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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1ddri-bhiz sutds pavate gabhastyok. The Soma squeezed by the stones runs from the hands. The translation would then be: O Maruts, this comforting draught (of Soma) rushes towards you, like the speech of a suppliant; it rushed freely from our hands, as our draughts (of Soma) are wont to do. On svadhi, see p. 32. MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 179 MANDALA I, HYMN 165. ASHTAKA II, ADHYAYA 8, VARGA 24-26. To THE Maruts AND INpDRA. The Prologue. The sacrificer speaks : 1. To what splendour do the Maruts all equally? cling?, they who are of the same age, and dwell in the same nest? With what thoughts ?—from whence are they come*?- Do these heroes sing forth their (own) strength *, wishing for wealth ? 2. Whose prayers have the youths accepted ? Who has turned the Maruts to his own sacrifice ? By what strong desire’ may we arrest them, they who float through the air like hawks ? The Dialogue. The Maruts speak : 3. From whence}, O Indra, dost thou come alone, thou who art mighty? O lord of men®, what has thus happened to thee? Thou greetest (us) * when thou comest together with (us), the bright (Maruts)*. Tell us then, thou with thy bay horses, what thou hast against us! Indra speaks : 4. The sacred songs are mine, (mine are) the prayers'; sweet* are the libations! My strength rises*, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the hymns yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me hither. The Maruts speak : 5- From thence, in company with our strong N 2 180 VEDIC HYMNS. friends!, having adorned our bodies, we now harness our fallow deer? with all our might *;—for, Indra, according to custom, thou hast come to be with us. Indra speaks : 6. Where, O Maruts, was that custom with you, when you left me alone in the killing of Ahi? I indeed am terrible, powerful, strong,—I escaped from the blows of every enemy’. The Maruts speak : 7. Thou hast achieved much with us as companions', With equal valour, O hero! let us achieve then many things, O thou most powerful, O Indra! whatever we, O Maruts, wish with our mind %, Indra speaks : 8. I slew Vrztra, O Maruts, with (Indra’s) might, having grown powerful through my own vigour; I, who hold the thunderbolt in my arms, have made these all-brilliant waters to flow freely for man’. The Maruts speak : 9. Nothing, O mighty lord, is strong! before thee ; no one is known among the gods? like unto thee. No one who is now born ® comes near, no one who has been born. Do what thou wilt do‘, thou who art grown so strong. Indra speaks : 10. Almighty strength be mine alone, whatever I may do, daring in my heart?; for I indeed, O Maruts, am known as terrible: of all that I threw down, I, Indra, am the lord. Indra speaks : 11, O Maruts, now your praise has pleased me, the glorious hymn which you have made for me, ye MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 181 men !—for me, for Indra, for the joyful hero, as friends for a friend, for your own sake, and by your own efforts 1. Indra speaks :
2Indra speaks : 11, O Maruts, now your praise has pleased me, the glorious hymn which you have made for me, ye MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 181 men !—for me, for Indra, for the joyful hero, as friends for a friend, for your own sake, and by your own efforts 1. Indra speaks : 12. Truly, there they are, shining towards me, bringing blameless glory, bringing food. O Maruts, wherever I have looked for you, you have appeared to me in bright splendour: appear to me also now! The Epilogue. The sacrificer speaks : 13. Who has magnified you here, O Maruts? Come hither, O friends, towards your friends. Ye brilliant Maruts, welcoming?! these prayers, be mindful? of these my rites. 14. The wisdom of M4nya has brought us hither, that he should help as the poet helps the performer of a sacrifice': turn hither quickly?! Maruts, on to the sage! the singer has recited these prayers for you. 15. May this your praise, O Maruts, this song of Mandarya, the son of Mana’, the poet, bring offspring ? for ourselves with food. May we have an invigorating autumn, with quickening rain 182 VEDIC HYMNS, NOTES. A critical examination of Professor von Roth’s remarks on this hymn, together with some supplementary notes of my own, will be found in the Preface to this volume. According to the Anukramamika this hymn is a dialogue between Agastya, the Maruts, and Indra. A careful consideration of the hymn would probably have led us to a similar conclusion, but I doubt whether it would have led us to adopt the same distribution of the verses among the poet, the Maruts, and Indra, as that adopted by the author of the Anukramazika4. He assigns the first two verses to Indra, the third, fifth, seventh, and ninth to the Maruts, the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth to Indra, and the three concluding verses to Agastya. I think that the two verses in the beginning, as well as the three concluding verses, belong certainly to Agastya or to whoever else the real performer of the sacrifice may have been. The two verses in the beginning cannot be ascribed to Indra, who, to judge from his language, would never say: ‘By what strong desire may we arrest the Maruts?’ It might seem, in fact, as if the three following verses too should be ascribed to the sacrificer, so that the dialogue between Indra and the Maruts would begin only with the sixth verse. The third verse might well be addressed to Indra by the sacrificer, and in the fourth verse we might see a description of all that he had done for Indra. What is against this view, however, is the phrase prébhritaZ me adriz. If used by the sacrificer, it might seem to mean, ‘my stone, i.e. the stone used for squeezing the Soma, has been brought forth.’ But though Professor Roth assigns this meaning to prdbhvita in our passage, I doubt whether, in connection with ddri, or with vagra, prabhvita can mean anything but hurled. Thus we read : I, 61,12. asmaf {t Om ({ti) pra bhara—vritraya vagram.
3Thus we read : I, 61,12. asmaf {t Om ({ti) pra bhara—vritraya vagram. Hurl thou, Indra, the thunderbolt against this Vritra. V, 32, 7- yat im vagrasya prd-bhritau dadabha. When Indra conquered him in the hurling of the thunderbolt. NOTES. 1, 165. 183 I therefore suppose the dialogue to begin with verse 3, and I find that Langlois, though it may be from different reasons, arrived at the same conclusion. There can be little doubt that the other verses, to verse 12, are rightly apportioned between Indra and the Maruts. Verse 12 might perhaps be attributed again to the worshipper of the Maruts, but as there is no absolute necessity for assigning it to him, it is better to follow the tradition and to take it as the last verse of Indra’s speech. It would seem, in fact, as if these ten verses, from 3 to 12, formed an independent poem, which was intended to show the divine power of the Maruts. That their divine power was sometimes denied, and that Indra’s occasional contempt of them was well known to the Vedic poets, will become evident from other hymns. This dialogue seems therefore to have been distinctly intended to show that, in spite of occasional misunderstandings between the Maruts and the all-powerful Indra, Indra himself had fully recognised their power and accepted their friendship. If we suppose that this dialogue was repeated at sacrifices in honour of the Maruts, or that possibly it was acted by two parties, one representing Indra, the other the Maruts and their followers, then the two verses in the beginning and the three at the end ought to be placed in the mouth of the actual sacrificer, whoever he was. He begins by asking, Who has attracted the Maruts to his sacrifice, and by what act of praise and worship can they be delighted? Then follows the dialogue in honour of the Maruts, and after it the sacrificer asks again, ‘Who has magnified the Maruts, i.e. have not we magnified them?’ and he implores them to grant him their friendship in recognition of his acts of worship. If then we suppose that the dialogue was the work of MAndarya Manya, the fourteenth verse, too, would lose something of its obscurity. Coming from the mouth of the actual sacrificer, it would mean, ‘the wisdom, or the poetical power, of Manya has brought us to this, has induced us to do this, i.e. to perform this dialogue of Manya, so that he, MAnya, should assist, as a poet assists the priest at a sacrifice.’ Of course all this is and can only be guess-work. 184 VEDIC HYMNS.
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.
1ddri-bhiz sutds pavate gabhastyok. The Soma squeezed by the stones runs from the hands. The translation would then be: O Maruts, this comforting draught (of Soma) rushes towards you, like the speech of a suppliant; it rushed freely from our hands, as our draughts (of Soma) are wont to do. On svadhi, see p. 32. MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 179 MANDALA I, HYMN 165. ASHTAKA II, ADHYAYA 8, VARGA 24-26. To THE Maruts AND INpDRA. The Prologue. The sacrificer speaks : 1. To what splendour do the Maruts all equally? cling?, they who are of the same age, and dwell in the same nest? With what thoughts ?—from whence are they come*?- Do these heroes sing forth their (own) strength *, wishing for wealth ? 2. Whose prayers have the youths accepted ? Who has turned the Maruts to his own sacrifice ? By what strong desire’ may we arrest them, they who float through the air like hawks ? The Dialogue. The Maruts speak : 3. From whence}, O Indra, dost thou come alone, thou who art mighty? O lord of men®, what has thus happened to thee? Thou greetest (us) * when thou comest together with (us), the bright (Maruts)*. Tell us then, thou with thy bay horses, what thou hast against us! Indra speaks : 4. The sacred songs are mine, (mine are) the prayers'; sweet* are the libations! My strength rises*, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the hymns yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me hither. The Maruts speak : 5- From thence, in company with our strong N 2 180 VEDIC HYMNS. friends!, having adorned our bodies, we now harness our fallow deer? with all our might *;—for, Indra, according to custom, thou hast come to be with us. Indra speaks : 6. Where, O Maruts, was that custom with you, when you left me alone in the killing of Ahi? I indeed am terrible, powerful, strong,—I escaped from the blows of every enemy’. The Maruts speak : 7. Thou hast achieved much with us as companions', With equal valour, O hero! let us achieve then many things, O thou most powerful, O Indra! whatever we, O Maruts, wish with our mind %, Indra speaks : 8. I slew Vrztra, O Maruts, with (Indra’s) might, having grown powerful through my own vigour; I, who hold the thunderbolt in my arms, have made these all-brilliant waters to flow freely for man’. The Maruts speak : 9. Nothing, O mighty lord, is strong! before thee ; no one is known among the gods? like unto thee. No one who is now born ® comes near, no one who has been born. Do what thou wilt do‘, thou who art grown so strong. Indra speaks : 10. Almighty strength be mine alone, whatever I may do, daring in my heart?; for I indeed, O Maruts, am known as terrible: of all that I threw down, I, Indra, am the lord. Indra speaks : 11, O Maruts, now your praise has pleased me, the glorious hymn which you have made for me, ye MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 181 men !—for me, for Indra, for the joyful hero, as friends for a friend, for your own sake, and by your own efforts 1. Indra speaks :
2Indra speaks : 11, O Maruts, now your praise has pleased me, the glorious hymn which you have made for me, ye MANDALA I, HYMN 165. 181 men !—for me, for Indra, for the joyful hero, as friends for a friend, for your own sake, and by your own efforts 1. Indra speaks : 12. Truly, there they are, shining towards me, bringing blameless glory, bringing food. O Maruts, wherever I have looked for you, you have appeared to me in bright splendour: appear to me also now! The Epilogue. The sacrificer speaks : 13. Who has magnified you here, O Maruts? Come hither, O friends, towards your friends. Ye brilliant Maruts, welcoming?! these prayers, be mindful? of these my rites. 14. The wisdom of M4nya has brought us hither, that he should help as the poet helps the performer of a sacrifice': turn hither quickly?! Maruts, on to the sage! the singer has recited these prayers for you. 15. May this your praise, O Maruts, this song of Mandarya, the son of Mana’, the poet, bring offspring ? for ourselves with food. May we have an invigorating autumn, with quickening rain 182 VEDIC HYMNS, NOTES. A critical examination of Professor von Roth’s remarks on this hymn, together with some supplementary notes of my own, will be found in the Preface to this volume. According to the Anukramamika this hymn is a dialogue between Agastya, the Maruts, and Indra. A careful consideration of the hymn would probably have led us to a similar conclusion, but I doubt whether it would have led us to adopt the same distribution of the verses among the poet, the Maruts, and Indra, as that adopted by the author of the Anukramazika4. He assigns the first two verses to Indra, the third, fifth, seventh, and ninth to the Maruts, the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth to Indra, and the three concluding verses to Agastya. I think that the two verses in the beginning, as well as the three concluding verses, belong certainly to Agastya or to whoever else the real performer of the sacrifice may have been. The two verses in the beginning cannot be ascribed to Indra, who, to judge from his language, would never say: ‘By what strong desire may we arrest the Maruts?’ It might seem, in fact, as if the three following verses too should be ascribed to the sacrificer, so that the dialogue between Indra and the Maruts would begin only with the sixth verse. The third verse might well be addressed to Indra by the sacrificer, and in the fourth verse we might see a description of all that he had done for Indra. What is against this view, however, is the phrase prébhritaZ me adriz. If used by the sacrificer, it might seem to mean, ‘my stone, i.e. the stone used for squeezing the Soma, has been brought forth.’ But though Professor Roth assigns this meaning to prdbhvita in our passage, I doubt whether, in connection with ddri, or with vagra, prabhvita can mean anything but hurled. Thus we read : I, 61,12. asmaf {t Om ({ti) pra bhara—vritraya vagram.
3Thus we read : I, 61,12. asmaf {t Om ({ti) pra bhara—vritraya vagram. Hurl thou, Indra, the thunderbolt against this Vritra. V, 32, 7- yat im vagrasya prd-bhritau dadabha. When Indra conquered him in the hurling of the thunderbolt. NOTES. 1, 165. 183 I therefore suppose the dialogue to begin with verse 3, and I find that Langlois, though it may be from different reasons, arrived at the same conclusion. There can be little doubt that the other verses, to verse 12, are rightly apportioned between Indra and the Maruts. Verse 12 might perhaps be attributed again to the worshipper of the Maruts, but as there is no absolute necessity for assigning it to him, it is better to follow the tradition and to take it as the last verse of Indra’s speech. It would seem, in fact, as if these ten verses, from 3 to 12, formed an independent poem, which was intended to show the divine power of the Maruts. That their divine power was sometimes denied, and that Indra’s occasional contempt of them was well known to the Vedic poets, will become evident from other hymns. This dialogue seems therefore to have been distinctly intended to show that, in spite of occasional misunderstandings between the Maruts and the all-powerful Indra, Indra himself had fully recognised their power and accepted their friendship. If we suppose that this dialogue was repeated at sacrifices in honour of the Maruts, or that possibly it was acted by two parties, one representing Indra, the other the Maruts and their followers, then the two verses in the beginning and the three at the end ought to be placed in the mouth of the actual sacrificer, whoever he was. He begins by asking, Who has attracted the Maruts to his sacrifice, and by what act of praise and worship can they be delighted? Then follows the dialogue in honour of the Maruts, and after it the sacrificer asks again, ‘Who has magnified the Maruts, i.e. have not we magnified them?’ and he implores them to grant him their friendship in recognition of his acts of worship. If then we suppose that the dialogue was the work of MAndarya Manya, the fourteenth verse, too, would lose something of its obscurity. Coming from the mouth of the actual sacrificer, it would mean, ‘the wisdom, or the poetical power, of Manya has brought us to this, has induced us to do this, i.e. to perform this dialogue of Manya, so that he, MAnya, should assist, as a poet assists the priest at a sacrifice.’ Of course all this is and can only be guess-work. 184 VEDIC HYMNS.
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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