{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe32/sbe3225.htm","path":"hin/sbe32/sbe3225.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe32/sbe3225.htm","text":"Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32), by Max M\u00fcller, [1891]\n1. Come hither, Maruts, on your chariots charged with lightning, resounding with beautiful songs 1, stored with spears, and winged with horses! Fly 3 to us like birds, with your best food 2, you mighty ones!\n2. They come gloriously on their red, or, it may be, on their tawny horses which hasten their chariots. He who holds the axe 1 is brilliant like gold;\u2014with the tire 2 of the chariot they have struck the earth.\n3. On your bodies there are daggers for beauty; may they stir up our minds 1 as they stir up the forests. For yourselves, O well-born Maruts, the vigorous (among you) shake 2 the stone (for distilling Soma).\n4. Days went round you and came back 1, 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.\n5. No such hymn 1 was ever known as this which Gotama sounded for you, O Maruts, when he saw you on golden wheels, wild boars 2 rushing about with iron tusks.\n6. 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.\nThis hymn is ascribed to Gotama, the son of Rah\u00fbgana. The metre varies. Verses 1 and 6 are put down as Prast\u00e2ra-pa\u1e45kti, i. e. as 12 + 12 + 8 + 8. 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:\n[paragraph continues] Again verse 6:\n[paragraph continues] 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 irregularities. The first verse would scan:\n[paragraph continues] And verse 6:\n[paragraph continues] Our only difficulty would be the termination bhih of rishtimat-bhih. I cannot adopt Professor Kuhn's suggestion to drop the Visarga of bhih and change i into y (Beitr\u00e4ge, vol. iv, p. 198), for this would be a license without any parallel. It is different with sah, originally sa, or with feminines in ih, where parallel forms in \u00ee are intelligible. The simplest correction would be to read r\u0103th\u0113bh\u012bh y\u00e2\u0304ta \u0304\u0361risht\u012d-m\u0101ntah \u0304\u0361asv\u0103-p\u0101rnaih. One might urge in support of this reading that in all other passages where rishtimat 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?\nIn the two G\u00e2yatr\u00ee p\u00e2das which follow I feel equally reluctant to alter. I therefore scan\ntaking the dactyl of paptata as representing a spondee, and admitting the exception\u00e0l bacchius instead of the amphimacer at the end of the line.\nThe last line of verse 6 should be scanned:\nThere are two other verses in this hymn where the metre is difficult. In the last p\u00e2da 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 Anukraman\u00ees distinctly state that this fifth verse is vir\u00e2dr\u00fbp\u00e2, i. e. that one of its p\u00e2das consists of eight syllables. How they would have made eight syllables out of vi-dh\u00e2vatah var\u00e2h\u00fbn does not appear, but at all events they knew that last p\u00e2da to be imperfect. The rhythm does not suffer by this omission, as long as we scan v\u012d-dh\u00e2\u0304v\u0103t\u0101h v\u0103r\u00e2\u0304h\u00fb\u0304n.\nLastly, there is the third p\u00e2da of the second verse, rukmah na kitrah svadhiti-v\u00e2n. It would not be possible to get eleven syllables out of this, unless we admitted vy\u00fbha not only in sv\u0306\u0103dh\u012dt\u012dv\u00e2\u0304n or sv\u0306\u0103dh\u012dt\u00ee\u0304-v\u00e2\u0304n, but also in k\u012dtr\u0103h\u0304. Kuhn (Beitr\u00e4ge, vol. iv, p. 192) proposes to scan rukma\u00fc na kitarah svadhitiv\u00e2n. Nothing would be easier than to insert esh\u00e2m after kitrah, but the question occurs again, how could esh\u00e2m be lost, or why, if by some accident it had been lost, was not so obvious a correction made by Saunaka and K\u00e2ty\u00e2yana?\nNo verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV., TS., TB.\nNote 1. Alluding to the music of the Maruts, and not to the splendour of the lightning which is mentioned before. See Wolf, Beitr\u00e4ge zur Deutschen Mythologie, vol. ii, p. 137. 'Das Ross and den Wagen des Gottes begleitet munterer H\u00f6rnerschall, entweder st\u00f6sst er selbst ins Horn,\noder sein Gefolge. Oft vernimmt man auch eine liebliche Musik, der keine auf Erden gleich kommt (M\u00fcllenhof, 582). Das wird das Pfeifen and Heulen des Sturmes sein, nur in idealisirter Art.' Ibid. p. 158.\nNote 2. V\u00e1rshishtha, which is generally explained as the superlative of vriddha, old (P\u00e2n. VI, 4, 157), has in most passages of the Rig-veda the more general meaning of strong or excellent: VI, 47, 9. \u00edsham \u00e2\u00b4 vakshi ish\u00e2\u00b4m v\u00e1rshishth\u00e2m; III, 13, 7 (v\u00e1su); III, 26, 8 (r\u00e1tna); III, 16, 3 (ra\u00ed); IV, 31, 15; VIII, 46, 24 (sr\u00e1vah); IV, 22, 9 (nrimn\u00e1); V, 67, 1 (kshatr\u00e1); VI, 45, 31 (m\u00fbrdh\u00e1n). In some passages, however, it may be taken in the sense of oldest (I, 37, 6; V, 7, 1), though by no means necessarily. V\u00e1rshishtha is derived in reality from vr\u00edshan, in the sense of strong, excellent. See note to I, 85, 12, page 144.\nNote 3. Paptata, the second person plural of the imperative of what is commonly, though without much reason, called the aorist of the causative of pat. It is curiously like the Greek \u03c0\u03af\u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03b5, but it has the meaning of flying rather than falling; see Curtius, Grundz\u00fcge, p. 190. Two other forms formed on the same principle occur in the Rig-veda, paptah and paptan:\nII, 31, 1. pr\u00e1 y\u00e1t v\u00e1yah n\u00e1 p\u00e1ptan.\nThat they may fly to us like birds.\nVI, 63, 6. pr\u00e1 v\u00e2m v\u00e1yah\u2014\u00e1nu paptan.\nMay your birds fly after you.\nX, 95, 15. p\u00far\u00fbravah m\u00e2\u00b4 mrith\u00e2h m\u00e2\u00b4 pr\u00e1 paptah.\nPur\u00fbravas, do not die, do not go away!\nNote 1. Though svadhiti-v\u00e2n 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:\nIII, 2, 10. sv\u00e1-dhitim n\u00e1 t\u00e9gase.\nThey adorned Agni like an axe to shine or to cut.\nThe sv\u00e1dhiti 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,\npossibly the oak, and he translates svadhitiv\u00e2n in our passage by a chariot made of the wood of the Svadhiti tree. In RV. IX, 96, 6, sv\u00e1dhitir v\u00e1n\u00e2n\u00e2m may well mean 'the strong axe among woods,' the axe being naturally made of the strongest wood. In V, 32, 10, a dev\u00ee\u00b4 sv\u00e1dhitih is mentioned, possibly the lightning, the companion of Indra and the Maruts.\nNote 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:\nV, 52, 9. ut\u00e1 pavy\u00e2\u00b4 r\u00e1th\u00e2n\u00e2m \u00e1drim bhindanti \u00f3gas\u00e2.\nThey cut the mountain (cloud) with the tire of their chariots.\nI, 166, 10. pav\u00edshu kshur\u00e2\u00b4h \u00e1dhi.\nOn their tires are sharp edges.\nIn 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 elsewhere the tires or the wheels of chariots were ever used as weapons of attack, as detached from the chariot; (see M. M., On Pav\u00eerava, in Beitr\u00e4ge zur Vergleichenden Sprachforschung, 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.)\nNote 1. That the v\u00e2\u00b4s\u00ees are small weapons, knives or daggers, we saw before, p. 71. S\u00e2yana here explains v\u00e2\u00b4s\u00ee by a weapon commonly called \u00e2ra, or an awl. In X, 101, 10, v\u00e2\u00b4s\u00ees are mentioned, made of stone, asman-m\u00e1y\u00ee.\nThe difficulty begins with the second half. Medh\u00e2\u00b4, as here written in the Pada text, could only be a plural of\na neuter medh\u00e1, but such a neuter does nowhere exist in the Veda. We only find the masculine m\u00e9dha, sacrifice, which is out of the question here, on account of its accent. Hence the passage III, 58, 2, \u00fbrdhv\u00e2\u00b4h bhavanti pit\u00e1r\u00e2-iva m\u00e9dh\u00e2h, is of no assistance, unless we alter the accent. The feminine medh\u00e2\u00b4 means will, thought, prayer: I, 18, 6; II, 34, 7; IV, 33, 10; V, 27, 4; 42, 13; VII, 104, 6; VIII, 6, 10; 52, 9; IX, 9, 9; 26, 3; 32, 6; 65, 16; 107, 25; X, 91, 8. The construction does not allow us to take medh\u00e2\u00b4 as a Vedic instrumental instead of medh\u00e1y\u00e2, nor does such a form occur anywhere else in the Rig-veda. Nothing remains, I believe, but to have recourse to conjecture, and the addition of a single Visarga in the Pada would remove all difficulty. In the next line, if tuvi-dyumn\u00e2\u00b4sah be the subject, it would signify the priests. This, however, is again without any warrant from the Rig-veda, where tuvi-dyumn\u00e1 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 marutah su-g\u00e2t\u00e2h. The conception that the Maruts stir up the forests is not of unfrequent occurrence in the Rig-veda cf. I, 171, 3. That \u00fbrdhv\u00e1 is used of the mind, in the sense of roused, may be seen in I, 119, 2; 134, I; 144, 1; 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.\nNote 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, because it is a divine rather than a human epithet. Still, the passage is doubtful.\nNote 1. The first question is, which is the subject, \u00e1h\u00e2ni\nor gr\u00eddhr\u00e2h? If gr\u00eddhr\u00e2h were the subject, then we should have to translate it by the eager poets, and take \u00e1h\u00e2ni in the sense of visv\u00e2 ah\u00e2ni. 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 rendering. First, gr\u00eddhr\u00e2h, though metaphorically applicable to poets, never occurs again as signifying poets or priests. One passage only could be quoted in support, IX, 97, 57, kav\u00e1yah n\u00e1 gr\u00eddhr\u00e2h (not gridhr\u00e2\u00b4h), like greedy poets. But even here, if indeed the translation is right, the adjective is explained by kav\u00ed, and does not stand by itself. Secondly, \u00e1h\u00e2ni 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 \u00e1h\u00e2ni as a totally different word, viz. as \u00e1 + h\u00e2ni, without ceasing, without wearying, would be too bold in the present state of Vedic interpretation. If then we take \u00e1h\u00e2ni as the subject, gr\u00eddhr\u00e2h would have to be taken as a vocative, and intended for the Maruts. Now, it is perfectly true, that by itself gr\u00eddhra, hawk, does not occur again as a name of the Maruts, but syen\u00e1, 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:\nVII, 56, 3. abh\u00ed sva-p\u00fb\u00b4bhih mith\u00e1h vapanta v\u00e2\u00b4ta-svanasah syen\u00e2\u00b4h aspridhran.\nThey plucked each other with their beaks (?), the hawks, rushing like the wind, strove together.\nAguh might be the aorist of gai, to sing, or of g\u00e2, to go:\nI, 174, 8. s\u00e1n\u00e2 t\u00e2\u00b4 te indra n\u00e1vy\u00e2h \u00e2\u00b4 aguh.\nNew poets, O Indra, sang these thy old deeds.\nIII, 56, 2. g\u00e2\u00b4vah \u00e2\u00b4 aguh.\nThe cows approached.\nIf 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, im\u00e2\u00b4m dh\u00edyam v\u00e2rk\u00e2ry\u00e2\u00b4m ka dev\u00ee\u00b4m, or whether these words are to be joined to krinv\u00e1ntah, like br\u00e1hma. The meaning of\nv\u00e2rk\u00e2ry\u00e2\u00b4 is, of course, unknown. S\u00e2yana'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 v\u00e2rk\u00e2ry\u00e2\u00b4 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 v\u00e2rk\u00e2ry\u00e2\u00b4, in order to give the meaning of rain-producing. It might have been kark\u00e2rya, glorious, or the song of a poet called V\u00e2rkara, or, as Ludwig suggests, Vrik\u00e2ri. The most likely supposition is that v\u00e2rk\u00e2ry\u00e2\u00b4 was the name given to some famous hymn, some p\u00e6an or song of triumph belonging to the Gotamas, possibly to some verses of the very hymn before us. In this case the epithet dev\u00ee\u00b4 would be quite appropriate, for it is frequently used for a sacred or sacrificial song: IV, 43, 2: dev\u00ee\u00b4m su-stut\u00edm; III, i 8, 3. im\u00e2\u00b4m dh\u00edyam sata-s\u00e9y\u00e2ya dev\u00ee\u00b4m. See, however, the note to verse 6.\nThe 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.\nSee another explanation in Haug, \u00dcber die urspr\u00fcngliche Bedeutung des Wortes Brahma, 1868, p. 5.\nNote 1. Y\u00f3gana commonly means a chariot:\nVI, 62, 6. aren\u00fb-bhih y\u00f3ganebhih bhug\u00e1nt\u00e2.\nYou who possess dustless chariots.\nVIII, 72, 6. \u00e1sva-vat y\u00f3ganam brih\u00e1t.\nThe great chariot with horses.\nIt then became the name for a distance to be accomplished 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.\nIn our passage, however, y\u00f3gana means a hymn, lit. a composition, which is clearly its meaning in\nVIII, 90, 3. br\u00e1hma te indra girvanah kriy\u00e1nte \u00e1natidbhut\u00e2, im\u00e2\u00b4 gushasva hari-asva y\u00f3gan\u00e2 \u00edndra y\u00e2\u00b4 te \u00e1manmahi.\nUnequalled prayers are made for thee, praiseworthy Indra; accept these hymns which we have devised for thee, O Indra with bright horses!\nNote 2. Var\u00e2\u00b4hu has here the same meaning as var\u00e2h\u00e1, wild boar (VIII, 77, 10; X, 28, 4). It occurs once more, I, 121, 11, as applied to Vritra, who is also called var\u00e2h\u00e1, I, 61, 7; X, 99, 6. In X, 67, 7, vr\u00edsha-bhih var\u00e2\u00b4haih (with the accent on the penultimate) is intended for the Maruts a. Except in this passage, var\u00e2ha has the accent on the last syllable. In IX, 97, 7, var\u00e2h\u00e1 is applied to Soma.\nThis last verse is almost unintelligible to me. I give, however, the various attempts that have been made to explain it.\nWilson: 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.\nBenfey: Dies Lied\u2014Maruts!\u2014das hinter euch emporstrebt, es klingt zur\u00fcck gleich eines Beters Stimme. M\u00fchlos schuf solche Lieder er, entsprechend eurer Arme Kraft. (Note: Der zum Himmel schallende Lobgesang findet seinen Widerhall (wirklich, 'bebt zur\u00fcck') in dem Sturmgeheul\nder Maruts, welches mit dem Geheul des Betenden verglichen wird.)\nLudwig: Dises lied, o Marut, euch unterst\u00fctzend (aufnemend) als eines priesters braust euch entgegen, nachbrausen hat es gemacht ohne m\u00fche in (die) der n\u00e4he die g\u00f6ttliche weise (ihrer) arme.\nMy 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 v\u00e2rk\u00e2ry\u00e2 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-bhartr\u00ee\u00b4 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:\nIX, 71, 3. \u00e1dri-bhih sut\u00e1h pavate g\u00e1bhastyoh.\nThe Soma squeezed by the stones runs from the hands.\nThe translation would then be: O Maruts, this comforting 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.\nOn svadh\u00e2\u00b4, see p. 32.\n177:a See Genthe, Die Windgottheiten, 186 1, p.14; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 689. Grimm mentions ebur\u00f0rung (boar-throng) as a name of Orion, the star that betokens storm.","title":"Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32): Vedic Hymns: I, 88. To the Maruts (the Storm-gods)","type":"page"}