{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe32/sbe3243.htm","path":"hin/sbe32/sbe3243.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe32/sbe3243.htm","text":"Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32), by Max M\u00fcller, [1891]\n1. Who are you, O men, the very best, who have approached one by one, from the furthest distance 1?\n2. Where are your horses, where the bridles? How could you, how did you come?\u2014the seat on the back, the rein in the nostrils?\n3. Their goad is on the croup 1, the heroes stretched their legs apart 2\u2026\n4. Move along, heroes, young men, the sons of an excellent mother 1, so that you may warm yourselves at our fire 2.\n5. (1.) May the woman, if she stretched out her arm 1 as a rest for the hero, praised by Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva 2, gain cattle consisting of horses, cows, and a hundred sheep.\n6. (2.) Many a woman is even more often kindlier than a godless and miserly man,\n7. (3.) A woman who finds out the weak, the thirsty, the needy, and is mindful of the gods.\n8. (4.) Even though many an unpraiseworthy miser (Pani) is called a man, she is worth as much in weregild.\n9. (5.) Also the young woman joyfully whispered to me, to Sy\u00e2va, the road,\u2014and the two bays went straight to Purum\u00eelha 1, the wise, the far-famed,\n10. (6.) Who gave me a hundred cows, like Vaidadasvi, like Taranta, in magnificence.\n11. (1.) The Maruts, who drive on their quick horses, drinking the delightful mead, have gained glory here;\n12. (2.) They on whose chariots Rodas\u00ee 1 glitters in glory 2, like the golden disk above in heaven;\n13. (3.) That youthful company of the Maruts, with blazing chariots, blameless, triumphant, irresistible.\n14. (4.) Who now knows of them where the strikers rejoice, the well-born, the faultless?\n15. (5.) You who are fond of praise, become the leaders of the mortal, listening to his imploring invocations, thus is my thought 1.\n16. (6.) Bring then to us delightful and resplendent 1 treasures, ye worshipful Maruts, destroyers of enemies.\n17. (1.) O night, like a charioteer, carry away this hymn to D\u00e2rbhya, and these songs, O goddess.\n18. (2.) And then tell him thus from me, 'When Rathav\u00eeti offers Soma, my desire never goes away from me.'\n19. (3.) That mighty Rathav\u00eeti dwells among people rich in cattle 1, retired among the mountains.\nThis hymn is of a very composite nature. It is addressed to the Maruts by Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva. According to the Anukraman\u00ee, however, the Maruts are addressed in vv. 1-4, 11-16 only; vv. 5-8 are addressed to Sas\u00eeyas\u00ee Tarantamahish\u00ee, 9 to Purum\u00eelha Vaidadasvi, 10 to Taranta Vaidadasvi, 17-19 to Rathav\u00eeti D\u00e2rbhya. None of the verses occurs in SV., VS., AV., TS., TB., MS. Metre, 1-4, 6-8, 10-19 G\u00e2yatr\u00ee; 5 Anushtubh; 9 Satobrihat\u00ee.\nIt has been pointed out that in the hymns addressed to the Maruts beginning with V, 52, and ending with V, 60, there is the usual decrease in the number of verses of each successive hymn, viz. 17, 16, 15, 10, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8. Our hymn, however, which is the last in the collection of hymns addressed by Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva to the Maruts, breaks the rule, and it has been suggested with great plausibility that it contains a number of verses thrown together at random. Possibly the four verses in the beginning formed an independent hymn, addressed to the Maruts, and again 5-10, and 11-16, followed by an appendix, 17-19. These verses refer to a legend which will have to be discussed at verse 5.\nNote 1. As to param\u00e1sy\u00e2h par\u00e2v\u00e1tah, see TS. IV, 1, 9, 3, where we also find (IV, 1, 9, 2) p\u00e1rasy\u00e2 \u00e1dhi samv\u00e1tah.\nNote 1. Gagh\u00e1ne, like gaghanatah, may mean simply behind, as agre and agratah mean before.\nNote 2. It is clear that the Maruts are here supposed to sit astride on their horses. This is also shown by prishth\u00e9 s\u00e1das (v. 2), and by putrakrith\u00e9 n\u00e1 g\u00e1nayah, they stretched out their legs, \u1f61\u03c2 \u03b3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u1fd6\u03ba\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5\u03ba\u03bd\u03bf\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03af\u1fb3. Zimmer (p. 230) says, 'Zum Reiten wurde das Ross nicht benutzt.' On p. 295 he modifies this by saying, 'Keine einzige klare Stelle des Rig-veda ist mir bekannt, wo das Reiten beim Kampfe erw\u00e4hnt wurde; man f\u00e4hrt immer zu Wagen, wie die Griechen in homerischen Zeiten.'\nNote 1. Bh\u00e1drag\u00e2nayah, generally rendered by 'possessed of beautiful wives,' seems really to mean 'possessed of an excellent mother.' G\u00e2ni clearly means mother, when Agni dvim\u00e2t\u00e2, having two mothers, is called dvig\u00e2nih; for it is never said that he has two wives. Besides, the Maruts are constantly addressed as the sons of their mother, Prisni, while their wives are mentioned but rarely. However, the other meaning is not impossible. See also Bergaigne, II, 387 seq.\nNote 2. The fire here intended is, I suppose, the sacrificial fire, to which the Maruts are here invited as they had been in former hymns.\nNote 1. Ludwig compares the A. S. expression healsgebedde; see also RV. X, 10, 10.\nNote 2. I have very little belief in the legends which are told in the Br\u00e2hmanas and in the Anukraman\u00ee in illustration of certain apparently personal and historical allusions in the hymns of the Veda. It is clear in many cases that they are made up from indications contained in the hymns. as in IX, 58, 3, and it seems best therefore to forget them altogether in interpreting the words of the Vedic hymns.\nThe story told in the introductory verses, quoted by S\u00e2yana, is this:\u2014'Arkan\u00e2nas \u00c2treya was chosen by Rathav\u00eeti D\u00e2rbhya to be his Ritvig priest. At the sacrifice Arkan\u00e2nas saw the daughter of Rathav\u00eeti and asked her in marriage for his son Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva. Rathav\u00eeti consulted his wife, but she declined on the ground that no daughter of theirs had ever been given to a man who was not a poet (Rishi). Thereupon Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva performed penance, and travelled about collecting alms. He thus came to Sas\u00eeyas\u00ee, who recommended him, as a Rishi, to her husband, king Taranta. King Taranta was very generous to him, and sent him on to his younger brother, Purum\u00eelha. On his way to Purum\u00eelha, Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva saw the Maruts, and composed a hymn in their praise (vv. 11-16). He had thus become a real poet or Rishi, and on returning home, he received from Rathav\u00eeti his daughter in marriage.'\nSaunaka confirms the same story, see S\u00e2yana's commentary to V, 61, 17. Here therefore we have to deal with two princely brothers, both Vaidadasvis, namely Taranta and Purum\u00eelha. They both give presents to Sy\u00e2v\u00e2sva, who is a Br\u00e2hmana, and he marries the daughter of another prince, Rathav\u00eeti D\u00e2rbhya.\nIn the T\u00e2ndya-Br\u00e2hmana, however, XIII, 7, 12, another story is told, which I quoted in my edition of the Rig-veda at IX, 58, 3 (vol. v, p. xxxiii). Here Dhvasra and Purushanti are introduced as wishing to give presents to the two Vaidadasvis, Taranta and Purum\u00eelha. These hesitate for a while, because they have no right to accept a present without deserving it or having done something for it. They then compose a hymn in praise of Dhvasra and Purushanti, and after that feel justified in accepting their present.\nHere therefore the Vaidadasvis are receivers, not givers of presents, therefore of princely, not, as has been supposed, of priestly rank, and this would agree better with the words of verse 9, purum\u00eelh\u00e2\u00b4ya v\u00edpr\u00e2ya. See on all this Oldenberg in Z. D. M. G. XLII, p. 232.\nIf we accept this story, we have to take s\u00e1s\u00eeyas\u00ee in verse 6 as a proper name.\nBut s\u00e1s\u00eeyas\u00ee may be a comparative of sas-vat (see B.-R. s. v.), and would then mean, more frequent. We expect, no doubt, an adverb rather like sasvat, but a feminine corresponding to v\u00e1syas\u00ee is perhaps admissible. In that case we should have simply to deal with some woman, tv\u00e2 str\u00ee\u00b4, who, as the poet says, is as good as, if not better than, many a man.\nThis verse is very obscure. S\u00e2yana translates: 'And the other half (the husband of Sas\u00eeyas\u00ee, viz. Taranta) is a man not praised (enough), thus I, the poet, say: and that Taranta is equal or just in the giving of wealth.' Grassmann translates: 'Und dagegen ist mancher nicht lobenswerth geizig, der ein Mann sich nennt, ein solcher ist der Strafe verfallen.' Ludwig: 'Auch mancher halbmensch,\nungepriesen, der \u201cmensch\u201d zwar heiszt, doch ein Pani ist, der ist auf b\u00f6se gabe nur bedacht.'\nThe first light that was thrown on this verse came from Prof. Roth. He showed (Z. D. M. G. XLI, p. 673) that vairadeya means weregild, the German wergelt, the price to be given for a man killed. Vaira would here be derived from v\u00eera, man, the Goth. wa\u00edr, the Latin vir, and vairadeya would mean what is to be given as the value of a man. Still I doubt whether Prof. Roth has discovered the true meaning of the verse. He translates: 'So ist auch mancher Mann nicht zu loben, mehr ein Pani (unfromm, gegen die G\u00f6tter karg, zugleich Bezeichnung habs\u00fcchtiger D\u00e4monen), obschon man ihn einen Menschen nennt\u2014nur am Wergeld steht er den andern gleich.' I confess I do not see much point in this. It is quite clear that the poet praises a charitable woman, and wishes to say that she is sometimes better than a man, if he gives nothing. Now the weregild, if we may say so, for women was generally, though not always, less than that for men, and I therefore propose to read s\u00e2\u00b4 va\u00edradeye \u00edt sam\u00e2\u00b4, and translate: 'Even though many an unpraiseworthy miser (Pani) is called man, she is like him in weregild, i. e. she is worth as much, even though she is a woman.' On uta, see Delbr\u00fcck, Syntaktische Forschungen, V, p. 528.\nNote 1. Purum\u00eelha is here clearly the man from whom benefits are expected, and therefore could not be the same as Purum\u00eelha Vaidadasvi, mentioned by the commentator, who accepted gifts from Dhvasra and Purushanti. Nor can Taranta Vaidadasvi in the next verse be taken for a recipient, but only for a giver, and therefore, most likely, a prince. The whole story, however, is by no means clear, and I doubt whether the commentator drew his information from any source except his own brain.\nI agree with Ludwig that a new hymn begins with verse 11.\nNote 1. I have adopted the reading Rodas\u00ee\u00b4 vibhr\u00e2\u00b4gate in my translation; cf. VI, 66, 6, where Rodas\u00ee is compared with a r\u00f3kah.\nNote 2. Roth (K. Z. XXVI, 51) takes sriy\u00e2\u00b4dhi as sriy\u00e1s \u00e1dhi, but such a sandhi has not yet been established in the hymns of the Rig-veda, see Oldenberg, Proleg. p. 459, Anm. 1. Oldenberg himself suggests sr\u00edy\u00f3\u093ddhi, and would translate, 'They whose charms shine over the two worlds on their chariots.' Pischel (Ved. Stud. p. 54) translates y\u00e9sh\u00e2m sriy\u00e2\u00b4 by 'for whose sake.'\nNote 1. On itth\u00e2\u00b4 dhiy\u00e2\u00b4, see Pischel, Ved. Stud. p. 184.\nNote 1. The Pada ought to have puru-kandr\u00e2\u00b4, as suggested by Grassmann and Ludwig.\nThese verses are very peculiar, and may refer to historical events, for D\u00e2lbhya or D\u00e2rbhya and Rathav\u00eeti sound like real names. Of course the Indian commentators are never at a loss to tell us what it all refers to, but we can never say how little they knew, and how much they invented. The invocation of \u00dbrmy\u00e2, if it is meant for the Night, and the request that she may convey the hymn to D\u00e2rbhya, is different from the usual style of the hymns. See, however, VIII, 24, 28, and Oldenberg, Z. D. M. G. XXXIX, 89.\nThe following names, occurring in our hymn, have the sanction of the Anukraman\u00ee: Sas\u00eeyas\u00ee Tarantamahish\u00ee (V, 61, 5; 8), Purum\u00eelha Vaidadasvi (V, 61, 9), Taranta Vaidadasvi (V, 61, 10), Rathav\u00eeti D\u00e2lbhya (V, 61, 17-19). There is another Purum\u00eelha, a Sauhotra, in IV, 43, and a Purum\u00eelha \u00c2\u1e45girasa in VIII, 71.\nNote 1. See Oldenberg, Z. D. M. G. XXXIX, 89. He corrects g\u00f3mat\u00eeh to g\u00f3mat\u00eem, the name of a river, mentioned in a very similar way in VIII, 24, 30.","title":"Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32): Vedic Hymns: V, 61. To the M...","type":"page"}