{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe32/sbe3219.htm","path":"hin/sbe32/sbe3219.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe32/sbe3219.htm","text":"Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32), by Max M\u00fcller, [1891]\n1. What then now? When 1 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?\n2. Where now? On what errand of yours are you going, in heaven, not on earth 1? Where are your cows sporting?\n3. Where are your newest favours 1, O Maruts? Where the blessings? Where all delights?\n4. If you, sons of Prisni, were mortals, and your praiser an immortal 1,\u2014\n5. Then never 1 should your praiser be unwelcome, like a deer in pasture grass 2, nor should he go on the path of Yama 3.\n6. Let not one sin 1 after another, difficult to be conquered, overcome us; may it depart 2 together with greed.\n7. Truly they are terrible and powerful; even to the desert the Rudriyas bring rain that is never dried up 1.\n8. 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 1.\n9. Even by day the Maruts create darkness with the water-bearing cloud 1, when they drench the earth.\n10. Then from the shouting of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth 1, men reeled forward.\n11. Maruts on your strong-hoofed never-wearying 3\nsteeds 1 go after those bright ones (the clouds), which are still locked up 2.\n12. May your fellies be strong, the chariots, and their horses, may your reins 1 be well-fashioned.\n13. Speak forth for ever with thy voice to praise the Lord of prayer 1, Agni, who is like a friend 2, the bright one.\n14. Fashion a hymn in thy mouth! Expand like the cloud 1! Sing a song of praise.\n15. Worship the host of the Maruts, the terrible. . the glorious, the musical 1. May they be magnified here among us 2.\nThis hymn is ascribed to Kanva, the son of Ghora. The metre is G\u00e2yatr\u00ee 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 9, all the three p\u00e2das alike have their final spondee. In verse 7, the ionicus a minore is with an evident intention repeated thrice. No verse of the hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV.; but verse 8 = TS. III, 1, 11, 5; verse 9 = TS. II, 4, 8, 1.\nNote 1. Kadha-priyah is taken in the Padap\u00e2tha as one word, and S\u00e2yana explains it by delighted by or delighting in praise, a nominative plural. A similar compound, kadhapriya, occurs in I, 30, 20, and there too the vocative sing. fem., kadhapriye, is explained by S\u00e2yana as fond of praise. In order to obtain this meaning, kadha has to be identified with kath\u00e2, story, which is simply impossible. There is another compound, adha-priy\u00e2, nom. dual, which occurs VIII, 8, 4, and which S\u00e2yana explains either as delighted here below, or as a corruption of kadha-priy\u00e2.\nIn Boehtlingk and Roth's Dictionary, kadha-priya and kadha-pr\u00ee are both taken as compounds of kadha, an interrogative adverb, and priya or pr\u00ee, 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.\nIt must be confessed, however, that a compound like kadha-pr\u00ee, kind to whom?, is somewhat strange, and it seems preferable to separate the words, and to write k\u00e1dha priy\u00e1 and \u00e1dha priy\u00e1.\nIt should be observed that the compounds kadha-pr\u00ee and kadha-priya occur always in sentences where there is another interrogative pronoun. The two interrogatives k\u00e1t\u2014k\u00e1dha, what\u2014where, and k\u00e1s\u2014k\u00e1dha, who\u2014where, occurring in the same sentence, an idiom so common in\n[paragraph continues] Greek, may have puzzled the author of the Pada text, and the compound being once sanctioned by the authority of S\u00e2kalya, S\u00e2yana 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, priy\u00e1h would be an adjective belonging to pit\u00e2\u00b4, 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:\nk\u00e1h te ushah k\u00e1dha priye bhug\u00e9 m\u00e1rtah amartye.\nWho and where was there a mortal to be loved by thee, O beloved, immortal Dawn?\nIn VIII, 7, 31, where the same words are repeated as in our passage, it is likewise better to write:\nk\u00e1t ha n\u00fbn\u00e1m k\u00e1dha priy\u00e1h y\u00e1t \u00edndram \u00e1gah\u00e2tana, k\u00e1h vah sakhi-tv\u00e9 ohate.\nWhat then now? Where is there a friend, now that you have forsaken Indra? Who watches for your friendship?\nWhy in VIII, 8, 4, adha priy\u00e2 should have been joined into one word is more difficult to say, yet here, too, the compound might easily be separated.\nK\u00e1dha does not occur again, but would be formed in analogy with \u00e1dha. It occurs in Zend as kadha.\nKuhn, Beitr\u00e4ge IV, p. 186, has shown that k\u00fbshthah (RV. V, 74, 1) is a similar monster, and stands for ku shthah.\nThe words k\u00e1t ha n\u00fbn\u00e1m commonly introduce an interrogative sentence, literally, What then now? cf. X, 10, 4.\nNote 2. Vrikta-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. Stevenson, it is also strewn over the floor of the chamber in which the worship is performed.'\nCf. VI, II, 5. vri\u00f1g\u00e9 ha y\u00e1t n\u00e1mas\u00e2 barh\u00edh agna\u00fa, \u00e1y\u00e2mi sr\u00fak ghrit\u00e1-vat\u00ee su-vrikt\u00edh.\nWhen I reverentially trim the truss for Agni, when the well-trimmed ladle, full of butter, is stretched forth.\nIn 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:\nkv\u00e3 n\u00fbn\u00e1m su-d\u00e2navah m\u00e1datha vrikta-barhishah.\nWhere do ye rejoice now, you gods for whom the altar is trimmed?\nOtherwise, vrikta-barhishah 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.\nWilson: 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?\nBenfey: Wo weilt ihr gern? was habt ihr jetzt\u2014gleichwie ein Vater seinen Sohn\u2014in H\u00e4nden, da das Opfer harrt?\nNote 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 sentence seems to mean ' where tarry your herds?' viz. the clouds. S\u00e2yana 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 br\u00fcllen vor Freude \u00fcber ihre Gegenwart, wie Stiere.)' The verb ranyati, however, when followed by an accusative, means to love, to accept with pleasure. The gods accept the offerings and the prayers:\nV, 18, 1. v\u00edsv\u00e2ni y\u00e1h \u00e1martyah havy\u00e2\u00b4 m\u00e1rteshu r\u00e1nyati.\nThe immortal who deigns to accept all offerings among mortals.\nV, 74, 3. k\u00e1sya br\u00e1hm\u00e2ni ranyathah.\nWhose prayers do ye accept?\nFollowed by a locative ranyati 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 ranyanti in the sense of tarrying, disporting, and n\u00e1, 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: kv\u00e3 v\u00e1h | g\u00e2v\u00e1h | na r\u00e1n yant\u00ed | . But the fact is that through the whole of the Rig-veda kv\u00e3 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 \u2019sv\u00e2h, kv\u00e2bh\u00eesavah. 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 ritam. In I, 35, 7, we must read either kuved\u00e2n\u00eem s\u00fbryah, making s\u00fbryah trisyllabic, or kuva id\u00e2n\u00eem, leaving a hiatus. In I, 168, 6, kv\u00e2varam is kuv\u00e2varam: S\u00e2kalya, forgetting this, and wishing to improve 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.\nNote 1. The meanings of sumn\u00e1, in the first five Mandalas are well explained by Professor Aufrecht in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, vol. iv, p. 274. As to suvit\u00e2\u00b4 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:\nX, 148, 1. \u00e2\u00b4 nah bhara suvit\u00e1m y\u00e1sya k\u00e2k\u00e1n.\nNote 1. One might translate: 'If you, sons of Prisni, 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\nseriez pas immortels, (faites toutefois) que votre pan\u00e9gyriste jouisse d\u2019une longue vie.' Wilson's translation is obscure: 'That you, sons of Prisni, may become mortals, and your panegyrist become immortal.' S\u00e2yana translates: 'Though you, sons of Prisni, were mortal, yet your worshipper would be immortal.' Ludwig has, 'Wenn ihr, o kinder der Prisni, sterbliche w\u00e4ret, der unsterbliche w\u00e4re euer s\u00e4nger dann. Nicht werde euch unlieb der s\u00e4nger, 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 is to him. Whether sy\u00e2t should have the ud\u00e2tta, 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 malediction 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.\nAs to the metre it is clear that we ought to read m\u0101rt\u0304\u00e2\u0306s\u0101h sy\u0306\u00e2\u0304t\u0103n\u0101.\nNote 1. M\u00e2\u00b4, though it seems to stand for n\u00e1, retains its prohibitive sense.\nNote 2. Y\u00e1vasa is explained by S\u00e2yana as grass, and Wilson's Dictionary, too, gives to it the meaning of meadow or pasture grass, whereas yava is barley. The Greek \u03b6\u03b5\u03ac or \u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03ac is likewise explained as barley or rye, fodder for horses. See I, 91, 13. g\u00e2\u00b4vah n\u00e1 y\u00e1vaseshu, like cows in meadows.\nNote 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.\nX, 14, 8. s\u00e1m gakkhasva pitr\u00ed-bhih s\u00e1m yam\u00e9na.\nMeet with the fathers, meet with Yama (X, 14, 10; 15, 8).\nX, 14, 7. yam\u00e1m pasy\u00e2si v\u00e1runam ka dev\u00e1m.\nThou wilt see (there) Yama and the divine Varuna.\nX, 165, 4. t\u00e1smai yam\u00e2\u00b4ya n\u00e1mah astu mrity\u00e1ve.\nAdoration to that Yama, to Death!\nWilson: 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.\nBenfey: Wer euch besingt, der sei euch nicht gleichg\u00fcltig, wie das Wild im Gras, nicht wandl\u2019 er auf des Yama Pfad.\n\u00c1goshya is translated insatiable by Professor Goldst\u00fccker.\nNote 1. One of the meanings of n\u00edrriti is sin. It is derived from the same root which yielded rit\u00e1, in the sense of right. N\u00edrriti was conceived, it would seem, as going away from the path of right, the German Vergehen. N\u00edrriti was personified as a power of evil and destruction.\nVII, 104, 9. \u00e1haye v\u00e2 t\u00e2\u00b4n pra-d\u00e1d\u00e2tu s\u00f3mah \u00e2\u00b4 v\u00e2 dadh\u00e2tu n\u00edh-riteh up\u00e1-sthe.\nMay Soma hand them over to Ahi, or place them in the lap of Nirriti.\nI, 117, 5. susupv\u00e2\u00b4msam n\u00e1 n\u00edh-riteh up\u00e1-sthe.\nLike one who sleeps in the lap of Nirriti.\nHere S\u00e2yana explains Nirriti 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.\nWilson treats Nirriti as a male deity, and translates the last words, 'let him perish with our evil desires.'\nNote 2. Pad\u00eesht\u00e1 is formed as an optative of the \u00c2tmanepada, but with the additional s before the t, which, in the ordinary Sanskrit, is restricted to the so-called benedictive (Grammar, \u00a7 385; Bopp, Kritische Grammatik, ed. 1834,\n[paragraph continues] \u00a7 329, note). Pad means originally to go. Thus RV. IX, 73, 9, \u00e1tra kart\u00e1m \u00e1va pad\u00e2ti \u00e1prabhuh, 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 p\u00e2dy \u00e2yushah pur\u00e2, literally, 'may he not go before the time,' but really intended for 'may he not die before the time.' In the Rig-veda pad\u00eesht\u00e1 is generally qualified by some words to show that it is to be taken in malam partem. Thus in our passage, and in III, 53, 21; VII, 104, 16; 17. In I, 79, 11, however, pad\u00eesht\u00e1 s\u00e1h is by itself used in a maledictory sense, pereat, may he perish! In another, VI, 20, 5, p\u00e2\u00b4di by itself conveys the idea of perishing. This may have some weight in determining the origin of the Latin pestis (Corssen, Kritische Beitr\u00e4ge, p. 396), for it shows that, even without prepositions, such as \u00e2 or vi, pad may have an ill-omened meaning. In the Aitareya-br\u00e2hmana 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 Nirriti (sin) after another strike us.'\nNote 1. The only difficult word is av\u00e2t\u00e2\u00b4m. S\u00e2yana 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 dess\u00e9ch\u00e9 faire tomber la pluie sans l\u2019accompagner 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\nthis explanation, though ingenious, and, as I am told, particularly truthful in an eastern climate, is somewhat too artificial. If we changed the accent, \u00e1v\u00e2t\u00e2m, unchecked, unconquered, would be better than av\u00e2t\u00e2\u00b4m, windless. But \u00e1v\u00e2ta, unconquered, does not occur in the Rig-veda, except as applied to persons. It occurs most frequently in the phrase vanv\u00e1n \u00e1v\u00e2tah, which S\u00e2yana explains well by himsan ahimsitah, hurting, but not hurt: (VI, 16, 20; 18, 1; IX, 89, 7.) In IX, 96, 8, we read prit-s\u00fa vanv\u00e1n \u00e1v\u00e2tah, in battles attacking, but not attacked, which renders the meaning of \u00e1v\u00e2ta perfectly clear. In VI, 64, 5, where it is applied to Ushas, it may be translated by unconquerable, intact.\nThere are several passages, however, where av\u00e2ta occurs with the accent on the last syllable, and where it is accordingly explained as a Bahuvr\u00eehi, meaning either windless or motionless, from v\u00e2ta, wind, or from v\u00e2ta, 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 \u00e1v\u00e2ta. Thus in VI, 64, 4, av\u00e2te is clearly a vocative applied to Ushas, who is called \u00e1v\u00e2t\u00e2, unconquerable, in the verse immediately following. In I, 52, 4, the Maruts are called av\u00e2t\u00e2h, which can only be \u00e1v\u00e2t\u00e2h, unconquerable; nor can we hesitate in VIII, 79, 7, to change av\u00e2t\u00e1h into \u00e1v\u00e2tah, as an epithet applied to Soma, and preceded by \u00e1driptakratuh, of unimpaired strength, unconquerable.\nBut even then we find no evidence that \u00e1v\u00e2ta, unconquered, could be applied to rain or to a cloud, and I therefore propose another explanation, though equally founded on the supposition that the accent of av\u00e2t\u00e2m in our passage should be on the first syllable.\nI take v\u00e2ta as a Vedic form instead of the later v\u00e2na, the past participle of vai, to wither. Similarly we find in the Veda g\u00eeta, instead of g\u00eena, the latter form being sanctioned by P\u00e2nini. V\u00e2 means to get dry, to flag, to get exhausted; \u00e1v\u00e2ta 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, S\u00e2yana, too, explains \u00e1v\u00e2ta, as applied to rivers, by asushka, not dry; and the same meaning would\nbe applicable to av\u00e2t\u00e2\u00b4h in I, 62, 10. In this sense of not withered, not dry, \u00e1v\u00e2t\u00e2m in our passage would form a perfectly appropriate epithet of the rain, while neither windless nor unconquered would yield an appropriate sense. In the famous passage, X, 129, 2, \u00e2\u00b4n\u00eet av\u00e2t\u00e1m svadh\u00e1y\u00e2 t\u00e1t \u00e9kam, that only One breathed breathless by itself, av\u00e2t\u00e1m might be taken, in accordance with its accent, as windless or breathless, and the poet may have wished to give this antithetical point to his verse. But \u00e1v\u00e2tam, as an adverb, would here be equally appropriate, and we should then have to translate, 'that only One breathed freely by itself.' Ludwig translates, 'Als treue die blendenden, die st\u00fcrmenden Rudriya auf \u00f6der fl\u00e4che sogar, als brunnen die wolke schaffen.' This presupposes the conjectural reading avat\u00e1m.\nNote 1. The peculiar structure of the metre in the seventh and eighth verses should be noted. Though we may scan\nby 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\nS\u00e2yana: 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.\nWilson: The lightning roars like a parent cow that bellows for its calf, and hence the rain is set free by the Maruts.\nBenfey: Es blitzt\u2014wie eine Kuh br\u00fcllt es\u2014die Mutter folgt dem Kalb gleichsam\u2014wenn ihr Regen losgelassen. (Der Donner folgt dem Blitz, wie eine Kuh ihrem Kalbe.)\nV\u00e2sr\u00e1 as a masculine means a bull, and it is used as a name of the Maruts in some passages, VIII, 7, 3; 7. As\na 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. See I, 39, 9: 'Come to us, Maruts, with your entire help, as lightnings (come to, i. e. seek for) the rain!'\nNote 1. That parg\u00e1nya here and in other places means cloud has been well illustrated by Dr. Bailer, Orient and 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 companion of Indra. See now, 'India, what can it teach us?' p. 183 seq.\nNote 1. S\u00e1dma, as a neuter, means originally a seat, and is frequently used in the sense of altar: IV, 9, 3. s\u00e1h s\u00e1dma p\u00e1ri n\u00eeyate h\u00f3t\u00e2; VII, 18, 22. h\u00f3t\u00e2-iva s\u00e1dma p\u00e1ri emi r\u00e9bhan. It soon, however, assumed the more general meaning of place, as\nX, 1, 1. agn\u00edh bh\u00e2n\u00fan\u00e2 r\u00fasat\u00e2 v\u00edsv\u00e2 s\u00e1dm\u00e2ni apr\u00e2h.\nAgni with brilliant light thou filledst all places.\nIt is lastly used with special reference to heaven and earth, the two s\u00e1dman\u00ee, I, 185, 6; III, 55, 2. In our passage s\u00e1dma p\u00e2\u00b4rthivam is the same as p\u00e2\u00b4rthive s\u00e1dane in VIII, 97, 5. Here the earth is mentioned together with heaven, the sea, and the sky. S\u00e2yana takes s\u00e1dma 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, I; VI, 51, 12. sadm\u00e2\u00b4nam divy\u00e1m.\nNote 1. I have translated v\u00eelu-p\u00e2n\u00edbhih, as if it were v\u00eelup\u00e2nibhih, for this is the right accent of a Bahuvr\u00eehi\ncompound. Thus the first member retains its own accent in prith\u00fa-p\u00e2ni, bh\u00fb\u00b4ri-p\u00e2ni vr\u00edsha-p\u00e2ni, &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. P\u00e2n\u00ed, hand, means, as applied to horses, hoof:\nII, 31, 2. prithivy\u00e2\u00b4h s\u00e2\u00b4nau g\u00e1\u1e45ghananta p\u00e2n\u00ed-bhih.\nWhen they strike with their hoofs on the summit of the earth.\nThis meaning appears still more clearly in such compounds as dravat-p\u00e2ni:\nVIII, 5, 35. hirany\u00e1yena r\u00e1thena drav\u00e1tp\u00e2ni-bhih \u00e1svaih.\nOn a golden chariot, on quick-hoofed horses.\nThe horses of the Maruts, which in our verse are called v\u00eelu-p\u00e2n\u00ed, strong-hoofed, are called VIII, 7, 27. h\u00edranyap\u00e2ni, golden-hoofed:\n\u00e1svaih h\u00edranyap\u00e2ni-bhih d\u00e9v\u00e2sah \u00fbpa gantana.\nOn your golden-hoofed horses come hither, O gods.\nThose who retain the accent of the MSS. ought to translate, 'Maruts, with your strong hands go after the clouds.'\nNote 2. R\u00f3dhasvat\u00ee is explained by S\u00e2yana as river. It does not occur again in the Rig-veda. R\u00f3dhas is enclosure or fence, the bank of a river; but it does not follow that r\u00f3dhasvat, 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 r\u00f3dhasvat\u00ee in the sense of a cloud yet unopened, which is followed or driven on by the Maruts.\nKitr\u00e1, bright or many-coloured, is applied to the clouds, V, 63, 3. kitr\u00e9bhih abhr\u00e1ih.\nNote 3. Roth and Ludwig take \u00e1khidray\u00e2man for a name of horse, which seems right. The word does not occur again in the Rig-veda.\nWilson: Maruts, with strong hands, come along the beautifully-embanked rivers with unobstructed progress.\nBenfey: Mit euren starken H\u00e4nden folgt den hehren eingeschlossnen nach in unerm\u00fcd\u2019tem Gang, Maruts.\nNote 1. Abh\u00ee\u00b4su, rein, does not mean finger in the Rig-veda, though S\u00e2yana frequently explains it so, misled by Y\u00e2ska, who gives abh\u00eesu among the names of finger. Wilson: 'May your fingers be well skilled (to hold the reins).'\nNote 1. Agni is frequently invoked together with the Maruts, and is even called mar\u00fat-sakh\u00e2, the friend of the Maruts, VIII, 92, 14. It seems better, therefore, to refer br\u00e1hmanas p\u00e1tim to Agni, than, with S\u00e2yana, to the host of the Maruts (mar\u00fadganam). Br\u00e1hmanasp\u00e1ti and Br\u00edhasp\u00e1ti 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, I. T\u00e1n\u00e2 is an adverb. meaning constantly, always, for ever. Cf. II, 2, I; VIII. 40, 7.\nWilson: Declare in our presence (priests), with voice attuned to praise Brahmanaspati, Agni, and the beautiful Mitra.\nBenfey: Lass schallen immerfort das Lied zu gr\u00fcssen Brahmanaspati, Agni, Mitra, den herrlichen.\nNote 2. Mitra is never, as far as I know, invoked together with the Maruts, and it is better to take mitr\u00e1m as friend. Besides n\u00e1 cannot be left here untranslated. Ludwig translates, 'beautiful like Mitra,' that is, bright like the sun.\nNote 1. The second sentence is obscure. S\u00e2yana translates: '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, ert\u00f6ne 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 loudness. Tatanah can only be the second person singular of the conjunctive of the reduplicated perfect, of which we\nhave also tat\u00e1nat, tat\u00e1n\u00e2ma, tat\u00e1nan, and tat\u00e1nanta. Tatanah 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. It is said there of a patron that he alone is a king, that all others about the river Sarasvat\u00ee are only small kings, and the poet adds: 'May he spread like a cloud with the rain,' giving hundreds and thousands (parg\u00e1nyah-iva tat\u00e1nat h\u00ed vrishty\u00e2\u00b4). Ludwig takes tan in the sense of thundering; thunder like Parganya!\nNote 1. It is difficult to find an appropriate rendering for ark\u00edn. 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 ark\u00edn in this place the meaning of praising. If it simply meant, possessed of ark\u00e1, i. e. songs of praise, it would be a very lame epithet after panasy\u00fa. But other passages, like I, 19, 4; 52, 15, show that the conception of the Maruts as singers was most familiar to the Vedic Rishis (I, 64, 10; Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. i, p. 521. note); and ark\u00e1 is the very name applied to their songs (I, 19, 4). In the Edda, too, 'storm and thunder are represented 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 and Occident, vol. ii, p. 62; Genthe, Windgottheiten, p. 4; 11. There is no doubt therefore that ark\u00edn here means musician, and that the ark\u00e1 of the Maruts is the music of the winds.\nNote 2. Vriddh\u00e1, literally grown, is used in the Veda as an honorific epithet, with the meaning of mighty, great, or magnified:\nIII, 32, 7. y\u00e1g\u00e2mah \u00edt n\u00e1mas\u00e2 vriddh\u00e1m \u00edndram\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0brih\u00e1ntam rishv\u00e1m ag\u00e1ram y\u00fav\u00e2nam.\nWe worship with praise the mighty Indra, the great, the exalted, the immortal, the vigorous.\nHere neither is vriddh\u00e1 intended to express old age,\nnor y\u00favan young age, but both are meant as laudatory epithets. See Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 91 seq.\nAsan is the so-called Let of as, to be. This Let is properly an imperative, which gradually sinks down to a mere subjunctive, and is generally called so. Of as, we find the following Let forms: belonging to the present, we have \u00e1sasi, II, 26, 2; \u00e1sati, VI, 23, 9; \u00e1sathah, VI, 63, 1; and \u00e1satha, V, 61, 4: belonging to the imperfect, \u00e2sah, VIII, 100, 2; \u00e1sat, I, 9, 5; \u00e1s\u00e2ma, I, 173, 9; \u00e1san, I, 89, 1. \u00c1sam, a form quoted by Roth from Rig-veda X, 27, 4, is really \u00e2\u00b4sam.\nWe find, for instance, \u00e1sah, with an imperative or optative meaning, in\nVIII, 100, 2. \u00e1sah ka tv\u00e1m dakshinat\u00e1h s\u00e1kh\u00e2 me\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00e1dha vritr\u00e2\u00b4ni \u00e2\u00b4 ga\u1e45ghan\u00e2va bh\u00fb\u00b4ri.\nAnd be thou my friend on my right hand, and we shall kill many enemies.\nHere we see the transition of meaning from an imperative 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.'\nX, 124, I. im\u00e1m nah agne \u00fapa yag\u00f1\u00e1m \u00e2\u00b4 ihi\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00e1sah havya-v\u00e2\u00b4t ut\u00e1 nah purah-g\u00e2\u00b4h.\nHere we have the imperative ihi and the Let \u00e1sah used in the same sense.\nFar more frequently, however, \u00e1sah is used in relative sentences, such as,\nVI, 36, 5. \u00e1sah y\u00e1th\u00e2 nah s\u00e1vas\u00e2 kak\u00e2n\u00e1h.\nThat thou mayest be ours, delighting in strength.\nVII, 24, 1. \u00e1sah y\u00e1th\u00e2 nah avit\u00e2\u00b4 vridh\u00e9 ka.\nThat thou mayest be our helper and for our increase.\nSee also X, 44, 4; 85, 26; 36.\nWilson: May they be exalted by this our worship.\nBenfey: M\u00f6gen die Hohen hier bei uns sein.","title":"Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32): Vedic Hymns: I, 38. To the Maruts (The Storm-gods)","type":"page"}