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 âsyẽ 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?

go on

11. Maruts on your strong-hoofed steeds1 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.1 May the strong ones stay here among us.2

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.

you

What then now? Where is there a friend, now that 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:

kva nûnám su-dânavah mádatha vrikta-barhishah. Where do ye rejoice now, you gods for whom the altar is trimmed?

Otherwise, vrikta-barhishah might, with a change of accent, supply an accusative to dadhidhve: 'Will you take the worshippers in your arms?' This, however, is not necessary, as to take by the hand may be used as a neuter verb.

Benfey: Wo weilt ihr gern? was habt ihr jetzt gleichwie ein Vater seinen Sohn-in Händen, da das Opfer harrt?'

Wilson: Maruts, who are fond of praise, and for whom the sacred grass is trimmed, when will you take us by both hands as a father does his son ?'

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Verse 2, note 1. The idea of the first verse, that the Maruts should not be detained by other pursuits, is carried on in the second. The poet asks, what they have to do in the sky, instead of coming down to the earth. The last sentence seems to mean where tarry your herds?' viz. the clouds. Sâyana translates: Where do worshippers, like lowing cows, praise you?' Wilson: Where do they who worship you cry to you like cattle.' Benfey: 'Wo jauchzt man euch, gleich wie Stiere? (Ihre Verehrer brüllen vor Freude über ihre Gegenwart, wie Stiere.)' The verb ranyati, however, when followed by an accusative, means to love, to accept with pleasure. The gods accept the offerings and the prayers:

v. 18, 1. vísvâni yáh ámartyah havya márteshu rányati. The immortal who deigns to accept all offerings among mortals.

v. 74, 3. kásya bráhmâni ranyathah.

Whose prayers do ye accept?

Followed by a locative ranyati means to delight in. Both the gods are said to delight in prayers (viii. 12, 18; 33, 16), and prayers are said to delight in the gods (viii. 16, 2). I therefore take ranyanti in the sense of tarrying, disporting, and ná, if it is to be retained, in the sense of not; where do they not sport? meaning that they are to be found everywhere, except where the poet desires them to be. We thus get rid of the simile of singing poets and lowing cows, which,

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though not too bold for Vedic bards, would here come in too abruptly. It would be much better, however, if the negative particle could be omitted altogether. If we retain it, we must read: kva váh | gâváh na rán | yantí |. But the fact is that through the whole of the Rig-veda kva has always to be pronounced as two syllables, kuva. There is only one passage, v. 61, 2, where, before a vowel, we have to read kva: kuva vo 'svâh, kvâbhîsavah. In other passages, even before vowels, we always have to read kuva, e. g. i. 161, 4. kuvet kva it; i. 105, 4. kuvartam kva ritam. In i. 35, 7, we must read either kuvedânîm sûryah, making sûryah trisyllabic, or kuva idânîm, leaving a hiatus. In i. 168, 6, kvâvaram is kuvâvaram: Sâkalya, forgetting this, and wishing to improve the metre, added na, thereby, in reality, destroying both the metre and the sense. Kva occurs as dissyllabic in the Rig-veda at least forty-one times.

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Verse 3, note 1. The meanings of sumná in the first five Mandalas are well explained by Professor Aufrecht in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, vol. iv. p. 274. As to suvita in the plural, see x. 86, 21, and viii. 93, 29, where Indra is said to bring all suvita's. It frequently occurs in the singular:

x. I48, I. ẩ nah bhara suvitám yásya kâkán.

Verse 4, note 1. One might translate: 'If you, sons of Prisni, were mortals, the immortal would be your worshipper.' But this seems almost too deep and elaborate a compliment for a primitive age. Langlois translates: 'Quand vous ne seriez pas immortels, (faites toutefois) que votre panégyriste jouisse d'une longue vie.' Wilson's translation is obscure: That you, sons of Priśni, may become mortals, and your panegyrist become immortal.' Sâyana translates: Though you, sons of Prisni, were mortal, yet your worshipper would be immortal.' I think it best to connect the fourth and fifth verses, and I feel justified in so doing by other passages where the same or a similar idea is expressed, viz. that if the god were the poet and the poet the god, then the poet would be more liberal to the god than the god is to him. Thus I translated a passage,