Verse 9, note 3. Karishya is written in all the MSS. without a Visarga, and unless we add the Visarga on our own authority, we should have to take it as an accusative plur. neut. of a passive participle of the future, karishyám standing for kâryam, faciendum. It would be much easier, however, to explain this form if we added the Visarga, and read karishyah, which would then be a second person singular of a Vedic conjunctive of the future. This form occurs at least once more in the Veda : iv. 30, 23. utá nûnám yát indriyám karishyah indra paúmsyam, adyá nákih tát a minat. O Indra, let no man destroy to-day whatever manly feat thou art now going to achieve. Verse 10, note 1. As I have translated these words, they sound rather abrupt. The meaning, however, would be clear enough, viz. almighty power belongs to me, therefore I can dare and do. If this abrupt expression should offend, it may be avoided, by taking the participle dadhrishvấn as a finite verb, and translating, Whatever I have been daring, I shall do according to my will. The Verse 11, note 1. In this verse Indra, after having declined with no uncertain sound the friendship of the Maruts, repents himself of his unkindness towards his old friends. The words of praise which they addressed to him in verse 9, in spite of the rebuff they had received from Indra, have touched his heart, and we may suppose that after this, their reconciliation was complete. words of Indra are clear enough, the only difficulty occurs in the last words, which are so idiomatic that it is impossible to render them in English. In tanvẽ tanűbhih, literally for the body by the bodies, tanû is used like the pronoun self. Both must therefore refer to the same subject. We cannot translate for myself made by yourselves,' but must take the two words together, so that they should mean, 'the hymn which you have made for your own sake, freely, and by your own exertions, honestly.' Verse 13, note 1. I translate api-vâtáyantah by cherishing, a meaning equally applicable to i. 128, 2, and x. 25, 1. I suppose the original meaning was really to blow upon a person, to cool or refresh a person by a draught of air, which, in countries like India, was and is the office of the attendants of a prince. It would then take the meaning of honouring, worshipping or cherishing, though I confess the hymns of the Veda seem almost too early for such a courtly metaphor. Verse 14, note 1. This is a verse which, without some conjectural alterations, it seems impossible to translate. Sâyana, of course, has a translation ready for it, so has M. Langlois, but both of them offend against the simplest rules of grammar and logic. The first question is, who is meant by asmẩn (which is here used as an amphimacer), the sacrificers or the Maruts? The verb a kakré would well apply to the medha mânyásya, the hymn of Mânya, which is intended to bring the Maruts to the sacrifice, this bringing to the sacrifice being the very meaning of â kar. But then we have the vocative marutah in the next line, and even if we changed the vocative into the accusative, we should not gain much, as the Maruts could hardly call upon anybody to turn them towards the sage. If, on the contrary, we admit that asman refers to those who offer the sacrifice, then we must make a distinction, which, it is true, is not an unusual one, between those who here speak of themselves in the first person, and who provide the sacrifice, and the poet Mândârya Mânya, who was employed by them to compose or to recite this hymn. But even if we adopt this alternative, many difficulties still remain. First of all, we have to change the accent of kakré into kakre, which may seem a slight change, but is not the less objectionable when we consider that in our emendations of the Vedic hymns we must think rather of accidents that might happen in oral traditions than of the lapsus calami of later scribes. Secondly, we must suppose that the hymn of Mândârya Mânya ends with verse 13, and that the last verses were supplied by the sacrificers themselves. Possibly the dialogue only, from verse 3 to verse 12, was the work of Mânya, and the rest added at some solemn occasion. Other difficulties, however, remain. Duvasyất is taken by Sâyana as an ablative of duvasyá, worthy of dúvas, i. e. of worship, of sacrifice. Unfortunately this duvasyá does not occur again, though it would be formed quite regularly, like namasyá, worthy of worship, from námas, worship. If we take duvasyất as the 3rd pers. sing. of the present in the Vedic conjunctive, we must also confess that this conjunctive does not occur again. But the verb duvasyati occurs frequently. It seems to have two meanings. It is derived from dúvas, which in the Vedic language means worship or sacrifice, just as karma, work, has assumed the special sense of sacrifice. Derived from dúvas in this sense, duvasyati means to worship. But dúvas meant originally any opus operatum. The root from which dúvas is derived, is lost in Sanskrit, but it exists in other languages. It must have been du or dú in the sense of acting, or sedulously working. It exists in Zend as du, to do, in Gothic as táujan, gataujan, Old High German zawjan, Modern German zauen (Grimm, Gram. i. p. 1041). The Gothic tavi, opus, Old High German zouwi, Middle High German gezöuwe (Grimm, Gram. iii. p. 499), come from the same source; and it is possible, too, that the Old Norse töfrar, incantamenta, the Old High German zoupar, Middle High German zouber, both neuter, and the modern Zauber, may find their explanation in the Sanskrit dúvas. Derived from dúvas, in the sense of work, we have duvasyati in the sense of helping, providing, the German schaffen and verschaffen. In the sense of worshipping, duvasyati occurs, iii. 2, 8. duvasyáta-gâtá-vedasam. Worship Gâtavedas. v. 28, 6. a guhota duvasyáta agním. Invoke, worship Agni. Cf. iii. 13, 3; 1, 13. iii. 3, 1. agníh hí devan-duvasyáti. Agni performs the worship of the gods. Cf. vii. 82, 5. i. 167, 6. sutá-somah duvasyán. He who has poured out Soma and worships. In many passages duvasyati is joined with an in strumental: v. 42, 11. námah-bhih devám-duvasya. i. 78, 2. tám u tvâ gótamah girẩ―duvasyati. vi. 16, 46. vîtî yáh devám-duvasyét. vi. 15, 6. agním-agnim vah samídhâ duvasyata. They worshipped Agni with logs of wood, with praise. In the more general and, I suppose, more original sense of caring for, attending, we find duvasyati : iii. 51, 3. anehásah stúbhah índrah duvasyati. Indra provides for the matchless worshippers. i. 112, 15. kalím yabhih-duvasyáthah. By the succours with which you help Kali. Cf. i. 112, 21. i. 62, 10. duvasyánti svásârah áhrayânam. The sisters attend the proud (Agni). i. 119, 10. yuvám pedáve―svetám―duvasyathah. You provide for Pedu the white horse. If, then, we take duvasyati in the sense of working for, assisting, it may be with the special sense of assisting at a sacred act, like diakoveiv; and if we take duvás, as it has the accent on the last syllable, as the performer of sacrifice, we may venture to translate, 'that he should help, as the singer helps the performer of the sacrifice *.' The singer or the poet may be called the assistant at a sacrifice, for his presence was not necessary at all sacrifices, the songs constituting an ornament rather than an essential in most sacred acts. But though I think it right to offer this conjectural interpretation, I am far from supposing that it gives us the real sense of this difficult verse. Duvasyất may be, as Sâyana suggests, an ablative of duvasyá; and * Kar in the sense of officiating at a sacrifice is equally construed with a dative, x. 97, 22. yásmai krinóti brâhmanáh, he for whom a Brahmana performs a sacrifice. duvasyá, like namasyã, if we change the accent, may mean he who is to be worshipped, or worshipping. In this way a different interpretation might suggest itself, in which the words duvasyất duváse could be taken to mean 'from one worshipper to another.' Some happy thought may some day or other clear up this difficulty, when those who have toiled, but toiled in a wrong direction, will receive scant thanks for the trouble they have taken. In the second line, the words ó sú varta remind one of similar phrases in the Veda, but we want an accusative, governed by varta; whereas marutah, to judge from its accent, can only be a vocative. Thus we read: i. 138, 4. ó (íti) sú tvâ vavritîmahi stómebhih. May we turn thee quickly hither by our praises! Cf. i. 182, 1; ii. 34, 15; vii. 59, 5; viii. 2, 19; x. 179, 2. Unless we change the accent, we must translate, ‘Bring hither quickly!' and we must take these words as addressed to the kârú, the poet, whose hymn is supposed to attract the gods to the sacrifice. By a quick transition, the next words, marutah vípram ákkha, would then have to be taken as addressed to the gods, 'Maruts, on to the sage!' and the last words would become intelligible by laying stress on the vah, 'for you, and not for Indra or any other god, has the singer recited these hymns.' Verse 15, note 1. I translate Mânya, the son of Mâna, because the poet, so called in i. 189, 8, is in all probability the same as our Mândârya Mânya. Verse 15, note 2. The second line is difficult, owing to the uncertain meaning of vayẩm. First of all, it might seem as if the two hemistichs must be kept distinct, because the second is so often used independently of the first. VOL. I. |