MANDALA I, SUKTA 38.

ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 3, VARGA 15-17.

1. Kát ha nûnám kadha-priyah* pita putrám ná hástayoh, dadhidhvé vrikta-barhishah.

2. Kvã nûnám kát vah ártham gánta diváh ná prithivyah, kvã vah gấvah ná † ranyanti.

3. Kvã vah sumnẩ návyâmsi márutah kvã suvitấ, kvõ (íti) vísvâni saúbhagâ.

4. Yát yûyám prisni-mâtarah mártâsah syatana, stota vah amritah syât.

5. Ma vah mrigáh ná yávase garita bhût ágoshyah, patha yamásya gât úpa.

6. Mó (íti) sú nah párâ-parâ níh-ritih duh-hánâ vadhît, padîshtá tríshnayâ sahá.

7. Satyám tveshah áma-vantah dhánvan kit a rudríyâsah, míham krinvanti avâtẩm ‡.

8. Vâsra-iva vi-dyút mimâti vatsám ná mâtă sisakti, yát eshâm vrishtíh ásargi.

9. Dívâ kit támah krinvanti pargányena udavâhéna, yát prithivim vi-undánti.

10. Ádha svanất marútâm vísvam a sádma parthivam, áreganta prá mẩnushâh.

* kádla priyáh

+ Omit ná

+ávâtam

HYMN TO THE MARUTS (THE STORM-GODS).

1. What then now? When will you take (us) as a dear father takes his son by both hands, O ye gods, for whom the sacred grass has been trimmed ??

2. Whither now? On what errand of yours are you going, in heaven, not on earth? Where are your cows sporting ?2

3. Where are your newest favours,' O Maruts ? Where the blessings? Where all delights?

4. If you, sons of Prisni, were mortals, and your worshipper an immortal,1—

5. Then never should your praiser be unwelcome, like a deer in pasture grass, nor should he go on the path of Yama.3

6. Let not one sin1 after another, difficult to be conquered, overcome us; may it depart together with lust.

7. Truly they are furious and powerful; even to the desert the Rudriyas bring rain that is never dried up.'1

8. The lightning lows like a cow, it follows as a mother follows after her young, that the shower (of the Maruts) may be let loose.1

9. Even by day the Maruts create darkness with the water-bearing cloud,' when they drench the earth.

10. From the shout of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth,' men reeled forward.

11. Márutah vilupâní-bhih* kitrah ródhasvatih ánu, yâtá îm ákhidrayâma-bhih.

12. Sthirah vah santu nemáyah ráthâh ásvâsah eshâm, sú-samskritâh abhisavah.

13. Ákkha vada tánâ gira garayai bráhmanah pátim, agním mitrám ná darsatám.

14. Mimîhí slókam âsye pargányah-iva tatanah, gaya gâyatrám ukthyãm.

15. Vándasva marutam ganám tveshám panasyúm arkínam, asmé (íti) vriddhah asan ihá.

COMMENTARY.

This hymn is ascribed to Kanva, the son of Ghora. The metre is Gâyatrî throughout. Several verses, however, end in a spondee instead of the usual iambus. No attempt should be made to improve such verses by conjecture, for they are clearly meant to end in spondees. Thus in verses 2, 7, 8, and 9, all the three pâdas alike have their final spondee. In verse 7, the ionicus a minore is with an evident intention repeated thrice.

Verse 1, note 1. Kadha-priyah is taken in the Padapâtha as one word, and Sâyana explains it by delighted by or delighting in praise, a nominative plural. A similar compound, kadha-priya, occurs in i. 30, 20, and there too the vocative sing. fem., kadhapriye, is explained by Sâyana as fond of praise. In order to obtain this meaning, kadha has to be identified with kathâ, story, which is simply impossible. There is another compound, adha-priyâ, nom. dual,

* vilúpâni-bhih?

11. Maruts on your strong-hoofed steeds1 go on easy roads after those bright ones (the clouds), which are still locked up.2

12. May your felloes be strong, the chariots, and their horses, may your reins1 be well-fashioned.

13. Speak out for ever with thy voice to praise the Lord of prayer,' Agni, who is like a friend, the bright one.

14. Fashion a hymn in thy mouth! Expand like a cloud! Sing a song of praise.

15. Worship the host of the Maruts, the brisk, the praiseworthy, the singers. May the strong ones stay here among us."

which occurs viii. 8, 4, and which Sâyana explains either as delighted here below, or as a corruption of kadha-priyâ.

In Boehtlingk and Roth's Dictionary, kadha-priya and kadha-prî are both explained as compounds of kadha, an interrogative adverb, and priya or prî, to love or delight, and they are explained as meaning kind or loving to whom? In the same manner adha-priya is explained as kind then and there.

It must be confessed, however, that a compound like kadha-prî, kind to whom?, is somewhat strange, and it seems preferable to separate the words, and to write kádha priyá and ádha priyá.

It should be observed that the compounds kadha-prî and kadha-priya occur always in sentences where there is another interrogative pronoun. The two interrogatives kát-kádha, what-where, and kás-kádha, who-where, occurring in the same sentence, an idiom so common in Greek, may have puzzled the author of the Pada text, and the compound once sanctioned by the authority of Sâkalya, Sâyana would explain it as best he could, But if we admit the double use of the interrogative in Sanskrit, as in Greek,

?

then, in our passage, priyáh would be an adjective belonging to pita, and we might translate: What then now When will you take (us), as a dear father takes his son by both hands, O ye Maruts?' In the same manner we ought to translate i. 30, 20:

káh te ushah kádha priye bhugé mártah amartye.

Who and where was there a mortal to be loved by thee, O beloved, immortal Dawn?

In viii. 7, 31, where the same words are repeated as in our passage, it is likewise better to write :

kát ha nûnám kádha priyáh yát índram ágahâtana, káh vah sakhi-tvé ohate.

What then now? Where is there a friend, now that you have forsaken Indra? Who cares for your friendship?

Why in viii. 8, 4,

adha priyâ should have been joined into one word is more difficult to say, yet here, too, the compound might easily be separated.

Kádha does not occur again, but would be formed in analogy with ádha. It occurs in Zend as kadha.

The words kát ha nûnám commonly introduce an interrogative sentence, literally, What then now? cf. x. 10, 4.

Verse 1, note 2. Vrikta-barhis is generally a name of the priest, so called because he has to trim the sacrificial grass. 'The sacred Kusa grass (Poa cynosuroides), after having had the roots cut off, is spread on the Vedi or altar, and upon it the libation of Soma-juice, or oblation of clarified butter, is poured out. In other places, a tuft of it in a similar position is supposed to form a fitting seat for the deity or deities invoked to the sacrifice. According to Mr. Stevenson, it is also strewn over the floor of the chamber in which the worship is performed.'

Cf. vi. 11, 5. vriñgé ha yát námasâ barhíh agnaú, áyâmi srúk ghritá-vatî su-vriktíh.

When I reverentially trim the truss for Agni, when the well-trimmed ladle, full of butter, is stretched forth.

In our passage, unless we change the accent, it must be taken as an epithet of the Maruts, they for whom the grass-altar has been prepared. They are again invoked by the same name, viii. 7, 20: