Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

L
;
449 TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VII. -vii. 83
that K. and Kap. S. read with VS.). The word, in whatever form, probably refers to
other worshipers who get the start of us and outdo our Agni by their own ; the comni.
says : asmattali purvath tvadvisayamanaskdh or tvadvisayaydgakaranamanasah.
All the pada-va%%. read at the end inih-strtah, and this is required by Prat. ii. 86 ; but
SPP. alters to dni-strtah — which, to be sure, better suits the sense. The "KV. padatext
also has (viii. 33.9) dnih-strtah ; TS. (and by inference MS., as the editor reports
nothing), dnistrtah, unchanged. The verse in Ppp. stands in the middle of our hymn
ii. 6 (between vss. 3 and 4) ;
|_and it is important to remember that its position in the
Yajus texts, VS.TS.MS., is similar: see note to ii. 6. 3J. Ppp. reads dabhan for ni
kran in b, and ksatram [_and suyamam \ in c. "XMx^ jagatl has one tristubh pada.
4. Agni hath looked after the apex of the dawns, after the days, [he]
first, Jatavedas, a sun, after the dawns, after the rays, after heaven-andearth
he entered.
Aim after seems here ' ' to have a distributive force : Agni is ever present to meet
the first dawn etc. with his brightness ; or it is the opposite of prati in vs. 5 aiiu
:
'from behind,' as prati ' from in front.' The verse is found as VS. xi. 17, and in TS.
iv. i. 2^, TB. 1. 2. I ^3, and MS. i. 8. 9. All these have in c d7iu suryasya purutra ca
raqmin (an easier and better reading), and, at the end, VS. MS. give a tatantha, and
TS.TB. a tatana. This verse and the next are repeated as xviii. i. 27, 28.
5. Agni hath looked forth to meet the apex of the dawns, to meet the
days, [he] first, Jatavedas, and to meet the rays of the sun in many
places ; to meet heaven-and-earth he stretched out.
A variation of the preceding verse, perhaps suggested by RV. iv. 13. i a, which is
identical with its first pada ; its second half agrees much more closely with the version
of the other texts than does 4 c, d. The comm. is still more faithful to that version, by
giving the (preferable) reading /«ra//-a in c.
6. Ghee for thee, Agni, in the heavenly station ; with ghee Manu
kindleth thee today ; let the goddesses thy kin (itapti) bring thee ghee
ghee to thee let the kine milk, O Agni.
Ppp. reads duhrate in d. The comm. gives naptryas in c, and declares it to mean
the waters ; it is more probably the daughters of the sky in general.
83 (88). For release from Varuna's fetters.
[Qunahfifa. — caturrcam. vdrunam. dnustubham : 2. fathydpaiikti ; 3, 4. tristubh
(4. brhatlgarbkd)i\
The first two verses are found in Paipp. xx.
The hymn (the whole, says the comm.)
is, according to Kauq. (32. 14), to be repeated in a remedial rite for dropsy, in a hut
amid flowing waters; also (127.4) ^U the verses in a sacrifice to Varuna, after iv. 16.3,
in case of the portent of obscuration of the seven rsis.
Vait. (10. 22) has vs. i * at the
end of the pa(;ubandha, when the victim's heart has been set upon a spit ; and vs. 3 in the
agnicayana (28. 17), on loosening the cords by which the fire-dish has been carried.
The comm. quotes the hymn from Naksatra Kalpa (14), with an offering to Varuna in
a maha^dnti for portents.
•LAccording to Garbe, the whole hymn.J
Translated: Henry, 35,104; Grifl^ith, i. 370; Bloomfield, 12,562.