, p. 441.

Verse 9.

Murr: May he net injure us, he who is the generator of the earth, who, ruling by fixed ordinances, produced the heavens, who produced the great and brilliant waters: to what god shall we offer our oblation?

LupwIG: Nicht schadige uns, der der erde erzeuger, oder der den himel bereitet mit warhafter satzung, der auch die wasser, die hellen, die machtigen erzeugt hat, Ka, dem gotte, mochten wir mit havis aufwarten.

Verse 10.

MUIR: Pragapati, no other than thou is lord over all these created things: may we obtain that, through desire of which we have invoked thee: may we become masters of riches.

LupwiG: Pragdpati, kein anderer als du hat umfasst die wesen alle, der wunsch, um deswillen wir dir opfern, der werde uns zu teil, besitzer von reichtiimern mégen wir sein.

Note 1. This verse is certainly extremely weak. after all that preceded, still, to judge from its frequent occur- rence, we cannot well discard it. All we can say is that nowhere, except in the Rig-veda, does it form the final verse of our hymn, and thus spoil its whole character.

That character consists chiefly in the burden of the nine verses, Kasmai devaya havisha vidhema, ‘To what god shall we offer sacrifice?’ This is clearly meant to express a desire of finding out the true, but unknown god, and to do so, even after all has been said that can be said of a supreme god. To finish such a hymn with a statement

I2 VEDIC HYMNS.

that Pragadpati is the god who deserves our sacrifice, may be very natural theologically, but it is entirely uncalled for poetically. The very phrase Kasmai devaya havisha vidhema must have been a familiar phrase, for we find in a hymn addressed to the wind, X, 168, 4, after all has been said that can be said of him, the concluding line: ghdshaz it asya svzmvire na ripam tasmai vataya havisha vidhema, ‘his sound indeed is heard, but he is not seen—to that Vata let us offer sacrifice.’ _

But more than this, on the strength of hymns like our own in which the interrogative pronoun ka, ‘who,’ occurs, the Brahmans actually invented a ‘god of the name of Ka. I pointed this out many years ago in my History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (1860, p. 433), where I said: ‘In accordance with the same system, we find that the authors of the Brahmazas had so completely broken with the past that, forgetful of the poetical character of the hymns, and the yearning of the poets after the unknown god, they exalted the interrogative pronoun into a deity, and acknowledged a god ‘ Ka, or Who.’ In the Taittiriya- samhita (I, 7, 6, 6), in the Kaushitaki-brahmava (XXIV, 4), in the Taxdya-brahmama (XV, 10), and in the Sata- patha-brahmaza*, whenever interrogative verses occur, the author states, that Ka is Pragapati, or ‘the Lord of Creatures’ (Pragapatir vai Kaz). Nor did they stop there. Some of the hymns in which the interrogative pronoun occurred were called Kadvat, i.e. having kad or quid. But soon a new adjective was formed, and not only the hymns, but the sacrifices also, offered to the god, were called Kaya, or who-ish®. This word, which is not to be identified with the Latin cujus, cuja, cujum, but is merely the artificial product of an effete mind, is found in the Taittiriya-samhita (I, 8, 3, 1), and in the Vaga- saneyi-samhita (XXIV, 15). At the time of Pavini

a Satap. Brahm, IJ, 1,1, 13; I, 5, 2,13; IV, 5, 6, 45 also Aitar. Brahm. III, 21.

b Asy. Sr. Sftra Il, 17, 14; Katy. Sr. Sfitra V, 4, 23; Wait. Sttra VIII, 22, ed. Garbe.

NOTES.3- A, -221,: 10. 13

this word had acquired such legitimacy as to call for a separate rule explaining its formation (Paz. IV, 2, 25). The commentator there explains Ka by Brahman. After this we can hardly wonder that in the later Sanskrit literature of the Purazas, Ka appears as a recognised god, as the supreme god, with a genealogy of his own, perhaps even with a wife; and that in the Laws of Manu, one of the recognised forms of marriage, generally known by the name of Pragapati-marriage, occurs under the monstrous title of ‘Kaya.’ Stranger still, grammarians who know that ka forms the dative kasmai only if it is an interrogative pronoun, consider kasmai in our hymn as irregular, because, as a proper name, Ka ought to form the dative Kaya.

I4 VEDIC HYMNS.

MANDALA I, HYMN 6.

ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 1, VARGA 11-12.

To InpRA AND THE Maruts (THE STORM-GoDs).

1. Those who stand around? him while he moves on, harness the bright red (steed)1; the lights in heaven shine forth °.

2. They harness to the chariot on each side his (Indra’s)1 two favourite bays, the brown, the bold, who can carry the hero.

3. Thou who createst light where there was no light, and form; O men?! where there was no form, hast been born together with the dawns”.

4. Thereupon? they (the Maruts), according to their wont ?, assumed again the form of new-born babes °, taking their sacred name.

5. Thou, O Indra, with the swift Marts’, who break even through the stronghold’, hast found even in their hiding-place the bright ones* (days or clouds). |

6. The pious singers’ (the Maruts) have, after their own mind’, shouted towards the giver of wealth, the great, the glorious (Indra).

47. Mayest thou! (host of the Maruts) be verily seen ? coming together with Indra, the fearless: you are both happy-making, and of equal splendour.

8. With the beloved hosts of Indra, with the blameless, hasting? (Maruts), the sacrificer} cries aloud.

MANDALA I, HYMN 6. 15

9. From yonder, O traveller (Indra), come hither, or from the light of heaven’; the singers all yearn for it ;— ,

10. Or we ask Indra for help from here, or from heaven, or from above the earth, or from the great sky.

16 VEDIC HYMNS.

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Kazva, the son of Ghora. The metre is Gayatri throughout.

Verse 1=SV. II, 818; VS. XXII, 5; AV. XX, 26,43 47,103 60, 93 TS Vil «SO, t3- 1 as, 6, 4, 2.

Verse 2=SV. II, 819; VS. XXIT,6; AV. XX, 26, 5; 497; 11; 69, 10; TS. VU, 4, 26, ©

Verse 3=SV. II, 820; VS. XXIX, 37; AV. XX, 26, 6; 49, 123 09, 172 TS: VU, A, 20, 13 2. ILL, 6, 4, 3:

Verse 4=SV. II, 101; AV. XX, 40, 3; 69,12.

Verse 5=SV. II, 202; AV. XX, 70, I.

Verse 6= AV: XX, 70, 2.

Verse 7=SV. II, 200; AV. XX, 40, 1; 70, 3.

Verse 8=AV. XX, 40, 2; 70, 4.

Verse 9= AV. XX, 70, 5.

Verse IO=AV. XX, 70, 6.

Verse 1.

WILSON: The circumstationed (inhabitants of the three worlds) associate with (Indra), the mighty (Sun), the inde- structive (fire), the moving (wind), and the lights that shine in the sky.

BENFEY: Die rothe Sonne schirr’n sie an, die wandelt um die stehenden, Strahlen strahlen am Himmel auf.

LUDWIG: Sie spannen an den hellen, den roten, den vom feststehenden hinwegwandelnden; heller glanz erstralt am Himmel.

Note 1. The poet begins with a somewhat abrupt description of a sunrise. Indra is taken as the god of the bright day, whose steed is the sun, and whose companions the Maruts, or the storm-gods. Arusha, meaning originally red, is used as a proper name of the horse or of the rising sun, though it occurs more frequently as the name of the red horses or flames of Agni, the god of fire, and also of the morning light. In our passage, Arusha, a substantive, meaning the red of the morning, has taken bradhna as an

NOTES. I, 6, I. 7

adjective,—bradhna meaning, as far as can be made out, bright in general, though, as it is especially applied to the Soma-juice, perhaps bright-brown or yellow. Names of colour are difficult to translate from one language into another, for their shades vary, and withdraw themselves from sharp definition. We shall meet with this difficulty again and again in the Veda; see RV. X, 20, g.

As it has actually been doubted whether bradhna arusha can be meant for the sun, and whether the Vedic poets ever looked upon the sun as a horse, I may quote Vag. Samh. XXIII, 4, where the same verse occurs and is de- clared to be addressed to the sun; and Satap. Br. XIII, 2, 6, 1, where we read, yuvganti bradhnam arushazm Zaran- tam iti, asau va adityo bradhnosrusho:mum_ evasma adityam yunakti svargasya lokasya samashtyai. Ludwig remarks justly that the sun has been conceived as a chariot also, and that bradhna arusha may have been thus under- stood here. Delbriick translates quite boldly: Sie schirren die rothe Sonne an. See also Tait. Br. III, 7,7,4; Tanxdya Br. XXIII, 3, 5; Sankh. Br. II, 17, 3; Ludwig, Comm. ii. p- 173. M. Bergaigne (Rél. Ved. iii. p. 324) remarks very truly: ‘Le soleil est tantdt une roue, tantdét un char, tantdt un cheval, trainant le char, tant6t un héros monté sur le char et dirigeant les chevaux.’

The following passages will illustrate the principal mean- ing of arusha, and justify the translation here adopted.

ARUSHA, AS AN ADJECTIVE.

Arusha is used as an adjective in the sense of red:

VII, 97, 6. tam sagmasak arushésak asvak br¢haspatim saha-vaha vahanti,—nabhaZ na ripam arusham vasanaz.

Powerful red horses, drawing together draw him, Brzhas- pati: horses clothed in red colour, like the sky.

III, 1, 4. svetam gagfiandm arusham mahi-tva.

Agni, the white, when born; the red, by growth.

III, 15, 3. kvishvasu agne arusha vi bhahi.

Shine, O Agni, red among the dark ones.

rer, 40, 914: VE, 99.7,

[32] Cc

18 VEDIC HYMNS. -

VII, 75, 6. prati dyutanam arushasak asvah kitréh advri- stan ushasam vahantaz.

The red horses, the beautiful, were seen bringing to us the bright dawn.

V, 43,12; 1,118, 5; IV, 43, 6; V, 73, 53 _I, 36,9; VIL, 3, 33 16; 33. %, 45, 73 1, 141,58.

II, 2, 8. saz idhanad ushdasak ramya anu svah na didet arushéza bhanuna.

He (Agni), lit after the lovely dawns, shone like the sky with his red splendour.

III, 29,6; IV, 58, 73 1, 114,53 V, 59,53 12, 23 12,63 Vi. B, 3.

VI, 48, 6. sydvasu arushaz vrisha.

In the dark (nights) the red hero (Agni). Cf. III, 7, 5.

In one passage vvéshan arusha is intended for fire in the shape of lightning.

X, 89, 9. ni amitreshu vadham indra timram v7/shan vrishazam arusham sisthi.

Whet, O strong Indra, the heavy strong red weapon, against the enemies.

X, 43, 9. ut gayatam parasik gydtisha saha—vi ro#atam arushad bhanuna sukix.

May the axe (the thunderbolt) appear with the light— _ may the red one blaze forth, bright with splendour.

a Ai Os. Va, 20

X, 20, 9. krishzak svetak arushak yamak asya bradhnak vigrah uta sdnah.

His (Agni’s) path is black, white, red, bright, reddish, and yellow.

Here it is extremely difficult to keep all the colours distinct.

Arusha is frequently applied to Soma, particularly in the gth Mazdala. There we read:

IX, 8,6. arushaz hariZ. IX, 71, 7. arushaz divak kavih vrisha. IX, 74,1. vagi arushad. IX, 82,1. arushaz vr¢ésha hariz. IX, 89, 3. harim arushdm.

IX, 111, 1. arushak hariZ. See also IX, 25, 5; 61, 21. - In IX, 72, 1, arusha seems used as a substantive in the sense of red- here:

NOT. EGY. 19

Professor Spiegel, in his important review of my transla- tion (Heidelberger Jahrbiicher, 1870, p. 104), points out that aurusha in Zend means white, so that it would seem as if the original meaning of arusha had been bright, bright like fire, and thus red.

ARUSHA, AS AN APPELLATIVE.

Arusha is used as an appellative, and in the following senses :

1. The one red-horse of the Sun, the two or more red- horses of Agni.

‘I, 6, 1. yu#ganti bradhndm arusham.

They yoke the bright red-horse (the Sun).

I, 94, 10. yat A4yuktha% arusha rohita rathe.

‘When thou (Agni) hadst yoked the two red-horses and the two ruddy horses to the chariot. I, 146, 2.

II, 10, 2. sruyaz agnik—havam me—syAava ratham vaha- tak rohita va uta arusha.

Mayest thou, Agni, hear my call, whether the two black, or the two ruddy, or the two red-horses carry you.

Here three kinds of colours are clearly distinguished, and an intentional difference is made between rohita and arusha. IV, 2, 3.

IV, 6, 9. tava tyé agne haritaZ—rdhitasah—arushiasah vrishanah.

To thee (Agni) belong these bays, these ruddy, these red- horses, the stallions.

Here, again, three kinds of horses are distinguished— Harits, Rohitas, and Arushas.

VIII, 34, 17. yé vigrahk vata-ramhasahk arushasaz raghu- syadak.

Here arusha may be the subject, and the rest adjectives ; but it is also possible to take all the words as adjectives, referring them to 4su in the next verse. The fact that rzgra likewise expresses a peculiar red colour, is no objection, as may be seen from I, 6,1; 94, Io.

VIL 42, 2. eeshet hachad rohitak ka yé va sddman arusha, |

Cc 2

20 VEDIC HYMNS.

Yoke (O Agni) the bays, and the ruddy horses, or the red-horses which are in thy stable. VII, 16, 2.

2. The cloud, represented as one of the horses of the Maruts. 3

I, 85, 5. uta arushdsya vi syanti dharaZ,

(When you go to the battle, O Maruts), the streams of the red (horse) flow off.

V, 56, 7. uta syak vagi arushad.

This strong red-horse,—meant for one of the horses of the Maruts, but, at the same time, as sending rain.

ARUSHA, AS THE PROPER NAME OF A SOLAR DEITY.

Besides the passages in which arusha is used either as an adjective, in the sense of red, or as an appellative, meaning some kind of horse, there are others in which, as I pointed out in my Essay on Comparative Mythology *, Arusha occurs as a proper name, as the name of a solar deity, as the bright deity of the morning (Morgenroth). My inter- pretation of some of these passages has been contested, nor shall I deny that in some of them a different interpretation is possible, and that in looking for traces of Arusha, as a Vedic deity, representing the morning or the rising sun, and containing, as I endeavoured to show, the first germs of the Greek name of Eros, I may have seen more indications of the presence of that deity in the Veda than others would feel inclined to acknowledge. Yet in going over the same ground again, I think that even verses which for a time I felt inclined to surrender, yield a better sense, if we take the word arusha, which occurs in them as a substantive, as the name of a matutinal deity, than if we look upon it as an adjective or a mere appellative. It might be said that wherever this arusha occurs, apparently as the name of a deity, we ought to supply Agni or Indra or Sdrya. This is true to a certain extent, for the sun, or the light of the morning, or the bright sky form no doubt the substance and

@ Chips from a German Workshop, 2nd ed., vol. ii, p. 137 seq. Selected Essays, vol. i, p. 444.

NOTES, I, 6, I. oT

subject-matter of this deity. But the same applies to many other names originally intended for these conceptions, but which, nevertheless, in the course of time, became inde- pendent names of independent deities. In our passage I, 6, 1, yuzganti bradhnam arusham, we may retain for arusha the appellative power of steed or red-steed, but if we could ask the poet what he meant by this red-steed, or if we ask ourselves what we can possibly understand by it, the answer would be, the morning sun, or the light of the morning. In other passages, however, this meaning of red- steed is really no longer applicable, and we can only translate Arusha by the Red, understanding by this name the deity of the morning or of the morning sun, the later Aruza.

VII, 71, 1. dpa svasuk ushasak nak gihite rivakti krzsh- nih arushaya pantham.

The Night retires from her sister, the Dawn; the Dark one yields the path to the Red one, i.e. the red morning.

Here Arusha shares the same half-mythological character as Ushas. Where we should speak of dawn and morning as mere periods of time, the Vedic poet speaks of them as living and intelligent beings, half human, half divine, as powers of nature capable of understanding his prayers, and powerful enough to reward his praises. I do not think therefore that we need hesitate to take Arusha in this passage as a proper name of the morning, or of the morning sun, to whom the dark goddess, the Night, yields the path when he rises in the East.

VI, 49, 2. divad sisum sahasaZ sinum agnim yaghasya ketum arusham yagadhyai.

To worship the child of Dyu, the son of strength, Agni, the light of the sacrifice, the Red one (Arusha).

In this verse, where the name of Agni actually occurs, it would be easier than in the preceding verse to translate arusha as an adjective, referring it either to Agni, the god of fire, or to yagfdsya ketim, the light of the sacrifice. I had myself yielded * so far to these considerations that I

@ Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii, p. 139.

ma VEDIC HYMNS.

gave up my former translation, and rendered this verse by ‘to worship Agni, the child of the sky, the son of strength, the red light of the sacrifice *.’ But I return to my original translation, and I prefer to see in Arusha an independent name, intended, no doubt, for Agni, as the representative of the rising sun and, at the same time, of the sacrificial fire of the morning, but nevertheless as having in the mind of the poet a personality of his own. He is the child of Dyu, originally the offspring of heaven. He is the son of strength, originally generated by the strong rubbing of the aravzis, i. e. the wood for kindling fire. He is the light of the sacrifice, whether as reminding man that the time for the morning sacrifice has come, or as himself lighting the sacrifice on the Eastern altar of the sky. He is Arusha, originally as clothed in bright red colour, but gradually changed into the representative of the morning. We see at once, if examin- ing these various expressions, how some of them, like the child of Dyu, are easily carried away into mythology, while others, such as the son of strength, or the light of the sacrifice, resist that unconscious metamorphosis. That Arusha was infected by mythology, that it had approached at least that point where nomina become changed into numina, we see by the verse immediately following :

VI, 49, 3. arushasya duhitara virdpe (iti vi-ripe) str¢bhiz anya pipisé siiraz anya.

There are two different daughters of Arusha; the one is clad in stars, the other belongs to the sun, or is the wife of Svar.

Here Arusha is clearly a mythological being, like Agni or Savitar or Vaisvanara; and if Day and Night are called his daughters, he, too, can hardly have been conceived otherwise than as endowed with human attributes, as the child of Dyu, as the father of Day and Night, and not as a mere period of time, not as a mere cause or effect.

IV, 15, 6. tam arvantam na sdnasim arusham na divas sisum marmvigyante divé-dive.

® Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1867, p. 204.

NOTES. I, 6, I. 23

They trim the fire day by day, like a strong horse, like Arusha, the child of Dyu.

Here, too, Arusha, the child of Dyu, has to be taken as a personal character, and, if the na after arusham is right, a distinction is clearly made between Agni, the sacrificial fire, to whom the hymn is addressed, and Arusha, the child of heaven, the pure and bright morning, here used as a simile for the cleaning or trimming of the fire on the altar.

V, 47, 3. arusha% su-parzah.,

Arusha, the morning sun, with beautiful wings.

THE FEMININE ARusH?, AS AN ADJECTIVE.

Arushi, like arush4, is used as an adjective, in the same sense as arusha, i. e. red:

III, 55, 11. syavi 2a yat arushi ka svdsdrau.

As the dark and the red are sisters.

I, 92, 1 and 2. gava# arushiz and drushiz gah.

The red cows of the dawn.

I, 92, 2. rusantam bhanuim drushiZ asisrayuk.

The red dawns obtained bright splendour.

Here ushasaz%, the dawns, occur in the same line, so that we may take arushiz either as an adjective, referring to the dawns, or as a substantive, as a name of the dawn or of her cows.

I, 30, 21. asve na Aitre arushi.

Thou beautiful red dawn, thou, like a mare.

Here, too, the vocative arushi is probably to be taken as an adjective, particularly if we consider the next following verse :

IV, 52, 2. asva-iva itraé arushi maté gdv4m r7td-vari sakha abhit asvinok usha&.

The dawn, beautiful and red, like a mare, the mother of the cows (days), the never-failing, she became the friend of the Asvins.

X, 5, 5. sapta svasr2h% arushiz.

The seven red sisters.

24 VEDIC HYMNS.

THE FEMININE ARUSHi, AS A SUBSTANTIVE.

If used as a substantive, drushi seems to mean the dawn. It is likewise used as a name of the horses of Agni, Indra, and Soma; also as a name for mare in general.

It means dawn in X, 8, 3, though the text points here so clearly to the dawn, and the very name of dawn is men- tioned so immediately after, that this one passage seems hardly sufficient to establish the use of arushi as a recog- nised name of the dawn. Other passages, however, would likewise gain in perspicuity, if we took arushi by itself as a name of the dawn, just as we had to admit in several passages arusha by itself asa name of the morning. Cf. I, ‘gee

Arushi means the horses of Agni, in I, 14, 12:

yukshva hi arushiZ rathe haritaZ deva rohitaz.

Yoke, O god (Agni), the red-horses to the chariot, the bays, the ruddy.

I, 72,10. pra nizi# agne arushizZ aganan.

They knew the red-horses, Agni, coming down. VIII, 69, 5.

Soma, as we saw, was frequently spoken of as arushaz hariz.

In IX, 111, 2, tridhatubhiZ drushibhiZ seems to refer to the same red-horses of Soma, though this is not quite clear.

The passages where arushi means simply a mare, without any reference to colour, are VIII, 68, 18, and VIII, 55, 3.

It is curious that Arusha, which in the Veda means red, should, as pointed out before, in its Zend form aurusha, mean white. That in the Veda it means red, and not white, is shown, for instance, by X, 20, 9, where sveta, the name for white, is mentioned by the side of arusha. Most likely arusha meant originally brilliant, and became fixed with different shades of brilliancy in Sanskrit and Persian. Arusha presupposes a form ar-vas, and is derived from a root ar in the sense of running or rushing. See Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii, pp. 135, 137.

NOTES. I, 6, I. 25

Having thus explained the different meanings of arusha and arushi in the Rig-veda, I feel it incumbent, at least for once, to explain the reasons why I differ from the classifi- cation of Vedic passages as given in the Dictionary pub- lished by Boehtlingk and Roth. Here, too, the passages ‘in which arusha is used as an adjective are very properly separated from those in which it appears as a substantive. To begin with the first, it is said that ‘arusha means ruddy, the colour of Agniand his horses; he (Agni) himself appears as a red-horse.’ In support of this, the following passages are quoted :

III, 1, 4. 4vardhayan su-bhadgam sapta yahviz svetam gaghandm arushdm mahi-tva, sfsum nda gatam abhi 4ruz asvak. Here, however, it is only said that Agni was born brilliant-white*®, and grew red, that the horses came to him as they come to a new-born foal. Agni himself is not called — a red-horse.

III, 7, 5. Here, again, vvéshvak arushasya is no doubt meant for Agni. But vréshan by itself does not mean horse, though it is added to different names of horses. to qualify them as male horses; cf. VII, 69, 1, 4 vam rathaz vrishabhiz yatu asvaizZ, may your chariot come near with powerful horses, i.e. with stallions. See note to I, 85,12. Weare therefore not justified in translating arusha vrishan by red-horse, but only by the red male, or the red hero.

In ITI, 31, 3, agnizZ gage guhva régamanah mahaZ putran arushasya pra-yakshe, I do not venture to say who is meant by the mahaZ putran arushdsya, whether Adityas or Maruts, but hardly the sons of Agni, as Agni himself is mentioned as only born. But, even if it were so, the father of these sons (putra) could hardly be intended here for a horse.

IV, 6, 9. tava tyé agne haritak ghrita-snaz rdhitasak rigu-ankah su-aiikah, arushdsah vréishanah rigu-mushkaz. Here, so far from Agni being represented as a red-horse, his different horses, the Harits or bays, the Réohitas or

4 See V, 1, 4. svetih vag gayate 4gre 4hn4m. X, 1, 6. arushah gatah padé f/ayah,

26 VEDIC HYMNS. ©

ruddy, and the arushasak vréshazah, the red stallions, are distinctly mentioned. Here vv/shan may be translated by stallion, instead of simply by male, because arusha is here a substantive, the name of a horse.

V, 1,5. ganish¢za hi gényak agre ahn4am hitaZ hitéshu arushad vaneshu. Here arushaZ is simply an adjective, red, referring to Agni, who is understood throughout the hymn to be the object of praise. He is said to be kind to those who are kind to him, and to be red in the woods, i.e. brilliant in the wood which he consumes; cf. III, 29, 6. Nothing is said about his equine nature. )

In V, 12, 2 and 6, VI, 48, 6, we have again simply arusha vrishan, which does not mean the red-horse, but the red male, the red hero, i.e. Agni.

In VI, 49, 2, divaZ sisum sahasa% sinim agnim yagfasya ketum arusham yagadhyai, there is no trace of Agni being conceived asa horse. He is called the child of the sky or of Dyu, the son of strength (who is produced by strong rubbing of wood), the light or the beacon of the sacrifice, and lastly Arusha, which, for reasons stated above, I take to be used here as a name.

Next follow the passages in which, according to Professor Roth, arusha, as an adjective, is said to be applied to the horses, cows, and other teams of the gods, particularly of the dawn, the Asvins, and Brzhaspati.

I, 118, 5. pari vim dsvak vdpushak patangak vayak vahantu arushaéz abhike. Here we find the vayaz arushak of the Asvins, which it is better to translate by red birds, as immediately before the winged horses are mentioned. In fact, whenever arusha is applied to the vehicle of the Asvins, it is to be understood of these red birds, IV, 43, 6.

In I, 92, 1 and 2 (not 20), drushi occurs three times, referring twice to the cows of the dawn, once to the dawn herself.

In IV, 15, 6, tam arvantam na sdnasim arusham na divah sisum marmvigyante divé-dive, arusha does not refer to the horse or any other animal of Agni. The verse speaks of a horse by way of comparison only, and says that the sacrificers clean or trim Agni, the fire, as people clean a horse. We

on

NOTES," 17:6, I. 27

cannot join arushdm in the next pada with drvantam in the preceding pada, for the second na would then be without any construction. The construction is certainly not easy, but I think it is safer to translate: they trim him (Agni), day by day, as they clean a strong horse, as they clean Arusha, the child of Dyu. In fact, as far as I know, arusha is never used as the name of the one single horse belonging to Agni, but always of two or more.

In III, 31, 21, antdr (iti) kvzshvan arushaiZ dhama bhiz eat, dhama bhiz is said to mean flames of lightning. But dhaman in the Rig-veda does not mean flames, and it seems better to translate, with thy red companies, scil. the Maruts.

That arusha in one or two passages means the red cloud, is true. But in X, 43, 9, arusha refers to the thunderbolt mentioned in the same verse; and in I, 114, 5, everything refers to Rudra, and not to a red cloud, in the proper sense of the word. |

Further on, where the meanings attributable to arushi in the Veda are collected, it is said that drushi means a red mare, also the teams of Agni and Ushas. Now, here, surely, a distinction should have been made between those passages in which arushi means a real horse, and those where it expresses the imaginary steeds of Agni. The former, it should be observed, occur in one Mazdala only, and in places of somewhat doubtful authority, in VIII, 55, 3, a Valakhilya hymn, and in VIII, 68, 18, a danastuti or panegyric. Besides, no passage is given where drushi means the horses of the dawn, and I doubt whether such a passage exists, while the one verse where drushi is really used for the horses of Indra, is not mentioned at all. Lastly, two passages are set apart where arushi is supposed to mean flames. Now, it may be perfectly true that the red-horses of Agni are meant for flames, just as the red-horses of Indra may be the rays of the sun. But, in that case, the red- horses of Agni should always have been thus translated, or rather interpreted, and not in one passage only. In IX, 111, 2, drushi is said to mean flames, but no further light is thrown upon that very difficult passage.

28 VEDIC HYMNS.

Note 2. Pari tasthishaz. I take this form as a nomi- native plural like abibhyushaZ, I, 11, 5, tvam devak Abi- bhyushak tugyamandsak Avishuk, ‘the gods, stirred up, came to thee, not fearing ;’ and like dadushaZ, I, 54, 8, yé te indra dadushad vardhayanti mahi kshatram, ‘ who giving or by their gifts increase thy great power, O Indra.’ Here we might possibly take it as a gen. sing. referring to te, but dadivan is far more appropriate as an epithet of the sacrificer than of the god. (See Benfey, Vocativ, p.24; and Hermes, p.16.) It is well known among Sanskrit scholars that Pro- fessor Whitney, in reviewing my translation, declared that the participial form tasthushad% had no right to be anything but an accusative plural or a genitive or ablative singular. (See Chips from a German Workshop, vol. iv, p. 508.) Dr. Kern, however, in his translation of the Brzhat-Sammhita had shown long before that nom. plur. such as vidusha% are by no means rare, even in the Mahabharata and kindred works. Dr. Lanman (Journ. Americ. Or. Soc. X, p. 513) has now entered abibhyushaz as a nom. plur., but he prefers to take tasthushaZ as an acc. plural, so that we should have to translate karantam pari tasthushaz by ‘walking round those who stand.’ This may be grammatically possible ; but who could be meant by tasthusha%, standing ones? And, secondly, is it usual in Vedic Sanskrit to say farati pari tam, ‘he walks round him?’ We find pari tam yati, or tam pari yati, but hardly yati pari tam, ‘he goes round him,’ except when pari stands independent of the verb and means ‘around,’ e.g. IX, 72, 8, pavasva pari parthivam ragah. It is more difficult to decide whether we should adopt Ludwig’s interpretation, who takes pari tasthushaZ in the sense of ‘away from what is firm.’ This is correct grammatically, and tasthivat, as opposed to gagat, is often used in the sense of what is immovable. But is it ever used in that sense by itself? I doubt it, though I may add in support of it such a passage as I, 191, 9, Ut apaptat asal stryaz....Adityaz parvatebhya%, a verse where the expression visvadrishzak adrishéaha is analogous to our ketim krzzvan aketave. I therefore retain pari tasthushaZ as a nom. plural in the sense of standing around, circumstantes, possibly of parixara,

NOTES. 1, 6, 2. 29

attendants. Parish#Zana or sthdna comes to mean an abode, and paritasthivantas would be bystanders, attend- ants, the people, in fact, who are supposed to harness the horse.

Though I do not assign great weight to interpretations of hymns, as given by the Brahmazas, I may mention that in the Taitt. Br. III, 9, 4, 1, paritasthushaz is explained as a nom. plur., ime vai loka% paritasthushaZ, while Sadyava in his commentary (Sama-veda II, 6, 3, 12, 1) has parito:va- sthita lokatrayavartinaz pravzinak.

Note 3. Rosante rofana. <A similar expression occurs III, 61, 5, where it is said of Ushas, the dawn, that she

lighted the lights in the sky, pra rofana ruruke ramzva- sand7zk.

Verse 2.

WILSON: They (the charioteers) harness to his car his two desirable coursers, placed on either hand, bay- coloured, high-spirited, chief-bearing.

BENFEY: Die lieben Falben schirren sie zu beiden Seiten des Wagens an, braune, kiihne, held-tragende.

LuDWIG: Sie spannen seine lieblichen falben an den Wagen mit auseinandergehenden seiten, die blutroten, mutigen, helden-bringenden.

Note 1. Although no name is given, the pronoun asya clearly refers to Indra, for it is he to whom the two bays belong. The next verse, therefore, must likewise be taken as addressed to Indra, and not to the sun or the morning- red, spoken of as a horse or a chariot in the first verse.

Vipakshasa is well explained by Sayama, vividhe pakshast rathasya pdrsvau yayos tau vipakshasau, rathasya dvayok parsvayor yogitav ity arthaz. The only doubt is whether it refers to the two sides of the chariot, or of the principal horse. That horses were sometimes yoked so that one

should act as leader, and two should be harnessed on each side, we see in I, 39, 6, note.

30 _ VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 3.

WILSON: Mortals, you owe your (daily) birth (to such an Indra), who, with the rays of the morning, gives sense to the senseless, and to the formless, form.

BENFEY: Licht machend—Manner !—das Dunkele und kenntlich das Unkenntliche, entsprangst du mit dem Mor- genroth.

LupwiG: Sichtbarkeit schaffend dem _ unsichtbaren, gestalt o schmuckreiche (Marut) dem gestaltlosen, wurdet ihr mit den Ushas zusammen geboren.

Note 1. In the TB. III, 9, 4, several of these mantras are enjoined for the Asvamedha. When the banner (dhvaga) is fastened, this verse is to be used, because ketu was supposed to mean a banner. The vocative marya, which I have translated by O men, had evidently become a mere exclamation at a very early time. Even in our passage it is clear that the poet does not address any men in particular, for he addresses Indra, nor is marya used in the general sense of men. It means males, or male offspring. It sounds more like some kind of asseveration or oath, like the Latin mehercle, or like the English O ye powers, and it is therefore quoted as a nipata or particle in the Vag. Pratis. II,16. It can hardly be taken here as addressed to the Maruts, though the Maruts are the subject of the next verse. Kluge in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xxv, p. 309, points out that maryaz as an interjection does not occur again in the Rig-veda. But the Rig-veda contains many words which occur once only, and the author of Vag. Pratisakhya is no mean authority. See also Tazdya Brahm. VII, 6,5. If Dr. Kluge proposes to read marydi as a dative (like Avcw) he knows, of course, that such a form does not only never occur again in the Rig-veda, but never in the whole of Sanskrit literature. Grassmann and Lanman (N. I., p. 339) both seem to imagine that the Pada text has marya, but it has marya%, and noaccent. If maryaz had the accent, we might possibly translate, ‘ the youths, i, e. the Maruts, made,’ taking krizvan for akrinvan, or the more usual akurvan ; but in that case the transition to agayathaz would be very sudden. See, however, I, 6, 7.

NOTES. 1, 6, 4. 31

Sdyava explains it mary4z, manushyaZ! idam askaryam pasyata. Another explanation of this verse, which evi- dently troubled the ancient commentators as much as us, is, ‘O mortal, i.e. O sun (dying daily), thou hast been born with the dawn.’

Note 2. UshadbhiZ, an instrumental plural which attracted the attention of the author of the Varttika to Paz. VII, 4, 48. It occurs but once, but the regular form, ushobhiZ, does not occur at all in the Rig-veda. The same grammarian mentions mas, month, as changing the final s of its base into d before bhis. This, too, is confirmed by RV. II, 24, 5, where madbhizZ occurs. Two other words, svavas, offering good protection, and svatavas, of independent strength, mentioned together as liable to the same change, do not occur with bhiZ in the Rig-veda, but the forms svavadbhiz and svatavadbhiz probably occurred in some other Vedic writings. Svatavadbhyaz% has been pointed out by Professor Aufrecht in the Vagasan. Samhita X XIV, 16, and svatavo- bhyaZin Satap. Br. I], 5,1,14. That the nom. svavan, which is always trisyllabic, is not to be divided into sva-vdan, as proposed by Sakalya, but into su-avan, is implied by Varttika to Paz. VIII, 4, 48, and distinctly stated in the Siddhanta-Kaumudi. That the final n of the nom. su-avan disappeared before semi-vowels is confirmed by the Sakala- pratisakhya, Sdtra 287; see also Vagasan. Pratis. III, Sitra 135 (Weber, Ind. Stud. vol. iv, p. 206). On the proper division of su-avas, see Aufrecht, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. xiii, p. 499.

Verse 4.

WILSON: Thereafter, verily, those who bear names invoked in holy rites (the Maruts), having seen the rain about to be engendered, instigated him to resume his embryo condition (in the clouds).

BENFEY: Sodann von freien Stiicken gleich erregen wieder Schwangerschaft die heilgen Namen tragenden.

Lupwic: Da haben namlich in ihrer giéttlichen weise

dise der Przsni leibesfrucht gebracht, opfer verdienenden namen erwerbend.

32 VEDIC HYMNS.

Note 1, At must here take vyftha and be pronounced as an iambus. This is exceptional with At, but there are at least two other passages where the same pronunciation is necessary. I, 148, 4, 4t rokate vane 4 vi-bha-va, though in the line immediately following it is monosyllabic. Also in V, 7, 10, at agne aprizatak.

Note 2. Svadhé, literally one’s own place, afterwards, one’s own nature. It was a great triumph for the science of Comparative Philology that, long before the existence of such a word as svadha in Sanskrit was known, it should have been postulated by Professor Benfey in his Griechisches Wurzellexicon, published in 1839, and in the appendix of 1842. Svadha was known, it is true, in the ordinary San- skrit, but there it only occurred as an exclamation used on presenting an oblation to the manes. It was also explained to mean food offered to deceased ancestors, or to be the name of a personification of Maya or worldly illusion, or of anymph. But Professor Benfey, with great ingenuity, pos- tulated for Sanskrit a noun svadha, as corresponding to the Greek @@os and the German sitte, O.H.G. sit-u, Gothic sid-u. The noun svadha has since been discovered in the Veda, where it occurs very frequently ; and its true meaning in many passages where native tradition had entirely mis- understood it, has really been restored by means of its etymological identification with the Greek os or 700s. See Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. ii, p. 134; vol. xii, p. 158.

The expressions d4nu svadhém and svadhaém anu are of frequent occurrence. They mean, according to the nature or character of the persons spoken of, and may be trans- lated by as usual, or according to a person’s wont. Thus in our passage we may translate, The Maruts are born again, i.e. as soon as Indra appeared with the dawn, according to their wont; they are always born as soon as Indra appears, for such is their nature.

I, 165, 5. indra svadham anu hi nak babhtitha.

For, Indra, according to thy wont, thou art with us.

VIII, 20, 7. svadhém anu srfyam narak—vahante. |

According to their wont, the men (the Maruts) carry splendour.

NOTES. I, 6, 4. 33

Thou hast grown (Indra) according to thy nature.

IV, 33, 6. anu svadham vzbhavak gagmud etam.

According to their nature, the Azbhus went to her, scil. the cow; or, according to this their nature, they came.

Bere £9. 6; I,:33, 11; T, 88, 65 VU, 56,19 5 TER gy, 11.

In all these passages svadha may be rendered by manner, habit, usage, and 4nu svadham would seem to correspond to the Greek é& @ovs. Yet the history of these words in> Sanskrit and Greek has not been exactly the same. First of all we observe in Greek a division between éOo0s and 760s, and whereas the former comes very near in meaning to the Sanskrit svadha, the latter shows in Homer a much more ptimitive and material sense. It means in Homer, not a person’s own nature, but the own place, for instance, of animals, the haunts of horses, lions, fish; in Hesiod, also of men. Hom. Il. XV, 268, werd 7 7}0€a cat vowov trv, loca consueta et pascua. Svadha in the Veda does not occur in that sense, although etymologically it might take the meaning of one’s own place: cf. dha-man, familia, &c. Whether in Greek 790s, from meaning lair, haunt, home, came, like vouds and voyos, to mean habit, manner, character, which would be quite possible, or whether 70s in that meaning represents a second start from the same point, which in Sanskrit was fixed in svadha, is impossible to determine. In Sanskrit svadha clearly shows the meaning of one’s own nature, power, disposition. It does not mean power or nature in general, but always the power of some one, the peculiarity, the individuality of a person. This will appear from the following passages:

II, 3, 8. tisrAz deviz svadhaya barhiz 4 idam akkhidram pantu.. |

May the three goddesses protect by their power the sacred pile unbroken.

IV, 13, 5. kaya yati svadhaya.

By what inherent power does he (the Sun) move on?

IV, 26, 4. akakraya svadhaya.

By a power which requires no chariot, i.e. by himself without a chariot.

The same expression occurs again X, 27, 19.

[32] D

34 VEDIC HYMNS.

In some places the verb mad, to delight, joined with svadhaya, seems to mean to revel in his strength, to be proud of his might.

V, 32, 4. svadhaya madantam.

Vritra who delights in his strength.

VII, 47, 3. svadhaya madantiZ.

The waters who delight in their strength. See X, 124, 8.

In other passages, however, as we shall see, the same phrase (and this is rather unusual) requires to be taken in a different sense, so as to mean to rejoice in food.

L164, 384. 111-29, .&.

III, 35, 10. indra piba svadhaya it sutasya agnex va pahi gihvaya yagatra.

Indra drink of the libation by thyself (by thy own power), or with the tongue of Agni, O worshipful.

To drink with the tongue of Agni is a bold but not unusual expression. V, 51, 2. agnés pibata gihvaya. X, 15) 3.

I, 165, 6. kva sya vad marutak svadha asit yat mam ékam sam-adhatta ahi-hatye.

Where was that custom of yours, O Maruts, when you left me alone in the killing of Ahi?

VII, 8, 3. kaya na& agne vi vasa su-vrzktim kam tix (iti) svadham vimavah sasyamanah.

In what character dost thou light up our work, and what character dost thou assume, when thou art praised?

IV, 58, 4; IV, 45, 6.

I, 64, 4. sakam gaghire svadhaya.

They (the Maruts) were born together, according to their nature; very much like d4nu svadham, I, 6, 4. One can hardly render it here by ‘they were born by their own strength,’ or ‘by spontaneous generation.’

In other passages, however, svadhaya, meaning originally by its own power, or nature, comes to mean, by itself, sponte sua.

VII, 78, 4. 4 asthat radtham svadhayaé yugyamanam.

She, the dawn, mounted the chariot which was harnessed by itself, by its own power, without requiring the assistance of people to put the horses to.

NOTES. I, 6, 4. 35

X,129, 2. anit avatam svadhaya tat ékam.

That only One breathed breathlessly (or freely) by its own strength, i.e. by itself.

In the same sense svadhabhiz is used in several passages :

I, 113,13. amv#ta karati svadhabhit.

The immortal Dawn moves along by her own strength, i.e. by herself.

VIII, 10, 6. yat va svadhabhiz adhi-tish¢zathaz ratham.

Or whether ye mount your chariot by your own strength, ye Asvins.

I, 164, 30. givah mrttasya farati svadhabhiz amartyaz martyena sd-yonih.

_ The living moves by the powers of the dead, the ienuasortal is the brother of the mortal. III, 26, 8; V, 60, 4.

There are doubtful passages, such as I, 180, 6, in which the meaning of svadhabhiz, too, is doubtful. In VI, 2, 8, svadha looks like an adverb, instead of svadhayd, and would then refer to parigma. The same applies to VIII, 32, 6.

But svadhé means also food, lit. one’s own portion, the sacrificial offering due to each god, and lastly, food in general.

I, 108,12. yat indragni (iti) ut-ita siryasya madhye divaz svadhaya madayethe (iti).

Whether you, Indra and Agni, delight in your food at the rising of the sun or at midday.

X, 15, 12. tvam agne ilitak gata-vedak avat havyani surabhizi kritvi, pra adaz pitr¢-bhyaz svadhayé té akshan addhi tvam deva pra-yata havimshi. 13. yé ka iha pitdrak yé ka na iha yan ka vidma yan tm (iti) Za na pra-vidma, tvam vettha ydati té gdta-vedak svadhdbhik yagfidm su- kritam gushasva. 14. yé agni-dagdhas yé dnagni-dagdha/ madhye diva svadhayaé madayante, tébhiZ sva-rat dsu- nitim etém yatha-vasdm tanvam kalpayasva.

12. Thou, O Agni Gatavedas, hast carried, when im- plored, the offerings which thou hast rendered sweet: thou hast given them to the fathers, they fed on their share. Eat thou, O god, the proffered oblations. 13. Our fathers who are here, and those who are not here, our fathers whom we know and those whom we do not know, thou knowest

D2

36 VEDIC HYMNS.

how many they are, O Gatavedas, accept the well-made sacrifice with the sacrificial portions. 14. They who, whe- ther burnt by fire or not burnt by fire, rejoice in their offering in the midst of heaven, give to them, O king, that life, and thy (their) own body, according to thy will.

III, 4, 7. sapta przkshasak svadhaya madanti.

The seven horses delight in their food.

X,14,7. ubha ragana svadhaya madanta.

The two kings delighting in their food.

IX, 113, 10. yatra kama ni-kamaz ka, yatra bradhndsya vishz4pam, svadha fa yatra tr/ptiz ka tatra mam amr/tam kridhi.

Where wishes and desires are, where the cup of the bright Soma is (or, where the highest place of the sun is), where there is food and rejoicing, there make me immortal.

I, 154, 4. yasya tr? pirza mddhuna padani akshiyamana svadhaya madanti.

He (Vishzu) whose three places, full of sweet, imperish- able, delight or abound in food.

V, a4 13 3135.7; 1,108,093 1,276, 2.

In the tenth book svadha is used very much as it occurs in the later Sanskrit, as the name of a peculiar sacrificial rite.

X, 14,3. yan ka devak vavridhud yé ka devan svaha anyé svadhaya anyé madanti.

Those whom the gods cherish, and those who cherish the gods, the one delight in Svaha, the others in Svadh4; or, in praise and food.

Note 3. The expression garbha-tvam 4-iriré is matched by that of III, 60, 3, saudhanvanasak amrita-tvam 4 irire, the Saudhanvanas (the &zbhus) obtained immortality, or be- came immortal. Ido not think that punar erire can mean, as Ludwig supposes, they pushed away their state of garbha. The idea that the Maruts assumed the form of a garbha, lit. of an embryo or a new-born child, is only meant to ex- press that they were born, or that the storms burst forth from the womb of the sky as soon as Indra arises to do battle against the demon of darkness. Thus we read, TI, 134, 4, aganayad marttak vakshazabhyaZ, Thou, Vayu, hast produced the Maruts from the bowels (of the sky).

WOTER 3; G; 5. KFA

As assisting Indra in this battle, the Maruts, whose name retained for a long time its purely appellative meaning of storms, attained their rank as deities by the side of Indra, or, as the poet expresses it, they assumed their sacred name. This seems to be the whole meaning of the later legend that the Maruts, like the Azbhus, were not originally gods, but became deified for their works. See also Kern, Translation of Brzhat-saszhita, p. 117, note.

Other explanations are: they made that which was born within the cloud into a garbha or embryo; or, they arose with Aditya, proceeded with Savitar, and when Savitar set, they became again garbhas; see Sdma-veda II, 2,7, 2,comm.

VAHNI. Verse 5.

WILSON: Associated with the conveying Maruts, the traversers of places difficult of access, thou, Indra, hast dis- covered the cows hidden in the cave.

BENFEY: Mit den die Festen brechenden, den Stiirm- -enden fandst, Indra, du die Kiihe in der Grotte gar.

Lupwic: Und mit denen, die das feste sogar anbrechen, selbst im versteck, o Indra, mit den priesterlichen, fandest du die morgenstralen auf.

Note 1. Sadyava explains vahnibhiZ in the sense of Martdbhiz, and he tells the oft-repeated story how the cows were carried off by the Pazis from the world of the gods, and thrown into darkness, and how Indra with the Maruts conquered them and brought them back. Every- body seems to have accepted this explanation of Sayama, and I myself do not venture to depart from it. Yet it should be stated that the use of vahni as a name of the Maruts is by no means well established. Vahni is in fact a most difficult word in the Veda. In later Sanskrit it means fire, and is quoted also as a name of Agni, the god of fire, but we do not learn why a word which etymologically means carrier, from vah, to carry, should have assumed the meaning of fire. It may be that vah, which in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin means chiefly to carry, expressed origin-

38 VEDIC HYMNS.

ally the idea of moving about (the German be-wegen), in which case vah-ni, fire, would have been formed with the same purpose as ag-ni, ig-nis, fire, from Sk. ag, dy-w,ag-o. In Alvis-mal, V, 94, we read, kalla Vag Vanir, the Wanes call fire Vag, i.e. wavy. But in Sanskrit Agni is so con- -stantly represented as the carrier of the sacrificial oblation, that something may also be said in favour of the Indian scholastic interpreters who take vahni, as applied to Agni, in the sense of carrier. However that may be, it admits of no doubt that vahni, in the Veda, is distinctly applied to the bright fire or light. In some passages it looks very much like a proper name of Agni, in his various characters of terrestrial and celestial light. It is used for the sacri- ficial fire:

V, 50, 4. yatra vahniz abhi-hita“.

Where the sacrificial fire is placed.

It is applied to Agni:

VII, 7, 5. asadi vritak vahniz 4-gaganvan agniz brahma.

The chosen light came nigh, and sat down, Agni, the priest.

Here Agni is, as usual, represented as a priest, chosen like a priest, for the performance of the sacrifice. But, for that very reason, vahni may here have the meaning of priest, which, as we shall see, it has in many places, and the translation would then be more natural: He, the chosen minister, came near and sat down, Agni, the priest.

VIII, 23, 3. vahniz vindate vasu.

Agni finds wealth (for those who offer sacrifices ?).

More frequently vahni is applied to the celestial Agni, or other solar deities, where it is difficult to translate it in English except by an adjective:

III, 5,1. apa dvara tamasah# vahniz avar (ity ava“).

Agni opened the two doors of darkness.

I, 160, 3. sak vahniz putraz pitrdz pavitra-van punati dhirak bhuvanani maydyé.

That light, the son of the two parents, full of brightness, the wise, brightens the world by his power.

Agni is even called vahni-tama (IV, 1, 4), which hardly means more than the brightest.

NOTES. I, 6, 5. 39

II, 17,4. at rddasi (iti) gydtisha vahniz 4 atanot.

Then the bright (Indra) stretched out or filled heaven and earth with his light.

II, 38,1. ut dsm (iti) syaz devahk savita—vahniz asthat.

The divine Savitar, the luminous, arose.

Besides this meaning of light or fire, however, there are clearly two other meanings of vahni which must be admitted in the Veda, first that of a carrier, vehicle, and, it may be, horse; secondly that of minister or priest.

‘VI, 57, 3. aga# anydsya vahnayaz hari (iti) anyasya sam- bhrzta.

The bearers of the one (Pishan) are goats, the bays are yoked for the other (Indra).

I, 14, 6. ghrita-prishthahk manah-yigah yé tva vahanti vahnayak,

The horses with shining backs, obedient to thy will, which carry thee (Agni).

VIII, 3, 23. yasmai anyé dasa prati dhuram vahanti vah- nayah.,

A horse against whom other ten horses carry a weight ; i.e. it requires ten horses to carry the weight which this one horse carries. (See X, 11, 7. vahamanaz asvaih.)

II, 37, 3. médyantu te vahnayak yébhiz iyase.

May thy horses be fat on which thou goest. II, 24, 13.

I, 44, 13. srudhi srut-karza vahni-bhiZ.

Agni, who hast ears to hear, hear, on thy horses. Unless vahni-bhiZ is joined with the words that follow, devaiz sayava-bhiz.

III, 6, 2. vakyantam te vahnayaz sapta-gihvar*.

May thy seven-tongued horses be called. Here vahna- yav is clearly meant for the flames of Agni, yet I doubt whether we should be justified in dropping the simile, as the plural of vahni is nowhere used in the bald sense of flames.

In one passage vahni is supposed to be used as a feminine, or at all events applied to a feminine subject:

VIII, 94, 1. yukta vahnifz rathandm.

a Cf. I, 58, 7. sapta guhvad.

40 VEDIC HYMNS.

She is yoked as the drawer of the chariots: Probably, however, vahniz should here be changed into vahni.

The passages in which vahni is applied to Soma in the ninth and tenth Mavdalas throw little light on the subject. (IX, 9,6; 20,5; 6; 36,2; 64,19; 89,1; X, 101, 10.)

Instead of visim vispatizZ, lord of men (VII, 7, 4), we find IX, 108, 10. visim vahniz na vispatiZ. One feels inclined to translate here vahnifZ by leader, but it is more likely that vahni is here again the common name of Soma, and that it — is inserted between visim na vispatiZ, which is meant to form one phrase.

In IX, 97, 34, tisraZ vakah irayati pra vahniz, we may take vahni as the common appellation of Soma. But it may also mean minister or priest, as in the passages which we have now to examine. Cf. X, 11, 6.

For besides these passages in which vahni clearly means vector, carrier, drawer, horse, there is a large class of verses in which it can only be translated by minister, i. e. officiating minister, and, as it would seem, chiefly singer or reciter*.

The verb vah was used in Sanskrit in the sense of carrying out (ud-vah, ausfiihren), or performing a rite, particularly as applied to the reciting of hymns. Hence such compounds as uktha-vahas or stéma-vahas, offering hymns of praise, and yagfa-vahas. Thus we read:

V, 79,4. abhi yé tva vibha-vari stomaiz grizdnti vah- nayak.

The ministers who praise thee, splendid Dawn, with hymns.

I, 48, 11. yé tva grévanti vahnayah.

The ministers who praise thee.

VII, 75, 5. ushaz ukkhati vahni-bhiz grinvana.

The dawn lights up, praised by the ministers.

VI, 39, 1. mandrasya kavéh divydsya vahnek.

Of the sweet poet, of the heavenly priest... .

VII, 82, 4. yuvam it yut-si pv¢tandsu vahnayak yuvam kshémasya pra-savé mitd-giiavak, isind vasvak ubhayasya karavak indravaruza su-hava havamahe.

a See Taitt. Brahm. I, 1, 6, ro. vahnir va anadvan, vahnir adhvaryud.

NOTES. I, 6, 5. 41

We, as ministers, invoke you only in fights and battles ; we, as suppliants, (invoke) you for the granting of treasure ; we, as poets, (invoke) you, the lords of twofold wealth, you, Indra and Varuza, who listen to our call.

VI, 32, 3. sd% vahni-bhiz rékva-bhiz géshu sasvat mita- giu-bhik puru-krétva gigaya.

He (Indra) was victorious often among the cows, always with celebrating and suppliant ministers.

I have placed these two passages together because they seem to me to illustrate each other, and to show that although in the second passage the celebrating and suppliant ministers may be intended for the Maruts, yet no argument could be drawn from this verse in favour of vahni by itself meaning the Maruts. See also VIII, 6, 2; me 25; X, 114, 2.

IV, 21, 6. hdétaé yad nak mahan sam-varaveshu vahnid.

The Hotar who is our great priest in the sanctuaries.

I, 128, 4. vahnizZ vedhasz agayata.

Because the wise priest (Agni) was born.

The same name which in these passages is applied to Agni, is in others, and, as it will be seen, in the same sense, applied to Indra.

II, 21, 2. tuvi-graye vahnaye.

To the strong-voiced priest or leader.

The fact that vahni is followed in several passages by ukthaiZ would seem to show that the office of the vahni was chiefly that of recitation or of addressing prayers to the gods.

III, 20,1, agnim ushdsam asvina dadhi-kram vi-ush¢ishu havate vahniz ukthaith.

The priest at the break of day calls with his hymns Agni, Ushas, the Asvins, and Dadhikra.

I, 184, 1. ta vim adya tai aparam huvema uskhantyam ushasi vahniZ ukthaihz.

Let us invoke the two Asvins to-day and to-morrow, the priest with his hymns is there when the dawn appears.

In a similar sense, it would seem, as vahniZ ukthatZ, the Vedic poets frequently use the words vdhniz asa. This asa is the instrumental singular of As, mouth, and it is used

42 VEDIC HYMNS.

in other phrases also of the mouth as the instrument of praise. 3

VI, 32, 1. vagrive sam-tamani vakamsi Asd sthaviraya taksham.

I have shaped with my mouth blessed words to the wielder of the thunderbolt, the strong Indra.

X, 115, 3. asd vahnim na soft{sha vi-rapsinam.

He who sings with his flame as the poet with his mouth. See also I, 38,14. mimihf sldkam Asyé, make a song in thy mouth.

Thus we find vahniZ 4s in the same place in the sixth and seventh Mazdalas (VI, 16, 9; VII, 16, 9), in the phrase vahniz asa vidus-tarah, applied to Agni in the sense of the priest wise with his mouth, or taking vahniz Asa as it were one word, the wise poet.

I, 129, 5. vahniz Asa, vahniz nak akkha.

Indra, as a priest by his lips, as a priest coming to- wards us.

From the parallelism of this passage it would seem that Professor Roth concluded the meaning of As&* to be near,

a As, mouth, the Latin os, oris, has been derived from a root as, to breathe, preserved in the Sanskrit as-u, spirit, asu-ra, endowed with spirit, living, the living god. Though I agree with Curtius in admitting a primitive root as, to breathe, from which as-u, breath, must have sprung, I have always hesitated about the derivation of as and asya, mouth, from the same root. I do not think, however, that the lengthening of the vowel in 4s is so great a difficulty as has been supposed (Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. xvii, p. 145). Several roots lengthen their vowel a, when used as substantives without derivative suffixes. In some cases this lengthening is restricted to the Anga — base, as in anadvah; in others to the Anga and Pada base, as in visvava/, visvavadbhiz, &c.; in others again it pervades the whole declension, as in turasha/: (see Sanskrit Grammar, §§ 210, 208, 175.) Among ordinary words vas offers a clear instance of a lengthened vowel. In the Veda we find rztish4ham, VI, 14, 4, and ritishaham (Samhita), I, 64,15. In X, 71, 10 the Samhita has sabhasahéna, the Pada sabhasahéna. We find vah in apsu-vah (Sam. Ved.), indra-vah, havya-vah. Sah atthe end of compounds, such as nrz-sah, prztana-sah, bhiiri-sah, satré-sah, vibha-sah, sada-sah, varies between a long and short 4: (see Regnier, Etude sur l’idiome du

NOTES. 1, 6, 5. 43

or coram. In the Nighaz/#u, II, 16, the right reading is evidently Asat, not 4sA; see Nirukta, ed. Satyavrata Sama- srami, vol. i, p. 264. As&, however, is an old variant, as may be seen from Rig-veda-bhashya I, 127, 8; X,115, 3.

I, 76, 4. pragé-vata vakasd vdhnizZ Asa 4 ka huvé ni ka satsi iha devath,

With words in which my people join, I, the poet, invoke: - and thou (Agni) sittest down with the gods.

VI, 11, 2. pavakaya guhva vahnikz asa.

Thou, a poet with a bright tongue, O Agni!

Grassmann thinks that vahnir 4s can always be translated by ‘vor das Angesicht bringend,’ but this does not appear to be the case in his translation.

The question now arises in what sense vahni is used when applied without further definition to certain deities. Most deities in the Veda are represented as driving or driven, and many as poets or priests. When the Asvins are called vahni, VIII, 8, 12; VII, 73, 4, it may mean riders. But when the Visve Devas are so called, I, 3, 9, or the Azbhus, the exact meaning is more doubtful. The Maruts are certainly riders, and whatever other scholars may say to the contrary, it can be proved that they were supposed to sit astride on horseback, and to have the bridle through the horse’s nostrils (V, 61,2). But if in our verse I, 6, 5, we translate vahni as an epithet, rider, and not only as an epithet, but as a name of the Maruts, we cannot support our transla- tion by independent evidence, but must rely partly on the authority of Sayavza, partly on the general tenor of the text before us, where the Maruts are mentioned in the pre- ceding verse, and, if I am right, in the verse following also. On the other hand, if vahni can thus be used as a name of

Védas, p. 111.) At all events no instance has yet been pointed out in Sanskrit, showing the same contraction which we should have to admit if, as has been proposed, we derived 4s from av-as, or from an-as. From ‘an’ we have in the Veda 4n4, mouth or face, I, 52,15. From as, to breathe, the Latin omen, originally os-men, a whisper, might likewise be derived. See Bopp, Comp. Gr. par. 909; Kuhn in Ind. Stud. I, 333.

A4 VEDIC HYMNS.

the Maruts, there is at least one other passage which would gain in clearness by the admission of that meaning, viz.

X, 138, 1. tava tyé indra sakhyéshu vahnayak—vi adar- diruZ valam.

In thy friendship, Indra, these Maruts tore asunder the cloud.

Note 2, I have translated vi/u by stronghold, though it is only an adjective, meaning firm. Dr. Oscar Meyer, in his able essay Quaestiones Homericae, specimen prius, Bonnae, 1867, has tried to show that this vidi is the original form of “IAvos, and he has brought some further evidence to show that the siege and conquest of Troy, as I pointed out in my Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 470, was originally described in language borrowed from the siege © and conquest of the dark night by the powers of light, or from the destruction of the cloud by the weapons of Indra. It ought to be considered, however, that vi/u in the Veda has not dwindled down as yet to a mere name, and that therefore it may have originally retained its purely appella- tive power in Greek as well as in Sanskrit, and from meaning a stronghold in general, have come to mean the stronghold of Troy.

Note 3. The bright cows are here the cows of the morn- ing, the dawns, or the days themselves, which are represented as rescued at the end of each night by the power of Indra, or similar solar gods. Indra’s companions in that daily rescue are here the Maruts, the storms, the same com- panions who act even a more prominent part in the battle of Indra against the dark clouds. These two battles are often mixed up together, so that possibly usriyaz may have been meant for clouds.

Verse 6.

WILSON: The reciters of praises praise the mighty (troop of Maruts), who are celebrated, and conscious of the power of bestowing wealth in like manner as they (glorify) the counsellor (Indra).

BENFEY: Nach ihrer Einsicht verherrlichend besingen Sanger den Schatzeherrn, den beriihmten, gewaltigen.

NOTES. I, 6, 7. 45

Lupwic: Als fromme heran zum liede haben die sanger ihn, der trefliches findet, beriihmten gesungen.

Note 1. The reasons why I take gira# as a masculine in the sense of singer or praiser, may be seen in a note to a 7, 10.

Note 2. yatha matim, lit. according to their mind, accord- ing to their heart’s desire. Cf. II, 24, 13.

Verse 7.

WILSON: May you be seen, Maruts, accompanied by the undaunted (Indra); both rejoicing, and of equal splendour.

BENFEY: So lass mit Indra denn vereint, dem furcht- losen, erblicken dich, beide erfreu’nd und glanzesgleich.

LuDWIG: Mit Indra zusammen wirst du gesehn zusam- mengehend mit dem furchtlosen, mild ihr zwei, von gleichem glanze.

Note 1. The sudden transition from the plural to the singular is strange, but the host of the Maruts is frequently spoken of in the singular, and nothing else can here be intended. It may be true, as Professor Benfey suggests, that the verses here put together stood originally in a different order, or that they were taken from different sources. Yet though the Sdma-veda would seem to sanction a small alteration in the order of the verses, the alteration of verses 7, 4, 5, as following each other, would not help us much. The Atharva-veda sanctions no change in the order of these verses.

The transition to the dual at the end of the verse is likewise abrupt, not more so, however, than we are prepared for in the Veda. The suggestion of the Nirukta (IV, 12) that these duals might be taken as instrumentals of the singular, is of no real value.

Note 2. D7/kshase, a very valuable form, well explained by drzsyethaZ, a second person singular conjunctive of the First Aorist Atmanepada, the termination ‘sase’ corre- sponding to Greek on, as the conjunctive takes the personal terminations of the present in both languages. Similar

46 VEDIC HYMNS.

forms, viz. przkshase, X, 22, 7, maszsase, X, 27, 10; Ath. Veda VII, 20, 2-6, and possibly vivakshase, X, 21, 1-8, 24, 1-3, 25, 1-11, will have to be considered hereafter. (Nirukta, ed. Roth, p. 30, Notes.) As Ludwig has pointed out, the Tazdya-brahmawa XII, 2, 6, 7, reads dvzkshuse, and explains it by ime loka dadvésire. Sayava, however, explains drzsidhatoZ karmazi madhyamaikavakane vyatyayena se- pratyaye dvzkshusa iti ripam. See Delbriick, Syntaktische Forschungen, I, p. 111. The story of Indra’s being forsaken by all the gods in his battle against Vrztra, but being helped by the Maruts, is often mentioned; see RV. VIII, 96, 7; SV.5 4545, 45%; Ait: Br. TH, go.

Verse 8.

WiLsoNn: This rite is performed in adoration of the powerful Indra, along with the irreproachable, heavenward- tending, and amiable bands (of the Maruts).

BENFEY: Durch Indra’s liebe Schaaren, die untadligen, himmelstiirmenden, strahlet das Opfer machtiglich.

Lupwic: Mit den tadellosen, morgens erscheinenden singt der kampfer sighaft, mit des Indra zu liebenden scharen.

Note 1. Arfati, which I have here translated by he cries aloud, means literally, he celebrates. I do not know of any passage where arkati, when used, as here, without an object, means to shine, as Professor Benfey translates it. The real difficulty, however, lies in makha, which Sayaza explains by sacrifice, and which I have ventured to translate by priest or sacrificer. Makha, as an adjective, means, as far as we can judge, strong or vigorous, and is applied to various deities, such as Pfishan I, 138, 1, Savitzz VI, 71, 1, Soma XI, 20, 7, Indra III, 34, 2, the Maruts I, 64,11; VI, 66,9. By itself, makha is never used as the name of any deity, and it cannot therefore, as Professor Roth proposes, be used in our passage as a name of Indra, or be referred to Indra as a significant adjective. In I, 119, 3, makha is applied to men or warriors, but it does not follow that makha by itself means warriors, though it may be connected

NOTES, I, 6, 8. 47

with the Greek paxos in cdypaxos. See Curtius, Grundziige, p. 293; Grassmann, in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xvi, p. 164.

There are two passages where makha refers to an enemy of the gods, IX, 101, 13; X, 171, 2.

Among the remaining passages there is one where makha is used in parallelism with vahni, X, 11, 6. vivakti vahniz, su-apasyate makha%. Herel propose to translate, The poet speaks out, the priest works well. The same meaning seems applicable likewise to the phrase makhasya davane, to the offering of the priest, though I should prefer to translate ‘to share in the sacrifice.’

I, 134, 1. 4 yahi davane, vayo (iti), makhdsya davdane.

Come, Vayu, to the offering, to the offering of the priest.

VIII, 7, 27. 4 nak makhasya davane—dévasaz upa gan- tana.

Come, gods, to the offering of our priest.

Professor Roth proposes to render makha in these passages by ‘ attestation of joy, celebration, praise,’ and he takes da- vane as a dative of davan, a nomen actionis, meaning, the giving. There are some passages where one feels inclined to admit a noun davana, and to take davane as a locative sing.

VI, 71, 2. devasya vayam savituz savimani

stéshthe sydma vasunas ka davane.

May we be in the favour of the god Savitar, and in the best award of his treasure.

In II, 11, 1, and II, 11, 12, the locative would likewise be preferable ; but there is a decided majority of passages in which davane occurs and where it is to be taken as a dative*, nor is there any other instance in the Veda of a nomen actionis being formed by vana. It is better, therefore, in VI, 71, 2, to refer sréshzZe to savimani, and to make allowance in the other passages for the idiomatic use of such phrases as davdne vdstindm or raydh davdane, whether from da or from do. See De Infinitivi forma et usu, by E. Wilhelm, 1873, p. 17.

many, 4, Of, ¥0* 122, 6; 134, 2+ 190, 6; II, 1,16; IV, 29, 55 32,9; V, 59,1; 4; 65,3; VIII, 25, 20; 45, 10; (92, 26); 46, 25; #7; 03,4; 99,77; 70, 183; IX, 93, 45 X32,:53 446°75 50,7:

48 VEDIC HYMNS.

The termination vane explains, as has been shown by Professor Benfey, Greek infinitives such as do0dvat, i. e. doevat or d0fevat= Sanskrit da-vane. The termination mane in da-mane, for the purpose of giving, explains, as the same scholar has proved, the ancient infinitives in Greek, such as 6d-yevat. It may be added that the regular infinitives in Greek, ending in evar, as dAedouw-évar, are likewise matched by Vedic forms such as IX, 61, 30. dhirv-ane, or VI, 61, 13. vibhv-ane, and turv-dne (Delbriick in K. Z. XVIII, p. 82; Bopp, Accent, §§ 106, 113,117). It is hardly right to say that vibhvane in VI, 61, 13, should be taken as an instrumental, for it does not refer to the chariot, but to Sarasvati. In the termination ev, which stands for ev, like evs for eat, we have, on the contrary, not a dative, but a locative of an abstract noun in an, both cases, as we see from their juxta-position in VI, 71, 2, being equally applicable to express the relation which we are accustomed to call infini- tive. See RV. I, 134, 5. ugraz ishavzanta bhurvazi, apam ishanta bhurvazi. _

Note 2. Abhidyu I now translate by hastening, and derive it from div, divyati, in its original meaning of to throw forth, to break forth, to shine. As from this root we have didyu, weapon, what is thrown, pl. didyavaz, and possibly didyut, the weapon, particularly Indra’s weapon or thunderbolt, abhidyu might mean breaking forth, rushing forth towards us, something like prakri/inaZ, ancther name of the Maruts. How abhidyu could mean conquérant, maitre du jour, as M. Bergaigne maintains, I do not see. Abhidytin, I, 33,11; 190, 4, does not differ much from anu- dyin, i.e. it is used vipsayadm.

Verses 9, 10.

WILSON: Therefore circumambient (troop of Maruts), come hither, whether from the region of the sky, or from the solar sphere; for, in this rite, (the priest) fully recites your praises.

BENFEY: Von hier, oder vom Himmel komm ob dem fEther, Umkreisender! zu dir streben die Lieder all.

NOTES. I, 6, 9-10. 49

LUDWIG: Von hieher, o Parigman, kom, oder von des himels glanzfirmamente her; zu disem streben unsere lieder auf.

WILSON: We invoke Indra,—whether he come from this earthly region, or from the heaven above, or from the vast firmament,—that he may give (us) wealth.

BENFEY: Von hier, oder vom Himmel ob der Erde be- gehren Spende wir, oder, Indra! aus weiter Luft.

LUDWIG: Von hier zu empfangen verlangen wir, oder vom himel, oder vom irdischen raume her, oder aus dem grossen luftkreis den Indra.

Note 1, Although the names for earth, sky, and heaven vary in different parts of the Veda, yet the expression divaz rokanam occurs so frequently that we can hardly take it in this place in a sense different from its ordinary meaning. Professor Benfey thinks that rokanad may here mean ether, and he translates ‘come from heaven above the ether;’ and in the next verse, ‘come from heaven above the earth. At first, every reader would feel inclined to take the two phrases, diva# va rokanat adhi, and divaz va parthivat adhi, as parallel; yet I believe they are not quite so.

The following passages will show that the two words rokanam divak belong together, and that they signify the light of heaven, or the bright place of heaven.

VIII, 98, 3. agakkhahk rokanam divah.

Thou (Indra) wentest to the light of heaven. I, 155, 3.

ITI, 6, 8. urau va yé antarikshe—divaz va yé rokané,

In the wide sky, or in the light of heaven,

VIII, 82, 4. upamé rokané divah.

In the highest light of heaven.

IX, 86, 27. tritiye prishzhé Adhi rokané divak.

On the third ridge, in the light of heaven. See also I, 105, 5; VIII, 69, 3. ,

The very phrase which we find in our verse, only with Zit instead of va, occurs again, I, 49, 1; VIII, 8, 7; and the same sense must probably be assigned to VIII, 1, 18, adha gmak adha va divak brzhataz rokanat adhi.

[32] E

50 foe VEDIC HYMNS.

Either from the earth, or from the light of the great heaven, increase, O Indra!

Rofana also occurs in the plural:

I, 146, 1. visva divak rokana.,

All the bright regions of heaven.

Sayaza: ‘All the bright palaces of the gods.’ See III, 12, 9. | The same word roanda, and in the same sense, is some- times joined with stirya and naka.

Thus, I, 14, 9. siryasya rofanat visvan devan—hdta iha vakshati.

' May the Hotar bring the Visve Devas hither from the light of the sun, or from the bright realm of the sun.

III, 22, 3. yak rokané pardstat stiryasya.

The waters which are above, in the bright realm of the sun, and those which are below.

I, 19, 6. yé nakasya ddhi rokané, divi devasaz Asate.

They who in the light of the firmament, in heaven, are enthroned as gods. |

Here divi, in heaven, seems to be the same as the light of the firmament, nékasya rofané.

Thus rofana occurs also frequently by itself, when it clearly has the meaning of heaven.

It is said of the dawn, I, 49, 4; of the sun, I, 50, 4; and of Indra, III, 44, 4.

visvam 4 bhati rokanam, he lights up the whole sky.

We also read of three rokanas, where, though it is difficult to say what is really meant, we must translate, the three skies. The cosmography of the Veda is, as I said before, somewhat vague and varying. . There is, of course, the natural division of the world into heaven and earth (dyu and bhiimi), and the threefold division into earth, sky, and heaven, where sky is meant for the region intermediate between heaven and earth (przthivi, antariksha, dy). There is also a fourfold division, for instance, :

VIII, 97, 5. yat va asi rokané divah

samudrasya adhi vishzapi, yat parthive sddane vvitrahan-tama, yat antarikshe a gahi.

NOTES. I, 6, 9-10. 51

Whether thou, O greatest killer of Vvztra, art in the light of heaven, or in the basin of the sea, or in the place of the earth, or in the sky, come hither!

V, 52, 7. yé vavridhanta parthivad% yé urat antarikshe 4, vrigane va nadindm sadhda-sthe va mahdaz divaz.

The Maruts who grew, being on the earth, those who are in the wide sky, or in the realm of the rivers, or in the abode of the great heaven.

But very soon these three or more regions are each spoken of as threefold. Thus, |

I, 102, 8. tisrak bhimiz trini rokana.

The three earths, the three skies.

II, 27, 9. tri rokand divya dharayanta.

The Adityas support the three heavenly skies.

V, 69, 1. tri rokana varuva trin utd dytin trizi mitra dharayathaz ragamsi.

Mitra and Varuza, you support the three lights, and the three heavens, and the three skies.

Here there seems some confusion, which Sadyaza’s com- mentary makes even worse confounded. What can rokana mean as distinct from dyu and ragas? The fourth verse of the same hymn throws no light on the subject, and I should feel inclined to take divya-parthivasya as one word, though even then the cosmic division here adopted is by no means clear. However, there is a still more complicated division alluded to in IV, 53, 5:

triz antariksham savita mahi-tvana tri ra4gamsi pari-bhtiz trivi rokand, tisrakz divah prithivih tisrah invati.

Here we have the sky thrice, three welkins, three lights, three heavens, three earths.

A careful consideration of all these passages will show, I think, that in our passage we must take divd4hk va rokanat adhi in its usual sense, and that we cannot separate the two words.

In the next verse, on the contrary, it seems equally clear that divad and parthivat must be separated. At all events there is no passage in the Rig-veda where parthiva is joined as an adjective with dyu. Parthiva as an adjective is frequently joined with ragas, never with dyu. See I, 81, E 2

52 VEDIC HYMNS.

5; 90,7; VIII, 88,5; IX, 72, 8: in the plural, I, 154, 1; V, 81, 3; VI, 31, 25 49, 3.

Parthivani also occurs by itself, when it refers to the earth, as opposed to the sky and heaven.

X, 32, 2. viindra ydsi divyani ro#ané vi parthivani ragasa.

Indra thou goest in the sky between the heavenly lights and the earthly.

VIII, 94, 9. 4 yé visva parthivani paprathan rokana diva.

The Maruts who stretched out all the earthly lights, and the lights of heaven.

VI, 61, 11. A-paprushi parthivani urt ragak antariksham.

Surekoatt filling the earthly places, the wide welkin, the sky. This is a doubtful passage.

Lastly, parthivani by itself seems to signify earth, sky, and heaven, if those are the three regions which Vishzu measured with his three steps; or east, the zenith, and west, if these were intended as the three steps of that deity. For we read :

I, 155, 4. ya# parthivani tri-bhiZ it erancepiepens url kra- mish/a.

He (Vishzu) who strode wide with his three strides across the regions of the earth.

These two concluding verses might also be taken as containing the actual invocation of the sacrificer, which is mentioned in verse 8. In that case the full stop at the end of verse 8 should be removed.

MANDALA I, HYMN 19. 53

MANDALA I, HYMN 19. ASH7AKA I, ADHYAYA 1, VARGA 386-37.

To AGNI (THE GOD oF FIRE) AND THE MarutTs (THE STORM-GODS).

1. Thou art called forth to this fair sacrifice for a draught of milk!; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

2. No god indeed, no mortal, is beyond the might? of thee, the mighty one; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

3. They who know of the great sky', the Visve Devas? without guile*; with those Maruts come hither, O Agni!

4. The strong ones who sing their song ?, uncon- querable by force; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

5. They who are brilliant, of terrible designs, powerful, and devourers of foes; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

6. They who in heaven are enthroned as gods, in the light of the firmament!; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

7. They who toss the clouds? across the surging sea?; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

8. They who shoot with their darts (lightnings) across the sea with might; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

9. I pour out to thee for the early draught? the sweet (juice) of Soma; with the Maruts come hither,

O Agni!

54 | VEDIC HYMNS,

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Medhatithi, of the family of Kanva. . Verse Toes V. 1, 26;

Verse 1.

WILSON : Earnestly art thou invoked to this perfect rite, to drink the Soma juice; come, Agni, with the Maruts.

BENFEY: Zu diesem schénen Opfer wirst du gerufen, zum Trank der Milch!—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LupwWIG: Her zu diesem schénen opfer, gerufen wirst zum milchtrank du, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Note 1. Gopitha is explained by Yaska and Sayaza as drinking of Soma. I have kept to the literal signification of the word, a draught of milk. In the last verse of our hymn the libation offered to Agni and the Maruts is said to consist of Soma, but Soma was commonly mixed with milk. The other meaning assigned to gopitha, protection, would give the sense: ‘Thou art called for the sake of pro- tection.’ But pitha has clearly the sense of drinking in soma-pitha, RV. I, 51, 7, and may therefore be taken in the same sense in gopitha.

Verse 2.

?

' WILSON: No god nor man has power over a rite (dedi- cated) to thee, who art mighty: come, Agni, with the Maruts. ca

BENFEY: Denn nicht ein Gott, kein Sterblicher ragt iiber dein, des Grossen, Macht—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LuDWIG: Es iberragt kein gott, kein sterblicher die einsicht dein des grossen, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Note 1. The Sanskrit kratu expresses power both of body and mind. Parak governs the accusative.

Verse 3. WILSON: Who all are divine, and devoid of malignity,

NOTES. I, 19, 3.° Ae

and who know (how to cause the descent) of great waters: come, Agni, with the Maruts. BENFEY: Die guten Gotter, welche all bestehen in dem weiten Raum—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm! LUDWIG: Die wissen um den grossen raum, alle gotter truges bar, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

• Note 1. The sky or welkin (ragas) is the proper abode of the Maruts, and ‘they who know of’ means simply ‘ they who dwell’ in the great sky. The Vedic poets distinguish commonly between the three worlds, the earth, przthivi, f., or parthiva, n.; the sky, ra4gas; and the heaven, dyu: see I, 6,9, note 1. The phrase mahaZ ragasaz occurs I, 6, 10; 168, 6, &c. Sadyaza takes ragas.for water or rain: see on this my article in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xii, p. 28. In some passages ragas means ‘ darkness,’ and might be identi- fied with the Greek "EpeBos ; Ath. Veda VIII, 2,1. pardyami tva ragasa Ut tva mrztyor apiparam, ‘I bring thee out of darkness, out of death I brought thee.’ The identification of ragas with épeBos (Leo Meyer, in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. vi, p. 19) must however remain doubtful, until stronger evidence has been brought forward in support of a Greek 8 representing a Sanskrit g, even in the middle of a word. See my article in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xv, p. 215; Curtius, Grundziige (fifth edition), p. 480.

Note 2. The appellation Visve devah, all gods together, or, more properly, host-gods, is often applied to the Maruts ; cf. I, 23,8; 10. Benfey connects this line with the preced- ing verse, considering Visve deva, it seems, inappropriate as an epithet of the Maruts.

Note 3. On adrth, without guile or deceit, without hatred, _ see Kuhn’s excellent article, Zeitschrift fiir die Vergleich- ende Sprachforschung, vol. i, pp. 179,193. Adruhis applied to the Maruts again in VIII, 46, 4, though in connection with other gods. It is applied to the Visve Devas, RV. I, 3, 9; IX, 102, 5: the Adityas, RV. VIII, 19, 34; 67, 19. the Rudras, RV. IX, 73, 7: to Heaven and Earth, RV. II, 41, 213; III, 56,1; IV, 56,2; VII, 66, 18: to Mitra and Varuza, RV. V, 68, 4: to Agni, RV. VI, 15, 7; VIII, 44, 10. The form adhruk occurs in the sixth Mavdala only.

56 VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 4.

WILSON: Who are fierce, and send down rain, and are unsurpassed in strength: come, Agni, with the Maruts. BENFEY: Die schrecklich-unbesiegbaren, die machtiglich Licht angefacht—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm! LupDWIG: Die singen, die gewaltigen, ihr lied unange- sriffen durch (ihre) kraft, mit den Marut, Agni, kom. Note 1. Sdyavza explains arka by water. Hence Wilson : ‘Who are fierce and send down rain.’ But arka has only received this meaning of water in the artificial system of interpretation first started by the authors of the Brahmamas, who had lost all knowledge of the natural sense of the ancient hymns. The passages in which arka is explained as water in the Brahmavzas are quoted by Sayama, but they require no refutation. On the singing of the Maruts, see note to I, 38,15; also Bergaigne, Journ. As. 1884, p. 194. The perfect in the Veda, like the perfect in Homer, has frequently to be rendered in English by the present.

Verse 5.

WILSON: Who are brilliant, of terrific forms, who are possessors of great wealth, and are devourers of the malevo- lent : come, Agni, with the Maruts.

BENFEY: Die glanzend-grau’ngestaltigen, hochherr- schend feindvernichtenden — Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LUDWIG: Die glanzvollen, von schrecklicher gestalt, von srosser herschaft, feindverzerer, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Verse 6.

WILSON: Who are divinities abiding in the radiant heaven above the sun: come, Agni, with the Maruts.

BENFEY: Die Gotter die im Himmel sind ob dem Lichtkreis des Gottersitz’s—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LuDWIG: Die ob der himmelswoélbung glanz, am himel die gétter sitzen, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Note 1, Naka must be translated by firmament, as there

NOTES. I, 19, 7. 57

is no other word in English besides heaven, and that is wanted to render dyu. Like the Jewish firmament, the Indian naka, too, is adorned with stars; cf. I, 68, Io. pipésa nakam stv¢bhiz. Dyu, heaven, is supposed to be above the ragas, sky or welkin. Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xii, p. 28. .

Sayaza: ‘In the radiant heaven above the sun.’ See note 1 to I, 6,9; p. 49.

Verse 7.

WILSON: Who scatter the clouds, and agitate the sea (with waves): come, Agni, with the Maruts.

BENFEY: Welche iiber das wogende Meer hinjagen die Wolkenschaar—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LUDWIG: Die die berge wiegend hindurch durchs wogen- meer bewegen, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Note 1, That parvata (mountain) is used in the sense of cloud, without any further explanation, is clear from many passages :

I, 57,6. tvam tam indra parvatam mahém urim vagreva vagrin parva-sak kakartitha.

Thou, Indra, hast cut this great broad cloud to pieces with thy lightning. Cf. I, 85, 10.

We actually find two similes mixed up together, such as V, 32, 2. Udha# parvatasya, the udder of the cloud. All we can do is to translate parvata by mountain, but always to remember that mountain means cloud. In the Edda, too, the rocks, said to have been fashioned out of Ymir’s bones, are supposed to be intended for clouds. In Old Norse klakkr means both cloud and rock; nay, the English word cloud itself has been identified with the Anglo-Saxon clad, rock. See Justi, Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 62. See Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, 13, 398, 424; also Kuhn, Weisse Frau, p. 12.

Note 2. Whether the surging sea is to be taken for the sea or for the air, depends on the view which we take of the earliest cosmography of the Vedic Rishis. SAdyana explains: ‘They who make the clouds to go, and stir the

58 VEDIC HYMNS,

watery sea. Wilson remarks that the influence of the winds upon the sea, alluded to in this and the following verse, indicates more familiarity with the ocean than we should have expected from the traditional inland position of the early Hindus, and it has therefore been supposed by others that, even in passages like our own, samudra was meant for the sky, the waters above the firmament. But although there are passages in the Rig-veda where samudra must be taken to mean the welkin (RV. I, 95, 3. samudra ékam divi ékam ap-su), this word shows in by far the larger number of passages the clear meaning of ocean. There is one famous passage, VII, 95, 2, which proves that the Vedic poets, who were supposed to have known the upper courses only of the rivers of the Penjab, had followed the greatest and most sacred of their rivers, the Sarasvati, as far as the Indian ocean. It is well known that, as early as the composition of the laws of the Manavas, and possibly as early as the composition of the Satras on which these metrical laws are based, the river Sarasvati had changed its course, and that the place where that river disappeared under ground was called Vinasana*, the loss. This Vinasana forms, ac- cording to the laws of the Manavas, the western frontier of Madhyadesa, the eastern frontier being formed by the con- fluence of the Ganga and Yamuna. Madhyadesa is a sec- tion of AryAvarta, the abode of the Aryas in the widest sense. AryAvarta shares with Madhyadesa the same fron- tiers in the north and the south, viz. the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains, but it extends beyond Madhyadesa to the west and east as far as the western and eastern seas. A section of Madhyadesa, again, is the country described as that of the Brahmarshis, which comprises only Kurukshetra, the countries of the Matsyas, Pavikalas (Kanyakubga, ac- cording to Kullika), and Sfirasenas (Mathura, according to Kullika).. The most sacred spot of all, however, is that section of the Brahmarshi country which lies between the rivers Drishadvati and Sarasvati, and which in the laws of

@ Mentioned in Laty. Srauta Sfitras, X, 15, 1; Pankavimsa Brahm. XXV, 10, 1; see Hist. A.S.L., p.12. |

NOTES. I, 19, 7. 59

the Manavas is called Brahmavarta. In the Sfiitras which supplied the material to the authors of the metrical law- books, the Vinasana is mentioned for the first time in the Baudhayana Sitras, I, 2, 9, ‘ AryAvarta lies to the east of the region where (the Sarasvati) disappears, to the west of the Black-forest, to the north of the Paripatra (mountains), to the south of the Himalaya.’ The name of the Sarasvati is not mentioned, but no other river can be understood. What is curious, however, is, ‘that in the Vasishtda Sitras where the same frontiers of AryAvarta are given (I, 8), the MSS. read originally prag ddarsdat, i.e. east of the Adarsa mountains, which was afterwards changed into prag adar- sanat, and interpreted ‘east of the invisibility, or of the dis- appearance of the Sarasvati.’ Vasish¢Za quotes another authority, a Gatha of the Bhallavins, which says : ‘In the west the boundary river,’ i.e. sindhur vidharazi. This sindhur vi- dharaz? is another name of the old Sarasvati, and in Baudha- yana I, 2,12, the same verse is quoted, though the reading of vidharazi varies with vifarazi and visarazi. See Bihler, l.c. Madhyadesa is mentioned in one of the Parisishzas (MS. 510, Wilson) as a kind of model country, but it is there described as lying east of Dasarva®, west of Kam- pilya”, north of Pariydtra*, and south of the Himavat, or again, in a more general way, as the Duab of the Ganga and Yamuna‘,

It is very curious that while in the later Sanskrit lite-

@ See Wilson’s Vishvu-puraza, ed. Hall, pp. 154, 155, 159, 160.

b See Wilson’s Vishvu-puraza, ed. Hall, p. 161.

¢ L.c., pp. 123, 127. Instead of Pariyatra, other MSS. read Paripatra; see Biihler, Vasish//a I, 8,

d Prag dasarvat pratyak kampilyad udak pariyatrad, nee himavataz. Gangayamunayor antaram eke madhyadesam ity 4kak- shate. Medhatithi says that Madhyadesa, the middle country, was not called so because it was in the middle of the earth, but because it was neither too high nor too low. Albiruny, too, remarks that Madhyadesa was between the sea and the northern mountains, between the hot and the cold countries, equally distant from the eastern and western frontiers. See Reinaud, Mémoire sur I’Inde, p. 46.

60 VEDIC HYMNS.

rature the disappearance of the Sarasvatt in the desert is a fact familiar to every writer, no mention of it should occur during the whole of the Vedic period, and it is still more curious that in one of the hymns of the Rig-veda we should have a distinct statement that the Sarasvati fell into the sea:

VII, 95,1-2. pra kshdédas4 dhayasa sasre esh4 sdrasvati dharizam ayasi ptZ, pra-babadhana rathy4-iva yAti visvak apa mahina sindhus anyas, éka ahetat sdrasvati nadindm sukih yati girl-bhyak & samudrat, raydh kétantt bhuvanasya bhired ghyztam pdaya% duduhe nahushdya.

1. ‘With her fertilising stream this Sarasvati comes forth— (she is to us) a stronghold, an iron gate. Moving along as on a chariot, this river surpasses in greatness all other waters. 2. Alone among all rivers Sarasvati listened, she who goes pure from the mountains as far as the sea. She who knows of the manifold wealth of the world, has poured out to man her fat milk.’

Here we see samudra used clearly in the sense of sea, the Indian sea, and we have at the same time a new indication of the distance which separates the Vedic age from that of the later Sanskrit literature. Though it may not be pos- sible to determine by geological evidence the time of the changes which modified the southern area of the Penjab and caused the Sarasvati to disappear in the desert, still the fact remains that the loss of the Sarasvatt is later than the Vedic age, and that at that time the waters of the Sarasvati reached the sea. Professor Wilson had observed long ago in reference to the rivers of that part of India, that there have been, no doubt, considerable changes here, both in the nomenclature and in the courses of the rivers, and this remark has been fully confirmed by later observations. I believe it can be proved that in the Vedic age the Sarasvati was a river as large as the Sutlej, that it was the last of the rivers of the Penjab, and therefore the iron gate, or the real frontier against the rest of India. At present the Sarasvati is so small a river that the epithets applied to the Sarasvati in the Veda have become quite inapplicable to it. The Vedic Rishis, though acquainted with numerous rivers, including

NOTES. 1, 19,7. 61

the Indus and Ganges, call the Sarasvati the mother of rivers (VII, 36, 6. sdrasvati saptathi sindhu-mata), the strongest of rivers (VI, 61, 13. apdsdm apa/-tama), and in our passage, VII, 95, 2, we have, as far as I can judge, conclusive evidence that the old Sarasvati reached in its course the Indian sea, either by itself, or united with the Indus *. ;

But this passage, though important as showing the appli- cation of samudra, i.e. confluvies, to the Indian sea, and proving the acquaintance of the Vedic Azshis with the southern coast of India, is by no means the only one in which samudra must be translated by sea. Thus we read, VII, 49, 2:

yah apah divyas utd va srdvanti khanitrim4z utd va yah svayam-ga, samudra-arthak yak sikayah pavakah tah apah deviz iha mam avantu.

The waters which are from heaven, or those which flow after being dug, or those which spring up by themselves, the bright, pure waters that tend to the sea, may those divine waters protect me here!

I, 71, 7. agnim visvaz abhi pv/kshaz sakante samudram na sravatak sapta yahvih.

All kinds of food go to Agni, as the seven rivers go to the sea.

Cf. I, 190, 7. samudram na sravatahk rédha-kakrah.

V, 78, 8. yatha vataz yatha vanam yatha samudrah égati.

As the wind moves, as the forest moves, as the sea moves (or the sky).

In hymn X, 58, the same expression occurs which we have - in our hymn, and samudrdm arzavdm there as here admits but of one explanation, the surging sea.

Samudra in many passages of the Rig-veda has to be taken as an adjective, in the sense of watery or flowing:

VI, 58, 3. yas te pashan navak antak samudré hiranydyik antarikshe aranti.

Thy golden ships, O Pishan, which move within the watery sky.

@ See ‘India, what can it teach us?’ pp. 170, 171.

62 VEDIC HYMNS,

VII, 70, 2. yak vim samudran saritah piparti.

He who carries you across the watery rivers.

I, 161,14. at-bhiz yati varuvzak samudrath.

Varuza moves in the flowing waters.

In both these passages samudra, as an adjective, does not conform to the gender of the noun. See Bollensen, Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 467.

II, 16, 3. nad samudraiz parvataiz indra te rathak (na pari-bhvé).

Thy chariot, O Indra, is not to be overcome by the watery clouds.

Verse 8.

WiLson: Who spread (through the firmament), along with the rays (of the sun), and, with their strength, agitate the ocean: come, Agni, with the Maruts.

BENFEY: Die mit Blitzen schleuderen michtig iiber das Meer hinaus—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LUDWIG: Die mit stralen ihre richtung nemen mit gewalt durchs mer, mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Verse 9.

WILSON : I pour out the sweet Soma juice for thy drink- ing, (as) of old: come, Agni, with the Maruts.

BENFEY: Ich giesse zu dem ersten Trank fiir dich des Soma Honig aus—Mit diesen Marut’s, Agni! komm!

LuDWIG: Ich giesze dir zum ersten trunk madhu mit dem soma zu; mit den Marut, Agni, kom.

Note 1. Pirvapiti, the early draught, implies at the same time the priority of the god to whom it is given.

MANDALA I, HYMN 37. _ 63

| MANDALA I, HYMN 37. ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 3, VARGA 12-14.

To THE MarutTs (THE STORM-GODS).

1. Sing forth, O Kazvas, to the sportive host of your Maruts, brilliant on their chariots, and un- scathed !,—

2, They who were born together, self-luminous, with the spotted deer (the clouds) ', the spears, the daggers, the glittering ornaments ”.

3. I hear their! whips, almost close by, when they crack them in their hands; they gain splendour? on their way °.

4. Sing forth the god-given prayer to the wild! host of your Maruts, endowed with terrible vigour ? and strength.

5. Celebrate the bull among the cows (the storm among the clouds)’, for it is the sportive host of the Maruts; he grew as he tasted the rain *.

6. Who, O ye men, is the strongest among you here, ye shakers of heaven and earth, when you shake them like the hem of a garment?! ?

7. At your approach the son of man holds himself down; the gnarled cloud! fled at your fierce anger.

8. They at whose racings! the earth, like a hoary king, trembles for fear on their ways,

g. Their birth is strong indeed: there is strength to come forth from their mother, nay, there is vigour twice enough for it}.

10. And these sons, the singers, stretched out the fences in their racings?; the cows had to walk knee-deep.

64 . VEDIC HYMNS.

11. They cause this long and broad unceasing rain! to fall on their ways. |

12. O Maruts, with such strength as yours, you have caused men to tremble!, you have caused the mountains to tremble.

13. As the Maruts pass! along, they talk together on the way: does any one hear them?

14. Come fast on your quick steeds! there are worshippers? for you among the Kazvas: may you well rejoice among them.

15. Truly there is enough for your rejoicing. We always are their servants, that we may live even the whole of life. |

NOTES, 1,37, 1. 65

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Kazva, the son of Ghora.

Messe ton; TV, 2, 42. 6. Verse 32:SV..1, 195. Verse 10=SV..-I, 221;

Verse 1.

WILSON: Celebrate, Kazvas, the aggregate strength of the Maruts, sportive, without horses, but shining in their car.

BENFEY : Kazviden, auf! begriisst mit Sang, die muntre Heerschaar der Marut’s, die rasch’ste, wagenglanzende.

LupwiG: Eurer spilenden schar, der Marutschar, der un- angreifbaren, die auf wagen glanzt, der singt, o Kazvas, zu.

Note 1. Wilson translates anarvazam by without horses, though the commentator distinctly explains the word by without an enemy. A Brdhmavza passage explains: bhratrzvyo va arva, ity srutyantarat. See TS. IV, 3, 13, 6. Wilson considers it doubtful whether drvan can ever mean enemy. The fact is, that in the Rig-veda an-arvan never means without horses, but always without hurt or free from enemies; and the commentator is perfectly right, as far as the sense is concerned, in rendering the word by without an enemy, or unopposed (apraty-vzta). An-arvan is not formed from arvat, horse, racer, but from darvan; and this is derived from the same root which yields drus, n. a wound, vzti (see I, 64,15, note), &c. The accusative of anarvat, without a horse, would be anarvantam, not anarvazam.

The root ar, in the sense of hurting, is distantly connected | with the root mar: see Lectures on the Science of Language, Second Series, p. 323. It exists in the Greek ddAvwu, cor- responding to Sanskrit rzzomi, i.e. arzomi, I hurt, likewise

[32] F

66 VEDIC HYMNS.

in ovA#, wound, which cannot be derived from 6Ayn ; in odAos, ovdzos, hurtful, and 6dods, destructive: see Curtius, Grundziige der Griechischen Etymologie (fiinfte Ausgabe), p. 372. In the Veda ar has the sense of offending or injuring, par- ticularly if preceded by upa.

X, 164, 3. yat A-sds ni#-sdsA abhi-sdsA upa-arima ga- grata yat svapantaZ, agniz visvani apa du/-kritani agushZani aré asmat dadhatu.

If we have offended, or whatever fault we have com- mitted, by bidding, blaming, or forbidding, while waking or while sleeping, may Agni remove all wicked misdeeds far from us.

Hence upara, injury, VII, 86, 6. dasti gyayan kaniyasak upa-aré, the older man is there to injure, to offend, to mis- lead, the young: (History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, second edition, p. 541.) Roth translates upara by Verfeh- lung, missing. Ari, enemy, too, is best derived from this root, and not from ra, to give, with the negative particle, as if meaning originally, as Sayaza supposes, a man who does not give. In ararivan, gen. ararushaZ, hostile, Rosen recog- nised many years ago a participle of a really reduplicated perfect of ar, and he likewise traced araru, enemy, back to the same root: see his note to I, 18, 3.

From this root ar, to hurt, arvan, hurting, as well as arus, wound, are derived in the same manner as both dhanvan and dhanus, bow, are formed from dhan; yagvan and yagus from yag, parvan and parus from par. See Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. ti, p. 233.

Anarvan, then, is the same as anarus, Sat. P. Brahmaza III, 1, 3, 7; and from meaning originally without a wound or without one who can wound, it takes the more general sense of uninjured, invulnerable, perfect, strong, (cf. integer, intact, and entire.) This meaning is applicable to I, 94, 2; 136, 5; Il, 6, 5; V, 49, 43 VII, 20, 3; 97, 5; &, 61, 13; 65, 3. In I, 116, 16, anarvan seems to be used as an adverb; in I, 51, 12, as applied to sloka, it may have the more general meaning of irresistible, powerful.

There are two passages in which the nom. sing. arvan, and one in which the acc. sing. arvawam, occur, apparently

NOTES. I, 37; I. 67

meaning horse. But in I, 163, 13, and IX, 97, 25, arvan stands in the Pada text only, the Samhita has arva akkha and arvaiva. In X, 46, 5, the text hiri-smasrum na 4rvazam dhana-arkam is too doubtful to allow of any safe induction, particularly as the Sama-veda gives a totally different reading. I do not think, therefore, that arvat, horse, admits in the nom. and acc. sing. of any forms but arva and arvan- tam*. Pdazini (VI, 4, 127) allows the forms arvan and arva- mam, but in anarvan only, which, as we saw, has nothing in common with arvat, horse. Benfey: ‘die rascheste (keinen Renner habend, uneinholbar),’ the quickest (having no racer, hence not to be reached). M. Bergaigne (Journ. As. 1884, p. 188) tries to defend anarvan in the sense of anasva, without considering the grammatical objections. In VI, 66, 7 (not I, 6, 7) anasvak does not refer to yamaz.

The masculine anarvazam after the neuter sdrdhas is curious ; sardhas means might, but it is here used to express a might or an aggregate of strong men or gods, and the nom. plur. yé, who, in the next verse, shows the same transition of thought, not only from the singular to the plural, but also from the neuter to the masculine, which must be admitted in anarvazam”. It would be possible, if necessary, to explain away the irregularity of anarvazam by admitting a rapid transition from the Maruts to Indra, the eldest among the Maruts (cf. I, 23, 8. indra-gyeshthak marut-gazaz), and it would be easier still to alter sdrdhas into sardham, as an accusative singular of the masculine noun sardha, which has the same meaning as the neuter sardhas. There is one passage, V, 56, 9, which would seem to give ample countenance to such a conjecture:

tam vad sardham rathe-sibham—4 huve.

I call hither this your host, brilliant on chariots.

Again, II, 30, 11, we read:

tam vak sardham marutam—girda upa bruve.

I call with my voice on this your host of Maruts.

& See Bugge, K. Z. XIX, p. 403.

Bollensen (Z. D. M. G. XXII, 603) calls it a vulgar Donatus ; see, however, Lanman, Noun-Inflection, pp. 330, 526. F 2

68 VEDIC HYMNS.

VIII, 93, 16. srutam vak vritrahan-tamam pra sdrdham Rarshazinam, 4 sushe.

I pant for the glorious, victorious, host of the quick Maruts.

From this sardha we have also the genitive sdrdhasya, VII, 56, 8 (4):

subhrak vak sishmak kridhmi mandmsi dhiniz minih- iva sardhasya dhrizshzdh.

Your prowess is brilliant, your minds furious; the shout of the daring host is like one possessed.

We have likewise the dative sardhaya, the instrumental sardhena, and the acc. plur. s4rdhan; and in most cases, except in two or three where sardha seems to be used as an adjective, meaning strong, these words are applied to the host of the Maruts.

But the other word sardhas is equally well authenticated, and we find of it, not only the nominative, accusative, and vocative sing. sardhas, but likewise the nom. plur. sardhamsi.

The nominative singular occurs in our very hymn:

T, 37, 5. kri/am yat sardhak marutam.

Which is the sportive host of the Maruts.

I, 127, 6. sak hi sardhad na marutam tuvi-svanih.

For he (Agni) is strong-voiced like the host of the Maruts.

IV, 6, 10. tuvi-svanasak marutam na sardhak.

Thy flames (Agni) are strong-voiced like the host of the Maruts.

V, 46, 5. uta tydt nak marutam sdrdhak 4 gamat.

May also that host of the Maruts come to us.

II, 1, 5. tvam narém sardhaz asi puru-vasuZ.

Thou (Agni), full of riches, art the host of the men.

This host of men seems to me intended again for the Maruts, although it is true that in thus identifying Agni with different gods, the poet repeats himself in the next verse :

II, 1, 6. tvam sardhad marutam.

Thou art the host of the Maruts. |

If this repetition seems offensive, the first naram sardhas might be taken for some other company of gods. Thus we find:

NOTES. 1, 37, I. 69

VII, 44, 5. svznotu nak dafvyam sardhak agnth srinvantu visve mahishaz amiraz.

May the divine host, may Agni, hear us, may the Visve hear us, the strong, the wise.

Or III, 19, 4. saz a vaha devad-tatim yavisht/a sdrdhak yat adya divyam yagAsi.

Bring thou hither, O Agni, the gods, that you may sacrifice to-day to the divine host.

Or I, 139, 1. a nu tat sdardhak divyaAm vrinimahe.

We chose for us now that divine host.

As in these last, so in many other passages, sdrdhas is used as a neuter in the accusative. For instance,

I, 106, 1; II, 11, 14. marutam sdardhaZ.

IT, 3, 3; VI, 3, 8. sardhad marutam.

The vocative occurs,

V, 46, 2. agne indra varuza mitra dévad sardhak pra yanta maruta uta vishzo (iti).

Agni, Indra, Varuza, Mitra, gods, host of the Maruts, come forth, and Vishzu!

We see how throughout all these passages those in which sardha and sardhas are applied to the Maruts, or to some other company of gods, preponderate most decidedly. Yet passages occur in the Rig-veda where both sardha and sar- dhas are applied to other hosts or companies. Thus V, 53, 10, sardha refers to chariots, while in I, 133, 3, sardhas is applied to evil spirits.

If the passages hitherto examined were all that occur in the Rig-veda, we might still feel startled at the construction of our verse, where sardhas is not only followed by mascu- line adjectives in the singular, but, in the next verse, by a pronoun in the plural. But if we take the last irregularity first, we find the same construction, viz. sardhas followed by we, 10 III, 42; 4:

indrasya sardhak maritak yé san.

The host of Indra, that was the Maruts.

As to the change of genders, we find adjectives in the masculine after sardhas, in

V, 52, 8. sardhak marutam ut samsa satya-savasam 7/bh- vasam. |

70 VEDIC HYMNS.

Celebrate the host of the Maruts, the truly vigorous, the brilliant.

Here, too, the poet afterwards continues in the plural, though as he uses the demonstrative, and not, as in our passage, the relative pronoun, we cannot quote this in support of the irregularity which has here to be explained. Anyhow the construction of our verse, though bold and unusual, is not so unusual as to force us to adopt conjectural remedies. In V, 58, 2, we find yé after gazahz. On the Umbrian Cerfo Martio, as possibly the same as sardha-s miaruta-s, see Grassman, Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xvi, p. 190. The Zend saredha, kind, species, is the same word.

Verse 2, |

WILSON: Who, borne by spotted deer, were born self- radiant, with weapons, war-cries, and decorations.

BENFEY: Die mit Hirschen und Speeren gleich mit Donnern und mit Blitzen auch—selbststrahlende—geboren sind.

LupwiG: Die mit vilfarbigen speeren, mit der schwerter glanze, sichtbar wurden mit eignem leuchten.

Note 1. The spotted deer (pr/shati) are the recognised animals of the Maruts, and were originally, as it would seem, intended for the rain-clouds. Sdayaza is perfectly aware of the original meaning of préshati, as clouds. The legendary school, he says, takes them for deer with white spots, the etymological school for many-coloured lines of clouds: (RV. BH. I, 64, 8.) This passage shows that although pr/shati, as Roth observes, may mean a spotted cow or a spotted horse,—the Maruts, in fact, are called sometimes prishat-asva%, having piebald horses, or, having przshats for their horses, VII, 40, 3,—yet the later tradition in India had distinctly declared in favour of spotted deer. The Vedic poets, however, admitted both ideas, and they speak in the same hymn, nay, in the same verse, of the fallow deer and of the horses of the Maruts. Thus V, 58, 1, the Maruts are called Ast-asv4h, possessed. of quick horses; and in V, 58, 6, we read yat pra aydsishZa pvéshatibhiZ asvaik—rathebhiz, where the gender of présha-

NOTES. 1; 37, 3. 71

tibhiZ would hardly allow us to join it with asvaiz, but where we must translate: When you come with the deer, the horses, the chariots, or with your deer, as horses. Ludwig joins przshatibhiz with rvzshzibhiZ, and again in I, 64, 8; see note 1 to I, 87, 4.

Note 2. The spears and daggers of the Maruts are meant for the thunderbolts, and the glittering ornaments for the lightning. Sdayaza takes vasi in this passage for war-cries on the authority of the Nirukta, where vasi is given among the names of the voice. From other passages, however, it becomes clear that vast is a weapon of the Maruts; and Sayaza, too, explains it sometimes in that sense: cf. V, 53, 4; 57, 2. Thus I, 88, 3, the vasis are spoken of as being on the bodies of the Maruts. In V, 53, 4, the Maruts are said to shine in their ornaments and their vasis. Here Sayama, too, translates vasi rightly by weapon; and in his remarks on I, 88, 3, he says that vast was a weapon com- monly called ara, which isa shoemaker’s awl. See Dhamma- pada, ver. 401. This reminds one of framea, which at one time was supposed to be connected with the German pfrieme. See, however, Grimm (Deutsche Grammatik, vol. i, p. 128) and Leo Meyer (Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. vi, p. 424). In VIII, 29, 3, the god Tvashéar is said to carry an ironvastin his hand. Grassman (Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xvi, p. 163) translates vasi byaxe. That agi is to be taken in the sense of ornament, and not in the sense of ointment, is shown by passages like VIII, 29, 1, where a golden orna- ment is mentioned, afigi ankte hirawyayam. Sdakam, together, is used with reference to the birth of the Maruts; see I, 64, 4. It should not be connected with vasibhiz.

Verse 3.

WILSON: I hear the cracking of the whips in their hands, wonderfully inspiring (courage) in the fight.

BENFEY: Schier hier erschallt der Peitsche Knall, wenn sie in ihrer Hand erklingt ; leuchtend fahr’n sie im Sturm herab.

Lupwic: Als ware es hier, so hort man es, wenn die geisslen in ihren handen knallen; wunderbar strecken sie auf ihrer fart sich nieder.

92 VEDIC HYMNS,

Note 1. Esham should be pronounced as a creticus; also in verses 9, 13,15. This isa verycommon vytha. On the whips as lightning, see Grimm, Donner, p. 27.

Note 2. I should have taken fitr4m as an adverb, like Benfey, if ni 77g were not usually construed with an accu- sative. zig in the 3rd pers. plur. pres. Atm. is treated like a verb of the Ad-class. The SV. seems to read yamam, and the commentator explains it by ratham.

Note 3. The locative yaman is frequently used of the path on which the gods move and approach the sacrifice ; hence it sometimes means, as in our passage, in the sky. Yamam in BR., s.v. arg, is wrong.

We might also translate: ‘ Here, close by, I hear what the whips in their hands say; they drive forth the beautiful (chariot) on the road.’ See SV. I, 2, 1, 5, 1, comm.

Verse 4.

WILson: Address the god-given prayer to those who are your strength, the destroyers of foes, the powerful, pos- sessed of brilliant reputation.

BENFEY: Singt eurer Schaar, der wiihlenden, der strahl- enreichen, kraftigen ein gotterfiilletes Gebet !

LupDwIG: Eurer kiinen schar, von blendender herlichkeit, der kraftvollen, soll ein von den goéttern eingegebenes brahma gesungen werden.

Note 1. Benfey translates ghv/shvi by burrowing, and refers it to the thunderbolt that uproots the earth. He points out that ghv/shvi means also, for the same reason, the boar, as proved by Kuhn (Die Herabkunft des Feuers, S. 202). GhrzshZi is evidently a common name for boar, the Norse griss, and the god of the wind, Grimnir or Grimr, is conceived as a boar, shaking the cornfield, in such phrases as ‘Der Eber geht ins Korn’ (Gentha, l.c. p. 14). I prefer, however, in this place the. general sense assigned to the adjective ghzéshu and ghv/shvi, exuberant, brisk, wild. See Kuhn in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xi, p. 385. Wilson, after Sayama, translates destroyers of foes. On the representation of the clouds as boars, see Nir. V, 4.

Note 2. Tvesha-dyumna is difficult to render. Both

NOTES, I, 37, 5. 73

tvesha and dyumna are derived from roots that mean to shine, to be bright, toglow. Derivatives from tvish express the idea of fieriness, fierceness, and fury. In IV, 17, 2, tvish is. used correlatively, with manyu, wrath. Deriva- tives from dyu convey the idea of brightness and briskness. Both qualities are frequently applied to the Maruts.

Verse 5.

WILSON: Praise the sportive and resistless might of the Maruts, who were born amongst kine, and whose strength has been nourished by (the enjoyment of) the milk.

BENFEY: Preist hoch die muntre Marutschaar die unbe- siegbar in den Kiih’n, im Schlund des Safts wuchs sie heran.

LUDWIG: Preise wie unter kiihen den stier, (so) der Marut spilende schar, beim verschlingen des saftes ist sie grosz geworden.

Note 1. This translation is merely conjectural. I suppose that the wind driving the clouds before him, is here com- pared to a bull among cows, cf. V, 52, 3:

té syandrasak na ukshazah ati skandanti sdrvarih.

They, the Maruts, like rushing bulls, mount on the dark cows.

The last sentence states that the wind grows even stronger after it has tasted the rain (I, 85, 2. té ukshitésaZ mahima- nam sata).

Note 2. I take gambhe in the sense of gimbhane. (On the root gabh and its derivatives, see Kuhn, Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, vol. i, p. 123 seq.) It would be better to read mukhe, instead of sukhe, in the commentary. The Maruts were not born of milk for Przsni, as Wilson says in a note, but from the milk of Pvésni. Przsni is called their mother, Rudra their father: (V, 52, 16; 60, 5.)

Benfey takes the cows for clouds in which the lightnings dwell; and the abyss of the sap is by him supposed to be again the clouds.

7A “VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 6.

WILSON: Which is chief leader among you, agitators of heaven and earth, who shake all around, like the top ae a tree)?

BENFEY: Wer, Helden! ist der erste euch—ihr Erd- und Himmel-schiitterer !—wenn ihr sie schiittelt Wipfeln gleich ?

LUDWIG: Wer ist der grdsste bei euch, helden, wenn vom himel und der erde, schiitteler, ihr am saume gleichsam riittelt !

Note 1. Antam na, literally, like an end, is explained by Sayaza as the top of a tree. Wilson, Langlois, and Benfey accept that interpretation. Roth proposes, like the hem of a garment, which I prefer; for vastranta, the end of a gar- ment, is acommon expression in later Sanskrit, while anta is never applied to a tree in the sense of the top of a tree. Here agra would be more appropriate.

Verse 7.

WILSON: The householder, in dread of your fierce and violent approach, has planted a firm (buttress); for the many-ridged mountain is shattered (before you).

BENFEY: Vor eurem Gange beuget sich, vor eurem wilden Zorn der Mann; der Hiigel weichet und der Berg.

LUDWIG: Vor eurem anzug, eurem gewaltigen eifer, niederduckte sich der mensch, wich der festgeknotete | wolken |berg.

Note 1. Sdyaza translates: ‘Man has planted a firm buttress to give stability to his dwelling.” The reading na for ni, which Aufrecht adopted, is untenable, as Ludwig shows. It has been altered in the second edition. See also VIII, 7, 5, nf yemiré. Nidadhré is the perfect Atmanepada, and expresses the holding down of the head or the cowering attitude of man. I have taken ugraya manyave over to gihita, because these words could hardly form an apposition to yamaya. As the Vedic poets speak of the very mountains as shaken by the storms, we might translate parvato giriZ by the gnarled or rocky mount;

NOTES. I, 37, 9. 7?

but there is no authority for translating gihita by it is shattered, and we should have to translate, the mountain yielded or bent before your anger. Cf. V, 57, 3:

ni vak vana gihate yamanaz bhiya.

The forests get out of your way from fear.

V, 60, 2. vana Ait ugraz gihate nf vak bhiyd przthivi Zit regate parvatak fit.

Even the forests, ye fearful Maruts, yield from fear of you; even the earth trembles, even the mountain.

In I, 166, 5, yat tvesha-yama% nadayanta parvatan, we may translate ‘when they on their fiery course made the parvatas (clouds) to sound or thunder,’ but it is more likely that nadayati here means to cause to shake or vibrate, and that parvata stands for mountain. We ought to remember such poetical expressions as 1 Kings xix. 11, ‘and a great, strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord,’

Verse 8.

WILSON : At whose impetuous approach earth trembles ; like an enfeebled monarch, through dread (of his enemies).

BENFEY: Bei deren Lauf bei deren Sturm die Erde zittert voller Furcht, wie ein altergebeugter Mann.

LupDwIG: Bei deren miarschen zitterte wie ein gealtet stammeshaupt die erd vor furcht auf ihren wegen.

Note 1. Agma seems to express the act of racing or running (like agi, race, battle), while yéma is the road itself where the racing takes place. A very similar passage occurs in I; 87,3. The comparison of the earth (fem.) to a king (masc.) would be considered a grave offence in the later Sanskrit literature. In I, 87, 3, vithura takes the place of vispati.

Verse 9.

WILSON : Stable is their birthplace, (the sky); yet the birds (are able) to issue from (the sphere of) their parent: for your strength is everywhere (divided) between two (regions,—or, heaven and earth).

76 VEDIC HYMNS.

BENFEY: Kaum geboren sind sie so stark, dass ihrer Mutter sie entfliehn : ist ja doch zwiefach ihre Kraft.

LupWIG: Denn fest ist ihr geburtsort, vogel (sind sie) von der mutter fortzugehn, nach dem, wie von altersher ihre kraft.

Oder, Denn fest ist ihre kraft geworden von der mutter sich zu trennen, da schon von alters her ihre kraft diss wollte.

Note 1. A very difficult verse. The birth of the Maruts is frequently alluded to, as well as their surpassing strength, as soon as born. Hence the first sentence admits of little doubt. But what follows is very abrupt. Vayas may be the plural of vi, bird, or it may be vayas, the neuter, meaning vital strength: see Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xv, p- 217. The Maruts are frequently compared to birds (cf. I, 87,2; 88,1), but it is usual to indicate the comparison by na or iva. I therefore take vayas as a nom. sing. neut., in the sense of vigour, life. They are called brzhadvayasak in a Nivid; see Ludwig, p. 226. Nir-i is used with par- ticular reference to the birth of a child (cf. V, 78, 7; 9).

Verse 10.

WILSON : They are the generators of speech : they spread out the waters in their courses: they urge the lowing (cattle) to enter (the water), up to their knees, (to drink.)

BENFEY: In ihrem Lauf erheben dann diese Sohne Getés und Fluth, die bis zum Knie den Kiihen geht.

LUDWIG: Und dise séne, die sanger, denten auf ihren ziigen ihre banen aus, so dass briillend sie uns ganz nahe kamen.

Note 1. If wecould take stinavad gira in the sense of the sons of voice, i.e. of thunder, which would remove many difficulties, the accent of giraZ would have to be changed. The commentator takes sinu in the sense of utpadaka, producers of sound. Gira, however, occurs at least once more, in the sense of singers or poets, IX, 63, 10, where girak can only be a vocative, O ye singers! In I, 6,6, the translation of girak by singers, i.e. the Maruts, may be contested, but if we consider that gira#, in the sense of

NOTES: © 1°37, 10, "7

hymns, is feminine, and is followed by the very word which is here used, viz. devayanta%, as a feminine, viz. devayantih, VII, 18, 3, we can hardly doubt that in I, 6, 6, girak is a masculine and means singers. The same applies to VI, 63,10. In VI, 52,9, Upa nak stinavak girak srinvantu amrt- tasya yé, the construction is, of course, quite different.

Note 2. The expression that the Maruts enlarged or extended the fences of their race-course (RV. IV, 58, 7), can only mean that they swept over the whole sky, and drove the clouds away from all the corners. Kéash¢ha may mean the wooden enclosures (carceres) or the wooden poles that served as turning and winning-posts (metae). The Sama-veda has yagfeshu instead of agmeshu. That the translation of this verse is purely tentative, and far from satisfactory, was known to all Vedic scholars, but I doubt whether they will consider the interpretation which M. Bergaigne proposes with so much assurance, as less ten- tative and more satisfactory. He translates (Journ. As. 1884, Pp. 239), ‘des fils ont, dans leur marche, allongé leurs chants comme des chemins, pour y marcher a genoux (sur les genoux) en mugissant (en chantant).’ I shall content my- self with shortly pointing out the misgivings which every Vedic scholar would feel at once in proposing such a ren- dering. First as to the conception itself. Can a poet say, ‘The Maruts have stretched out their songs in order to march on them on their knees?’ ‘The roads,’ as M. Ber- gaiene shows himself, are only a simile, and no one walks ona simile. Secondly, the idea that these Maruts widened the roads on which they march, is common enough, but that they lengthened their songs, like paths, is never said by the Vedic Azshis, nor would they in such a case have left out the particle na or iva. Lastly, though many things are said of the Maruts, I do not remember that they ever appear on their knees. I do not think, therefore, that M. Bergaigne’s infallible method helps us much beyond where we were before. Conjectures are easy, but for that very reason, one does not like to bring them forward. One might propose to read stindvak divas, a very common name of the Maruts. One might go a step further, identify

78 VEDIC HYMNS.

gi# with bharati, and point out that the Maruts are called the sons of Bharata, II, 36,2. But all this leaves us in utter uncertainty, and where a scholar feels the ground so uncertain beneath his feet, he hesitates to speak with papal authority. M. Bergaigne’s strong point is that abhigfu means on their knees, not up to their knees. Here again, I ask, does abhi in prepositional compounds ever mean on? If abhigiu is used in the same sense in which we use ‘on our knees,’ it would in Sanskrit mean only ‘bowing up to the knees.’ Now in I, 72, 5, abhigfiu seems to express a positive expression of reverence. With regard to the other passages where abhigfiu occurs, M. Bergaigne has not shown how they ought to be translated so as to give a clear sense. I do not pretend to solve the difficulties, but I think it is better to confess our difficulties than to hide them under the veil of a so-called systematic interpretation. Abhigiu, like mitag#u, may have expressed a position of the knees, expressive of strength, but on such points very little information is to be gained from Indian commentators.

The last sentence expresses the result of this race, viz. the falling of so much rain that the cows had to walk up to their knees in water. This becomes still clearer from the next verse.

SAYANA: These, the producers of speech, have spread water in their courses, they cause the cows to walk up to their knees in order to drink the water.

Verse 11.

WILSON: They drive before them, in their course, the long, vast, uninjurable, rain-retaining cloud.

BENFEY: Dann treiben sie im Sturm heran jenen langen und breiten Spross der Wolke unerschdpflichen.

LUDWIG: Sogar disen langen, breiten, das kind der wolke, den unfeindlichen, schleudern auf ihren ziigen sie vorwarts.

Note 1. Rain is called the offspring of the cloud, mihé napat, and is then treated as a masculine; cf. apam napat, &c.

NOTES. I, 37, 14. 79

Verse 12.

WILson: Maruts, as you have vigour, invigorate man- kind: give animation to the clouds.

BENFEY: O Marut’s! mit der Kraft, die ihr besitzt, werft ihr Geschopfe um, die Berge werft ihr um sogar.

LuDWIG: O Marut, so wie eure kraft ist, warft ihr die leute nieder, warft ihr die berge nieder.

Note 1. In VIII, 72, 8, aZukyavit is explained by vya- darayat, he tore open. Afufyavitana is the Vedic form of the 2nd pers. plur. of the reduplicated aorist.

Verse 13.

WILSON: Wherever the Maruts pass, they fill the way with clamour: every one hears their (noise).

BENFEY: Wenn die Marut’s des Weges ziehn, dann sprechen mit einander sie und mancher mag sie horen.

LupwiGc: Wenn die Marut wandern, sprechen auf dem weg sie mit einander, es horet sie ein jeder.

Note 1, Yanti has to be pronounced as an amphi- brachys.

Verse 14.

WILSON: Come quickly, with your swift (vehicles). The offerings of the Kazvas are prepared. ~ Be pleased with them.

BENFEY: Auf schnellen kommet schnell herbei, bei Kazva’s Spross sind Feste euch: da wollt euch schon ergotzen.

LUDWIG: Brecht rasch auf mit raschen rossen, bei den Kazva’s ist euer dienst, dort eben erfreuet euch.

Note 1. Benfey supposes that duva% stands in the sin- gular instead of the plural. But why should the plural have been used, as the singular (asti) would have created no kind of difficulty? It is better to take duvak as a nominative plural of a noun dd, worshipper, derived from the same root which yielded divas, worship. We certainly find a-duva#, as a nom. plur., in the sense of not-worshipping : :

80 VEDIC HYMNS.

VII, 4, 6. ma tva vaydm sahasd-van avira ma apsavak pari sadama ma aduvaz.

May we not, O hero, sit round thee like men without strength, without beauty (cf. VIII, 7, 7), without worship.

Here Sdyaza explains aduvak very well by parikaraza- hinaz, which seems better than Roth’s explanation ‘zogernd, ohne Eifer.’

Verse 15.

WILSON : The offering is prepared for your gratification : we are your (worshippers), that we may live all our life.

BENFEY: Geriistet ist fiir euren Rausch und wir gehoren, traun! euch an fiir unser ganzes Lebelang.

Lupwic: Er ist euch zur trunkesfreude, und wir gleich- falls euer hier, dass unsere ganze dauer wir erleben.

MANDALA I, HYMN 38. SI

MANDALA I, HYMN 88. ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 8, VARGA 15-17.

To tHE Maruts (THE STORM-GODS).

1. What then now? When! will you take (us) as a dear father takes his son by both hands, O ye gods, for whom the sacred grass has been trimmed ??

2. Where now? On what errand of yours are you going, in heaven, not on earth'? Where are your cows sporting ?

3. Where are your newest favours!, O Maruts? Where the blessings? Where all delights ?

4. If you, sons of Przsni, were mortals, and your praiser an immortal },—

5. Then never! should your praiser be unwelcome, like a deer in pasture grass’, nor should he go on the path of Yama °.

6. Let not one sin! after another, difficult to be conquered, overcome us; may it depart? together with greed.

7. Truly they are terrible and powerful; even to the desert the Rudriyas bring rain that is never dried up’.

8. The lightning lows like a cow, it follows as a mother follows after her young, when the shower (of the Maruts) has been let loose '.

9. Even by day the Maruts create darkness with the water-bearing cloud, when they drench the earth.

10. Then from the shouting of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth 1, men reeled forward.

11, Maruts on your strong-hoofed never-wearying*

[32] re

$2 VEDIC HYMNS.

steeds! go after those bright ones (the clouds), which are still locked up *.

12. May your fellies be strong, the chariots, and their horses, may your reins! be well-fashioned.

13. Speak forth for ever with thy voice to praise the Lord of prayer !, Agni, who is like a friend ?, the bright one.

14. Fashion a hymn in thy mouth! Expand like the cloud?! Sing a song of praise.

15. Worship the host of the Maruts, the terrible, the glorious, the musical’. May they be magnified here among us’.

NOTES. I, 38, I. 83

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Kazva, the son of Ghora. The metre is Gayatri throughout. Several verses, however, end in a spondee instead of the usual iambus. No attempt should be made to improve such verses by conjecture, for they are clearly meant to end in spondees. Thus in verses 2, 7, 8, and 9g, all the three padas alike have their final spondee. In verse 7, the ionicus a minore is with an evi- dent intention repeated thrice. No verse of the hymn occurs Mm SV, Vo. AY. but verse $= TS. III, 1, 41, 5; verse 9 = IS. II, 4, 8, 1.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Kadha-priyaz is taken in the Padapatha as one word, and Sayawa explains it by delighted by or delighting in praise, a nominative plural. A similar compound, kadha- priya, occurs in I, 30, 20, and there too the vocative sing. fem., kadhapriye, is explained by Sadyawza as fond of praise. In order to obtain this meaning, kadha has to be identified with katha, story, which is simply impossible. There is another compound, adha-priya, nom. dual, which occurs VIII, 8, 4, and which Sayava explains either as delighted here below, or as a corruption of kadha-priyé.

In Boehtlingk and Roth’s Dictionary, kadha-priya and kadha-pri are both taken as compounds of kadha, an interrogative adverb, and priya or pri, to love or delight, and they are explained as meaning kind or loving to whom? In the same manner adha-priya is explained as kind then and there.

It must be confessed, however, that a compound like kadha-pri, kind to whom?, is somewhat strange, and it seems preferable to separate the words, and to write kadha priya and adha priya.

It should be observed that the compounds kadha-pri and kadha-priya occur always in sentences where there is another interrogative pronoun. The two interrogatives. kat—kadha, what—where, and kds—kddha, who—where, - occurring in the same sentence, an idiom so common in

ea

84. VEDIC HYMNS.

Greek, may have puzzled the author of the Pada text, and the compound being once sanctioned by the authority of Sakalya, SAyavza would explain it as best he could. But if we admit the double use of the interrogative in Sanskrit, as in Greek, then, in our passage, priya would be an adjec- tive belonging to pita, and we might translate: ‘ What then now? When will you take (us), as a dear father takes his son by both hands, O ye Maruts?’ In the same manner we ought to translate I, 30, 20:

kak te ushad kadha priye bhugé marta amartye.

Who and where was there a mortal to be loved by thee, O beloved, immortal Dawn?

In VIII, 7, 31, where the same words are repeated as in our passage, it is likewise better to write:

kat ha nfindm kadha priya# yat indram agahatana, kak vak sakhi-tvé ohate.

What then now? Where is there a friend, now that you have forsaken Indra? Who watches for your friendship?

Why in VIII, 8, 4, adha priya should have been joined into one word is more difficult to say, yet here, too, the compound might easily be separated.

Kadha does not occur again, but would be formed in analogy with 4dha. It occursin Zend as kadha.

Kuhn, Beitrige IV, p. 186, has shown that kdsh¢ak (RV. V, 74, 1) isa similar monster, and stands for ku shzhak.

The words kat ha nfinadam commonly introduce an inter- rogative sentence, literally, What then now? cf. X, 10, 4.

Note 2, Vrzkta-barhis is generally a name of the priest, so called because he has to trim the sacrificial grass. ‘The sacred Kusa grass (Poa cynosuroides), after having had the roots cut off, is spread on the Vedi or altar, and upon it the libation of Soma-juice, or oblation of clarified butter, is poured out. In other places, a tuft of it in a similar position is supposed to form a fitting seat for the deity or deities invoked to the sacrifice. According to Mr. Steven- son, it is also strewn over the floor of the chamber in which the worship is performed.’

Cf. VI, 11, 5. vrifigé ha ydt namasa barhiZ agnati, d4yami sruk ghritd-vatt su-vriktizZ.

NOTES, 1, 38, 2. 85

When I reverentially trim the truss for Agni, when the well-trimmed ladle, full of butter, is stretched forth.

In our passage, unless we change the accent, it must be taken as an epithet of the Maruts, they for whom the grass- altar has been prepared. They are again invoked by the same name, VIII, 7, 20:

kva ninam su-danavaz madatha Sette tiescbsi hind:

Where do ye rejoice now, you gods for whom the altar is trimmed ?

Otherwise, vvzkta-barhishaZ might, with a change of accent, supply an accusative to dadhidhve: ‘ Will you take the worshippers in your arms?’ This, though decidedly better, is not absolutely necessary, because to take by the hand may be used as a neuter verb.

WILSON: Maruts, who are fond of praise, and for whom the sacred grass is trimmed, when will you take us by both hands as a father does his son?

BENFEY: Wo weilt ihr gern? was habt ihr jetzt—gleich- wie ein Vater seinen Sohn—in Handen, da das Opfer harrt ? )

Verse 2.

Note 1. The idea of the first verse, that the Maruts should not be detained by other pursuits, is carried on in the second. The poet asks, what they have to do in the sky, instead of coming down to the earth. The last sen- tence seems to mean ‘where tarry your herds?’ viz. the clouds. Sdayawa translates: ‘Where do worshippers, like lowing cows, praise you?’ Wilson: ‘Where do they who worship you cry to you, like cattle?’ Benfey : ‘Wo jauchzt man euch, gleich wie Stiere? (Ihre Verehrer briillen vor Freude iiber ihre Gegenwart, wie Stiere.)’ The verb razyati, however, when followed by an accusative, means to love, to accept with pleasure. The gods accept the offerings and the prayers:

V, 18, 1. visvani yA dmartya% havya marteshu ravyati.

The immortal who deigns to accept all offerings among mortals.

V, 74, 3. kasya brahmawi razyathaz.

86 VEDIC HYMNS.

Whose prayers do ye accept?

Followed by a locative razyati' means to delight in. Both the gods are said to delight in prayers (VIII, 12, 18; 33,16), and prayers are said to delight in the gods (VIII, 16,2). I therefore take ravyanti in the sense of tarrying, disporting, and na, if it is to be retained, in the sense of not; where do they not sport? meaning that they are to be found everywhere, except where the poet desires them to be. We thus get rid of the simile of singing poets and lowing cows, which, though not too bold for Vedic bards, would here come in too abruptly. It would be much better, however, if the negative particle could be omitted altogether. If we retain it, we must read: kva vak | gavahk | na raz | yanti|. But the fact is that through the whole of the Rig-veda kva has always to be pronounced as two syllables, kuva. There is only one passage, V, 61, 2, where, before a vowel, we have to read kva: kuva vo ’svaZ, kvabhisavak. In other passages, even before vowels, we always have to read kuva, e.g. I, 161, 4. kuvet=kva it; I, 105, 4. kuvartam=kva vitam. In I, 35,7, we must read either kuvedanim sirya#, making sirya% trisyllabic, or kuva idanim, leaving a hiatus. In I, 168, 6, kvavaram is kuvavaram: Sakalya, forgetting this, and wishing to im- prove the metre, added na, thereby, in reality, destroying both the metre and the sense. Kva occurs as dissyllabic in the Rig-veda at least forty-one times.

Verse 3.

Note 1. The meanings of sumna in the first five Mazdalas are well explained by Professor Aufrecht in Kuhn’s Zeit- schrift, vol. iv, p. 274. As to suvita in the plural, see X, 86, 21, and VIII, 93, 29, where Indra is said to bring all suvitas. It frequently occurs in the singular:

X,148,1. 4 naz bhara suvitim ydsya akan.

Verse 4.

Note 1. One might translate: ‘If you, sons of Présni, were mortals, the immortal would be your worshipper.’ But this seems almost too deep and elaborate a compliment for a primitive age. Langlois translates: ‘Quand vous ne

NOTES. I, 38, 5. 87

seriez pas immortels, (faites toutefois) que votre panégyriste jouisse d’une longue vie.’ Wilson’s translation is obscure : ‘That you, sons of Prisni, may become mortals, and your panegyrist become immortal.’ Sdyava translates : ‘Though you, sons of Pyzsni, were mortal, yet your worshipper would be immortal.’ Ludwig has, ‘ Wenn ihr, o kinder der Przsni, sterbliche waret, der unsterbliche ware euer sanger dann. Nicht werde euch unlieb der singer, wie ein wildes tier auf der weide, nicht des Yama Pfad betrete er.’ I think it best to connect the fourth and fifth verses, and I feel justified in so doing by other passages where the same or a similar idea is expressed, viz. that if the god were the poet and the poet the god, then the poet would be more liberal to the god than the god istohim. Whether syat should have the udatta, I cannot tell. Thus I translated a passage, VII, 32, 18,in my History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 545: ‘If I were lord of as much as thou, I should support the sacred bard, thou scatterer of wealth, I should not abandon him to misery. I should award wealth day by day to him who magnifies, I should award it to whosoever it be.’ Another parallel passage is pointed out by Mr. J. Muir, (On the Interpretation of the Veda, p. 79; see also Sanskrit Texts, V, 303.) VIII, 19, 25: ‘If, Agni, thou wert a mortal, and I were an immortal, I should not abandon thee to male- diction or to wretchedness; my worshipper should not be miserable or distressed.’ Still more to the point is another passage, VIII, 44,23: ‘ If I were thou, and thou wert I, then thy wishes should be fulfilled.’ See also VIII, 14, 1, 2.

As to the metre it is clear that we ought to read martasah syAtana.

Verse 5,

Note 1. Ma, though it seems to stand for na, retains its prohibitive sense.

Note 2. Yavasa is explained by Sdyawa as grass, and Wilson’s Dictionary, too, gives to it the meaning of meadow or pasture grass, whereas yava is barley. The Greek (ed or (eid is likewise explained as barley or rye, fodder for horses. See I, 91, 13. gava% nd yavaseshu, like cows in meadows. }

88 VEDIC HYMNS.

Note 3. The path of Yama can only be the path first followed by Yama, or that leads to Yama, as the ruler of the departed.

X, 14, 8. sam gakkhasva pitrt-bhiZ sim yaména.

Meet with the fathers, meet with Yama (X, 14, 10; 15,8).

X, 14,7. yamam pasyasi varuzam #a devam.

Thou wilt see (there) Yama and the divine Varuma.

X, 165, 4. tasmai yamaya nama astu mrztyave.

Adoration to that Yama, to Death!

WILSON: Never may your worshipper be indifferent to you, as a deer (is never indifferent) to pasture, so that he may not tread the path of Yama.

BENFEY: Wer euch besingt, der sei euch nicht gleich- giltig, wie das Wild im Gras, nicht wandl’ er auf des Yama Pfad. |

Agoshya is translated insatiable by Professor Goldstiicker.

Verse 6.

Note 1. One of the meanings of nirrzti is sin. It is derived from the same root which yielded r7ta, in the sense of right. Nirrzti was conceived, it would seem, as going away from the path of right, the German Vergehen. Nir- viti was personified as a power of evil and destruction.

VII, 104, 9. ahaye va tan pra-dadatu sémaZ 4 va dadhatu nii-riteh upa-sthe.

May Soma hand them over to Ahi, or place them in the lap of Nirvcti.

I, 117, 5. susupvasam na nih-ritek upa-sthe.

Like one who sleeps in the lap of Nirrdti.

Here Sayava explains Nirrzti as earth, and he attaches the same meaning to the word in other places which will have to be considered hereafter.” Cf. Lectures on the Science of Language, Second Series, p. 562.

Wilson treats Nirrzti as a male deity, and translates the last words, ‘let him perish with our evil desires,’

Note 2. Padishzd is formed as an optative of the Atmane- pada, but with the additional s before the t, which, in the ordinary Sanskrit, is restricted to the so-called benedictive (Grammar, § 385; Bopp, Kritische Grammatik, ed. 1834,

NOTES. I, 38, 7. 89

§ 329, note). Pad means originally to go. Thus RV. IX, 73, 9, atra kartam Ava padati 4prabhuZ, may the impotent go down into the pit. In certain constructions it gradually assumed the meaning of to perish, and native commentators are inclined to explain it by pat, to fall. One can watch the transition of meaning from going into perishing in such phrases as VS. XI, 46, ma paddy AyushaZ pura, literally, ‘may he not go before the time,’ but really intended for ‘may he not die before the time.’ In the Rig-veda padish#a is generally qualified by some words to show that it is to be taken in malam partem. Thus in our passage, and in ITI, 53,21; VII, 104,16;17. InI,79, 11, however, padishza sak is by itself used in a maledictory sense, pereat, may he perish! In another, VI, 20, 5, padi by itself conveys the idea of perishing. This may have some weight in deter- mining the origin of the Latin pestis (Corssen, Kritische Beitrage, p. 396), for it shows that, even without preposi- tions, such as 4 or vi, pad may have an ill-omened meaning. In the Aitareya-brahmava VII, 14 (History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 471), pad, as applied to a child’s teeth, means to go, to fall out. With sam, however, pad has always a good meaning, and this shows that originally its meaning was neutral. Another translation, suggested by Ludwig, might be: ‘Let not one dreadful Nirrsti (sin) after another strike us.’

Verse 7.

Note 1. The only difficult word is avatém. Sayama explains it,‘ without wind.’ But it is hardly possible to understand how the Maruts, themselves the gods of the storm, the sons of Rudra, could be said to bring clouds without wind. Langlois, it is true, translates without any misgivings: ‘ Ces dieux peuvent sur un sol desséché faire tomber la pluie sans l’accompagner de vent.’ Wilson: ‘ They send down rain without wind upon the desert.’ Benfey saw the incongruous character of the epithet, and explained it away by saying that the winds bring rain, and after they have brought it, they moderate their violence in order not to drive it away again; hence rain without wind. Yet even

90 VEDIC HYMNS.

this explanation, though ingenious, and, as I am told, particu- larly truthful in an eastern climate, is somewhat too artificial. If we changed the accent, avatam, unchecked, unconquered, would be better than avatém, windless. But dvata, uncon- quered, does not occur in the Rig-veda, except as applied to persons. It occurs most frequently in the phrase vanvan avatak, which Sadyaza explains well by hissan ahismsitah, hurting, but not hurt: (VI, 16, 20; 18, 1; IX, 89, 7.) In IX, 96, 8, we read przt-su vanvan avataz, in battles attacking, but not attacked, which renders the meaning of avata perfectly clear. In VI, 64, 5, where it is applied to Ushas, it may be translated by unconquerable, intact.

There are several passages, however, where avata occurs with the accent on the last syllable, and where it is accord- ingly explained as a Bahuvrihi, meaning either windless or motionless, from vata, wind, or from vata, going (I, 62, 10), In some of these passages we can hardly doubt that the accent ought to be changed, and that we ought to read avata. Thus in VI, 64, 4, avate is clearly a vocative applied to Ushas, who is called avata, unconquerable, in the verse immediately following. In I, 52, 4, the Maruts are called avatak, which can only be avata%, unconquerable ; nor can we hesitate in VIII, 79, 7, to change avatah into avata%, as -an epithet applied to Soma, and preceded by advzptakratuh, of unimpaired strength, unconquerable.

But even then we find no evidence that avata, uncon- quered, could be applied to rain or to a cloud, and I there- fore propose another explanation, though equally founded on the supposition that the accent of avatam in our passage should be on the first syllable.

I take vata as a Vedic form instead of the later vana, the past participle of vai, to wither. Similarly we find in the Veda vita, instead of gina, the latter form being sanctioned by Pazini. VA means to get dry, to flag, to get exhausted ; Avata therefore, as applied to a cloud, would mean not dry, not withered, as applied to rain, not dried up, but remaining on the ground. It is important to remark that in one passage, VI, 67, 7, Sayava, too, explains avata, as applied to rivers, by asushka, not dry; and the same meaning would

NOTES. I, 38, 8. QI

be applicable to avata# in I, 62, 10. In this sense of not withered, not dry, 4vatam in our passage would form a per- fectly appropriate epithet of the rain, while neither windless nor unconquered would yield an appropriate sense. In the famous passage, X, 129, 2, 4nit avatam svadhaya tat ¢kam, that only One breathed breathless by itself, avatam might be taken, in accordance with its accent, as windless or breath- less, and the poet may have wished to give this antithetical point to his verse. But d4vatam, as an adverb, would here be equally appropriate, and we should then have to trans- late, ‘that only One breathed freely by itself” Ludwig translates, ‘ Als treue die blendenden, die stiirmenden Rudriya auf dder flache sogar, als brunnen die wolke schaffen.’ This presupposes the conjectural reading ava- tam. Verse 8.

Note 1. The peculiar structure of the metre in the seventh and eighth verses should be noted. Though we may scan

—---vud-— | -—--v--0-- | v—-- v= | —-vy--JU-—-— | -- Vv -- 8 -— | ve oR by throwing the accent on the short antepenultimate, yet the movement of the metre becomes far more natural by throwing the accent on the long penultimate, thus reading te tyyt—p—tyt out | vtituut yay | oto oe | ose tut =

SAYANA: Like a cow the lightning roars, (the lightning) attends (on the Maruts) as the mother cow on her calf, because their rain is let loose at the time of lightning and thunder.

WILSON: The lightning roars like a parent cow that bellows for its calf, and hence the rain is set free by the Maruts.

BENFEY: Es blitzt—wie eine Kuh briillt es—die Mutter folgt dem Kalb gleichsam—wenn ihr Regen losgelassen. (Der Donner folgt dem Blitz, wie eine Kuh ihrem Kalbe.)

Vasra as a masculine means a bull, and it is used as a name of the Maruts in some passages, VIII, 7,3; 7. As

92 VEDIC HYMNS.

a feminine it means a cow, particularly a cow with a calf, a milch cow. Hence also a mother, X, 119, 4. The lowing of the lightning must be intended for the distant thunder, and the idea that the lightning goes near or looks for the rain is not foreign to the Vedic poets. SeeI, 39,9: ‘Come to us, Maruts, with your entire help, as sania: (come to, i.e. seek for) the rain!’

Verse 9.

Note 1. That parganya here and in other places means cloud has been well illustrated by Dr. Biihler, Orient und Occident, vol. i, p. 221. It is interesting to watch the personifying process which is very palpable in this word, and by which Parganya becomes at last a friend and com- panion of Indra. See now, ‘India, what can it teach us?’ p. 183 seq.

Verse 10.

Note 1. Sadma, as a neuter, means originally a seat, and is frequently used in the sense of altar: IV, 9, 3. saZ sadma pari niyate hdta; VII, 18, 22. hdtd-iva sadma pari emi rébhan. It soon, however, assumed the more general meaning of place, as

X, 1, 1. agni#Z bhanuna rusata visva sadmani aprad.

Agni with brilliant light thou filledst all places.

It is lastly used with special reference to heaven and earth, the two sadmani, I, 185, 6; III, 55,2. In our passage sadma parthivam is the same as parthive sddane in VIII, 97,5. Here the earth is mentioned together with heaven, the sea, and the sky. Sdyaza takes sadma as ‘ dwelling, so do Wilson and Langlois. Benfey translates ‘der Erde Sitz,’ and makes it the subject of the sentence, which may be right: ‘From the roaring of the Maruts the seat of the earth trembles, and all men tremble. Sadman, with the accent on the last syllable, is also used as a masculine in the Rig-veda, I, 173, 1; VI, 51, 12. sadmanam divyam.

Verse 11.

Note 1. I have translated vilu-pamibhiZ, as if it were vilupazibhiz, for this is the right accent of a Bahuvrihi

NOTES. I, 38, II. 93

compound. Thus the first member retains its own accent in prithu-p4vi, bhiri-pawi, vrésha-pavi, &c. It is possible that the accent may have been changed in our passage, because the compound is used, not as an adjective, but as a kind of substantive, as the name of a horse. Pdzi, hand, means, as applied to horses, hoof :

II, 31, 2. prithivyadz sanau ganghananta pazti-bhir.

When they strike with their hoofs on the summit of the earth.

This meaning appears still more clearly in such com- pounds as dravat- pai:

VIII, 5, 35. hirazydyeva rathena dravatpazi-bhix asvaih.

On a golden chariot, on quick-hoofed horses.

The horses of the Maruts, which in our verse are called

vilu-pai, strong-hoofed, are called VIII, 7, 27. hirazya- ' pAzi, golden-hoofed :

asvaih hirazyapani-bhiz dévasak upa gantana.

On your golden-hoofed horses come hither, O gods.

Those who retain the accent of the MSS. ought to trans- late, ‘ Maruts, with your strong hands go after the clouds.’

Note 2, Rddhasvati is explained by Sadyava asriver. It © does not occur again in the Rig-veda. Rdodhas is enclosure or fence, the bank of a river ; but it does not follow that rddhasvat, having enclosures or banks, was applicable to rivers only. II, 15, 8, it is said that he emptied or opened the artificial enclosures of Bala, these being the clouds conquered by Indra. Hence I take rodhasvati in the sense of a cloud yet unopened, which is followed or driven on by the Maruts.

Kitra, bright or many-coloured, is applied to the clouds, V, 63, 3. Aitrébhiz abhraiz.

Note 3, Roth and Ludwig take 4khidray4man for a name of horse, which seems right. The word does not occur again in the Rig-veda.

WILSON: Maruts, with strong hands, come along the beautifully-embanked rivers with unobstructed progress.

BENFEY: Mit euren starken Hianden folgt den hehren eingeschlossnen nach in unermiid’tem Gang, Maruts.

94 VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 12.

Note 1. Abhisu, rein, does not mean finger in the Rig- veda, though Sayawza frequently explains it so, misled by Yaska, who gives abhisu among the names of finger. Wilson: ‘May your fingers be well skilled (to hold the reins).’

Verse 13.

Note 1. Agni is frequently invoked together with the Maruts, and is even called martt-sakha, the friend of the Maruts, VIII, 92,14. It seems better, therefore, to refer brahmavzas patim to Agni, than, with Sdyaza, to the host of the Maruts (maridgazam). Brahmazaspati and Brzhas- pati are both varieties of Agni, the priest and purohita of gods and men, and as such he is invoked together with the Maruts in other passages, I, 40, 1. Tanda is an adverb, meaning constantly, always, for ever. Cf. II, 2,1; VIII, 40, 7-

WILSON: Declare in our presence (priests), with voice attuned to praise Brahmazaspati, Agni, and the beautiful Mitra. ,

BENFEY: Lass schallen immerfort das Lied zu griissen Brahmazaspati, Agni, Mitra, den herrlichen.

Note 2. Mitra is never, as far as I know, invoked together with the Maruts, and it is better to take mitradm as friend. Besides na cannot be left here untranslated. Ludwig translates, ‘beautiful like Mitra,’ that is, bright like the sun.

Verse 14.

Note 1. The second sentence is obscure. Sdyava trans- lates: ‘Let the choir of priests make a hymn of praise, let them utter or expand it, like as a cloud sends forth rain.’ Wilson similarly: ‘Utter the verse that is in your mouth, spread it out like a cloud spreading rain.’ Benfey: ‘Ein Preislied schaffe in dem Mund, ertone dem Parganya gleich.’ He takes Parganya for the god of thunder, and supposes the hymn of praise to be compared to it on account of its loud- ness. Tatana% can only be the second person singular of the conjunctive of the reduplicated perfect, of which we

NOTES. I, 38, I5. 95

have also tatdnat, tatandma, tatdnan, and tatananta. Ta- tanaz can be addressed either to the host of the Maruts, or to the poet. I take it in the latter sense, for a similar verse occurs VIII, 21,18. Itis said there of a patron that he alone is a king, that all others about the river Sarasvati are only small kings, and the poet adds: ‘May he spread like a cloud with the rain, giving hundreds and thousands (par- ganyah-iva tatanat hi vr7shtya). Ludwig takes tan in the sense of thundering ; thunder like Parganya!

Verse 15.

Note 1. It is difficult to find an appropriate rendering for arkin. It means praising, celebrating, singing, and it is in the last sense only that it is applicable to the Maruts. Wilson translates, ‘entitled to adoration ;’ Benfey, ‘flaming.’ Boehtlingk and Roth admit the sense of flaming in one passage, but give to arkin in this place the meaning of praising. If it simply meant, possessed of arka, i.e. songs of praise, it would be a very lame epithet after panasyu. But other passages, like I, 19, 4; 52,15, show that the con- ception of the Maruts as singers was most familiar to the Vedic Rishis (I, 64, 10; Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. i, p. 521, note); and arkd is the very name applied to their songs (1,19, 4). In the Edda, too, ‘storm and thunder are repre- sented as a lay, as the wondrous music of the wild hunt. The dwarfs and Elbs sing the so-called Alb-leich which carries off everything, trees and mountains. See Justi in Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p.62; Genthe, Windgottheiten, p.4; 11. There is no doubt therefore that arkin here means musician, and that the arka of the Maruts is the music of the winds.

Note 2. Vrvzddha, literally grown, is used in the Veda as an honorific epithet, with the meaning of mighty, great, or magnified :

Til, 32, 7 ewan it namasd vrzddham indram

brzhantam vishvam agdram yuvanam.

We worship with praise the mighty Indra, the great, the exalted, the immortal, the vigorous.

Here neither is vy¢ddha intended to express old age,

96 VEDIC HYMNS.

nor yuvan young age, but both are meant as laudatory epithets. See Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 91 seq.

Asan is the so-called Le? of as, to be. This Le? is pro- perly an imperative, which gradually sinks down to a mere subjunctive, and is generally called so. Ofas, we find the following Lez forms: belonging to the present, we have dsasi, II, 26,2; dsati, VI, 23,9; dasatha%, VI, 63,1; and Asatha, V, 61,4: belonging to the imperfect, 4saZ, VIII, 100, 2; asat, I, 9,5; asdma, I, 173, 9; asan, I, 80, 1. Asam, a form quoted by Roth from Rig-veda X, 27, 4, is really 4sam.

We find, for instance, asa, with an imperative or opta- tive meaning, in

VIII, 100, 2. asak ka tvam dakshizatak sakha me

ddha vritrazi ganghandva bhiri.

And be thou my friend on my right hand, and we shall kill many enemies.

Here we see the transition of meaning from an impera- tive to the conditional. In English, too, we may say,‘ Do this and you shall live, which means nearly the same as, ‘If you do this, you will live Thus we may translate this passage: ‘And if thou be my friend on my right side, then — we shall kill many enemies.’

X,124,1. imam nak agne upa yagfdm 4 ihi—

asak havya-va¢ uta nak purah-gatk.

Here we have the imperative ihi and the Le# dsaz used in the same sense.

Far more frequently, however, asa% is used in relative sentences, such as,

VI, 36, 5. asaz yatha nak savasé kakanah.

That thou mayest be ours, delighting in strength.

VII, 24,1. dasak yatha nak avita vridhé a.

That thou mayest be our helper and for our increase.

See also X, 44, 4; 85, 26; 36.

WILSON: May they be exalted by this our worship.

BENFEY: Mogen die Hohen hier bei uns sein.

MANDALA I, HYMN 39. 97

MANDALA I, HYMN 89. ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 3, VARGA 18-19.

To THE Maruts (THE STORM-GODS).

1. When you thus from afar cast forwards your measure}, like a blast of fire, through whose wisdom is it, through whose design?? ‘Towhom do you go, to whom, ye shakers (of the earth) ?

2. May your weapons be firm to attack, strong also to withstand. May yours be the more glorious power, nor that of the deceitful mortal.

3. When you overthrow what is firm, O ye men, and whirl about what is heavy, you pass? through the trees of the earth, through the clefts of the rocks .

4. No real foe of yours is known in heaven, nor on earth, ye devourers of foes! May power be yours, together with your race'!! O Rudras, can it be defied ??

5. They make the rocks tremble, they tear asun- der the kings of the forest!. Come on, Maruts, like madmen, ye gods, with your whole tribe.

6. You have harnessed the spotted deer to your | chariots, a red one draws as leader!; even the earth listened? at your approach, and men were frightened.

7. O Rudras, we quickly desire your help for our race, Come now to us with help, as of yore; thus now for the sake of the frightened Kazva'.

8. Whatever fiend, roused by you or roused by men, attacks us, deprive him of power, of strength, and of your favours}.

9. For you, chasing and wise Maruts, have wholly

[32] H

98 VEDIC HYMNS,

protected’ Kazva. Come to us, Maruts, with your whole favours, as lightnings? (go in quest of) the rain.

10, Bounteous givers, you carry whole strength, whole power, ye shakers (of the world). Send, O Maruts, against the wrathful enemy of the poets an enemy, like an arrow}.

NOTES. I, 39, I. 99

NOTES,

This hymn is ascribed to Kazva, the son of Ghora. The metre varies between Brzhati and Satobrvzhati, the odd verses being composed in the former, the even verses in the latter metre. Each couple of such verses is called a Barhata Pragatha. The Brzhati consists of 8+8+4+12+8, the Satobrzhati of 12+8+412+8 syllables. No verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV.; verse 5=TB. II, 4,

4, 3. Verse 1..

Note 1. Mana, which I translate by measure, is explained by Sdyavza as meaning strength. Wilson: ‘When you direct your awful vigour downwards from afar, as light (descends from heaven). Benfey: ‘Wenn ihr aus weiter Ferne so wie Strahlen schleudert euren Stolz (das worauf ihr stolz seid: euren Blitz). Langlois: ‘Lorsque vous lancez votre souffle puissant.’ I doubt whether mana is ever used in the Rig-veda in the sense of pride, which no doubt it has, as a masculine, in later Sanskrit: cf. Hala- yudha, ed. Aufrecht, iv, 37. Mana, as a masculine, means frequently a poet in the Rig-veda, viz. a measurer, a thinker or maker; as a neuter it means a measure, or what is measured or made. Thus V, 85, 5, we read:

manena-iva tasthi-van antarikshe vi ya4Z mamé prithivim stiryeva.

He (Varuza) who standing in the welkin has measured the earth with the sun, as with a measure.

In this passage, as well as in ours, we must take measure, not in the abstract sense, but as a measuring line, which is cast forward to measure the distance of an object,—a simile, perfectly applicable to the Maruts, who seem with their weapons to strike the trees and mountains when they them- selves are still far off. Another explanation might be given, if mana could be taken in the sense of measure, i.e. shape or form, but this is doubtful.

HZ

100 . VEDIC HYMNS.

Note 2. Varpas, which has generally been translated by body or form, is here explained by praise. Benfey puts Werk (i.e. Gesang, Gebet); Langlois, maison. Varpas, which, without much reason, has been compared to Latin corpus, must here be taken in a more general sense. Thus VI, 44, 14, asya made pur varpamsi vidvan, is applied to Indra as knowing many schemes, many thoughts, many things, when he is inspired by the Soma-juice; see I, 19, 5.

Verse 3.

Note 1, Benfey takes vi yathana in a causative sense, you destroy, you cause the trees to go asunder. But even without assigning to ya a causative meaning, to go through, to pierce, would convey the idea of destruction. In some passages, however, vi-ya is certainly used in the simple sense of passing through, without involving the idea of destruction:

VIII, 73, 13. ratha% viyati rddas (iti).

Your chariot which passes through or between heaven and earth.

In other passages the mere passing across implies con- quest and destruction :

I, 116,20. vi-bhindina....rathena vi parvatén....ay4tam.

On your dissevering tase you went across, or, you rent, the mountains (the clouds).

In other passages, however, a causative meaning seems equally, and even more applicable:

VIII, 7, 23. vi vritram parva-sak yayud vi parvatan.

They passed through Vrztra piecemeal, they passed through the mountains (the clouds); or, they destroyed Vritra, cutting him to pieces, they destroyed the clouds.

Likewise I, 86, 10. vi yAta visvam atrizam.

Walk athwart every evil spirit, or destroy every evil spirit! See before, I, 19; ie Gee

WP at WW a - wo

We must scan vi yAthana vaninak prithivya.

Note 2. It might seem preferable to translate as4% par- vatandm by the spaces of the clouds, for parvata means clouds in many places. Yet liere, and still more clearly in verse 5, where parvata occurs again, the object of the poet

NOTES. I, 39, 5. IOI

is to show the strength of the Maruts. In that case the mere shaking or bursting of the clouds would sound very tame by the side of the shaking and breaking of the forest trees. Vedic poets do not shrink from the conception that the Maruts shake even mountains, and Indra is even said to have cut off the mountain tops: IV, 19, 4. ava abhinat kaku- bha% parvatandm. In the later literature, too, the same idea occurs: Mah&abh. Vana-parva, ver. 10974, dyauz svit patati kim bhamir diryate parvato nu kim, does the sky fall? is the earth torn asunder, or the mountain?

Verse 4.

Note 1. Sdyaza was evidently without an authoritative explanation of tand yuga. He tries to explain it by ‘through the union of you may strength to resist be quickly extended. Wilson: ‘May your collective strength be quickly exerted.’ Benfey takes tan4 as adverb and leaves out yuga: ‘Zu allen Zeiten, O Furchtbare !—sei im Nu zu iiberwalt’gen euch die Macht.’ Yuga, an instrumental, if used together with another instrumental, becomes in the Veda a mere preposition: cf. VII, 43, 5; 95,4. raya yuga; X, 83, 3. tapasd yuga; X, 102, 12. vadhrivad yuga ; VII, 32, 20, puram-dhyé yuga; VI, 56, 2. sAkhy& yuga; VIII, 68, g. tva yuga. As to the meaning of tan, see B. R. s. v., where tan in our passage is explained as continuation. The offspring or race of the Maruts is mentioned again in the next verse.

Note 2. I take nu Ait a-dhv/she as an abrupt interro- gative sentence, viz. Can it be defied? Can it be resisted? See V, 87, 2: |

tat vak marutaz na 4-dhr/she savah.

Your strength, O Maruts, is not to be defied.

Verse 5.

Note 1. Large trees of the forest are called the kings or lords of the forest. Instead of pré Arata, the Taitt. Br. II, 4, 4, 2, reads pro varata, which Sayavza explains by pro, prakarshevza, avarata dhavata.

102 VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 6.

Note 1. Prash#i is explained by Sayawa as a sort of yoke in the middle, when three horses or other animals are harnessed to a car; rohita as a kind of red deer. Hence Wilson remarks that the sense may be, ‘The red deer yoked between them aids to drag the car.’ But he adds that the construction of the original is obscure, and ap- parently rude and ungrammatical. Benfey translates, ‘Sie fiihrt ein flammenrothes Joch, and remarks against Wilson that Sayava’s definition of prashd as yoke is right, but that of rdhita as deer, wrong. If Sdyavza’s authority is to be invoked at all, one might appeal from Sayava in this place to Sayaza VIII, 7, 28, where prash/i is explained by him either by quick or by pramukhe yugyamanaZ, harnessed in front. The verse is

yat eshdm pr/shatizZ rathe prashziZ vahati rohitah.

When the red leader draws or leads their spotted deer in the chariot.

VI, 47, 24. prash7iz is explained as tripada Adharaz ; tad- vad vahantiti prashZayo:svad.. In I, 100, 17, prashdibhit, as applied to men, means friends or supporters, or, as Sayava explains, parsvasthair anyair rzshibhiz.

Ludwig (IV, ad 25, 8) adds some useful information. He quotes from the comm. on Taitt. S.I,7,8; vamadakshizayor asvayor madhya ishadvayam prasarya tayor madhye sap- tyakhyagativiseshopetam asvam yurgyat. The right horse is said to be the arva, the left vagi, the middle saptiz. Latyayana II, 7, 23, calls the two side-horses prash/i. According to Sayaza (Taitt. S. I, 7, 8,.p. 1024) prashdi means originally a tripod for holding a pot (see above), and afterwards a chariot with three horses. In that case we should have to translate, the red chariot moves along.

Note 2. Aufrecht derives asrot from sru, to shake, without necessity, however ; see Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, IV, p. 494.

Ludwig also remarks that asrot might be translated by the earth trembled or vibrated. Similar passages occur RV. I, 127, 3. vida Ait yasya sam-ritau srivat van4-iva yat sthirdm, at whose approach even what is firm and strong

NOTES. I, 39, 10. 103

will shake, like the forests, Roth translates, the earth yielded, got out of your way.

Verse 7. Note 1. Kazva, the author of the hymn.

Verse 8.

Note 1. The abhva, fiend, or, as Benfey translates it very

happily, Ungethiim, may have been sent by the Maruts

themselves, or by some mortal. With reference to yushmé-

shita it is said afterwards that the Maruts are to withdraw

their help from him. I have adopted Wilson’s and Ludwig's interpretation of vi yuyota, with the instrumental.

Verse 9.

Note 1. The verb dada is the second pers. plur. of the perfect of da, and is used here in the sense of to keep, to protect, as is well shown by B. and R. s. v. da 4, base dad. Sayava did not understand the word, and took it for an irregular imperative; yet he assigned to the verb the proper sense of to keep, instead of to give. Hence Wilson: ‘ Up- hold the sacrificer Kazva.’ Benfey, less correctly, ‘Den Kazva gabt ihr, as if Kawva had been the highest gift of the Maruts.

Note 2. The simile, as lightnings go to the rain, is not very telling. It may have been suggested by the idea that the lightnings run about to find the rain, or the tertium comparationis may simply be the quickness of lightning. Wilson : ‘ As the lightnings bring the rain.’ Benfey: ‘(So schnell) gleichwie der Blitz zum Regen kémmt.’ Lightning precedes the rain, and may therefore be represented as looking about for the rain. Ludwig proposes some bold conjectures. He would change kavvam to ramzvam, and take the words from asAmibhi“Z to ganta as a parenthesis. He translates: ‘For nothing imperfect, you highly to be revered Maruts, no, something delightful you gave—{with perfect aids, Maruts, come to us)—as lightnings give rain.’

Verse 10. Note 1. Wilson: ‘Let loose your anger.’ Sayama: ‘Let loose a murderer who hates.’

104 VEDIC HYMNS,

Pari-manyu, which occurs but once in the Rig-veda, corresponds as nearly as possible to the Greek mepiOvjos. Manyut, like @vyds, means courage, spirit, anger; and in the compound parimanyu, as in wep{Ovjsos, the preposition pari seems to strengthen the simple notion of the word. That pari is used in that sense in later Sanskrit is well known; for instance, in parilaghu, perlevis, parikshama, withered away: see Pott, Etymologische Forschungen, second edition, vol.i, p. 487. How pari, originally meaning round about, came to mean excessive, is difficult to explain with certainty. It may have been, because what surrounds exceeds, but it may also have been because what is done all around a thing is done thoroughly. See Curtius, Grundziige, fifth edition, p. 274. Thus we find in the Veda, VIII, 75, 9, pari-dveshas, lit. one who hates all around, then a great hater :

ma nak... pari-dveshasak amhatiz, irmik na névam 4 vadhit.

May the grasp of the violent hater strike us not, as the wave strikes a ship.

Again, pari-spv¢dh means literally one who strives round about, then an eager enemy, a rival (fem.) :

IX, 53, 1. nudasva yah pari-sprédhad. -

Drive away those who are rivals.

Pari-krosa means originally one who shouts at one from every side, who abuses one roundly, then an angry reviler. This word, though not mentioned in B. R.’s Dictionary, occurs in 3

I, 29, 7. sarvam pari-krosam gahi.

Kill every reviler !

The same idea which is here expressed by pari- etosd. | is in other places expressed by pari-rap, lit. one who shouts round about, who defies on every side, a calumniator, an enemy, one who ‘ be-rattles.’

II, 23, 3. @ vi-badhya pari-rdpaz.

Having struck down the enemies.

II, 23,14. vi pari-rdpak ardaya.

Destroy the enemies.

In the same way as the words meaning to hate, to

NOTES. I, 39, 10. 105

oppose, to attack, are strengthened by this preposition, which conveys the idea of round about, we also find words expressive of love strengthened by the same preposition. Thus from pritaz, loved, we have pari-pritaZ, lit. loved all round, then loved very much: I, 190, 6. pari-pritazZ na mitrak; cf. X, 27,12. Wealso find IX, 72, I. pari-priyah, those who love fully or all around, which may mean great lovers, or surrounding friends.

In all these cases the intensifying power of pari arises from representing the action of the verb as taking place on every side, thoroughly, excessively; but in other cases, mentioned by Professor Pott, particularly where this pre- position is joined to a noun which implies some definite limit, its magnifying power is no doubt due to the fact that what is around, is outside, and therefore beyond. Thus in Greek mepivetpos expresses the same idea as t7épyerpos (loc, cit. p. 488), but I doubt whether pari ever occurs in that sense in Sanskrit compounds.

106 VEDIC HYMNS.

MANDALA I, HYMN 64. ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 5, VARGA 6-8.

To THE Maruts (THE STORM-GopDs).

1. For the manly host, the joyful, the wise, for the Maruts bring thou, O Nodhas’, a pure offering ?. I prepare songs, like as a handy priest *, wise in his mind, prepares the water, mighty at sacrifices.

2. They are born, the tall bulls of Dyu! (heaven), the manly youths? of Rudra, the divine, the blame- less, pure, and bright like suns; scattering rain- drops, full of terrible designs, like giants°.

3. The youthful Rudras, they who never grow old, the slayers of the demon', have grown irre- sistible like mountains. They throw down with their strength all beings, even the strongest, on earth and in heaven.

4. They deck themselves with glittering orna- ments! for a marvellous show; on their chests they fastened gold (chains) for beauty’; the spears on their shoulders pound to pieces*; they were born together by themselves *, the men of Dyu.

5. They who confer power!, the roarers?, the de- vourers of foes, they made winds and lightnings by their powers. The shakers milk the heavenly udders (clouds), they sprinkle the earth all round with milk (rain).

6. The bounteous! Maruts pour forth? water, mighty at sacrifices, the fat milk (of the clouds). They seem to lead* about the powerful horse, the cloud, to make it rain; they milk the thundering, unceasing spring ‘.

MANDALA I, HYMN 64. 107

7. Mighty they are, powerful, of beautiful splen- dour, strong in themselves! like mountains, (yet) swiftly gliding along;—you chew up forests, like wild elephants*, when you have assumed your powers among the red flames *.

8. Like lions they roar, the wise Maruts, they are handsome like gazelles1, the all-knowing. By night * with their spotted deer (rain-clouds) and with their spears (lightnings) they rouse the companions together, they whose ire through strength is like the ire of serpents.

9. You who march in companies, the friends of man, heroes, whose ire through strength is like the ire of serpents’, salute heaven and earth?! On the seats on your chariots, O Maruts, the lightning stands, visible like light *.

to. All-knowing, surrounded with wealth, endowed with powers, singers!, men of endless prowess, armed with strong rings’, they, the archers, have taken the arrow in their fists.

11. The Maruts who with the golden tires of their wheels increase the rain, stir up the clouds like wan- derers on the road. They are brisk, indefatigable}, they move by themselves; they throw down what is firm, the Maruts with their brilliant spears make (everything) to reel 2,

12. We invoke with prayer! the offspring of Ru- dra, the brisk, the pure, the worshipful 2, the active. Cling * for happiness-sake to the strong company of the Maruts, the chasers of the sky‘, the powerful, the impetuous 5,

13. Ihe mortal whom ye, Maruts, protected, he indeed surpasses people in strength through your protection. He carries off booty with his horses,

108 VEDIC HYMNS.

treasures with his men; he acquires honourable?! wisdom, and he prospers?”. |

14. Give, O Maruts, to our lords strength glorious, invincible in battle, brilliant, wealth-acquiring, praise- worthy, known to all men1. Let us foster our kith and kin during a hundred winters.

15. Will? you then, O Maruts, grant unto us wealth, durable, rich in men, defying all onslaughts*? —wealth a hundred and a thousand-fold, always increasing >—May he who is rich in prayers® (the host of the Maruts) come early and soon!

NOTES.‘ 1;/Gd; 1: 109

NOTES,

This hymn is ascribed to Nodhas, of the family of Go- tama. No verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV.; mut verse 6= TS. IIL, 1, 11, 7.

Verse 1.

Note 1. The first line is addressed by the poet to himself.

Note 2. Suvrzkti is generally explained by a hymn of praise, and it cannot be denied that in this place, as in most others, that meaning would be quite satisfactory. Etymo- logically, however, suvvzkti means the cleaning and trim- ming of the grass on which, as on a small altar, the oblation is offered : cf. vrzktabarhis, I, 38, 1, note 2, page 84. Hence, although the same word might be metaphorically applied to a carefully trimmed, pure, and holy hymn of praise, yet wherever in the Veda the primary meaning is appli- cable, it seems safer to retain it: cf. III, 61, 5; VI, 11, 5.

Prof. Roth, in the Mélanges Asiatiques, vii, p. 612, calls the derivation, which he himself discovered, a ‘ Columbus- Egg.’ He derives suvrzkti from su+*zkti, and translates it by excellent praise. He supports the insertion of v, by the analogy of su-v-ita, for su-ita, This derivation is cer- tainly very ingenious, but there are some difficulties which have still to be accounted for. That the substantive rzkti does not occur by itself would not be fatal, because other words in the Veda occur as uttarapadas only. But there is the compound ndmovrzkti in X, 131, 2, which shows that vrikti existed as a substantive, though it is true that the Vagasaneyins (X, 32) read namauktiinstead. Taitt. S. I, 8, 21; Taitt. Br. II, 6,1, 3; and Ath. V. XX, 125, 2, have all namovr7kti. There is also the compound svavrzkti in RV. X, 21,1. Are these to be separated from su-vrzkti, and ought we not to take into consideration also the Zend hvarsta, as pointed out by M. Darmesteter (Ormazd,

IIo VEDIC HYMNS.

p. 10, note), meaning well performed, perfect in a liturgical sense?

Note 3. Apas, with the accent on the last syllable, is the accusative plural of ap, water, and it is so explained by Sayava. He translates: ‘I show forth these hymns of praise, like water, i.e. everywhere, as Parganya sends down rain at once in every place.’ Benfey explains: ‘I make these hymns smooth like water, i.e. so that they run smooth like water.’ He compares pvOuds, as derived from féw. Lud- wig translates: ‘Als ein kunstfertiger das werk im geiste, auch geschickt mit der hand mach ich sch6n die in der opferversammlungen miachtig wirkenden lieder.’ I thought formerly that we ought either to change the accent, and read apa, or the last vowel, and read apa%. In the former case the meaning would be, ‘As one wise in mind and clever performs his work, so do I compose these hymns.’ In the second case we should translate: ‘ Like a workman, wise in mind and handy, I put together these hymns.’

Still there is one point which has hitherto been over- looked by all translators, namely, that apa vidatheshu Abhuvaz, occurring in the first and sixth verses, ought to be taken in the same sense in both passages. Now apa vidatheshu A4bhivaZ seems to mean water efficacious at sacrifices. In the sixth verse I now translate: ‘The bounteous Maruts pour down water, mighty or efficacious at sacrifices, the fat milk (of the clouds).’ Hence in the first verse I should now like to translate: ‘I prepare my songs, like as a handy priest, wise in his mind, prepares the water mighty or efficacious at sacrifices. Roth assigns to vidatha a too exclusively political meaning. Viddtha may be an assembly, a public meeting, a witena- gemot, or an éxkAnola, but public meetings at that time had always a religious character, so that vidatha must often be translated by sacrifice.

Verse 2.

Note 1. It is difficult to say in passages like this, whether Dyu should be taken as heaven or as a personified deity. When the Maruts are called Rudrasya maryaé, the boys of

NOTES. I, 64, 4. III

Rudra (VII, 56,1), the personification is always preserved. Hence if the same beings are called Divad mary4Z, this too, I think, should be translated the boys of Dyu (III, 54,13; V, 59, 6), not the sons of heaven. The bulls of Dyu is a more primitive and more vigorous expression for what we should call the fertilising winds of heaven.

Note 2. Marya is a male, particularly a young male, a young man, a bridegroom (I, 115, 2; III, 33,10; IV, 20,5;

• V, 61, 4, with vira).

The Maruts have grown strong like well-grown manly youths. See also V, 59, 3.

V, 59, 5. maryaz-iva su-vridhak vavridhus narak.

The men have grown strong like well-grown stallions.

In some passages it has simply the meaning of man:

I, 91,13. maryaf-iva své okyé.

Like a man in his own house.

Note 3. The simile, like giants, is not quite clear. Satvan means a strong man, but it seems intended here to convey the idea of supernatural strength. Benfey translates, ‘like brave warriors ;’ Wilson, ‘like evil spirits.’ Ghordvarpas is an adjective belonging to the Maruts rather than to the giants, and may mean of awful aspect, I, 19, 5, or of cruel mind; cf. I, 39, 1, note 2.

Verse 3.

Note 1. Abhog-ghanaz, the slayers of the demon, are the slayers of the clouds, viz. of such clouds as do not yield rain. Abhog, not nurturing, seems to be a name of the rainless cloud, like Ndmufi (na-muf, not delivering rain), the name of another demon, killed by Indra; see Benfey, Glossar, s.v. The cloud which sends rain is called bhugman :

VIII, 50, 2. girth nd bhugma maghavat-su pinvate.

Like a feeding cloud he showers his gifts on the wor- shippers.

Verse 4,

Note 1. The ornaments of the Maruts are best described ¥; 54; 18:

II2 VEDIC HYMNS. e

Amseshu vak rishtayahk pat-si khAdayas vakshaf-su rukméz.

On your shoulders are the spears, on your feet rings, on your chests gold ornaments. See also I, 166, 10, &c.

Rukma as a masc. plur. is frequently used for ornaments which are worn on the breast by the Maruts. The Maruts are actually called rukmavakshasaf, gold-breasted (II, 34, 2; V, 55,13; 57,5). In the Asval. Srauta-sitra IX, 4, rukma is mentioned as an ornament to be given to the Hotrz priest; it is said to be round.

Note 2. Vapushe and subhé, as parallel expressions, occur also VI, 63,6. Cf. Delbriick, K. Z. xviii, 96.

Note 3. N{ mimrzkshur does not occur again in the Rig-veda, and Roth has suggested to read ni mimikshur instead; see ni+marg. He does not, however, give our passage under myaf#, but under mraksh, and this seems indeed preferable. No doubt, there is ample analogy for mimikshuZ, and the meaning would be, their spears stick firm to their shoulders. But as the MSS. give mimvzkshuZ, and as it is possible to find a meaning for this, I do not propose to alter the text. The question is only, what does mimvzkshuk mean? Mraksh means to grind, to rub, and Roth proposes to render our passage by ‘the spears rub together on our shoulders. The objections to this trans- lation are the preposition ni, and the active voice of the verb. I take mraksh in the sense of grinding, pounding, destroying, which is likewise appropriate to mraksha-kr/tvan (VIII, 61, 10), and tuvi-mraksha (VI, 18, 2), and I translate, ‘the spears on their shoulders pound to pieces.’

Note 4. The idea that the Maruts owe everything, if not their birth, at least their strength (sva-tavasaz, sva-bhana- vah, sva-sritak), to themselves is of frequent occurrence in these hymns. See verse 7, note I-

Verse 5.

Note 1. They are themselves compared to kings (I, 85, 8), and called isana, lords (I, 87, 4). Note 2. Dhuni is connected with root dhvan, to dun or

NOTES. I, 64, 6. ee:

to din. SAayaza explains it by bending or shaking, and Benfey, too, translates it by Erschiitterer. Roth gives the right meaning.

Verse 6.

Note 1. I translate sudanavaz by bounteous, or good givers, for, if we have to choose between the two meanings of bounteous or endowed with liquid drops or dew, the former is the more appropriate in most passages. We might, of course, admit two words, one meaning, possessed of good water, the other, bounteous; the former derived from danu, neuter, water, or rain, the other from dani, giving. It cannot be denied, for instance, that whenever the Maruts are called sudénavak, the meaning, possessed of good rain, would be applicable: I, 40,1; 44,14; 64,6; 85, po; 31, 44, 8; II, 26, 53 V, 59,53 53.53 57.53 VIL, ma aos A, 75, 5; I, 15,2; 22..05 309,30. Yet, even in these passages, while sudanavad in the sense of possessed of good rain is possible throughout, that of good giver would sometimes be preferable, for instance, I, 15, 2, as compared with I, 15, 3. Though sud4nu, in the sense of possessed of good water, sounds as strange as would suvrzshéi in the sense of possessed of good rain, or sumegha, possessed of good clouds, yet it is difficult to separate sudanavak and giradanavah, both epithets of the Maruts.

When the same word is applied to Indra, VII, 31, 2; X, 23,6; to Vishzu, VIII, 25,12; to the Asvins, I, 112,11; to Mitra and Varuza, V, 62, 9; to Indra and Varumza, IV, 41, 8, the meaning of giver of good rain might still seem natural. But with Agni, VI, 2, 4; the Adityas, V, 67, 4; VIII, 18, 12; 19, 34; 67,16; the Vasus, I, 106,1; X, 66, 12; the Visve, X, 65, 11, such an epithet would not be appropriate, while sudaénavas, in the sense of bounteous givers, is applicable to all. The objection that danu, giver, does not occur in the Veda, is of no force, for many words occur at the end of compounds only, and we shall see passages where sudanu must be translated by good giver. | Nor would the accent of danu, giver, be an obstacle, con- sidering that the author of the Uzadi-sitras had no Vedic

[32] I

114 VEDIC HYMNS.

authority to guide him in the determination of the accent of danu. Several words in nu have the accent on the first syllable. But one might go even a step further, and find a more appropriate meaning for sudanu by identifying it with the Zend hudanu, which means, not a good giver, but a good knower, wise. True, this root da, to know, does not occur in the ordinary Sanskrit; and Hiibschmann (Ein Zoroastrisches Lied, 1872, p. 48) tries to prove that the root da, to know, does not exist in Zend either. But even thus we might have the derivation in Sanskrit and Zend, while the root was kept alive in Greek only (ddan, ddeis). This, however, is only a conjecture; what is certain is this, that apart from the passages where sudanu is thus applied to various deities, in the sense of bounteous or wise, it also occurs as applied to the sacrificer, where it can only mean giver. This is clear from the following passages :

I, 47, 8. su-kv7te su-danave.

To him who acts well and gives well.

VII, 96,4. gani-yantak nu agrava% putri-ydntaz su-dana- vah, sarasvantam havamahe.

We, being unmarried, and wishing for wives and wishing for sons, offering sacrifices, call now upon Sarasvat.

VIII, 103, 7. su-danavakz deva-yavah.

Offering sacrifices,and longing for the gods. Cf. X, 172, 23 :32° Vi, 36,03 |

IV, 4, 7. sak it agne astu su-bhdga% su-danuz yak tva nityena havisha ya% ukthaiZ piprishati.

O Agni, let the liberal sacrificer be happy, who wishes to please thee by perpetual offerings and hymns. See also W116, 8; 68; 53° 3 7er em, 5.

It must be confessed that even the meaning of danu is by no means quite clear. It is clear enough where it means demon, 11, 11, 18 5° 12;11% IV, 30, 7; X, 120, 6,4e seven demons. In J, 32, 9; III, 30, 8, danu, demon, is applied to the mother of Vrztra, the dark cloud. From this danu we have the derivative danava, meaning again demon. Why the demons, conquered by Indra, were called danu, is not clear, unless they were conceived originally as dark clouds, like Danu, the mother of Indra. Danu might mean wise,

NOTES. I, 64, 6. II5

or even powerful, for this meaning also is ascribed to danu by the author of the Uzadi-sitras. If the latter meaning is authentic, and not only deduced ex post from the name of Danu and Danava, it might throw light on the Celtic dana, fortis, from which Zeuss derives the name of the Danube.

Sometimes danu, as a neuter, is explained as Soma:

X, 43,7. 4pazna sindhum abhi yat sam-dksharan sémasak indram kulyaZ-iva hradam, vardhanti vipraz mahaz asya sddane yavam_ na vrishdh divyéna danuna.

When the Somas run together to Indra, like water to the river, like channels to the lake, then the priests increase his greatness in the sanctuary, as rain the corn, by the heavenly Soma-juice, or by heavenly moisture.

In the next verse giraddnu is explained as the sacrificer whose Soma is always alive, always ready.

In VI, 50, 13, however, dinu papriz is doubtful. As an epithet to Apam napat, it may mean he who wishes for Soma, or he who grants Soma; but in neither case is there any tangible sense, unless Soma is taken as a name of the fertilising rain or dew. Again, VIII, 25, 5, Mitra and Varuza are called svzpra-dant, which may mean possessed of flowing rain. And in the next verse, sam ya danini yemathuk may be rendered by Mitra and Varuvza, who brought together rain.

The fact that Mitra-Varuzau and the Asvins are called danunaspati does not throw much more light on the sub- ject, and the one passage where danu occurs as a feminine, I, 54, 7, danuZ asmai upard pinvate divaz, may be trans- lated by rain pours forth for him, below the sky, but the translation is by no means certain.

Danukitra, applied to the dawn, the water of the clouds, and the three worlds (V, 59, 8; 31, 6; I, 174, 7), means most likely bright with dew or rain; and danumat vasu, the treasure conquered by Indra from the clouds, can be translated by the treasure of rain. Taking all the evidence together, we can hardly doubt that danu existed in the sense of liquid, rain, dew, and also Soma; yet it is equally certain that danu existed in the sense of giver, if not of gift, and that from this, in certain passages, at all events,

tay

116 “VEDIC HYMNS.

sudanu must be derived, as a synonym of sudavan, suda- man, &c.

Spiegel admits two words danu in the Veda and Avesta, the one meaning enemy, the other river. Darmesteter (Ormazd, p. 220) takes danu as a cloud, water, or river. Ludwig translates sudanu by possessed of excellent gifts.

Note 2. I thought formerly that pinvanti was here con- strued with two accusatives, in the sense of ‘they fill the water (with) fat milk.’

Cf. VI, 63, 8. dhenim nak isham woktoneictotit asakram.

You filled our cow (with) constant food.

Similarly duh, to milk, to extract, is construed with two accusatives: Paz. I, 4,51. gam dogdhi payaf, he milks the cow milk.

RV. IX, 107, 5. duhanad tidhak divyam madhu priyam.

Milking the heavenly udder (and extracting from it) the precious sweet, i.e. the rain.

But I now prefer to translate pinvanti apak by they pour out water, and I take pdyahk ghvitévat as a descrip- tion of the water, namely, the fat milk of the clouds. After that parenthesis, vidatheshu abhuvad is again an epithet of apa, as it was in the first verse.

Note 3. The leading about of the clouds is intended, like the leading about of horses, to tame them, and make them obedient to the wishes of their riders, the Maruts. Atyah vag? is a strong horse, possibly a stallion; but this horse is here meant to signify the clouds. Thus we read:

V, 83,6. divéz nak vrishtim marutaz raridhvam pra pin- vata vv/shnak dsvasya dharah.

Give us, O Maruts, the rain of heaven, pour forth the streams of the stallion (the cloud).

In the original the simile is quite clear, and no one required to be told that the 4tyaz v4gi was meant for the cloud. VaAagin by itself means a horse, as I, 66, 2; 69, 3. vagi né pritéZ, like a favourite horse; I, 116, 6. paidvaz vagi, the horse of Pedu. But being derived from vaga, strength, vagin retained always something of its etymo- logical meaning, and was therefore easily and naturally transferred to the cloud, the giver of strength, the source

NOTES. I, 64, 7. 117

of food. Even without the na, i.e. as if, the simile would have been understood in Sanskrit, while in English it is hardly intelligible without a commentary. Benfey dis- covers some additional idea in support of the poet’s com- parison: ‘Ich bin kein Pferdekenner, he says, ‘aber ich glaube bemerkt zu haben, dass man Pferde, welche rasch gelaufen sind, zum Uriniren zu bewegen sucht. So lassen hier die Maruts die durch ihren Sturm rasch fortgetriebenen Wolken Wasser herab stromen.’

Note 4. Utsa, well, is meant again for cloud, though we should hardly be justified in classing it as a name of cloud, because the original meaning of Utsa, spring, is really re- tained, as much as that of avata, well, in I, 85, 10-11. The adjectives stan4yantam and akshitam seem more applicable to cloud, yet they may be applied also to a spring. YdAska derives utsa from ut-sar, to go forth; ut-sad, to go out; ut-syand, to well out; or from ud, to wet. In V, 32, 2, the wells shut up by the seasons are identified with the udder of the cloud.

Verse 7.

Note 1. Svdtavas means really having their own inde- pendent strength, a strength not derived from the support of others. The yet which I have added in brackets seems to have been in the poet’s mind, though it is not expressed. In I, 87, 4, the Maruts are called sva-sv7t, going by them- selves, i.e. moving freely, independently, wherever they list. See I, 64, 4, note 4.

Note 2. Mrvigaz hastinak, wild animals with a hand ora trunk, must be meant for elephants, although it has been doubted whether the poets of the Veda were acquainted with that animal. Hastin is the received name for elephant in the later Sanskrit, and it is hardly applicable to any other animal. If they are said to eat the forests, this may be understood in the sense of crushing or chewing, as well as of eating

Note 3. The chief difficulty of the last sentence has been pointed out in B. and R.’s Dictionary, s.v. aruvi. Aruni does not occur again in the whole of the Rig-veda. If we take it with Sadyava as a various reading of aruzi, then the

118 VEDIC HYMNS.

Aruzis could only be the ruddy cows of the dawn or of Indra, with whom the Maruts, in this passage, can have no concern. Nor would it be intelligible why they should be called aruvi in this one place only. If, as suggested by B. and R., the original text had been yada aruvishu, it would be difficult to understand how so simple a reading could have been corrupted.

Another difficulty is the verb a4yugdhvam, which is not found again in the Rig-veda together with tavishi. Tavishi, vigour, is construed with dha, to take strength, V, 32, 2. adhatthaZ; V, 55, 2. dadhidhve; X, 102, 8. adhatta; also with vas, IV, 16, 14; with pat, X, 113, 5, &c. But it is not likely that to put vigour into the cows could be expressed in Sanskrit by ‘you join vigour in the cows.’ If tavishi must be taken in the sense which it seems always to pos- sess, viz. vigour, it would be least objectionable to translate, ‘when you joined vigour, i.e. when you assumed vigour, while being among the Aruvis.’ The Aruzis being the cows of the dawn, aruzishu might simply mean in the morning. Considering, however, that the Maruts are said to eat up forests, aruzi, in this place, is best taken in the sense of red flames, viz. of fire or forest-fire (davagni), so that the sense would be,‘When you, Storms, assume vigour among the flames, you eat up forests, like elephants.’ Benfey : ‘Wenn mit den rothen eure Kraft ihr angeschirrt. Die rothen sind die Antilopen, das Vehikel der Maruts, wegen der Schnel- ligkeit derselben.’

Verse 8.

Note 1. As pis&é does not occur again in the Rig-veda, and as Sayaza, without attempting any etymological argu- ments, simply gives it as a name of deer, it seems best to adopt that sense till something better can be discovered. Supis, too, does not occur again. In VII, 18, 2, pis is ex- plained by gold, &c.; VII, 57,3, the Maruts are called visvapis.

Note 2. Kshapa% can only be the accusative plural, used ina temporal sense. It is so used in the expression kshapaz usrak ka, by night and by day, lit. nights and days (VII, 15, 8). In VI, 52, 15, we find kshapa’ usraZ in the same sense.

NOTES. I, 64, 9. 119

IV, 53,7. kshapabhiZ aha-bhi&, by night and by day. I, 44, 8, the loc. plur. vylshdishu, in the mornings, is followed by kshapaZ, the acc. plur., by night, and here the genitive kshapa% would certainly be preferable, in the sense of at the brightening up of the night. The acc. plur. occurs again in I, 116, 4, where tisrdZ is used as an accusative (II, 2, 2; VIII, 41, 3). Kshapa%, with the accent on the last, must be taken as a genitivus temporalis, like the German Nachts (I, 79, 6). In VIII, 19, 31. kshapa% vastushu means at the brightening up of the night, 1. e. in the morning. Thus, in III, 50, 4, Indra is called kshapam vasté ganita siryasya, the lighter up of nights, the parent of the sun. In VIII, 26, 3, ati kshapdZ, the genitive may be governed by ati. In IV, 16, 19, however, the accusative kshdpas would be more natural, nor do I see how a genitive could here be accounted for:

dyavak na dyumnath abhi sdntaZ aryaz kshapad madema saradah ka pirvih.

May we rejoice many years, overcoming our enemies as the days overcome the nights by splendour.

The same applies to I, 70, 4, where kshapad occurs with the accent on the last syllable, whereas we expect kshapa% as nom. or acc. plural. Here B. and R. in the Sanskrit Dictionary, s. v. kshap, rightly, I believe, suppose it to be a nom. plur. in spite of the accent.

Verse 9.

Note 1. Ahimanyu comes very near to Angra-mainyu; cf. Darmesteter, Ormazd, p. 94.

Note 2. Rddasi, a dual, though frequently followed by ubhé (I, 10, 8; 33,93; 54, 2), means heaven and earth, ex- cluding the antdriksha or the air between the two. Hence, if this is to be included, it has to be added: I, 73, 8. apapri-van rddasi antariksham. Cf. V, 85, 3. We must scan rodasi. See Kuhn, Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 193. Should rodasi stand for rodasim, as elsewhere? She is certainly intended by what follows in the next line.

Note 3. The comparison is not quite distinct. Amati means originally impetus, then power, e.g. V, 69, I:

120 VEDIC HYMNS.

vavridhanaéu amatim kshatriyasya.

Increasing the might of the warrior.

But it is most frequently used of the effulgence of the sun, (IIE, 38, 8; V, 45, 2; 62, 5; VII, 38, 13 23°45, 3) See also V, 56, 8, where the same companion of the Maruts is called Rodasi. The comparative particle na is used twice.

Verse 10.

Note 1. See I, 38, 14, p. 95.

Note 2. In vrésha-khAdi the meaning of khAdi is by no means clear. Sdyaza evidently guesses, and proposes two meanings, weapon or food. In several passages where khadi occurs, it seems to be an ornament rather than a weapon, yet if derived from khad, to bite, it may originally have signified some kind of weapon. Roth translates it by ring, and it is certain that these khddis were to be seen not only on the arms and shoulders, but likewise on the feet of the Maruts. There is a famous weapon in India, the kakra or quoit, a ring with sharp edges, which is thrown from a great distance with fatal effect. Bollensen (Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 46) suggests for vvéshan the meaning of hole in the ear, and then translates the compound as having earrings in the hole of the ear. But vv¢shan does not mean the hole in the lap of the ear, nor has vrzshabha that meaning either in the Veda or elsewhere. Wilson gives for vrzshabha, not for vrzshan, the meaning of orifice of the ear, but this is very different from the hole in the lap of the ear. Benfey suggests that the khadis were made of the teeth of wild animals, and hence their name of biters. V77- shan conveys the meaning of strong, though possibly with the implied idea of rain-producing, fertilising. See p. 138. In RV. V, 87, 1, Osthoff translates sukhddaye by jucunde praebenti, Benfey by schénverzehrendem; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, IV, 70, has the right rendering. Cf. note to I, 166, 9.

Verse 11.

Note 1. Formerly explained as ‘zum Kampfe wandelnd.’ See Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. iv, p. 19.

NOTES. I, 64, 12. $37

Note 2. WiLson: Augmenters of rain, they drive, with golden wheels, the clouds asunder; as elephants (in a herd, break down the trees in their way). They are honoured with sacrifices, visitants of the hall of offering, spontaneous assailers (of their foes), subverters of what are stable, im- movable themselves, and wearers of shining weapons.

BENFEY : Weghemmnissen gleich schleudern die Fluth- mehrer mit den goldnen Felgen das Gewolk empor, die nie mtiden Kampfer, frei schreitend-festesstiirzenden, die schweres thu’nden, lanzenstrahlenden Maruts.

Verse 12.

Note 1. Havasd, instead of what one should expect, havasa, occurs but once more in another Marut hymn, VI, 66, Il.

Note 2. Vanin does not occur again as an epithet of the Maruts. Itis explained by Sayama as a possessive adjective derived from vana, water, and Benfey accordingly translates it by fluthversehn. This, however, is not confirmed by any authoritative passages. Vanin, unless it means con- nected with the forest, a tree, in which sense it occurs ‘frequently, is only applied to the worshippers or priests in the sense of venerating or adoring (cf. venero, venustus, &c.) : |

III, 40,7. abhi dyumnani vaninad indram sakante akshita.

The inexhaustible treasures of the worshipper go towards Indra.

VIII, 3, 5. indram vaninaz havamahe.

We, the worshippers, call Indra.

Unless it can be proved by independent evidence that vanin means possessed of water, we must restrict vanin to its two meanings, of which the only one here applicable, though weak, is adoring. The Maruts are frequently repre- sented as singers and priests, yet the epithets here applied to them stand much in need of some definite explanation, as the poet could hardly have meant to string a number of vague and ill-connected epithets together. If one might conjecture, svaninam instead of vaninam would be an im- provement. It is a scarce word, and occurs but once more

i Sa VEDIC HYMNS.

in the Veda, III, 26, 5, where it is used of the Maruts, in the sense of noisy, turbulent.

Note 3. Saskata, which I have here translated literally by to cling, is often used in the sense of following or revering (colere):

II, 1, 13. tvam rati-sazak adhvaréshu saskire.

The gods who are fond of offerings cling to thee, follow thee, at the sacrifices.

The Soma libation is said to reach the god:

IT, 22, 1. sak enam saskat devak devam. The gods too are said to cling to their worshippers, i.e. to love and protect them: III, 16,2; VII,18,25. The horses are said to follow their drivers: VI, 36, 3; VII, 90, 3, &c. It is used very much like the Greek érd@.

Note 4. Ragasttk may mean rousing the dust of the earth, a very appropriate epithet of the Maruts. Sdayaza explains it thus, and most translators have adopted his explanation. But as the epithets here are not simply descriptive, but laudatory, it seems preferable, in this place, to retain the usual meaning of régas, sky. When Soma is called ragasttzZ, IX, 108, 7, Sdyavza too explains it by tegasdm prerakam, and IX, 48, 4, by udakasya prerakam.

Note 5. Aigishin, derived from vigisha. ARigisha is what remains of the Soma-plant after it has once been squeezed, and what is used again for the third libation. Now as the Maruts are invoked at the third libation, they were called vigishin, as drinking at their later libation the juice made of the vzgisha. This, at least, is the opinion of the Indian commentators. But it is much more likely that the Maruts were invoked at the third libation, because originally they had been called vzgishin by the Vedic poets, this rzgishin being derived from vzgisha, and rzgisha from zg, to strive, to yearn, like purisha from pré, manisha from man; (see Unadi-sitras, p. 273.) This rig is the same root which we have in épéyew, to reach, épy7, emotion, and épyia, furious transports of worshippers. Thus the Maruts from being called vigishin, impetuous, came to be taken for drinkers of vigisha, the fermenting and overflowing Soma, and were assigned accordingly to the third libation at sacrifices.

NOTES. .1, 64, 14. 123

Rigishin, as an epithet, is not confined to the Maruts; it is given to Indra, with whom it could not have had a purely ceremonial meaning (VIII, 76, 5).

Verse 13.

Note 1. Aprtkkhya, literally, to be asked for, to be in- quired for, to be greeted and honoured. A word of an apparently modern character, but occurring again in the Rig-veda as applied to a prince, and to the vessel containing the Soma.

Note 2. Pushyati might be joined with kratu and taken in a transitive sense, he increases his strength. But push- yati is also used as an intransitive, and means he prospers :

I, 83, 3. asam-yatak vraté te ksheti pushyati.

Without let he dwells in thy service and prospers.

Roth reads asamyattak, against the authority of the MSS.

Verse 14.

Note 1. The difficulty of this verse arises from the uncer- tainty whether the epithets dhanaspr/tam, ukthyam, and visvakarshazim belong to sishma, strength, or to toka, kith and kin. Roth and Benfey connect them with toké. Now dhanasprét is applicable to toka, yet it never occurs joined with toka again, while it is used with sishma, VI, 19, 8. Ukthya, literally, to be praised with hymns, is not used again as an epithet of toka, though it is quite appropriate to any gift of the gods. Lastly, visvazarshawi is never applied to toka, while it is an epithet used, if not exactly of the strength, sishma, given by the gods, yet of the fame given by them:

X, 93, 10. dhatam viréshu visva-Aarshazi sravah.

Give to these men world-wide glory. Cf. III, 2, 15.

The next difficulty is the exact meaning of visv4-karshavi, and such cognate words as visva-kriéshdi, visva-manusha. The only intelligible meaning I can suggest for these words is, known to all men; originally, belonging to, reaching to all men; as we say, world-wide or European fame, meaning by it fame extending over the whole of Europe, or over the whole world. If Indra, Agni, and the Maruts are called by

T24 VEDIC HYMNS.

these names, they mean, as far as I can judge, known, wor- shipped by all men. Benfey translates allverstandig.

Verse 15.

Note 1. Azti, the first element of rzti-saham, never occurs by itself in the Rig-veda. It comes from the root ar, to hurt, which was mentioned before (p. 65) in connection with ar-van, hurting, drus, wound, and dri, enemy. Sam-rtti occurs I, 32,6, Rzti therefore means hurting, and rzti-sah means one who can stand an attack. In our passage rayim vird-vantam rzti-sdham means really wealth consisting in men who are able to withstand all onslaughts.

The word is used in a similar sense, VI, 14, 4:

agniz apsim riti-sAham virdm dadati sdt-patim, yasya trasanti sAvasak sam-kakshi satravah bhiya.

Agni gives a strong son who is able to withstand all on- slaughts, from fear of whose strength the enemies tremble when they see him.

In other passages vzti-sah is applied to Indra:

VIII, 45, 35. bibhdaya hi tv4-vatak ugrat ee nak dasmat aham r7zti-sahaZ.

For I stand in fear of a powerful man like thee, of one who crushes his enemies, who is strong and withstands all onslaughts.

VIII, 68, 1. tuvi-kirmim rzti-st4ham indra sdavishtha sat-pate.

Thee, O most powerful Indra, of mighty strength, able to withstand all onslaughts.

VIII, 88, 1. tam vak dasmam ;iti-sAham—indram gif-bhiz navamahe.

We call Indra the strong, the resisting, with our songs.

Note 2. The last sentence finishes six of the hymns ascribed to Nodhas. It is more appropriate in a hymn addressed to single deities, such as Agni or Indra, than in a hymn to the Maruts. We must supply sardha, in order to get a collective word in the masculine singular.

Nu, as usual, should be scanned nu.

Note 3. Dhiya-vasu, as an epithet of the gods, means rich in prayers, i.e. invoked by many worshippers. It does

NOTES. I, 64, 15. 125

not occur frequently. Besides the hymns of Nodhas, it only occurs independently in I, 3, 10 (Sarasvati), III, 3, 2 III, 28, 1 (Agni), these hymns being all ascribed to the family of Visvamitra. In the last verse, which forms the burden of the hymns of Nodhas, it may have been in- tended to mean, he who is rich through the hymn just recited, or he who rejoices in the hymn, the god to whom it is addressed.

Nodhas, the poet, belongs, according to the Anukramazéi, to the family of Gotama, and in the hymns which are ascribed to him, I, 58-64, the Gotamas are mentioned several times:

I, 60, 5. tam tv4 vaydm patim agne rayizam pra sams4- mak mati-bhiz gétamAasav.

We, the Gotamas, praise thee with hymns, Agni, the lord of treasures.

I, 61, 16. eva te hari-yogana su-vrzkti indra brdhmAazi gotamasaz akran.

Truly the Gotamas made holy prayers for thee, O Indra with brilliant horses! See also I, 63, 9.

In one passage Nodhas himself is called Gotama:

I, 62,13. sand-yaté gétamaz indra névyam

atakshat brahma hari-ydgandya, su-nithaya nak savasana nodhaés— pratad makshu dhiyd-vasuk gagamyéat.

Gotama made a new song for the old (god) with brilliant horses, O Indra! May Nodhas be a good leader to us, O powerful Indra! May he who is rich in prayers (Indra) come early and soon!

I feel justified therefore in following the Anukramavi and taking Nodhas as a proper name. It occurs so again in .

I, 61,14. sadyd# bhuvat viryaéya nodha/.

May Nodhas quickly attain to power!

In I, 124, 4. nodhad-iva may mean like Nodhas, but more likely it has the general meaning of poet.

126 VEDIC HYMNS,

MANDALA I, HYMN 85. ASH7AKA I, ADHYAYA 6, VARGA 9-10.

To tHE Maruts (THE STORM-GoDS),

1. Those who glance forth like wives and yoke- fellows!, the powerful sons of Rudra on their way, they, the Maruts, have indeed made heaven and earth to grow?; they, the strong and wild, delight in the sacrifices.

2. When grown up!, they attained to greatness ; the Rudras have established their seat in the sky. While singing their song and increasing their vigour, the sons of Pvzsni have clothed themselves in beauty ?.

3. When these sons of the cow (Przsni)! adorn themselves with glittering ornaments, the brilliant ? ones put bright weapons on their bodies*, They drive away every adversary‘; fatness (rain) streams along their paths ;—

4. When you}, the powerful, who shine with your spears, shaking even what is unshakable by strength,—when you, O Maruts, the manly. hosts’, had yoked the spotted deer, swift as thought, to your chariots ;—

5. When you had yoked the spotted deer before your chariots, hurling + the stone (thunderbolt) in the fight, then the streams of the red-(horse) ? rush forth : like a skin * with water they water the earth.

6. May the swiftly-gliding, swift-winged horses carry you hither! Come forth with your arms?! Sit down on the grass-pile; a wide seat has been

made for you. Rejoice, O Maruts, in the sweet food *,

MANDALA I, HYMN 85. 127

7, Strong in themselves, they grew! with might ; they stepped to the firmament, they made their seat wide. When Vishzu? saved the enrapturing Soma, the Maruts sat down like birds on their beloved altar.

8. Like heroes indeed thirsting for fight they rush about; like combatants eager for glory they have striven in battles. All beings are afraid of the Maruts; they are men terrible to behold, like kings. .

9. When the clever Tvash/ar! had turned the well-made, golden, thousand-edged thunderbolt, Indra takes it to perform his manly deeds’; he slew Vrztra, he forced out the stream of water.

10. By their power they pushed the well? aloft, they clove asunder the rock (cloud), however strong. Blowing forth their voice? the bounteous Maruts performed, while drunk of Soma, their glorious deeds.

11. They pushed the well (cloud) athwart this way, they poured out the spring to the thirsty Gotama. The Maruts with beautiful splendour approach him with help, they in their own ways satisfied the desire of the sage.

12, The shelters which you have for him who praises you, grant them threefold! to the man who gives! Extend the same to us, O Maruts! Give us, ye heroes ?, wealth with valiant offspring !

128 VEDIC HYMNS.

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Gotama. No verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS.; verse 6=AV. XX, 13, 2; verse 922 TS LTV; 4, 34, 33 Verse TFS TS: 1/5, 15, 835 TB.

Verse 1.

Note 1. The phrase ganaya na saptaya/ is obscure. As gani has always the meaning of wife, and sapti in the singu- lar, dual, and plural means horse, it might be supposed that ganayak could be connected with saptaya%, so as to signify mares. But although gani is coupled with patnif, I, 62,10, in the sense of mother-wife, and though sapti is most commonly joined with some other name for horse, yet ganayah saptayad never occurs, for the simple reason that it would be too elaborate and almost absurd an expression for vadavahk. We find sapti joined with vagin, I, 162,1; with rathya, II, 31, 7; atyam na saptim, III, 22,1; sapti hart, III, 35, 2; asva sapti-iva, VI, 59, 3.

We might then suppose the thought of the poet to have been this: What appears before us like race-horses, viz. the storms coursing through the sky, that is really the host of the Maruts. But then ganayak remains unexplained, and it is impossible to take ganayak na saptayak as two similes, like unto horses, like unto wives.

I believe, therefore, that we must here take sapti in its original etymological sense, which would be ju-mentum, a yoked animal, a beast of draught, or rather a follower, a horse that will follow. Sapti, therefore, could never be a wild horse, but always a tamed horse, a horse that will go in harness. Cf. IX, 21, 4. hita# na saptayak rathe, like horses put to the chariot; or in the singular, IX, 70, 10, hitaz na saptizZ, like a harnessed horse. The root is sap, which in the Veda means to follow, to attend on, to wor- ship. But if sapti means originally animals that will go

NOTES. 1,'85, I. 129

together, it may in our passage have retained the sense of yoke-fellow (ovvyos), and be intended as an adjective to ganayah, wives. There is at least one other passage where this meaning would seem to be more appropriate, viz.

VIII, 20, 23. ydyam sakhayak saptayah.

You (Maruts), friends and followers! or you, friends and comrades !

Here it is hardly possible to assign to sapti the sense of horse, for the Maruts, though likened to horses, are never thus barely invoked as saptayah!

If then we translate, ‘Those who glance forth like wives and yoke-fellows,’ i.e. like wives of the same husband, the question still recurs how the simile holds good, and how the Maruts rushing forth together in all their beauty can be compared to wives. In answer to this we have to bear in mind that the idea of many wives belonging to one hus- band (sapatni) is familiar to the Vedic poet, and that their impetuously rushing into the arms of their husbands, and appearing before them in all their beauty, are frequent images in their poetry. In such phrases as patim na ganayak and ganayak na garbham, the ganis, the wives or mothers, are represented as running together after their husbands or children. This impetuous approach the poet may have wished to allude to in our passage also, but though it might have been understood at once by his hearers, it is almost impossible to convey this implied idea in any other language.

Wilson translates: ‘The Maruts, who are going forth, decorate themselves like females: they are gliders (through the air), the sons of Rudra, and the doers of good works, by which they promote the welfare of earth and heaven. Heroes, who grind (the solid rocks), they delight in sacrifices,’

Ludwig translates: ‘Die ganz besonders sich schmiicken wie frauen, die renner, zu ihrem zuge,’ &c. This is possible, yet the simile sounds somewhat forced.

Note 2. The meaning of this phrase, which occurs very frequently, was originally that the storms by driving away the dark clouds, made the earth and the sky to appear

[32] K

130 VEDIC HYMNS.

larger and wider. It afterwards takes a more general sense of increasing, strengthening, blessing.

Verse 2.

Note 1. Ukshita is here a participle of vaksh or uksh, to grow, to wax; not of uksh, to sprinkle, to arioint, to inaugurate, as explained by Sayaza. Thus it is said of the Maruts, V, 55, 3. sdkam gataé#—sikdm ukshita%, born together, and grown up together.

Note 2. The same expression occurs VIII, 28, 5. saptd (iti) Adhi srfya% dhire. See also I, 116, 17; IX, 68, 1.

Verse 3.

Note 1. Gd-matv2, like gé-gata, a riame of the Maruts, who are also called pv/sni-mataraZ, sindhu-matarak.

Note 2. Subhra is applied to the Maruts, I, 19, 5. Other- ‘wise, no doubt, it might refer, as Ludwig remarks, to viruk- mata, always supposing that virukmat is a feminine. Whether tanfiishu subhraZ can stand for tantishu subhrasu is more doubtful.

Note 3. VirukmataZ must be an accusative plural, It occurs I, 127, 3, as an epithet of ogas; VI, 49, 5, as an epithet of the chariot of the Asvins. In our place, however, it must be taken as a substantive, signifying something which the Maruts wear, probably armour or weapons. This follows chiefly from X, 138, 4. satran asvivAt virikmaté, Indra tore his enemies with the bright weapon. In VIII, 20, 11, where rukma occurs as a masculine plural,vi bhragante rukmasaz adhi bahushu, their bright things shine on their arms, it seems likewise to be meant for weapons; according to Sdyaza, for chains. In V, 55,3; X, 78, 3, the Maruts are called vi-rokizah, bright like the rays of the sun or the tongues of fire.

Note 4. Observe the short syllable in the tenth syllable of this Pada; Benfey, Vedica, p. 124; Lanman, Noun- Inflection, pp. 378, 543:

Verse 4.

Note 1. The sudden transition from the third to the second person is not unusual in the Vedic hymns, the fact

NOTES, 1, 85,5. 131

being that where we in a relative sentence should use the same person as that of the principal verb, the Vedic poets frequently use the third. |

Note 2. Vrdsha-vrata is untranslatable for reasons stated p- 138 seq.; it means consisting of companies of vv/shans, in whatever sense that word be taken. Wilson in his translation mistakes afyuté for a#yutaZ, and vrata for vrata. He translates the former by ‘incapable of being overthrown, the latter by ‘entrusted with the duty of sending rain,’ both against the authority of Sayaza. Vrésha- vrata occurs twice in the Rig-veda as an epithet of Soma only, IX, 62, 11; 64, 1

Verse 5.

Note 1. If we take Adri for cloud, then rash might have the meaning of stirring up.

V, 32, 2. tvam utsdn vzti-bhi#Z badbadhanan dramhad.

Thou madest the springs to run that had been shut up by the seasons.

VIII, 19, 6. tasya it arvantak ramhayante Asavah.

His horses only run quick.

But adri often means stone, in the sense of weapon, or bolt (cf. adrivaz, voc., wielder of the thunderbolt), and ramhayati would then have the meaning of hurling. This is the meaning adopted by Benfey and Ludwig.

Note 2. The red may be the dark red cloud, but arusha has almost become a proper name, and its original meaning of redness is forgotten. Nay, it is possible that arusha, as applied to the same power of darkness which is best known by the names of Vrztra, Dasyu, &c., may never have had the sense of redness, but been formed straight from ar, to hurt, from which arvan, arus, &c. (see p. 65 seq.). It would then mean simply the hurter, the enemy. It is possible also to take arusha in the sense of the red horse, the leader between the two Haris, when we ought to remember that the Maruts pour forth the streams of the stallion, RV. V, 83, 6. pra pinvata vréshvahk asvasya dharah, and that they lead about the horse to make it rain, RV. I, 64, 6. atyam na mihé vi nayanti vaginam.

m2

132 VEDIC HYMNS.

Note 3. Sdyava explains: ‘ They moisten the whole earth like a hide, a hide representing a small surface which is watered without great effort. Wilson: ‘They moisten the earth, like a hide, with water.’ Langlois: ‘Alors les gouttes d’eau, percant comme la peau de ce (nuage) bien- faisant viennent inonder la terre.’ Benfey: ‘ Dann stiirzen reichlich aus der rothen (Gewitterwolke) Tropfen, mit Fluth wie eine Haut die Erde netzend. (Dass die Erde so durch- nasst wird, wie durchregnetes Leder.)’ If the poet had intended to compare the earth, before it is moistened by rain, to a hide, he might have had in his mind the dryness of a tanned skin, or, as Professor Benfey says, of leather. If, on the contrary, the simile refers to the streams of water, then #arma-iva, like a skin, might either be taken in the technical acceptation of the skin through which, at the preparation of the Soma, the streams (dharaz) of that beverage are squeezed and distilled, or we may take the word in the more general sense of water-skin. In that case the comparison, though not very pointedly expressed, as it would have been by later Sanskrit poets, would still be complete. The streams of the red-(horse), i.e. of the cloud, rush forth, and they, whether the streams liberated by the Maruts, or the Maruts themselves, moisten the earth with water, like a skin, i. e. like a skin in which water is kept and from which it is poured out. The cloud itself being called a skin by Vedic poets (I, 129, 3) makes the comparison still . more natural,

One other explanation might suggest itself, if the singular of arma should be considered objectionable on account of the plural of the verb. Vedic poets speak of the skin of the earth. Thus:

X, 68, 4. bhtimyaz udné-iva vi tvakam bibheda.

He (Brzhaspati) having driven the cows from the cave, eut the skin of the earth, as it were, with water, i. e. saturated it with rain.

The construction, however, if we took arma in the sense of surface, would be very irregular, and we should have to translate: They moisten the earth with water like a skin, i. e. skin-deep.

NOTES. I, 85, 7. 133

We ought to scan karmevodabhiz vi undanti bhima, for karmeva udabhi vyundanti bhima would give an unusual czesura. ?

Verse 6.

Note 1. AV. XX, 13, 2. With your arms, i.e. according to Sayaza, with armfuls of gifts. Though this expression does not occur again so baldly, we read I, 166, 10, of the Maruts, that there are many gifts in their strong arms, bhirizi bhadra ndryeshu bahushu; nor does bahu, as used in the plural, as far as I am able to judge, ever convey any meaning but that of arms. The idea that the Maruts are carried along by their arms as by wings, does not rest on Vedic authority, otherwise we might join raghupatvanaz with bahubhiZ, come forth swiftly flying on your arms! As it is, and with the accent on the antepenultimate, we must refer raghupatvanaz to sadptayad, horses.

Note 2. The sweet food is Soma.

Verse 7.

Note 1. The initial ‘a’ of avardhanta must be elided, or ‘té a’ be pronounced as two short syllables equal to one long.

Note 2. Taitt. S.I1V,1, 11, 3. Vishzu, whose character in the hymns of the Veda is very different from that assumed by him in later periods of Hindu religion, must here be taken as the friend and companion of Indra. Like the Maruts, he assisted Indra in his battle against Vrvztra and the conquest of the clouds. When Indra was forsaken by all the gods, Vishvu came to his help.

IV, 18, 11. uta mata mahisham anu avenat ami (iti) tva gahati putra devaz,

atha abravit vrztram indrak hanishyan sdkhe vishzo (iti) vi-taram vi kramasva.

The mother also called after the bull, these gods forsake thee, O son; then, when going to kill Vrztra, Indra said, Friend, Vishzu, step forward !

This stepping of Vishzu is emblematic of the rising, the culminating, and setting of the sun; and in VIII, 12, 27,

134 VEDIC HYMNS.

Vishzu is said to perform it through the power of Indra. In VI, 20, 2, Indra is said to have killed Vritra, assisted by Vishzu (vishvzund sakanak). Vishzu is therefore invoked together with Indra, VI, 69, 8; VII, 99; with the Maruts, V, 87; VII, 36, 9. In VII, 93, 8, Indra, Vishvzu, and the Maruts are called upon together. Nay, maruta, belonging to the Maruts, becomes actually an epithet of Vishzu, V, 46, 2. maruta uta vishvo (iti); and in I, 156, 4. marutasya vedhasaz has been pointed out by Roth as an appellation of Vishzu. The mention of Vishvu in our hymn is therefore by no means exceptional, but the whole purport of this verse is nevertheless very doubtful, chiefly owing to the fact that several of the words occurring in it lend themselves to different interpretations.

The translations of Wilson, Benfey, and others have not rendered the sense which the poet intends to describe at all clear. Wilson says: ‘May they for whom Vishzu defends (the sacrifice), that bestows all desires and confers delight, come (quickly) like birds, and sit down upon the pleasant and sacred grass. Benfey: ‘Wenn Vishzu schiitzt den rauschtriefenden tropfenden (Soma), sitzen wie Végel sie auf der geliebten Streu.’ Langlois: ‘Quand Vichzou vient prendre sa part de nos enivrantes libations, eux, comme des oiseaux, arrivent aussi sur le cousa qui leur est cher.’ Ludwig: ‘Als Vishzu half dem zum rauschtrank eilenden stiere, setzten sie sich wie vogel aufs liebe barhis.’

Whence all these varieties? First, because avat may mean, he defended or protected, but likewise, it is sup- posed, he descried, became aware. Secondly, because vrishan is one of the most vague and hence most difficult words in the Veda, and may mean Indra, Soma, or the cloud : (see the note on Vréshan, p.138.) Thirdly, because the adjective belonging to vrishan, which generally helps us to determine which vv¢shan is meant, is here itself of doubtful import, and certainly applicable to Indra as well as to Soma and the Asvins, possibly even to the cloud. Mada-fyut is readily explained by the commentators as bringing down pride, a meaning which the word might well have in modern Sanskrit, but which it clearly has not in

NOTES. I, 85, 7. oe

the Veda. Even where the thunderbolt of Indra is called madafyut, and where the meaning of ‘ bringing down pride’ would seem most appropriate, we ought to translate ‘ wildly rushing down.’

VIII, 96, 5. 4 yat vagram bahvo# indra dhatse mada- kyitam ahaye hantavai tz (iti).

When thou tookest the wildly rushing thunderbolt in thy arms in order to slay Ahi.

When applied to the gods, the meaning of madafyiut is by no means certain. It: might mean rushing about fiercely, reeling with delight, this delight being produced by the Soma, but it may also mean sending down delight, i. e. rain or Soma. The root #yu is particularly applicable to the sending down of rain; cf. Taitt. Samh. II, 4, 9, 2; 10, 3; III, 3, 4,1; and Indra and his horses, to whom this epithet is chiefly applied, are frequently asked to send down rain. However, madafyut is also applied to real horses (I, 126, 4) where givers of rain would be an inappropriate epithet. I should therefore translate madafyut, when applied to Indra, to his horses, to the Asvins, or to horses in general by furiously or wildly moving about, as if ‘made or madena yavate,’ he moves in a state of delight, or in a state of intoxication, such as was not incompatible with the character of the ancient gods. Here again the difficulty of rendering Vedic thought in English, or any other modern language, becomes apparent, for we have no poetical word to express a high state of mental excitement produced by drinking the in- toxicating juice of the Soma or other plants, which has not something opprobrious mixed up with it, while in ancient times that state of excitement was celebrated as a blessing of the gods, as not unworthy of the gods themselves, nay, as a state in which both the warrior and the poet would perform their highest achievements. The German Rausch is the nearest approach to the San- skrit mada. ,

VIII, 1, 21. visveshdm tarutaram mada-fyutam made hi sma dadati nah.

Indra, the conqueror of all, who rushes about in rapture, for in rapture he bestows gifts upon us. Cf. I, 51, 2.

136 VEDIC HYMNS.

The horses of Indra are called madafyut, I, 81, 3; VIII, 33,18; 34,9. Ordinary horses, I, 126, 4.

It is more surprising to see this epithet applied to the Asvins, who are generally represented as moving about with exemplary steadiness. However we read:

VIII, 22,16. manak-gavasd vrishaw4 mada-fyuta.

Ye two Asvins, quick as thought, powerful, wildly moving ; or, as SAyaza proposes, liberal givers, humblers of your ene- mies. See also VIII, 35, 19.

Most frequently madafyut is applied to Soma, X, 30, 9; IX, 32,13 53,43 79, 23 108,11; where particularly the last passage deserves attention, in which Soma is called mada- . kyutam sahasra-dharam vyzshabham.

Lastly, even the wealth itself which the Maruts are asked to send down from heaven, most likely rain, is called, VIII, 7,13, rayim mada-fyutam puru-kshim visva- dhayasam.

In all these passages we must translate mada-fyut by bringing delight, showering down delight.

We have thus arrived at the conclusion that vv/shazam mada-fyutam, as used in our passage I, 85, 7, might be meant either for Indra or for Soma. If the Asvins can be called vv¢éshazau mada-fyuta, the same expression would be even more applicable to Indra. On the other hand, if Soma is called vvishabhaz mada-fyut, the same Soma may legitimately be called vvéshd mada-fyut. In deciding whether Indra or Soma be meant, we must now have recourse to other hymns, in which the relations of the Maruts with Vishzu, Soma, and Indra are alluded to.

If Indra were intended, and if the first words meant ‘When Vishzu perceived the approach of Indra,’ we should expect, not that the Maruts sat down on the sacrificial pile, but that they rushed to the battle. The idea that the Maruts come to the sacrifice, like birds, is common enough:

VIII, 20,10. vvzshazasvéna marutak vr/sha-psuna rathena vrisha-nabhina, a syenasa# na pakshizah vritha narak havya nah vitdye gata.

Come ye Maruts together, to eat our offerings, on your

NOTES. I, 85, IO. 139

strong-horsed, strong-shaped, strong-naved chariot, like winged hawks!

But when the Maruts thus come to a sacrifice it is to participate in it, and particularly in the Soma that is offered by the sacrificer. This Soma, it is said in other hymns, was prepared by Vishzu for Indra (II, 22, 1), and Vishzu is said to have brought the Soma for Indra (X, 113, 2). If we keep these and similar passages in mind, and consider that in the preceding verse the Maruts have been invited to sit down on the sacrificial pile and to rejoice in the sweet food, we shall see that the same train of thought is carried on in our verse, the only new idea being that the saving or, possibly, the descrying of the Soma is ascribed to Vishvu. See, however, Bergaigne, Journ. Asiat.

1884, p. 472. Verse 8.

Note 1. On na and iva together, see Bollensen, Orient und Occident, II, 470.

Verse 9.

Note 1, Tvash¢ar, the workman of the gods, frequently also the fashioner and creator.

Note 2. Nari, the loc. sing. of nvz, but, if so, with a wrong accent, occurs only in this phrase as used here, and as repeated in VIII, 96, 19. nari apAmsi karta sdk vritra- ha. Its meaning is not clear. It can hardly mean ‘on man, without some more definite application. If nvz could be used as a name of Vrztra or any other enemy, it would mean, to do his deeds against the man, on the enemy. Nvi, however, is ordinarily an honorific term, chiefly applied to Indra, IV, 25, 4. ndre ndrydya nr¢-tamaya nrivdm, and hence its application to Vzztra would be objectionable. Sdyava explains it in the sense of battle. I believe that nari stands for ndryd, the acc. plur. neut. of narya, manly, and the frequent epithet of dpas, and I have translated accordingly. Indra is called ndrya-apas, VIII, 93,1. See also Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xxv, p. 601.

Verse 10.

Note 1, Avata, a well, here meant for cloud, like utsa, I, 64, 6.

138 VEDIC HYMNS.

Note 2. Dhamantak-vazam is translated by Sadyavza as playing on the lyre, by Benfey as blowing the flute. Such a rendering, particularly the latter, would be very appro- priate, but there is no authority for vavd meaning either lyre or flute in the Veda. V4vza occurs five times only. In one passage, VIII, 20, 8. gébhiz vaxzdh agyate, it means arrow; the arrow is sent forth from the bow-strings. The same meaning seems applicable to IX, 50, 1. vamasya Rodaya pavim. In another passage, IX, 97, 8. pra vadanti vazam, they send forth their voice, is applied to the Maruts, as in our passage; in IV, 24, 9, the sense is doubtful, but here too vad clearly does not mean a musical instrument. See III, 30, 10. Spiegel compares the Huzvaresh and Armenian vang (Pers. banig), voice. M. Senart (Journal Asiatique, 1874, p. 281) is in favour of taking vaza for flute.

Verse 12.

Note 1. In the Taitt. S. I, 5, 11, we have sasamanaya, and in the Taitt. Br. II, 8, 5, 6, samsamanaya, but Sayaxa explains sasamanaya, samsanam kurvate. He explains tridhatini by asanam, panam, khadanam.

Vréshan.

Note 2. In vréshan we have one of those words which it is almost impossible to translate accurately. It occurs over and over again in the Vedic hymns, and if we once know the various ideas which it either expresses or implies, we have little difficulty in understanding its import in a vague and general way, though we look in vain for corresponding terms in any modern language. In the Veda, and in ancient languages generally, one and the same word is frequently made to do service for many. Words retain their general meaning, though at the same time they are evidently used with a definite purpose. This is not only a peculiar phase of language, but a peculiar phase of thought, and as to us this phase has become strange and unreal, it is very difficult to transport ourselves back into it, still more to translate the pregnant terms of the Vedic poets into the definite languages which we have to use. Let us imagine a state of

NOTES. I, 85, 12. 139

thought and speech in which virtus still meant manliness, though it might also be applied to the virtue of a woman ; or let us try to speak and think a language which expressed the bright and the divine, the brilliant and the beautiful, the straight and the right, the bull and the hero, the shepherd and the king by the same terms, and we shall see how difficult it would be to translate such terms without losing either the key-note that was still sounding, or the harmonics which were set vibrating by it in the minds of the poets and their listeners.

I. Vr¢shan, male.

Vréshan, being derived from a root vrzsh, spargere, meant no doubt originally the male, whether applied to animals or men. In this sense vr¢éshan occurs frequently in the Veda, either as determining the sex of the animal which is mentioned, or as standing by itself and meaning the male. In either case, however, it implies the idea of strength and eminence, which we lose whether we translate it by man or male.

Thus asva is horse, but VII, 69, 1, we read:

a vam rathak—vrisha-bhiz yatu asvaih.

May your chariot come near with powerful horses, i. e. with stallions,

The Haris, the horses of Indra, are frequently called vréishama :

I, 177, 1. yuktva hari (iti) vr¢shawa.

Having yoked the bay stallions.

Vrishabha, though itself originally meaning the male animal, had become fixed as the name of the bull, and in this process it had lost so much of its etymological import that the Vedic poet did not hesitate to define vr7shabha itself by the addition of vv/shan. Thus we find:

VIII, 93, 7. sa& vrésha vrishabhaz% bhuvat.

May he (Indra) be a strong bull.

I, 54, 2. vrésha vrisha-tva vrishabhaZ.

Indra by his strength a strong bull; but, literally, Indra by his manliness a male bull.

Even vrishabha loses again its definite meaning; and as

140 VEDIC HYMNS.

bull in bull-calf means simply male, or in bull-trout, large, so vrishabha is added to atya, horse, to convey the meaning of large or powerful :

I, 177, 2. yé te vr/shazak vrishabhasak indra—atyar.

Thy strong and powerful horses; literally, thy male bull- horses.

When vr/shan and vrishabha are used as adjectives, for instance with sushma, strength, they hardly differ in meaning :

VI, 19, 8. 4 naz bhara vr¢/shavam sishmam indra.

Bring us thy manly strength, O Indra.

And in the next verse:

VI, 19, 9. @ te sishmak vrishabhaz etu.

May thy manly strength come near.

Vamsaga, too, which is clearly the name for bull, is defined by vvéshan, I, 7, 8:

vrisha yitha-iva vamsagah.

As the strong bull scares the herds.

The same applies to varaha, which, though by itself meaning boar, is determined again by vréshan :

X, 67, 7. vrisha-bhiz varahaif.

With strong boars.

In III, 2, 11, we read:

vrvisha—nanadat na simhak.

Like a roaring lion.

If used by itself, vv/shan, at least in the Rig-veda, can hardly be said to be the name of any special animal, though in later Sanskrit it may mean bull or horse. Thus if we read, X, 43, 8, vrésha na kruddhaZ, we can only translate like an angry male, though, no doubt, like a wild bull, would seem more appropriate.

I, 186, 5. yéna napatam apaém gunama manak-guvah vrishazahk yam vahanti.

That we may excite the son of the water (Agni), whom the males, quick as thought, carry along.

Here the males are no doubt the horses or stallions of Agni. But, though this follows from the context, it would be wrong to say that vvé/shan by itself means horse.

NOTES, I, 85, 12. I4!I

If used by itself, v7¢shan most frequently means man, and chiefly in his sexual character. Thus:

I, 140, 6. vvésha-iva patniz abhi eti roruvat.

Agni comes roaring like a husband to his wives.

I, 179, 1. api tiv (iti) nu pdtniz vréshanah gagamyud.

Will the husbands now come to their wives?

II, 16, 8. sakr¢t si te sumati-bhiz—sam patnibhiZ na vrishazak nasimahi.

May we for once cling firmly to thy blessings, as hus- bands cling to their wives.

V, 47,6. upa-prakshé v7/shavaz médamana divaz patha vadhvaz yanti akkha.

The exulting men come for the embrace on the path of heaven towards their wives.

In one or two passages vvéshan would seem to have a still more definite meaning, particularly in the formula stirak drvésike vrishanak ka paumsye, which occurs IV, 41, om, 92, 7.: ‘See also I,.179, I,

In all the passages which we have hitherto examined vrishan clearly retained its etymological meaning, though even then it was not always possible to translate it by male.

The same meaning has been retained in other languages in which this word can be traced. Thus, in Zend, arshan (the later gushan) is used to express the sex of animals in such expressions as aspahé arshnéd, gen. a male horse; vardzahe arshné, gen. a male boar; géus arshné, gen. a male ox ; but likewise in the sense of man or hero, as arsha husrava, the hero Husrava. In Greek we find dponv and appnv used in the same way to distinguish the sex of animals, as dpoeves ino, Bodv dpoeva. In Latin the same word may be recognised in the proper name Varro, and in varo’ and baro.

We now come to another class of passages in which _vrishan is clearly intended to express more than merely the masculine gender. In some of them the etymological meaning of spargere, to pour forth, seems to come out again, and it is well known that Indian commentators are very fond of explaining vvéshan by giver of rain, giver of

142 VEDIC HYMNS,

good gifts, bounteous. The first of these meanings may indeed be admitted in certain passages, but in others it is more than doubtful.

II. Vrzshan, fertilising.

I, 181, 8. vrésha vim meghaz may be translated, your raining cloud.

I, 129, 3. dasmaz hi sma vv¢shazam pinvasi tva4zam.

Thou art strong, thou fillest the rainy skin, i. e. the cloud.

See also IV, 22, 6; and possibly V, 83, 6.

It may be that, when applied to Soma too, vv/shan retained something of its etymological meaning, that it meant gushing forth, poured out, though in many places it is impossible to render vv/shan, as applied to Soma, by anything but strong. All we can admit is that vv/shan, if translated by strong, means also strengthening and invigo- rating, an idea not entirely absent even in our expression, a strong drink.

III. Vrzshan, strong.

I, 80, 2. sa tva amadat v77shé madak, s6mahk—sutak.

This strong draught inspirited thee, the poured out Soma-juice.

I, 91, 2. tvam vrésha vrisha-tvébhih.

Thou, Soma, art strong by strength.

I, 175, 1. vv¢ésha te vrishve induk vagi sahasra-satamaz.

For thee, the strong one, there is strong drink, powerful, omnipotent.

In the ninth Mazdala, specially dedicated to the praises of Soma, the inspiriting beverage of gods and men, the repetition of vvéshan, as applied to the juice and to the god who drinks it, is constant. Indo vrésha or vréshA indo are incessant invocations, and become at last perfectly meaningless.

IV. Vréshan, epitheton ornans.

There can be no doubt, in fact, that already in the hymns of the Veda, vv¢shan had dwindled away to a mere epitheton ornans, and that in order to understand it cor- rectly, we must, as much as possible, forget its etymological

NOTES, 1, 85, 12. 143

colouring, and render it by hero or strong. Indra, Agni, the Asvins, Vishzu, the Rzbhus (IV, 35, 6), all are vvéshan, which means no longer male, but manly, strong.

In the following passages vvishan is thus applied to Indra:

I, 54, 2. yak dhrzshvuna sdvasa rddasi (iti) ubhé (iti) vrisha vrisha-tvé vrishabhaz ni-rifgate.

(Praise Indra) who by his daring strength conquers both heaven and earth, a bull, strong in strength.

I, 100, 1. sak yak vrisha vrishvyebhiz sam-okak maha divah prithivyaz ka sam-raz satind-satva hdvyak bhareshu marttvan naz bhavatu indra# fatt.

He who is strong, wedded to strength, who is the king of the great sky and the earth, of mighty might, to be invoked in battles,—may Indra with the Maruts come to our help!

I, 16,1. 4 tva vahantu hdrayak vrishavam sdma-pitaye, indra tvA stira-kakshasaz.

May the bays bring thee hither, the strong one, to the Soma-draught, may the sunny-eyed horses (bring) thee, O Indra!

IV, 16, 20. eva it indraya vrishabhaya vr/shve brdhma akarma bhrégava# na ratham.

Thus we have made a hymn for Indra, the strong bull, as the Bhvzgus make a chariot.

X, 153, 2. tvam vrzshan vrésha it asi.

Thou, O hero, art indeed a hero; and not, Thou, O male, art indeed a male; still less, Thou, O bull, art indeed a bull.

I, 101, 1. avasyavahk vrishavam vagra-dakshivam marit- vantam sakhydya havamahe.

Longing for help we call as our friend the hero who wields the thunderbolt, who is accompanied by the Maruts.

VIII, 6,14. ni sushve indra dharvasim vagram gaghantha ‘dasyavi, vrésha hi ugra svinvishé.

Thou, O Indra, hast struck the strong thunderbolt against ° Sushza, the fiend ; for, terrible one, thou art called hero!

VIII, 6, 40. vavrzdhanah upa dyavi vrésha vagri aroravit, vritra-hd soma-patamad,

144 VEDIC HYMNS.

Growing up by day, the hero with the thunderbolt has roared, the Vrztra-killer, the great Soma-drinker.

V, 35,4. vzésha hi asi radhase gagvishé vrishui te savah.

Thou (Indra) art a hero, thou wast born to be bounteous ; in thee, the hero, there is might.

V. Varshish¢ha, strongest, best, oldest.

It is curious to watch the last stage of the meaning of vrishan in the comparative and superlative varshiyas and varshish¢Za. In the Veda, varshish¢“a still means excellent, but in later Sanskrit it is considered as the superlative of vviddha, old, so that we see v7¢shan, from meaning originally manly, vigorous, young, assuming in the end the meaning of old. (M.M., Sanskrit Grammar, § 252.)

Yet even thus, when v7/shan means simply strong or hero, its sexual sense is not always forgotten, and it breaks out, for instance, in such passages as,

I, 32, 7. vvéshvzah vadhriz prati-manam bubhdshan puru- tra vritrak asayat vi-astah.

Vritra, the eunuch, trying to be like untoa man (like unto Indra), was lying, broken to many pieces.

The next passages show vréshan as applied to Agni:

III, 27, 15. vréshazam tva4 vayam vrzshan v7/shazak sam idhimahi.

O, strong one, let us the strong ones kindle thee, the strong !

V, I, 12. avokama kavaye médhyaya vakah vandaru vr7- shabhaya vr/shze.

We have spoken an adoring speech for the worshipful poet, for the strong bull (Agni).

Vishzu is called vvéshan, I, 154, 3:

pra vishvave sisham etu mdnma giri-kshite uru-gayaya vrishne.

May this hymn go forth to Vishzu, he who dwells in the mountain (cloud), who strides wide, the hero !

Rudra is called vvéshan :

II, 34,2. rudra% yat vak marutad rukma-vakshasak vrésha Agani pr¢/snyak sukré tidhani.

When Rudra, the strong man, begat you, O Maruts with

NOTES, I, 85, 12. 145

bright ornaments on your chests, in the bright lap of Prisni.

That the Maruts, the sons of Rudra, are called vv/shan, we have seen before, and shall see frequently again (I, a65. 1; II, 33,13; VI, 56,20; 213 58,6). The whole company of the Maruts is called vrv/sha gazah, the strong or manly host, i.e. the host of the Maruts, without any further qualification.

VI. Vrzshan, name of various deities.

Here lies, indeed, the chief difficulty which is raised by the common use of vv¢shan in the Veda, that when it occurs by itself, it often remains doubtful who is meant by it, Indra, or Soma, or the Maruts, or some other deity. We shall examine a few of these passages, and first some where vrishan refers to Indra:

IV, 30, 10. dpa ushad% dnasak sarat sdm-pish/at dha bibhyushi, ni yat sim sisnathat vrésha.

Ushas went away from her broken chariot, fearing lest the hero should do her violence.

Here vv/shan is clearly meant for Indra, who, as we learn from the preceding verse, was trying to conquer Ushas, as Apollo did Daphne; and it should be observed that the word itself, by which Indra is here designated, is particularly appropriate to the circumstances.

I, 103, 6. bhtiri-karmave vrishabhaya vréshve satya-sush- maya sunavama sémam, yak A-drftya paripanthi-iva sirak ayagvanak vi-bhagan éti védah.

Let us pour out the Soma for the strong bull, the per- former of many exploits, whose strength is true, the hero who, watching like a footpad, comes to us dividing the wealth of the infidel.

Here it is clear again from the context that Indra only can be meant. ;

But in other passages this is more doubtful:

III, 61, 7. ritdsya budhné ushdsdm ishavydn vr/shd mahi (iti) rodasi (iti) a vivesa.

The hero in the depth of the heaven, yearning for the dawns, has entered the great sky and the earth.

[32] L

146 VEDIC HYMNS,

The hero who yearns for the dawns, is generally Indra; here, however, considering that Agni is mentioned in the preceding verse, it is more likely that this god, as the light of the morning, may have been meant by the poet. That Agni, too, may be called vv/shan, without any other epithet to show that he is meant rather than any other god, is clear from such passages as,

VI, 3, 7. vvésha rukshak sshadhishu ntinot.

He the wild hero shouted among the plants.

In VII, 60, 9, vvzshazau, the dual, is meant for Mitra and Varuza; in the next verse, vvzshaza, the plural, must mean the same gods and their companions.

That Soma is called simply vv/shan, not only in the ninth Mazdala, but elsewhere, too, we see from such passages as,

III, 43, 7. indra piba vrésha-dhitasya vréshvah (a yam te syenah usaté gabhara), yasya made #yavayasi pra krishtik ydsya made dpa gotra vavartha.

Indra drink of the male (the strong Soma), bruised by the males (the heavy stones), inspirited by whom thou makest the people fall down, inspirited by whom thou hast opened the stables.

Here Sayaza, too, sees rightly that ‘the male bruised by the males’ is the Soma-plant, which, in order to yield the intoxicating juice, has to be bruised by stones, which stones are again likened to two males. But unless the words, enclosed in brackets, had stood in the text, words which clearly point to Soma, I doubt whether Sayavza would have so readily admitted the definite meaning of vv¢shan as Soma,

I, 109, 3. ma &#edma rasmin iti nadhamanaZ pitrézim saktiz anu-yakkhamanad, indragni-bhyam kam vréshanah madanti ta hi adri (iti) dhishavayaz upd-sthe.

We pray, let us not break the cords (which, by means of the sacrifices offered by each generation of our forefathers, unite us with the gods); we strive after the powers of our fathers. The Somas rejoice for Indra and Agni; for the two stones are in the lap of the vessel.

First, as to the construction, the fact that participles are thus used as finite verbs, and particularly when the subject changes in the next sentence, is proved by other passages,

NOTES; T, 65, ¥2. 147

such as II, 11, 4. The sense is that the new generation does not break the sacrificial succession, but offers Soma, like their fathers. The Soma-plants are ready, and, when pressed by two stones, their juice flows into the Soma- vessel. There may be a double entendre in dhishazayaz upa-sthe, which Sanskrit scholars will easily perceive.

When v7éshan is thus used by itself, we must be chiefly guided by the adjectives or other indications before we determine on the most plausible translation. Thus we read :

I, 55,4. saz it vane namasyu-bhiz vakasyate aru ganeshu pra-bruvavah indriyam, vr/sha kAdndus bhavati haryatak vrisha kshémeva dhénadm magha-va yat invati.

In the first verse the subject may be Indra or Soma: ‘He alone is praised by worshippers in the forest (or in the wooden: vessel), he who shows forth among men his fair power. But who is meant to be the subject of the next verse? Even Sdyaza is doubtful. He translates first : ‘The bounteous excites the man who wishes to sacrifice; when the sacrificer, the rich, by the protection of Indra, stirs up his voice.’ But he allows an optional translation for the last sentences: ‘when the powerful male, Indra, by his enduring mind reaches the praise offered by the sacrificer.’

According to these suggestions, WILSON translated: He (Indra) is the granter of their wishes (to those who solicit him); he is the encourager of those who desire to worship (him), when the wealthy offerer of oblations, enjoying his protection, recites his praise.

BENFEY: The bull becomes friendly, the bull becomes desirable, when the sacrificer kindly advances praise.

LANGLOIS: When the noble Maghavan receives the homage of our hymns, his heart is flattered, and he responds to the wishes of his servant by his gifts.

As far as I know, the adjective #Zdndu does not occur again, and can therefore give us no hint. But haryatd, which is applied to vréshan in our verse, is the standing epithet of Soma. It means delicious, and occurs very frequently in the ninth Mazdala. It is likewise applied to Agni, Pishan, the Haris, the thunderbolt, but wherever

L 2

148 ‘VEDIC HYMNS.

it occurs our first thought is of Soma. Thus, without quoting from the Soma-Mazdala, we read, X, 96, 1, harya- tam madam, the delicious draught, i.e. Soma.

X, 96, 9. pitva mddasya haryatdsya dndhasas, means having drunk of the draught of the delicious Soma.

VIII, 72, 18. paddm haryatasya ni-dhanyam, means the place where the delicious Soma resides.

III, 44, 1. haryataz soma.

Delicious Soma.

II, 21, 1. bhara indraya sbmam yagataya haryatdm.

Bring delicious Soma for the holy Indra.

I, 130, 2. mddaya haryatdya te tuviz-tamaya dhayase.

That thou mayest drink the delicious and most powerful draught, i. e. the Soma.

If, then, we know that vr/shan by itself is used in the sense of Soma, haryata vréshan can hardly be anything else. Vakasyate also is peculiar to Soma in the sense of murmuring, or as it were talking, and never occurs as a passive. I therefore should prefer to assign the whole verse to Soma, and translate: He indeed, when in the wooden vessel, talks with his worshippers, proclaiming his fair power among men; the strong Soma is pleasing, the strong Soma is delicious, when the sacrificer safely brings the cow, i.e. the milk to be mixed with the Soma.

That Indra was thirsting for Soma had been said in the second verse, and he is again called the Soma-drinker in the seventh verse. A verse dedicated to Soma therefore seems to come in quite naturally, though the Anukramazi does not sanction it.

That the Maruts are called vv/shan, without further ex- planations, will appear from the following passages:

I, 85, 12. rayim nak dhatta vr7shavah su-viram.

Give us wealth, ye heroes, consisting of good offspring.

VIII, 96, 14. ishyami vak vrishazahk yudhyata 4gau.

I wish for you, heroes (Maruts), fight in the race!

In all the passages which we have hitherto examined, vrishan was always applied to living beings, whether animals, men, or gods. But as, in Greek, dponvy means at last simply strong, and is applied, for instance, to the

NOTES; 1) BS, '2. 149

crash of the sea, xt’mos dponv amévrov, so in the Veda vrishan is applied to the roaring of the storms and similar objects.

V, 87, 5. svanak vriésha.

Your powerful sound (O Maruts).

X, 47, 1. gagrzbhma te dakshizam indra hdstam vasu- yavak vasu-pate vasindm, vidma hi tvad g6é-patim sira géndm asmabhyam fitram vr/shazam rayim dak.

We have taken thy right hand, O Indra, wishing for treasures, treasurer of treasures, for we know thee, O hero, to be the lord of cattle; give us bright and strong wealth.

Should Aitra here refer to treasures, and v77shan to cattle?

X, 89, 9. nf amitreshu vadhdm indra tiumram vréshan vrishazam arusham sisihi.

Whet, O hero, the heavy strong red weapon against the enemies. |

The long 4 in vrvéshazam is certainly startling, but it occurs once more, IX, 34, 3, where there can be no doubt that it is the accusative of v7¢shan. Professor Roth takes vrishan here in the sense of bull (s. v. tumra), but he does not translate the whole passage.

III, 29, 9. kvzvdta dhimam vréshazam sakhayaz.

Make a mighty smoke, O friends!

Strength itself is called vv¢shan, if I am right in trans- lating the phrase vv¢shazam sushmam by manly strength. It occurs,

IV, 24, 7. tasmin dadhat v7/shazam sushmam indraz.

Indra may give to him manly strength.

VI, 19, 8. a na& bhara vr/shazam sishmam indra.

Bring to us, O Indra, manly strength.

VII, 24, 4. asmé (iti) dddhat vv¢shazam sishmam indra.

Giving to us, O Indra, manly strength.

See also VI, 19, 9, sushmaz vrishabhaz, used in the same sense.

VII. Vrzshan, general and empty term of praise.

This constant play on the word v7éshan, which we have observed in the passages hitherto examined, and which give by no means a full idea of the real frequency of its

150 VEDIC HYMNS.

occurrence in the Veda, has evidently had its influence on the Vedic Azshis, who occasionally seem to delight in the most silly and unmeaning repetitions of this word, and its compounds and derivatives. Here no language can supply any adequate translation; for though we may translate words which express thoughts, it is useless to attempt to render mere idle play with words. I shall give a few instances:

I, 177, 3. 4 tisht#a ratham vr/shazam vrésha te sutaz sémaz pari-sikté madhini, yuktva vr/sha-bhyam vrzshabha kshitindm hari-bhyam ydahi pra-vata Upa madrik.

Mount the strong car, the strong Soma is poured out for thee, sweets are sprinkled round; come down towards us, thou bull of men, with the strong bays, having yoked them.

But this is nothing yet compared to other passages, when the poet cannot get enough of vv/shan and vrzshabha.

II, 16, 6. vrésha te vagrah uta te vrisha rathak vrishava hari (iti) vrshabhawi ayudha, vr/shzak madasya vrishabha tvam isishe indra sémasya vrishabhasya tvzpzuhi.

Thy thunderbolt is strong, and thy car is strong, strong are the bays, the weapons are powerful, thou, bull, art lord of the strong draught, Indra rejoice in the powerful Soma!

V, 36, 5. vvésha tva vr/shazam vardhatu dyauz vrésha vrisha-bhyam vahase hdari-bhy4dm, saz nak vrésha vrisha- rathad su-sipra vrésha-krato (iti) vv/sha vagrin bhare dhaz.

May the strong sky increase thee, the strong; a strong one thou art, carried by two strong bays; do thou who art strong, with a strong car, O thou of strong might, strong holder of the thunderbolt, keep us in battle!

V, 40, 2-3. vrishd grava vrfshd mddak vrisha sdmak ayam sutak#, vréshan indra vrésha-bhiZ vritrahan-tama, vrisha tva vréshazam huve.

The stone is strong, the draught is strong, this Soma that has been poured out is strong, O thou strong Indra, who killest Vrztra with the strong ones (the Maruts), I, the strong, call thee, the strong.

VIII, 13, 31-33. vrésha aydm indra te rathaz uto (iti) te

NOTES. 1, 85, 12. I5t

vrishava hari (iti), v7¢sha tvdm sata-krato (iti) vvésha havaz. vrisha grava vr/sha mddak vr/sha s6mak aydm sutah, vrtsha yaghahk yam invasi vrisha havak. vrésha tva vréshavam huve vagrin Aitrabhiz ati-bhiZ, vavantha hi prdti-stutim vrisha havad.

This thy car is strong, O Indra, and thy bays are strong; thou art strong, O omnipotent, our callis strong. The stone is strong, the draught is strong, the Soma is strong, which is here poured out; the sacrifice which thou orderest is strong, our call is strong. I, the strong, call thee, the strong, thou holder of the thunderbolt, with manifold blessings ; for thou hast desired our praise ; our call is strong.

There are other passages of the same kind, but they are too tedious to be here repeated. The commentator, through- out, gives to each vrvéshan its full meaning either of showering down or bounteous, or male or bull; but a word which can thus be used at random has clearly lost its definite power, and cannot call forth any definite ideas in the mind of the listener. It cannot be denied that here and there the original meaning of v7/shan would be appro- priate even where the poet is only pouring out a stream of majestic sound, but we are not called upon to impart sense to what are verba et praeterquam nihil. When we read, I, 122, 3, vatak apam vr7shaz-van, we are justified, no doubt, in translating, ‘the wind who pours forth water;’ and X, 93, 5, apam vrvishav-vasi (iti) siryA4masa, means ‘ Sun and Moon, givers of water.’ But even in some passages where vv¢shan is followed by the word vrzsh, it is curious to observe that vr7sh is not necessarily used in the sense of rain- ing or pouring forth, but rather in the sense of drinking.

VI, 68, 11. indravaruz4d madhumat-tamasya v7/shzak sd- masya vrishaza* 4 vrishethdm.

@ The dual vrzshazau occurs only when the next word begins with a vowel. Before an initial a, 4, i, the au is always changed into av in the Samhita (I, 108, 7-12; 116, 21; 117,193; 153, 23 157,53 158, 1; 180, 7; VII, 61, 5). Before u the preceding au becomes 4 in the Samhita, but the Pada gives au, in order to show that no Sandhi can take place between the two vowels (VII, 60, 9;

152 VEDIC HYMNS.

Indra and Varuza, you strong ones, may you drink of the sweetest strong Soma.

That 4-vvzsh means to drink or to eat, was known to Sayaza and to the author of the Satapatha-brahmavza, who paraphrases a4 vrishayadhvam by asnita, eat.

The same phrase occurs I, 108, 3.

I, 104, 9. uru-vydkah gathare 4 vrishasva.

Thou of vast extent, drink (the Soma) in thy stomach.

The same phrase occurs X, 96, 13.

VIII, 61, 3. 4 vezshasva—sutdsya indra andhasah.

Drink, Indra, of the Soma that is poured out.

In conclusion, a few passages may be pointed out in

which vriéshan seems to be the proper name of a pious.

worshipper :

I, 36, 10. yam tva devésak mdnave dadhuz iha yagish- tham havya-vahana, yam kazvak meédhya-atithiZ dhana- spvétam yam vrisha yam upa-stutah.

Thee, O Agni, whom the gods placed here for man, the most worthy of worship, O carrier of oblations, thee whom Kazva, thee whom MedhyAatithi placed, as the giver of wealth, thee whom Vvzshan placed and Upastuta.

Here the commentator takes Vrvzshan as Indra, but this would break the symmetry of the sentence. That Upa- stutaz is here to be taken as a proper name, as Upastuta, the son of Vrzsh¢ihavya, is clear from verse 17:

agniz pra Avat mitra uta médhya-atithim agnih sata upa- stutam.

Agni protected also the two friends, Medhyatithi and Upastuta, in battle.

The fact is that whenever upastuta has the accent on the last syllable, it is intended as a proper name, while, if used

as a participle, in the sense of praised, it has the accent on the first.

X, 66, 7). Before consonants the dual always ends in 4, both in the Samhita and Pada. But there are a few passages where the final 4 occurs before initial vowels, and where the two vowels are allowed to form one syllable. In four passages this happens before an initial 4 (I, 108, 3; VI, 68, 11; I, 177, 1; II, 16, 5). Once, and once only, it happens before u, in VIII, 22, 12.

NOTES, | 1,°65, 12. 153

VIII, 5, 25. yatha Rit kavvam Avatam priyd-medham upa-stutam.

As you have protected Kanva, Priyamedha, Upastuta. Cf, 16612715.

VIII, 103, 8. pra mamhishthaya gdyata—upa-stutdsak agnaye (accent of the vocative).

Sing, O Upastutds, to the worthiest, to Agni!

X, 115, 9. iti tva agne vrish¢i-hdvyasya putraz upa- stutasak r/shayah avokan.

By these names, O Agni, did the sons of Vrishdihavya, the Upastutas, the Rzshis, speak to you.

Vvishan occurs once more as a proper name in VI, 16, 14 and 15:

tam tw (iti) tva dadhydn véshiz putrdh idhe dtharvazah, vritra-hanam puram-dardm.

tam dm (iti) tva pathyaz vrishA sdm idhe dasyuhdan- tamam, dhanam-gaydm raze-raze. .

Thee, O Agni, did Dadhyaé kindle, the Rzshi, the son of Atharvan, thee the killer of Vvitra, the destroyer of towns ;

Thee, O Agni, did Vvzshan Pathya kindle, thee the best killer of enemies, the conqueror of wealth in every battle.

Here the context can leave no doubt that Dadhyas and Vrishan were both intended as proper names. Yet as early as the composition of the Satapatha-brahmama, this was entirely misunderstood. Dadhyaé&, the son of Atharvan, is explained as speech, Vvzshan Pathya as mind (Sat. Br. VI, 3, 3,4). On this Mahidhara, in his remarks on Vag. Samh. XI, 34, improves still further. For though he allows his personality to Dadhyaé, the son of Atharvan, he says that Pathya comes from pathin, path,and means he who moves on the right path; or it comes from pathas, which means sky, and is here used in the sense of the sky of the heart. He then takes vy7shan as mind, and translates the mind of the heart. Such is a small chapter in the history of the rise and fall of the Indian mind!

154 VEDIC HYMNS.

MANDALA I, HYMN 86. ASH7AKA I, ADHYAYA 6, VARGA 11-12.

To THE Maruts (THE STORM-GoDS).

1. O Maruts, that man in whose dwelling you drink (the Soma), ye mighty (sons) of heaven, he indeed has the best guardians 1.

2. You who are propitiated! either by sacrifices or from the prayers of the sage, hear the call, O Maruts!

3. Aye, the powerful man to whom you have granted a sage, he will live in a stable rich in cattle’.

4. On the altar of this strong man (here)! Soma is poured out in daily sacrifices; praise and joy are sung.

5. To him let the mighty! Maruts listen, to him who surpasses all men, as the flowing rain-clouds ? pass over the sun.

6. For we, O Maruts, have sacrificed at many harvests, through the mercies! of the swift gods (the storm-gods).

7. May that mortal be blessed, O chasing Maruts, whose offerings you carry off?

8. You take notice either of the sweat of him who praises you, ye men of true strength, or of the desire of the suppliant ?.

9. O ye of true strength, make this manifest with might! strike the fiend! with your lightning !

10. Hide the hideous darkness, destroy! every tusky’ fiend. Make the light which we long for!

NOTES. - 1°36; ‘2, 155

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Gotama.

mies eo, VIL, fit AV Ay 1 ot 16. 1V, 2,144. Verse 2= TS. FV, 2, 11, 2:

wage O=- 1S. LV, 3, £3, 5

Verse 8=SV. II, 944.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Vimahas occurs only once more as an epithet of the Maruts, V, 87, 4. Being an adjective derived from mahas, strength, it means very strong. The strong ones of heaven is an expression analogous to I, 64, 2. divahk rish- vasahk ukshazak ; I, 64,4. divak narak. The Ait. Brahmaza VI, 10, takes gopa, guardian, as Indra.

Verse 2.

Note 1. The construction of this verse is not clear. Yagia-vahas has two meanings in the Veda. It is applied to the priest who carries or performs the sacrifice :

III, 8, 3, and 24, 1. varkahk dhak yagita-vahase.

Grant splendour to the sacrificer !

But it is also used of the gods who carry off the sacri- fice, and in that case it means hardly more than worshipped or. propitiated ; I, 15, 11 (Asvinau); IV, 47, 4 (Indra and Vayu); VIII, 12, 20 (Indra). In our verse it is used in the latter sense, and it is properly construed with the in- strumental yagfatk. The difficulty is the gen. plur. mati- nam, instead of matibhiZ. The sense, however, seems to allow of but one construction, and we may suppose that the genitive depends on the yagiia in yaghdavahas, ‘ accepting the worship of the prayers of the priest.2 Benfey refers yaghaih to the preceding verse, and joins havam to viprasya matinam : ‘ Durch Opfer—Opferfordrer ihr !-—oder ihr hort —Maruts—den Ruf der Lieder, die der Priester schuf.’

The Samhita text lengthens the last syllable of srizuta, as suggested by the metre.

156 VEDIC HYMNS.

If the accent allowed yaghavahasak to be taken as a genitive, the translation, as suggested by Ludwig, might be, ‘Either for the sake of the sacrifices of the sacrificer, or because of the prayers of the sage, O Maruts, hear the

can. Verse 3.

Note 1. The genitive ydsya vaginak depends on vipra. Anu-taksh, like anu-grah, anu-gf#a, seems to convey the meaning of doing in behalf or for the benefit of a person. Ganta might also be translated in a hostile sense, he will go into, he will conquer many a stable full of cows.

Verse 4.

Note 1. Ludwig has pointed out that asyad may refer

• to the present sacrificer.

Verse 5.

Note 1, I have altered 4 bhuvah into abhtvad, for I do not think that bhtvaz, the second pers. sing., even if it were bhuvat, the third pers., could be joined with the relative pronoun yak in the second pada. The phrase visvak yah arshanzik abhi occurs more than once, and is never preceded by the verb bhuvah or bhuvat. Abhiivas, on the contrary, is applied to the Maruts, I, 64, 6, vidatheshu Abhtivad; and as there can be no doubt who are the deities invoked, abhuva%, the strong ones, is as appropriate an epithet as vimahas in the first verse.

Note 2. Sasrushiz ishaz, as connected with sira, the sun, can only be meant for the flowing waters, the rain-clouds, the givers of ish or vigour. They are called divyah% ishak :

VIII, 5,21. utd nak divyah tshak utd sindhfin varshathaz.

You rain down on us the heavenly waters and the rivers.

WILSON translates: May the Maruts, victorious over all men, hear (the praises) of this (their worshipper); and may (abundant) food be obtained by him who praises them.

BENFEY: Ihn, der ob allen Menschen ragt, sollen horen die Labungen, und nahn, die irgend Weisen nahn.

LupwWIG: Horen sollen von ihm, der iiber allen menschen ist, die erden, seine bis zur sonne gelangten krafte. In his

NOTES. I, 86, 9. 157

notes he would prefer: Von ihm sollen sie gegenwartig héren, von ihm der alle menschen iibertrift (und die in die sonne wegegangenen), die darbringungen.

Sroshantu does not occur again; but we find srdéshan, I, 68, 5; srdshamaza, III, 8, 10; VII, 51,1; VII, 7, 6.

Verse 6,

Note 1. The expression avobhiZ, with the help, the blessings, the mercies, is generally used with reference to divine assistance; (I, 117, 19; 167, 2; 185, 10; 11; IV, me 2: 41,6; V, 74,63 Vi, Au l®, VE 20,1 5 35, 1,4.) It seems best therefore to take arshawvi as a name or epithet of the Maruts, although, after the invocation of the Maruts by name, this repetition is somewhat unusual. I should have preferred, ‘ with the help of our men, of our active and busy companions,’ for farshazi is used in that sense also. Only avobhiZ would not be in its right place then. The same applies to the various reading in TS. IV, 3, 13, 5, where instead of avobhiz we find mahobhizZ. This too is used with reference to gods, and particularly to the Maruts; see I, 165, 5, note.

Verse 7.

Note 1. Par, with ati, means to carry over (I, 97, 8; 99, #2 174, 9; 1,15, 3; 20, 4; IV, 39,13. V, 25, 9; 73, 83 m11,-40, 43 97, 4; VIII, 26, 5; 67, 2, &c.); with apa, to remove (I, 129, 5); with niZ, to throw down. Hence, if used by itself, unless it means to overrun, as frequently, it can only have the general sense of carrying, taking, accepting, or accomplishing.

Verse 8.

Note 1. Vida as second pers. plur. perf. is frequent, generally with the final ‘a’ long in the Samhita, I, 156, 3; ms 41, 19; 55, 2.

Verse 9.

Note 1. Observe the long penultimate in rdkshaZ, instead of the usual short syllable. Cf. I, 12, 5, and see Kuhn, Beitrage, vol. iii, p. 456.

158 VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 10.

Note 1. See note 1 to I, 39, 3.

Note 2. Atrin, which stands for attrin, is one of the many names assigned to the powers of darkness and mis- chief. It is derived from atra, which means tooth or jaw, and therefore meant originally an ogre with large teeth or jaws, a devourer. Besides atra, we also find in the Veda atra, with the accent on the first syllable, and meaning what serves for eating, or food :

X, 79, 2. atrazi asmai paz-bhiZ sam bharanti.

They bring together food for him (Agni) with their feet.

With the accent on the last syllable, atra in one passage means an eater or an ogre, like atrin:

V, 32, 8. apadam atram—m~rzdhra-vasam.

Indra killed the footless ogre, the babbler.

It means tooth or jaw:

I, 129, 8. svaydm s& rishayddhyai ya naz upa-ishé atraiz.

May she herself go to destruction who attacks us with her teeth. :

It is probably from atra in the sense of tooth (cf. dddvres= éddvres) that atrin is derived, meaning ogre or a devouring devil. In the later Sanskrit, too, the Asuras are repre- sented as having large tusks, Mahabh. V, 3572, daszshérizo bhimavegas ka.

Thus we read I, 21, 5, that Indra and Agni destroy the Rakshas, and the poet continues :

apragak santu atrizah.

May the ogres be without offspring !

IX, 86, 48. gahi visvan rakshdsa% indo (iti) atrizak.

Kill, O Soma, all the tusky Rakshas. Cf. 1X,104, 6; 105, 6.

VI, 51, 14. gahi nf atrizam pazim.

Kill, O Soma, the tusky Pazzi.

I, 94, 9. vadhaiz dud-samsan apa duk-dhyah gahi

diré v4 yé anti va ké fit atrizahk. |

Strike with thy blows, O Agni, the evil-spoken, evil- minded (spirits), the ogres, those who are far or who are near.

See also 4, 20, 14; 90; V1, 16,903 Vid, tae. 3s Be Vill, 1%, ¥):402ee os 90, 43. 118, 2, ;

MANDALA I, HYMN 87. 159

MANDALA I, HYMN 87. ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 6, VARGA 13.

To THE Maruts (THE STORM-GODS).

1. Endowed with exceeding vigour and power, the singers, the never flinching, the immovable, the impetuous, the most beloved and most manly, have decked themselves with their glittering ornaments, a few only!, like the heavens with the stars,

2. When you have seen your way through the clefts, like birds, O Maruts, on whatever road it be}, then the casks (clouds) on your chariots trickle every- where, and you pour out the honey-like fatness (the rain) for him who praises you.

3. At their racings the earth shakes, as if broken}, when on the (heavenly) paths they harness (their deer) for victory®. They the sportive, the roaring, with bright spears, the shakers (of the clouds) have themselves glorified their greatness.

4. That youthful company (of the Maruts), with their spotted horses!, moves by itself; hence? it exercises lordship, invested with powers. Thou indeed art true, thou searchest out sin®, thou art without blemish. Therefore the manly host will help this prayer.

5. We speak after the kind of our old father, our tongue goes forth at the sight! of the Soma: when the singers (the Maruts) had joined Indra in deed 2, then only they took their holy names ;—

6. These Maruts, armed with beautiful rings, obtained splendours for their glory!, they ob- tained? rays, and men to celebrate them; nay, armed with daggers, speeding along, and fearless, they found the beloved domain of the Maruts *,

160 VEDIC HYMNS.

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Gotama. No verse in SV., VS. AY.

Verve 3271S. TY, 3, 43 7

Verse 3 TS TY)s, Ss, 7:

Verse 6=TS. II, 1, 11, 23; TV; 2, £1, 2.

Verse 1.

Note 1, Ké it refers to the Maruts, who are represented as gradually rising or just showing themselves, as yet only few in number, like the first stars in the sky. Keé Zit, some, is opposed to sarve, all. The same expression occurs again, V, 52, 12, where the Maruts are compared to a few thieves. B. and R., and those who follow them, translate usraz iva _ strf-bhiz by ‘like cows marked with stars on their fore- heads.’ Such cows no doubt exist, but they can hardly be said to become visible by these frontal stars, as the Maruts by their ornaments. We must take usraZ here in the same sense as dyavak ; II, 34, 2, it is said that the Maruts were perceived dyavah na stré-bhix, like the heavens with the stars.

I, 166, 11. dire-drfsak yé divyah-iva str¢-bhiz.

Who are visible far away, like the heavens (or heavenly beings) by the stars.

And the same is said of Agni, II, 2, 5. dyauZ na stré- bhiz Aitayat rédasi (iti) 4nu. Stz¢bhiz occurs I, 68, 5; IV, 7, 3; VI, 49, 3; 12. It always means stars, and the meaning of rays (strahl) rests, as yet, on etymological authority only. The evening sky would, no doubt, be more appropriate than usra, which applies chiefly to the dawn. But in the Indian mind, the two dawns, i. e. the dawn and the gloaming, are so closely united and identified, that their names, too, are frequently interchangeable.

Verse 2. Note 1. I translate yayi not by a goer, a traveller, i.e. the

NOTES. I, 87, 3. 161

cloud (this is the explanation proposed by Sdyaza, and adopted by Professor Benfey), but by path. Sdyaza (TS. IV, 3, 13, 7) renders yayim by gatim. Etymologically yayi may mean either, and in some passages I feel doubtful as to which is the more appropriate meaning. But in parallel passages yayi is clearly replaced by yama. Thus:

VIII, 7, 2. yat—yaémam subhraz akidhvam.

When you, bright Maruts, have seen your way.

See also VIII, 7, 4. yat yamam yanti vayu-bhiZ.

When they (the Maruts) go on their path with the winds.

VIII, 7, 14. adhi-iva ydt girivam yamam subhraz aki- dhvam.

When you, bright Maruts, had seen your way, as it were, from above the mountains.

The same phrase occurs, even without yéma or yayi, in

V, 55, 7. na parvatak na nadya varanta vak yatra akidhvam marutak gakkhata it u tat.

Not mountains, not rivers, keep you back; where you have seen (your way), there you go.

Though yayi does not occur frequently in the Rig-veda, the meaning of path seems throughout more applicable than that of traveller.

V, 87, 5. tveshak yayih.

Your path, O Maruts, is blazing.

V, 73, 7. ugra# vam kakuhak yayih,

Fearful is your pass on high.

I, 51, 11. ugrad yayim nih apaz srotasa asrzgat.

The fearful Indra sent the waters forth on their way streaming.

X, 92, 5. prda—yayina yanti sindhavaz.

The waters go forth on their path.

Ludwig takes kdsa as buckets on the chariots of the Maruts, which seems right.

Verse 3, Note 1. Cf. I, 37, 8, page 75. There is no authority for _ Sayaza’s explanation of vithura-iva, the earth trembles like a widow. Vithura occurs several times in the Rig-veda, but never in the sense of widow. Thus: [32] M

162 VEDIC HYMNS.

I, 168, 6. yat 2yavayatha vithura-iva s4m-hitam.

When you, Maruts, throw down what is compact, like brittle things.

I, 186,2; VI, 25, 3; 46, 6; VIII, 96, 2; X, 77, 4 (vi- thuryati). The Maruts themselves are called avithura in verse 1. Spiegel compares the Zend aiwithura. As to Agma and yama, see I, 37, 8, page 75.

Note 2. Subh is one of those words to which it is very difficult always to assign a definite special meaning. Being derived from subh, to shine, the commentator has no diffi- culty in explaining it by splendour, beauty ; sometimes by water. But although sibh means originally splendour, and is used in that sense in many passages, yet there are others where so vague a meaning seems very inappropriate. In our verse SAyaza proposes two translations, either, ‘ When the Maruts harness the clouds, or, ‘When the Maruts harness their chariots, for the bright rain-water.’ Now the idea that the Maruts harness their chariots in order to make the clouds yield their rain, can hardly be expressed by the simple word subhé, i. e. for brightness’ sake. As the Maruts are frequently praised for their glittering orna- ments, their splendour might be intended in this passage, as it certainly is in others. Thus:

I, 85, 3. ydt subhdyante afgi-bhiZ tan€shu subhraz dadhire virikmata.

When the Maruts adorn themselves with glittering ornaments, the brilliant ones put bright weapons on their bodies.

VII, 56, 6. subha sdébhishzsah, sriya sdm-mislah, dgah- bhiz ugrah.

The most brilliant by their brilliancy, united with beauty, terrible by terrors.

In I, 64, 4, I have translated vaksha#-su rukman adhi yetire subhé by ‘they fix gold (chains) on their chests for beauty. And the same meaning is applicable to I, 117, 5, subhé rukmam na darsatam ni-khatam, and other passages : TV, $7; O.° VE Oe, 6.

But in our verse and others which we shall examine, beauty and brilliancy would be very weak renderings for

NOTES. 1, 89, 3. 163

subhé. ‘When they harnessed their chariots or their deer for the sake of beauty,’ means nothing, or, at least, very little. I take, therefore, subhé in this and similar phrases — in the sense of triumph or glory or victory. ‘When they harness their chariots for to conquer, implies brilliancy, glory, victory, but it conveys at the same time a tangible meaning. Let us now see whether the same meaning is appropriate in other passages: ,

I, 23, 11. gayatam-iva tanyatuZ maritim eti dhrzshzu- ya yat subham yAathdana naraz.

The thundering voice of the Maruts comes fiercely, like that of conquerors, when you go to conquer, O men!

Sayaza : ‘When you go to the brilliant place of sacrifice.’ Wilson: ‘When you accept the auspicious (offering).’ Benfey: ‘Wenn ihr euren Schmuck nehmt.’

V, 57, 2. yathana subham, you go to conquer. Cf. V, 55, 1.

Sdyaza: ‘For the sake of water, or, in a chariot.’

V, 52, 8. sardha# marutam ut sassa—utd sma té subhé narak pra syandrak yugata tmana.

Praise the host of the Maruts, whether they, the men, the quickly moving, have by themselves harnessed (the chariots) for conquest.

Sayaza: ‘ For the sake of water.’ Cf. X, 105, 3.

V, 57, 3. subhé yat ugraz préshatizZ ayugdhvam.

When you have harnessed the deer for conquest.

Sayaza: ‘For the sake of water.’

III, 26, 4. subhé—p7/shatiZ ayukshata.

They had harnessed the deer for victory.

Sayava: ‘They had harnessed in the water the deer together (with the fires).’

V, 63, 5. ratham yu#gate marttaz subhé su-khdm strak na—g6-ishdishu.

The Maruts harness the chariot meet for conquest, like a hero in battles.

Sayava: ‘For the sake of water.’

I, 88, 2. subhé kam yAnti—dsvaiz.

The Maruts go on their horses towards conquest.

Sayaza: ‘In order to brighten the worshipper, or, for the sake of water,’

M 2

164 VEDIC HYMNS.

I, 119, 3. sam ydt mithd% pasprzdhanasaz agmata subhé makhah amitah gayavah rane.

When striving with each other they came together, for the sake of glory, the brisk (Maruts), immeasurable (in strength), panting for victory in the fight.

Sayaza : ‘ For the sake of brilliant wealth.’

VII, 82, 5. marut-bhiZ ugrak sibham anya tyate.

The other, the fearful (Indra), goes with the Maruts to glory.

Sayama: ‘ He takes brilliant decoration.’

I, 167, 6. & asthdpayanta yuvatim yivanas# subheé ni- | mislam.

The Maruts, the youths, placed the maid (lightning on their chariot), their companion for victory (subhé nimislam),

Sayava: ‘For the sake of water, or, on the brilliant chariot’ “<Ghi, 437, 6; 16504.

VI, 62, 4. sibham p7¢ksham isham trgam vdhanta.

The Asvins bringing glory, wealth, drink, and food.

VIII, 26, 13. subhé £akrate, you bring him to glory.

Subham-yavan is an epithet of the Maruts, I, 89, 7; V, 61,13. Cf. subhra-yavan4, VIII, 26, 19 (Asvinau).

Subham-ya, of the wind, IV, 3, 6.

Subham-yu, of the rays of the dawn, X, 78, 7.

Verse 4.

Note 1. Sdyava: ‘With spotted deer for their horses.’ See I, 37, 2, note 1, page 70; as Pishan is called agasva, having goats for his horses, RV. V, 58, 2.

That the Maruts have not only pvzshatis, but horses for their chariots, we have seen before. In I, 88, 1, we have asvaparzaih rathebhiz.

Note 2. Aya is a word of very rare occurrence in the Rig-veda. Itis the instrum. sing. of the feminine pronominal base 4 or 7, and as a pronoun followed by a noun it is fre- quently to be met with; V, 45,11. aya dhiya, &c. But in our verse it is irregular in form as not entering into Sandhi with isanad%. This irregularity, however, which might have led us to suppose an original aya%, indefatigable, corre-

NOTES. I, 7; °S. 165

sponding with the following asi, is vouched for by the Pada text, in such matters a better authority than the Sam- hita text, and certainly in this case fully borne out by the Pratisdkhya, I, 163,10. Unless we read aydh, we must take aya as an adverb, in the sense of thus or hence; cf. VI, 66, 4. In some passages where ay& seems thus to be used as an adverb, it would be better to supply a noun from the pre- ceding verse. Thus in II, 6, 2, ayd refers to samfdham in II,6,1. In VI, 17,15, a similar noun, sam{fdha or gird, should be supplied. But there are other passages where, unless we suppose that the verse was meant to illustrate a ceremonial act, such as the placing of a samidh, and that aya pointed to it, we must take it as a simple adverb, mee ane Greck ro: RV. ILI, 12, 2; UX, 53, 2; 106, 14, In X, 116, 9, the Pada reads ayah-iva, not ayd, as given by Roth; in VI, 66, 4, aya nu, the accent is likewise on the first.

Note 3. Riva-yavan is well explained by B. and R. as. going after debt, searching out sin. Sdayaza, though he explains rza-yavan by removing sin, derives it nevertheless correctly from vzza and ya, and not from yu. The same formation is found in subham-yavan, &c.; and as there is vina-ya besides vzza-yavan, so we find subham-ya besides subham-yavan. Ludwig prefers the derivation from yu.

Verse 5.

Note 1. The Soma-juice inspires the poet with eloquence.

Note 2. Sami occurs again in IT, 31,6; III, 55,3; VIII, 45, 27; X, 40, I. Grassmann has shown that it may be taken as an instrum. of sami, meaning work, but with special reference to the toil of the battle-field or the sacrifice. It is used in the former sense in

VIII, 45, 27. vi Anaz turvaze sami.

He (Indra) was able to overcome, lit. he reached to, or he arrived at the overcoming or at victory by toil.

But, like other words which have the general meaning of working or toiling, sami is used both in a general sense, and in the more special sense of sacrifice.

X, 40, 1. vasto#-vastok vahamanam dhiya sami.

166 VEDIC HYMNS.

• Your chariot, O Asvins, driven along every morning by thought and deed.

II, 31, 6. apam napat a4su-héma4 dhiya sami.

Apam napat (Agni) moving quickly by thought and deed.

In these two passages it might be possible, with a slight alteration of the accent, to read dhiya-sami as one word. Dhiya-sam would mean the sacrificer who is engaged in prayer; cf. dhiyd-gur, V, 43,15. Thus we read:

VI, 2, 4. ya te su-danave dhiya martaz sasdmate.

The mortal who toils for thee, the liberal god, with prayer.

There is no necessity, however, for such a change, and the authority of the MSS. is against it. See also IX, 74,7.

In III, 55, 3, sami akkha didye pirvyazi, Roth takes sami as an acc. plur. neut., Lanman as an instrum., Grassmann as a locative.

I glance back at the former sacrifices. See B.R. sv. di and sami.

In other passages the feminine sami seems to mean work, sacrificial work, but, as far as we can see, not simply sacrifice. Thus the Azbhus and others are said to have acquired immortality by their work or works, sdmi or samibhif, I, 20,2; 110, 4; III, 60, 3; IV, 33, 4.. Cf. IV, 22, 8: 17, 163°V, 44, 10: 97,43 Vi, $9.1: Vile Oe ree IX, 74,7; A, 30,42. In VS 2, we reac:

igé yagnébhiz sasamé samibhiz.

I have sacrificed with sacrifices, I have worked with pious works.

Here the verb sam must be taken in the sense of working, or performing ceremonial worship, while in other places (III, 29,16; V, 2, 7) it may be perhaps taken in the more special sense of singing songs of praise. The Greek kdu-vw, to work, to labour, to tire (Sanskrit sAmyati), the Greek xow.dy and xopigm, to labour for or take care of a person, and possibly even the Greek xéyos, a song or a ° festival (not a village song), may all find their explana- tion in the Sanskrit root sam.

The idea that the Maruts did not originally enjoy divine

\

NOTES, 1, &7, 6. 167

honours will occur again and again: cf. I, 6, 4; 72, 3. A similar expression is used of the Rzbhus, I, 20, 8, &c. But while originally the expression of obtaining sacred names meant no more than obtaining a sacred or divine character, it was soon taken literally, and a number of names were invented for the Maruts which even in the Vagasan. Samhita XVII, 80-85 amount to 49, i.e.7x7. Yagiiya, properly ‘worthy of sacrifice, has the meaning of divine or sacred. The Greek &y.os has been compared with yagya, sacrificio colendus, which is not a Vedic word.

Verse 6.

Note 1. Sriydse kim seems to be the same as the more frequent sriyé kam. Sriydse only occurs twice more, V, 59, 3. The chief irregularity consists in the absence of Guza, which is provided for by Pazini’s kasen (III, 4, 9). Similar in- finitives, if they may so be called, are bhiydse, V, 29, 4; vridhase, V, 64, 5; dhruvase, VII, 70, 1; tugase, IV, 23, 7; vingase, VIII, 4,17; vrizgase, VIII, 76,1; vzkase, VII, 61, 6. In VI, 39, 5, ~z#ase may be a dat. sing. of the masculine, to the praiser.

Note 2. Mimikshire from myaksh, to be united with. Rasmi, rays, after bhanu, splendour, may seem weak. It might be possible to assign to rasmi the meaning of reins, and take rvzkvabhir in the sense of sounding or tinkling. In V, 79, 8, ar#i is used in juxtaposition with rasmi.

Note 3. The bearing of this concluding verse is not quite clear, unless we take it as a continuation of the preceding verse. It was there said that the Maruts (the rékvaza“) obtained their holy names after having joined Indra in his work, which means that they then and there became what they are. Having thus obtained their true character and a place among the gods, they may be said to have won at the same time splendour, and worshippers to sing their praises, and to have established themselves in what became after-

• wards known as their own domain, their own place among

the gods who are invoked at the sacrifice. See VII, 58, 1. The metre requires that we should read dhamanaz.

168 VEDIC HYMNS.

BENFEY translates: Gedeih’n zu spenden woll’n die schongeschmucketen mit Lichtern, Strahlen mit Lobsangern regenen ; die briillenden, furchtlosen, stiirmischen, sie sind bekannt als Glieder des geliebten Marutstamms.

WILSON: Combining with the solar rays, they have willingly poured down (rain) for the welfare (of mankind), and, hymned by the priests, have been pleased partakers of the (sacrificial food). Addressed with praises, moving swiftly, and exempt from fear, they have become possessed of a station agreeable and suitable to the Maruts.

Lupwic: Zu herlichkeit haben dise sich mit liechtglanz versehen, mit sausenden ziigeln die schonberingten, schwert- bewaffnet die kraftvollen, ohne furcht besitzen sie die freundliche Marutmacht.

MANDALA I, HYMN 88. 169

MANDALA I, HYMN 88. ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYVA 6, VARGA 14.

To tHe Maruts (THE STORM-GODS).

1. Come hither, Maruts, on your chariots charged with lightning, resounding with beautiful songs’, stored with spears, and winged with horses! Fly’ to us like birds, with your best food *, you mighty ones!

2. They come gloriously on their red, or, it may be, on their tawny horses which hasten their chariots. He who holds the axe? is brilliant like gold ;— with the tire? of the chariot they have struck the earth.

3. On your bodies there are daggers for beauty ; may they stir up our minds? as they stir up the forests. For yourselves, O well-born Maruts, the vigorous (among you) shake ? the stone (for distilling Soma).

4. Days went round you and came back!, O hawks, back to this prayer, and to this sacred rite; the Gotamas making prayer with songs, pushed up the lid of the well (the cloud) for to drink.

5. No such hymn? was ever known as this which Gotama sounded for you, O Maruts, when he saw you on golden wheels, wild boars? rushing about with iron tusks.

6. This comforting speech rushes sounding towards you, like the speech of a suppliant: it rushed freely from our hands as our speeches are wont to do.

170 VEDIC HYMNS.

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Gotama, the son of Rahigavza. The metre varies. Verses I and 6 are put down as Prastara-pankti, i.e.as12+12+8+48. By merely counting the syllables, and dissolving semivowels, it is just possible to get twenty-four syllables in the first line of verses 1 and 6. The old metricians must have scanned verse 1:

A vidyunmat-bhiz marutah su-arkaik rathebhi# yatavishéimat-bhiz asva-parnaih. Again verse 6: esha sya vak marutak anu-bhartri prati stobhati vaghatahk na vani. But the general character of these lines shows that they were intended for hendecasyllabics, each ending in a bacchius, though even then they are not free from irregu- larities. The first verse would scan: 4 vidyunmat-bhiz marutak su-arkai/ rathebhiz yAtavishzimat-(bhiz) asva-parnaih. And verse 6: esha syA vak maruta#-~anu-bhartri prati stobhati vaghatah na vAzi. Our only difficulty would be the termination bhix of rzshdi- mat-bhizZ. I cannot adopt Professor Kuhn’s suggestion to drop the Visarga of bhiZ and change i into y (Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 198), for this would be a license without any parallel. It is different with sa, originally sa, or with

A

feminines in i%, where parallel forms in 7 are intelli- gible. The simplest correction would be to read rathebhiz yatavishdi-mantakasva-parnaiz. One might urge in sup- port of this reading that in all other passages where vishdzimat occurs, it refers to the Maruts themselves, and never to their chariots. Yet the difficulty remains, how could so simple a reading have been replaced by a more difficult one?

NOTES: 1, BB, 1. 171

In the two Gayatri padas which follow I feel equally reluctant to alter. I therefore scan

4 varshishzkaya naz isha vayak na paptata oye taking the dactyl of paptata as representing a spondee, and admitting the exceptional bacchius instead of the am- phimacer at the end of the line.

The last line of verse 6 should be scanned :

astobhayat vritha~asim anu svadhdm gabhastyok.

There are two other verses in this hymn where the metre is difficult. In the last pada of verse 5 we have seven syllables instead of eleven. Again, I say, it would be most easy to insert one of the many tetrasyllabic epithets of the Maruts. But this would have been equally easy for the collectors of the Veda. Now the authors of the Anukra- mavzis distinctly state that this fifth verse is viradripa, i.e. that one of its padas consists of eight syllables. How they would have made eight syllables out of vi-dhavataz varahin does not appear, but at all events they knew that last pada to be imperfect. The rhythm does not suffer by this omission, as long as we scan vi-dhavatad varahiin.

Lastly, there is the third pada of the second verse, rukmaz na kitrak svadhiti-van. It would not be possible to get eleven syllables out of this, unless we admitted vyaha not only in svadhitivan or svadhiti-van, but also in Aitrah. Kuhn (Beitrage, vol. iv, p. 192) proposes to scan rukmaii na fitaraz svadhitivan. Nothing would be easier than to insert esham after Aitraz, but the question occurs again, how could eshaém be lost, or why, if by some accident it had been lost, was not so obvious a correction made by Saunaka and Katydyana ?

No verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV., TS., TB.

Verse 1 Note 1. Alluding to the music of the Maruts, and not to the splendour of the lightning which is mentioned before. See Wolf, Beitrage zur Deutschen Mythologie, vol. ii, p.137- ‘Das Ross und den Wagen des Gottes begleitet munterer Hornerschall, entweder stésst er selbst ins Horn,

ijs VEDIC HYMNS.

oder sein Gefolge. Oft vernimmt man auch eine liebliche Musik, der keine auf Erden gleich kommt (Miillenhof, 582). Das wird das Pfeifen und Heulen des Sturmes sein, nur in idealisirter Art.’ Ibid. p. 158.

Note 2. Varshish¢#a, which is generally explained as the superlative of vvzddha, old (Paz. VI, 4, 157), has in most passages of the Rig-veda the more general meaning of strong or excellent: VI, 47, 9. isham 4 vakshi isham var- shish¢Zam ; III, 13, 7 (vasu); III, 26, 8 (ratna); III, 16, 3 (raf); IV, 31,15; VIII, 46, 24 (sravak) ; IV, 22, 9 (nvimma) ; V, 67, 1 (kshatra); VI, 45, 31 (mardhan). In some passages, however, it may be taken in the sense of oldest (I, 37,6; V, 7,1), though by no means necessarily. Var- shish¢a is derived in reality from v7/shan, in the sense of strong, excellent. See note to I, 85, 12, page 144.

Note 3. Paptata, the second person plural of the im- perative of what is commonly, though without much reason, called the aorist of the causative of pat. It is curiously like the Greek zinrere, but it has the meaning of flying rather than falling ; see Curtius, Grundziige, p. 190. Two other forms formed on the same principle occur in the Rig- veda, paptaz and paptan :

II, 31, 1. pra yat vayad na paptan.

That they may fly to us like birds.

VI, 63, 6. pra vam vaya—anu paptan.

May your birds fly after you.

X, 95,15. purdravaz ma mr7thaz ma pra paptak.

Purtravas, do not die, do not go away!

Verse 2.

Note 1. Though svadhiti-van does not occur again, it can only mean he who holds the axe, or, it may be, the sword or the thunderbolt, the latter particularly, if Indra is here intended. Svadhiti signifies axe:

III, 2, 10. sva-dhitim na tégase.

They adorned Agni like an axe to shine or to cut.

The svadhiti is used by the butcher, I, 162,9; 18; 20; and by the wood-cutter or carpenter, III, 8,6; 11; X, 89, 7, &c. Roth (s.v.) takes svadhiti as meaning also a tree,

NOTES. . 1,38, 3. 173

possibly the oak, and he translates svadhitivan in our passage by a chariot made of the wood of the Svadhiti tree. In RV. IX, 96, 6, svadhitir vandnadm may well mean ‘the strong axe among woods, the axe being naturally made of the strongest wood. In V, 32, 10, a devi svadhitiz is mentioned, possibly the lightning, the companion of Indra and the Maruts.

Note 2. The tire of the chariot of the Maruts is frequently mentioned. It was considered not only as an essential part of their chariot, but likewise as useful for crushing the enemy :

V, 52, 9. utd pavya rathandm ddrim bhindanti dgasa.

They cut the mountain (cloud) with the tire of their chariots.

I, 166, 10. pavishu kshura% adhi.

On their tires are sharp edges.

In V, 31, 5, tires are mentioned without horses and chariot, which were turned by Indra against the Dasyus (I, 64, 11). I doubt, however, whether in India or else- where the tires or the wheels of chariots were ever used as weapons of attack, as detached from the chariot ; (see M.M., On Pavirava, in Beitrage zur Vergleichenden Sprach- forschung, vol. iii, p. 447.) If we translate the figurative language of the Vedic poets into matter-of-fact terms, the tires of the chariots of the Maruts may be rendered by thunderbolts; yet by the poets of the Veda, as by the ancient people of Germany, thunder was really supposed to be the noise of the chariot of a god, and it was but a continuation of the same belief that the sharp wheels of that chariot were supposed to cut and crush the clouds; (see M. M., loc. cit., p. 444.)

Verse 3,

Note 1. That the vasis are small weapons, knives or daggers, we saw before, p. 71. Sdyava here explains vast by a weapon commonly called dra, or an awl. In X, 101, 10, vasis are mentioned, made of stone, asman-mdayi.

The difficulty begins with the second half. Medha, as here written in the Pada text, could only be a plural of

174 VEDIC HYMNS.

a neuter medha, but such a neuter does nowhere exist in the Veda. We only find the masculine médha, sacrifice, which is out of the question here, on account of its accent. Hence the passage III, 58, 2, irdhvaZ bhavanti pitdra-iva médhaz, is of no assistance, unless we alter the accent. The feminine medha means will, thought, prayer: I, 18, 6; Il, 34,7 3:1Vs 33) 103 V5 2703 68,293 -V Eon, Oe Val, 6, 10; 52, 9; IX, 9, 9; 26, 3; 32,65; 65, 16; 107, 25; X, 91, 8. The construction does not allow us to take medha as a Vedic instrumental instead of medhayd, nor does such a form occur anywhere else in the Rig-veda. Nothing remains, I believe, but to have recourse to con- jecture, and the addition of a single Visarga in the Pada would remove all difficulty. In the next line, if tuvi-dyum- nasak be the subject, it would signify the priests. This, however, is again without any warrant from the Rig-veda, where tuvi-dyumna is always used as an epithet of gods. I therefore take it as referring to the Maruts, as an adjective in the nominative, following the vocatives marutak su-gatak. The conception that the Maruts stir up the forests is not of unfrequent occurrence in the Rig-veda: cf. I,171, 3. That dirdhva is used of the mind, in the sense of roused, may be seen in I, 119, 2; 134,13; 144,13; VII, 64, 4. The idea in the poet’s mind seems to have been that the thunderbolts of the Maruts rouse up men to prayer as they stir the tops of the forest trees. Ludwig takes medha, masc., in the sense of lance, comparing it with Icelandic meidhr, but the two words cannot well be the same. Possibly vana may be meant for lances: ‘May they raise our minds, like lances;’ see note to I, 171, 3.

Note 2. On dhan in the sense of to agitate, see B. and R.s.v. The shaking of the stone may be the shaking of the stone for distilling the heavenly Soma or the rain; but adri may also be meant for the thunderbolt. I now take tuvidyumna for an adjective referring to the Maruts, be- cause it is a divine rather than a human epithet. Still, the passage is doubtful.

Verse 4.

Note 1. The first question is, which is the subject, ahani

NOTES. I, 88, 4. 175

or gvédhrak? If grédhrak were the subject, then we should have to translate it by the eager poets, and take ahani in the sense of visv4 ahani. The sense then might be: ‘ Day by day did the eager poets sing around you this prayer.’ There would be several objections, however, to this render- ing. First, gvédhraz, though metaphorically applicable to poets, never occurs again as signifying poets or priests. One passage only could be quoted in support, IX, 97, 57, kavayak na grédhrak (not grédhraz), like greedy poets. But even here, if indeed the translation is right, the adjective is explained by kavi, and does not stand by itself. Secondly, ahani by itself is never used adverbially in the sense of day after day. The only similar passage that might be quoted is III, 34, 10, and that is very doubtful. To take ahani as a totally different word, viz. as 4+hani, without ceasing, without wearying, would be too bold in the present state of Vedic interpretation. If then we take ahani as the subject, gv¢dhraz would have to be taken as a vocative, and intended for the Maruts. Now, it is perfectly true, that by itself g7/dhra, hawk, does not occur again as a name of the Maruts, but syena, hawk, and particularly a strong hawk (IX, 96, 6), is not only a common simile applied to the Maruts, but is actually used as one of their names:

VII, 56, 3. abhi sva-ptbhiz mitha/ vapanta vata-svanasak syenak aspridhran.

They plucked each other with their beaks (?), the hawks, rushing like the wind, strove together.

Aguk might be the aorist of gai, to sing, or of gA, to go:

I, 174, 8. sana ta te indra navyah a@ aguh.

New poets, O Indra, sang these thy old deeds.

ITI, 56, 2. gavahk & aguh,

The cows approached.

If then the sense of the first line is, ‘Days went and came back to you,’ the next question is whether we are to extend the construction to the next words, imém dhiyam varkaryam ka devim, or whether these words are to be joined to krizvantak, like brd4hma. The meaning of

176 VEDIC HYMNS.

varkarya is, of course, unknown. Sdyava’s interpretation as ‘what is to be made by means of water’ is merely etymological, and does not help us much. It is true that the object of the hymn, which is addressed to the Maruts, is rain, and that literally varkaryaé might be explained as ‘that the effect of which is rain. But this is far too artificial a word for Vedic poets. Possibly there was some other word that had become unintelligible and which, by a slight change, was turned into varkarya, in order to give the meaning of rain-producing. It might have been karkarya, glorious, or the song of a poet called Varkara, or, as Ludwig suggests, Vvzkari. The most likely supposition is that varkdryad was the name given to some famous hymn, some pzan or song of triumph belonging to the Gotamas, possibly to some verses of the very hymn before us. In this case the epithet devi would be quite appropriate, for it is frequently used for a sacred or sacrificial song: IV, 43, 1, devim su-stutim ; III, 18, 3. imam dhiyam sata-séyaya devim. See, however, the note to verse 6.

The purport of the whole line would then be that many days have gone for the Maruts as well as for the famous hymn once addressed to them by Gotama, or, in other words, that the Gotamas have long been devoted to the Maruts, an idea frequently recurring in the hymns of the Veda, and, in our case, carried on in the next verse, where it is said that the present hymn is like one that Gotama composed when he saw the Maruts or spoke of them as wild boars with iron tusks. The pushing up the lid of the well for to drink, means that they obtained rain from the cloud, which is here, as before, represented as a covered well.

See another explanation in Haug, Uber die urspriingliche Bedeutung des Wortes Brahma, 1868, p. 5.

Verse 5. Note 1. Yégana commonly means a chariot : VI, 62, 6. arezu-bhizZ yoganebhiz bhuganta. You who possess dustless chariots. VIII, 72, 6. asva-vat yoganam brzhat.

NOTES. I, 88, 6. 177

The great chariot with horses.

It then became the name for a distance to be accom- plished without unharnessing the horses, just as the Latin jugum, a yoke, then a juger of land,‘ quod uno jugo boum uno die exarari posset, Pliny XVIII, 3, 3, 9.

In our passage, however, y6gana means a hymn, lit. a composition, which is clearly its meaning in

VIII, 90, 3. brahma te indra girvavahk kriydnte dnatid- bhuta, ima gushasva hari-asva ydgand indra ya te amanmahi.

Unequalled prayers are made for thee, praiseworthy Indra; accept these hymns which we have devised for thee, O Indra with bright horses!

Note 2. Varadhu has here the same meaning as vardaha, wild boar (VIII, 77, 10; X, 28,4). It occurs once more, I, 121, II, as applied to V7ztra, who is also called varaha, I, 61,7; X, 99,6. In X, 67, 7, vrésha-bhiz varahaiz (with the accent on the penultimate) is intended for the Maruts?. Except in this passage, vardha has the accent on the last syllable. In IX, 97, 7, varaha is applied to Soma.

Verse 6.

This last verse is almost unintelligible to me. I give, however, the various attempts that have been made to explain it. 7

WILSON: This is that praise, Maruts, which, suited (to your merits), glorifies every one of you. The speech of the priest has now glorified you, without difficulty, with sacred verses, since (you have placed) food in our hands,

BENFEY: Dies Lied—Maruts!—das hinter euch empor- strebt, es klingt zuriick gleich eines Beters Stimme. Miihlos schuf solche Lieder er, entsprechend eurer Arme Kraft. (Note: Der zum Himmel schallende Lobgesang findet seinen Widerhall (wirklich, ‘bebt zuriick’) in dem Sturm- |

@ See Genthe, Die Windgottheiten, 1861, p.14 ; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 689. Grimm mentions eburdrung (boar-throng) as a name of Orion, the star that betokens storm,

[32] N

178 VEDIC HYMNS.

geheul der Maruts, welches mit dem Geheul des Betenden verglichen wird.)

LuDWIG: Dises lied, o Marut, euch unterstiitzend (auf- nemend) als eines priesters braust euch entgegen, nach- brausen hat es gemacht ohne miihe in (die) der nahe die gottliche weise (ihrer) arme.

My own translation is to a great extent conjectural. It seems to me from verse 3, that the poet offers both a hymn of praise and a libation of Soma. Possibly varkarya in verse 4 might be taken in the sense of Soma-juice, and be derived from valkala, which in later Sanskrit means the bark of trees. In that case verse 5 would again refer to the hymn of Gotama, and verse 6 to the libation which is to accompany it. Anu-bhartri does not occur again, but it can only mean what supports or refreshes, and therefore would be applicable to a libation of Soma which supports the gods. The verb stobhati would well express the rushing sound of the Soma, as in I, 168, 8, it expresses the rushing noise of the waters against the fellies of the chariots. The next line adds little beyond stating that this libation of Soma rushes forth freely from the hands, the gabhastis being specially mentioned in other passages where the crushing of the Soma-plant is described :

IX, 71, 3. adri-bhiZ sutaz pavate gabhastyod.

The Soma squeezed by the stones runs from the hands.

The translation would then be: O Maruts, this comfort- ing draught (of Soma) rushes towards you, like the speech of a suppliant; it rushed freely from our hands, as our draughts (of Soma) are wont to do.

On svadhé, see p. 32.

MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 179

MANDALA I, HYMN 165. ASH7AKA II, ADHYAYA 38, VARGA 24-26.

To THE MARUTS AND INDRA.

The Prologue.

The sacrificer speaks :

1. To what splendour do the Maruts all equally? cling?, they who are of the same age, and dwell in the same nest? With what thoughts ?—from whence are they come*? Do these heroes sing forth their (own) strength *, wishing for wealth?

2. Whose prayers have the youths accepted ? Who has turned the Maruts to his own sacrifice ? By what strong desire! may we arrest them, they who float through the air like hawks?

The Dialogue.

The Maruts speak :

3. From whence’, O Indra, dost thou come alone, thou who art mighty? O lord of men’, what has thus happened to thee? Thou greetest (us) ® when thou comest together with (us), the bright (Maruts) *. Tell us then, thou with thy bay horses, what thou hast against us!

Indra speaks :

4. The sacred songs are mine, (mine are) the prayers’; sweet? are the libations! My strength rises®, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the hymns yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me hither.

The Maruts speak :

5. From thence, in company with our strong N 2

180 VEDIC HYMNS.

friends', having adorned our bodies, we now har- ness our fallow deer* with all our might *;—for, Indra, according to custom, thou seek come to be with us.

Indra speaks :

6. Where, O Maruts, was that custom with you, when you left me alone in the killing of Ahi? I indeed am terrible, powerful, strong,—I escaped from the blows of every enemy'.

The Maruts speak :

7. Thou hast achieved much with us as com- panions?, With equal valour, O hero! let us achieve then many things, O thou most powerful, O Indra! whatever we, O Maruts, wish with our mind 2.

Indra speaks :

8. I slew Vrvztra, O Maruts, with (Indra’s) might, having grown powerful through my own vigour; I, who hold the thunderbolt in my arms, have made these all-brilliant waters to flow freely for man 1.

The Maruts speak :

9. Nothing; O mighty lord, is strong! before thee : no one is known among the gods? like unto thee. No one who is now born® comes near, no one who has been born. Do what thou wilt do+, thou who art grown so strong.

Indra speaks :

‘ro. Almighty strength be mine alone, whatever I may do, daring in my heart!; for I indeed, O Maruts, am known as terrible: of all that I threw down, I, Indra, am the lord. |

Indra speaks :

11. O Maruts, now your praise has pleased me, the glorious hymn which you have made for me, ye

MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 181

men !—for me, for Indra, for the joyful hero, as friends for a friend, for your own sake, and by your own efforts 1.

Indra speaks :

12. Truly, there they are, shining towards me, bringing blameless glory, bringing food. O Maruts, wherever I have looked for you, you have appeared to me in bright splendour: appear to me also now !

The Epilogue.

The sacrificer speaks :

13. Who has magnified you here, O Maruts? Come hither, O friends, towards your friends. Ye brilliant Maruts, welcoming! these prayers, be mind- ful? of these my rites.

14. The wisdom of Manya has brought us hither, that he should help as the poet helps the performer of a sacrifice’: turn hither quickly?! Maruts, on to the sage! the singer has recited these prayers for you.

15. May this your praise, O Maruts, this song of Mandarya, the son of Mana’, the poet, bring offspring ” for ourselves with food. May we have an invigorat- ing autumn, with quickening rain °,

' 182 VEDIC HYMNS.

NOTES.

A critical examination of Professor von Roth’s remarks on this hymn, together with some supplementary notes of my own, will be found in the Pre- face to this volume.

According to the Anukramawzika this hymn is a dialogue between Agastya, the Maruts, and Indra. A careful consi- deration of the hymn would probably have led us to a similar conclusion, but I doubt whether it would have led us to adopt the same distribution of the verses among the poet, the Maruts, and Indra, as that adopted by the author of the Anukramazika. He assigns the first two verses to Indra, the third, fifth, seventh, and ninth to the Maruts, the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth to Indra, and the three concluding verses to Agastya. I think that the two verses in the beginning, as well as the three con- cluding verses, belong certainly to Agastya or to whoever else the real performer of the sacrifice may have been. The two verses in the beginning cannot be ascribed to Indra, who, to judge from his language, would never say: ‘By what strong desire may we arrest the Maruts?’ It might seem, in fact, as if the three following verses too should be ascribed to the sacrificer, so that the dialogue between Indra and the Maruts would begin only with the sixth verse. The third verse might well be addressed to Indra by the sacrificer, and in the fourth verse we might see a description of all that he had done for Indra. What is against this view, however, is the phrase prabhvztak me adriz. If used by the sacrificer, it might seem to mean, ‘my stone, i.e. the stone used for squeezing the Soma, has been brought forth.’ But though Professor Roth assigns this meaning to prabhvzta in our passage, I doubt whether, in connection with adri, or with vagra, prabhvzta can mean anything but hurled. Thus we read:

I, 61,12. asmai it ti (iti) pra bhara—vrztraya vagram.

Hurl thou, Indra, the thunderbolt against this Vvctra.

V, 32, 7- yat im vagrasya pra-bhvztau dadabha.

When Indra conquered him in the hurling of the thunderbolt. |

NOTES. I, 165. 183

I therefore suppose the dialogue to begin with verse 3, and I find that Langlois, though it may be from different reasons, arrived at the same conclusion.

There can be little doubt that the other verses, to verse 12, are rightly apportioned between Indra and the Maruts. Verse 12 might perhaps be attributed again to the wor- shipper of the Maruts, but as there is no absolute necessity for assigning it to him, it is better to follow the tradition and to take it as the last verse of Indra’s speech. It would seem, in fact, as if these ten verses, from 3 to 12, formed an independent poem, which was intended to show the divine power of the Maruts. That their divine power was sometimes denied, and that Indra’s occasional contempt of them was well known to the Vedic poets, will become evident from other hymns. This dialogue seems therefore to have been distinctly intended to show that, in spite of occasional misunderstandings between the Maruts and the all-powerful Indra, Indra himself had fully recognised their power and accepted their friendship. If we suppose that this dialogue was repeated at sacrifices in honour of the Maruts, or that possibly it was acted by two parties, one representing Indra, the other the Maruts and their followers, then the two verses in the beginning and the three at the end ought to be placed in the mouth of the actual sacrificer, whoever he was. He begins by asking, Who has attracted the Maruts to his sacrifice; and by what act of praise and worship can they be delighted? Then follows the dialogue in honour of the Maruts, and after it the sacrificer asks again, ‘Who has magnified the Maruts, i.e. have not we magnified them?’ and he implores them to grant him their friendship in recognition of his acts of worship. If then we suppose that the dialogue was the work of Mandarya Manya, the fourteenth verse, too, would lose something of its obscurity. Coming from the mouth of the actual sacri- ficer, it would mean, ‘the wisdom, or the poetical power, of Manya has brought us to this, has induced us to do this, i.e. to perform this dialogue of Manya, so that he, Manya, should assist, as a poet assists the priest at a sacrifice.’ Of course all this is and can only be guess-work.

184 VEDIC HYMNS.

We do not know the age of Manya nor that of Agastya. We do not know whether they were contemporaries or not. But supposing that Manya was present at the sacrifice, vipra might be meant for Manya; and in the last words, too, ‘the singer has recited these prayers for you, the singer (garita) might again be Manya, the powerful poet whose services the sacrificer had engaged, and whose famous dialogue between Indra and the Maruts was considered a safe means of winning their favour. It would be in keeping with all this, if in the last verse the sacrificer once more informed the Maruts that this hymn of praise was the work of the famous poet Mandarya, the son of Mana, and if he then concluded with the usual prayer for safety, food, and progeny.

No verse of this hymn occurs in the Sama-veda ; verse 3= VS. XXXIITI, 27; verse 4=VS. XXXIII, 78; verse 6=TB. II, 8,3, 5; verse 8= TB. II, 8,3, 6; verseg= VS. XXXIII,79.

Verse 1.

_ Note 1. As samdni occurs in the Veda as the femi- nine of samdna (cf. IV, 51, 9; X, 191, 3; 4), samanya might, no doubt, be taken as an instrumental, belonging to subha. We should then have to translate: ‘ With what equal splendour are the Maruts endowed?’ Sdyaza adopts the same explanation, while Wilson, who seems to have read samanyaz, translates ‘of one dignity.’ Professor Roth, s.v. myaksh, would seem to take samany4 as some kind of substantive, and he refers to another passage, I, 167, 4; sadharazya-iva marutak mimikshuZ, without, however, de- tailing his interpretation of these passages.

It cannot be said that Sayava’s explanation is objec- tionable, yet there is something awkward in qualifying by an adjective, however indefinite, what forms the subject of an interrogative sentence, and it would be possible to avoid this, by taking samanya as an adverb. It is clearly used as an adverb in III, 54, 7; VIII, 83, 8.

Note 2. Mimikshu% is the perfect of myaksh, in the sense of to be firmly joined with something. It has there- fore a more definite meaning than the Latin miscere and the Greek pioyew, which come from the same source, i.e.

NOTES. 1, 165, I. 185

from a root mik or mig, in Sanskrit also mis in mis-ra; (see Curtius, Grundziige, p. 300.) There may be indeed one or two passages in the Veda where myaksh seems to have the simple meaning of mixing, but it will be seen that they constitute a small minority compared with those where myaksh has the meaning of holding to, sticking to; I mean

X, 104, 2. mimikshuz yam adrayaz indra tubhyam.

The Soma which the stones have mixed for thee.

This form cannot be derived from mimiksh, but is the 3rd pers. plur. perf. Parasm. of myaksh. It may, however, be translated, ‘ This Soma which the stones have grasped or squeezed for thee,’ as may be seen from passages quoted hereafter, in which myaksh is construed with an accusative.

II, 3,11. ghvztam mimikshe.

The butter has been mixed.

This form cannot be derived from mimiksh, but is the 3rd pers. sing. perf. Atm. of myaksh. If the meaning of mixing should be considered inadmissible, we might in this verse also translate, ‘The butter has become fixed, solid, or coagulated.’

Leaving out of consideration for the present the forms which are derived from mimiksh, we find the following passages in which myaksh occurs. Its original meaning must have been to be mixed with, to be joined to, and in many passages that original sense is still to be recog- nised, only with the additional idea of being firmly joined, of sticking to, or, in an active sense, laying hold of, grasping firmly.

1, Without any case:

I, 169, 3. amyak sa te indra vzsh#iz asmé (iti).

This thy spear, O Indra, sat firm for us.

This would mean that Indra held his weapon well, as a soldier ought to hold his spear. Amyak is the 3rd pers. sing. of a second aor. Parasm., 4myaksham, dmyak(sh +t) ; (Say. prapnoti.) Cf. VIII, 61, 18.

2. With locative : X, 44, 2. mimyaksha vagrak nrz-pate gabhastau. In thy fist, O king, the thunderbolt rests firmly.

186 VEDIC HYMNS.

I, 167, 3. mimydaksha yéshu su-dhita—vrzshith.

To whom clings the well-grasped spear.

VI, 50, 5. mimydaksha yéshu rodasi nu devt.

To whom the goddess Rodasi clings. (Say. samgakkhate.)

VI, 11, 5. amyakshi sddma sddane przthivyas.

The seat was firmly set on the seat of the earth. (Say. gamyate, parigrzhyate.) It is the 3rd pers. sing. aor. pass.

VI, 29,2. 4 ydsmin haste ndry4k mimikshiZ a rathe hirazydye rathe-sthaz, 4 rasmayak gdbhastyo% sthirdyos a a4dhvan asvdsahk vrishanah yuganah.

To whose hand men cling, in whose golden chariot the drivers stand firm, in whose strong fists the reins are well held, on whose path the harnessed stallions hold together. (Say. Asizyante, apiryante; or asi#fanti, pirayanti.)

X, 96, 3. indre nf ripa harita mimikshire.

Bright colours stuck or clung or settled on Indra. (Say. nishiktani babhivus ; miheZ% sanantat karmawi rdpam.)

3. With instrumental:

I, 165, 1. kaya subhé marttaz sam mimikshud,

To what splendour do the Maruts cling; or, what splendour clings to them?

V, 58, 5. svaya matya maritaz sim mimikshus. (See also I, 165, I.)

The Maruts cling to their own thought or will. (Say. vrishtyaA samyak sifkanti.)

I, 167, 4. yavya sAdharazya-iva marutak mimikshuZ.

The Maruts cling to the young maid, as if she belonged to all. See I, 173, 12: Vill, $3, 8; or Vi 27, 9.

I, 87, 6. bhanu-bhiZ sam mimikshire.

The Maruts were joined with splendour. (Say. medzum ikkhanti.) .

4, With accusative:

VIII, 61, 18. ni ya vagram mimikshatuZ.

Thy two arms which have firmly grasped the thunderbolt. (Say. parigrzhzitaZ.)

Here I should also prefer to place VII, 20, 4, if we might read mimikshe or mimyaksha, for it is impossible to take mimikshan for anything but a participle of the desiderative of mih, which does not yield an appropriate meaning.

NOTES. I, 165, I. 187

ni vagram indrad mimikshan.

Grasping firmly the thunderbolt. (Say. satrushu pra- payan.)

VI, 29, 3. sriyé te padé divas 4 mimikshuZ.

Thy servants embrace thy feet for their happiness. (Say. Asitfanti, samarpayanti.)

Like other verbs which mean to join, myaksh, if accom- panied by prepositions expressive of separation, means to separate. (Cf. vi-yukta, se-junctus.)

ITI, 28, 6. Apo (iti) si myaksha varuva bhiyasam mat.

Remove well from me, O Varumza, terror. (Say. apa- gamaya.)

Quite distinct from this is the desiderative or inchoative verb mimiksh, from mih, in the sense of to sprinkle, or to shower, chiefly used with reference to the gods who are asked to sprinkle the sacrifice with rain. Thus we read :

I, 142, 3. madhva yagtam mimikshati.

(Narasamsa) sprinkles the sacrifice with rain.

IX, 107, 6. madhva yagfiam mimiksha naz,

Sprinkle (O Soma) our sacrifice with rain.

I, 34, 3. triz adya yagidam mddhuna mimikshatam.

O Asvins, sprinkle the sacrifice with rain thrice to-day!

I, 47, 4. madhva yagram mimikshatam.’

O Asvins, sprinkle the sacrifice with rain!

5. Without madhu: I, 22,13. maht dyauz prithiv’ ka nak imam yagitdm mimikshatam. May the great heaven and earth sprinkle this our sacrifice.

6. With madhu in the accusative:

VI, 70, 5. madhu nak dyavaprithivi (iti) mimikshatam.

May heaven and earth shower down rain for us.

Very frequently the Asvins are asked to sprinkle the sacrifice with their whip. This whip seems originally, like the whip of the Maruts, to have been intended for the cracking noise of the storm, preceding the rain. Then as whips had possibly some similarity to the instruments used — for sprinkling butter on the sacrificial viands, the Asvins are

188 VEDIC HYMNS.

asked to sprinkle the sacrifice with their whip, i.e. to give rain:

I, 157, 4. madhu-matyda naz kasaya mimikshatam.

O Asvins, sprinkle us with your rain-giving whip.

I, 22, 3. tayd yagram mimikshatam.

O Asvins, sprinkle the sacrifice with it (your whip).

7. Lastly, we find such phrases as,

I, 48, 16. sim nak rayéa—mimikshva.

Sprinkle us with wealth, i.e. shower wealth down upon us. Here mih is really treated as a Hu-verb in the Atmanepada, though others take it for mimikshasva.

As an adjective, mimikshu is applied to Indra (III, 50, 3), ~ and mimiksha to Soma (VI, 34, 4).

Note 3. I do not see how étdsa# can here be taken in any sense but that suggested by the Pada, 4-itasaz, come near. Professor Roth thinks it not impossible that it may be meant for éta%, the fallow deer, the usual team of the Maruts. These Etas are mentioned in verse 5, but there the Pada gives quite correctly étan, not a-itan, and Sayama explains it accordingly by gantiin.

Note 4. The idea that the Maruts proclaim their own strength occurred before, I, 87, 3. It is a perfectly natural conception, for the louder the voice of the wind, the greater its strength, and vice versa.

Verse 2.

Note 1. Manas here, as elsewhere, is used in the sense of thought preceding speech, desire, or devotion not yet ex- pressed in prayer. See Taitt. Samh. V, 1, 3, 3. yat purusho manasdbhigakkAati tad vaka vadati, what a man grasps in his mind, that he expresses by speech. Professor Roth sug- gests an emendation which is ingenious, but not necessary, viz. maha namasa, with great adoration, an expression which occurs, if not in VI, 52, 17, at least in VII, 12, 1. We find, however, the phrase maha manasa in

VI, 40, 4. & yahi sdsvat usaté yayatha indra maha manasa soma-péyam,

ipa brdhmavi srivavahk ima na atha te yaghtah tanve vayak dhat.

NOTES. I, 165, 3. 189

Come hither, thou hast always come, Indra, to our libation through our yearning great desire. Mayest thou hear these our prayers, and may then the sacrifice put vigour in thy body.

It is curious to observe that throughout the Rig-veda the instrumental singular maha is always used as an adjective belonging to some term or other for praise and prayer. Besides the passages mentioned, we find:

II, 24,1. aya vidhema navaya maha gira.

Let us sacrifice with this new great song.

VI, 52, 17. su-ukténa maha namasa 4 vivdse.

I worship with a hymn with great adoration, or I worship with a great hymn in adoration. VIII, 46, 14. gaya gira maha vi-fetasam. Celebrate the wise Indra with a great song. Otherwise we might translate, Thou hast always come with a great yearning desire.

Verse 3.

Note 1. We ought to scan kutaz tvam indra mahinas san, because ydsi, being anudatta, could not begin a new pada. It would be more natural to translate kutak by why? for the Maruts evidently wish to express their sur- prise at Indra’s going to do battle alone and without their assistance. I do not think, however, that in the Rig-veda, even in the latest hymns, kita’ has as yet a causal meaning, and I have therefore translated it in the same sense in which it occurs before in the poet’s address to the Maruts.

Note 2. Sat-pati, lord of men, means lord of real men, of heroes, and should not be translated by good lord. Sat by itself is frequently used in the sense of heroes, of men physically rather than morally good:

II, 1, 3. tvam agne indrak vrishabhaz% satam asi.

Thou, Agni, art Indra, the hero among heroes.

I, 173, 7. samat-su tva sira satam urazdm.

Thee, O hero, in battles the protector of (good and true) men.

Note 3. The meaning of sam przkkhase is very much the same as that of sam vadasva in I, 170, 5.

Note 4, Subhana is evidently meant as a name for the

I9gO VEDIC HYMNS.

Maruts, who thus speak of themselves in the third person, which is by no means unusual in the Rig-veda. Mahidhara explains subhanaiz by sobhanair vakanaih.

Verse 4.

Indra certainly addresses his old friends, the Maruts, very unceremoniously, but this, though at first startling, was evidently the intention of the poet. He wished to represent a squabble between Indra and the Maruts, such as they were familiar with in their own village life, and this was to be followed by a reconciliation. The boorish rudeness, selfishness, and boastfulness here ascribed to Indra may seem offensive to those who cannot divest themselves of the modern meaning of deities, but looked upon from the right point of view, it is really full of interest.

Note 1. Bradhmazi and matayak are here mentioned separately in the same way as a distinction is made between brahman, stéma, and uktha, IV, 22,1; VI, 23,1; between brahmAévi and gira, III, 51,6; between brahma, sirah, and stdmat, VI, 38, 3; between brahma, girak, uktha, and manma, VI, 38, 4, &c.

Note 2. Sdm, which I have here translated by sweet, is a difficult word to render. It is used as a substantive, as an adjective, and as an adverb; and in several instances it must remain doubtful whether it was meant for one or the other. The adverbial character is almost always, if not always, applicable, though in English there is no adverb of such general import as sam, and we must there- fore render it differently, although we are able to perceive that in the mind of the poet it might still have been con- ceived as an adverb, in the sense of ‘well.’ I shall arrange the principal passages in which sam occurs according to the verbs with which it is construed.

1. With bha: VIII, 79, 7. bhava naz soma sam hrzde. Be thou, Soma, well (pleasant) to our heart. Cf. VIII,

82, 3. VIII, 48, 4. sm na& bhava hrédé a pitaz indo (iti).

NOTES, I, 165, 4. IQI

Be thou well (sweet) to our heart, when drunk, O Soma! Cf. X, 9, 4.

I, 90, 9. sam nak bhavatu aryama.

May Aryaman be well (kind) to us!

VI, 74,1. sdm na bhiitam dvi-pade sam Aatuh-pade.

May Soma and Rudra be well (kind) to our menand cattle.

Here sam might be rendered as an adverb, or as an adjective, or even as a substantive, in the sense of health or blessing.

Cf. VII, 54, 1; IX, 69,7. The expression dvipad and katuh-pad is curiously like what occurs in the prayers of the Eugubian tables, Fisovie Sansie, ditu ocre Fisi, tote Jovine, ocrer Fisie, totar Jovinar dupursus, peturpursus fato fito (Umbrische Sprachdenkmiler, ed. Aufrecht, p. 198); and also in the edicts of Piyadasi, dupada-fatupadesu pakhivalizalesu, ‘aux bipédes, aux quadrupédes, aux vola- tiles, aux animaux qui se meuvent dans les eaux.’ See Burnouf, Lotus, p. 667.

II, 38, 11. sam yat stotr¢-bhyak apaye bhavati.

What may be well (a pleasure) for the praisers, for the friend.

X, 37,10. sam nak bhava #akshasa. |

Be kind to us with thy light!

2. With as:

VIII, 17, 6. somak sam astu te hvzdeé.

May the Soma be well (agreeable) to thy heart!

I, 5, 7. sam te santu pra-fetase.

May the Somas be well (pleasing) to thee, the wise!

V, 11, 5. tubhyam manisha iydm astu sdm hvdé.

May this prayer be well (acceptable) to thy heart!

I, 114, 1. yatha sam dsat dvi-pade fAatuh-pade.

That it may be well for our men and cattle. Cf. X, £O5, 3% 3,

VII, 86, 8. sam nak kshéme sam dim (iti) yoge nak astu.

May it be well with us in keeping and acquiring!

V, 7,9. 4 yak te—agne sdm dsti dhayase.

He who is lief to thee to support, i.e. he whom thou likest to support.

V, 74,9. sam dm (iti) si vam—asmakam astu arkvitif.

Let there be happiness to you—glory to us!

192 VEDIC HYMNS.

3. With as or bhfi understood :

VI, 45, 22. sam yat gave na sdkine.

A song which is pleasant to the mighty Indra, as food to an Ox.

VIII, 13, 11. sam it hi te.

For it is well for thee.

X, 86,15. manthaZ te indra sam hradé.

The mixture is pleasant to thy heart, O Indra!

X, 97, 18. dram kamaya, sim hvidé.

Enough for love, pleasant to the heart.

VI, 34, 3. sam tat asmai.

That is pleasant to him.

VI, 21, 4. kad te yagiiak manase sdm varaya.

What sacrifice seems to thy mind pleasant to select ?

4, With kar:

I, 43, 6. sam na karati arvate.

May he do well to our horse, i.e. may he benefit our horses.

IV, 1, 3. tokaya tugé—sdm krzdhi.

Do good to our children and progeny, or bless us for the procreation of children.

VIII, 18, 8. s4m nak karatak asvina.

May the two Asvins do us good!

5. With vah : I, 157, 3. sam nak a vakshat dvi-pdde AAtuh-pade. May he bring blessing to us for man and cattle. VIII, 5, 20. téna nak—pdsve tokaya sim gave, vAhatam pivariz ishak.

Bring to us rich food, a blessing to cattle, to children, and to the ox.

6. With verbs, such as pi, va, and others, where it is. clearly used as an adverb ;

IX, 11, 3. sa# nak pavasva sam gave sdm gdnfya sam arvate, sam ragan dshadhibhyaz.

Do thou, king Soma, stream upon us, a blessing for the ox, a blessing for man, a blessing for the horse, a blessing for the plants. Cf. IX, 11, 7; 60,4; 61, 15 + 100, 5.

VII, 35, 4. sam nav ishiraz abhi vatu vatah.

NOTES. I, 165, 4. 193

May the brisk wind blow kindly upon us, or blow a blessing upon us!

VII, 35, 6. sdm nak tvash¢a gnabhixz iha srzzotu.

May Tvash¢ar with the goddesses hear us here well, i. e. auspiciously !

VII, 35, 8. sdm nak stryaz—ut etu.

May the sun rise auspiciously for us !

VIII, 18, 9. sam naz tapatu stiryak.

May the sun warm us well !

III, 13, 6. sam nak soka—agne.

Shine well for us, O Agni!

Sam Yo.

Sam also occurs in a phrase that has puzzled the inter- preters of the Veda very much, viz. sim yds. These are two words, and must both be taken as substantives, though originally they may have been adverbs. Their meaning seems to have been much the same, and in English they may safely be rendered by health and wealth, in the old acceptation of these words:

I, 93, 7. dhattam yagamanaya sam yok.

Give, Agni and Soma, to the sacrificer health and wealth.

I, 106, 5. sam yok yat te manu/-hitam tat imahe.

Brihaspati, we ask for health and wealth which thou gavest to Manu.

I, 114, 2. yat sim ka yok ka manu a-yegé pita tat asyama tava rudra pra-nitishu.

Rudra, the health and wealth which Manu, the father, obtained, may we reach it under thy guidance.

IT, 33,13. yani mdnud avrizita pita naz ta sim ka yok ka rudrasya vasmi.

The medicines which our father Manu chose, those I desire, the health and wealth of Rudra.

I, 189, 2. bhava tokéya tanaydya sam yok.

Be to our offspring health and wealth !

IV, 12, 5. yakkha tokaya tanaydya sdm yod.

Give to our offspring health and wealth!

V, 69, 3. ile tokaya tanaydya sdm yo.

I ask for our offspring health and wealth.

[32] O

194 VEDIC , HYMNS.

VI, 50, 7. dhata tokaya tdnaydya sam yod.

Give to our offspring health and wealth !

X, 182,71. atha karat yagamandya sam yok.

May he then produce for the sacrificer health and wealth.

VII, 69, 5. téna nak sam yés—ni asvina vahatam.

On that chariot bring to us, Asvins, health and wealth.

III, 17, 3. atha bhava yagam4naya sam yok.

Then, Agni, be health and wealth to the sacrificer.

III, 18, 4. brzhat vayak sasamanéshu dhehi, revat agne visvamitreshu sdm yod.

Give, Agni, much food to those who praise thee, give to the Visvamitras richly health and wealth.

X,15, 4. atha nak sam yoh arapahk dadhata.

And give us health and wealth without a flaw! Cf. X, 59, 8.

X, 37, 11. tat asmé sam yok arapdk dadhatana. —

And give to us health and wealth without a flaw!

V, 47, 7. tat astu mitra-varuva tat agne sam yds asma- bhyam idam astu sastam.

Let this, O Mitra-Varuma, let this, O Agni, be health and wealth to us ; may this be auspicious!

V, 53,14. vrishivi sim yok apahk_usri bheshagam syama maruta% saha.

Let us be together with you, O Maruts, after health, wealth, water, and medicine have been showered down in the morning.

VIII, 39, 4. sam ka yok ka mayak dadhe.

He gave health, wealth, and happiness.

VIII, 71,15. agnim sam yok ka datave.

We ask Agni to give us health and wealth.

X, 9, 4. sim yo abhi sravantu nak,

May the waters come to us, as health and wealth, or may they run towards us auspiciously.

Note 3. If we retain the reading of the MSS. suishmaz iyarti, we must take it as an independent phrase, and translate it by ‘my strength rises,’ For sishma, though in this and other places it is frequently explained as an adjective, meaning powerful, is, as far as I can see, always a substantive, and means breath, strength. There may be a few passages in which, as there occur several words for strength, it might

NOTES, I, 165, 5. 195

be possible to translate sishma by strong. But even there it is better to keep to the general meaning of sishma, and translate it as a substantive.

Iyarti means to rise and to raise. It is particularly applied to prayers raised by the poet in honour of the gods, and the similes used in connection with this, show clearly what the action implied by iyarti really is. For instance,

I, 116, 1. stéman iyarmi abhrtya-iva vata.

I stir up hymns as the wind stirs the clouds.

X, 116, 9. su-vakasyém iyarmi sindhau-iva pra trayam navam arkath.

I stir up sweet praise, as if I rowed a ship on the river with hymns.

In the sense of rising it occurs,

X, 140, 2. pavakd-varkahk sukra-varkahk antina-varkah ut iyarshi bhanuna.

Thou risest up with sotendout Agni, thou of bright, resplendent, undiminished majesty.

We might therefore safely translate in our verse ‘ my strength rises, although it is true that such a phrase does not occur again, and that in other passages where iyarti and sushma occur together, the former governs the latter in the gectisative. Cf. IV, 17, 12; X, 753.3

Mahidhara translates, ‘my held-up thunderbolt moves on destroying everything,’ but he admits another rendering in which adri would mean the stone used for pressing the Soma.

Verse 5.

Note 1. If, as we can hardly avoid, we ascribe this verse to the Maruts, we must recognise in it the usual offer of help to Indra on the part of the Maruts. The question then only is, who are the strong friends in whose company they appear? It would be well if one could render antamébhiz by horses, as Sayaza does, but there is no authority for it. Svd-kshatra is an adjective, meaning endowed with independent strength, synonymous with svd-tavas, I, 166, 2. It is applied to the mind of Indra, I, 54,3; V, 35,4; to the Maruts, V, 48,1, but never to horses. As it stands, we can only suppose that a distinction is made between the Maruts and their followers,

OZ

196 VEDIC HYMNS.

and that after calling together their followers, and adorning themselves for battle, they proceed to harness their chariots. Cf. I, 107; 2.

Note 2. Etan, in all MSS. which I consulted, has here the accent on the first syllable, and Professor Aufrecht ought not to have altered the word into etén. If the accent had not been preserved by the tradition of the schools, the later interpreters would certainly have taken etan for the demonstrative pronoun. As it is, in spite of accent and termination, Sayavza in I, 166, 10, seems to take étaz for eté. In other passages, however, Sdyava, too, has perceived the difference, and in I, 169, 6, he explains the word very fully as przshadvarva gantaro va asva va. In this passage the Etas are clearly the deer of the Maruts, the Przshatis:

I, 169, 6. Adha ydt esh4m przthu-budhnasak étaz.

In the next verse, however, éta seems applied to the Maruts themselves :

I, 169, 7. prati ghorazdm étandm ayasdm maritam srzzve A-yatém upabdiz.

The sound of the terrible, speckled, indefatigable Maruts is heard, as they approach ; unless we translate :

The noise of the terrible deer of the indefatigable Maruts is heard, as they approach.

In I, 166, 10, amseshu étaz, I adopt Professor Roth’s conjecture, that étaZ means the skins of the fallow deer, so that we should have to translate: On their shoulders are the deer-skins. .

In the other passages where éta occurs it is used as a simile only, and therefore throws no light on the relation of the Etas to the Maruts. In both passages, however (V, 54, 53 X%, 77, 2), the simile refers to the Maruts, though to their speed only, and not to their colour.

Note 3. Mdhah-bhiz, which I have translated ‘with all our might,’ seems to be used almost as an adverb, mightily or quickly (makshu), although the original meaning, with our powers, through our might, is likewise applicable. The original meaning is quite perceptible in passages like

V, 62, 3. adhdrayatam przthivim uta dyam mitra-ragana varuza mahah-bhiz.

NOTES. I, 165, 6. 197

Kings Mitra and Varuza, you have supported heaven and earth by your powers.

VII, 3, 7. tébhizZ naz agne amitaizZ mahah-bhiz satam pirbhiz ayasibhiz ni pahi.

With those immeasurable powers, O Agni, protect us; with a hundred iron strongholds.

I, 90, 2. té—maha/-bhif, vrata rakshante visvaha.

They always protect the laws by their powers.

VII, 71, 1. tvam nak agne mahaf-bhiz pahi.

Protect us, Agni, with thy power.

In other passages, however, we see mahah-bhiz used of the light or of the flames of Agni and of the dawn:

IV, 14, 1. devaz rédkamanak mahaf-bhif,

Agni, the god, brilliant with his powers.

VI, 64, 2. devi rofamana maha/-bhiz.

O goddess, brilliant with thy powers.

The powers of the Maruts are referred to by the same name in the following passages :

V, 58, 5. pra-pra gayante—mahaf-bhih.

The Maruts are born with their powers.

VII, 58, 2. pra yé mahah-bhiz dgasa uta santi.

The Maruts who excel in power and strength. Cf. III, 4, 6.

Verse 6.

Note 1. Indra in this dialogue is evidently represented as Claiming everything for himself alone. He affects con- tempt for the help proffered by the Maruts, and seems to deny that he was at any time beholden to their assistance. By asking, Where was that custom that I should be with you and you with me in battle? he implies that it was not always their custom, and that he can dispense with their succour now. He wants to be alone,as in his former battle with Ahi, and does not wish that they should join him (cf. I, 33, 4). Professor Roth takes sam-ddhatta in the sense of implicating, but it can hardly be said that the Maruts ever implicated Indra in his fight against Ahi. Certainly this is not in keeping with the general tenor of this dialogue where, on the contrary, Indra shuns the

198 VEDIC HYMNS.

company of the Maruts. But while on this point I differ from Professor Roth, I think he has rightly interpreted the meaning of d4namam. Out of the four passages in which badhasnaif occurs, it is three times joined with nam, and every time has the sense of to bend away from, to escape from. See also Sonne, in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xii, p. 348.

Verse 7.

Note 1. See VII, 39,6. sakshimahi yugyebhiZ nu devaih.

Note 2. The last words leave no doubt as to their meaning, for the phrase is one of frequent occurrence. The only difficulty is the vocative marutaz, where we should expect the nominative. It is quite possible, however, that the Maruts should here address themselves, though, no doubt, it would be easy to alter the accent. As to the phrase itself, see

VIII, 61, 4. tatha it asat indra krdtva ydtha vasah.

May it be so, O Indra,as thou mayest desire by thy mind.

VIII, 66, 4. vagré’—it karat indrad kratva yatha vasat.

May Indra with the thunderbolt act as he may desire in his mind, Cf. VIII, 20, 17; 28, 4, &c.

Verse 8.

Note 1. Here again Indra claims everything for himself, denying that the Maruts in any way assisted him while performing his great deeds. These deeds are the killing of Vritra, who withholds the waters, i.e. the rain from the earth, and the consequent liberation of the waters, so that they flow down freely for the benefit of Manu, that is, of man.

When Indra says that he slew Vrstra indriyéva, he evidently chooses that word with a purpose, and we must therefore translate it here, not only by might, but by Indra’s peculiar might. Indriyd, as derived from indra, means originally Indra-hood, then power in general, just as verethraghna in Zend means victory in general, though originally it meant the slaying of Vrttra.

On badhim, see Bollensen, Z. D. M. G. XXII, p. 594.

NOTES. I, 165, 9. 199

He takes badhim for a contraction of badhisham, in analogy with badhis and badhit. He refers to akramim, X, 166, 5, and badhim, X, 28, 7.

‘Verse 9.

Note 1. Anutta, in the sense of ‘not shaken,’ not shake- able, inébranlable, is strange; likewise the genitive, where we expect the instrumental. Still, nud, by itself, occurs in similar phrases, e.g. VI, 17, 5, nutthaZ a#yutam, thou shookest what is unshakeable, which might have been ex- pressed by akufyavak anuttam, and I cannot bring myself to believe that in our passage Aufrecht’s conjectural emen- dation is called for. He (K. Z. XXVI, 611) takes dnutta for anudatta, like pratta for pradatta, &c., and proposes to omit the negative particle, translating the verse: ‘ Certainly it is conceded to thee, there is none among the gods like unto thee.’ :

But though I cannot adopt this emendation here, I think that in other passages Aufrecht’s rendering of dnutta is far more appropriate than to take it for a-nutta; for instance, I; 80,.7%3 HI, 31, 13.3 -VU,.g45 11

There remains one verse in which anutta seems to mean not shaken, not overcome, namely, VIII, 90, 5, tvam vritrani hamsi apratini ékah {t dnutta Aarshawi-dhv/ta, thou, being alone, killest the irresistible enemies with the thunderbolt (?). However, anuda, in the sense of conceding, yielding, nachgeben, is certainly a very familiar idea in Vedic poetry.

II, 12, 10. yd sdrdhate nd anu-dadati srzdhyam, who does not forgive the hurter his hurt.

I, .§3)08; 41, 21,4; 23, 11; -X, 38, 5, Indra is called ananudaz, not yielding, not surrendering.

We must therefore admit two anuttas, one d-nutta, the other dnu(da)tta. In dnutta-manyu I prefer the former, ‘of irresistible fury, while Aufrecht prefers the latter, ‘of recognised, or universally-admitted fury.’

Note 2. Devata in the ordinary sense of a deity never occurs in the Rig-veda. The word, in fact, as a feminine substantive occurs but twice, and in the tenth Mazdala

~ 200 VEDIC HYMNS.

only. But even there it does not mean deity. In X, 24,6, devahk devatayd means, O gods, by your godhead, i.e. by your divine power. In X, 98, 1, br¢haspate prdti me devatam ihi, I take devata in the same sense as devatati, and translate, O Brzhaspati, come to my sacrifice.

In all other places where devdta occurs in the Rig-veda it is a local adverb, and means among the gods. I shall only quote those passages in which Professor Roth assigns to devata a different meaning :

I, 55,3. pra viryéva devata ati £ekite.

He is pre-eminent among the gods by his strength.

I, 22, 5. saz kétta devata padam.

He knows the place among the gods.

I, 100, 15. nd ydsya devak devata nd martak apak kana savasah antam aput.

He, the end of whose power neither the gods among the gods, nor mortals, nor even the waters have reached.

Here the translation of devatd in the sense of ‘by their godhead,’ would be equally applicable, yet nothing would be gained as, in either case, devata is a weak repetition.

VI, 4, 7- indram na tva savasa devata vayum przmanti radhasaé nri-tamaz.

The best among men celebrate thee, O Agni, as like unto Indra in strength among the gods, as like unto Vayu in liberality. See also devatati, VIII, 74, 3; X, 8, 2.

Note 3. The juxta-position of gayamanak and gatak would seem to show that, if the latter had a past, the former had a future meaning. To us, ‘No one who will be born and no one who has been born,’ would certainly sound more natural. The Hindu, however, is familiar with the idea as here expressed, and in order to comprehend all beings, he speaks of those who are born and those who are being born. Thus in a Padasish¢Za of the Pavamanis (IX, 67) we read:

yan me garbhe vasatak papam ugram, yag gayamanasya ka kimid anyat, gatasya ka yak kapi vardhato me, tat pavamdanibhir aham pundmi. Note 4. Karishya is written in all the MSS. without a

NOTES. I, 165, Il. 201

Visarga, and unless we add the Visarga on our own authority, we should have to take it as an entirely anomalous acc. plur. neut. of a passive participle of the future, karishyam standing for kdryam, faciendum. It is much easier, however, to explain this form if we add the Visarga, and read karishy&%, which would then be a second person singular of a Vedic conjunctive of the future. This form occurs at least once more in the Veda:

IV, 30, 23. utd ndndm ydt indriydm karishyaz indra paumsyam, adya nakiz tat 4 minat.

O Indra, let no man destroy to-day whatever manly feat thou art now going to achieve.

Verse 10.

Note 1. As I have translated these words, they sound rather abrupt. The meaning, however, would be clear enough, viz. almighty power belongs to me, therefore I can dare and do. If this abrupt expression should offend, it may be avoided, by taking the participle dadhvzshvan as a finite verb, and translating, Whatever I have been daring, I shall do according to my will.

Verse 11.

Note 1. In this verse Indra, after having declined with no uncertain sound the friendship of the Maruts, seems to repent himself of his unkindness towards his old friends. _The words of praise which they addressed to him in verse 9, in spite of the rebuff they had received from Indra, have touched his heart, and we may suppose that, after this, their reconciliation was complete. The words of Indra are clear enough, the only difficulty occurs in the last words, which are so idiomatic that it is impossible to render them in English. In tanvé tanibhiZ, literally for the body by the bodies, tanfi is used like the pronoun self. Both must therefore refer to the same subject. We cannot translate ‘for myself made by yourselves, but must take the two words together, so that they should mean, ‘the hymn which you have made for your own benefit and by your own exertions.’ |

202 VEDIC HYMNS.

Verse 13.

Note 1. Spiegel, in his review, called my attention to the Zend api-vat, which Burnouf discussed in his ‘ Etudes, p. 328. Burnouf tries to show that vat in Zend has the meaning of knowing, and that it occurs with the preposition api, in apivatahé and apivataiti. If this is the same word as in Sanskrit, then apivatayati would be a causative, meaning to make known. The meaning of vat, however, is doubtful in Zend, and hardly appropriate in the few pas- sages where it occurs in the Veda. Roth, in the Dictionary, explains vat by verstehn, begreifen, the causative by be- greiflich machen; but in our passage he translates it by belebend, Ludwig by aufspiirend. Till we get more light, I shall feel content to translate apivat by to approach, to obtain, and the causative by to make approach, to invite, to welcome.

The following are the passages in which api-vat occurs:

VII, 3, 10. api kratum su-étasam vatema.

May we obtain an excellent understanding; not, Awaken in us a good sense.

VII, 60, 6. api kratum su-#étasam vatantak.

They (Mitra and Varuza) obtaining an excellent under- standing,

I, 128, 2. tam yagfia-sadham api vatayamasi.

Him, Agni, the performer of the sacrifice, we make approach, we invite.

X, 20,1; 25,1. bhadram naz api vataya manaz, daksham uta kratum.

Bring to us, i. e. give us, a good mind, and a strong under- standing.

X,13, 5. pitré putrdsaz api avivatan ritam.

The sons obtained the right for the father (an obscure verse).

As to svapivata, VII, 46, 3, I should derive it from van, in the sense of implored, desired; see, however, Muir, San- skrit Texts, IV, p. 314, note; Nirukta, ed. Roth, p. 135.

Note 2. On navedaZ, see IV, 23, 4.

Verse 14.

Note 1. This is a verse which, without some conjectural

NOTES. I, 165, I4. 203

alterations, it seems impossible to translate. Sayama, of course, has a translation ready for it, so has M. Langlois, but both of them offend against the simplest rules of grammar and logic. The first question is, who is meant by asman (which is here used as an amphimacer), the sacrificers or the Maruts? The verb 4 akré would well apply to the medhd manyasya, the hymn of Manya, which is intended to bring the Maruts to the sacrifice, this bringing to the sacrifice being the very meaning of 4 kar. But then we have the vocative maruta% in the next line, and even if we changed the vocative into the accusative, we should not gain much, as the Maruts could hardly call upon anybody to turn them towards the sage.

If, on the contrary, we admit that asm4n refers to those who offer the sacrifice, then we must make a distinction, which, it is true, is not an unusual one, between those who here speak of themselves in the first person, and who provide the sacrifice, and the poet Mandarya Manya, who was employed by them to compose or to recite this hymn.

But even if we adopt this alternative, many difficulties still remain. First of all, we have to change the accent of kakré into £akre, which may seem a slight change, but is not the less objectionable when we consider that in our emenda- tions of the Vedic hymns we must think rather of accidents that might happen in oral traditions than of the lapsus calami of later scribes. Secondly, we must suppose that the hymn of Mandarya Manya ends with verse 13, and that the last verses were supplied by the sacrificers them- selves. Possibly the dialogue only, from verse 3 to verse 12, was the work of Manya, and the rest added at some solemn occasion.

Other difficulties, however, remain. Duvasyat is taken by Sayaza as an ablative of duvasyd, worthy of duvas, i, €. of worship, of sacrifice. Unfortunately this duvasyd does not occur again, though it would be formed quite regularly, like namasya, worthy of worship, from ndmas, worship.

If we take duvasyat as the 3rd pers. sing. of the present in the Vedic conjunctive, we must also confess that this conjunctive does not occur again. But the verb duvasyati

204 VEDIC HYMNS.

occurs frequently. It seems to have two meanings, It is derived from duvas, which in the Vedic language means worship or sacrifice, just as karma, work, has assumed the special sense of sacrifice. Derived from duvas in this sense, duvasyati means to worship. But duvas meant originally any opus operatum. The root from which duvas is derived, is lost in Sanskrit, but it exists in other languages. It must have been du or di in the sense of acting, or sedulously working. It exists in Zend as du, to do, in Gothic as taujan, gataujan, Old High-German zawjan, Modern German zauen (Grimm, Gram. i. p. 1041). The Gothic tavi, opus, Old High-German zouwi, Middle High- German gezouwe (Grimm, Gram. iii. p. 499), come from the same source; and it is possible, too, that the Old Norse taufr, modern tdfrar, incantamenta, the Old High- German zoupar, Middle High-German zouber, both neuter, and the modern Zauber, may find their expla- nation in the Sanskrit duvas. Derived from duvas, in the sense of work, we have duvasyati in the sense of helping, providing, the German schaffen and verschaffen.

In the sense of worshipping, duvasyati occurs,

III, 2, 8. duvasyata—gata-vedasam.

Worship Gatavedas.

V, 28,6. a guhota duvasyata agnim.

Invoke, worship Agni. Cf. III, 13, 33 1, 13.

III, 3,1. agniZ hi devan—duvasyati.

Agni performs the worship of the gods. Cf. VII, 82, 5.

I, 167, 6. sutd-somaz duvasyan. |

He who has poured out Soma and worships.

In many passages duvasyati is joined with an instru- mental :

V, 42, 11. namaz-bhiz devam—duvasya.

Worship the god with praises.

I, 78, 2. tam u tva gétamak gira—duvasyati.

Gotama worships thee with a song.

V, 49, 2. su-uktaiZ devam—duvasya.

Worship the god with hymns.

VI, 16, 46. vit? yaz devam—duvasyet.

He who worships the god with a feast,

NOTES. I, 165, 14. 205

X, 14, 1. yamam—havisha duvasya.

Worship Yama with an oblation.

VI, 15, 6. agnim-agnim va samidha duvasyata.

Worship Agni with your log of wood. Cf. VIII, 44, 1.

III, 1, 2. samit-bhiZ agnim namasa duvasyan.

They worshipped Agni with logs of wood, with praise.

In the more general and, I suppose, more original sense of caring for, attending, we find duvasyati:

III, 51, 3. anehdsak stibhaz indraz duvasyati.

Indra provides for the matchless worshippers.

I, 112,15. kalim yabhiZ—duvasyathaz.

By the succours with which you help Kali. Cf.I,112, 21.

I, 62, 10. duvasyanti svasdraz ahraydzam. |

The sisters attend the proud (Agni).

I, 119, 10. yuvam pedave—svetam—duvasyathaz.

You provide for Pedu the white horse.

If, then, we take duvasyati in the sense of working for, assisting, it may be with the special sense of assisting at a sacred act, like d:axovetv ; and if we take duvas,as it has the accent on the last syllable, as the performer of a sacrifice, we may venture to translate, ‘that he should help, as the singer helps the performer of the sacrifice*.’ The singer or the poet may be called the assistant at a sacrifice, for his presence was not necessary at all sacrifices, the songs constituting an ornament rather than an essential part in most sacred acts. But though I think it right to offer this conjectural interpretation, I am far from supposing that it gives us the real sense of this difficult verse. Duvasyat may be, as Sadyava suggests, an ablative of duvasya; and duvasya, like namasya, if we change the accent, may mean he who is to be worshipped, or worshipping. In this way a different interpretation might suggest itself, though I confess I do not see that any other interpretation as yet suggested is satisfactory. Some happy thought may some day or other clear up this difficulty, when those who have

a Kar in the sense of officiating at a sacrifice is equally construed with a dative, X, 97, 22. yasmai krznéti brahmavzah, he for whom a Brahmava performs a sacrifice.

206 VEDIC HYMNS.

toiled, but toiled in a wrong direction, will receive scant thanks for the trouble they have taken. See Bollensen, Z.D.M.G. XVIII, p. 606.

Note 2. In the second line, the words 6 sti varta remind us of similar phrases in the Veda, but we want an ac- cusative, governed by varta; whereas maruta#, to judge from its accent, can only be a vocative. Thus we read:

I, 138, 4. 6 (iti) su tva vavrztimahi st6mebhiz.

May we turn thee quickly hither by our praises!

VIII, 7, 33. 6 (iti) su ve¢shvak—vavrityam.

May I turn the heroes quickly hither!

Compare also passages like ITI, 33, 8:

6 (iti) su svasarak karave srinota.

Listen quickly, O sisters, to the poet.

I, 139, 7. 6 (iti) su naz agne srznuhi.

Hear us quickly, O Agni.

Cf. I, 182, 1; Il, 34,15; VII, 59,5; VIII, 2,19; X, 179, 2.

Unless we change the accent, we must translate, ‘ Bring hither quickly !’ and we must take these words as addressed to the karu, the poet, whose hymn is supposed to attract the gods to the sacrifice. By a quick transition, the next words, marutak vipram akkha, would then have to be taken as ad- dressed to the gods, ‘ Maruts, on to the sage!’ and the last words would become intelligible by laying stress on the vak, ‘for you, and not for Indra or any other god, has the singer recited these hymns,’ See, however, Preface, p. xxi.

Verse 15.

Note 1. I translate MAnya, the son of Mana, because the poet, so called in I, 189, 8, is in all probability the same as our Mandarya Manya. But it may also be MAnya, the descendant of Mandari. The Manas are mentioned I, 172, 5; 182, 8.

Note 2. Vag. S. XXXIV, 48. The second line is diffi- cult, owing to the uncertain meaning of vayam.

A ish&? yAsishfa has been rendered, ‘Come hither with

a There was a misprint in the Samhita text, esha instead of ésha, which was afterwards repeated whenever the same verse occurred again.

NOTES, I, 165, 15. 207

water or drink or rain, ydsish¢fa being the aorist without the augment and with the intermediate vowel lengthened. The indicative occurs in

V, 58, 6. yat pra aydsishza pr¢shatibhiz dsvaih.

When you Maruts came forth with your fallow deer and your horses.

But what is the meaning of vayam? Vaya means a germ, a sprout, an offshoot, a branch, as may be seen from the following passages :

II, 5, 4. vidvdn asya vraté dhruva vaya/-iva anu rohate.

He who knows his eternal laws, springs up like young sprouts. (Better vay4-iva.)

VI,7, 6. tdsya it tm (iti) visva bhivana d4dhi mardhani vayah-iva ruruhud.

From above the head of Vaisvanara all worlds have grown, like young sprouts.

VIII, 13,6. stota—vaya/-iva anu rohate. (Better vayd-iva.)

The worshipper grows up like young sprouts.

VIII, 13, 17. indram kshozi# avardhayan vayah-iva.

The people made Indra to grow like young sprouts.

VIII, 19, 33. yasya te agne anyé agnayak upa-kshitah vayah-iva.

Agni, of whom the other fires are like parasitical shoots.

I, 59, 1. vayak it agne agnayaz te anyé.

O Agni, the other fires are indeed offshoots of thee.

II, 35, 8. vayad {t anya bhuvanani asya.

The other worlds are indeed his (the rising sun’s) off- shoots.

VI, 13, 1. tvat visva—saubhagani agne vi yanti vaninak na vayah.

From thee, O Agni, spring all happinesses, as the sprouts of a tree.

VI, 24, 3. vezkshasya nu (nd?) te—vayak vi dtayak ruruhuh.

Succours sprang from thee, like the branches of a tree.

V,1,1. yahvah-iva pra vayam ut-gihanas pra bhanavak sisrate nikam akkha.

Like birds(?) flying up to a branch, the flames of Agni went up to heaven; (or like strong men reaching up to.)

~ 208 VEDIC HYMNS.

VI, 57, 5. tam ptshva% su-matim vaydm vrékshasya pra vayam-iva indrasya ka 4 rabhamahe.

Let us reach this favour of Pishan and of Indra, as one reaches forth to the branch of a tree.

There remain some doubtful passages in which vaya occurs, VIT, 40, 5, and X, 92, 3; 134, 6. In the first pas- sage, as in our own, vay4az is trisyllabic.

If vaya can be used in the sense of offshoot or sprout, we may conclude that the same word, used in the singular, might mean offspring, particularly when joined with tanvé. ‘Give a branch to our body, would be understood even in languages less metaphorical than that of the Vedas; and as the prayer for ‘olive branches’ is a constant theme of the Vedic poets, the very absence of that prayer here, might justify us in assigning this sense to vayam. In VI, 2, 5, the expression vayavantam kshdyam, a house with branches, means the same as nvzvantam, a house with children and men. See M.M., On Bios and vayas, in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xv, p. 215. Benfey (Endungen in ijans, p. 37) takes vayadm as a genitive plural, referring it to the Maruts, as closely connected with each other, like branches of a tree. This is much the same interpretation as that of Mahidhara (VS. XXXIV, 48), who translates ‘come near for the body, i.e. for the bodily strength of the fellows, the Maruts.’ Ludwig takes it as a possible instrumental of vayam.

It is preferable, however, to take yasish¢a as a precative Atm., in order to account for the long i, and to accept it as a third person singular, referring to stomadz.

Note 3. Vvigdna means an enclosure, a rouds, whether it be derived from vrzg, to ward off, like arx from arcere, or from vrig,in the sense of clearing, as in vvzkta-barhis, barhizZ pra vrifige,I,116,1. In either case the meaning remains much the same, viz. a field, cleared for pasture or agri- culture,—a clearing, as it is called in America, or a camp,— enclosed with hurdles or walls, so as to be capable of defence against wild animals or against enemies. In this sense, however, vvigana is a neuter, while as a masculine it means powerful, invigorating. See Preface, p. xx.

MANDALA I, HYMN 166. 209

MANDALA I, HYMN 166. ASHTAKA II, ADHYAYA 4, VARGA 1-3.

To tHE Maruts (THE STORM-GopDsS).

1. Let us now proclaim for the robust? host, for the herald? of the powerful (Indra), their ancient greatness! O ye strong-voiced Maruts, you heroes, prove your powers on your march, as with a torch, as with a sword *! 3 ?

2. Like parents bringing a dainty to! their own ? son, the wild (Maruts) play playfully at the sacri- fices. The Rudras reach the worshipper with their protection, strong in themselves, they do not fail the sacrificer.

3. For him to whom the immortal guardians have given fulness of wealth, and who is himself a giver of oblations, the Maruts, who gladden men with the milk (of rain), pour out, like friends, many clouds.

4. You who have stirred! up the clouds with might, your horses rushed? forth, self-guided. All beings who dweil in houses® are afraid of you, your march is brilliant with your spears thrust forth.

5. When they whose march is terrible have caused the rocks to tremble!, or when the manly Maruts have shaken the back of heaven, then every lord of the forest fears at your racing, each shrub flies out of your way *, whirling like chariot-wheels *.

6. You, O terrible Maruts, whose ranks are never broken, favourably! fulfil our prayer?! Wherever your gory-toothed® lightning bites‘, it crunches® cattle, like a well-aimed bolt °.

[32] P

~ 210 VEDIC HYMNS.

7. The Maruts whose gifts are firm, whose bounties are never ceasing, who do not revile1, and who are highly praised at the sacrifices, they sing their song? for to drink the sweet juice: they know the first manly deeds of the hero (Indra).

8. The man whom you have guarded, O Maruts, shield him with hundredfold strongholds from injury? and mischief,—the man whom you, O fearful, power- ful singers, protect from reproach in the prosperity of his children.

9g. On your chariots, O Maruts, there are all good things, strong weapons? are piled up clashing against each other. When you are on your journeys, you carry the rings? on your shoulders, and your axle turns the two wheels at once®,

10. In their manly arms there are many good things, on their chests golden chains, flaring ? ornaments, on their shoulders speckled deer-skins %, on their fellies sharp edges‘; as birds spread their wings, they spread out splendours behind.

11. They, mighty by might, all-powerful powers’, visible from afar like the heavens? with the stars, sweet-toned, soft-tongued singers with their mouths’, the Maruts, united with Indra, shout all around.

12. Thisis your greatness!, O well-born Maruts!— your bounty® extends far, as the sway? of Aditi+t Not even? Indra in his scorn® can injure that bounty, on whatever man you have bestowed it for his good deeds.

13. This is your kinship (with us), O Maruts, that you, immortals, in former years have often protected the singer’. Having through this prayer granted a hearing to man, all these heroes together have become well-known by their valiant deeds.

MANDALA I, HYMN 166. 211

14. That we may long flourish, O Maruts, with your wealth, O ye racers, that our men may spread in the camp, therefore let me achieve the rite with these offerings.

15. May this praise, O Maruts, this song of Mandarya, the son of Mana, the poet, ask you with food for offspring for ourselves! May we have an invigorating autumn, with quickening rain!

233 VEDIC HYMNS.

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Agastya, the reputed son of Mitravaruzau, and brother of Vasish#Za. The metre in verses I-13 is Gagati, in 14,15 Trish¢ubh. No verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV., TS., TB.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Rabhasd, an adjective of rabhas, and this again from the root rabh, to rush upon a thing, a-rabh, to begin a thing. From this root rabh we have the Latin robur, in the general sense of strength, while in rabies the original meaning of impetuous motion has been more clearly pre- served. The Greek AdBpos, too, as pointed out by Cowell, comes from this root. In the Vedic Sanskrit, derivatives from the root rabh convey the meaning both of quickness and of strength. Quickness in ancient languages frequently im- plies strength, and strength implies quickness, as we see, for instance, from the German sn él, which, from meaning origin- ally strong, comes to mean in modern German quick, and quick only. The German bald again, meaning soon, comes from the Gothic balths, the English bold. Thus we read:

I,145, 3. sisuk & adatta sdm rabha.

The child (Agni) acquired vigour.

Indra is called rabhak-dak, giver of strength; and rabhasa, vigorous, is applied not only to the Maruts, who in V, 58, 5, are called rdbhishtzaz, the most vigorous, but also to Agni, II, 10, 4, and to Indra, III, 31, 12.

In the sense of rabid, furious, it occurs in

X, 95,14. adha enam v77kah rabhasdsak adyuh.

May rabid wolves eat him!

In the next verse rabhasa, the epithet of the wolves, is replaced by asiva, which means unlucky, uncanny.

In our hymn rabhasa occurs once more, and is applied there, in verse 10, to the a#gi or glittering ornaments of the Maruts. Here Sayaza translates it by lovely, and it was most likely intended to convey the idea of lively or

brilliant splendour, though it may mean also strong. See also IX, 96, I.

NOTES. I, 166, I. 213

Note 2. Ketu, derived from an old root ki, in Sanskrit ki, to perceive, from which also Zitra, conspicuous, ken- speckled, beautiful, means originally that by which a thing is perceived or known, whether a sign, or a flag, or a herald. It is the Gothic haidu, species. It then takes the more general sense of light and splendour. In our passage, herald seems to me the most appropriate rendering, though B. and R. prefer the sense of banner. The Maruts come before Indra, they announce the arrival of Indra, they are the first of his army.

Note 3. The real difficulty of our verse lies in the two comparisons aidha-iva and yudha-iva. Neither of them occurs again in the Rig-veda. B. and R. explain aidha as an instrumental of aidh, flaming, or flame, and derive it from the root idh, to kindle, with the preposition 4. Pro- fessor Bollensen in his excellent article Zur Herstellung des Veda (Orient und Occident, vol. iii, p. 473) says: ‘The analysis of the text given in the Pada, viz. aidha-iva and yudhéa-iva, is contrary to all sense. The common predicate is tavishawi kartana, exercise your power, you roarers, i.e. blow as if you meant to kindle the fire on the altar, show your power as if you went to battle. We ought therefore to read aidhé | va and yudhé|va. Both are infinitives, aidh is nothing but the root idh+4, to kindle, to light.’ Now this is certainly a very ingenious explana- tion, but it rests on a supposition which I cannot consider as proved, viz. that in the Veda, as in Pali, the compara- tive particle iva may be changed, as shown in the preface to the first edition, to va. It must be admitted that the two short syllables of iva are occasionally counted in the Veda as one, but yudhé-iva, though it might become yudha iva, would never in the Veda become yudhéva.

As yudha occurs frequently in the Veda, we may begin by admitting that the parallel form aidhaé must be explained in analogy to yudhé. Now yudh is a verbal noun and means fighting. We have the accusative yidham, I, 53,7; the genitive yudhaZ, VIII, 27,17; the dative yudhé, I, 61, 13; the locative yudhi, I, 8, 3; the instrumental yudha, I, 53, 7, &c.; loc. plur. yut-su, I, 91, 21. As long as yudh

214 VEDIC HYMNS.

retains the general predicative meaning of fighting, some of these cases may be called infinitives. But yidh soon assumes not only the meaning of battle, battle-ground, but also of instrument of fighting, weapon. In another passage, X, 103, 2, yudhad may be taken as a vocative plural, meaning fighters. Passages in which yudh means clearly weapon, are, for instance,

V, 52,6. arukmath a yudha narak rishvah rishtih asrikshata.

With their bright chains, with their weapon, the tall men have stretched forth the spears.

X, 55, 8. pitvi sdémasya divak & vridhanah strahk nih yudhaé adhamat dasyiin. ,

The hero, growing, after drinking the Soma, blew away from the sky the enemies with his weapon. Seealso X,103, 4.

I therefore take yldh in our passage also in the sense of weapon or sword, and, in accordance with this, I assign to aidh the meaning of torch. Whether aidh comes from idh with the preposition 4, which, after all, would only give edh, or whether we have in the Sanskrit aidh the same peculiar strengthening which this very root shows in Greek and Latin®, would be difficult to decide. The torch of the Maruts is the lightning, the weapon the thunderbolt, and by both they manifest their strength; ferro et igne, as Ludwig remarks.

WILSON: We proclaim eagerly, Maruts, your ancient greatness, for (the sake of inducing) your prompt appear- ance, as the indication of (the approach of) the showerer (of benefits). Loud-roaring and mighty Maruts, you exert your vigorous energies for the advance {to the sacrifice), as if it was to battle.

Verse 2.

Note 1. That upa can be construed with the accusative is clear from many passages :

III, 35, 2. upa imam yagfidm 4 vahata/ indram.

Bring Indra to this sacrifice!

I, 25, 4. vayas na vasatiz upa.

As birds (fly) to their nests.

@ Schleicher, Compendium, § 36, aiOw, ai@np, aidovea; and § 49, aides, aidilis aestas,

NOTES. I, 166, 2. : 215

Note 2. Nitya, from ni+tya*, means originally what is inside, internus, then what is one’s own; and is opposed to nish¢ya, from nis+tya, what is outside, strange, or hostile. Nitya has been well compared with niga, literally eingeboren, then, like nitya, one’s own. What is inside, or in a thing or place, is its own, is peculiar to it, does not move or change, and hence the secondary meanings of nitya, one’s own, unchanging, eternal. Thus we find nitya used in the sense of internal or domestic:

I, 73, 4. tam tvd ndrak dame a nityam iddhdm agne sakanta kshitishu dhruvdsu. |

Our men worshipped thee, O Agni, lighted within the house in safe places.

This I believe to be a more appropriate rendering than if we take nitya in the sense of always, continuously lighted, or, as some propose, in the sense of eternal, everlasting.

VII, 1, 2. dakshayyak yah dame asa nityaz.

Agni who is to be pleased within the house, 1. e. as belong- ing to the house, and, in that sense, who is to be pleased always. Cf. I, 140,73; 141, 2; X, 12, 2,and III, 25, 5, where nityaz, however, may have been intended as an adjective belonging to the vocative sfino.

Most frequently nitya occurs with sinu, I, 66,1; 185, 2; tanaya, ITI, 15, 2; X, 39, 14; toka, II, 2,11; api, VII, 88,6; pati, I, 71, 1, and has always the meaning of one’s own, very much like the later Sanskrit niga, which never occurs in the Rig-veda, though it makes its appearance in the Atharvama.

Nishtya, extraneus, occurs three times in the Rig-veda:

VI,75,19. yahknak svah aranah yah ka nishtyah gighamsati.

Whoever wishes to hurt us, our own friend or a stranger from without. |

X, 133, 5. yak nak indra abhi-dasati sa-nabhiz yak ka nishtyah.

He who infests us,O Indra, whether a relative or a stranger.

VIII, 1, 13. ma bhima nish¢ya/-iva indra tvad aravah-iva.

a Apa-tya ; cf. Bopp, Accentuationssystem, § 138, €m-coa, Nach- kommen.

216 VEDIC HYMNS.

Let us not be like outsiders, O Indra, not like strangers to thee.

WILSON: Ever accepting the sweet (libation), as (they would) a son, they sport playfully at sacrifices, demolishing (all intruders).

Lupwic: Wie einen nicht absterbenden Sohn das Madhu bringend.

Verse 4.

Note 1. Avyata, a Vedic second aorist of vi (ag), to stir up, to excite. From it pravayaza, a goad, pra-vetar, a driver. The Greek oi-o-rpos, gad-fly, has been referred to the same root. See Fick, Worterbuch, p. 170.

Roth (Wenzel, Instrumental, p. 54) translates : ‘While you quickly throw yourselves into the mists ;’ from a verb vya.

Note 2. Adhragan, from dhrag, a root which, by meta- thesis of aspiration, would assume the form of dragh or dragh. In Greek, the final medial aspirate being hardened, reacts on the initial media, and changes it to t, as bahu becomes mijxus, budh mv6, bandh wev0. This would give us tpex, the Greek root for running, Goth. thrag-jan.

Note 3. Harmya is used here as an adjective of bhivana, and can only mean living in houses. It does not, however, occur again in the same sense, though it occurs several times as a substantive, meaning house. Its original mean- ing is fire-pit, then hearth, then house, a transition of meaning analogous to that of aedes. Most of the ancient nations begin their kitchen with a fire-pit. ‘They dig a hole in the ground, take a piece of the animal’s raw hide, and press it down with their hands close to the sides of the hole, which thus becomes a sort of pot or basin. This they fill with water, and they make a number of stones red-hot in a fire close by. The meat is put into the water, and the stones dropped in till the meat is boiled. Catlin describes the process as awkward and tedious, and says that since the Assinaboins had learnt from the Mandans to make pottery, and had been supplied with vessels by the traders, they had entirely done away the custom, “excepting at public fes- tivals; where they seem, like all others of the human family, to take pleasure in cherishing and perpetuating

NOTES. I, 166, 4. 2I¥

their ancient customs*.”’ This pit was called harmya” or gharmd, which is the Latin formus. Thus we read:

VII, 56,16. té harmye-sthaz sisavak na subhraz.

The Maruts bright like boys standing by the hearth.

From meaning fire-pit, or hearth, harmya afterwards takes the more general sense of house :

VII, 55, 6. téshdm sd4m hanmak akshazi yatha iddm harmyam tatha.

We shut their eyes as we shut this house (possibly, this oven).

VII, 76, 2. prati#i 4 agat 4dhi harmyébhyadz.

The dawn comes near, over the house-tops.

X, 46, 3. gataz 4 harmyéshu.

• Agni, born in the houses.

X, 73, 10. manyds iyaya harmyéshu tasthaus

He came from Manyu, he remained in the houses.

In some of these passages harmyd might be taken in the sense of householder; but as harmya in VII, 55, 6, has clearly the meaning of a building, it seems better not to assign to it unnecessarily any new significations.

If harmya or *harma meant originally a fire-pit, then a hearth, a house, we see the close connection between harma and gharma, harmya and gharmya. Thus by the side of harmyeshz/a we find gharmyeshza (RV. X, 106, 5). We find gharma meaning, not only heat in general, but fire-pit, hearth; and we find the same word used for what we should call the pit, a place of torture and punishment from which the gods save their worshippers, or into which they throw the evil-doers.

V, 32, 5. yuyutsantam tdmasi harmyé dhas.

a Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 262.

b Spiegel, who had formerly identified harmy4 with the Zend zairimya in zairimyavura, has afterwards recalled this identifica- tion; see Spiegel, Av. Ubers. I, p. 190; Commentar iiber den Avesta, I, p. 297; Justi, Handbuch, p. 119; Haug, Pahlavi Glossary, p. 22. According to the Parsis, the Hairimyavura, a da€va animal which appears at the rising of the sun, is the turtle, and Darmesteter (Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 283) identifies zair in zair-imya with the Greek yeA-vs, Sanskrit har-mu/a.

218 VEDIC HYMNS.

When thou, Indra, hadst placed Sushza, who was anxious to fight, in the darkness of the pit. |

In the next verse we find

asiiryé tamasi, in the ghastly darkness.

VIII, 5, 23. yuvam kavvaya nadsatya dpi-riptaya harmyé sasvat itiz dasasyathah.

You, Ndsatyas, always grant your aid to Kazva when thrown into the pit.

This fiery pit into which Atri is thrown, and whence he, too, was saved by the Asvins, is likewise called gharma, I, 112,97; 119/63 VE 9397-47 Abe; 5.

Lastly we find :

X, 114,10. yada yamah bhavati harmyé hitaz.

When Yama is seated in the house, or in the nether world.

When the Pitars, too, the spirits of the departed, the Manes, are called gharma-sad, this is probably intended to mean, dwelling on the hearth (X, 15, 9 and 10), and not dwelling in the abode of Yama.

Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. ii, p. 234: ‘ Die ihr die Luft erfillt mit eurer Kraft, hervorstiirmt ihr selbst-gelenkten Laufes.’

Verse 5.

Note 1. Nad certainly means to sound, and the causative might be translated by ‘to make cry or shriek.’ If we took parvata in the sense of cloud, we might translate, ‘When you make the clouds roar;’ if we took parvata for moun- tain, we might, with Professor Wilson, render the passage by ‘ When your brilliant coursers make the mountains echo.’ But nad, like other roots which afterwards take the mean- ing of sounding, means originally to vibrate, to shake; and if we compare analogous passages where nad occurs, we shall see that in our verse, too, the Vedic poet undoubtedly meant nad to be taken in that sense:

VIII, 20, 5. a&yuta Ait vaz 4gman 4 ndnadati parvatasak vanaspatiz, bhtimiZ yameshu regate.

At your racing even things that are immovable vibrate, the rocks, the lord of the forest; the earth quivers on your ways. (See I, 37, 7, note 1.) Grassmann here translates nadayanta by erschiittern,but in VIII, 20, 5byerdrohnt,

Note 2. See I, 37,7, note I.

NOTES. I, 166, 6. 219

Note 3. Rathiydnti-iva does not occur again. Sdyava explains it, like a woman who wishes for a chariot, or who rides in a chariot. I join it with édshadhi, and take it in the sense of upamdndd afare (Paz. III, 1, 10), i.e. to behave like or to be like a chariot, whether the comparison is meant to express simply the quickness of chariots or the whirling of their wheels. The Pada has rathiydnti, whereas the more regular form is that of the Samhita, rathiyanti. Cf. Pratisdkhya, 587.

Verse 6.

Note 1. Su-Zetuind, the instrumental of su-fetu, kindness, good-mindedness, favour. This word occurs in the instru- mental only, and always refers to the kindness of the gods; not, like sumati, to the kindness of the worshipper also:

I, 79, 9. 4 nak agne su-fetuna rayim visvayu-poshasam, mardikam dhehi givase.

Give us, O Agni, through thy favour wealth which sup- ports our whole life, give us grace to live.

I,127,11. sak nak nédishtZam dadrisdnah 4 bhara d4gne devébhiz sa-fanaz su-fetund maha rayahz su-ketuina.

Thou, O Agni, seen close to us, bring to us, in union with the gods, by thy favour, great riches, by thy favour!

I,159, 5. asmabhyam dyavaprzthivi (iti) su-ketuna rayim dhattam vdsu-mantam sata-gvinam.

Give to us, O Dyavaprzthivi, by your favour, wealth, consisting of treasures and many flocks.

V, 51, 11. svasti dyavaprzthivi (iti) su-etuna.

Give us, O Dy4vaprzthivi, happiness through your favour!

V, 64, 2. té bahava su-Zetuna pra yantam asmai arfate.

Stretch out your arms with kindness to this worshipper!

In one passage of the ninth Mazdala (IX, 65, 30) we meet with su-fetlinam, as an accusative, referring to Soma, the gracious, and this would pre-suppose a substantive #etuna, which, however, does not exist.

Note 2. Sumati has, no doubt, in most passages in the Rig-veda, the meaning of favour, the favour of the gods. ‘Let us obtain your favour, Jet us be in your favour,’ are familiar expressions of the Vedic poets. But there are also numerous passages where that meaning is inapplicable, and

220 . VEDIC HYMNS. ~

where, as in our passage, we must translate sumati by prayer or desire. |

In the following passages sumati is clearly used in its original sense of favour, blessing, or even gift:

I, 73, 6 (7). su-matim bhikshamaaz.

Begging for thy favour.

I, 171, 1. su-ukténa bhikshe su-matim turaz4m.

With a hymn I beg for the favour of the quick Maruts.

I, 114, 3. asydma te su-matim.

May we obtain thy favour! Cf. I, 114, 9.

I, 114, 4. su-matim it vaydm asya 4 vrzzimahe.

We choose his favour. Cf. III, 33, 11. I, 117, 23. sada kavi (iti) su-matim 4 zake vam.

I always desire your favour, O ye wise Asvins.

I, 156, 3. mahdaz te vishvo (iti) su-matim bhagamahe.

May we, O Vishzu, enjoy the favour of thee, the mighty!

Bhiksh, to beg, used above, is an old desiderative form of bhag, and means to wish to enjoy.

III, 4, 1. su-matim rasi vasvaz.

Thou grantest the favour of wealth.

VII, 39, 1. ardhva% agniz su-matim vasvak asret.

The lighted fire went up for the favour of wealth. Cf. VII, 60,11; IX, 97, 26.

ITI, 57, 6. vaso (iti) rasva su-matim visva-ganydm.

Grant us, O Vasu, thy favour, which is glorious among men!

VII, 100, 2. tvam vishzo (iti) su-matim visva-ganyam—daz.

Mayest thou, Vishzu, give thy favour, which is glorious among men!

X, 11, 7. yak te agne su-matim marta/ akshat.

The mortal who obtained thy favour, O Agni.

II, 34, 15. arvafi sd marutak ya vak atih 6 (iti) su vasra-iva su-matiz gigatu.

Your help, O Maruts, which is to usward, your favour may it come near, like a cow!

VIII, 22, 4. asman akkha su-matiz vam subhak pati (iti) a dhenut/-iva dhavatu. |

May your favour, O Asvins, hasten towards us, like a cow!

But this meaning is by no means the invariable meaning © of sumati, and it will easily be seen that, in the following

NOTES. I, 166, 6. 221

passages, the word must be translated by prayer. Thus when Sarasvati is called (I, 3, 11) £étant? su-matinam, this can only mean she who knows of the prayers, as before she is called £odayitri stinv/tandm, she who excites songs of praise:

I,151,7. akkha girak su-matim gantam asma-yti (iti).

_ Come towards the songs, towards the prayer, you who are longing for us. Cf. X, 20, 10.

II, 43, 3. tdshvfm asinaz su-matim ikiddhi naz.

Sitting quiet, listen, O Sakuni (bird), to our prayer!

V, 1,10. 4 bhandish¢/asya su-matim fikiddhi.

Take notice of the prayer of thy best praiser! Cf. V, 33, 1.

VII, 18, 4. 4 naz indrak su-matim gantu akkha.

May Indra come to our prayer!

VII, 31, 10. pra-etase pra su-matim krzzudhvam.

Make a prayer for the wise god!

IX, 96, 2. su-matim yati akkha.

He (Soma) goes near to the prayer.

X, 148, 3. v¢shivam vipraz su-matim fakanaZ.

Thou, the wise, desiring the prayer of the Azshis.

VIII, 22, 6. ta vim adya sumati-bhiz subhaZ pati (iti) asvind pra stuvimahi.

Let us praise to-day the glorious Asvins with our prayers.

IX, 74, 1. tam imahe su-mati.

We implore him with prayer.

In our passage the verb pipartana, fill or fulfil, indicates in what sense sumati ought to be taken. Su-matim pipar- tana is no more than kamam pipartana, fulfil our desire! See VII, 62, 3. 4 naZ kamam pfipurantu ; I, 158, 2. kama- préwa-iva manasa. On sumnd, see Burnouf, Etudes, p. 91, and Aufrecht, in Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. iv, p. 274.

Note 3. Kriviz-datt has been a crux to ancient and modern interpreters. It is mentioned as a difficult word in the Nighaz/¢u, and all that Yaska has to say is that it means possessed of cutting teeth (Nir. VI, 30. krivirdati vikartanadanti). Professor Roth, in his note to this passage, says that krivi can never have the meaning of well, which is ascribed to it in the Nighazdu III, 23, but seems rather to mean an animal, perhaps the wild boar, kampos, with metathesis of vand r. He translates our passage: ‘Where

to to i)

VEDIC HYMNS.

your lightning with boar-teeth tears.’ In his Dictionary, however, he only says, ‘krivis, perhaps the name of an animal, and dant, tooth.’ Sdyaza contents himself with explaining krivirdatt by vikshepamzasiladanti, having teeth that scatter about.

My own translation is founded on the supposition that krivis, the first portion of krivirdati, has nothing to do with krivi, but is a dialectic variety of kravis, raw flesh, the Greek «peas, Latin caro, cruor. It means what is raw, bloody, or gory. From it the adjective krira, horrible, cruentus (Curtius, Grundziige, p.142; Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. ii, p. 235). A name of the goddess Durga in later Sanskrit is kriradanti, and with a similar conception the lightning, I believe, is here called krivirdati, with gory teeth.

Note 4. It should be observed that in radati the simile of the teeth of the lightning is carried on. For radati may be supposed to have had in the Veda, too, the original meaning of radere and rédere, to scratch, to gnaw. Rada and radana in the later Sanskrit mean tooth. It is curious, however, that there is no other passage in the Rig-veda where rad clearly means to bite. It means to cut, in

I, 61,12. gok# na parva vi rada tiraska.

Cut his joint through, as the joint of an ox.

But in most passages where rad occurs in the Veda, it has the meaning of giving. It is not the same which we have in the Zend rad, to give, and which Justi rightly identifies with the root radh. But rad, to divide, may, like the German theilen in zutheilen, have taken the meaning of giving. Greek da/w means to divide, but yields dais, portion, meal, just as Sanskrit day, to divide, yields dayas, share, i, e. inheritance.

This meaning is evident in the following passages :

VII, 79, 4. tavat usha% radhaZ asmadbhyam rasva yavat stot7¢-bhyak aradak grinana.

Grant us, Ushas, so much wealth as thou hast given to the singers, when praised.

I, 116, 7. kakshivate aradatam puram-dhim.

You gave wisdom to Kakshivat.

I, 169, 8. rada marut-bhizZ suridhah go-agrah.

NOTES. I, 166, 6. 223

Give to the Maruts gifts, rich in cattle.

VII, 62, 3. vi naz sahasram surudhaf radantu.

May they (the gods) give to us a thousand gifts!

I, 117, 11. vagam viprdya—radanta,

Giving spoil to the sage!

VI, 61, 6. rada pishd-iva naz sanim.

Give us, Sarasvati, wealth, like Pishan!

IX, 93, 4. rada indo (iti) rayim. -

Give us, O Indra, wealth !

VII, 32,18. rada-vaso (iti),

Indra, thou who givest wealth !

In many passages, however, this verb rad is connected with words meaning way or path, and it then becomes a question whether it simply means to grant a way, or to cut a way open for some one. In Zend, too, the same idiom occurs, and Professor Justi explains it by ‘prepare a way.’ I subjoin the principal passages :

VI, 30, 3. yat Abhyad aradah% gatum indra.

That thou hast cut a way for them (the rivers). Cf. VII, 74; 4-

IV, 19, 2. pra vartanizZ aradak visva-dhenaz.

Thou (Indra) hast cut open the paths for all the cows.

X, 75, 2. pra te aradat varuzak yatave pathah,

Varuza cut the paths for thee to go.

VII, 87,1. rddat pathad varuzah stirydya.

Varuza cut paths for Sirya.

V, 80, 3. pathdZ raddanti suvitaya devi.

She, the dawn, cutting open the paths for welfare.

VII, 60, 4. yasmai Adityaéz adhvanah radanti.

For whom the Adityas cut roads.

II, 30, 2. pathad raddantiz—dhinayaz yanti artham.

Cutting their paths, the rivers go to their goal.

This last verse seems to show that the cutting open of a road is really the idea expressed by rad in all these passages. And thus we find the rivers themselves saying that Indra cut them out or delivered them:

IIT, 33, 6. indraZ asman aradat vagra-bahu%. Cf. X, 89, 7.

Note 5. Rivati, like the preceding expressions krivirdati and radati, is not chosen at random, for though it has the

• 922 VEDIC HYMNS.

general meaning of crushing or destroying, it is used by the Vedic poets with special reference to the chewing or crunching by means of the teeth. For instance,

I, 148, 4. purtizi dasmaz ni rivati gambhaih.

Agni crunches many things with his jaws.

I, 127, 4. sthira Ait 4nna ni rivati dgasa.

Even tough morsels he (Agni) crunches fiercely.

In a more general sense we find it used,

V, 41,10. sokih-kesahk ni rizati vana.

Agni with flaming hair swallows or destroys the forests.

IV,19, 3. ahim vagreza vi rizah.

Thou destroyedst Ahi with the thunderbolt.

X,120,1. sadyahk gaghanah ni rivati satrin.

As soon as born he destroys his enemies.

Note 6. Sudhita-iva barhava. I think the explanation of this phrase given by Sayawa may be retained. He ex- plains sudhita by suhita, i.e. sush7Zu prerita, well thrown, well levelled, and barhavza by hatis, tatsadhana hetir va, a blow or its instrument, a weapon. Professor Roth takes barhavza as an instrumental, used adverbially, in the sense of powerfully, but he does not explain in what sense sudhita-iva ought then to be taken. We cannot well refer it to didyut, lightning, on account of the iva, which requires something that can form a simile of the lightning. Nor is su-dhita ever used as a substantive so as to take the place of svadhitiva. Su-dhita has apparently many meanings, but they all centre in one common conception. Su-dhita means well placed, of a thing which is at rest, well arranged, well ordered, secure; or it means well sent, well thrown, of a thing which has been in motion. Applied to human beings, it means well disposed or kind. |

III, 23,1. ni#-mathitak su-dhitak 4 sadha-sthe.

Agni produced by rubbing, and well placed in his abode.

VII, 42, 4. su-pritak agnih si-dhitak dame 4.

Agni, who is cherished and well placed in the house.

III, 29, 2. ardzyok ni-hitak gatd-vedaz garbhas-iva su- dhitaz garbhizishu. |

Agni placed in the two fire-sticks, well placed like an embryo in the mothers. Cf. X, 27, 16.

NOTES. I, 166, 6. 225

VIII, 60, 4. abhi prayamsi su-dhita @ vaso (iti) gahi.

Come, O Vasu, to these well-placed offerings. Cf. I, 135, 43 VI,15,15; X, 53, 2.

X, 70, 8. su-dhita havismshi.

The well-placed offerings.

IV, 2, 10 (adhvardm). VII, 7, 3 (barhiz).

As applied to ayus, life, sudhita may be translated by well established, safe :

II, 27, 10. asydma aytivmshi su-dhitani ptirva.

May we obtain the happy long lives of our forefathers.

IV, 50, 8. sa# it ksheti si-dhitaZ dkasi své.

That man dwells secure in his own house.

Applied to a missile weapon, sudhita may mean well placed, as it were, well shouldered, well held, before it is thrown; or well levelled, well aimed, when it is thrown :

I, 167, 3. mimydaksha yéshu su-dhita—vzshiih.

To whom the well held spear sticks fast.

VI, 33, 3. tvam tan indra ubhaydn amitran dasa vrztravi arya ka stra, vadhiz vana-iva su-dhitebhiz atkaiz.

Thou, Indra, O hero, struckest both enemies, the bar- barous and the Aryan fiends, like forests with well-aimed weapons. |

Applied to a poem, sudhita means well arranged or perfect:

I, 140,11. id4m agne su-dhitam duZ-dhitat adhi priyat dm (iti) Ait manmanak préyas astu te.

May this perfect prayer be more agreeable to thee than an imperfect one, though thou likest it.

VII, 32,13. mantram akharvam su-dhitam.

A poem, not mean, well contrived.

As applied to men, sidhita means very much the same as hita, well disposed, kind:

IV, 6,7. adha mitraz na si-dhitak pavakaz agnihz didaya manushishu vikshu.

Then, like a kind friend, Agni shone among the children of man.

V, 3,2. mitrdm st-dhitam.

VI, 15, 2. mitram na yam su-dhitam.

VIII, 23, 8. mitrdm nd gdne si-dhitam rita-vani.

[32] Q

226 VEDIC HYMNS.

X,115,7. mitradsak na yé si-dhitas.

At last su-dhita, without reference to human beings, takes the general sense of kind, good:

III, 11, 8. pari visvani su-dhité agnézZ asyima manma- bhit.

May we obtain through our prayers all the goods of Agni.

Here, however, prayamsi may have to be supplied, and in that case this passage, too, should be classed with those mentioned above, VIII, 60, 4, &c.

If then we consider that sudhita, as applied to weapons, means well held or well aimed, we can hardly doubt that barhavza is here, as Sayaza says, some kind of weapon. I should derive it from barhayati, to crush, which we have, for instance,

I, 133, 5. pisdnga-bhvzshzim ambhrizdim pisi#im indra sam myrzva, sarvam raksha# ni barhaya.

Pound together the fearful Pisazi with his fiery weapons, strike down every Rakshas.

II, 23, 8. bréhaspate deva-nidaz ni barhaya.

Brzhaspati strike down the scoffers of the gods. Cf. VI, 61, 3. |

Barhavza would therefore mean a weapon intended to crush an enemy, a block of stone, it may be, or a heavy club, and in that sense barhazd occurs at least once more:

VIII, 63,7. yat paika-ganyaya visa indre ghdshaz asvi- kshata, astrzvat barhaza vipa“.

When shouts have been sent up to feidiea by the people of the five clans, then the club scattered the spears; or, then he scattered the spears with his club.

In other passages Professor Roth is no doubt right when he assigns to barhavza an adverbial meaning, but I do not think that this meaning would be appropriate in our verse. Grassmann also translates, ‘ ein wohlgezielter Pfeil.’

Verse 7.

Note 1. Alatvzzasahk, a word which occurs but once more, and which had evidently become unintelligible even at the

NOTES. I, 166, 7. o9

time of Yaska. He (Nir. VI, 2) explains it by alamatardano meghaZ, the cloud which opens easily. This, at least, is the translation given by Professor Roth, though not without hesitation. Alamatardanaz, as a compound, is explained by the commentator as atardanaparydpta%, alam atardayi- tum udakam, i.e. capable of letting off the water. But Devaragayagvan explains it differently. He says: alam parydptam Atardanam hissa yasya, bahiidakatvakkhabalo megho viseshyate, i.e. whose injuring is great; the dark cloud is so called because it contains much water. Sdyaza, too, attempts several explanations. In III, 30,10, he seems to derive it from trzh, to kill, not, like Yaska, from trzd, and he explains its meaning as the cloud which is exceed- ingly hurt by reason of its holding so much water. In our passage he explains it either as andatrzva, free from injury, or good hurters of enemies, or good givers of rewards.

From all this I am.afraid we gain nothing. Let us now see what modern commentators have proposed in order to discover an appropriate meaning in this word. Professor Roth suggests that the word may be derived from ra, to give, and the suffix trzvza, and the negative particle, thus meaning, one who does not give or yield anything. But, if so, how is this adjective applicable to the Maruts, who in this very verse are praised for their generosity? Langlois in our passage translates, ‘heureux de nos louanges;’ in III, 30, 10, ‘qui laissait flétrir les plantes.’ Wilson in our passage translates, ‘devoid of malevolence ;’ but in III, 30, 10, ‘heavy.’

I do not pretend to solve all these difficulties, but I may say this in defence of my own explanation that it fulfils the condition of being applicable both to the Maruts and to the demon Bala. The suffix triza is certainly irregular, and I should much prefer to write alatriva, for in that case we might derive latrin from latra, and to this latra, i.e. ratra, I should ascribe the sense of barking. The root rai or ra means to bark, and has been connected by Professor Aufrecht with Latin rire, inrire, and possibly inritare?,

@ Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. ix, p. 233. G2

228 | VEDIC HYMNS.

thus showing a transition of meaning from barking, to pro- voking or attacking. The same root ra explains also the Latin lAtrare, to bark, allatrare, to assail ; and, whatever ancient etymologists may say to the contrary, the Latin latro, anassailer. The old derivation ‘latrones eos antiqui dicebant, qui conducti militabant, a6 rijs Aatpeias,’ seems to me one of those etymologies in which the scholars of Rome, who had learnt a little Greek, delighted as much as scholars who know a little Sanskrit delight in finding some plausible derivation for any Greek or Latin word in Sanskrit. I know that Curtius (Grundziige, p. 326) and Corssen (Kritische Nachtrage, p. 239) take a different view; but a foreign word, derived from Adrpov, pay, hire, would never have proved so fertile as latro has been in Latin.

If then we could write aldtrizdsak, we should have an appropriate epithet of the Maruts, in the sense of not assailing or not reviling, in fact, free from malevolence, as Wilson translated the word, or rather Sdyaza’s explanation of it, Atardanarahita. What gives me some confidence in this explanation is this, that it is equally applicable to the other passage where alatvzva occurs, III, 30, 10:

alatrivah valak indra vragahk gdh pura hantos bhayamanak vi ara.

Without barking did Vala, the keeper of the cow, full of fear, open, before thou struckest him.

If it should be objected that vragad means always stable, and is not used again in the sense of keeper, one might reply that vraga#, in the nom. sing., occurs in this one single passage only, and that bhayamAna4Z, fearing, clearly implies a personification. Otherwise, one might translate: ‘Vala was quiet, O Indra, and the stable of the cow came open, full of fear, before thou struckest.’ The meaning of alatvzza would remain the same, the not-barking being here used asa sign that Indra’s enemy was cowed, and no longer inclined to revile or defy the power of Indra. Hom. hymn. in Merc. 145, ov5€ xdves AceAdkovTo.

Note 2. See I, 38, 15, note 1, page 95.

NOTES. I, 166, 9. 229

Verse 8.

Note 1. Abhi-hruti seems to have the meaning of assault, injury, insult. It occurs but once, but abhi-hrut, a feminine substantive with the same meaning, occurs several times. The verb hru, which is not mentioned in the Dhatupazha, but has been identified with hvar, occurs in our hymn, verse 12:

I, 128, 5. sak nak trasate duf-itat abhi-hritaz samsat aghat abhi-hrutaZ.

He protects us from evil, from assault, from evil speaking, from assault.

X, 63,11. trayadhvam nak dus-évayah abhi-hritaz.

Protect us from mischievous injury!

I, 189, 6. abhi-hritam asi hi deva vishpaz.

For thou, god, art the deliverer from all assaults. Vishpaz, deliverer, from vi and spas, to bind.

Vi-hruta, which occurs twice, means evidently what has been injured or spoiled :

VIII, 1, 12. ishkarté vi-hrutam punar (iti).

He who sets right what has been injured. Cf. VIII, 20, 26.

Avi-hruta again clearly means uninjured, intact, entire:

V, 66, 2. té hi kshatrdm avi-hrutam —asate.

For they both have obtained uninjured power.

X,170, 1. ayuk dadhat yagitd-patau avi-hrutam.

Giving uninjured life to the lord of the sacrifice.

Verse 9.

Note 1. Tavisha certainly means strength, and that it is used in the plural in the sense of acts of strength, we can see from the first verse of our hymn and other passages. But when we read that tavishawi are placed on the chariots of the Maruts, just as before bhadra, good things, food, &c., are mentioned, it is clear that so abstract a meaning as strength or powers would not be applicable here. We might take it in the modern sense of forces, i.e. your armies, your companions are on your chariots, striving with each other; but as the word is a neuter, weapons, as the means

230 VEDIC HYMNS.

of strength, seemed a preferable rendering. As to mitha- spridhya, see I, 119, 3, p. 164.

Note 2. The rendering of this passage must depend on the question whether the khadis, whatever they are, can be carried on the shoulders or not. We saw before (p. 120) that khadis were used both as ornaments and as weapons, and that, when used as weapons, they were most likely rings or quoits with sharp edges. There is at least one other passage where these khadis are said to be worn on the shoulders :

VII, 56, 13. dmseshu & marutaz khadayah vak vakshah-su rukmaz upa-sisriyazah.

On your shoulders are the quoits, on your chests the golden chains are fastened.

In other places the khadis are said to be in the hands, hasteshu, but this would only show that they are there when actually used for fighting. Thus we read:

I, 168, 3. @eshAm dmseshu rambhini-iva rarabhe, hasteshu khadih ka kritih ka sim dadhe.

To their shoulders there clings as if a clinging wife, in their hands the quoit is held and the dagger.

In V, 58, 2, the Maruts are called khadi-hasta, holding the quoits in their hands. There is one passage which was mentioned before (p. 112), where the khadis are said to be on the feet of the Maruts, and on the strength of this passage Professor Roth proposes to alter pra-patheshu to pra-padeshu, and to translate, ‘The khadis are on your forefeet.. I do not think this emendation necessary. Though we do not know the exact shape and character of the khadi, we know that it was a weapon, most likely a ring, occasionally used for ornament, and carried along either on the feet or on the shoulders, but in actual battle held in the hand. The weapon which Vishzu holds in one of his right hands, the so-called akra, may be the modern representation of the ancient khadi. What, however, is quite certain is this, that khadi in the Veda never means food, as Sayava optionally interprets it. This interpretation is accepted by Wilson, who translates, ‘At your resting- places on the road refreshments (are ready).’ Nay, he

NOTES. I, 166, IO. 231

goes on in a note to use this passage as a proof of the advanced civilisation of India at the time of the Vedic Rishis. ‘The expression,’ he says, ‘is worthy of note, as indicating the existence of accommodations for the use of travellers: the prapatha is the choltri of the south of India, the sardi of the Mohammedans, a place by the road-side where the travellers may find shelter and provisions.’

Note 3. This last passage shows that the poet is really representing to himself the Maruts as on their journey, and he therefore adds, ‘your axle turns the two (IV, 30, 2) wheels together, which probably means no more than, ‘ your chariot is going smoothly or quickly.’ Though the expres- sion seems to us hardly correct, yet one can well imagine how the axle was supposed to turn the wheels as the horses were drawing the axle, and the axle acted on the wheels. Anyhow, no other translation seems possible. Samdayda in the Veda means together, at once, and is the Greek 6yun, generally duod or duds, the Latin simul. Cf. I, 56,6; 73,6; 113,10; 163, 3; VII, 66,15; IX, 75,43 85, 53; 97, 56.

Vrit means to turn, and is frequently used with reference to the wheels:

VIII, 46, 23. dasa syavad—nemim ni vavritud.

The ten black horses turn down the felly or the wheel.

IV, 30, 2. satra te anu kvrishtdyak visvak kakra-iva vavrituh.

All men turn always round thee, like wheels.

That the Atmanepada of vrit may be used in an active sense we see from I, 191, 15. tatak vishdm pra vavrite.

I turn the poison out from here.

All the words used in this sentence are very old words, and we can with few exceptions turn them into Greek or Latin. In Latin we should have axis vos(ter) circos simul divertit. In Greek dfwv i(udv) Kicro bun... .

Verse 10.

Note 1. See I, 64, 4, note I, page III. Note 2. See I, 166, 1, note I, page 212.

2.52 VEDIC HYMNS.

=

Note 3. On éta in the sense of fallow deer, or, it may be, antelope, see I, 165, 5, note 2, page 196.

Eta originally means variegated, and thus becomes a name of any speckled deer, it being difficult to say what exact species is meant. Sdayavza in our passage explains étah by suklavarza malaz, many-coloured wreaths or chains, which may be right. Yet the suggestion of Professor Roth that étaz, deer, stands here for the skins of fallow deer, is certainly more poetical, and quite in accordance with the Vedic idiom, which uses, for instance, go, cow, not only in the sense of milk,—that is done even in more homely English,—but also for leather, and thong. It is likewise in accordance with what we know of the earliest dress of the Vedic Indians, that deer-skins should here be men- tioned. We learn from Asvalayana’s Grihya-sitras, of which we now possess an excellent edition by Professor Stenzler, and a reprint of the text and commentary by Rama Niardyava Vidydratna, in the Bibliotheca Indica, that a boy when he was brought to his tutor, i.e. from the eighth to possibly the twenty-fourth year, had to be well combed, and attired in a new dress. A Brahmaza should wear the skin of an antelope (aizeya), the Kshatriya the skin of a deer (raurava), the Vaisya the skin of a goat (Aga). If they wore dresses, that of the Brahmavza should be dark red (kAshaya), that of the Kshatriya bright red (mafgishzha), that of the Vaisya yellow (haridra). The girdle of the Brahmaza should be of Mufga grass, that of the Kshatriya a bow-string, that of the Vaisya made of sheep's wool. The same regulations occur in other Sitras, as, for instance, the Dharma-stitras of the Apastambiyas and Gautamas, though there are certain characteristic differences in each, which may be due either to local or to chronological causes. Thus according to the Apastambiya-sitras, which have been published by Professor Bihler, the Brahmavza may wear the skin of the hariza deer, or that of the antelope (aizeyam), but the latter must be from the black antelope (kvzshvam), and, a proviso is added, that if a man wears the black antelope skin, he must never spread it out to sit or sleep on it. As materials for the dress, Apastamba

NOTES. I, 166, I0. 233

allows sava, hemp*, or kshuma, flax, and he adds that woollen dresses are allowed to all castes, as well as the kambala (masc.), which seems to be any cloth made of vegetable substances (darbhadinirmitam #iram kambalam). He then adds a curious remark, which would seem to show

a Sana is an old Aryan word, though its meanings differ. Hesy- chius and Eustathius mention kxdwva as being synonymous with iabos, reed. Pollux gives two forms, xévva and kava, (Pollux X, 166, mravaka b€ éote Wiabos 7 ev Trois dkatios fy Kat Kdvay Kadovow. VII, 176, xavva 5€ 7d éx kavdBov mréypa.) This is important, because the same difference of spelling occurs also in kdvvaBis and kavaBos or kavvaBos, a model, a lay figure, which Lobeck derives from xdvva.. In Old Norse we have hanp-r, in A.S. henep, hemp, Old High- Germ. hanaf.

The occurrence of the word sama is of importance as showing at how early a time the Aryans of India were acquainted with the uses and the name of hemp. Our word hemp, the A.S. henep, the Old Norse hanp-r, are all borrowed from Latin cannabis, which, like other borrowed words, has undergone the regular changes re- quired by Grimm’s law in Low-German, and also in High-German, hanaf. ‘The Slavonic nations seem to have borrowed their word for hemp (Lith. kanapé) from the Goths, the Celtic nations (Ir. canaib) from the Romans (cf. Kuhn, Beitrage, vol. ii, p. 382). The Latin cannabis is borrowed from Greek, and the Greeks, to judge from the account of Herodotus, most likely adopted the word from the Aryan Thracians and Scythians (Her. IV, 74; Pictet, Les _ Aryens, vol. i, p. 314). Kavvafis being a foreign word, it would be useless to attempt an explanation of the final element bis, which is added to sama, the Sanskrit word for hemp. It may be visa, fibre, or it may be anything else. Certain it is that the main ele- ment in the name of hemp was the same among the settlers in Northern India, and among the Thracians and Scythians through whom the Greeks first became acquainted with hemp.

The history of the word kdvvaBis must be kept distinct from that of the Greek kdvva or cava, reed. Both spellings occur, for Pollux, X, 166, writes mravdxa 5€é eote iabos 9 €v trois axarios fy Kal Kavav kadovow, but VII, 176, Kdvya b€ ro ex KavaBov mréypa, This word kdvva may be the same as the Sanskrit saa, only with this differ- ence, that it was retained as common property by Greeks and Indians before they separated, and was applied differently in later times by the one and the other,

234 VEDIC HYMNS.

that the Brahmazas preferred. skins, and the Kshatriyas clothes, for he says that those who wish well to the Brah- mavzas should wear agina, skins, and those who wish well to the Kshatriyas should wear vastra, clothes, and those who wish well to both should wear both, but, in that case, the skin should always form the outer garment. The Dharma-siitras of the Gautamas, which were published in India, prescribe likewise for the Brahmavza the black antelope skin, and allow clothes of hemp or linen (sazakshaumafira) as well as kuta- pas (woollen cloth) for all. What is new among the Gau- tamas is, that they add the karpasa, the cotton dress, which is important as showing an early knowledge of this manu- facture. The karpdsa dress occurs once more as a present to be given to the Potar priest (Asv. Srauta-stitras IX, 4), and was evidently considered as a valuable present, taking precedence of the kshaumi or linen dress. It is provided that the cotton dress should not be dyed, for this, I sup- pose, is the meaning of avikvzta. Immediately after, how- ever, it is said, that some authorities say the dress should be dyed red (kash4yam apy eke), the very expression which occurred in Apastamba, and that, in that case, the red for the Brahmaza’s dress should be taken from the bark of trees (virksha). - Manu, who here, as elsewhere, simply paraphrases the ancient Sitras, says, II, 41: karshvzarauravabastani farmazi brahmakariza/ vasirann Anupirvyeva sdzakshaumavikani Za.

‘Let Brahmafarins wear (as outer garments) the skins of the black antelope, the deer, the goat, (as under garments) dresses of hemp, flax, and sheep’s wool, in the order of the three castes.’

The Sanskrit name for a dressed skin is agina, a word which does not occur in the Rig-veda, but which, if Bopp is right in deriving it from aga, goat, as aiyis from ai, would have meant originally, not skin in general, but a goat-skin. The skins of the éta, here ascribed to the Maruts, would be identical with the aizeya, which Asvala- yana ascribes to the Brahmaza, not, as we should expect, to the Kshatriya, if, as has been supposed, aizeya is derived from ena, which is a secondary form, particularly in the

NOTES. I, 166, II. 235

feminine eni, of eta. There is, however, another word, eda, a kind of sheep, which, but for Festus, might be haedus, and by its side eva, a kind of antelope. These two forms pre-suppose an earlier erza or arva, and point therefore in a different direction, though hardly to dpves.

Note 4. I translate kshurd by sharp edges, but it might have been translated literally by razors, for, strange as it may sound, razors were known, not only during the Vedic period, but even previous to the Aryan separation. The Sanskrit kshura is the Greek évpés or €vpdév. In the Veda we have clear allusions to shaving:

X, 142, 4. yada te vatahz anu-vati sokih, vapta-iva smasru vapasi pra bhima.

When the wind blows after thy blast, then thou shavest the earth as a barber shaves the beard. Cf. I, 65, 4.

If, as B. and R. suggest, vaptar, barber, is connected with the more modern name for barber in Sanskrit, viz. napita, we should have to admit a root svap, in the sense of tearing or pulling, vellere, from which we might derive the Vedic svapu (VII, 56, 3), beak. Corresponding to this we find in Old High-German snabul, beak, (schnepfe, snipe,) and in Old Norse nef. The Anglo-Saxon neb means mouth and nose, while in modern English neb or nib is used for the bill or beak of a bird®. Another derivation of napita, proposed by Professor Weber (Kuhn’s Beitrage, vol. i, p. 505), who takes napita as a dialectic form of snapitar, balneator, or lavator, might be admitted if it could be proved that in India also the barber was at the same time a balneator. Burnouf, Lotus, p. 452, translating from the SAmavia-phala Sutta, mentions among the different professions of the people those of ‘ portier, ‘barbier, and ‘ baigneur.’

Verse 11. Note 1. Vi-bhitayaz is preperly a substantive, meaning

@ Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, vol. iii, pp. 400, 409. There is not yet sufficient evidence to show that Sanskrit sv, German sn, and Sanskrit n are interchangeable, but there is at least one case that may be analogous. Sanskrit sva%g, to embrace, to twist round a person, German slango, Schlange, snake, and Sanskrit ndga, snake. Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, vol. iii, p. 364.

236 - VEDIC HYMNS,

power, but, like other substantives*, and particularly sub- stantives with prepositions, it can be used as an adjective, and is, in fact, more frequently used as an adjective than as a substantive. In English we may translate it by power. It is a substantive,

I, 8, 9. eva hi te vi-bhitayah dtayaz indra ma-vate sadyak kit santi dasushe.

For indeed thy powers, O Indra, are at once shelters for a sacrificer, like me.