MANDALA I, SÛKTA 85.

ASHTAKA I, ADHYAYA 6, VARGA 9-10.

1. Prá yé súmbhante gánayah ná sáptayah yaman rudrásya sûnávah su-dámsasah, ródasî (íti) hí marútah kakriré vridhé mádanti vîrah vidátheshu ghríshvayah.

2. Té ukshitasah mahimẩnam âsata diví rudrasah ádhi kakrire sádah, árkantah arkám ganáyantah indriyám ádhi sríyah dadhire prísni-mâtarah.

3. Gó-mâtarah yát subháyante añgí-bhih tanűshu subhrah dadhire virúkmatah, vadhante vísvam abhimâtínam ápa vártmâni eshâm ánu rîyate ghritám.

4. Ví yé bhragante sú-makhâsah rishtí-bhih prakyaváyantah ákyutâ kit ógasâ, manah-gúvah yát marutah rátheshu a vrísha-vrâtâsah príshatîh áyugdhvam.

5. Prá yát rátheshu príshatîh áyugdhvam väge ádrim marutah ramháyantah utá arushásya ví syanti dharâh kárma-iva udá-bhih ví undanti bhuma.

6. A vah vahantu sáptayah raghu-syádah raghupátvânah prá gigâta bâhú-bhih, sĭdata a barhíh urú vah sádah kritám mâdáyadhvam marutah mádhvah ándhasah.

7. Té avardhanta svá-tavasah mahi-tvana a nakam

HYMN TO THE MARUTS (THE STORM-GODS).

1. Those who glance forth like wives and yokefellows,' they are the powerful sons of Rudra on The Maruts have made heaven and earth to grow, they, the strong and wild, delight in the sacrifices.

their way.

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2. When grown up,' they attained to greatness; the Rudras have established their abode in the sky. While singing their song and increasing their vigour, the sons of Prisni have clothed themselves in beauty.2 3. When these sons of the cow (Prisni) adorn themselves with glittering ornaments, the brilliant 2 ones put bright weapons on their bodies. They hurl away every adversary; fatness (rain) runs along their paths ;—

4. When you,' the powerful, who glitter with your spears, shaking even what is unshakable by strength; when you, O Maruts, the manly hosts," had yoked the spotted deer, swift as thought, to your chariots;

5. When you had yoked the spotted deer before your chariots, stirring1 the cloud to the battle, then the streams of the red enemy' rush forth: like a skin3 with water they water the earth.

6. May the swift-gliding, swift-winged horses carry you hither! Come forth with your arms!1 Sit down on the grass-pile; a wide place has been made for you. Rejoice, O Maruts, in the sweet food.2

7. They who have their own strength, grew with

tasthúh urú kakrire sádah, víshnuh yát ha avat vríshanam mada-kyútam váyah ná sîdan ádhi barhíshi priyé.

8. Sürah-iva ít yúyudhayah ná gágmayah srava syávah ná prítanâsu yetire, bháyante vísvâ bhúvanâ marút-bhyah ragânah-iva tveshá-sandrisah nárah.

9. Tváshtâ yát vágram sú-kritam hiranyáyam sahásra-bhrishtim su-ápâh ávartayat, dhatté índrah nári ápâmsi kártave áhan vritrám níh apẩm aubgat

arnavám.

10. Úrdhvám nunudre avatám té ógasâ dadrihânám kit bibhiduh ví párvatam, dhámantah vânám marútah su-danavah máde sómasya rányâni

kakrire.

11. Gihmám nunudre avatám táyâ disa ásiñkan útsam gótamâya trishná-ge, a gakkhanti îm ávasâ kitrá-bhânavah kẩmam víprasya tarpayanta dhẩma

bhih.

12. Ya vah sárma sasamânaya sánti tri-dhấtûni dâsúshe yakkhata ádhi, asmábhyam tẩni marutah ví yanta rayím nah dhatta vrishanah su-viram.

COMMENTARY.

This hymn is ascribed to Gotama. The metre is Gagatî, except in verses 5 and 12, which are Trishtubh.

Verse 1, note 1. The phrase gánayah ná sáptayah is obscure. As gáni has always the meaning of wife, and sápti in the singular, dual, and plural means horse, it might

might; they stepped to the firmament, they made their place wide. When Vishnu 2 descried the enrapturing Soma, the Maruts sat down like birds. on their beloved altar.

8. Like heroes indeed thirsting for fight they rush about; like combatants eager for glory they have struggled in battles. All beings are afraid of the Maruts; they are men awful to behold, like kings.

9. When the clever Tvashtar1 had turned the well-made, golden, thousand-edged thunderbolt, Indra took it to perform his manly deeds; he slew Vritra, he forced out the stream of water.

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10. By their power they pushed the well' aloft, they clove asunder the cloud, however strong. Sending forth their voice2 the beneficent Maruts performed, while drunk of Soma, their glorious deeds.

11. They drove the cloud athwart this way, they poured out the well to the thirsty Gotama. The bright-shining Maruts approach him with help, they with their clans fulfilled the desire of the sage.

12. The shelters which you have for him who praises you, grant them threefold to the man who gives! Extend the same to us, O Maruts! Give us, ye heroes,1 wealth with excellent offspring!

be supposed that gánayah could be connected with sáptayah, so as to signify mares. But although gáni is coupled with patnî, i. 62, 10, in the sense of mother-wife, and though sápti is most commonly joined with some other name for horse, yet gánayah sáptayah never occurs, for the simple reason that it would be too elaborate and almost absurd an expression for vadavâh. We find sápti joined with vâgín,

i. 162, 1; with ráthya, ii. 31, 7; átyam ná sáptim, iii. 22, 1; sáptî hárî, iii. 35, 2; ásvâ sáptî-iva, vi. 59, 3.

We might then suppose the thought of the poet to have been this: What appears before us like race-horses, viz. the storms coursing through the sky, that is really the host of the Maruts. But then gánayah remains unexplained, and it is impossible to take gánayah ná sáptayah as two similes, like unto horses, like unto wives.

I believe, therefore, that we must here take sápti in its original etymological sense, which would be ju-mentum, a yoked animal, a beast of draught, or rather a follower, a horse that will follow. Sápti, therefore, could never be a wild horse, but always a tamed horse, a horse that will go in harness. Cf. ix. 21, 4. hitäh ná sáptayah ráthe, like horses put to the chariot; or in the singular, ix. 70, 10. hitáh ná sáptih, like a harnessed horse. The root is sap, which in the Veda means to follow, to attend on, to worship. But if sápti means originally animals that will go together, it may in our passage have retained the sense of yoke-fellow (ovvyos), and be intended as an adjective to gánayah, wives. There is at least one other passage where this meaning would seem to be more appropriate, viz.

viii. 20, 23. yûyám sakhâyah saptayah.

You (Maruts), friends and followers! or you, friends and

comrades!

Here it is hardly possible to assign to sápti the sense of horse, for the Maruts, though likened to horses, are never thus barely invoked as saptayah!

can be

If then we translate, Those who glance forth like wives and yoke-fellows,' i. e. like wives of the same husband, the question still recurs how the simile holds good, and how the Maruts rushing forth together in all their beauty compared to wives. In answer to this we have to bear in mind that the idea of many wives belonging to one husband (sapatnî) is familiar to the Vedic poet, and that their impetuously rushing into the arms of their husbands, and appearing before them in all their beauty, are frequent images in their poetry. Whether in the phrase pátim ná gánayah or gánayah ná gárbham, the ganis, the wives or