I, 66
*
"Vedic Hymns, Part Ii (sbe46)\", by Hermann Oldenberg [1897],
p. 57
Ma\"N"D"Ala I, Hymn 66.
Ash\"T"Aka I, Adhyya 5, Varga 10.
1. Like unto excellent wealth, like unto the shine of the sun, like unto living breath, like unto one's own 1 son--
2. Like unto a quick takvan 1 he (Agni) holds the wood, like milk, like a milch cow 2, bright and shining.
3. He holds safety, pleasant like a homestead, like ripe barley, a conqueror of men,
4. Like a "Ri"shi uttering (sacred) shouts, praised among the clans; like a well-cared-for race-horse 1, Agni bestows vigour.
5. He to whose flame men do not grow accustomed 1, who is like one's own mind 2, like a wife on a couch, enough for all (happiness).
6. When the bright (Agni) has shone forth, he is like a white (horse [?]) 1 among people, like a chariot with golden ornaments, impetuous in fights.
7. Like an army which is sent forward he shows his vehemence, like an archer's shaft with sharp point.
8. He who is born is one twin; he who will be born 1 is the other twin--the lover of maidens, the husband of wives 2.
9 1. As cows go to their stalls, all that moves and we, for the sake of a dwelling, reach him who has been kindled.
10. Like the flood of the Sindhu 1 he has driven forward the downwards-flowing (waters) 2. The cows lowed at the sight of the sun 3.
p. 58
Notes.
The same "Ri"shi and metre.
Verse 1.
Note 1. Comp. I, 166, 2; 185, 2; X, 39, 14. The second passage (ntyam n snm pitr"h" upsthe dyv rkshatam p"ri"thiv na"h" bhvt) would be sufficient to show that we cannot translate 'wie ein berlebender sohn' (Ludwig).
Verse 2.
Note 1. We do not know what animal the takvan is. Comp. I, 134, 5 with M. M.'s note.
Note 2. See Bergaigne, Ml. Renier, 101; Gaedicke, 253.
Verse 4.
Note 1. Comp. X, 101, 7. pr"n"t "s"vn hitm "g"aytha.
Verse 5.
Note 1. Comp. Vii, 4, 3. durkam agn"h" yve "s"u"s"o"k"a.
Note 2. Prof. Max Mller believes that kratu here means, 'like kart"ri", a sacrificer, so that kratu"h" na nitya"h" sounds like snu"h" na nitya"h", one's own sacrificing son. But all this is very obscure.'
Verse 6.
Note 1. The second Pda is translated by Grassmann: 'wie Licht in Husern;' by Ludwig: 'fast weiss, bei den menschenstmmen.' I think that there can be no doubt that the words "s"vet"h" n contain a comparison like all the other comparisons of which these hymns are full; this comparison is unduly effaced in Ludwig's translation. Nor is Grassmann right in translating "s"vet"h" bei 'Licht;' the word is an adjective meaning 'white' and nothing else. We must supply here, as in many passages, a substantive, and I do not see any reason why this should not be that
p. 59
substantive with which "s"veta is most frequently combined in the Rig-veda, namely a"s"va; comp. I, 116, 6; 118, 9 [119, 10]; Vii, 77, 3; X, 39, 10. In V, 1, 4 it is said of Agni: svet"h" v"g g"yate gre hnm, 'the white racer is born in the beginning of the days.'
Verse 8.
Note 1. The traditional text is yam"h" ha "g"t"h" yam"h g"nitvam. Ludwig translates 'bewltiger des gebornen, bewltiger auch des, was erst geboren wird.' It will scarcely be necessary to state the reasons which make against this translation. Yam"h" yam"h" evidently means: 'the one twin the other twin.' Now if we leave the text unchanged, we cannot but translate: 'the one twin is he who has been born, the other twin is that which will be born'--which sounds very strange. In I, 89, to we have diti"h g"tm diti"h g"nitvam; Iv, 18, 4. ant"h g"tshu ut y "g"nitv"h"; X, 45, 10. t "g"tna bhindat t "g"nitvai"h". In all these cases "g"t and "g"nitva stand parallel; there is no such difference as in our passage, according to the traditional text, between him (masc.) who is and that (neuter) which will be Thus I propose to read "g"nitva"h", of which conjecture Ludwig has thought also (see his note, Iv, 259): that present Agni who has been born, and that future Agni who will be born, are twins.--Prof. Max Mller has discussed this passage in his Science of Language, II, 630 seqq. He interprets the twin who has been born as Agni representing the morning; the twin who will be born as the evening.
Note 2. The maidens very probably are the dawns (comp. Prof. Max Mller's discussion quoted in the last note). Are the wives the sacrificial ladles which approach Agni, or the offerings of ghee, or the prayers? See Bergaigne, Rel. Vdique, II, 9 seqq.
Verse 9.
Note 1. This verse is very obscure, and I am quite aware of the merely tentative character of the translation which
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[paragraph continues] I propose. I leave va"h" untranslated (comp. Delbrck, Altindische Syntax, 206), which must be done in most of the numerous verses beginning with the words tm va"h". I then read "k"arath (comp. 68, 1; 70, 3. 7). Vasaty seems to be either a dative similar to the newly-discovered datives in - of a-stems, or we possibly should read vasatya (vasaty in the Sa"m"hit-p"th"a).--Prof. Max Mller thinks of a correction "k"arma"h" and would translate: 'To him (whom you know--va"h") when lighted we go for our dwelling, as the cows reach their home.'
Verse 10.
Note 1. Comp. above, 65, 6.
Note 2. Or the downwards-streaming libations of Gh"ri"ta and the like? Comp. below, I, 72, 10 with note 4.
Note 3. Comp. below, 69, 10.
"Vedic Hymns, Part Ii (sbe46)\", by Hermann Oldenberg [1897],
p. 57
Ma\"N"D"Ala I, Hymn 66.
Ash\"T"Aka I, Adhyya 5, Varga 10.
1. Like unto excellent wealth, like unto the shine of the sun, like unto living breath, like unto one's own 1 son--
2. Like unto a quick takvan 1 he (Agni) holds the wood, like milk, like a milch cow 2, bright and shining.
3. He holds safety, pleasant like a homestead, like ripe barley, a conqueror of men,
4. Like a "Ri"shi uttering (sacred) shouts, praised among the clans; like a well-cared-for race-horse 1, Agni bestows vigour.
5. He to whose flame men do not grow accustomed 1, who is like one's own mind 2, like a wife on a couch, enough for all (happiness).
6. When the bright (Agni) has shone forth, he is like a white (horse [?]) 1 among people, like a chariot with golden ornaments, impetuous in fights.
7. Like an army which is sent forward he shows his vehemence, like an archer's shaft with sharp point.
8. He who is born is one twin; he who will be born 1 is the other twin--the lover of maidens, the husband of wives 2.
9 1. As cows go to their stalls, all that moves and we, for the sake of a dwelling, reach him who has been kindled.
10. Like the flood of the Sindhu 1 he has driven forward the downwards-flowing (waters) 2. The cows lowed at the sight of the sun 3.
p. 58
Notes.
The same "Ri"shi and metre.
Verse 1.
Note 1. Comp. I, 166, 2; 185, 2; X, 39, 14. The second passage (ntyam n snm pitr"h" upsthe dyv rkshatam p"ri"thiv na"h" bhvt) would be sufficient to show that we cannot translate 'wie ein berlebender sohn' (Ludwig).
Verse 2.
Note 1. We do not know what animal the takvan is. Comp. I, 134, 5 with M. M.'s note.
Note 2. See Bergaigne, Ml. Renier, 101; Gaedicke, 253.
Verse 4.
Note 1. Comp. X, 101, 7. pr"n"t "s"vn hitm "g"aytha.
Verse 5.
Note 1. Comp. Vii, 4, 3. durkam agn"h" yve "s"u"s"o"k"a.
Note 2. Prof. Max Mller believes that kratu here means, 'like kart"ri", a sacrificer, so that kratu"h" na nitya"h" sounds like snu"h" na nitya"h", one's own sacrificing son. But all this is very obscure.'
Verse 6.
Note 1. The second Pda is translated by Grassmann: 'wie Licht in Husern;' by Ludwig: 'fast weiss, bei den menschenstmmen.' I think that there can be no doubt that the words "s"vet"h" n contain a comparison like all the other comparisons of which these hymns are full; this comparison is unduly effaced in Ludwig's translation. Nor is Grassmann right in translating "s"vet"h" bei 'Licht;' the word is an adjective meaning 'white' and nothing else. We must supply here, as in many passages, a substantive, and I do not see any reason why this should not be that
p. 59
substantive with which "s"veta is most frequently combined in the Rig-veda, namely a"s"va; comp. I, 116, 6; 118, 9 [119, 10]; Vii, 77, 3; X, 39, 10. In V, 1, 4 it is said of Agni: svet"h" v"g g"yate gre hnm, 'the white racer is born in the beginning of the days.'
Verse 8.
Note 1. The traditional text is yam"h" ha "g"t"h" yam"h g"nitvam. Ludwig translates 'bewltiger des gebornen, bewltiger auch des, was erst geboren wird.' It will scarcely be necessary to state the reasons which make against this translation. Yam"h" yam"h" evidently means: 'the one twin the other twin.' Now if we leave the text unchanged, we cannot but translate: 'the one twin is he who has been born, the other twin is that which will be born'--which sounds very strange. In I, 89, to we have diti"h g"tm diti"h g"nitvam; Iv, 18, 4. ant"h g"tshu ut y "g"nitv"h"; X, 45, 10. t "g"tna bhindat t "g"nitvai"h". In all these cases "g"t and "g"nitva stand parallel; there is no such difference as in our passage, according to the traditional text, between him (masc.) who is and that (neuter) which will be Thus I propose to read "g"nitva"h", of which conjecture Ludwig has thought also (see his note, Iv, 259): that present Agni who has been born, and that future Agni who will be born, are twins.--Prof. Max Mller has discussed this passage in his Science of Language, II, 630 seqq. He interprets the twin who has been born as Agni representing the morning; the twin who will be born as the evening.
Note 2. The maidens very probably are the dawns (comp. Prof. Max Mller's discussion quoted in the last note). Are the wives the sacrificial ladles which approach Agni, or the offerings of ghee, or the prayers? See Bergaigne, Rel. Vdique, II, 9 seqq.
Verse 9.
Note 1. This verse is very obscure, and I am quite aware of the merely tentative character of the translation which
p. 60
[paragraph continues] I propose. I leave va"h" untranslated (comp. Delbrck, Altindische Syntax, 206), which must be done in most of the numerous verses beginning with the words tm va"h". I then read "k"arath (comp. 68, 1; 70, 3. 7). Vasaty seems to be either a dative similar to the newly-discovered datives in - of a-stems, or we possibly should read vasatya (vasaty in the Sa"m"hit-p"th"a).--Prof. Max Mller thinks of a correction "k"arma"h" and would translate: 'To him (whom you know--va"h") when lighted we go for our dwelling, as the cows reach their home.'
Verse 10.
Note 1. Comp. above, 65, 6.
Note 2. Or the downwards-streaming libations of Gh"ri"ta and the like? Comp. below, I, 72, 10 with note 4.
Note 3. Comp. below, 69, 10.
