Derivatives from dyu convey the idea of brightness and Both qualities are frequently applied to the

briskness. Maruts.

Verse 5, note 1. This translation is merely conjectural. I suppose that the wind driving the clouds before him, is here compared to a bull among cows, cf. v. 52, 3:

té syandrasah ná ukshánah áti skandanti sárvarîh. They, the Maruts, like rushing oxen, mount on the dark

COWS.

The last sentence states that the wind grows even stronger after it has tasted the rain (i. 85, 2. té ukshitasah mahimanam âsata).

Verse 5, note 2. I take gámbhe in the sense of gámbhane. (On the root gabh and its derivatives, see Kuhn, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, vol. i. p. 123 seq.) It would be better to read mukhe, instead of sukhe, in the commentary. The Maruts were not born of milk for Prisni, as Wilson says in a note, but from the milk of Prisni. Prisni is called their mother, Rudra their father: (v. 52, 16; 60, 5.)

Benfey takes the cows for clouds in which the lightnings dwell; and the abyss of the sap is by him supposed to be again the clouds.

Verse 6, note 1. Antam ná, literally, like an end, is explained by Sâyana as the top of a tree. Wilson, Langlois, and Benfey accept that interpretation. Roth proposes, like the hem of a garment, which I prefer; for vastrânta, the end of a garment, is a common expression in later Sanskrit, while anta is never applied to a tree in the sense of the top of a tree. Here agra would be more appropriate.

Verse 7, note 1. Sâyana translates: Man has planted a firm buttress to give stability to his dwelling.' Nidadhré is the perfect Âtmanepada, and expresses the holding down of the head or the cowering attitude of man. I have taken ugraya manyáve over to gihîta, because these words could hardly form an apposition to yẩmâya. As the Vedic poets speak of the very mountains as shaken by the

storms, we might translate párvato giríh by the gnarled or rocky mount; but there is no authority for translating gihîta by it is shattered, and we should have to translate, the mountain yielded or bent before your anger. Cf. v. 57, 3: ní vah vánâ gihate yấmanah bhiya.

The forests get out of your way from fear.

v. 60, 2. vánâ kit ugrâh gihate ní vah bhiya prithivĩ kit regate párvatah kit.

Even the forests, ye fearful Maruts, yield from fear of you; even the earth trembles, even the mountains.

Verse 8, note 1. Agma seems to express the act of racing or running (like âgi, race, battle), while yẩma is the road itself where the racing takes place. A very similar passage occurs in i. 87, 3. The comparison of the earth (fem.) to a king (masc.) would be considered a grave offence in the later Sanskrit literature. In i. 87, 3, vithura takes the place of vispáti.

Verse 9, note 1. A very difficult verse. The birth of the Maruts is frequently alluded to, as well as their surpassing strength, as soon as born. Hence the first sentence admits of little doubt. But what follows is very abrupt. Váyas may be the plural of vi, bird, or it may be váyas, the neuter, meaning vital strength: see Kuhn's Zeitschrift, vol. xv. p. 217. The Maruts are frequently compared to birds (cf. i. 87, 2; 88, 1), but it is usual to indicate the comparison by ná or iva. I therefore take váyas as a nom. sing. neut., in the sense of vigour, life. Nir-i is used with particular reference to the birth of a child (cf. v. 78, 7; 9).

Verse 10, note 1. If we take sûnávo gírah in the sense of the sons of voice, i, e. of thunder, the accent of gírah will have to be changed. Gírah, however, occurs, at least once more, in the sense of singers or poets, ix. 63, 10, where gírah can only be a vocative, O ye singers! In i. 6, 6, the translation of gírah by singers, i. e. the Maruts, may be contested, but if we consider that gírah, in the sense of hymns, is feminine, and is followed by the very word which is here used, viz. devayántah, as a feminine, viz. devayántîh,

vii. 18, 3, we can hardly doubt that in i. 6, 6, gírah is a masculine and means singers. The same applies to vi. 63, 10. In vi. 52, 9, the construction is, of course, quite different.

Verse 10, note 2. The expression that the Maruts enlarged or extended the fences of their race-course, can only mean that they swept over the whole sky, and drove the clouds away from all the corners. Kashtha may mean the wooden enclosures (carceres) or the wooden poles that served as turning and winning-posts (meta). The last sentence expresses the result of this race, viz. the falling of so much rain that the cows had to walk up to their knees in water. This becomes still clearer from the next verse.

Sâyana: These, the producers of speech, have spread water in their courses, they cause the cows to walk up to their knees in order to drink the water.'

Verse 11, note 1. Rain is called the offspring of the cloud, mihó nápât, and is then treated as a masculine.

Verse 12, note1. In viii. 72, 8, akukyavît is explained by vyadârayat, he tore open. Akukyavîtana is the Vedic form of the 2nd pers. plur. of the reduplicated aorist.

Verse 13, note. Yânti has to be pronounced as an amphibrachys.

Verse 14, note 1. Benfey supposes that dúvah stands in the singular instead of the plural. But why should the plural have been used, as the singular (asti) would have created no kind of difficulty? It is better to take dúvah as a nominative plural of a noun dû, worshipper, derived from the same root which yielded dúvah, worship. We certainly find á-duvah in the sense of not-worshipping:

vii. 4, 6. ma tvâ vayám sahasâ-van avîrâh ma ápsavah pári sadâma ma áduvah.

May we not, O hero, sit round thee like men without strength, without beauty (cf. viii. 7, 7), without worship.

Here Sâyana explains áduvah very well by parikaranahînâh, which seems better than Roth's explanation' zögernd, ohne Eifer,"

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 prithivyẩh, kvã vah gấvah ná † ranyanti.

3. Kvã vah sumna návyâmsi márutah kvã suvita, kvõ (íti) vísvâni saúbhagâ.

4. Yát yûyám prisni-mâtarah mártâsah syấtana, stota vah amrítah 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 mâta sisakti, yát eshâm vrishtíh ásargi.

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

10. Ádha svanất marútâm vísvam a sádma pẩrthivam, áreganta prá manushâh.

* kádha priyáh

+ Omit ná

‡ávâtam

HYMN TO THE MARUTS (THE STORM-GODS).

1. What then now? When1 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 ??

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 never1 should your praiser be unwelcome, like a deer in pasture grass,2 nor should he go on the path of Yama.3

2

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,1 men reeled forward.