COMMENTARY. This hymn is ascribed to Gotama, the son of Rahûgana. The metre varies. Verses 1 and 6 are put down as Prastâra-pankti, 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 I and 6. The old metricians must have scanned Verse 1: â vidyunmat-bhi marutah su-arkaih rathebhih yata ̄rishtimat-bhih asva-parnaih. Again verse 6: eshâ sya vah marutah anu-bhartrî prati stobhati vâghatah na vânî. 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 : â vidyunmat-bhih marutah su-arkaih rathebhih yatarishtimat-(bhih) asva-parnaih. And verse 6: esha syâ vah marutah ̄anu-bhartrî prati stobhati vághatah nă vânî. 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 (Beiträge, 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 î are intelligible. The simplest correction would be to read rathebhih yata ̄rishti-mantah ̄asva-parnaih. 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 Yet the difficulty remains, how could so simple a reading have been replaced by a more difficult one? In the two Gâyatrî pâdas which follow I feel equally reluctant to alter. I therefore scan â varshishthayâ nah isha vayah na paptata su-mâyâh, taking the dactyl of paptata as representing a spondee, and admitting the exceptional bacchius instead of the amphimacer at the end of the line. The last line of verse 6 should be scanned: astobhayat vrithâ ̄âsâm anu svadhâm gabhastyoh. There are two other verses in this hymn where the metre is difficult. In the last pâda 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 Anukramanîs distinctly state that this fifth verse is virâdrûpâ, i. e. that one of its pâdas consists of eight syllables. How they would have made eight syllables out of vi-dhâvatah varâhûn does not appear, but at all events they knew that last pâda to be imperfect. The rhythm does not suffer by this omission, as long as we scan vi-dhâvatah varâhân. Lastly, there is the third pâda of the second verse, rukmah na kitrah svadhiti-vân. It would not be possible to get eleven syllables out of this, unless we admitted vyûha not only in svadhitivân or svadhitî-vân, but also in kitrah. Nothing would be easier than to insert eshâm after kitrah, but the question occurs again, how could eshâm be lost, or why, if by some accident it had been lost, was not so obvious a correction made by Saunaka and Kâtyâyana? Verse 1, note 1. Alluding to the music of the Maruts, and not to the splendour of the lightning which is mentioned before. See Wolf, Beiträge zur Deutschen Mythologie, vol. ii. p. 137. Das Ross und den Wagen des Gottes begleitet munterer Hörnerschall, entweder stösst er selbst ins Horn, oder sein Gefolge. Oft vernimmt man auch eine liebliche Musik, der keine auf Erden gleich kommt (Müllenhof, 582). Das wird das Pfeifen und Heulen des Sturmes sein, nur in idealisirter Art.' Ibid. p. 158. Verse 1, note 2. Várshishtha, which is generally explained as the superlative of vriddha, old, (Pân. vi. 4, 157,) has in most passages of the Rig-veda the more general meaning of strong or excellent: vi. 47, 9. ísham ẩ vakshi ishẩm várshishthâm; iii. 13, 7 (vásu); iii. 26, 8 (rátna); iii. 16, 3 (raí); iv. 31, 15; viii. 46, 24 (srávah); iv. 22, 9 (nrimná); v. 67, 1 (kshatrá); vi. 45, 31 (mûrdhán). In some passages, however, it may be taken in the sense of oldest (i. 37, 6; v. 7, 1), though by no means necessarily. Várshishtha is derived in reality from vríshan, in the sense of strong, excellent. See note to i. 85, 12, page 126. Verse 1, note 3. Paptata, the second person plural of the Let of the reduplicated base of pat. It is curiously like the Greek TiTTETE, but it has the meaning of flying rather than falling: see Curtius, Grundzüge, p. 190. Two other forms formed on the same principle occur in the Rig-veda, paptah and paptan : ii. 31, 1. prá yát váyah ná páptan. May your birds fly after you. x. 95, 15. púrûravah mẩ mrithâh mẩ prá paptah. Purûravas, do not die, do not fly away! Verse 2, note1. Though svadhiti-vân 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: iii. 2, 10. Svá-dhitim ná tégase. They adorned Agni like an axe to shine or to cut. The svádhiti 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. In v. 32, 10, a devĩ svádhitih is mentioned, possibly the lightning, the companion of Indra and the Maruts. Verse 2, note 2. The felly 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: v. 52, 9. utá pavya ráthânâm ádrim bhindanti ógasâ. They cut the mountain (cloud) with the felly of their chariot. i. 166, 10. pavíshu kshurah ádhi. On their fellies are sharp edges. In v. 31, 5, fellies 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 fellies or the wheels of chariots were ever used as weapons of attack, as detached from the chariot; (see M. M., On Pavîrava, in Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung, vol. iii. p. 447.) If we translate the figurative language of the Vedic poets into matter-of-fact terms, the fellies 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.) Verse 3, note1. That the vasîs are small weapons, knives or daggers, we saw before, p. 59. Sâyana here explains vấsî by a weapon commonly called âra, or an awl. In x. 101, 10, vasîs are mentioned, made of stone, asman-máyî. 65, 16; 107, 25; The difficulty begins with the second half. Medha, as here written in the Pada text, could only be a plural of a neuter medhám, but such a neuter does nowhere exist in the Veda. We only find the masculine médha, sacrifice, which is out of the question here, on account of its accent. Hence the passage iii. 58, 2, ûrdhvẩh bhavanti pitárâ-iva médhâh, is of no assistance, unless we alter the accent. The feminine medha 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; x. 91, 8. The construction does not allow us to take medha as a Vedic instrumental instead of medháyâ, nor does such a form occur anywhere else in the Rig-veda. Nothing remains, I believe, than 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-dyumnasah be the subject, it would signify the priests. This, however, is again without any warrant from the Rig-veda, where tuvi-dyumná 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-gâtâh. The conception that the Maruts stir up the forests is not of unfrequent occurrence in the Rig-veda : cf. i. 171, 3; v. 59, 6. That ûrdhvá is used of the mind, in the sense of roused, may be seen in i. 119, 2; 134, 1; 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. Verse 3, note 2. On dhan in the sense of to agitate, see B. and R. s. v. Verse 4, note 1. The first question is, which is the subject, áhâni or grídhrâh? If grídhrâh were the subject, then we should have to translate it by the eager poets, and take áhâni in the sense of visvâ ahâni. 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, grídhrâh never occurs again as signifying poets or priests. One pas sage only could be quoted in support, ix. 97, 57, kaváyah ná grídhrâh (not gridhrah), like greedy poets. But even here, if this translation is right, the adjective is explained by kaví, and does not stand by itself. Secondly, áhâni 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 áhâni as a totally different word, viz. as á+hâni, without ceasing, without wearying, would be too bold in the present state of Vedic interpretation. If then we take áhâni as the subject, grídhrâh would have to be taken as a vocative, and intended for the Maruts. Now, it is perfectly true, that by itself grídhra, hawk, does not occur again as a name of the Maruts, but syená, 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: vii. 56, 3. abhí sva-pűbhih mitháh vapanta vata-svanasah syenah aspridhran. They plucked each other with their beaks (?), the hawks, rushing like the wind, strove together. |