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1obtain a kind of supremacy, and are invoked by themselves, as if there were no other gods beside them. In most of the later native dictionaries, in the Medini, Visva, Hemakandra, Amara, and Anekarthadhvanimaggari, Marut is given as a synonym of deva, or god in general *, and so is Maru in Pili. But while the hymns addressed to the Maruts enable us to watch the successive stages in the development of so-called deities more clearly than any other hymns, there is no doubt one drawback, namely, the uncertainty of the etymology of Marut. The etymology of the name is and always must be the best key to the original intention of adeity. Whatever Zeus became afterwards, he was originally conceived as Dyaus, the bright sky. Whatever changes came over Ceres in later times, her first name and her first conception was Sarad, harvest. With regard to Marut I have myself no doubt whatever that Mar-ut comes from the root M&, in the sense of grinding, crushing, pounding (Sk. mriaati, himsAy4m, part. mfraa, crushed, like mridita ; Amur and Amiri, destroyer). There is no objection to this etymology, either on the ground of phonetic rules, or on account of the meaning of Marut®. Professor Kuhn’s idea that the name of the Maruts was derived from the root M&, to die, and that the Maruts were originally conceived as the souls of the departed, and afterwards as ghosts, spirits, winds, and lastly as storms, derives no support from the Veda. Another etymology, proposed in Bohtlingk’s Dictionary, which derives Marut from a root M&, to shine, labours under two disadvantages; first, that there is no such root in Sanskrit °; secondly, that the lurid splendour of the lightning is but a subordinate feature in the character of the Maruts. No better etymology having been proposed, I still maintain that the derivation of Marut from M&, to pound, to smash, is free from any objection, and that the original conception of the Maruts was that of the crushing, smashing, striking, tearing, destroying storms. * Anundoram Borooah, Sanskrit Grammar, vol. iii, p. 323. > See Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357 seq. © Mari&i is a word of very doubtful origin, INTRODUCTION, XXV
2* Anundoram Borooah, Sanskrit Grammar, vol. iii, p. 323. > See Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357 seq. © Mari&i is a word of very doubtful origin, INTRODUCTION, XXV It is true that we have only two words in Sanskrit formed by the suffix ut, marut and garut in garut-mat, but there are other suffixes which are equally restricted to one or two nouns only. This ut represents an old suffix vat, just as us presupposes vas, in vidus (vidusht, vidushtara) for vid-vas, nom. vid-vAn, acc. vidvamsam. In a similar way we find side by side pdrus, knot, parvan, knot, and padrvata, stone, cloud, presupposing such forms as *parvat and parut. If then by the side of *parut, we find, Latin pars, partis, why should we object to Mars, Martis as a parallel form of Marut? I do not say the two words are identical, I only maintain that. the root is the same, and the two suffixes are mere variants. No doubt Marut might have appeared in Latin as Marut, like the neuter cap-ut, capitis (cf. prae-ceps, prae-cipis, and prae-cipitis); but Mars, Martis is as good a derivation from MA as Fors, Fortis is from GHA&*. Dr. von Bradke (Zeitschrift der D.M.G., vol. xl, p. 349), though identifying Marut with Mars, proposes a new derivation of Marut, as being originally *Mavrit, which would correspond well with Mavors. But *Mavr?t has no meaning in Sanskrit, and seems grammatically an impossible formation. If there could be any doubt as to the original identity of Marut and Mars, it is dispelled by the Umbrian name ¢erfo Martio, which, as Grassmann” has shown, corresponds exactly to the expression sdrdha-s mf@ruta-s, the host of the Maruts. Such minute coincidences can hardly be accidental, though, as I have myself often remarked, the chapter of accidents in language is certainly larger than we suppose. Thus, in our case, I pointed out that we can observe the transition of the gods of storms into the gods of destruction and war, not only in the Veda, but likewise in the mythology of the Polynesians; and yet the similarity in the Polynesian name of Maru can only be accidental °. * Biographies of Words, p. 12. © Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xvi, p. 190; and note to Rv. I, 37,1, p. 70. ¢ M. M., Science of Religion, p. 255. XXVi VEDIC HYMNS. And I may add that in Estonian also we find storm-gods called Marutu uled or maro, plural marud*. Fourthly, the hymns addressed to the Maruts seemed to me to possess an interest of their own, because, as it is difficult to doubt the identity of the two names, Marut and Mars, they offered an excellent opportunity for watching the peculiar changes which the same deity would undergo when transferred to India on one side and to Europe on the other. Whether the Greek Ares also was an offshoot of the same root must seem more doubtful, and I contented myself with giving the principal reasons for and against this theory”.
3Whether the Greek Ares also was an offshoot of the same root must seem more doubtful, and I contented myself with giving the principal reasons for and against this theory”. Though these inducements which led me to select the hymns to the Maruts as the first instalment of a translation of the Rig-veda could hardly prevail with me now, yet I was obliged to place them once more in the foreground, because the volume containing the translation of these hymns with very full notes has been used for many years as a text book by those who were beginning the study of the Rigveda, and was out of print. In order to meet the demand for a book which could serve as an easy introduction to Vedic studies, I decided to reprint the translation of the hymns to the Maruts, and most of the notes, though here and there somewhat abbreviated, and then to continue the same hymns, followed by others addressed to Rudra, Vayu, and Vata. My task would, of course, have been much easier, if I had been satisfied with making a selection, and translating those hymns, or those verses only, which afford no very great difficulties. As it is, I have grappled with every hymn and every verse addressed to the Maruts, so that my readers will find in this volume all that the Vedic poets had to say about the Stormgods. In order to show, however, that Vedic hymns, though they begin with a description of the most striking phenomena of nature, are by no means confined to that « Bertram, Ilmatar, Dorpat, 1871, p. 98. > Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357. INTRODUCTION. XXVIl1 narrow sphere, but rise in the end to the most sublime conception of a supreme Deity, I have placed one hymn, that addressed to the Unknown God, at the head of my collection. This will clear me, I hope, of the very unfair suspicion that, by beginning my translation of the Rig-veda with hymns celebrating the wild forces of nature only, I had wished to represent the Vedic religion as nature-worship and nothing else. It will give the thoughtful reader a foretaste of what he may expect in the end, and show how vast a sphere of religious thought is filled by what we call by a very promiscuous name, the Veda.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1obtain a kind of supremacy, and are invoked by themselves, as if there were no other gods beside them. In most of the later native dictionaries, in the Medini, Visva, Hemakandra, Amara, and Anekarthadhvanimaggari, Marut is given as a synonym of deva, or god in general *, and so is Maru in Pili. But while the hymns addressed to the Maruts enable us to watch the successive stages in the development of so-called deities more clearly than any other hymns, there is no doubt one drawback, namely, the uncertainty of the etymology of Marut. The etymology of the name is and always must be the best key to the original intention of adeity. Whatever Zeus became afterwards, he was originally conceived as Dyaus, the bright sky. Whatever changes came over Ceres in later times, her first name and her first conception was Sarad, harvest. With regard to Marut I have myself no doubt whatever that Mar-ut comes from the root M&, in the sense of grinding, crushing, pounding (Sk. mriaati, himsAy4m, part. mfraa, crushed, like mridita ; Amur and Amiri, destroyer). There is no objection to this etymology, either on the ground of phonetic rules, or on account of the meaning of Marut®. Professor Kuhn’s idea that the name of the Maruts was derived from the root M&, to die, and that the Maruts were originally conceived as the souls of the departed, and afterwards as ghosts, spirits, winds, and lastly as storms, derives no support from the Veda. Another etymology, proposed in Bohtlingk’s Dictionary, which derives Marut from a root M&, to shine, labours under two disadvantages; first, that there is no such root in Sanskrit °; secondly, that the lurid splendour of the lightning is but a subordinate feature in the character of the Maruts. No better etymology having been proposed, I still maintain that the derivation of Marut from M&, to pound, to smash, is free from any objection, and that the original conception of the Maruts was that of the crushing, smashing, striking, tearing, destroying storms. * Anundoram Borooah, Sanskrit Grammar, vol. iii, p. 323. > See Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357 seq. © Mari&i is a word of very doubtful origin, INTRODUCTION, XXV
2* Anundoram Borooah, Sanskrit Grammar, vol. iii, p. 323. > See Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357 seq. © Mari&i is a word of very doubtful origin, INTRODUCTION, XXV It is true that we have only two words in Sanskrit formed by the suffix ut, marut and garut in garut-mat, but there are other suffixes which are equally restricted to one or two nouns only. This ut represents an old suffix vat, just as us presupposes vas, in vidus (vidusht, vidushtara) for vid-vas, nom. vid-vAn, acc. vidvamsam. In a similar way we find side by side pdrus, knot, parvan, knot, and padrvata, stone, cloud, presupposing such forms as *parvat and parut. If then by the side of *parut, we find, Latin pars, partis, why should we object to Mars, Martis as a parallel form of Marut? I do not say the two words are identical, I only maintain that. the root is the same, and the two suffixes are mere variants. No doubt Marut might have appeared in Latin as Marut, like the neuter cap-ut, capitis (cf. prae-ceps, prae-cipis, and prae-cipitis); but Mars, Martis is as good a derivation from MA as Fors, Fortis is from GHA&*. Dr. von Bradke (Zeitschrift der D.M.G., vol. xl, p. 349), though identifying Marut with Mars, proposes a new derivation of Marut, as being originally *Mavrit, which would correspond well with Mavors. But *Mavr?t has no meaning in Sanskrit, and seems grammatically an impossible formation. If there could be any doubt as to the original identity of Marut and Mars, it is dispelled by the Umbrian name ¢erfo Martio, which, as Grassmann” has shown, corresponds exactly to the expression sdrdha-s mf@ruta-s, the host of the Maruts. Such minute coincidences can hardly be accidental, though, as I have myself often remarked, the chapter of accidents in language is certainly larger than we suppose. Thus, in our case, I pointed out that we can observe the transition of the gods of storms into the gods of destruction and war, not only in the Veda, but likewise in the mythology of the Polynesians; and yet the similarity in the Polynesian name of Maru can only be accidental °. * Biographies of Words, p. 12. © Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, vol. xvi, p. 190; and note to Rv. I, 37,1, p. 70. ¢ M. M., Science of Religion, p. 255. XXVi VEDIC HYMNS. And I may add that in Estonian also we find storm-gods called Marutu uled or maro, plural marud*. Fourthly, the hymns addressed to the Maruts seemed to me to possess an interest of their own, because, as it is difficult to doubt the identity of the two names, Marut and Mars, they offered an excellent opportunity for watching the peculiar changes which the same deity would undergo when transferred to India on one side and to Europe on the other. Whether the Greek Ares also was an offshoot of the same root must seem more doubtful, and I contented myself with giving the principal reasons for and against this theory”.
3Whether the Greek Ares also was an offshoot of the same root must seem more doubtful, and I contented myself with giving the principal reasons for and against this theory”. Though these inducements which led me to select the hymns to the Maruts as the first instalment of a translation of the Rig-veda could hardly prevail with me now, yet I was obliged to place them once more in the foreground, because the volume containing the translation of these hymns with very full notes has been used for many years as a text book by those who were beginning the study of the Rigveda, and was out of print. In order to meet the demand for a book which could serve as an easy introduction to Vedic studies, I decided to reprint the translation of the hymns to the Maruts, and most of the notes, though here and there somewhat abbreviated, and then to continue the same hymns, followed by others addressed to Rudra, Vayu, and Vata. My task would, of course, have been much easier, if I had been satisfied with making a selection, and translating those hymns, or those verses only, which afford no very great difficulties. As it is, I have grappled with every hymn and every verse addressed to the Maruts, so that my readers will find in this volume all that the Vedic poets had to say about the Stormgods. In order to show, however, that Vedic hymns, though they begin with a description of the most striking phenomena of nature, are by no means confined to that « Bertram, Ilmatar, Dorpat, 1871, p. 98. > Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii, p. 357. INTRODUCTION. XXVIl1 narrow sphere, but rise in the end to the most sublime conception of a supreme Deity, I have placed one hymn, that addressed to the Unknown God, at the head of my collection. This will clear me, I hope, of the very unfair suspicion that, by beginning my translation of the Rig-veda with hymns celebrating the wild forces of nature only, I had wished to represent the Vedic religion as nature-worship and nothing else. It will give the thoughtful reader a foretaste of what he may expect in the end, and show how vast a sphere of religious thought is filled by what we call by a very promiscuous name, the Veda.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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