it has the 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. purűni dasmáh ní rinâti gámbhaih.
Agni crunches many things with his jaws.
i. 127, 4. sthira kit ánnâ ní rinâti ógasâ,

Even tough morsels he (Agni) crunches fiercely.
In a more general sense we find it used,

v. 41, 10. sokíh-kesah ní rinâti vánâ.

Agni with flaming hair swallows or destroys the forests. iv. 19, 3. áhim vágrena ví rinâh.

Thou destroyedst Ahi with the thunderbolt.

X. 120, 1. sadyáh gagñânáh ní rinâti sátrûn.
As soon as born he destroys his enemies.

Verse 6, note. Súdhitâ-iva barhánâ. I think the explanation of this phrase given by Sâyana may be retained. He explains súdhitâ by suhitâ, i. e. sushthu preritâ, well thrown, well levelled, and barhánâ by hatis, tatsâdhanâ hetir vâ, a blow or its instrument, a weapon. Professor Roth takes barhánâ as an instrumental, used abverbially, in the sense of powerfully, but he does not explain in what sense súdhitâ-iva ought then to be taken. We cannot well refer it to didyút, lightning, on account of the iva, which requires something that can form a simile of the lightning. Nor is su-dhitâ ever used as a substantive so as to take the place of svádhitîva. Sú-dhita has apparently many meanings, but they all centre in one common conception. Sú-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. níh-mathitah sú-dhitah a sadhá-sthe.

Agni produced by rubbing, and well placed in his

abode.

vii. 42, 4. sú-prîtah agníh sú-dhitah dáme ẩ.

Agni, who is cherished and well placed in the house. iii. 29, 2. arányoh ní-hitah gâtá-vedâh gárbhah-iva súdhitah garbhínîshu.

Agni placed in the two fire-sticks, well placed like an embryo in the mothers. Cf. x. 27, 16.

viii. 60, 4. abhí práyâmsi sú-dhitâ a vaso (íti) gahi. Come, O Vasu, to these well-placed offerings. Cf. i. 135, 4; vi. I5, 15; x. 53, 2.

x. 70, 8. sú-dhitâ havïmshi,

The well-placed offerings.

iv. 2, 10 (adhvarám). vii. 7, 3 (barhíh).

As applied to ayus, life, súdhita may be translated by well established, safe:

ii. 27, 10. asyẩma ấyûmshi sú-dhitâni pűrvâ.

May we obtain the happy long lives of our forefathers. iv. 50, 8. sáh ít ksheti sú-dhitah ókasi své.

That man dwells secure in his own house.

Applied to a missile weapon, súdhita 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. mimyáksha yéshu sú-dhitâ—rishťíh.

To whom the well held spear sticks fast.

vi. 33, 3. tám tấn indra ubháyân amítrân dãsân vớitrấn aryâ ka sûra, vádhîh vánâ-iva sú-dhitebhih átkaih.

Thou, Indra, O hero, strikest both enemies, the barbarous and the Aryan fiends, like forests with well-aimed weapons. Applied to a poem, súdhita means well arranged or perfect:

i. 140, 11. idám agne sú-dhitam dúh-dhitât ádhi priyất ûm (íti) kit mánmanah préyah astu te.

May this perfect prayer be more agreeable to thee than an imperfect one, though thou likest it.

vii. 32, 13. mántram ákharvam sú-dhitam.

A poem, not mean, well contrived.

As applied to men, súdhita means very much the same as hitá, well disposed, kind:

iv. 6, 7. ádha mitráh ná sú-dhitah pâvakáh agníh dîdâya manushîshu vikshú

Then, like a kind friend, Agni shone among the children of man.

v. 3, 2. mitrám sú-dhitam.

vi. 15, 2. mitrám ná yám sú-dhitam.

viii. 23, 8. mitrám ná gáne sú-dhitam ritá-vani.

x. 115, 7. mitrasah ná yé sú-dhitâh.

At last sú-dhita, without reference to human beings, takes the general sense of kind, good:

iii. 11, 8. pári vísvâni sú-dhitâ agnéh asyâma mánma-bhih. May we obtain through our prayers all the goods of Agni.

Here, however, práyâmsi 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 súdhita, as applied to weapons, means well held or well aimed, we can hardly doubt that barhánâ is here, as Sâyana says, some kind of weapon. I should derive it from barhayati, to crush, which we have, for instance,

i. 133, 5. pisánga-bhrishtim ambhrinám pisakim indra sám mrina, sárvam rákshah ní barhaya.

Pound together the fearful Pisâki with his fiery weapons, strike down every Rakshas.

ii. 23, 8. brihaspate deva-nídah ní barhaya.

Brihaspati strike down the scoffers of the gods. Cf. vi. 61, 3

Barhánâ would therefore mean a weapon intended to crush an enemy, a block of stone, it may be, or some other missile, and in that sense barhánâ occurs at least once

more:

viii. 63, 7. yát pẩñka-ganyayâ visa índre ghóshâh ásrikshata, ástrinât barhánâ vipáh.

When shouts have been sent up to Indra by the people of the five clans, then the weapon scattered the enemies; or, then he scattered the enemies with his weapon.

In other passages Professor Roth is no doubt right when he assigns to barhánâ an adverbial meaning, but I do not think that this meaning would be appropriate in our verse.

Verse 7, note. Alâtrinasah, a word which occurs but once more, and which had evidently become unintelligible even at the time of Yâska, He (Nir. vi. 2) explains it by alamâtardano meghah, the cloud which opens easily. This, at least, is the translation given by Professor Roth, though not without hesitation. Alamâtardanah, as a compound, is

explained by the commentator as âtardanaparyâptah, alam âtardayitum udakam, i. e. capable of letting off the water. But Devarâgayagvan explains it differently. He says: alam paryâptam âtardanam himsâ yasya, bahûdakatvât sabalo megho viseshyate, i. e. whose injuring is great; the dark cloud is so called because it contains much water. Sâyana, too, attempts several explanations. In iii, 30, 10, he seems to derive it from trih, to kill, not, like Yâska, from trid, and he explains its meaning as the cloud which is exceedingly hurt by reason of its holding so much water. In our passage he explains it either as anâtrina, 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 râ, to give, and the suffix trina, 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 trina is certainly irregular, and I should much prefer to write alâtrina, for in that case we might derive lâtrin from lâtra, and to this lâtra, i. e. râtra, I should ascribe the sense of barking. The root rai or râ means to bark, and has been connected by Professor Aufrecht with Latin rire, inrire, and possibly inritare*, thus showing a transition of meaning from barking, to provoking or attacking. The same root râ explains also the Latin látrare, to bark, allatrare, to assail; and, whatever ancient etymologists may say to the contrary, the Latin latro, an assailer. The old derivation 'latrones eos

* Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. ix. p. 233.

antiqui dicebant, qui conducti militabant, àπò тŷs λatpeias,' 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 (Grundzüge, p. 326) and Corssen (Kritische Nachträge, p. 239) take a different view; but a foreign word, derived from λáτρov, pay, hire, would never have proved so fertile as latro has been in Latin.

If then we could write alâtrinasah, 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 Sâyana's explanation of it, âtardanarahita. What gives me some confidence in this explanation is this, that it is equally applicable to the other passage where alâtrina occurs, iii. 30, 10:

alâtrináh valáh indra vragáh góh pura hántoh bháyamânah ví âra.

Without barking did Vala, the keeper of the cow, full of fear, open, before thou struckest him.

If it should be objected that vragá means always stable, and is not used again in the sense of keeper, one might reply that vragáh, in the nom. sing., occurs in this one single passage only, and that bháyamânah, 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 alâtriná would remain the same, the not-barking being here used as a sign that Indra's enemy was cowed, and no longer inclined to revile or defy the power of Indra. Hom. hymn. in Merc. 145, οὐδὲ κύνες λελάκοντο.

Verse 7, note. See i. 38, 15, note1, page 78.

Verse 8, note 1. Abhí-hruti seems to have the meaning of assault, injury, insult. It occurs but once, but abhíhrut, a feminine substantive with the same meaning, occurs several times. The verb hru, which is not mentioned in the Dhâtupâtha, but has been identified with hvar, occurs in our hymn, verse 12: