Wide is the space for him who goes on the right path of Aditi.
In VIII, 25, 3, we are told that Aditi bore Mitra and Varuna, and these in verse 5 are called the sons of Daksha (power), and the grandsons of Savas, which again means might : napata sdvasa# maha sind (iti) ddkshasya su-krdtd ({ti). In X, 36, 3, Aditi is called the mother of Mitra and Varuaa; likewise in X, 132, 6; see also VI, 67, 4. In VIII, 47, 9, Aditi is called the mother of Mitra, Aryaman, Varuna, who in VII, 60, 5 are called her sons. In X, 11,1, Varuna is called yahvah ddite#, the son of Aditi (cf. VIII, 19,12); in VII, 41, 2, Bhaga is mentioned as her son. In X, 72, 8, we hear of eight sons of Aditi, but it is added that she approached the gods with seven sons only, and that | the eighth (mart4da, addled egg) was thrown away : ash/au putrasah ddited yé gat&h tanvak pdri, devén upa pra ait saptd-bhiAZ pdra martaaddm Asyat.
In X, 63, 2, the gods in general are represented as born from Aditi, the waters, and the earth: yé stha gatdh aditeé at-bhyas pari yé prithivydz té me ihd sruta hdvam.
You who are born of Aditi, from the water, you who are born of the earth, hear ye all my call!
The number seven, with regard to the Adityas, occurs also in
There are seven regions with their different suns, there are seven Hotars as priests, those who are the seven gods, the Adityas, with them, O Soma, protect us!
The Seven Adityas.
This number of seven Adityas requires an explanation. To say that seven is a solemn or sacred number is to say very little, for however solemn or sacred that number may be elsewhere, it is not more sacred than any other number in the Veda. The often-mentioned seven rivers have a real geographical foundation, like the seven hills of Rome. The seven flames or treasures of Agni (V, 1, 5) and of Soma and Rudra (VI, 74, 1), the seven paridhis or logs at certain sacrifices (X, 90, 15), the seven Harits or horses of the sun, the seven Hotar priests (III, 7, 7; 10, 4), the seven cities of the enemy destroyed by Indra (I, 63, 7), and even the seven Rishis (X, 82,2; 109, 4), all these do not prove that the number of seven was more sacred than the number of one or three or five or ten used in the Veda in a very similar way. With regard to the seven Adityas, however, we are still able to see that their number of seven or eight had something to do with solar movements. If their number had always been eight, we should feel inclined to trace the number of the Adityas back to the eight regions, or the eight cardinal points of the heaven. Thus we read:
I, 35, 8. ash¢au vi akhyat kakubhak prithivy42.
The god Savitar lighted up the eight points of the earth (not the eight hills).
Thus we read:
I, 35, 8. ash¢au vi akhyat kakubhak prithivy42.
The god Savitar lighted up the eight points of the earth (not the eight hills).
But we have seen already that though the number of Adityas was originally supposed to have been eight, it was reduced to seven, and this could hardly be said in any sense of the eight points of the compass. Cf. Taitt. Ar. I, 7, 6. |
As we cannot think in ancient India of the seven planets, I can only suggest the seven days or tithis of the four parvans of the lunar month as a possible prototype of the
p. 253
Adityas. This might even explain the destruction of the eighth Aditya, considering that the eighth day of each parvan, owing to its uncertainty, might be represented as exposed to decay and destruction. This would explain such passages as,
IV, 7, 5- yagishtzam saptd dh&ma-bhiAz.
Agni, most worthy of sacrifice in the seven stations.
IX, 102, 2. yagfdsya sapté dhama-bhit.
In the seven stations of the sacrifice.
The seven threads of the sacrifice may have the same origin :
For thou, Vasu (Agni), comest first every morning, thou art the illuminator of the twins (day and night). Thou holdest the seven places for the sacrifice, creating Mitra (the sun) for thy own body.
The sages established the seven divisions, but mischief befell one of them.
I, 22, 16. dtak devas avantu nak yatak vishnuk vi-kakramé prithivyas sapté dh&ma-bhiz.
May the gods protect us from whence Vishzu strode forth, by the seven stations of the earth!
Even the names of the seven or eight Adityas are not definitely known, at least not from the hymns of the Rigveda. In II, 27,1, we have a list of six names: Mitrd, Aryamdn, Bhaga, Vdruza, Ddaksha, Amsah. These with Aditi would give us seven. In VI, 50, 1, we have Aditi,
p. 254
Varuna, Mitra, Agni, Aryamdn, Savitdér, and Bhaga. In I, 89, 3, Bhdga, Mitr4, Aditi, Déksha, Aryamdn, Véruma, Séma, Asvina, and Sdrasvatt are invoked together with an old invocation, pirvaya ni-vida. In the Taittirtya-arazyaka, I, 13, 3, we find the following list: 1. Mitra, 2. Varuna, 3. Dhatar, 4. Aryaman, 5. Amsa, 6. Bhaga, 7. Indra, 8. Vivasvat, but there, too, the eighth son is said to be Mart4zda, or, according to the commentator, Aditya.
In the Taittirtya-arazyaka, I, 13, 3, we find the following list: 1. Mitra, 2. Varuna, 3. Dhatar, 4. Aryaman, 5. Amsa, 6. Bhaga, 7. Indra, 8. Vivasvat, but there, too, the eighth son is said to be Mart4zda, or, according to the commentator, Aditya.
The character of Aditi as the mother of certain gods is also indicated by some of her epithets, such as raéga-putra, having kings for her sons; su-putra, having good sons; ugra-putra, having terrible sons:
II, 27, 7. pfpartu nak dditiZ rdéga-putra ati dvéshamsi aryama su-gébhif, br#hat mitrdsya vdruvasya sarma upa syama puru-virah arish/ah.
May Aditi with her royal sons, may Aryaman carry us on easy roads across the hatreds; may we with many sons and without hurt obtain the great protection of Mitra and Varuna!
III, 4,11. barhiZ nak Astam dditi# su-putrd.
May Aditi with her excellent sons sit on our sacred pile !
Protect us, O goddess with terrible sons, from the enemy in shallow or deep water, and no one will hurt our offspring !
Aditi identified with other Deities.
Aditi, however, for the very reason that she was originally intended for the Infinite, for something beyond the visible world, was liable to be identified with a number of finite deities which might all be represented as resting on Aditi, as participating in Aditi, as being Aditi. Thus we read:
Aditi is the heaven, Aditi the sky, Aditi the mother, thep. 255 father, the son. All the gods are Aditi, the five clans, the past is Aditi, Aditi is the future.
But although Aditi may thus be said to be everything, heaven, sky, and all the gods, no passage occurs, in the Rig-veda at least, where the special meaning of heaven or earth is expressed by Aditi. In X, 63, 3, where Aditi seems to mean sky, we shall see that it ought to be taken as a masculine, either in the sense of Aditya, or as an epithet, unbounded, immortal. In I, 72,9, we ought probably to read prithvi and pronounce prithuvi, and translate ‘the wide Aditi, the mother with her sons;’ and not, as Benfey does, ‘the Earth, the eternal mother.’
It is more difficult to determine whether in one passage Aditi has not been used in the sense of life after life, or as the name of the place whither people went after death, or of the deity presiding over that place. In a well-known hymn, supposed to have been uttered by Sunaksepa when on the point of being sacrificed by his own father, the following verse occurs :
I, 24,1. ka& nak mahyaf{ aditaye puna dat, pitdram ka driséyam mataram fa.
Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother?
Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother?
As the supposed utterer of this hymn is still among the living, Aditi can hardly be taken in the sense of earth, nor would the wish to see father and mother be intelligible in the mouth of one who is going to be sacrificed by his own father. Ifwe discard the story of Sunahsepa, and take the hymn as uttered by any poet who craves for the protection of the gods in the presence of danger and death, then we may choose between the two meanings of earth or liberty, and translate, either, Who will give us back to the great earth? or, Who will restore us to the great Aditi, the goddess of freedom?
Aditi and Diti. Fhere is one other passage which might receive light if
we could take Aditi in the sense of Hades, but I give this translation as a mere guess:
p. 256
IV, 2, 11. rayé ka nak su-apatydya deva ditim a rasva aditim urushya.
That we may enjoy our wealth and healthy offspring, give us this life on earth, keep off the life to come! Cf. I, 152, 6.
It should be borne in mind that Diti occurs in the Rigveda thrice only, and in one passage it should, I believe, be changed into Aditi. This passage occurs in VII, 15, 12. tvdm agne vird-vat yasak devah ka savitd bhagat, ditik ka dati varyam. Here the name of Diti is so unusual, and that of Aditi, on the contrary, so natural, that I have little doubt that the poet had put the name of Aditi; and that later reciters, not aware of the occasional license of putting two short syllables instead of one, changed it into Aditi. If we remove this passage, then Diti, in the Rig-veda at least, occurs twice only, and each time together or in contrast with Aditi; cf. V, 62, 8, page 243. I have no doubt, therefore, that Professor Roth is right when he says that Diti is a being without any definite conception, a mere reflex of Aditi, We can clearly watch her first emergence into existence through what is hardly more than a play of words, whereas in the epic and Purdzic literature this Diti (like the Suras) has grown into a definite person, one of the daughters of Daksha, the wife of Kasyapa, the mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas. Such is the growth of legend, mythology and religion !
Aditi in her Moral Character.
Besides the cosmical character of Aditi, which we have hitherto examined, this goddess has also assumed a very prominent moral character. Aditi, like Varuza, delivers from sin. Why this should be so, we can still understand if we watch the transition which led from a purely cosmical
_toa moral conception of Aditi. Sin in the Veda is frequently conceived as a bond or a chain from which the repentant sinner wishes to be freed :
VII, 86, 5. Ava drugdhéni pitrya sviga nak dva y&é vayam kakrima tanibhif, 4va r4gan pasu-trépam na tayum sriga vatsdm na daémnaz vasish¢fam.
Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those om a“ XN
: . .
Ava drugdhéni pitrya sviga nak dva y&é vayam kakrima tanibhif, 4va r4gan pasu-trépam na tayum sriga vatsdm na daémnaz vasish¢fam.
Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those om a“ XN
: . .
p. 257
which we have committed with our own bodies. Release Vasishtha, O king, like a thief who has feasted on stolen cattle; release him like a calf from the rope *.
O Adityas, deliver us from the mouth of the wolves, like a bound thief, O Aditi! Cf. VIII, 67, 18.
Sunafsepa, who, as we saw before, wishes to be restored to the great Aditi, is represented as bound (dita) by ropes, and in V, 2, 7, we read:
sinahk-sépam Ait ni-ditam sahdsrat ylipat amufkak dsamishéa hi sa#, eva asmat agne vi mumugdhi pasdn hétar ({ti) kikitvad iha tu ni-sddya.
O Agni, thou hast released the bound Suna/sepa from the stake, for he had prayed ; thus take from us, too, these ropes, O sagacious Hotar, after thou hast settled here.
Expressions like these, words like ddman, bond, ni-dita, bound, naturally suggested 4-diti, the un-bound or unbounded, as one of those deities who could best remove the bonds of sin or misery. If we once realise this concatenation of thought and language, many passages of the Veda that seemed obscure, will become intelligible.
May we obtain the new favour of the Adityas, their best protection; may the quick Maruts listen and place this sacrifice in guiltlessness and Aditi-hood.
I have translated the last words literally, in order to make their meaning quite clear. Agas has the same meaning as the Greek dyos, guilt, abomination; an-A4gastva, therefore, as applied to a sacrifice or to the man who makes it, means guiltlessness, purity. Aditi-tva, Aditi-hood, has a similar meaning, it means freedom from bonds, from anything that hinders the proper performance of a religious act; it may come to mean perfection or holiness.
* See M.M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 2nd ed., : P. 541. [32] 8
p. 258
Aditi having once been conceived as granting this adititva, - soon assumed a very definite moral character, and hence the following invocations ;
I, 24,15. ut ut-tamdm varuza p&sam asmat 4va adhamam vi madhyamdm srathaya, a4tha vayam Aditya vraté tava an4gasak aditaye sy4ma.
O Varuaa, lift the highest rope, draw off the lowest, remove the middle; then, O Aditya, let us be in thy service free of guilt before Aditi.
May we, guiltless before Aditi, and in the keeping of the god Savitar, obtain all goods! Professor Roth here translates Aditi by freedom or security. .
I, 162, 22. anag4/-tvam nak aditiz krinotu.
May Aditi give us sinlessness! Cf. VII, 51, 1.
May we, guiltless before Aditi, and in the keeping of the god Savitar, obtain all goods! Professor Roth here translates Aditi by freedom or security. .
I, 162, 22. anag4/-tvam nak aditiz krinotu.
May Aditi give us sinlessness! Cf. VII, 51, 1.
IV, 12, 4. ydt Ait hf te purusha-tré yavishzha dkitti-bhiZ kakrima kat Ait &gahk, kridhi si asman dditeA dn4gan vi énamsi sisrathad vishvak agne.
Whatever, O youthful god, we have committed against thee, men as we are, whatever sin through thoughtlessness, make us guiltless of Aditi, loosen the sins on all sides, O Agni!
VII, 93,7. sa# agne ena ndmasaé sdm-iddhak 4kkha mitram vdruzam {ndram voked, yat-sim gah kakrimd tat si mrila _ tat aryaméé dditiZ sisrathantu.
O Agni, thou who hast been kindled with this adoration, greet Mitra, Varuza, and Indra. Whatever sin we have committed, do thou pardon it! May Aryaman, Aditi loose it!
Here the plural sisrathantu should be observed, instead of the dual.
May Aditi by day protect our cattle, may she, who never deceives, protect by night; may she, with steady increase, protect us from evil!
And may she, the thoughtful Aditi, come with help ta -p. 259 us by day; may she kindly bring happiness to us, and carry away all enemies! Cf. X, 36, 3, page 251.
X, 87,18. & vriskyantém dditaye duh-évak.
May the evil-doers be cut off from Aditi! or literally, may they be rooted out before Aditi!
II, 27,14. ddite mitra varuma utd mri/a ydt vak vaydm kakrima kat Ait &gaz, uri asyam dbhayam gyétié indra m& nak dirgh&% abh{ nasan tamisrah.
Aditi, Mitra, and also Varuza forgive, if we have committed any sin against you. May I obtain the wide and fearless light, O Indra! May not the long darkness reach us!
May we be sinless before Varuna, who is gracious even to him who has committed sin, and may we follow the laws of Aditi! Protect us always with your blessings!
Lastly, Aditi, like all other gods, is represented as a giver of worldly goods, and implored to bestow them on her worshippers, or to protect them by her power:
That Aditi may bring Rudra’s favour to our cattle, our men, our cow, our offspring.
I, 153, 3. pipaya dhenuk aditiz ritaya gandya mitravarund havih-dé.
Aditi, the cow, gives food to the righteous man, O Mitra and Varuza, who makes offerings to the gods, Cf. VIII, 101, 15.
I, 185, 3. anehd’ datram dAdite# anarvam huvé.
I call for the unrivalled, uninjured gift of Aditi. Here Professor Roth again assigns to Aditi the meaning of freedom or security.
VII, 40, 2. dideshtu devi dditiz réknah.
May the divine Aditi assign wealth !
VIII, 101, 15.
I, 185, 3. anehd’ datram dAdite# anarvam huvé.
I call for the unrivalled, uninjured gift of Aditi. Here Professor Roth again assigns to Aditi the meaning of freedom or security.
VII, 40, 2. dideshtu devi dditiz réknah.
May the divine Aditi assign wealth !
X, 100, 1. & sarvd-tatim dditim vrzzimahe.
We implore Aditi for health and wealth.
I, 94,15. ydsmai tvdm su-dravinah dadasah anagah-tvim
S 2
p. 260
adite sarva-tata, ym bhadréwa sdvasa AoddyAsi praga-vata rédhas4 té sy4ma.
To whom thou, possessor of good treasures, grantest guiltlessness, O Aditi, in health and wealth*, whom thou quickenest with precious strength and with riches in progeny, may we be they! Cf. II, 40,6; IV, 25,5; X,11, 2.
The principal epithets of Aditi have been mentioned in the passages quoted above, and they throw no further light on the nature of the goddess. She was called devi, goddess, again and again ; another frequent epithet is anarvan, uninjured, unscathed. Being invoked to grant light (VII, 82, 10), she is herself called luminous, gyétishmati, I, 136, 3; and svarvati, heavenly. Being the goddess of the infinite expanse, she, even with greater right than the dawn, is called ur(Ai, VIII, 67,12; uruvydéas, V, 46, 6; uruvraga, VIII, 67,12; and possibly prithvi in I, 72, 9. As supporting everything, she is called dh4raydtkshiti, supporting the earth, I, 136, 3; and visvaganya, VII, 10, 4. To her sons she owes the names of r&gaputra, II, 27, 7; suputré, III, 4, 11; and ugrdputra, VIII, 67, 11: to her wealth that of sudravizas, I, 94, 15, though others refer this epithet to Agni. There remains one name pasty4, IV, 55, 3; VIII, 27,5, meaning housewife, which again indicates her character as mother of the gods.
I have thus given all the evidence that can be collected from the Rig-veda as throwing light on the character of the goddess Aditi, and I have carefully excluded everything that rests only on the authority of the Yagur- or Atharvavedas, or of the Brahmamas and Aramyakas, because in all they give beyond the repetitions from the Rig-veda, they seem to me to represent a later phase of thought that ought not to be mixed up with the more primitive conceptions of the Rig-veda. Not that the Rig-veda is free from what seems decidedly modern, or at all events secondary and late. But it is well to keep the great collections, as such,
® On sarvatati, salus, see Benfey’s excellent remarks in Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 519. Professor Roth takes aditi here as an epithet of Agni.
p. 261
separate, whatever our opinions may be as to the age of their component parts.
In the Atharva-veda Aditi appears more unintelligible, more completely mythological, than in the Rig-veda. We read, for instance, Atharva-veda VII, 6,1:
‘ Aditi is the sky, Aditi is the welkin, Aditi is mother, is father, is son; all the gods are Aditi, and the five clans of men; Aditi is what was, Aditi is what will be.
We read, for instance, Atharva-veda VII, 6,1:
‘ Aditi is the sky, Aditi is the welkin, Aditi is mother, is father, is son; all the gods are Aditi, and the five clans of men; Aditi is what was, Aditi is what will be.
‘We invoke for our protection the great mother of the well-ruling gods, the wife of Rita, the powerful, never-aging, far-spreading, the sheltering, well-guiding Aditi.’
In the Taittiriya-drazyaka and similar works the mythological confusion becomes greater still. Much valuable material for an analytical study of Aditi may be found in B. and R.’s Dictionary, and in several of Dr. Muir’s excellent contributions to a knowledge of Vedic theogony and mythology.
Aditi as an Adjective.
But although the foregoing remarks give as complete a description of Aditi as can be gathered from the hymns of the Rig-veda, a few words have to be added on certain passages where the word dditi occurs, and where it clearly cannot mean the goddess Aditi, as a feminine, but must be taken either as the name of a corresponding masculine deity, or as an adjective in the sense of unrestrained, independent, ffee.
V, 59, 8. mimatu dyaus aditiz vitdye naz.
May the boundless Dyt (sky) help us to our repast !
Here Aditi must either be taken in the sense of Aditya, or better in its original sense of unbounded, as an adjective belonging to Dy, the masculine deity of the sky.
Dyi or the sky is called dditi or unbounded in another passage, X, 63, 3:
The gods to whom their mother yields the sweet milk, and the unbounded sky, as firm as a rock, their food.
IV, 3, 8. kath@ sdrdhdya marit&m rvitéya kath& sfré brihaté prikkhyamana, prati bravak dditaye turdya.
p. 262
How wilt thou tell it to the host of the Maruts, how to the bright heaven, when thou art asked? How to the quick Aditi?
Here Aditi cannot be the goddess, partly on account of the masculine gender of turdya, partly because she is never called quick. Aditi must here be the name of one of the Adityas, or it may refer back to sfré brthaté. It can hardly be joined, as Professor Roth proposes, with sardhaya marutam, owing to the intervening sdré brzhaté.
In several passages dditi, as an epithet, refers to Agni:
IV, 1, 20 (final). visvesham aditi# yagfify4nam visvesham atithiZ m&nushaz4m.
He, Agni, the Aditi, or the freest, among all the gods ; he the guest among all men.
The same play on the words Aditi and atithi occurs again:
The wise poet, Aditi, Vivasvat, Mitra with his good company, our welcome guest, he (Agni) with brilliant light came at the head of the dawns.
Here, though I admit that several renderings are possible, Aditi is meant as a name of Agni, to whom the whole hymn is addressed, and who, as usual, is identified with other gods, or, at all events, invoked by their names. We may translate dditik vivdsvan by ‘the brilliant Aditi,’ or ‘the unchecked, the brilliant,’ or by ‘ the bourtdless Vivasvat,’ but on no account can we take dditi here as the female goddess. The same applies to VIII, 19, 14, where Aditi, unless we suppose the goddess brought in in the most abrupt way, must be taken as a name of Agni; while in X, 92, 14, dditim anarvazam, to judge from other epithets given in the same verse, has most likely to be taken again as an appellative of Agni. In some passages it would, no doubt, be possible to take Aditi as the name of a female deity, if it were certain that no other meaning could be assigned to this word. But if we once know that Aditi was the name of a male deity also, the structure of these passages becomes far more perfect, if we take Aditi in that sense :
May Aditi make him free from sin, he who is allied with Mitra and Varuna.
We have had several passages in which Aditi, the female deity, is represented as sagéshaé or allied with other. Adityas, but if s4# is the right reading here, Aditi in this verse can only be the male deity. The pronoun sd cannot refer to tam.
With regard to other passages, such as IX, 81, 5; VI, 51, 3, and even some of those translated above in which Aditi has been taken as a female goddess, the question must be left open till further evidence can be obtained. There is only one more passage which has been often dis-cussed, and where dditi was supposed to have the meaning of earth:
Professor Roth in one of his earliest essays translated this line, ‘The evil-disposed wished to dry the earth, the fools split the Parushzi,’ and he supposed its meaning to have been that the enemies of Sud4s swam across the Parushai in order to attack Sud4s. We might accept this translation, if it could be explained how by throwing themselves into the river, the enemies made the earth dry, though even then there would remain this difficulty that, with the exception of one other doubtful passage, discussed before, Aditi never means earth. We might possibly translate: ‘The evil-disposed, the fools, laid dry and divided the boundless river Parushzi.’ This would be a description of a stratagem very common in ancient warfare, viz. diverting the course of a river and laying its original bed dry by digging a new channel, and thus dividing the old river. This is also the sense accepted by Sayama, who does not say that vigraha means dividing the waves of a river, as Professor Roth renders k(labheda, but that it means dividing or cutting through its banks. In the Dictionary Professor Roth assigns to dditi in this passage the meaning of endless, inexhaustible.
p. 264
Kana.
Note 5. Nothing is more difficult in the interpretation of the Veda than to gain an accurate knowledge of the power of particles and conjunctions. The particle kana, we are
- told, is used both affirmatively and negatively, a statement which shows better than anything else the uncertainty to which every translation of Vedic hymns is as yet exposed. It is perfectly true that in the text of the Rig-veda, as we now read it, Zand means both indeed and no. But this very fact shows that we ought to distinguish where the first collectors of the Vedic hymns have not distinguished, and that while in the former case we read kana, we ought in the latter to read ka na.
I begin with those passages in which dana is used emphatically, though originally it may have been a double negation.
Ia. In negative sentences :
I, 18,7. yasmat rité na s{dhyati yag#dh vipah-kitah and.
Without whom the sacrifice does not succeed, not even that of the sage.
V, 34, 5. na dsunvata sakate puishyata dana.
He does not cling to a man who offers no libations, even though he be thriving.
I, 24, 6. nahf te kshatrdm na sdhak nd manyim vayak kana amit ({ti) patayantak Apu.
For thy power, thy strength, thy anger even these birds which fly up, do not reach. Cf. I, 100, 15.
1,155, 5. trétiyam asya ndkiZ & dadharshati vayah and patayantak patatrinah.
This third step no one approaches, not even the winged birds which fly up.
I, 55, 1. divak Ait asya varim& vi papratha, {ndram na mahna prithivi dana prati.
The width of the heavens is stretched out, even the earth in her greatness is no match for Indra.
This third step no one approaches, not even the winged birds which fly up.
I, 55, 1. divak Ait asya varim& vi papratha, {ndram na mahna prithivi dana prati.
The width of the heavens is stretched out, even the earth in her greatness is no match for Indra.
Id. Ina few passages, however, we find the indefinite pronoun kas £and used in sentences which are not negative:
III, 30,1. titikshante abh{-sastim g4nandm indra tvdt & kak Rand hi pra-ketdh.
They bear the scoffing of men; for, Indra, from thee comes every wisdom.
I, 113, 8. ushaéZ mrttdm kam and bodhayantt.
Ushas, who wakes every dead (or one who is as if dead).
titikshante abh{-sastim g4nandm indra tvdt & kak Rand hi pra-ketdh.
They bear the scoffing of men; for, Indra, from thee comes every wisdom.
I, 113, 8. ushaéZ mrttdm kam and bodhayantt.
Ushas, who wakes every dead (or one who is as if dead).
I, 191, 7. advishtik kim Rand iha vak sarve sakdm ni gasyata.
Invisible ones, whatever you are, vanish all together!
II. We now come to passages in which £and stands for ka na, and therefore renders the sentence negative without any further negative particle. It might seem possible to escape from this admission, by taking certain sentences in an interrogative sense. But this would apply to certain sentences only, and would seem forced even there:
II, 16, 2. ydsmAt {ndrat brzhataé kim and im rité.
Beside whom, (beside) the great Indra, there is not anything. |
II, 24, 12. visvam saty4m magha-vana yuvéd {t apaX and pra minanti vratam vam.
Everything, you mighty ones, belongs indeed to you; even the waters do not transgress your law.
p. 267
IV, 30, 3. visve kana {t an@ tva devasad indra yuyudhud.
Even all the gods do not ever fight thee, O Indra.
Even in a stronghold many a man is not often preserved who has excited his anger.
VII, 83, 2. ydsmin 4gd bhavati kim dand priydm. .
In which struggle there is nothing good whatsoever.
VII, 86, 6. svApnak Rand {ft dnvitasya pra-yota.
Even sleep does not remove all evil.
In this passage I formerly took and as affirmative, not as negative, and therefore assigned to prayoté the same meaning which Sayama assigns to it, one who brings or mixes, whereas it ought to be, as rightly seen by Roth, one who removes.
VIII, 1,5. mahé £and tv4m adri-vak para sulkéya dey4m, na sahdsraya nd ayutdya vagri-vak nd satdya sata-magha.
I should not give thee up, wielder of the thunderbolt, even for a great price, not for a thousand, not for ten thousand (?), not for a hundred, O Ihdra, thou who art possessed of a hundred powers!
VIII, 51, 7. kad& £ana start’ asi.
Thou art never sterile.
VIII, 52, 7. kad dana prd yukkAasi.
Thou art never weary.
VIII, 55, 5. 4ékshusha and sam-ndse.
Not to be reached even with eye.
X, 56, 4. mahimnds eshém pitdrah Rand isire.
Note 6. Considering the particular circumstances mentioned in this and the preceding hymn, of Indra’s forsaking his companions, the Maruts, or even scorning their help, one feels strongly tempted to take tydgas in its etymological sense of leaving or forsaking, and to translate, by his. forsaking you, or, if he should forsake you. The poet may have meant the word to convey that idea, which no doubt would be most appropriate here; but it must be confessed, at the same time, that in other passages where tydgas occurs, that meaning could hardly be ascribed to it. Strange as it may seem, no one who is acquainted with the general
p. 268
Strange as it may seem, no one who is acquainted with the generalp. 268 train of thought in the Vedic hymns can fail to see that tydgas in most passages means attack, onslaught; it may be even the instrument of an attack,a weapon. Howit should come to take this meaning is indeed difficult to explain, and I do not wonder that Professor Roth in his Dictionary simply renders the word by forlornness, need, danger, or by estrangement, unkindness, malignity. But let us look at the passages, and we shall see that these abstract conceptions are quite out of place:
VIII, 47, 7. nd tam tigmdm and ty4gahé nd drasad abhi tam gurd.
No sharp blow, no heavy one, shall come near him whom you protect. ,
Here the two adjectives tigma, sharp, and guri, heavy, point to something tangible, and I feel much inclined to take tydgas in this passage as a weapon, as something that is let off with violence, rather than in the more abstract sense of onslaught.
I, 169, 1. mahdz Ait asi ty4vasah varitd.
Thou art the shielder from a great attack.
IV, 43,4. kd#A vam maha Ait tydgasah abhike urushydtafn madhvi dasr4 nak Att.
Who is against your great attack? Protect us with your help, O Asvins, ye strong ones.
Here Professor Roth seems to join maha’ Zit tydgasak abhike urushydtam, but in that case it would be impossible to construe the first words, k4# vam.
You went from afar to the suppliant, who had been struck down by the violence of his own father.
According to Professor Roth tydgas would here mean forlornness, need, or danger. But nibAdhita is a strong verb, as we may see in
VIII, 64,2. pad& pazin aradhdsa’ ni badhasva mahén asi.
Strike the useless Pais down with thy foot, for thou art great.
X, 18,11. ut sva#kasva prithivi m& nf badhathad.
Open, O earth, do not press on him (i.e. the dead, who isp. 269 to be buried ; cf. M. M., Uber Todtenbestattung, Zeitschrift der D. M.G., vol. ix, p. xv).
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 ty4gas4 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 sirshd is governed by vavr#ktam, meaning turn back their heads, for the same expression occurs again in I, 33, 5. para Ait sirsh@ vavriguh té indra ayagvanak yagva-bhiz spardhamanaz.
Something is required by which enemies can be turned back. Nor can it be doubtful that sirshd is governed by vavr#ktam, meaning turn back their heads, for the same expression occurs again in I, 33, 5. para Ait sirsh@ vavriguh té indra ayagvanak yagva-bhiz spardhamanaz.
Professor Benfey translates this verse by, ‘ Kopfiiber flohn sie alle vor dir;’ but it may be rendered more literally, ‘ These lawless people fighting with the pious turned away their heads.’ ,
X, 144, 6. evd tat indrak induna devéshu Ait dharaydte mahi ty4gah.
Indeed through this draught Indra can hold out against that great attack even among the gods.
X, 79, 6. kim devéshu tyaga’ énak akartha.
What insult, what sin hast thou committed among the gods?
In these two passages the meaning of tydgas as attack or assault is at least as appropriate as that proposed by Professor Roth, estrangement, malignity.
There remains one passage, VI, 3,1. y4m tvdm mitréna varunah sa-géshah déva pasi ty4gas4 mdrtam dmhak.
I confess that the construction of this verse is not clear to me, and I doubt whether it is possible to use tydgas4 as a verbal noun governing an accusative. If this were possible, one might translate, ‘The mortal whom thou, O God (Agni),
p. 270
Varuaa, together with Mitra, protectest by pushing back evil” More probably we should translate, ‘Whom thou protectest from evil by thy might.’
If it be asked how tydgas 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. devds tyagantu mam, 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, though here, too, passages occur in which tyag may be translated by to throw, to fling; for instance, khe dhdlim yas tyaged uékair mardhni tasyaiva s4 patet, he who throws up dust in the air, it will fall on his head. Ind. Spr. 1582.
Mué, too, is used in a similar manner ; for instance, vagram mokshyate te mahendrak, Mah4abh. XIV, 263. Cf. Dhammapada, ver. 389.
Verse 138.
Note 1. Sasa, masc., means a spell, whether for good or for evil, a blessing as well as a curse. It means a curse, or, at all events, a calumny:
I, 18, 3. m& nak sdmsahk drarushak dhort{h pranak martyasya.
Let not the curse of the enemy, the onslaught of a mortal hurt us,
389.
Verse 138.
Note 1. Sasa, masc., means a spell, whether for good or for evil, a blessing as well as a curse. It means a curse, or, at all events, a calumny:
I, 18, 3. m& nak sdmsahk drarushak dhort{h pranak martyasya.
Let not the curse of the enemy, the onslaught of a mortal hurt us,
I, 94, 8. asmakam sdmsah abhi astu dus-dhyas.
May our curse overcome the wicked!
III, 18, 2, tapa sdsam drarushad.
Burn the curse of the enemy !
p. 271
VII, 25, 2. Aré tam sdmsam krinuhi ninitsd’. Take far away the curse of the reviler! Cf. VII, 34, 12.
It means blessing :
II, 31, 6. utd vak s4msam usigdm-iva smasi. _
We desire your blessing as a blessing for suppliants.
X, 31,1. & nak devindm upa vetu samsah.
May the blessing of the gods come to us!
X, 7,1. urushyd nak uri-bhid deva samsaih,
Protect us, god, with thy wide blessings!
II, 23, 10. m& nak duh-sdmsah abhi-dipsuz tsata pra susamsah mati-bhiz tarishimahi.
Let not an evil-speaking enemy conquer us; may we, enjoying good report, increase by our prayers!
In some passages, however, as pointed out by Grassmann, s4msa may best be rendered by singer, praiser, Grassmann marks one passage only,
II, 26, 1. righ it sdmmsak vanavat vanushyata/.
May the righteous singer conquer his enemies.
He admits, however, doubtfully, the explanation of B. R.,. that riguk sdmsak may be taken as one word, meaning, ‘requiring the right.’ This explanation seems surrendered by B.R. in the second edition of their Dictionary, and I doubt whether s4msak can mean here anything but singer. That being so, the same meaning seems more appropriate in other verses also, which I formerly translated differently, e. g.
VII, 56, 19.. imé sdasam vanushyata/ nf panti, -
They, the Maruts, protect the singer from his enemy.
Lastly, s4mmsa means praise, the spell addressed by men to the gods, or prayer:
I, 33, 7. pra sunvata’ stuvatah sdmsam Avah.
Thou hast regarded the prayer of him who offers libation and praise.
X, 42, 6. yasmin vaydm dadhima sdmsam indre.
Indra in whom we place our hope. Cf. sams, Westergaard, Radices Linguae Sanscritae, s.v. sams.
p. 272
MANDALA I, HYMN 167. ASHTAKA II, ADHYAYA 4, VARGA 4-5.
To THE Maruts (THE SToRM-Gops).
1. O Indra, a thousand have been thy helps accorded to us, a thousand, O driver of the bays, have been thy most delightful viands. May thousands of treasures richly to enjoy, may goods! come to us a thousandfold.
2. May the Maruts come towards us with their aids, the mighty ones, or with their best aids from the great heaven, now that their furthest steeds have rushed forth on the distant shore of the sea;
3. There clings? to the Maruts one who moves in secret, like a man’s wife (the lightning *), and who is like a spear carried behind’, well grasped, resplendent, gold-adorned; there is also with them Vaé (the voice of thunder), like unto a courtly, eloquent woman.
There clings? to the Maruts one who moves in secret, like a man’s wife (the lightning *), and who is like a spear carried behind’, well grasped, resplendent, gold-adorned; there is also with them Vaé (the voice of thunder), like unto a courtly, eloquent woman.
4. Far away the brilliant, untiring Maruts cling to their young maid, as if she belonged to them all’; but the terrible ones did not drive away Rodast (the lightning), for they wished her to grow ® their friend.
5. When the divine Rodast with dishevelled locks, the manly-minded, wished to follow them, she went, like Sfry4 (the Dawn), to the chariot of her servant, with terrible look, as with the pace of a cloud.
6. As soon as the poet with the libations, O Maruts, had sung his song at the sacrifice, pouring out Soma, the youthful men (the Maruts) placed the young maid (in their chariot) as their companion for victory, mighty in assemblies.
p. 273
7. I praise what is the praiseworthy true greatness of those Maruts, that the manly-minded, proud, and strong one (Rodast) drives with them towards the blessed mothers.
8. They protect? Mitra and Varuza from the unspeakable, and Aryaman also finds out the infamous. Even what is firm and unshakable is being shaken*; but he who dispenses treasures °, O Maruts, has grown (in strength).
9. No people indeed, whether near to us, or from afar, have ever found the end of your strength, O Maruts! The Maruts, strong in daring strength, have, like the sea, boldly! surrounded their haters.
10. May we to-day, may we to-morrow in battle be called the most beloved of Indra. We were so formerly, may we truly be so day by day, and may the lord of the Maruts be with us.
11. May this praise, O Maruts, this song of MA4ndarya, the son of MA4na, the poet, ask you with food for offspring for ourselves! May we have an invigorating autumn, with quickening rain !
[32] T
p. 274
NOTES.
Ascribed to Agastya, addressed to the Maruts, but the first verse to Indra. Metre Trish¢ubh throughout. No verse of this hymn occurs in the SAma-veda, nor in the other Samhitas. Verse 1.
Note 1. We must keep vaga, as a general term, distinct from asva, horses, and go, cows, for the poets themselves distinguish between gavyanta/, asvaydnta/, and vagayantah; see IV, 17,16; VI, 8, 6.
Verse 3.
Note 1. On mimyaksha, see before, I, 165, 1, note 2.
Note 2. The spear of the Maruts is meant for the lightning, and we actually find vishd-vidyutak, having the lightning for their spear, as an epithet of the Maruts, - I, 168, 5; V, 52, 13.
The rest of this verse is difficult, and has been variously rendered by different scholars. We must remember that the lightning is represented as the wife or the beloved of the Maruts. In that character she is called Rodasi, with the accent on the last syllable, and kept distinct from rddasi, the dual, with the accent on the antepenultimate, which means heaven and earth.
This Rodasf occurs:
In that character she is called Rodasi, with the accent on the last syllable, and kept distinct from rddasi, the dual, with the accent on the antepenultimate, which means heaven and earth.
The chariot on which, carrying pleasant gifts, stands Rodasi among the Maruts.
VI, 50, 5. mimydksha yéshu rodasi nu devi.
To whom clings the divine Rodasi.
VI, 66, 6. A4dha sma eshu rodasi svd-sokid 4 dmavatsu tasthau na rékah.
When they (the Maruts) had joined the two Rodas, ie. heaven and earth, then the self-brilliant Rodast came among the strong ones.
The name of Rédasi, heaven and earth, is so much more frequent in the Rig-veda than that of Rodast, that inp. 275 several passages the iti which stands after duals, has been wrongly inserted after Rodasi in the singular. It is so in our hymn, verse 4, where we must read rodasfm instead of rodasi iti, and again in X, 92, 11.
Besides the lightning, however, the thunder also may be said to be in the company of the Maruts, to be their friend or their wife, and it is this double relationship which seems to be hinted at in our hymn.
The thunder is called V4%, voice, the voice of heaven, also called by the author of the Anukramami, Ambhrini. It was natural to identify this ambhriaza with Greek dBpipos, terrible, particularly as it is used of the thunder, d@pimov éBpdvtnce, Hes. Th. 839, and is applied to Athene as é8ptyondtpn- But there are difficulties pointed out by Curtius, Grundziige, p. 532, which have not yet been removed. This Vaék says of herself (X, 125, 12) that she stretched the bow for Rudra, the father of the Maruts, that her birth-place is in the waters (clouds), and that she fills heaven and earth. See also X, 114, 8.
In 1,173, 3. antaz dita’ nad rédasi darat vak.
The voice (thunder) moved between heaven and earth, like a messenger.
In VIII, 100, 10 and 11, after it has been said that the thunderbolt lies hidden in the water, the poet says: yat va4k vadanti avi-ketandni rashfri devdnam ni-sasdda mandra, when the voice, the queen of the gods, the delightful, uttering incomprehensible sounds, sat down. If, in our verse, we take V4% in the sense of thunder, but as a feminine, it seems to me that the poet, speaking of the lightning and thunder as the two companions of the Maruts, represents the first, Rodas?, or the lightning, as the recognised wife, hiding herself in the house, while the other, the loud thunder, is represented as a more public companion of the Maruts, distinctly called vidatheshu pagra (verse 6), a good speaker at assemblies. This contrast, if it is really what the poet intended, throws a curious light on the social character of the Vedic times, as it presupposes two classes of wives, not necessarily simultaneous, however,—a house-wife, who stays at home and is not much seen, and a wife who appears in
T2
p. 276
public and takes part in the society and conversation of the sabha, the assembly-room, and the vidathas, the meetings. The loud voice of the thunder as well as the usual hiding of the lightning might well suggest this comparison. That good manners, such as are required in public, and ready speech, were highly esteemed in Vedic times, we learn from such words as sabhéya and vidathyd. Sabhéya, from sabh4, assembly, court, comes to mean courtly, polite ; vidathy4, from vidatha, assembly, experienced, learned.
VIII, 4, 9. Zandrak yati sabhdm upa.
Thy friend, Indra, goes brilliant towards the assembly.
X, 34, 6. sabhdm eti kitavaZ.
The gambler goes to the assembly.
VI, 28, 6. brthat vak vayak ukyate sabhdsu.
Your great strength is spoken of in the assemblies.
Wealth is described as consisting in sabhas, houses, IV, 2, 5; and a friend is described as sabhasaha, strong in the assembly, X, 71, 10.
Sabhéya is used as an epithet of vipra (II, 24, 13), and a son is praised as sabheya, vidathya, and sadanya, i.e. as distinguished in the assemblies.
Vidathya, in fact, means much the same as sabheya, namely, good for, distinguished at vidathas, meetings for social, political, or religious purposes, IV, 21, 2; VII, 36, 8, &c.
Note 8. Upar4 nd rishtit. I do not see how upara can here mean the cloud, if it ever has that meaning. I take upara as opposed to pfirva, i.e. behind, as opposed to before. In that sense upara is used, X, 77,3; X,15, 2; 44, 7, &c. It would therefore mean the spear on the back, or the spear drawn back before it is hurled forward.
B.R. propose to read sam-vak, colloquium, but they give no explanation. The reference to VS. IX, 2, is wrong.
Verse 4.
Note 1. The fourth verse carries on the same ideas which were hinted at in the third. We must again change rodasi, the dual, into rodasfm, which is sufficiently indicated by the accent. Yavya I take as an instrumental of yavi, or ofp. 277 yavya. It means the youthful maid, and corresponds to yuvati in verse 6. Yavya would be the exact form which Curtius (Grundziige, p. 589) postulated as the Sanskrit prototype of Hebe*. Now, if the Maruts correspond to Mars in Latin, and to Ares in Greek, the fact that in the Iliad Hebe bathes and clothes Ares®, may be of some significance. SAdhdraziis used in the sense of uxor communis, and would show a familiarity with the idea of polyandry recognised in the epic poetry of the Mahabharata.
But although the Maruts cling to this maid (the Vas, or thunder), they do not cast off Rodasi, their lawful wife, the lightning, but wish her to grow for their friendship, i. e. as their friend.
Ay&dsak yavy4 must be scanned vp“U— vu--. In VI, 66, 5, aydsak mahn& must be scanned as vp “U—v - — (mahimné?).
Note 2. Vr/dham, as the accent shows, is here an infinitive governed by gushanta.
Verse 5. See von Bradke, Dyaus Asura, p. 76.
Verse 6.
e. as their friend.
Ay&dsak yavy4 must be scanned vp“U— vu--. In VI, 66, 5, aydsak mahn& must be scanned as vp “U—v - — (mahimné?).
Note 2. Vr/dham, as the accent shows, is here an infinitive governed by gushanta.
Verse 5. See von Bradke, Dyaus Asura, p. 76.
Verse 6.
I translate arkd by poet. The construction would become too cumbersome if we translated, ‘as soon as the hymn with the libations was there for you, as soon as the sacrificer sang his song.’
Verse 7.
The meaning of the second line is obscure, unless we adopt Ludwig’s ingenious view that Rodast is here conceived as Eileithyia, the goddess who helps mothers in childbirth. I confess that it is a bold conjecture, and there is nothing in Vedic literature to support it. All I can say is that Eileithyia is in Greek, like Hebe (Yavya) and Ares (Marut), a child of Hera, and that lightning as well as dawn might become a symbol of birth. The etymology and the
® Wir miissen ein vorgriechisches y4vi oder méglicherweise yavya annehmen. b ILV, gos.
p. 278
very form of ElAe(6ua is doubtful, and so is that of Rodasi. It is tempting to connect rodasi, in the sense of heaven and earth, with O.S. radur, A.S. rodor (Grimm, Myth. p- 662), but that is impossible. Cf. I, 101, 7.
Verse 8.
Note 1. I do not see how pAnti, the plural, can refer to Mitra and Varuma, nor how these gods could here be introduced as acting the part of the Maruts. I therefore refer pAnti to the Maruts, who may be said to protect Mitra and Varuaa, day and night, and all that belongs to them, from evil and disgrace. Aryaman is then brought in, as being constantly connected with Mitra-varuzau, and the finding out, the perceiving from a distance, of the infamous enemies, who might injure Mitra-varuzau, is parenthetically ascribed to him. See Ludwig, Anmerkungen, p. 239.
Note 2. Ayavante cannot and need not be taken for kyavayanti, though a#yutakut is a common epithet of the Maruts. It is quite true that the shaking of the unshakable mountains is the work of the Maruts, but that is understood, even though it is not expressed. In V, 60, 3, we read, parvatak kit mahi vriddha% bibhaya, even the very great mountain feared, i. e. the Maruts.
Note 3. Dati in ddtivara has been derived by certain Sanskrit scholars from d4, to give. It means, no doubt, gift, but it is derived from da (do, dyati), to share, and means first, a share, and then a gift. D&tivara is applied to the Maruts, V, 58, 2; III, 51, 9, and must therefore be applied to them in our passage also, though the construction becomes thereby extremely difficult. It means possessed of a treasure of goods which they distribute. The growing, too, which is here predicated by vavrzdhe, leads us to think of the Maruts, as in I, 37, 5, or of their friend Indra, I, 52,2; 81,1; VI, 30,1. It is never, so far as I know, applied to the sacrificer.
Verse 9. Note 1. Dhrishat& is used as an adverb; see I, 71, 5; 174, 4; II, 30, 4,&c. Perhaps tmand may be supplied as in I, 54, 4.
It is never, so far as I know, applied to the sacrificer.
Verse 9. Note 1. Dhrishat& is used as an adverb; see I, 71, 5; 174, 4; II, 30, 4,&c. Perhaps tmand may be supplied as in I, 54, 4.
p. 279
MANDALA I, HYMN 168. ASHT7AKA I, ADHYAYA 4, VARGA 6-7.
To THE MaruTs (THE STORM-GODS).
1. To every sacrifice! you hasten together’, you accept prayer after prayer, O quick Maruts! Let me therefore bring you hither by my prayers from heaven and earth, for our welfare, and for our great protection ;
2, The shakers who were born to bring food and light?, self-born and self-supported, like springs *, like thousandfold waves of water, aye, visibly like unto excellent bulls’,
3. Those Maruts, like Soma-drops', which squeezed from ripe stems dwell, when drunk, in the hearts of the worshipper—see how on their shoulders there clings as if a clinging wife; in their hands the quoit is held and the sword.
4. Lightly they have come down from heaven of their own accord: Immortals, stir yourselves with the whip! The mighty Maruts on dustless paths, armed with brilliant spears, have shaken down even the strong places.
5. O ye Maruts, who are armed with lightningspears, who stirs you from within by himself, as the jaws are stirred by the tongue’? You shake the sky ?, as if on the search for food; you are invoked by many 8, like the (solar) horse of the day ¢.
6. Where, O Maruts, is the top, where the bottom of the mighty sky where you came? When you throw down with the thunderbolt what is strong, like brittle things, you fly across the terrible sea!
p. 280
7. As your conquest is violent, splendid, terrible, full and crushing, so, O Maruts, is your gift delightful, like the largess of a liberal worshipper, wide-spreading, laughing like heavenly lightning.
8. From the tires of their chariot-wheels streams gush forth, when they send out the voice of the clouds; the lightnings smiled upon the earth, when the Maruts shower down fatness (fertile rain).
9. Prisni! brought forth for the great fight the terrible train of the untiring Maruts: when fed they produced the dark cloud ’, and then looked about for invigorating food *.
10. May this praise, O Maruts, this song of MAandarya, the son of MAna, the poet, ask you with food for offspring for ourselves! May we have an invigorating autumn, with quickening rain !
p. 281
NOTES.
This hymn is ascribed to Agastya. Verses 1-7, Gagati ; 8-10, Trishtubh. No verse of this hymn occurs in the SV., VS., TS., AS.
Verse 1.
There can be little doubt that the text of the first line is corrupt. Ludwig admits this, but both he and Grassmann translate the verse.
GRASSMANN: Durch stetes Opfer mocht ich euch gewinnen recht, Gebet, das zu euch Gottern drengt, empfangt ihr gern.
Lupwic: Bei jedem opfer ist zusammen mit euch der siegreich thitige, in jedem lied hat der fromme an euch gedacht.