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iv. 43, 4. káh vâm maháh kit tyágasah abhîke urushyátam mâdhvî dasrâ nah ûtĩ.

Who is against your great attack? Protect us with your help, ye givers of sweet drink, ye strong ones.

Here Professor Roth seems to join maháh kit tyágasah abhĭke urushyátam, but in that case it would be impossible to construe the first words, káh vâm.

i. 119, 8. ágakkhatam krípamânam parâ-váti pitúh svásya tyágasâ ní-bâdhitam.

You went from afar to the suppliant, who had been struck down by the violence of his own father.

According to Professor Roth tyágas would here mean forlornness, need, or danger. But níbâdhita is a strong verb, as we may see in

viii. 64, 2. pada panîn arâdhásah ní bâdhasva mahẩn asi. Strike the useless Panis down with thy foot, for thou art great.

x. 18, 11. út svañkasva prithivi mẩ ní bâdhathâḥ.

Open, O earth, do not press on him (i. e. the dead, who is to be buried; cf. M. M., Über Todtenbestattung, Zeitschrift der D. M. G., vol. ix. p. xv).

vii. 83, 6. yátra rấga-bhih dasá-bhih ní-bâdhitam prá su-dasam avatam trítsu-bhih sahá.

When you protected Sudâs with the Tritsus, when he was pressed or set upon by the ten kings.

Another passage in which tyágas occurs is,

vi. 62, 10. sánutyena tyágasâ mártyasya vanushyatẩm ápi sîrsha vavriktam.

By your covert attack turn back the heads of those even who harass the mortal.

Though this passage may seem less decisive, yet it is difficult to see how tyágasâ could here, according to Professor Roth, be rendered by forlornness or danger. Something is required by which enemies can be turned back. Nor can it be doubtful that sîrsha is governed by vavriktam, meaning turn back their heads, for the same expression occurs again in i. 33, 5. párâ kit sîrshẩ vavriguh té indra áyagvânah yágva-bhih spárdhamânâh.

Professor Benfey translates this verse by, Kopfüber flohn sie alle vor dir;' but it may be rendered more

literally, "These lawless people fighting with the pious turned back their heads."

X. 144, 6. evá tát índrah índunâ devéshu kit dhârayâte máhi tyágah.

Indeed through this draught Indra can hold out against that great attack even among the gods.

x. 79, 6. kím devéshu tyágah énah kakartha.

What insult, what sin hast thou committed among the gods? In these two passages the meaning of tyágas as attack or assault is at least as appropriate as that proposed by Professor Roth, estrangement, malignity.

There remains one passage, vi. 3, 1. yám tvám mitréna várunah sa-góshâh déva pẩsi tyágasâ mártam ámhah.

I confess that the construction of this verse is not clear to me, and I doubt whether it is possible to use tyágasâ as a verbal noun governing an accusative. If this were possible, one might translate, 'The mortal whom thou, O God (Agni), Varuna, together with Mitra, protectest by pushing back evil.' Anyhow, we gain nothing here, if we take tyágas in the sense of estrangement or malignity.

If it be asked how tyágas can possibly have the meaning which has been assigned to it in all the passages in which it occurs, viz. that of forcibly attacking or pushing away, we can only account for it by supposing that tyag, before it came to mean to leave, meant to push off, to drive away with violence, (verstossen instead of verlassen.) This meaning may still be perceived occasionally in the use of tyag; e. g. devâs tyagantu mâm, may the gods forsake me! i.e. may the gods drive me away! Even in the latest Sanskrit tyag is used with regard to an arrow that is let off. 'To expel' is expressed by nis-tyag. Those who believe in the production of new roots by the addition of prepositional prefixes might possibly see in tyag an original ati-ag, to drive off; but, however that may be, there is evidence enough to show that tyag expressed originally a more violent act of separation than it does in ordinary Sanskrit.

It

Verse 13, note 1. Sámsa, masc., means a spell whether for good or for evil, a blessing as well as a curse. means a curse, or, at all events, a calumny:

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i. 18, 3. mã nah sámsah árarushah dhurtíh prának mártyasya.

Let not the curse of the enemy, the onslaught of a mortal hurt us.

i. 94, 8. asmakam sámsah abhí astu duh-dhyah.

May our curse fall on the wicked!

ii. 26, I. rigūh ít sámsah vanavat vanushyatáh.

May the straight curse strike the enemies! Cf. vii. 56, 19. iii. 18, 2. tápa sámsam árarushah.

Burn the curse of the enemy! !

vii. 25, 2. âré tám sámsam krinuhi ninitsóh.

Take far away the curse of the reviler!

It means blessing:

Cf. vii. 34, 12.

ii. 31, 6. utá vah sámsam usígâm-iva smasi.

We desire your blessing as a blessing for suppliants.
X. 31, 1. a nah devanâm úpa vetu sámsah.

May the blessing of the gods come to us!

x. 7, 1. urushyá nah urú-bhih deva sámsaih. Protect us, god, with thy broad blessings!

ii. 23, Io. mã nah duh-sámsah abhi-dipsúk isata prá susámsâh matí-bhih târishîmahi.

Let not an evil-speaking enemy conquer us; may we, enjoying good report, increase by our prayers!

Lastly, sámsa means praise, the spell addressed by men to the gods, or prayer:

i. 33, 7. prá sunvatáh stuvatáh sámsam âvah.

Thou hast regarded the prayer of him who offers libation and praise.

x. 42, 6. yásmin vayám dadhimá sámsam índre.

Indra in whom we place our hope. Cf. âsams, Westergaard, Radices Linguæ Sanscritæ, s. v. sams.

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