mothers, are represented as running together after their husbands or children. This impetuous approach the poet may have wished to allude to in our passage also, but though it might have been understood at once by his hearers, it is almost impossible to convey this implied idea in any other language.

Wilson translates: The Maruts, who are going forth, decorate themselves like females: they are gliders (through the air), the sons of Rudra, and the doers of good works, by which they promote the welfare of earth and heaven. Heroes, who grind (the solid rocks), they delight in sacrifices.'

Verse 1, note 2. The meaning of this phrase, which occurs very frequently, was originally that the storms by driving away the dark clouds, made the earth and the sky to appear larger and wider. It afterwards takes a more general sense of increasing, strengthening, blessing.

Verse 2, note 1. Ukshitá is here a participle of vaksh or uksh, to grow, to wax; not from uksh, to sprinkle, to anoint, to inaugurate, as explained by Sâyana. Thus it is said of the Maruts, v. 55, 3. sâkám gâtẩh—sâkám ukshitẩh, born together, and grown up together.

Verse 2, note 2. The same expression occurs viii. 28, 5. saptó (íti) ádhi sríyah dhire. See also i. 116, 17; ix. 68, 1.

Verse 3, note 1. Gó-mâtri, like gó-gâta, a name of the Maruts.

Verse 3, note 2. Subhrá applied to the Maruts, i. 19, 5.

Verse 3, 3 note Virúkmatah must be an accusative plural. It occurs i. 127, 3, as an epithet of ógas; vi. 49, 5, as an epithet of the chariot of the Asvins. In our place, however, it must be taken as a substantive, signifying something which the Maruts wear, probably armour or weapons. This follows chiefly from x. 138, 4. sátrûn asrinât virúkmatâ, Indra tore his enemies with the bright weapon.

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. hitấh 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 (ouuyos), 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!

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 can be 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

mothers, are represented as running together after their husbands or children. This impetuous approach the poet may have wished to allude to in our passage also, but though it might have been understood at once by his hearers, it is almost impossible to convey this implied idea in any other language.

Wilson translates: The Maruts, who are going forth, decorate themselves like females: they are gliders (through the air), the sons of Rudra, and the doers of good works, by which they promote the welfare of earth and heaven. Heroes, who grind (the solid rocks), they delight in sacrifices.'

Verse 1, note 2. The meaning of this phrase, which occurs very frequently, was originally that the storms by driving away the dark clouds, made the earth and the sky to appear larger and wider. It afterwards takes a more general sense of increasing, strengthening, blessing.

Verse 2, note 1. Ukshitá is here a participle of vaksh or uksh, to grow, to wax; not from uksh, to sprinkle, to anoint, to inaugurate, as explained by Sâyana. Thus it is said of the Maruts, v. 55, 3. sâkám gâtấh—sâkám ukshitẩh, born together, and grown up together.

Verse 2, note 2. The same expression occurs viii. 28, 5. saptó (íti) ádhi sríyah dhire. See also i. 116, 17; ix. 68, 1.

Verse 3, note 1. Gó-mâtri, like gó-gâta, a name of the Maruts.

Verse 3, note 2. Subhrá applied to the Maruts, i. 19, 5.

Verse 3, note 3. Virúkmatah must be an accusative plural. It occurs i. 127, 3, as an epithet of ógas; vi. 49, 5, as an epithet of the chariot of the Asvins. In our place, however, it must be taken as a substantive, signifying something which the Maruts wear, probably armour or weapons. This follows chiefly from x. 138, 4. sátrûn asrinât virúkmatâ, Indra tore his enemies with the bright weapon.

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. hitẩh 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 ((vyos), 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 !

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 can be 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

mothers, are represented as running together after their husbands or children. This impetuous approach the poet may have wished to allude to in our passage also, but though it might have been understood at once by his hearers, it is almost impossible to convey this implied idea in any other language.

Wilson translates: The Maruts, who are going forth, decorate themselves like females: they are gliders (through the air), the sons of Rudra, and the doers of good works, by which they promote the welfare of earth and heaven. Heroes, who grind (the solid rocks), they delight in sacrifices.'

Verse 1, note 2. The meaning of this phrase, which occurs very frequently, was originally that the storms by driving away the dark clouds, made the earth and the sky to appear larger and wider. It afterwards takes a more general sense of increasing, strengthening, blessing.

Verse 2, note1. Ukshitá is here a participle of vaksh or uksh, to grow, to wax; not from uksh, to sprinkle, to anoint, to inaugurate, as explained by Sâyana. Thus it is said of the Maruts, v. 55, 3. sâkám gâtẩh—sâkám ukshitẩh, born together, and grown up together.

Verse 2, note 2. The same expression occurs viii. 28, 5. saptó (íti) ádhi sríyah dhire. See also i. 116, 17; ix. 68, I.

Verse 3, note 1. Gó-mâtri, like gó-gâta, a name of the Maruts.

Verse 3, note 2. Subhrá applied to the Maruts, i. 19, 5.

3

Verse 3, note 3. Virúkmatah must be an accusative plural. It occurs i. 127, 3, as an epithet of ógas; vi. 49, 5, as an epithet of the chariot of the Asvins. In our place, however, it must be taken as a substantive, signifying something which the Maruts wear, probably armour weapons. This follows chiefly from x. 138, 4. sátrûn asrinât virúkmatâ, Indra tore his enemies with the bright weapon.

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