Vedic Hymns, Part I — SBE Vol. 32 (trans. F. Max Müller, 1891)

3. They themselves said to me when day by day! they came to the feast with their birds*?: they (the Maruts) are manly youths and blameless; seeing them, praise them thus ;

4. They who shine by themselves in their ornaments?, their daggers, their garlands, their golden chains, their rings, going? on their chariots and on dry land.

5. O Maruts, givers of quickening rain, I am made to rejoice, following after your chariots, as after days? going with rain.

6. The bucket which the bounteous heroes shook down from heaven for their worshipper, that cloud they send! along heaven and earth, and showers follow on the dry land.

7. The rivers having pierced? the air with a rush of water, went forth like milk-cows; when your spotted deer roll about ? like horses that have hasted to the resting-place on their road.

8. Come hither, O Maruts, from heaven, from the sky, even from near!; do not go far away!

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g. Let not the Ras&, the Anitabha, the Kubh4, the Krumu, let not the Sindhu delay you! Let not the marshy Sarayu prevent you! May your favour be with us alone!

10. The showers come forth after the host of your chariots, after the terrible Marut-host of the everyouthful heroes },

11, Let us then follow with our praises and our prayers each host of yours, each troop, each company’.

12. To what well-born generous worshipper have the Maruts gone to-day on that march,

13. On which you bring to kith and kin the neverfailing seed of corn? Give us that for which we ask you, wealth and everlasting happiness!

14. Let us safely pass through our revilers, leaving behind the unspeakable and the enemies, Let us be with you when in the morning? you shower down health, wealth 2, water, and medicine, O Maruts!

15. That mortal, O men, O Maruts, whom you protect, may well be always beloved by the gods, and rich in valiant offspring. May we be such !

16, Praise the liberal Maruts, and may they delight on the path of this man here who praises“ them, like cows in fodder. When they go, call after them as for old friénds, praise them who love you, with your song !

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NOTES.

Ascribed to SyAvasva Atreya. Metre, 1, 5, 10, 11, 15 Kakubh; 2 Brzhatt; 3 Anushtubh; 4 Pura-ushzih ; 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16 Satobrzhati; 8, 12 Gayatri. No verse of this hymn occurs in SV., VS., AV. ; the sixth verse is found in TS. II, 4, 8, 1; MS. II, 4,7; Kaskaka XI, 9.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Kilasi, as fem. of kil4sa, does not occur again. It seems to have meant spotted or marked with pocks, and would be intended for the pr¢shatis. Does Kailasa come from the same source ?

Verse 2.

; the sixth verse is found in TS. II, 4, 8, 1; MS. II, 4,7; Kaskaka XI, 9.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Kilasi, as fem. of kil4sa, does not occur again. It seems to have meant spotted or marked with pocks, and would be intended for the pr¢shatis. Does Kailasa come from the same source ?

Verse 2.

Note 1. Kdsmai sasru/ is much the same as kdsmai adyd sugataya ... pra yayus, in verse 12. We must then begin a new sentence, dnu Apdyad, their comrades after, namely sasruk. Thus we read in verse 10 tam vak sdrdham... anu prd yanti vrish‘dya, where the streams of rain are represented as the followers of the Maruts. We might also translate in our sentence: For what liberal giver did their comrades, the streams of rain with food follow after (the Maruts).

Verse 3.

Note 1 Upa dyubhiz occurs again VIII, 40, 8, and seems to mean from day to day.

Note 2. The birds of the Maruts, probably of the same character as the birds of the Asvins.

Verse 4.

Note 1. I translate azigi by ornament in general, not by paint or ointment, though that may have been its original meaning.

Note 2. On sraya, see Paz. III, 3,24. Dhdnvasu may possibly have been intended as governell by svdbhanavah, and not by srayd4#; see, however, VIII, 33, 6. smasrushu sritah.

[32] ¥

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Verse 5.

Note 1. On dydva#, nom. plur., and rdth4n, acc. plur., compare Bergaigne, Mélanges Renier, p. 88. The text is doubtful, and may be a corruption of vrishfih dydvak yatth iva.

Verse 6.

Note L The Taittiriyas, TS. II, 4, 8, 1, read pargdnyas ;

the Maitreyas, pra pargdnyak svigat4m and yantu.

Verse 7.

Note 1. Tatvidand, as trzd occurs in the Veda in the Parasmaipada only, may be intended for a passive, bored, dug out, tapped. One would, however, expect in that case an instrumental, marudbhiz, by whom they were brought forth.

Note 2. The words vi ydd vartanta eny4% have received various explanations. Wilson translates : ‘When the rivers rush in various directions.’ SAayana admits also another meaning : ‘When the rivers grow.’ Ludwig translates : ‘Sich verteilend gehn die schimmernden auszeinander.’ Grassmann, very boldly: ‘Wie Hengste traufelnd, wenn vom Wege heimgekehrt, sie zu den bunten Stuten gehn,’ Vi-vrit seems, however, to have a very special meaning, namely, rolling on the ground, and this the spotted deer are here said to have done, like horses at the end of their journey. We read of the sacrificial horse, Sat. Br. XIII, 5, 1, 16. sa yady ava v4 gighred vi vA varteta, samriddho me yagza iti ha vidyât; cf. XI, 2, 5,3. In the TS. VII, 1, 19, 3, the commentator explains vivartanam by nirgatya bhdmau vilusthanam, the rolling on the ground. The same meaning is applicable to MahAparinibbana Sutta, p. 66 (Childers), where the Bhikkhus are said to roll on the ground when they hear of Buddha’s death; also to Mahabh. III, 11953 (of a wild boar). The meaning therefore in our passage seems to be, when the deer roll on the ground, as horses are wont to do at the end of a journey.

66 (Childers), where the Bhikkhus are said to roll on the ground when they hear of Buddha’s death; also to Mahabh. III, 11953 (of a wild boar). The meaning therefore in our passage seems to be, when the deer roll on the ground, as horses are wont to do at the end of a journey.

Verse 8.
Note 1. Amfât corresponds here to prithivi in other
places. Originally it may have meant from the home.

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Verse 9.

This verse has often been discussed on account of the names of the rivers which it contains. Sydvdsva had mentioned the Yamun4 in 52, 17, and some interpreters have been inclined to give to parushni in 52, 9 a geographical meaning, taking it for the river Ravi, instead of translating it by cloud. The geographical names are certainly interesting, but they have been discussed so often _ that I need not dwell on them here. (See M. M., India, p- 163.)

The Rasé, known to the Zoroastrians as the RazhA, was originally the name of a real river, but when the Aryas moved away from it into the Punjab, it assumed a mythical character, and became a kind of Okeanos, surrounding the extreme limits of the world. ,

Anitabh4 seems to be the name of a new river or part of a river. It can hardly be taken as an epithet of Rasé, as Ludwig suggests. Anitabh4, whose splendour has not departed (Ludwig), or, amitabha, of endless splendour, would hardly be Vedic formations. (Chips, I, p. 157; Hibbert Lect., p. 207; India, pp. 166, 173, notes.)

Kubha is the Kw@qv or Kays of the Greeks, the Kabul river. The Krumu I take to be the Kurrum. (India, p. 177, note.)

The Sindhu is the Indus, though it is difficult to say which part of it, while the Sarayu has been supposed to be the Sarayd, the affluent of the Ganga, but may also be a more general name for some more northern river in the Punjab. (See Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 17 f., 45; Muir, S. T. II, p. xxv, note.)

Verse 10.

Note 1. Navyasinam has been a puzzle to all interpreters. Sdyava seems to me to give the right interpretation, namely, nitananadm. As from angasé, instr. sing., straightway, afigasina was formed, straightforward ; from navyasd, instr. sing., anew, ndvyasina seems to have been formed in the sense of new. Navyasindm might then be a somewhat

Y2

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irregular gen. plur., referring to gazam m4rutam, the Maruthost of the young men; see V, 58, 1. Lanman (p. 515) takes it for a gen. plur. fem., but in that case it could not refer to rathandm. Zimmer translates endlos, Bergaigne (II, 400) thinks of new or rejuvenescent mothers.

Verse 11.
Note 1. See III, 26, 6.

Verse 14.

Note 1. Usrf, in the morning. Lanman (p. 427) proposes to read ushari, but the metre would be better preserved by reading vrishévi as trisyllabic. The difficulty is the construction of the gerund vrishévi, which refers to the Maruts, and sydma saha, which refers to the sacrificers.

Note 2. On sam yd/, see I, 165, 4, note 2.