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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In the fourth volume of my Sanskrit Texts I have collected the principal passages of the Vedic Hymns which refer to the origin of the universe, and to the characters of the gods Hiraṇyagarbha, Viṣvakarman, Vishṇu, Rudra, and the goddess Ambikâ; and have compared the representations there given of these deities with the later stories and speculations on the same subjects which are to be found in the Brâahmaṇas, and in the mythological poems of a more modern date. In the course of these researches, I have also introduced occasional notices of some of the other Vedic deities, such as Aditi, Indra, Varuṇa, etc.
page 51 note 1 This subject has been already treated by ProfessorRoth, in his dissertation on “The Highest Gods of the Arian races,” in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vi. 67 ff.Google Scholar; by the same writer, and by ProfessorWhitney, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, iii. 291 ff., and 331 ff.Google Scholar; by ProfessorRoth, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vii. 607 ff.Google Scholar; by ProfessorMüller, Max in the Oxford Essays for 1856, and in his History of Anc. Sansk. Lit. pp. 531 ff.Google Scholar; by Professor Wilson in the Prefaces to the three vols. of his translation of the Rig Veda; by M. Langlois in his notes to his French translation of the Rig Veda; by Professor Weber, and by Drs. Kuhn and Bühler, etc. etc.
page 55 note 1 Here they are supplicated to preserve the worshipper sinless. In R.V. vi. 17, 7, they are called mûtarû yahvî ṛtasya, “the great parents of sacrifice.”
page 55 note 2 The appellation of mother is naturally applied to the earth, as the source from which all vegetable products spring, as well as the home of all living creatures. This is remarked by Lucretius, “De Rerum Natura,” in these lines,.V. 793 ff.:—
“Nam neque de cælo cecidisse animalia possunt,
Nec terrestria de salsis exisse lacunis:
Linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta
Terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt cuncta creata,” etc.
And again, V. 821:—
“Quare etiam atque etiam maternum nomen adepta
Terra tenet merito, quoniam genus ipsa creavit
Humanum atque animal prope certo tempore fudit,” etc.
And, in illustration of the idea that the Heaven is the father of all things, I may quote his words, ii. 991:—
“Denique cælesti sumus omnes semine oriundi:
Omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis
Umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit,
Feta parit nitidas fruges arbustaque laeta
Et genus humanum,” etc.
And ii. 998:—
“Qua propter merito maternum nomen adepta est.
Cedit item retro de terra quod fuit ante,
In terras, et quod missumst ex ætheris oris
Id rursum cæli rellatum templa receptant.”
See also V. 799:—
“Quo minus est mirum, si tum sunt plura coorta
Et majora, novâ tellure atque œthere adulta,” etc.
My attention was drawn to these passages by finding them referred to in ProfessorSellar's, “Roman Poets of the Republic,” pp. 236, 247, and 276.Google Scholar On the same subject a recent French writer remarks: “Cent mythologies sont fondées sur le mariage du ciel et de la terre.”—“Essais de Critique Religieuse,” par Albert Réville, p. 383. The Greek poets also, as Hesiod (Opp. 561), Æschylus (Prom. 90; Septem contra Thebas, 16), Euripides (Hippol. 601) speak in like manner of the earth being the universal mother.
page 56 note 1 The words of the original here are, Dyaush pitaḥ Pṛthivi Mâtar adhrug Agne bhrâtar Vasavo mṛḷatû naḥ, “Father Heaven, innoxious mother Earth, brother Agni, Vasus, be gracious to us.”
page 56 note 2 In verse 6 of this hymn they are called janitrî, “the parents.”
page 56 note 3 In iii. 53, 7, and iv. 2, 15, the Angirasas are said to be divaspuirâḥ, sons of Dyaus.
page 57 note 1 In one place (vi. 50, 7), the waters are spoken of as mothers (janitrî) of all things moveable and immoveable. Compare the passages from the Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa, in my former article in this Journal, vol. xx., pp. 38 f.
page 57 note 2 This phrase is, perhaps, primarily meant as an eulogy of the heaven and earth, by expressing that he must have been a most glorious being who was the author of so glorious a production as heaven and earth (see Sâyaṇa on R.V., i. 160, 4, who says, “that having in the previous verse magnified the heaven and earth by lauding their son the sun, the poet now magnifies them by exalting their maker.”) But it also appears to intimate that, in the idea of the writer, the heaven and earth were, after all, produced by some greater being. In iv. 17, 4, it is similarly said that “the maker of Indra was a most skilful artist.”
page 57 note 3 In viii. 59, 5, it is said: “If, Indra, a hundred heavens and a hundred earths were thine, a thousand suns could not equal thee, thunderer, nor both worlds thy nature.”
page 57 note 4 Heaven (Dyaus) is here styled asuraḥ, “the divine,” as also in iii. 53, 7.
page 57 note 5 It might at first sight appear as if, according to the fourth verse of this hymn (iv. 17, 4), the Heaven, Dyaus, was the father of Indra (see Professor Wilson's translation, vol. iii. p. 151). But the meaning seems to be: “The Heaven esteemed that thy father was the parent of a heroic son: he was a most skilful artist who made Indra, who produced the celestial thunderer, unshaken, as the world (cannot be shaken) from its place.” This is confirmed by verse 1, which says that the Heaven acknowledged Indra's power; and by verse 2, which represents it as trembling at his birth.
page 58 note 1 The two worlds, rodasî, are here styled devî, “divine,” and mânavî, “descended from Manu.”
page 58 note 2 Ṣp. Br., xiv. 1, 2, 10, Iyam pṛthivî bhûtasya prathama-jâ: “This earth is the firstborn of created things.”
page 58 note 3 See also the Taitt. Br., vol. ii., p. 360, where the answer is given, “Brahma was the forest, Brahma was that tree.”
page 58 note 4 See Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv., pp. 4 ff.
page 59 note 1 Comp. Homer Il. xv. 187 ff.
page 60 note 1 Compare R.V. x. 158. 1.
page 60 note 2 This passage is quoted more at length in “Sanskrit Texts,” vol. iv. pp. 133 ff.
page 60 note 3 The following is the manner in which Yâska classifies the hymns. I quote the classification as interesting, though unconnected with my present subject:—He divides (Nir. vii. 1) the hymns, or portions of hymns, devoted to the praise of the gods into three classes, viz., (l) those in which the gods are addressed in the third person as absent, as “Indra rules over heaven and earth,” etc.; (2) those which address them in the second person as present, such as “O Indra, slay thou our enemies,” etc.; and (3) those in which the author speaks in the first person, and about himself. Of these the first two classes are the most numerous. Again, some of the hymns are merely laudatory (as, “I declare the valorous deeds of Indra”); others contain prayers, not praises, as “may I see clearly with my eyes, be radiant in my face, and hear distinctly with my ears.” Again, there are imprecations, as “may I die to-day, if I am a Yâtudhâna,” etc. Again, a particular state of things is described, as “there was then neither death nor immortality.” Again, a lamentation is uttered, as, “the bright god will fly away and never return.” Or, praise and blame are expressed, as “he who eats alone, is alone in his guilt,” (x. 117. 6), and “the house of the liberal man is like a pond where lotuses grow” (x. 107. 10); and in the same way in the hymn to Dice gambling is reprehended, and agriculture praised. “Thus the views with which the rishis beheld the hymns were very various.”
page 60 note 4 That is, as Sâyaṇa explains, those included in the three classes, consisting each of eleven gods, specified in the verse (i. 139. 11), “Ye eleven gods who exist in the sky,” etc.
page 61 note 1 On this Sâyaṇa remarks, “Although, according to the text, ‘There are only three gods,’ (Nirukta, vii. 5), the deities who represent the earth, etc., are but three, still through their greatness, i.e. their respective varied manifestations, they amount to thirty-three, according to the saying, ‘other manifestations of Him exist in different places.’” Compare Ṣp. Br. xi. 6, 3, 4, ff.
page 61 note 2 Roth says that dvitû does not mean double, but assuredly, especially.
page 61 note 3 This number of thirty-three gods is referred to in a hymn to the sun in the Mahâbhârata iii. 171, as joining in the worship of that deity: Trayas tṛmṣach cha vai devâh. See also v. 14019, of the same 3rd book; book iv. v. 1769; and book xiii. v. 7102. See also the Ṣp. Br. xii. 8, 3, 29. The Taittirîya Sanhitâ ii. 3, 5, 1, says that Prajâpati had thirty-three daughters, whom he gave in marriage to Soma. See also R. V. viii. 39, 9, Vâlakhilya 9, 2.
page 61 note 4 On this division of the universe into three domains, see the remarks of ProfRoth, in his dissertation on “The Highest Gods of the Arian Races.” Jour. Germ. Or. Society, 1852, p. 68.Google Scholar
page 62 note 1 The commentator remarks here that the number of the gods is declared in the Bṛhad Âraṇyaka Upanishad. See pp. 642 ff. of the text of this Upanishad, printed in the Bibl. Ind.; and pp. 205 ff. of the English translation in the same series. The same passage occurs in nearly the same words in the Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa, xi. 6, 3, 4 ff.
page 62 note 2 In R.V. x. 110, 12, a goddess called Nishṭigrî is mentioned, apparently as the mother of Indra: Nishṭigryâḥ putram â chyâvaya ûtaye Indram, “draw hither Indra the son of Nishṭigrî to aid us,” etc. Sâyaṇa in this passage identifies her with Aditi, viz.: “She who swallows up her rival wife Nishṭi, i.e. Diti.” Indra is in fact addressed as an Âditya along with Varuṇa in vii. 85, 4. He is not, however, as we have seen above, considered as such in the Ṣp. Br. xi. 6, 3, 5, where he is mentioned as distinct from the 12 Âdityas.
page 63 note 1 In Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa ii. 4, 2, 1, it is said that all creatures came to Prajâpati, and asked that they might live. To the gods he said, “ Sacrifice is your food, immortality is your support, the sun is your light,” etc.
page 64 note 1 See the last foot note but one.
page 64 note 2 Compare R.V. viii. 90, 15, gâm anâgâm aditim; and Vaj. Sanh. xiii. 43 and 49.
page 64 note 3 In R.V. i. 113, 19, Ushas (the dawn) is styled “the mother of the gods, and the manifestation of Aditi;” or, as Sâyaṇa explains, the rival of Aditi, from her appearing to call all the gods into existence when they are worshipped in the morning, as Aditi really gave them birth. Compare i. 115, 1.
page 64 note 4 See Roth, in Jour. Germ. Or. Society, vi. 69Google Scholar; and compare R.V. vii. 82, 10; “We celebrate the beneficent light of Aditi,” etc.
page 64 note 5 The same epithet, dhârayat-kshiti, is, in R.V. x. 132, 2, applied to Mitra and Varuṇa, the sons of Aditi.
page 65 note 1 In ii. 27, 1, the epithet râjabhyaḥ, “kings,” is applied to all the six Âdityas there named.
page 65 note 2 Benfey, however, understands the sons and brothers to be those of the worshipper.
page 66 note 1 Roth, in his Lexicon, understands the word Aditi in this passage to mean “infinity,” the boundlessness of heaven as opposed to the limitation of earth.
page 66 note 2 The same threefold origin of the gods, together with the use of the word “waters,” to denote the intermediate region, is found also in x. 49, 2, where it is said: “The gods, both those who are the offspring of the sky, of the earth, and of the [atmospheric] waters, have assigned to me the name of Indra;” and in x. 65, 9, after mentioning Parjanya, Vâta, Indra, Vâyu, Varuṇa, Mitra, and Aryaman, the poet says: “We invoke the divine Âdityas, Aditi, those (gods) who are terrestrial, celestial, who (exist) in the atmospheric waters.” The word “waters” is used in the sense of atmosphere, in ii. 38, 11; viii. 43, 2; and x. 45, 1. Compare also vii. 6, 7.
page 66 note 3 Nirukta xii. 35: Athâto dyusthânâ devagaṇâḥ | teshâm Âdityâḥ prathamâgâmino bhavanti |
page 66 note 4 The word for “sky” here is Dyaus, which must therefore be in this passage regarded as feminine, though, as we have seen, it is generally masculine, and designated as father. In v. 59, 8, the words dyaus and aditi are similarly united: mimâtu dyaur aditiḥ, etc.
page 67 note 1 R.V. i. 72, 9: “The earth, the mother, Aditi stood in power with her mighty sons for the support of the bird.” The word aditi may, however, be here an epithet. A.V. xiii. 1, 38: Yaṣâḥ pṛthivyâ Adityâ upasthe, etc.
page 67 note 2 This verse occurs also in the Vâj. S. xxi. 6; and Ath. V. vii. 6, 3.
page 68 note 1 Roth, in his remarks on Nir. x. 4, offers the following explanation of this circumstance: “Varuṇa who, of all the gods, ought to have been assigned to the highest sphere, appears here in the middle rank, because, among his creative and regulative functions, the direction of the waters in the heavens is one.”
page 68 note 2 I here follow Roth, , who, in the Journ. Germ. Or. Society, vi. 71,Google Scholar and in his Lexicon, renders the word uditâ sûryasya here by “setting of the sun.” Sâyaṇa goes the length of explaining this phrase by aparâhṇa, “afternoon,” in his note on v. 76, 3, though not in the passage before us.
page 68 note 3 These two words, aditi and diti, occur also in a passage of the Vâjasaneyi Sanhitâ (x. 16), which is partly the same as the present. The concluding clause (tataṣ chakshâtâm aditim ditiñcha) is thus explained by the commentator: “Thence behold [o Varuṇa and Mitra] the man who is not poor (aditi=adîna), i.e. who observes the prescribed ordinances, and him who is poor (diti=dîna), who follows the practices of the atheists.”
page 69 note 1 The words aditi and diti occur together in another passage, iv. 2, 11 (ditiñcha râsva aditim urushya), where Sâyaṇa translates diti by “the liberal man,” and aditi by the illiberal, while Both renders them by “wealth” and “penury” respectively.
page 69 note 2 In another place, vi. 51, 11, Aditi is invoked, along with Indra, the earth, the ground (kshâma), Pûshan, Bhaga, and the five tribes (pañchajanâḥ), to bestow blessings. Are the “five tribes” to be understood here, and in R.V. x. 53, 4, 5, with some old commentators (see Nir. iii. 8) of the Gandharvas, Pitṛs, Devas, Asuras, and Râkshasas; or with the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa quoted by Sâyaṇa on i. 89, 10, of gods, men, Gandharvas, Apsarasas, serpents, and Pitṛs (the Gandharvas and Apsarasas being taken as one class) ? Perhaps we should rather understand the term as denoting the whole pantheon, or a particular portion of it. In R.V. x. 55, 3, pancha devâḥ, the five gods, or classes of gods (?), are mentioned.
page 69 note 3 ProfessorRoth, , in the Journ. Germ. Or. Society, vi. 68 f.,Google Scholar has the following observations on Aditi and the Âdityas. “There (in the highest heaven) dwell and reign those gods who bear in common the name of Âdityas. AVe must, however, if we would discover their earliest character, abandon the conceptions which in a later age, and even in that of the heroic poems, were entertained regarding these deities. According to this conception they were twelve sun-gods, bearing evident reference to the twelve months. But for the most ancient period we must hold fast the primary signification of their name. They are the inviolable, imperishable, eternal beings. Aditi, eternity, or the eternal, is the element which sustains them and is sustained by them. This conception of Aditi, from its nature, has not been carried out into a distinct personification in the Vedas, though the beginnings of such are not wanting, whilst later ages assume without difficulty a goddess Aditi, with the Âdityas for her sons, without seriously enquiring further whence this goddess herself comes.”
page 70 note 1 M. Ad. Regnier, E'tude sur l'idiome des Vedas, p. 28, remarks: “Aditi is the name of a divinity, a personification of the All, the mother of the gods.”
page 70 note 2 There is a hymn (x. 100)—addressed to different gods, and where they are invoked in succession—in which the words â sarvatâtim aditiṃ vṛṇîmahe form the conclusion of all the verses except the last. The precise meaning of these words was not very clear to me, especially as they have no necessary connection with the preceding portions of the different stanzas in which they occur. But Professor Aufrecht suggests that the verb vṛṇîmahe governs a double accusative, and that the words mean “We ask Aditi for sarvatâti,” (whatever that may mean). In an ingenious excursus on R.V. i. 94, 15 (Orient und Occident, ii. 519 ff.), Professor Benfey regards the word as coming originally from the same root as the Latin sălūt, of which he supposes the primitive form to have been salvotât, and to have the same signification. This sense certainly suits the context of the four passages on which principally he founds it, viz., i. 106, 2; iii. 54, 11; ix. 96, 4; x. 36, 14. He has not noticed the hymn before us.
page 71 note 1 Benfey in his translation of the hymn (Orient und Occident, i. 33), though he treats Aditi as a proper name, yet explains it as denoting “sinlessness.” The abstract noun adititva occurs along with anâgâstva, “sinlessness,” in the following line (vii. 51, 1): anâgâstve adititve turâsa imam yajñam dadhatu ṣroshamâṇâḥ, “May the mighty gods, listening to us, preserve this ceremony in sinlessness, and prosperity.” Though adititva is joined with anâgâstva, it does not follow that it must have the same sense.—In the Bṛhad Âraṇyaka Upanishad, p. 53 ff., the name of Aditi is explained from the root ad, to eat: “Whatever he created, he began to eat: for Aditi derives her name from this, that she eats every thing.”—Aditi is an epithet of Agni in R.V. iv. 1, 20; vii. 9, 3; and x. 11, 2; of Aryaman in ix. 81, 5; and of Dyaus in x. 11, 1. In vii. 52, 1, the worshippers ask that they may be aditayaḥ, which Sâyaṇa renders by akhaṇḍanîyâḥ, “invincible.”
page 72 note 1 I have already given this translation in “Sanskrit Texts,” vol. iv. pp. 10, 11, but repeat it here, with some variations, for the sake of completeness. See (ibid. p. 12) the explanation of verses 4, 5, given by Professor Roth; and the passage quoted from him above.
page 73 note 1 Compare R.V. iv. 42, 5.
page 73 note 2 Yatayaḥ. See R.V. viii. 6, 18; and Sâma V. ii. 304.
page 73 note 3 Compare A.V. viii. 9. 21: ashṭa-yonir Aditir ashṭa-putrâ |
page 73 note 4 The last words seem to refer to the name Mârttâṇḍa, a word compounded of mârtta, derived apparently from mṛita, “dead,” and aṇḍa, “an egg,” regarded as a place of birth.
page 73 note 5 Dakshasya janmann Aditer upasthe.
page 73 note 6 Dakshasya vâ Adite janmani vrate.
page 74 note 1 The word so rendered is Daksha-pitaraḥ, “having Daksha for their father.” Sâyaṇa explains it as meaning “those who have Daksha for their forefather.”
page 74 note 2 Sâyaṇa here departs from the interpretation he had given on vi. 50, 2, and explains Daksha-pitarâ as=balasya pâlakau svâminau vâ, “preservers, or lords, of strength.”
page 74 note 3 The commentator explains the word Daksha-pitâraḥ as=Dakshaḥ prajâpatir utpâdako yeshâm te, those of whom the Prajâpati Daksha is the generator. The meaning of Daksha-pitaraḥ in R.V. viii. 52, 10 is not very clear. Sâyaṇa takes it to mean the preservers or lords of food. It may, however, be taken as a vocative, and applied to the gods. The word also occurs in Vâj. S. xiv. 3, where the commentator understands it to signify vîryasya pâlayitrî, “preserver of strength.”
page 74 note 4 See the paper in a former vol. of this Journal, xx. 40. In the sequel of the passage in the Ṣ. P. Br. ii. 4, 4, 6, a person named Daksha, the son of Parvata, is mentioned.
page 75 note 1 See Sanskrīt Texts, iv. 101 ff., where these and many other passages relating to the Âdityas are quoted.
page 75 note 2 The last-mentioned text is as follows: Baṇ mahân asi Sûrya baḷ Âditya mahân asi | …. Baṭ Sûrya ṣravasâ mahân asi | “O great art thou, Sûrya! O son of Aditi, thou art great! …. O Sûrya, in renown thou art great,” etc.
page 75 note 3 Yaded enam adadhur yajñiyâso divi devâḥ Sûryam Âditeyam. In x. 37, 1, however, the Sun is called the Son of the Heaven (divas putrâya); and there as well as elsewhere he is called the eye of Mitra and Varuṇa.
page 76 note 1 In the Ṣ. P. Br. iii. 5, 1, 13, a dispute between the Âdityas and Angirasas regarding a sacrifice is mentioned. In the same work, xii. 2, 2, 9, it is said that these two classes of beings (the Âdityas and Angirasas) were both descendants of Prajâpati, and that they strove together for the priority in ascending to heaven. In A.V. xii. 3, 43 f., and xix. 39, 5 also they are connected with one another.
page 76 note 2 This is a characteristic of the gods in general.
page 76 note 3 In regard to these deities, Roth thus expresses himself in the Journ. of the Germ. Or. Society, vi. 69:Google Scholar “The eternal and inviolable element in which the Âdityas dwell, and which forms their essence, is the celestial light. The Âdityas, the gods of this light, do not therefore by any means coincide with any of the forms in which light is manifested in the universe. They are neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, nor dawn, but the eternal sustainers of this luminous life, which exists as it were behind all these phenomena.”
page 77 note 1 See also his note on i. 141, 9, where he gives the same explanation regarding Mitra and Varuṇa, and adds that Aryaman is the god who goes between the other two. According to his note on i. 90, 1, Aryaman is the god who makes the division of day and night. Compare also his note on ii. 38, 8, where he says that Varuṇa is represented as giving resting-places to creatures after sunset, because he carries on the affairs of the night (râtrer nirvâhakatvât). In i. 35, 1, Mitra and Varuṇa are invoked along with Agni, Night and Savitṛ: “I invoke first Agni for our welfare; I invoke hither Mitra and Varuṇa to our aid; I invoke Night who gives rest to the world; I invoke the divine Savitṛ to our assistance.” See also what is said of Mitra awakening men, in iii. 59, 1, which will be quoted below.
page 78 note 1 See Roth's, article on “The highest gods of the Arian races.” Journ. Germ. Or. Society, vi. 71.Google Scholar
page 78 note 2 Golden mail is also assigned to Savitṛ (iv. 53, 2).
page 78 note 3 Compare Ovid. Met. ii. 1 ff. Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis, etc.
page 78 note 4 I follow Roth here in understanding uditâ sûryasya not of the rising (as the phrase generally means), but of the setting of the sun. It is thus only that the iron colour of the chariot becomes intelligible.
page 78 note 5 See Müller's, Max Essay on Comp. Mythol. in the Oxford Essays for 1856, p. 53.Google Scholar
page 79 note 1 The same deities with Aryaman are called kings in i. 41, 3; and kings of men (râjânaṣ charshaṇînâm) ia x. 26, 6. In vii. 66, 11, it is said: “The kings Mitra, Varuṇa, and Aryaman, who established the year, the month, and the day, etc. enjoy unrivalled dominion (kshattra).
page 80 note 1 In vii. 60, 4, Mitra, Varuṇa, and Aryaman are said to open out paths for the sun.
page 80 note 2 See Roth, on “The highest gods of the Arian races,” p. 71Google Scholar; and Illustrations of Nirukta, p. 78. Compare Ecclesiastes, i. 7: “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”
page 80 note 3 See Roth, in the Journ. Amer. Or. Society, iii. 341Google Scholar; and Müller's, Anc. Sansk. Lit. p. 534, note 2.Google Scholar
page 80 note 4 The alert and invincible messengers of Mitra and Varuṇa are also mentioned in vi. 67, 5. The same word spaṣ is used in i. 33, 8, where Indra's messengers seem to be spoken of.
page 81 note 1 In R.V. x. 11, 1, Agni is compared to Varuṇa in omniscience; which seems to shew that this is an attribute in which Varuṇa was regarded as pre-eminent. With verses 1 and 2, compare Psalm cxxxix. 1–4, and St. Matthew xviii. 20.
page 81 note 2 Compare Genesis, i. 7, and Psalm cxlviii. 4.
page 81 note 3 With this verse compare verses 7–10 of the Psalm just referred to.
page 81 note 4 Compare St. Matthew, x. 30.
page 81 note 5 The hymn is concluded by two verses, containing imprecations. After giving a German translation of the whole in his Dissertation on the Atharva Veda, page 19 f. (Tübingen, 1856) Professor Roth remarks as follows: “ There is no hymn in the whole Vedic literature which expresses the divine omniscience in such forcible terms as this; and yet this beautiful description has been degraded into an introduction to an imprecation. But in this, as in many other passages of this Veda, it is natural to conjecture that existing fragments of older hymns have been used to deck out magical formulas. The first five, or even six verses of this hymn might be regarded as a fragment of this sort.”
page 82 note 1 In the Journal of the German Oriental Society for 1855, pp. 237 ff.,Google Scholar Prof. “Weber communicates from the Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa (xi. 6, 1, 1 ff.) a legend regarding Varuṇa and his son Bhṛgu. The latter had esteemed himself superior to his father in wisdom, and was desired by him to visit the four points of the compass, where he witnesses certain visions of retribution in the other world. Prof. Weber accompanies this legend with some very interesting remarks. Among other things, he observes that the legend is shewn to be ancient from the high position which it assigns to Varuṇa, who appears to be conceived as the lord of the universe, seated in the midst of heaven, from which he surveys the places of punishment situated all round him. Varuṇa, he adds, is represented in the Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa xiii. 3, 6, 5, as having the form of a fair, bald, toothless, (with projecting teeth?), and yellow-eyed old man.
page 82 note 2 On the character of Varuṇa as a moral governor, see Roth, , Journ. Germ. Or. Society, vi. 71 ff.Google Scholar; a paper by the same author in the Journ. Amer. Or. Society, iii. 340 ff.Google Scholar; and his reply to Weber in the Journ. Germ. Or. Society, vii. 607.Google Scholar
page 83 note 1 Compare Psalm lxxxix. 49.
page 83 note 2 Like other gods, and in particular Indra, they are represented as drinking the soma juice, i. 136, 4; i. 137, Iff.; iv. 41, 3; iv. 42, 6; v. 64, 7; v.,71, 3; v. 72, 1–3; vi. 68, 10.
page 84 note 1 With this verse Roth (Illustrations of Nirukta, x. 22, p. 140) compares R. V. v. 82, 9, where it is said, “Savitṛ, who causes ali creatures to hear his sound, and impels them.” Comp. v. 5 of the present hymn; and vii. 36, 2, referred to by Roth in the passage about to be quoted from him.
page 86 note 1 Mithra, ein Beitrag zur Mythengeschichte des Orients, in the Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Leipzig, 1857.Google Scholar See pp. 54 ff.
page 86 note 2 Ibid, p. 56. This passage is also quoted, Sanskrit Texts, ii., 471.
page 87 note 1 See Roth's, Illustrations of Nirukta, pp. 70 f.Google Scholar
page 88 note 1 Oxford Essays for 1856, p. 41.
page 88 note 2 Hesiod Theog. 126:—
page 88 note 3 Ibid, v. 176:—
page 88 note 4 In my account of Varuṇa there is little of importance that had not been previously said by Professor Roth; but in this description of Indra there is a larger collection of particulars than I have noticed to have been brought together elsewhere
page 88 note 5 In his Lexicon, s.v. Indra
page 89 note 1 In ii. 26, 3, Brahmaṇaspati is said to be the father of the gods.
page 89 note 2 In iv. 26, 1, he is identified with Manu and Sûrya, and in viii. 82, 1, 4, and x. 89, 2, with Sûrya. In ii. 30, 1, he receives the epithet of Savitṛ.
page 90 note 1 On this use of ṣiras, the head, as the seat of intelligence, compare iii. 51, 12.
page 90 note 2 Compare i. 30, 11.
page 90 note 3 A note on this word will be given when I come to treat of the Maruts.
page 91 note 1 A beard is also assigned to Pûskan, who similarly shakes it (x. 26, 7).
page 91 note 2 In ii. 18, 4–7 Indra is invited to come with two, four, six, eight, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, or a hundred horses (compare viii. 1, 9) to drink the Soma-juice. In iv. 46, 3, a thousand horses are said to convey Indra and Vâyu. In viii. 1, 24, Indra's horses are said to be a thousand and a hundred. From such a text as iii. 35, 7, where Indra is informed that food has been provided for his horses, as well as soma-juice to fill his own belly (v. 6), it would appear that the worshipper had a perfect assurance of the god's presence. In another place, however (x. 114, 9), the enquiry is made (among several others denoting difficulty and mystery), “Who has perceived the two horses of Indra?”
page 92 note 1 In these passages I follow Roth's explanation of ankuṣa, as given in his Lexicon, s. v. In his translation of this passage from the A. V. in Indische Studien v. 241, Professor Weber understands the word (ankuṣa) of a goad with which cattle are driven.
page 93 note 1 I am indebted to Professor Aufrecht for pointing out the sense of this verse. Ṣaphâruj seems to mean a demon or an animal that destroys with its hoofs. The word occurs also in x. 87, 12, where it is an epithet of Yâtudhâna, a demon, and must refer to some goblin which was conceived to tear with its hoofs.
page 93 note 2 The soma-juice was also drunk by the worshippers themselves, and its effects on some of them are occasionally described. Thus in vi. 47, 3, it is said: “This (soma), when drunk, impels my voice; it stimulates the ardent thought.” And in viii. 48, 3, its elevating effect is still more distinctly told, in words which may be rendered as follows:
We've quaffed the soma bright,
And are immortal grown;
We've entered into light,
And all the gods have known.
What mortal now can harm,
Or foeman vex us more?
Through thee beyond alarm,
Immortal god, we soar.
Compare the curious parallel to this (already noticed in Sanskrit Texts, iii. 162) in the satirical drama of Euripides, the Cyclops, 578 ff., where Polyphemus exclaims in his drunken exultation:
page 94 note 1 Indra on his side again is said to give divine power to the other gods (vi. 36, 1).
page 94 note 2 In one place, however, (viii. 7, 31) the Maruts are asked what they were seeking when they deserted Indra, and who could then trust in their friendship. In another text (viii. 85, 7), on the contrary, it is said that all the other gods who had been Indra's allies, terrified by the blast of Vṛttra's breath, deserted Indra and fled (compare iv. 18, 11), while the Maruts, it must be supposed, stood firm, as Indra is advised to make friends with them, and then he should conquer all hostile armies. The commentator, however (like many other dogmatical theologians), finding it necessary to reconcile these conflicting statements, interprets viii. 7, 31 differently, and makes it mean, “When did you desert Indra? i.e. never,” and quotes the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa iii. 20, which says the Maruts did not desert Indra; but said, “Smite, O lord, slay, play the hero.”
In R. V. i. 32, 14, Indra himself is said to have become frightened after he had slain Vṛttra, and to have crossed ninety-nine rivers in his flight. Compare Müller's Anc. Sansk. Lit. p. 547.
The Aṣvins and Sarasvatî are also said to have assisted Indra (R. V. x. 131, 4, 5 = Vâj. Sanh. x. 33, 34). “You two, Aṣvins, lords of splendour, drinking together the delightful draught (of soma), protected Indra in his achievements against the Asura Namuchi. 5. As parents a son, so ye two, Aṣvins, by your wisdom and your energy, delivered thee, O Indra. When thou, O magnificent (Indra), didst drink the delightful draught (of soma), Sarasvatî waited upon thee with her powers.” A story is told hy the commentator on the Vâj. Sanh. x. 33, to explain these lines. Namuchi, it seems, was a friend of Indra; and taking advantage of his friend's confidence, he drank up Indra's strength along with a draught of wine and soma. Indra then told the Aṣvins and Sarasvatî that Namuchi had drunk up his strength. The Aṣvins and Sarasvatî in consequence gave Indra a thunderbolt in the form of foam, with which he smote off the head of Namuchi. The Aṣvins then drank the soma, mixed with blood and wine, from the belly of Namuchi, and transferred it pure to Indra; and by transferring it they delivered Indra. The story is taken from the Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa xii. 7, 3, 1 ff. (p. 934 Weber's ed.) and is the original version of those adduced by me elsewhere (Sansk. Texts iv. 222 and 420). As given in the Brâhmaṇa, it runs thus: “The Asura Namuchi carried off Indra's strength (indriya), the essence of food, and the draught of soma, together with wine. He (Indra) hastened to the Aṣvins and Sarasvatî, and said: ‘I have sworn to Namuchi, I will neither slay thee by day, nor by night, neither with club, nor with bow, neither with the palm of my hand (pṛthena), nor with fist, neither with dry nor with moist; and he has carried off that of mine; will ye recover it for me?’ They answered: ‘Let us have a share in it, and we will recover it.’ Indra replied: ‘It shall be common to us all; recover it therefore.’ Then the Aṣvins and Sarasvatî anointed the thunderbolt with the foam of the waters, saying, ‘It is neither dry nor moist.’ With that Indra struck off the head of Namuchi, when night was passing into dawn, and the sun had not yet risen, when (as he said) ‘it was neither day nor night.’ …. When his head had been cut off, the soma remained mixed with blood; and they loathed it. But having perceived this draught of the two somas, according to the text, ‘King Soma when poured out, is nectar,’ they with this made the other mixed fluid palatable, and swallowed it.”
In one place (x. 138, 6) Indra is said to perform his exploits alone. Compare i. 84, 7.
page 95 note 1 Benfey, however, refers this passage, i. 85, 7, not to Indra, but to the soma.
page 95 note 2 Compare i. 156, 5; vi. 17, 11; viii. 12, 27; viii. 66, 10; x. 113, 2; in which passages (as well as in separate hymns, i. 155; vi. 69), Indra and Vishṇu are connected. The Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa has the following story about Indra and Vishṇu, v. 5, 5, 1 ff.:
“Formerly Vṛttra had within him all the Ṛk, Yajush, and Sâma verses. Indra was anxious to discharge a thunderbolt at him, (2) and said to Vishṇu: ‘I shall shoot a thunderbolt at Vṛttra; follow after me.’ ‘So be it,’ said Vishṇu, ‘I will follow thee; smite him.’ Indra then aimed a thunderbolt at Vṛttra, who was alarmed at it, and said, (3) ‘I have this (source of) strength; shall I give it up to thee? but do not smite at me.’ So he gave him the Yajush verses. Indra then aimed a second thunderbolt at him, (4) when he said, ‘I have this (source of) strength; shall I give it up to thee? but do not smite at me.’ So he gave the Ṛk verses. Indra then aimed a third thunderbolt at him, (5) when he said, ‘I have this (source of) strength; shall I give it up to thee? but do not smite at me.’ So he gave him the Sâma verses. …. (7) Indra lifted up the thunderbolt; Vishṇu followed him.”
Agni is in several places (i. 109, 5, 7, 8; iii. 12, 4, 6; x. 65, 2) associated with Indra as a thunderer, a destroyer of Vṛttra, and an overthrower of cities. Varuṇa, too, is in one place (iv. 41, 4) joined with Indra as a thunderer.
page 95 note 3 Vṛttra (?) is said, in ii. 30, 3, to have rushed upon Indra, clothed in a cloud, but to have been overcome.
page 96 note 1 See above, in a preceding note.
page 98 note 1 Compare Isaiah xl. 12.
page 99 note 1 The Maruts are said to have the same power (i. 64, 3).
page 99 note 2 See above, p. 57.
page 100 note 1 The same is said of Mitra (iii. 59, 2); and of the Maruts (v. 54, 7).
page 100 note 2 The Aṣvins are, however, said, in i. 117, 21, to have created a great light for the Âryya. In vi. 21, 11, all the gods are said to have made Manu superior to the Dâsa; Vishṇu is elsewhere said to have traversed the earth to give it for a domain to Manu (vii. 100, 4); and Agni is called the promoter of the Ârya (âryasya vardhanam, viii. 92, 1).
page 100 note 3 Indra is, however, also invoked for aid against enemies of the Aryan race, as well as against aliens (vi. 60, 6; x. 38, 3; x. 102, 3). Indra and Varuṇa are invoked together for the same purposes (vii. 83, 1). Manyu is supplicated for the same objects (x. 83, 1). The gods (apparently those specified in the preceding verses) are said (x. 65, 11) to spread Aryan rites upon earth.
page 100 note 4 In reply to this, Indra is made to ask (v. 37) “What friend, O mortals, ever kills his friend without provocation?” See Nirukta iv. 2; and Roth's Illustrations, p. 38.
page 101 note 1 Compare R. V. viii. 21, 14 (=S. V. ii. 740), which is thus rendered by Professor Müller (Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 543 f.): “Thou never findest a rich man to be thy friend; wine-swillers despise thee. But when thou thunderest, when thou gatherest (the clouds), then thou art called like a father.” Benfey renders the verse somewhat differently, thus: “Thou never takest for a friend the man who is merely rich; he who is inflated with wine is a burthen to thee: with a mere sound thou smitest them, and then thou art supplicated like a father.”
page 101 note 2 See the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vi. 73Google Scholar; and Böhtlingk and Roth's Sanskrit and German Lexicon, s.v. Indra. Professor Whitney adopts the same view (Journ. Amer. Orient. Society, iii. 327).Google Scholar Windischmann, in his Mithra, p. 54, extends the same remark to that god also. The passage is translated in Sanskrit Texts, ii. 295.
page 102 note 1 Journ. Germ. Orient. Society, vi. 69, 70.Google Scholar
page 103 note 1 Journal of the American Oriental Society, iii. 327.Google Scholar There is no doubt that the term Asura, “spirit,” which is frequently applied to Varuṇa and to Mitra, and also to Indra and others of the Vedic gods, is the same word which, in its Zend form Ahura, makes up, with the addition of Mazda, the appellation of the supreme and benevolent deity of the Iranian mythology. Professor Müller regards the names Ahuro Mazdâo as corresponding to the Sanskrit Asuro-medhas, the “wise spirit” (Lectures on the Science of Language, 1st edition, p. 195). In regard to Ahura-Mazda and the Amshaspands, Professor Spiegel has, as he informs me, collected all the positive information he could obtain in the Avesta, in the Introduction to the 3rd vol. of his translation, pp. iii. ff.
page 103 note 2 The identification of Andra with Indra was, as Professor Spiegel tells me, first proposed by Burnouf (Yaṣna 526 ff.), where a translation is given of the passage in which Andra is mentioned. It is rendered thus by Spiegel himself, in his Avesta, i. 176: “I fight with Indra, I fight with Ṣauru, I fight with the Dâeva Naoghaithi, to drive them away from the dwelling, the village, the castle, the country.” The name Indra or Andra, as Professor Spiegel further informs me, occurs only in one other passage (Westergaard, Zendavesta, p. 475) which he (Prof. S.) believes to be interpolated. It contains merely the name, and consequently throws no further light on the position of the god in the Avesta. The information found in the later Parsee books regarding Indra or Andra is also meagre (compare Spiegel's Avesta, ii. 35). On this subject Professor Spiegel makes the following remarks, in the Introduction to the 3rd vol. of his Avesta, p. lxxxi.: “It is said by some that the Andra of the Avesta is the Indra of the Vedas, that Nâoghaithya answers to Nâsatyas, and Ṣaurva to Sarva. Here from a real fact a quite incorrect conclusion is drawn. The names are the same in both religious systems; but how far the things resembled each other can never be shown in the same manner as the similarity of Soma and Haoma, etc,; for the Avesta tells us nothing more than the name of any of the beings in question.”
page 104 note 1 The same epithet dharttâṛâ charshaṛînâm is also applied to Mitra in v. 67, 2; and Varuṇa is called charshaṇî-dhṛt, “supporter of creatures,” in iv. 1, 2.
page 104 note 2 Compare R. V. iv. 26, 1; and i. 164, 46.
page 106 note 1 There is another hymn (x. 86), each verse of which ends with the words, “Indra is superior to all;” but the drift of the hymn is too obscure to admit of my determining whether it has any polemical tendency or not.
page 106 note 2 This sentiment appears to be repeated from i. 101, 4.
page 107 note 1 See Müller's, Anc. Ind. Lit., pp. 532 ff.Google Scholar
page 107 note 2 Ordinances.—Roth, s.v. dhûman.
page 109 note 1 Compare St. John's Gospel, iii. 8: “The wind bloweth where is listeth,” etc.
page 109 note 2 Compare i. 89, 4.
page 110 note 1 This word is perhaps a personification of the speckled clouds. See Roth's, Illustrations of Nirukta, x. 39, p. 145.Google Scholar
page 110 note 2 In ii. 34, 3, the epithet of hiraṇya-ṣipròḥ is applied to these deities. This Sâyaṇa explains by suvarṇamaya-ṣirastrâṇâḥ, “with golden helmets.” That one sense of ṣiprâ (feminine) is “a head-dress, or a helmet,” is settled by v. 54, 11, where the words are siprâh ṣîrshasu vitatâḥ hiraṇyayîḥ, “golden helmets are stretched (or placed) upon your heads;” and also by viii. 7, 25, where it is said, ṣiprâḥ ṣîrshan hiraṇyayîḥ . . vyanjata ṣriye, “they displayed for ornament golden helmets on their heads.” In the first of these passages, Sâyaṇa interprets ṣiprâḥ as meaning a “turban,” in the second a “helmet.” This shews that ṣiprâḥ, in these texts at least, must mean something external to the head, and not a feature of the face, as it is often interpreted, when applied to Indra. Thus suṣipra is explained by Sâyaṇa on i. 9, 3, as meaning ṣobhana-hano ṣobhana-nâsika vâ, “having handsome jaws, or a handsome nose;” since Yâska, he says, makes ṣipra to mean one or other of these two parts of the face (Nirukta, vi. 17). The same explanation is given by Sâyana on i. 29, 2; i. 81, 4; and i. 101, 10. On iii. 30, 3, however, the same commentator says: ṣipra-ṣabdena ṣirastrâṇam abhidhîyate | ṣobhanaṣirastrâṇopetaḥ | yadvâ ṣobhana-hanutnân | “By the word âipra, a helmet is signified. Suṣipraḥ therefore means ‘having a handsome helmet,’ or it means ‘having handsome jaws.’ On iii. 32, 3; iii. 36, 10; viii. 32, 4, 24; viii. 33, 7; viii. 55, 4; he returns to the latter interpretation. On viii. 17, 4; viii. 81, 4; viii. 82, 12; he again gives the alternative explanation as on iii. 30, 3.
Professor Aufrecht has favoured me with a note on the subject of the word ṣipra and its derivatives, of which the following are the most important parts: Ṣipra in the dual means jaws (i, 101, 10; iii. 32, 1; v. 36, 2; viii. 65, 10; x. 96, 9; x. 105, 5). Ṣipravat means “having large jaws” (vi. 17, 2). Ṣiprin means the same, and is used only of Indra (i. 29, 2; i. 81, 4; iii. 36, 10, etc. etc). Ṣiprini, as Prof. Aufrecht considers, means “a draught (imbibed by the jaws);” and he translates i 30, 11, thus: (“Receive) our draughts, thunderer, soma-drinker, friend of thy friends the soma-drinkers.” Ṣipriṇîvat (x. 105, 5) will thus be “he who possesses the draught.” Ṣiprâḥ in v. 54, 11, and viii. 7, 25, are “visors,” the two parts of which are compared to two jaws. Ayaḥ-ṣipra, used of the Ṛbhus (iv. 37, 4) will consequently mean “having iron visors.” The word occurs in other compounds, to which I need not here refer.
I am not sufficiently acquainted with the armour of India to know whether any thing like a visor was or is used by warriors in that country. It is, however, customary for the Hindus in particular circumstances (as for protection from the heat, and also from the cold, and for purposes of disguise) to wear their turbans not only wrapped horizontally round their heads, but also perpendicularly under their chins and over the tops of their heads, thus enclosing the sides of their faces
page 112 note 1 Pṛshatyo vindu-yuktâ mṛgyo Marud-vâhana-bhâtâḥ | “pṛshatyo Marutâm” iti Nighaṇṭâv uktatvât | See also his note on the same word in ii. 34, 3.
page 112 note 2 Benfey, , in his translation of this verse (Orient, und Occident, ii. 250)Google Scholar retains the sense of antilopes. In vii. 56, 1, the Maruts are styled svaṣvâḥ, “having good horses,” which Sâyaṇa explains ṣobhana-vâhâḥ, “having good carriers.”
page 112 note 3 Prof Aufrecht has pointed out a number of passages regarding the sense of the words pṛshad-aṣvaand pṛshat, as Râyamukuṭa on Amara, the Vâj. Sanh. xxiv. 11, 18; Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa, v. 5, 1, 10, and v. 5, 2, 9. He has also indicated another verse of the Rig-veda (v. 58, 6) where pṛshatîbhis in the feminine is joined with aṣvaiḥ in the masculine; and remarks that viii. 54, 10, 11, could not mean that the rishi received a thousand antelopes. Prof. Roth appears, from a remark under the word eta (vol. i. p. 1091 of his Dict.) to regard pṛshatyaḥ as a kind of deer.
page 113 note 1 See above, p. 94.
page 113 note 2 See Roth on this text, s.v. kalp.
page 114 note 1 In x. 88, 11, Sûrya is styled Âditeya; and in viii. 90, 11, Âditya. In other places, viii. 35 ff. and 13 ff., he is mentioned separately from the Âdityas; but so also is Varuṇa in viii. 35, 1.
page 114 note 2 Indra is said to traverse the sky with the sun's horses (x. 49, 7). Compare Ovid's, description of Phaethon'a horses, Metam. ii. 153.Google Scholar
page 115 note 1 This word and others derived from the same root sû, are, as we shall shortly see, very frequently applied to Savitṛ. In x. 66, 2, the gods are said to be Indra-prasâtâḥ.
page 115 note 2 The classical poets also describe the sun as all-seeing. See Æschylus, Prom. 91, Homer, Iliad, iii. 277; xiv. 344; Odyssey, viii. 270. Ovid, Metam. iv. 171 f., 196 f.
page 115 note 3 Compare the expression of Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 265 (quoted by Müller, M., Oxford Essays for 1856, p. 53),Google Scholar
page 115 note 4 In this verse he is said to be also the eye of Agni
page 115 note 5 In his note on this passage (viii. 78, 7) Sâyaṇa relates a legend, that formerly the Paṇis had carried off the cows of the Angirases, and placed them on a mountain enveloped in darkness, when Indra, after being lauded by the Angirases, and supplicated to restore the cows, caused the sun to rise that he might see them.
page 116 note 1 See iv. 17, 14; vi. 56, 3.
page 116 note 2 See the tasteless explanations of this epithet given by the commentator and the Kaushîtakî Brâhmaṇa, as mentioned in Rosen's and Wilson's notes on i. 22, 5; and see also Weber's, Ind. Studien, ii. 306.Google Scholar The same epithet is given to Savitṛ in the Vâj. Sanhitâ, i. 16, where see the commentary. Savitṛ is also called pṛthupáṇi, broad-handed (ii. 38, 2), and supâṇi, beautiful-handed (iii. 33, 6; vii. 45, 4). Tvashṭṛ, too, is called supâṇi (iii. 54, 12), as are also Mitra and Varuṇa (iii. 56, 7).
page 117 note 1 Indra, too, is called hiraṇya-bâhu, golden-armed, vii. 34, 4. Agni is said to raise aloft his arms like Savitṛ, i. 95, 7. In vii. 79, 2, the Dawns are said to send forth light as Savitṛ stretches out his arms. In i. 190, 3, also the arms of Savitṛ are alluded to. In vii. 62, 5, Mitra and Varuṇa are supplicated to stretch out their arms.
page 117 note 2 In the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, i. 6, 4, 1 (p. 117), it is said, Prajâpatiḥ Savitâ bhâtvâ prajâ asṛjata; “Prajâpati, becoming Savitṛ, created living beings.” On the relation of Savitṛ and Prajâpati see Weber, , “Omina und Portenta,” pp. 386, 392Google Scholar; and the passage of the Ṣatapatha Brâhmaṇa, xii. 3, 5, 1, where it is said that people are accustomed to identify Savitṛ with Prajâpati, Yo hy eva Savitâ sa Prajâpatir iti vadantaḥ, etc. etc.
page 117 note 3 It is not clear whether it is Savitṛ or the aerial ocean (samudra) from which earth, atmosphere, and sky are said in x. 149, 2, to have sprung. See Orig. Sansk. Texts, iv. 96.Google Scholar
page 118 note 1 See Roth's, Illustrations of the Nirukta, p. 76.Google Scholar I cannot say whether this feature in the hymns in question affords any sufficient ground for regarding them as artificial in character, and consequently as comparatively late in their origin. To form a judgment on this point, it would be necessary to compare them in other respects with the other hymns.
page 119 note 1 In i. 164, 26, and ix. 67, 25, particularly in the latter passage, sava may mean a libation of soma.
page 119 note 2 This word also occurs in Sâma Veda, i. 464.
page 119 note 3 The same epithet is applied to him in x. 36, 13. It occurs also in the Sâma Veda, i. 464.
page 121 note 1 Sâyaṇa remarks here that, though the godhead of Savitṛ and Sûrya is identical, they may yet, from their representing different forms, be spoken of as respectively approaching and approached.
page 121 note 2 As in another place (x. 12, 8), he is supplicated, along with Mitra and Aditi, to declare the worshippers sinless to Varuṇa.
page 123 note 1 His father begot him (janitâ tvâ jajâna) to be the revelation and brilliant banner of all sacrifices. With the phrase, janitâ tvâ jajâna, compare the expressions in x. 20, 9, also relating to Agni, and in iv. 17, 4, relating to Indra.
page 124 note 1 See my article on Manu in vol. xx. of this Journal, p. 416, note. In one place (vii. 15, 4) he is called the falcon of the sky (divaḥ ṣyenâya).
page 125 note 1 Hence, perhaps, it is that he is called dvi-mâtâ, born of two parents (i. 31, 2 5); and dvi-janmâ, having a double birth (i. 60, 1; i. 149, 4, 5). He is, however, also called bhârijanmâ, having many births (x. 5, 2). In R.V. i. 95, 2, he is said to be produced by the ten young women, i.e. the ten fingers. See Roth, , Illustrations of Nirukta, p. 120Google Scholar; Benfey's, Orient und Occident, ii. 510Google Scholar; and Roth's Lexicon, s.v. Tvashṭṛ.
In regard to the persons or families by whom the sacrificial fire is supposed to have been first kindled, and the rites of Aryan worship introduced, viz., Manu, Angiras, Bhṛgu, Atharvan, Dadhyanch, etc., see my paper on “Manu, the progenitor of the Aryan Indians,” in vol. xx. of this Journal, pp. 410–416.Google Scholar In viii. 23, 17, Kâvya Uṣanas is said to have established Agni to perform invocations on behalf of men.
page 126 note 1 In one place (viii. 19, 32) Agni is called sahasra-mushka, which the commentator explains by bahu-tejaska, having many flames. The same epithet is, in R. V. vi. 46, 3, applied to Indra, where Sâyaṇa makes it equivalent to sahasraṣepha, mille membra genitalia habens; and quotes, in proof of this sense, a passage from the Kaushîtakî Brâhmaṇa.
page 127 note 1 Chandra-ratha and jyotîratha. The latter epithet is also applied to all the gods (x. 63, 4).
page 127 note 2 Compare Nirukta vii. 5, and xii. 19, with the comment of Durga on the latter passage, quoted in “Sanskrit Texts,” vol. iv. pp. 55–57.Google Scholar
page 127 note 3 In R.V. viii. 91, 4 (=Sâma Veda i. 18), Agni is called samudra-vâsas, “clothed with, or enveloped by, the ocean.”
page 128 note 1 This triple existence is according to Sâkapûṇi, as quoted by Yâska (Nir. vii. 28), that which Agni has on earth, in the atmosphere, and in heaven. The gods are said in the same hymn (x. 88, 7) to have thrown into Agni an oblation accompanied by a hymn, and in v. 9, this oblation is said to have consisted of all creatures or all worlds (bhuvanâni viṣvâ).
page 128 note 2 This half verse is quoted in Nirukta, v. 3. Durga, the commentator on the Nirukta, explains the words by saying that Agni subjects all things to himself at the time of the mundane dissolution.
page 128 note 3 Epithets of this description may have been originally applied to some other god to whom they were more suitable than to Agni, and subsequently transferred to him by his worshippers in emulation of the praises lavished on other deities.
page 128 note 4 Unless we are to take devân here in the sense of priests.
page 130 note 1 Another verse where Agni is identified with other gods is of a more pantheistic character, viz., i. 164, 46, “They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni; then there is that celestial well-winged bird. Sages name variously that which is but one; they call it Agni, Yama, Mâtariṣvan.”
page 130 note 2 The sense of the word ihehamâtarâ is not clear. Sâyaṇa says it means that their mother Aditi is here and there, i.e. everywhere. Roth, s.v., understands it to mean that the mother of the one is here, of the other there, i.e. in different places.
page 131 note 1 In i. 59, 2, the gods are said to have produced him as a light to the Ârya.
page 131 note 2 In i. 121, 3, Indra (?) is said to fashion his own thunderbolts.
page 131 note 3 In iii. 38, 4, Indra also is called viṣvarûpa.
page 131 note 4 Quoted in Nirukta, x. 34. See Roth's, Illustrations of Nirukta, p. 144.Google Scholar
page 131 note 5 In A. V. vi. 81, 3, Tvashṭṛ is said to have bound the amulet which Aditi wore when she was desirous of offspring, on the arm of a female in order that she might bear a son.
page 132 note 1 On the obscure passage, i. 84, 15, where the name of Tvashṭṛ is mentioned Wilson's translation and note, Roth's, explanation in his Illustrations of the Nirukta, p. 49,Google Scholar and Benfey's, remarks in his “Orient und Occident,” ii. 245 f.,Google Scholar may be consulted.
page 134 note 1 In i. 80, 4, it is said that even Tvashṭṛ trembles at Indra's wrath when he thunders. But this trait is merely introduced to indicate the terrific grandeur of Indra's manifestations. In Vâj. Sanh. xx. 44, Tvashṭṛ is said to have imparted vigour to Indra.
page 136 note 1 See Dr.Windischmann's Essay on the Soma-worship of the Arians, or the translated extracts from it in Sanskrit Texts, vol. ii. p. 469 ff.; and the extract there given, p. 474, from Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. 46, in which the soma, or as it is in Zend, haoma, appears to be referred to under the appellation 
. See also on the fact of the soma rite of the Indians being originally identical with the haoma ceremony of the Zoroastrians, Haug's Aitareya Brâhmana, Introd., p. 62.
page 136 note 2 See the process as described by Windischmann, , after DrStevenson, , in Sanskrit Texts, ii. 470.Google Scholar
page 137 note 1 See Roth's Lexicon under the word Gandharva.
page 137 note 2 This means, according to Sâyaṇa, that it has no deadly effects, like other intoxicating drinks.
page 139 note 1 In ix. 98, 9, he is said to have produced the two worlds, the offspring of Manu, in the sacrifices (yajneshu mânavî Indur janishṭa rodasî),
page 139 note 2 In ix. 60, 2, and ix. 98, 1, Soma is also called sahasra-bharṇas, having a thousand means of affording support.