krilāḥ śiśūlāḥ na krilayaḥ sumātaraḥ | vatsāso na prakrilinaḥ | i. 166, 2; vii. 56, 16; x. 78, 6). They are thus apostrophized in v. 54, 11: añseshu vaḥ ṛishṭayaḥ patsu khādayo vakshassu rukmāḥ Maruto rathe subhaḥ agnibhrajăso vidyuto gabhastyoḥ śiprāḥ sirshashu vitatāḥ hiranyayiḥ "Spears rest upon your shoulders, ye Maruts; ye have anklets on your feet, golden ornaments on your breasts, lustre in your cars, fiery lightnings in your hands, and golden helmets 234 placed upon your

234 In ii. 34, 3, the epithet of hiranya-siprāḥ is applied to these deities. This Sayana explains by suvarnamaya-sirastrāṇāḥ, "with golden helmets." That one sense of siprā (feminine) is "a head-dress, or a helmet," is settled by the verse in the text, v. 54, 11, where the words are s'iprāḥ sīrshasu vitatāḥ hiranyayiḥ, "golden helmets are stretched or (placed) upon your heads;" and also by viii. 7, 25, where it is said, s'iprāḥ śīrshan hiranyayiḥ ... vyanjata ériye, "they displayed for ornament golden helmets on their heads." In the first of these passages, Sayana interprets siprāḥ as meaning a turban,' in the second a 'helmet.' It thus appears that s'iprāḥ, in these texts at least, must mean something external to the head, and not a feature of the face as sipra is often interpreted, when applied to Indra. Thus susipra is explained by Sayana on i. 9, 3, as meaning sobhana-hano śobhana-nāsika vā, “having handsome jaws, or a handsome nose;" since Yaska, he says, makes sipra to mean one or other of these two parts of the face (Nirukta, vi. 17). The same explanation is given by Sayana on i. 29, 2; i. 81, 4; and i. 101, 10. On iii. 30, 3, however, the same commentator says: sipra-sabdena sirastrāṇam abhidhīyate | śobhana-sirastrānopetaḥ| yadvā sobhana-hanuman | "By the word sipra, a helmet is signified. Susipra therefore means' having a handsome helmet,' or it means 'having handsome jaws.' On iii, 32, 3; iii. 36, 10; viii. 32, 4, 24; viii. 33, 7; viii. 55, 4; he returns to the latter interpretation. On viii. 17, 4; viii. 81, 4; viii. 82, 12; he again gives the alternative explanation as on iii. 30, 3. Professor Aufrecht has favoured me with a note on the subject of the word s'ipra and its derivatives, of which the following are the most important parts: S'ipra in the dual means jaws (i. 101, 10; iii. 32, 1; v. 36, 2; viii. 65, 10; x. 96, 9; x. 105, 5). Sipravat means having large jaws" (vi. 17, 2). S'iprin means the same, and is used only of Indra (i. 29, 2; i. 84, 1; iii. 36, 10, etc. etc.). S'iprini, as Professor Aufrecht considers, means "a draught (imbibed by the jaws);" and he translates i. 30, 11, thus: "(Partake, our friend, wielder of the thunderbolt, of the draughts of us thy friends the soma-drinkers, thou who art fond of Soma." S'iprnivat (x. 105, 5) will thus be "he who possesses the draught." Siprāḥ in v. 54, 11, and viii. 7, 25, are visors," the two parts of which are compared to two jaws. Ayaḥ-s'ipra, used of the Ṛibhus (iv. 37, 4) will consequently mean "having iron visors." The word occurs in other compounds, to which I need not here refer. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the armour of India to know whether anything like a visor was or is used by warriors in that country. It is, however, customary for the Hindus in particular circumstances (as for protection from the heat, and also from the cold, and for purposes of disguise) to wear their turbans not only wrapped horizontally round their heads, but also to tie another cloth perpendicularly under their chins and over the tops of their heads, thus enclosing the sides of their faces. This is called in the vernacular Hindi dhāṭhā bāndhnā. The word dhatha is explained in Shakespear's Hindustani Dictionary, s.v. as "a handkerchief tied over the turband and over the

ears."

66

66

235

heads." Compare i. 64, 4; i. 166, 10; ii. 34, 2, 3 (dyāvo na stṛibhiś chitayanta khādinaḥ | "adorned with rings, they were conspicuous like the sky with its stars "); v. 53, 4 (where, in addition to their ornaments and their weapons, they are said to have been decorated with garlands: ye anjishu ye vāśīshu svabhānavaḥ srakshu rukmeshu khādishu | śrāyāḥ ratheshu dhanvasu); v. 55, 1; v. 57, 5, 6 (every glory is manifested in their bodies: viśvā vaḥ śrīr adhi tanūshu pipiśe); v. 58, 2 (khādihastam); vii. 56, 11, 13 (amseshu vo Marutaḥ khādayaḥ 1 on your shoulders, Maruts, are rings "); viii. 7, 25; viii. 20, 4 (śubhrakhādayaḥ), 11, 22; x. 78, 2. They are armed with golden weapons, and with lightnings. dart thunderbolts, gleam like flames of fire, and are borne along with the fury of boisterous winds (vidyunmahaso naro aśmadidyavo vātatvisho Marutaḥ, v. 54, 3); viii. 7, 4, 17, 32 (vajrahastaiḥ... marudbhiḥ... hiranyavasibhiḥ); x. 78, 2, 3 (vātāso na ye dhunayo jigatnavo agnīnām na jihvāḥ virokinaḥ); they split Vrittra into fragments (viii. 7, 23: vi vṛittram parvaso yayuḥ); they are clothed with rain (varshanirnijaḥ, v. 57, 4); they create darkness even during the day, with the rain-clouds distribute showers all over the world, water the earth, and avert heat i. 38, 9 (divā chit tamaḥ kṛinvanti parjanyena udavāhena | yat prithivīm vyundanti); v. 54, 1 (śardhāya mārutāya .. gharma-stubhe); v. 55, 5 (ud irayatha Marutaḥ samudrato yūyam vṛishtim varshayatha purīshinaḥ); viii. 7, 4 (vapanti maruto miham | 16. ye drapsāḥ iva rodasi dhamanti anu vṛishṭibhiḥ).236 They open up a path for the sun, viii. 7, 8 (srijanti raśmim ojasā panthām sūryāya yatave). They cause the mountains, the earth, and both the worlds to quake, i. 39, 5 (pra vepayanti parvatān); i. 87, 3 (rejate bhūmiḥ); v. 54, 1, 3 (parvatachyutaḥ); v. 60, 2 f. (vo bhiya prithivi chid rejate parvataś chit | parvataś chin mahi vṛiddho bibhāya divaś chit sānu rejate svane vah); vii. 57, 1 (ye rejayanti rodasi chid urvi); viii. 7, 4; viii. 20, 5. They rend trees, and, like wild elephants, they devour the forests, i. 39, 5; i. 64, 7 (vi vinchanti vanaspatin | mṛigāḥ iva hastinaḥ

235 On the sense of the word khadi see Müller's Trans. of the R.V. p. 102 and 218. 236 In a hymn of the A.V. iv. 27, verse 3, the Maruts are said to give an impulse to the milk of cows, the sap of plants, the speed of horses (payo dhenūnām rasam oshadhīnām javam arvatām kavayo ye invatha); and in the 4th verse they are described as raising the waters from the sea to the sky, and as discharging them from the sky on the earth (apaḥ samudrād divam udvahanti divas pṛithivīm abhi ye srijanti).

They ride, with

khādatha vanā). They have iron teeth (ayodamshṭran, i. 88, 5); they roar like lions (sim̃hāḥ iva nānadati, i. 64, 8); all creatures are afraid of them, i. 85, 8 (bhayante viśvā bhuvanā marudbhyaḥ. Their weapons are of various descriptions-spears, bows, quivers, and arrows (vāśīmantaḥ rishṭimantaḥ | ishumanto nishanginaḥ), i. 37, 2; v. 57, 2. Their coursers are swift as thought (manojuvah, i. 85, 4). whips in their hands (kaśāḥ hasteshu, i. 37, 3; i. 168, 4), in golden cars (hiranyarathaḥ, v. 57, 1), with golden wheels (hiranyebhiḥ pavibhiḥ | hiranya-chakrān, i. 64, 11; i. 88, 5), drawn by ruddy and tawny horses (with which the chariots are said to be winged), and flashing forth lightnings, or formed of lightning, i. 88, 1, 2 (a vidyunmadbhiḥ rathebhir rishțimadbhir aśvaparnaiḥ | arunebhih pisangair aśvaiḥ); iii. 54, 13 (vidyudrathāḥ Marutaḥ rishṭimantaḥ); v. 57, 4 (piśangāśvāḥ aruṇāśvāḥ). The animals by which these chariots are described as being drawn are designated in some places by the epithet prishatīḥ (i. 37, 2; i. 39, 6; i. 85, 5; viii. 7, 28), which Professor Wilson-following Sayana on Rig-veda, i. 37, 2237-renders by "spotted deer." But in i. 38, 12, the horses (aśvāsaḥ) of the Maruts are spoken of, as is also the case in viii. 7, 27, where they (the horses) are called hiranya-pānibhiḥ, "golden-footed;" though in the next verse (28) the prishatiḥ are again spoken of, as well as a prashtiḥ rohitaḥ, which we find also in i. 39, 6, and which Sayana understands to denote either a swift buck, or a buck yoked as a leader to the does. In i. 87, 4, the troop of Maruts itself receives the epithet prishad-aśva, "having spotted horses." This is, indeed, explained by Sayana in the sense of "having does marked with white spots instead of horses;" 238 but in his notes on v. 54, 2, 10, and v. 55, 1, where the Maruts' horses are again spoken of (na vo aśvāḥ śrathayanta | īyante aśvaiḥ suyamebhir āśubhiḥ), he does not repeat this explanation. In v. 55, 6, where the Maruts are described as having yoked prishatiḥ (feminine) as horses (aśvān, masculine,) to their chariots, Sayana says we may either understand "spotted mares," or suppose the word "horse" to stand for

237 Prishatyo vindu-yuktāḥ mṛigyo Marud-vāhana-bhūtāḥ | "pṛishatyo Marutām” iti Nighanṭāv uktatvāt.

238 Benfey, in his translation of this verse (Orient und Occident, ii. 250) retains the sense of antelopes. In vii. 56, 1, the Maruts are styled svaśvāḥ, "having good horses," which Sayana explains sobhana-vāhāḥ, “having good carriers."

doe (prishatiḥ... prishad-varnāḥ vaḍavāḥ | sārangi vā atra aśva-śabdavāchyā). In his note on prishatibhiḥ in ii. 34, 3, he says they may be either does marked with white spots, or mares; and he interprets prishatiḥ in v. 57, 3, by aśvāḥ, mares. Professor Aufrecht, who has favoured me with a note on the subject of the word prishatīḥ, is of opinion that, looking to all the passages where it occurs in connection with the Maruts, it must mean mares. 239 Perhaps it is best to hold with Professor Müller (Trans. of R.V. i. p. 59) that the Vedic poets admitted both ideas, as we find "that they speak in the same hymns, and even in the same verse, of the fallow deer, and also of the horses of the Maruts."

In the following verses, viii. 83, 9 ff., high cosmical functions are ascribed to the Maruts: ā ye viśvā pārthivāni paprathan rochanā divaḥ | Marutaḥ somapitaye | 10. Tyan nu pūtadakshaso divo vo Maruto huve asya somasya pitaye | 11. Tyān nu ye vi rodasi tastabhur Maruto huve | asya somasya pitaye | 12. Tam nu Mārutam ganam girishṭhām vṛishanam huve | asya somasya pitaye | 9 and 10. "I invite to drink this soma the Maruts who stretched out all the terrestrial regions, and the luminaries of the sky; I call from the heaven those Maruts of pure

239 Professor Aufrecht has pointed out a number of passages regarding the sense of the words prishad-aśva and pṛishat, as Rāyamukuṭa on Amara, the Vāj. Sanh. xxiv. 11, 18; S'atapatha Brahmana, v. 5, 1, 10, and v. 5, 2, 9. He has also indicated another verse of the Rig-veda (v. 58, 6), where pṛishatībhis in the feminine is joined with asvaiḥ in the masculine (where Professor Müller, Trans. of R.V. i. 59, would translate, “when you come with the deer, the horses, and the chariots "); and remarks that viii. 54, 10, 11, could not mean that the rishi received a thousand antelopes. (The words are these: dātā me pṛishatīnām rājā hiranyavīnām | mā devāḥ maghavā rishat | 11. Sahasre pṛishatīnām adhi schandram bṛihat pṛithu | śukram hiranyam ādade | "O gods, may the bountiful king, the giver to me of the gold-decked prishatīs, never perish! 11. I received gold, brilliant, heavy, broad, and shining, over and above a thousand prishatis (probably speckled cows)." Sayana represents Indra as the bountiful patron here, and makes the worshipper pray to the gods that Indra may not perish, an erroneous interpretation, surely. Professor Roth appears, from a remark under the word eta (vol. i. p. 1091 of his Dict.) to have at one time regarded prishatyaḥ as a kind of deer. In his explanation of this latter word itself, however (in a later part of his Lexicon, which perhaps had not reached me when this note was first written), he says that it is a designation of the team of the Maruts; and according to the ordinary assumption of the commentators, which, however, is not established either by the Nirukta, or by any of the Brahmanas known to us, denotes spotted antelopes. There is nothing, however, he goes on to say, to prevent our understanding the word (with Mahīdhara on Vāj. Sanh. ii. 16) to mean spotted mares, as mention is frequently enough made of the horses of the Maruts.

power. 11. I call to drink this soma those Maruts who held apart the two worlds. 12. I call to drink this soma that vigorous host of Maruts which dwells in the mountains."

The Maruts or Rudras (like their father Rudra; see the 4th vol. of this work, pp. 253, 259, 261, 263 f., 333 ff.), are in one hymn, viii. 20, 23, 25, supplicated to bring healing remedies, which are described as abiding in the Sindhu, the Asiknī, the seas, and the hills (maruto mārutasya naḥ ā bheshajasya vahata | yad Sindhau yad Asiknyām yat samudreshu... yat parvateshu bheshajam).

(2) Relations of the Maruts to Indra;—the rival claims

of the two parties.

Professor Wilson is of opinion (Rig-veda ii., Indroduction p. vii. and notes pp. 145 and 160), that in a few hymns some traces are perceptible of a dispute between the votaries of the Maruts and those of Indra in regard to their respective claims to worship. Thus in hymns 165 and 170 of the first book of the Rig-veda we find dialogues, in the first case between Indra and the Maruts, and in the second between Indra and Agastya, in which the rival pretensions of these deities appear. Indra asks, i. 165, 6: kva syā vo Marutaḥ svadhā āsīd yan mām ekam samadhatta Ahihatye | aham hi ugras tavishas tuvishman viśvasya satror anamam vadhasnaiḥ | 7. Bhuri chakartha yujyebhir asme samānebhir vṛishabha paumsyebhiḥ | bhūrīni hi kṛinavāma savishtha Indra kratvā Maruto yad vaśāma | 8. Vadhim Vṛittram marutaḥ indriyena svena bhāmena | "Where was your inherent power, ye Maruts, when ye involved me alone 240 in the conflict with Ahi? It was I who, fierce, strong, and energetic, overturned my enemies with my shafts." The Maruts rejoin: "7. Vigorous god, thou hast done great things with us for thy helpers, through our equal valour; for, O strong Indra, we Maruts by our power can perform many great exploits when we desire." Indra replies: "8. By my own prowess, Maruts, I slew Vrittra, mighty in my wrath," etc.

Of hymn i. 170, the Nirukta says, i. 5, that "Agastya, having prepared an oblation for Indra, desired to give the Maruts also a share in it. On which Indra came and complained." (Agastyaḥ Indrāya havir nirupya Marudbhyaḥ sampraditsām chakāra | sa Indraḥ etya

240 See above, p. 93, note.