Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1y of Urvasi and Pururavas (RV. X, 95, especially st. 14). VI, 112. Commentary to page 164. This and the following hymn reflect a cycle of legends to which the translator has devoted an article in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc, March, 1894 (Journal, vol. xvi, p. cxix ff.), entitled, c Trita, the scapegoat of the gods.' Without the light of the conceptions there alluded to the hymns are hardly intelligible 2, and a brief statement of them here will not be out of place. At Maitr. S. IV, 1, 9, it is stated that the gods did not find a person upon whom they might be able to wipe off from themselves the bloody part of the sacrifice, i.e. their guilt. Agni spat upon the waters, and successively three personages, Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, were born. The gods wiped off their guilt upon them ; they in turn wiped themselves upon one who was overtaken by the rising sun, i.e. one over whom the sun had risen while he was asleep; this one wiped himself upon one who was over- taken by the setting sun ; he upon one afflicted with brown teeth ; he upon one with diseased nails ; he upon one that had married a younger sister, before the older was married ; he upon one whose younger brother had married before himself; he upon one who had married before his older brother ; he upon one who had slain a man ; he upon one who had committed an abortion. ' Beyond him who has committed an abortion the sin does not pass.' In Tait. Br. Ill, 2, 8, 9 ff. the same story is told with 1 Cf. Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 188. 2 Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 163; Fifth Series, ib. XVI, 3. 522 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. variants, the chief difference being that the culminating sin is the slaying of a Brahman : ' Beyond the slayer of a Brahman the sin does not pass/ Still other versions occur in the K4/A. S. XXXI, 7; Kap. S. XLVII, 7 (cf. also .Sat. Br. I, 2, 2, 8 ; Ka/y. Sr. II, 5, 26 ; Mahidhara to Va£\ S. I, 23 ; Apast. Sr. I, 25, 15); and similar lists of sinful personages are to be quoted from a variety of Sutras, and later Smarta-texts ; see Delbruck, Die Indoger- manischen Verwandtschaftsverhaltnisse, in the Transac- tions of the Royal Saxon Society, vol. xi, nr. v, p. 578 ff. (200 ff. of the reprint) ; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 315. All those mentioned in the lists are obviously regarded as burdened with guilt (enas) ; and the legend clearly marks them as persons upon whom, therefore, the guilt of others may be unloaded. In another version of the legend, Sat. Br.
2ltindisches Leben, p. 315. All those mentioned in the lists are obviously regarded as burdened with guilt (enas) ; and the legend clearly marks them as persons upon whom, therefore, the guilt of others may be unloaded. In another version of the legend, Sat. Br. I, 2, 3, 1 ff., Trita and his two shadowy companions Ekata and Dvita roam about with Indra, and when the latter slays VLsvarupa, the son of Tvash/ar, they are saddled with this crime, equivalent to the murder of a Brahman, because they ' knew about his going to be killed/ The truth is this : Indra's drastic performances upon the great variety of demons whom he slays, coupled as they are at times with wiles and treachery, have not failed to arouse the compunctions of a certain school of Vedic moralists (see, e.g. TS. VI, 5, i, 1-3 ; Tait. Br. I, 7, 1, 7. 8 ; Tank. Br. XII, 6, 8 ; XX, 15, 6 ; Maitr. S. IV, 3, 4 ; 5, 6), and they have given rise to the notion of misdeeds on the part of the gods in general (devainasa, AV. VI, in, 3; X, 1, 12). It was natural, now, that some personage closely associated with Indra — a personage, moreover, who could be construed as sub- servient, or at least ancillary to him— should be picked out for the unenviable position. For this Trita seems fitted in an eminent degree. Trita is the double of Indra in his struggle with the demons (RV. I, 187, 1), or his coadjutor (RV. I, 52, 5 ; V, 86, 1 ; VIII, 7, 24, and especially X, 8, 8). Whether we regard him as the faded predecessor of Indra in the role of a demiurge, being, as it were, the Indo-Iranian VI, 112. COMMENTARY. 523 Hercules (cf. the Avestan Thraetaona Athwya) ; whether we regard him as Indra's lieutenant (see the passages of the RV. just cited) ; or whether we follow Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, II, 326, 330, in viewing him as a divine sacrificer; in each case the moralising fancy, which would whitewash the cruelties incidental upon Indra's valued services, naturally alights upon Trita, and makes him bear the burden of his superior's misdeeds. And this again has been generalised so that in AV. VI, J 13 the gods in general, without specification, are said to have wiped off their guilt upon Trita. He in his turn passes off his guilt upon the sinners among men. The rites within which AV. VI, 1 12 and 113 are embedded in Kaui*. 46, 26-9 have for their object the removal of the sin of him whose younger brother marries first, as also of the prematurely married younger brother.
3off his guilt upon the sinners among men. The rites within which AV. VI, 1 12 and 113 are embedded in Kaui*. 46, 26-9 have for their object the removal of the sin of him whose younger brother marries first, as also of the prematurely married younger brother. Symbolically the sin is again removed, this time to a non-living object, to wit: * While reciting VI, wx and 113 (the performing priest) ties fetters of mu^a-grass upon the limbs of the parivitti and the parivividana *, as they sit at the edge of a body of water (a river), washes them by means of bunches of grass, and rinses them off. Placing other fetters upon the foam (in the river) he lets them flow away while reciting the hemistich, VI, 113, 2 c, d. And having entered the dwelling (the priest) sprinkles them while reciting all the hymns to the waters (see Kau^. 7, 4, note). The treatment of the Kau^ika embraces but one aspect of the hymn, in employing it in connection with the ex- 1 Darila, ' the younger brother along with the unmarried older brother/ Ke^ava somewhat differently, ' an expiatory performance for him who marries, sets up the fire, and is consecrated for the soma-sacrifice, while the older brother is living/ Cf. the sins of the paryadhatar and the paryahita, ' the younger brother who sets up the fire, and the older brother who is passively implicated in the same sin ; ' and the pariyash/ar and the parish/a, ' the younger brother who is consecrated for the sacrifice before the older, and the older brother who is passively implicated in the same sin/ See Delbruck, 1. c, pp. 580-1 (202-3). 524 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. piatory performances of the parivitta and the parivividana. It seems that this is too narrow, and that the hymns were constructed to cover all the crimes in the catalogues con- nected with the legend of Trita, as mentioned above. This at least is in Kcrava's mind ; see the foot-note. Further, the text of both hymns (VI, 1 12, 3 ; 113, 2) states distinctly that the sins in question shall be wiped off upon the abor- tionist, the bhru/zahan, whose crime figures as a most shocking one at the end of the lists. This indicates that the entire list of sins is in the mind of the poet, even though he intends to direct his charm against some special part of them. Finally, the expression dvadajadha in VI, 113,3, refers, in my opinion, again to the list of crimes which are stated variously as from 9-11 in number, the use of the numeral 12 being due to its formulary and solemn character.
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.
1y of Urvasi and Pururavas (RV. X, 95, especially st. 14). VI, 112. Commentary to page 164. This and the following hymn reflect a cycle of legends to which the translator has devoted an article in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc, March, 1894 (Journal, vol. xvi, p. cxix ff.), entitled, c Trita, the scapegoat of the gods.' Without the light of the conceptions there alluded to the hymns are hardly intelligible 2, and a brief statement of them here will not be out of place. At Maitr. S. IV, 1, 9, it is stated that the gods did not find a person upon whom they might be able to wipe off from themselves the bloody part of the sacrifice, i.e. their guilt. Agni spat upon the waters, and successively three personages, Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, were born. The gods wiped off their guilt upon them ; they in turn wiped themselves upon one who was overtaken by the rising sun, i.e. one over whom the sun had risen while he was asleep; this one wiped himself upon one who was over- taken by the setting sun ; he upon one afflicted with brown teeth ; he upon one with diseased nails ; he upon one that had married a younger sister, before the older was married ; he upon one whose younger brother had married before himself; he upon one who had married before his older brother ; he upon one who had slain a man ; he upon one who had committed an abortion. ' Beyond him who has committed an abortion the sin does not pass.' In Tait. Br. Ill, 2, 8, 9 ff. the same story is told with 1 Cf. Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 188. 2 Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 163; Fifth Series, ib. XVI, 3. 522 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. variants, the chief difference being that the culminating sin is the slaying of a Brahman : ' Beyond the slayer of a Brahman the sin does not pass/ Still other versions occur in the K4/A. S. XXXI, 7; Kap. S. XLVII, 7 (cf. also .Sat. Br. I, 2, 2, 8 ; Ka/y. Sr. II, 5, 26 ; Mahidhara to Va£\ S. I, 23 ; Apast. Sr. I, 25, 15); and similar lists of sinful personages are to be quoted from a variety of Sutras, and later Smarta-texts ; see Delbruck, Die Indoger- manischen Verwandtschaftsverhaltnisse, in the Transac- tions of the Royal Saxon Society, vol. xi, nr. v, p. 578 ff. (200 ff. of the reprint) ; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 315. All those mentioned in the lists are obviously regarded as burdened with guilt (enas) ; and the legend clearly marks them as persons upon whom, therefore, the guilt of others may be unloaded. In another version of the legend, Sat. Br.
2ltindisches Leben, p. 315. All those mentioned in the lists are obviously regarded as burdened with guilt (enas) ; and the legend clearly marks them as persons upon whom, therefore, the guilt of others may be unloaded. In another version of the legend, Sat. Br. I, 2, 3, 1 ff., Trita and his two shadowy companions Ekata and Dvita roam about with Indra, and when the latter slays VLsvarupa, the son of Tvash/ar, they are saddled with this crime, equivalent to the murder of a Brahman, because they ' knew about his going to be killed/ The truth is this : Indra's drastic performances upon the great variety of demons whom he slays, coupled as they are at times with wiles and treachery, have not failed to arouse the compunctions of a certain school of Vedic moralists (see, e.g. TS. VI, 5, i, 1-3 ; Tait. Br. I, 7, 1, 7. 8 ; Tank. Br. XII, 6, 8 ; XX, 15, 6 ; Maitr. S. IV, 3, 4 ; 5, 6), and they have given rise to the notion of misdeeds on the part of the gods in general (devainasa, AV. VI, in, 3; X, 1, 12). It was natural, now, that some personage closely associated with Indra — a personage, moreover, who could be construed as sub- servient, or at least ancillary to him— should be picked out for the unenviable position. For this Trita seems fitted in an eminent degree. Trita is the double of Indra in his struggle with the demons (RV. I, 187, 1), or his coadjutor (RV. I, 52, 5 ; V, 86, 1 ; VIII, 7, 24, and especially X, 8, 8). Whether we regard him as the faded predecessor of Indra in the role of a demiurge, being, as it were, the Indo-Iranian VI, 112. COMMENTARY. 523 Hercules (cf. the Avestan Thraetaona Athwya) ; whether we regard him as Indra's lieutenant (see the passages of the RV. just cited) ; or whether we follow Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, II, 326, 330, in viewing him as a divine sacrificer; in each case the moralising fancy, which would whitewash the cruelties incidental upon Indra's valued services, naturally alights upon Trita, and makes him bear the burden of his superior's misdeeds. And this again has been generalised so that in AV. VI, J 13 the gods in general, without specification, are said to have wiped off their guilt upon Trita. He in his turn passes off his guilt upon the sinners among men. The rites within which AV. VI, 1 12 and 113 are embedded in Kaui*. 46, 26-9 have for their object the removal of the sin of him whose younger brother marries first, as also of the prematurely married younger brother.
3off his guilt upon the sinners among men. The rites within which AV. VI, 1 12 and 113 are embedded in Kaui*. 46, 26-9 have for their object the removal of the sin of him whose younger brother marries first, as also of the prematurely married younger brother. Symbolically the sin is again removed, this time to a non-living object, to wit: * While reciting VI, wx and 113 (the performing priest) ties fetters of mu^a-grass upon the limbs of the parivitti and the parivividana *, as they sit at the edge of a body of water (a river), washes them by means of bunches of grass, and rinses them off. Placing other fetters upon the foam (in the river) he lets them flow away while reciting the hemistich, VI, 113, 2 c, d. And having entered the dwelling (the priest) sprinkles them while reciting all the hymns to the waters (see Kau^. 7, 4, note). The treatment of the Kau^ika embraces but one aspect of the hymn, in employing it in connection with the ex- 1 Darila, ' the younger brother along with the unmarried older brother/ Ke^ava somewhat differently, ' an expiatory performance for him who marries, sets up the fire, and is consecrated for the soma-sacrifice, while the older brother is living/ Cf. the sins of the paryadhatar and the paryahita, ' the younger brother who sets up the fire, and the older brother who is passively implicated in the same sin ; ' and the pariyash/ar and the parish/a, ' the younger brother who is consecrated for the sacrifice before the older, and the older brother who is passively implicated in the same sin/ See Delbruck, 1. c, pp. 580-1 (202-3). 524 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. piatory performances of the parivitta and the parivividana. It seems that this is too narrow, and that the hymns were constructed to cover all the crimes in the catalogues con- nected with the legend of Trita, as mentioned above. This at least is in Kcrava's mind ; see the foot-note. Further, the text of both hymns (VI, 1 12, 3 ; 113, 2) states distinctly that the sins in question shall be wiped off upon the abor- tionist, the bhru/zahan, whose crime figures as a most shocking one at the end of the lists. This indicates that the entire list of sins is in the mind of the poet, even though he intends to direct his charm against some special part of them. Finally, the expression dvadajadha in VI, 113,3, refers, in my opinion, again to the list of crimes which are stated variously as from 9-11 in number, the use of the numeral 12 being due to its formulary and solemn character.
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.
No commentary for this page.