Vedic and Philological Studies

Mandala One

[    ] - Blank left by the author to be filled in later but left unfilled, which the editors were not able to fill.

[1]

[RV I.2.1 – 3]

II

वायवा याही दर्शतेमे सोमा अरंकृताः। तेषां पाहि श्रुधी हवम् ।।१।।
वाय उक्थेभिर्जरन्ते त्वामच्छा जरितारः। सुतसोमा अहर्विदः ।।२।।
वायो तव प्रपृञ्चती धेना जिगाति दाशुषे। उरूची सोमपीतये ।।३।।
इन्द्रवायू इमे सुता उप प्रयोभिरा दाशुषे। इन्दवो वामुशन्ति हि ।।४।।
वायविन्द्रश्च चेतथः सुतानां वाजिनीवसू। तावा यातमुप द्रवत् ।।५।।
वायविन्द्रश्च सुन्वत आ यातमुप निष्कृतम्। मक्ष्वित्था धिया नरा ।।६।।
मित्रं हुवे पूदक्षं वरूणं च रिशादसम्। धियं घृतताचीं साधन्ता ।।७।।
ऋतेन मित्रावरूणावृतावृधावृतस्पृशा। ऋतुं बृहन्तमाशाथे ।।८।।
कवी नो मित्रावरूणा तुविजाता उरूक्षया। दक्षं दधाते अपसम् ।।९।।

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।।१।।

वायव् आयाहि दर्शत इमे सोमाः अरंकृताः। तेषाम् पाहि श्रुधि हवम् ।।

वायव् । O Wind.

From Rt वा with the addition of the nominal suffix उ, base and suffix connected by the semivowel य्. The roots व, वा mean to exist in substance, solidity, plenty, fact, patent appearance. The wider sound आ, less simple and absolute than अ, brings out and lays stress on the idea of pervasion which the अ only involves and implies. Vayu is he who exists or moves pervading the whole world. The meaning “to blow” is of subsequent development and attached only to the physical aspect of Matariswan manifesting in gross matter as the Wind. It is more prominent in the word वातः.

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आयाहि । Come!

य, या express general motion to or from as opposed to the intenser and narrower senses of इ, ऋ etc.

दर्शत । See.

Imperative plural of Rt दृश् , intensive formation from दृ to pierce, tear, divide, cut; also, to seize; from the sense of penetrating, seizing etc in the more instantaneous and decisive दृश् we get the sense “to study, scan; perceive, grasp, see, know, analyse”, all ancient meanings of दृश् . Gr. δέρχoμαɩ, I see, δράχωνd (tearer, biter), δράχσσoμαɩ, to seize, are formed from this root. The plural is used, because Vayu is only considered as the leader of the quaternary of great Gods whom the seer is addressing.

इमे । These.

ए, the old plural termination, added to इम् , this; now used as the plural of अयम् , an alternative form of इम्.

सोमाः । Juices of immortality.

The root सु modified with the nominal suffix मः. We have seen that सु has various meanings, among which “to press out, pour out”, “to produce, beget”, “to besiege, invade, fight, attack” are of the most common. सोमः in the sense of “wine”, सुरा, wine, सुतः, a son, सव, libation, sacrifice, and Greek σῶμα, body, lit., object, production, (भूतम्), are instances of the first sense. On the other hand सु, सुतं, सवः, are used in the sense of to fight, attack, overpower (cf सूद् , सूर् etc); battle, siege etc. A third sense is to be at ease, in bliss, from which we get सुखम्, happiness; सुरः, happy, blissful, a god; सोमः, bliss, delight, ananda, nectar, the God of the Moon. Amrita or nectar may also be derived from the first sense, to press out; it may have meant not only extract, liquor, wine, but the wine of the gods, and the nectar distilled from the Brahmayoni in the Yoga.

अरंकृताः । Drawn up in battle array.

The root अर्; secondary from अ, with the letter र् conveying rapid, forceful, various and scintillating action, play, vibration etc. From the idea of working continually comes the sense, “to plough” which we find in Greek and Latin, aro, arvum, ἄρoνρα,

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ἄρóω, ἄρoτoς, άρóτƞσ, ἄρoτρoν . But its earlier and more distinguished sense was “to fight”. From this sense we get आर्यः, अरिः, अर्यमा, Greek Ares, the god of war; άρετή, fighting power, courage, virtue; ἄρεσɩς, Latin arx. It also meant to excel, rule, lead; to enjoy, satisfy, love, woo, please, Gr. άρέσχω, ἄρχoμαɩ, ἄρχων, Tamil arasan, a King, S. अर्च्, अर्घ् etc. It is one of the most important of the ancient Aryan roots, and has a wide & varied number of derivative meanings. अरं from अर्, to fight, means fighting, battle, battle-array, अरंकृताः drawn up in array, ready for battle.

तेषाम् । Of those, them.

पाहि । Protect.

    Rt पा to protect, with the emphatic affix हि.

श्रुधि । Hear!

    Rt श्रु with the emphatic affix हि modified to धि.

हवम् । Battle.

    Rt हु to fight, modified, with the nominal affix अ. See under होतारम् in the first sloka of the first hymn.¹

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।।२।।

वायो उक्थेभिः जरन्ते त्वाम् अच्छा जरितारः । सुतसोमाः अहर्विदः ।।

वायो । O Wind.

उक्थेभिः । With desires, passions, attachments.

Root उच् or उश् to desire, in the form उक् with the nominal suffix थ् (थि, थु) as in ऋक्थम्, वेपथुः etc. The two roots उष् and उश् are almost identical in meaning, उष् means to reach after, seek to embrace; उश् to cling to, embrace fondly, seek, desire, be attached to. From उश्, we have उशनम् the name of Shukra or Venus, the planet of love & desire in the ancient astrology; उशना,

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with desire, attachment, joy; उशाना, wish, desire; उशिज्, desiring, devoted; उशी, wish, desire; उशेन्य, desirable. उच् is another form of the same verb and means to be attached to, fond of, used to, suitable; to cling to, flock together, keep companionship.

जरन्ते । Consume.

Rt जृ, also जृृ The roots in ज् almost always assume sudden, violent or hostile action. To strike, shiver, burst are ordinary senses; to attack with physical force or speech; to damage, injure, hurt, kill; to consume, waste, decay; to burst open, be open; to manifest, appear, be born; to manifest, bring to light; produce; are frequent in this class. We find जृ, to humiliate, outdo; जृ, to decay, grow old, wear out, break up, digest; जृम्भ्, to yawn, gape, burst open, manifest; जूर, to hurt, kill, be angry; grow old; जै, जुर्, to decay, grow old; जीर:, a sword; जार, a ravisher; जि, to overcome, conquer; जरा, old age, decay etc. The meaning is to shatter, break to pieces, wear down, consume.

त्वाम् ।

त्वा, accusative of तु (cf Greek περɩχλέα etc) with the definitive particle अम् as in त्वम्, अहम्, वयम्, etc.

अच्छा । Juices.

Root अच्, to move, flow with the nominal suffix ह. The adjective अच्छ, flowing, liquid, swift, clear as a liquid; and the substantive, water, a liquid, a juice, रस.

जरितारः । Disintegrating.

Rt जृ with the verbal suffix तृ connected by the enclytic इ. See जरन्ते, above. जरितृ is assailing, destructive, disintegrating, consuming.

सुतसोमाः । Warring down the gods of immortality.

सुत verbal adjective (participle) from सु, used either actively or passively. सु, to fight, besiege, oppress, crush.

अहर्विदः । Knowing their time.

अहर् . Root अह्, to be, pervade; to be strong, to breathe, speak, sing. From अह् we have अह, ’tis so, true, well, surely; अहन्, sky, the pervading ether, day; अहम्, originally meaning

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आत्मा, self, I, अहंयु, selfish, or, from the sense of strength, proud, haughty, a strong man, hero; अहि, pervading; sky, cloud; serpent (crawling thing, reptile); अह्, to move with effort, drag; अहु, pervading, also, strong, concentrated, narrow. In the Veda, it means often “time”.

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।।३।।

वायो तव प्रपृच्पति धेना जिगाति दाशुषे । उरूची सोमपीतये ।।

वायो । O Wind.

तव । Thy.

प्रपृच्पति । Abundant, redundant, overflowing.

Rt पृच् reduplicated and nasalised; the form is the verbal adjective. A secondary intensive form of पृ, to occupy, fill, satisfy, grow full or to fullness; also to strike, dash, shiver, penetrate; to protect, cherish, embrace, touch, cling to, join, meet with. From the first sense we get that of possession or fullness in पृक्तम् or पृक्थम्, wealth, possessions, पृक्षम् food (?); from the second, that of investigation, examination, “to ask, inquire”; from the third, the ordinary meaning of पृच्, पृक्त.

धेना । Stream.

Root धि modified with the nominal feminine suffix ना. The ध् roots contain the idea of heaviness, solidity, consistence, steadiness in being, motion, action, relation, etc. The ordinary idea is “to hold”, “to fix”, with all the obvious derivative meanings. When applied to motion, they give the idea of a continuous streaming, flowing, running motion. Hence such words as धारा, धातु (rasa), धे, धाव् etc. From the idea of suckling, nourishing, supporting comes the sense of “earth”, “cow”, “nurse”, applied to words like धेना, धेनु; from the sense of flowing, continuous motion comes that of “speech”, “river”, “ocean” (धेनः).

जिगाति । Goes, flows.

Reduplicated from गा, to move widely, go, flow. गा also means to sing, from the sense of flowing sound.

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दाशुषे । To the enemy; assailant.

उरूची । Passionate, longing, yearning.

Rt उर् with the adjectival suffix चि (च, चु) preceded by the long connecting enclytic ऊ. This suffix, characteristic of the older language, inclined to the long enclytics, आ, ई, ऊ. Cf घृताची, पिशाचः, नमुचिः, दधीचिः or दधीचः. The root उ, ऊ expresses primarily being in pervasion or abundance or to the uttermost, motion through, across, to a great distance or height, embracing relation, (yearning, longing, desire etc), action of violence or intensity. In the roots उर्, ऊर् the addition of र् the intense sound of vibration brings out with yet greater emphasis the idea of magnitude, extent, intensity or passion. Thence the particles उरी, उररी, expressing emphatic assertion, verily, certainly, of course, yes; उरः, उरणः, उरभ्रः, a ram, & ऊर्णा, wool, felt (butting, aggressive, assailing); उरु, wide, abundant, prominent, excellent; उर्व्, to take violently, hurt, kill; उर्ज्, to cast away, abandon; उर्वरा, fertile soil; ऊर्ज्, ऊर्जः, ऊर्जस्, vigour, energy; ऊर्ध्व, high, lofty; ऊर्मि, a wave, high billow; उर्वशी; ऊरु, the thigh or seat of enjoyment; उरस्, desire, the seat of desire, emotion, heart. उरु in the ancient tongue had all these latter meanings, eminent; wide; desire, longing; emotion; heart; thigh. It is especially used in the Veda for the heart.

सोमपीतये । For drinking the juice of immortality.

Rt पी, to drink, with the nominal ति (S. पिब्, Latin bibo), a common meaning of the प् roots, from the sense of “filling, taking fully”, to drain, swallow, devour, drink. Cf पिपासा, पानम्,Gr. πóτoς, σνμπóσɩoν, Lat. potio, potare etc.

[2]

[RV I.2.1]

I

1. वायवायाहि दर्शतेमे सोमा अरंकृताः । तेषां पाहि श्रुधी हवम् ।।

दर्शत. Rt दृश् at that time still used in all its parts. The plural

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is used because the Rishi has in his mind not only Vayu, but the ganas or inferior devatas who assist the functioning of Vayu.

सोमाः. The lunar gods, ganas of Chandra, masters of the nectar of immortality, or “Somas” in the sense of “several cups of Soma” or of “Soma juices”, but this is a very strained sense. The English plural “wines” is not analogical. One would not say in any language “The brandies are ready.”

अरंकृताः. The root अर्, it has already been said, resembles अग् in conveying the idea of superlative existence, action or feeling. Like अग्, Grk ago, it means to move rapidly or violently, to struggle, to lead, drive, act, or to labour ground etc. From the latter sense comes that of ploughing from which we have the Greek άρóω, ἄρoνρα, ἄρoτρα etc, the Latin arvum, aro, arator etc (अग् must have had the same sense, cf ager, ἀϒρóς a field). Cf also अरणिः tinder, that which is rubbed or worked to produce fire, अरिन्रम् oar, rudder or boat, Lat. ars, art, working, arma, tools; अरर्यति to work with an awl, test, try, अररः an awl, अरिन् a wheel. We have the idea of moving, wandering, अरणः (cf अट् to wander, अटवी a forest), अरिन् a wheel, अर्वन् a horse, अरं swiftly; nomadic ground or wild country अरण्यम्, Greek ὄρoς, (अरस्) a mountain. From the idea of struggle, we have that of fighting and this is one of the most characteristic uses of the root. We have in Greek Ἀρƞς, the god of war, Ἀρεɩμανής, our Aryama, άρετή, virtue (originally, valour, cf Lat. virtus),άρήϒω, fight for, succour, ἄρɩστoς, best, (originally perhaps, most valiant), in Latin arcus, a bow, arma, arms, armo, I arm. In Sanscrit we have अरिः, अरातिः, meaning originally a fighter, then an enemy; अररं, war, fighting; अररुः an enemy, a weapon. Other senses are to honour (अर्घ्), to love, woo, to shine, to have power, strength, to use power upon. Eg अर्ह् to be fit, worthy, honourable; अर्य excellent, best, master, —also, dear, loved; cf आर्यः, ἄρɩστoς ; अर्यमा, meaning a bosom friend, as well as the god Aryama; अर्ब् to kill, hurt; अर्द् to oppress (in Latin to burn); अर्थ्, अर्ज् & अर्द् to woo, press, ask, pray; अर्चिः ray, flame, brightness; अर्थ् wish or desire; अर्क् to heat; अरु sun etc. A farther sense is little, young, inferior in अर्भक, अर्भग, अर्भ, अरम (low, vile)which may have come from the sense of love applied to children (darling); for the natural sense of अर् is just the opposite;

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it means superior, sufficient, high, strong; cf Latin arduus, Grk ἄρδω, ἄρρƞν, or ἄρσƞν, a male, Sanscrit अरं enough, excessively. Among these meanings, we have to find the right sense of अरं in अरंकृत. Three possible senses suggest themselves; made sufficient, laboriously worked, (both senses leading to the idea of ready, prepared), or made war upon, attacked, taking अरः in the sense of war, just as अरिः means a warrior, fighter, enemy. From the nature of the hymn the last is to be selected, if the deeper interpretation be accepted; the former, if it is the ceremonial. But the plural सोमाः is a strong objection to the ceremonial interpretation.

श्रुधी. This lengthened इ is a trace of the free interchangeability of long & short vowels in the pre-Vedic tongue.

हवम्. The line is capable of two different interpretations. “Protect them, hear their cry”, or “Hear our prayer, protect their battle.” The ceremonial sense would be “Hear us, drink their libation”; but their libation must mean the libation given by the nectar-juices, which has no meaning, or the throwing down of the nectar-juices, where the expression “to drink the offering of” would be a forced and indeed impossible construction in Sanscrit. To interpret “a libation consisting of them” would be to contradict the spirit of the Sanscrit language which does not admit such a loose form of language. A cup of gold is possible in English, स्वर्णस्य पात्रम् is not possible in Sanscrit. On the other hand the other two senses are both of them perfectly straightforward & sensible and can only refer to the lunar gods of immortality who subtly protect the Soma or amritam in the body. The evidence of this line finally disposes of the ceremonial interpretation.

Translation.

Arrive, O Vayu; behold ye, these gods of the nectar assailed with war; protect their battle, hear our prayer.

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[3]

[RV I.2.1 - 3]

Rig Veda I.2.

१. वायवा याहि दर्शतेमे सोमा अरंकृताः । तेषां पाहि श्रुधी हवं ।।

Come, O Vayu visible, these are (ie here are) the Somas (ie Soma-pourings) made ready, drink of them, hear our call.

दर्शतः. S. दर्शनीय beautiful. दर्शतः, from Rt दृश् to see, may mean either (1) to be seen = therefore worthy to be seen, beautiful, or (2) to be seen = visible. It may even be active = having sight, ie having the power or faculty of the द्रष्टा—cf यजत, भरत. The latter has clearly an active sense.

अरंकृताः. Not another form of अलंकृत as Sayana wrongly supposes, but from अर् which means among other things to work at, so to elaborate, prepare.

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२. वाय उक्थेभिर्जरन्ते त्वामच्छा जरितारः । सुतसोमा अहर्विदः ।।

O Vayu, thee-wards with their (expressive) speakings adore adorers whose Soma has been pressed and who have found (or know) the day.

उक्थ. There is a distinction between उक्थ and सोम. उक्थ from उच् (वच्), literally to bring out, express, is the hymn or word that expresses, brings out the god or his workings or the results desired; स्तोम is the hymn or word which affirms or confirms that which has been thus brought out by the उक्थ.

जरंते. From जृृ (जृ) lit., to break up, destroy, wound; then from the sexual act, to enjoy, love, as जारः a lover, close friend. जृृ, जर्च्, जर्झ् have also the sense of “to speak” (sound, but properly speaking loud, abrupt or harsh sound). जर्च् and जर्झ् mean also to blame, revile, from the original sense of hurting. जृृ in the Veda means to adore or woo, the sadhaka being the desirer of the godhead; but it has in the ritual the sense “to praise, hymn”.

अहर्विदः. अहस्, says Sayana, means a sacrificial rite performable in a single day. This is a far-fetched and artificial ritualistic interpretation. अहस् in the Veda means day in the

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sense of light, and the Rishi finds or wins the light of day as he is said to find or win the Sun सूर्यं विदत्, सूर्यं जयत्, सनत् or as he finds the luminous kine of the Angirasas. The adorers of Vayu nhave already pressed the Soma and won the light of the solar day for the yajna.

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३. वायो तव प्रपृंचती धेना जिगाति दाशुषे । उरूची सोमपीतये ।।

O Vayu, thy stream goes brimming (or, filling, lit. touching to the full) for the sacrificer, wide for the drinking of the Soma.

धेना. S. takes धेना = वाक् and gives an extraordinary interpretation.The speech of Vayu goes for Soma drinking to the man who has given, ie to say, Vayu says to him “I am going to drink”; the voice is प्रपृंचती = सोमसंपर्कं कुर्वती, ie it praises the Soma, and उरूची, many-going, ie praising or speaking of many sacrificers. The only possible answer to this amazing explanation is that no poet in his senses would use such language in such a sense, and if he did use it in a moment of aberration no reader or hearer would understand “O Vayu, thy speech, making relation, many-going, goes to the giver for Soma-drinking” to mean “O Vayu, thy voice says to the sacrificer ‘I will drink’ and praises the Soma and talks of many sacrificers.”

धेना from धि (धे) to drink, make drink, suckle, foster, means like धेनु, cow, and from धि in the lost sense to move, flow originally common to all the ध् roots, (see Aryan Origins), river, stream, flood—cf धाव्, धारा, धू, धन् (Vedic), धोर्, Greek θέω (dhav) to run, etc.From धि to sound comes the sense of speech. धेना means either “the flow, the stream” of Soma or of Vayu or else the Vayavic cow Priҫni, mother of the Maruts; but the latter seems to have no business here.

प्रपृंचती. Probably filling, satisfying.We have पृक्षः in this sense. The sense to “touch, join etc” is the literal sense, from which comes that of filling.

उरूची. Sayana takes उरु = many, & the termination च = to move (अंच्), but उरु means wide, and च is simply an adjectival termination like क, त etc suffixed to a root or another word to modify slightly its force, eg पिशाच, दधीचि, घृताची, सत्राच्.

The three first verses complete the first movement of the

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hymn, which is a hymn of the Soma-offering to the gods who lead towards the Truth. The first of these,—Dyavaprithivi, Night & Dawn & Agni being taken for granted,—is Vayu (Matariҫwan), master of the life or vital principle. Life and Mind, Force & Light, Power & Knowledge are the continual duos of the Veda. Vayu has the first draught of the Soma, the Wine of Delight or Joy of things expressed or generated in the body of man by the pressure of the divine sensations, those which seek with the electrical force of the divine mind, the pure rasa of things. The Soma juices are ready—the immortalising joy in the mind, the amrita in the body. The Life-force is to drink of these [incomplete]

[4]

[RV I.3]

Rig Veda

Hymns of Madhuchchhandas, son of Visvamitra

I. 3. Madhuchchhandas’ hymn of the Soma-Sacrifice

(1) O Aswins, swift-footed lords of bliss, wide-enjoying, take delight in the impulses of the sacrifice. (2) O Aswins, ye strong Purushas of the many activities, firmly-seated with your bright-flashing thought, take joy of our Words. (3) O givers, O masters of the movement, O ye who are fierce in your paths, clear-set is the seat of sacrifice, strong-energied are the Soma-distillings; do ye arrive.

(4) Come thou too, O Indra of the varied lustres, thee these Soma-juices desire,—purified they in their subtleties & in their extension. (5) Come, O Indra, impelled by the thought, guided by the enlightened knower to the soul-thinkings of the Soma giver who aspires in the hymn. (6) Come hastening, O Indra, to our soul-movements, lord of the brilliance, uphold our delight in the Soma outpoured.

(7) O all gods who are kindly & uphold the actions of the

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doer, arrive, divide the Soma-offering of the giver. (8) O all gods who are active and swift, come ye to the Soma-offering, like the cows to their stalls (like the powers of light to the places of delight). (9) O all gods who stumble not but are wise in your might and do no hurt, accept and upbear the sacrifice!

(10) May purifying Saraswati, full-plentied with all sorts of possessions, control (or desire) our sacrifice in the riches of her thought. (11) Impeller of truths, awakener to right thinkings Saraswati upholds the sacrifice. (12) Saraswati awakens in consciousness the ocean Mahas by the perception; she illumines (or governs) variously all our thoughts.

The third hymn of the first Mandala of the Veda, Madhuchchhandas’ hymn of the Soma sacrifice, is addressed to no single god, but built in a harmony of four successive movements, each composed of three verses in the Gayatri metre, each an invocation of a separate divine power or set of divine powers, which in their significance are intended to follow the ascending series of a particular psychological progression reached by the Rishi in his self-development through the Vedic Yoga. The psychological symbolism of the Vedic Soma-offering is in this hymn expressed with that succinctness and rich suggestiveness of which Madhuchchhandas is a master.

The Soma wine in the Vedic symbolism is the wine of Immortality, the flowing stream of divine beatitude which wells up out of the secret places of the being and manifests in the triple human system, in the mind, the nervous life, the body. According to the philosophy of the ancient Indian seers Ananda, delight,— the rendering, in the terms of sensation, of the plenitude of divine being,—is that which supports, overtly or secretly, all mortal & immortal life & activity. “Who could live or breathe,” asks the Taittiriya Upanishad, “if there were not this ether of Delight in which we have our being?” Human joy & pleasure, even human grief & pain, are only minor terms natural or perverse in an inferior formula of this divine Bliss of being. All strength, all activity, all fullness proceed from this creative principle and are supported by it. But all mortal life is a broken rhythm of

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something that should be & in itself is vast, perfect & evenly harmonious. The one goal of Vedic Yoga is this vastness, this perfection, this state of infinite & harmonious being. The aim of the seers of the Veda is to exchange the small & broken, for the ample & whole, to travel, climb or fight their way out of the limited mortal state into illimitable immortality. The instrument of their effort is sacrifice; the strength that is both to be born of the sacrifice and to make it effective, is the triple strength of divine Force, divine Light and divine Bliss.

The primitive verbal sense of the word yajna was action, effort, endeavour done with a force directed towards some goal, some object or some person; its idea-sense in the Veda is action or effort internal or external directed towards the gods or immortal principles of higher being by this lower or mortal inhabitant. To the Vedic sages body was not our only possession nor bodily existence the whole of our existence. The body is only our earth, base and lower tenement or firmament of the conscious spirit that we are. Above it, in ourselves, there are higher reaches of conscious being represented in the body and in bodily existence but exceeding it by awakening which we can rise into ranges of experiences, manifest faculties and amplitudes of which the body-bound mortal is incapable.We have to awake those reaches of conscious being in the body and through their activity in the body to have access to their native vastnesses beyond. Informing this body and animating it there is the ocean of nervous or vital force just above the physical ocean of matter; informing the vital force & illuminating it there is the ocean of pure mentality which is beyond & exceeds nervous vitality; supporting, creating & rectifying the pure mentality, there is the ocean of supra mental & pure ideal self-existent, self-perceptive Truth or Light which leads us into the heights of the divine being; generating the divine Light, pouring itself out on the surge of the infinite harmonies of this Truth is the ocean of the divine Bliss & the plenitude of self-existence. These are the five states or stairs of Being easily accessible to the tread of the human soul. Yet beyond is the absolute divine self-Awareness manifesting itself cosmically as the divine creative Force of God’s self-knowledge

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& it is this that takes delight in cosmic existence & by taking delight generates it on the foundation of the luminous Truth of things. That Force of divine self-Awareness, too, is an expression of a seventh & ultimate principle, pure divine Conscious Being which is, as it were, the surface of the Absolute & the source of Its world. All this existence is the ascending hill of our being & its successive summits rise out of our manifest being here and climb up into hidden altitudes veiled from us by clouds of vapour or by inaccessible depths of dazzling light. And as the body is only the lowest term of our subjective being, so also is the material universe represented for us by the earth only the lowest term of cosmic existence. Nervous life on earth is but the representative of great worlds or organised states of being beyond, of which not matter, but vital force is the primary condition, mind here the representative of a great mental world of which pure mentality is the primary condition. There is too a vast world or organised state of luminous being governed by divine Truth and worlds yet beyond in which the three supreme principles of the immortal life govern severally & unitedly their cosmic harmonies.

The psychological practice of the Vedic seers was founded upon this reading of human psychology in the microcosm with its corresponding life-notations in the world macrocosm. Two ideas of especial importance were entirely derived from it,—the need of divine help and the principle of a graduated & harmonious upward ascension. No creature of the lower worlds can develop a higher principle in him except by the attraction & aid of those grand Principles, Emanations & Forms of Deity, called the Gods, who inhabit the higher reaches of being and manifest themselves as powers in man, as both Powers & Personalities in the worlds. Hence the need of the manifestation in man of the gods, the need of their presence, aid and protection, the need of their constant friendship. By the aid of the gods man has to rise beyond them to God; with their consent & assistance he is helped to ascend and dwell in the divine being which they also dwell in & enjoy, the Vast, the Delightful, the True, the Light, — mahas, brihat, ratnam, ritam, satyam, jyotih, various epithets by which the seers expressed the manifestation in conscious being of the

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inexpressible because unthinkable Parabrahman. The Vedic sacrificer is continually described by the Veda as devayu, devayan, one who desires the gods, one who is developing the godhead in himself; the sacrifice itself is frequently described by the words devaviti, the widening, the opening, the manifestation of the God, & devatati, the extension of the God in the sacrificer. It is described also as an ascent of the hill of being from plateau to plateau, from summit to summit, or a journey on a path beset by obstacles, difficulties, enemies,—enemies who are described by various graphic epithets,—the plunderer, the detainer, the concealer, the thief, the wolf on the path, the devourer, a journey to the river of heaven & over it by the path of the divine Truth into the ineffable wideness. It is described also as a battle against individual enemies or groups of enemies, a Vritra, the Coverer, a Vala, the wall of concealment who fences in the Light, Panis, lords of sense-activity who intercept the herds of the divine Rays & pen them up in the obscure cavern of our unexpressed being behind this outward material life—or the battle is, generally, against the legioned hosts of evil, the armies of mortality for the victory of Immortality in the mortal. The journey, the ascent, the march is, by the very nature of things, a progressive development conquering the successive kingdoms of being in order to arrive safely & fully into our high & blissful dwelling place. The seers of the Veda, therefore, did not reject matter or the nervous life or the mental in order to reach now inaccessible felicities. Their idea of human progression was a conquering march and not a flight. Therefore, their idea of the gods was a conception of great divine Beings manifesting or born, as they said, variously in all the kingdoms of being. Surya is manifest as creative solar Light in the material world, he is Savitri, the Father; he is manifest in his own home, the Truth-principle, as the divine Light that illuminates our liberated being. To all the gods this parallelism applies and it is the basis of that concrete & material symbolism which saturates the whole language of the Veda and is for modern minds the chief stumbling block in the way of perfect comprehension. Moreover, since all these gods were but different powers & personalities of the one Being who is the source of all

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personalities & powers as is the solar principle of all beams & rays, the seers continually recognise their essential oneness; they differentiate them clearly when they are thinking of the diverse action of these Persons & their powers, they deliberately confuse them together when they look beyond; they declare plainly of Agni or another “Thou art Varuna, thou art Mitra”, or they address one god by the name of another in the course of the same hymn & the same strain of thought. Here lies the true secret of that isotheism & henotheism,—but henotheism in a far different sense from that understood by the German savant, —which is an unique & constant feature of the Vedic writings.

[5]

RV I.4.1-6

Indra Maker
The Fourth Hymns of Madhuchchhandas.

Indra is the God to whom by preference Madhuchchhandas Vaiswamitra raises the Vedic chant. Agni indeed claims his opening homage; the Aswins and Vayu,Mitra and Varuna, Saraswati and the Viswadevas have shared Indra’s praises in the two succeeding hymns; but from the fourth Sukta to the eleventh we have an unbroken series devoted to the mighty God of his preference. It is no small advantage for us to possess these eighty riks occupied by a single deity, yet addressed to him from different standpoints, composed in different states of mind and expressing a different set of related ideas about his personality, powers and functions; for from such an ensemble the figure of the god is likely to emerge with an exceptional fullness and distinctness. How far do these hymns confirm the ideas about Indra we have derived from the third Sukta? Indra, whether god of the sky or of the mind, is the most considerable of the Vedic deities and the most prominent presence in physical nature or in human psychology; it is right and fitting that his subjective physiognomy should be the decisive starting point for any theory of the Veda.

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Fortunately, the very first lines of this fourth stotra, this first hymn to Indra in the Rigveda, supply us with a striking passage in which the question is raised and solved. It is as if the Rishi were lying in wait for us with his answer to our difficulty at the very opening of his great Indra series. In the first word of the first rik he describes Indra as surúpakritnu, a fashioner of perfect or beautiful images or forms, or possibly a good fashioner of forms. There is no sense in which this epithet—brought forward so prominently and strikingly as the opening idea of the hymn—can be appropriate to the god of sky and rain or opportune in a hymn of material sacrifice. Sayana has seen the difficulty and met or rather dodged it scholastically in his usual fashion; surúpa, beautiful form, means, he says, sacrificial action of a beautiful form!We bow as usual to the learning and the fearless ingenuity of the great scholiast and we pass on. The epithet is nothing to the purpose in a material sacrifice; but if this outer sacrifice be the image of an inner rite, the use of the epithet becomes quite inevitable in sense and luminously clear in intention. Indra, god of mental force, is indeed a maker of beautiful forms or perfect images or a good fashioner of forms. If our hypothesis of Vedic philosophy is correct, Indra is, indeed, the direct builder of all forms; it is Mind that measures, limits & by its stress compels the infinite plastic Idea to objectivise Brahman in fixed mental & material forms. We have, therefore, at the very outset a difficulty straightforwardly met and luminously solved by the psychological theory.

Indra, maker of images, is not only a perfect, but an abundant workman. He is likened in his work to a good milker in the milking of the cows, sudughám iva goduhe. The balancing of the forms surúpakritnum and sudughám is strongly in favour of our taking the particle su in both cases as affected to the act expressed, to kritnu as to dughá. Indra is a good maker of images, skilful and abundant, like a good milker who knows how to produce a free yield from the teats of the herd. It is in this capacity that Madhuchchhanda calls on the god of his preference, juhúmasi dyavi dyavi. A rich and clear activity of mind, abundant in perfect forms of thought and inner vision, is

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the first aim of the sacrifice in this Sukta.

But there is a deeper subtlety concealed in this vigorous pastoral simile which, once we have grasped its principle, opens new doors on the significance and value of words in the Veda. Go in the Vedic tongue is not confined to the ordinary sense, cattle, but means frequently ray or light. In the language of Madhuchchhanda, we may almost affirm, it has usually this latter sense and, even when it means primarily cows, always refers obliquely to rays.We have gobhir in connection with Surya in the seventh sukta, where it can only mean rays and nothing else; we have the combination súnritá gomatì in the eighth where coherence & good sense demand the rendering “true & luminous”; we have gomat sravah in the ninth, where ceremonially we may translate “wealth consisting of cows”, but also either “luminous fame” or, as I shall show, “luminous knowledge”; we have it in the tenth, twice in successive riks, gavám apa vrajam vridhi and san gá asmabhyam dhúnuhi, where the sense cows, if it adheres at all to the text, is only a conventional figure for rays of light; we have it twice again in the eleventh, vájasya gomatah, which may mean, ceremonially, wealth consisting of cows, but also, as I shall show, psychologically, “luminous plenty”, and Valasya gomatah which certainly contains the same use as in the tenth sukta; we have it finally in the second rik of this very sukta, godá, where there is a plain allusion to the goduhe of the first line and the sense of the whole passage demands the rendering “giver of light”. I shall seek to justify the theory that this distribution represents fairly enough the ordinary usage of Veda; go means oftenest ray, light or cows as a conventional figure for rays, is sometimes capable of a double sense, material or psychological, and, even in the rarer passages where the reference is to physical cattle, there is usually a play of the mind on the other and figurative sense. These rays which figure so largely in Vedic imagery are not, as I shall show, the rays of the physical sun, but of Surya, the brilliant god of knowledge, master of revelation & ideal perception, the prophetic Apollo. Thus we have such expressions as gavyatá manasá, with a radiating mind.

In the present rik the image is certainly of physical cows,

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but the usual double figure of the Veda familiar to the Rishi colours, as is perfectly natural & inevitable, the physical image. This is shown by the immediate repetition of the word in godá of the second verse, where, as we see from the third verse, athá te vidyáma sumatínám, it is the light of knowledge that Indra is praised for giving. We have then the second sense of a great and abundant activity of luminous mental perceptions out of which are produced the clear images of thought and vision desired by the Rishi. The rays of Surya, of ideal knowledge, are the cows of the milking; the constant stream of thought-forms are their yield. For the aim of the Yogin is to avoid the confusion which comes from an abundant but hurried and ill formed mental activity and to effect a perfect distinctness in the forms of his knowledge—the rashmín vyùha of the Isha Upanishad.

We are given, finally, an object for this calling of Indra and this abundance of mental perceptions and thought-images, útaye, and a circumstance of the calling, dyavi dyavi. Útaye, Sayana says, means “for protection”. This is undoubtedly one of the senses of ùti, but not, as I think, either in this Rik or in any hymn of the Rigveda. It gives here no real sense; for in order to accept this significance, we have to suppose that ùti has no connection in thought with the words with which it is most nearly connected in the structure of the verse. It is obviously meant by its position to be a part of the idea conveyed in the description of Indra, a good fashioner of forms like a good milker in the milking of the cows of light; but neither mental activity nor abundance of thought-forms has anything to do with protection. We must seek for a more appropriate significance. The only other received value of ùti, enjoyment, will make good sense in this and a great many other passages; but I propose throughout the Veda to take ùti in another and more fundamental meaning not recognised by the lexicographers,—“growth, expansion, expanded being, greater fullness, richness or substance.” ùti, in this significance, will not belong to the root av, but to the obsolete roots u, ù(see Aryan Origins), the primitive base of the U family of roots which has for its fundamental significance mediality, incomplete being or limited pervasiveness. It is this sense which is at the

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basis of udaya, udan, uchchá, ut, udara, ushas, uru, ùrjas, ùrmi, ùrdhwa and the words of this class which express the idea of wish and desire. Growth or expansion in richness & substance of the individual being, (the primary object of all Rigveda), is the purpose for which this luminous mental activity & abundant formation is desired by the Rishi,—growth especially of mental force, fertility and clearness.

Again, this processwith its resultant growth is desired, dyavi dyavi, from day to day,—say the scholiasts. A daily growth, as we see in the first hymn of the Veda, rayim posham eva dive dive, is the object of the daily sacrifice and the daily invocation. On the other hand dyavi dyavi may equally mean, in sky and sky; for dyu & its congeners have the basic sense of light from which arise diversely the idea of day as in diva, divasa, dina, and of sky or heaven as in divi, dyu-loka, dyuksha; dyu shares in both meanings. It may therefore well be that we have here an allusion to the Vedic theory of the five earths and the three or sometimes five heavens, which correspond to the five principles and the three bodies of our complex existence,—the 5 principles, earth, matter or body, prana, midair or nervous vitality, manas, heaven or mentality, mahas or pure idea, and mayas or ananda, nthe divine state of bliss, & the three bodies, physical, subtle and typal (sthùla, sùkshma and kárana). This system, as can be established from a hundred indications, was not a creation of Vedantic or Puranic mystics but well known already to the Vedic Rishis.We shall then have a very strong & pregnant sense; the Rishi invokes in each of these ethers the activity of Indra, abundant in mental perceptions and thought-images, so that there may be growth in mind, growth in physical & sensational receptiveness, growth in ideal knowledge, ùtaye .. dyavi dyavi.

Such is the significance, deep, pregnant, rich in psychological suggestions we have gathered in the light of the words surùpakritnu and go from this first rik of the fourth sukta. But our system is to hold nothing for certain from a single text,— to demand rather confirmation from the whole context and the whole hymn before we are satisfied.We proceed then to question the second verse.

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Upa nah savaná gahi      somasya somapáh piba
    godá id revato madah.

“Thou, the Soma-drinker,” cries Madhuchchhandas, “come to our outpourings and drink of the Soma, for verily light-giving is the intoxication of thee in thy impetuosity.” Savana is the Soma-offering, but the word often retains something of its basic meaning,—the outpressing or outpouring of the Soma, & the insistence here, savaná.. somasya somapáh, justifies the supposition that the Rishi wishes to dwell on the characteristic act of the sacrifice. “We are pressing out for the use of the gods the nectar of joyous vitality within us,” he says in effect, “come therefore to that rite; thou, the Soma-drinker, take thy part of the nectar offered to thee.” Then the Rishi with that admirable logical connection and coherency which is the principal characteristic of Vedic style—though always in the logical form of poetry which half-veils the process of reasoning, and not of prose which parades it,—gives the idea which connects the second rik with the first, the offering of nectar with the luminous formative activity of the god of Mind. “Verily light-giving is the intoxication of thee impetuous.” For when the vital force and joy in us, especially that divine vitality and joy developed by Yoga is placed at the service of Indra’s luminous mental activity, then the mind increases in a sort of ecstatic intoxication of energy, vriddho ajáyatháh, and the abundant light of thought pours forth in the impetuous stream of the mind’s swiftness.

Sayana would have us render the verse: “thy intoxication, who art wealthy, is indeed cattle-giving.” Guarda e passa! He connects reván evidently with rayih and rai in the sense of wealth; but the evidence of the other members of this root-clan justifies a different interpretation. Rayih itself signifies primarily motion, energy & then matter or substance; rai is properly ecstasy or felicity, then by a natural transition wellbeing or material prosperity. The primary root rí means to flow, to stream; ríti, motion; rev or reb, to go or leap; revata, the rushing boar or the whirlwind; revá, the name of a river, must mean flowing or streaming, revatí, the name of a constellation, either bright or

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moving; and we have the Latin rivus, a river, and the Greek rīpē, rush. The balance of probability is therefore in favour of reván in the sense of swift, rushing or impetuous. It is here the just and inevitable epithet describing the ecstatic impetuosity of the Soma-drinker in his intoxication and rapture, revato madah.

Still, the proof is not complete; for another and materialistic interpretation of these verses is possible, and it may well be argued, “Ought not a plain naturalistic sense to be preferred to these too brilliant and illuminating ideas? True, the expression in the naturalistic interpretation becomes horribly cramped, awkward and even grotesque and unnatural; no one, ordinarily, would dream of saying ‘The drunkenness of thee wealthy is truly cattle-giving’, but what can you expect from a primitive barbarian? And if you paraphrase the whole thing becomes natural, vivid and convincing. Madhuchchhandas, the old barbaric sacrificer and medicine man of the tribe, says to Indra, the god of the sky & rain, the fertiliser, ‘We are calling you every day, for you are just like a good milker busy with the herd, a very fine craftsman. Just come and drink this Soma; for you are a very rich fellow but it is only when you are drunk that you give us plenty of cows.’ ” Such an argument would square well with the European idea of genial old Vedic barbarians, lusty, earthy, practical, naturalistic, greedy of wealth & cattle, who would besides be well-accustomed to the drunken liberality of their chiefs and easily attribute the same nature to their gods.

We must therefore still go forward and question yet a third verse.

Athá te antamánám      vidyáma sumatínám
    má no ati khya á gahi.

This magnificent verse, admirable in rhythm, admirable in thought, admirable in poetical nobility and force, is reduced by Sayana to the last bathos and incoherency. “Then may we know thee in the midst of intellectual people who are in thy vicinity”, or “May we know thee for getting good ideas about sacrificial operations.” The plain sense of the words, for sumatìnàm is here obviously a genitive of vague possession as in somasya piba, is

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perfectly easy to grasp. “Then indeed” says Madhuchchhandas, “may we know somewhat of thy most intimate felicities of thinking, manifest not a thought beyond us, come.” The whole thought of these opening verses is here summed up and receives its rich and inevitable consummation. Then indeed when the ecstatic activity of the mind is most luminous we can open the inner eye to those most intimate and felicitous perceptions of true & profound thinking of which the mental energy in us is capable. “But” says the Rishi “let not thy revelation of thought be beyond our capacities already developed”; for then there will no longer be the clearness of thought images and the entire inner satisfaction attending fulfilment, but rather a vagueness and straining with a waste of vital force and joy and not its self-renewing contentment. In this idea, for this deep, precise and limited purpose, “come”.

We are, therefore, justified by the succession of these three riks in holding the psychological intention of the hymn to be well-established. And when we proceed, when the Rishi turns to another strain of thought, that intention becomes yet clearer and more perfectly indisputable.“Parehi vigram astritam Indram prichchhá vipaschitam”, “Approach Indra the vigorous, the uno’erthrown; question him who has the discerning eye.” Not for cattle, but for light is Indra called to the sacrifice of the Veda. Of no mortal herds is he the giver, but of the luminous kine of Swar, (swarwatír apah san gá asmabhyam dhúnuhi), sumatínám súnritánám, of the rich illuminations, the right thinkings, the right feelings, the perfect states of mind which the seeker after perfection desires. These he carries to us in his force, san .. dhunoti, in the divine ecstasy, so delightful and precious to mankind in its youth, of a luminous & joyous mental activity. The succession of the thoughts is clear and natural. Indra is a rich fashioner of clear mental images, an abundant milker of the luminous kine; as such we call him in each layer of our consciousness, dyavi dyavi, in sensational perception, in mental & emotional thinking, in ideal vision and experience. But only when by the Soma wine of Ananda, our vitalities are pure, perfect and intense, does he give of his fullness; therefore

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we offer him the sacrifice of that immortalising nectar, áyus, amritam. Then indeed, when he is drunk with it & impetuous, we may attain all the felicities of thought which our deepest mental capacities are ready to seize; but let him not go beyond; for we should exchange clearness and definite possession for an ungrasped possession. Dhanánám sátis, ktēmatōn sōsis, the safe possession of what we have, is the condition of the sacrifice. To such a Soma-offering, for such activities, O Indra, arrive.

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II

The three opening riks of the Sukta have been admirably clear and straightforward in thought and expression; the three that follow present a number of difficulties, not, I think, because their style or thought is at all harsh or obscure, but because they contain a number of unfamiliar words or familiar words used in an antique & unfamiliar sense, over which the tradition of the scholiasts has seriously stumbled. I will therefore begin by giving first Sayana’s solution and then my own with my justification for differing from the accepted renderings.

Parehi vigram astritam      Indram prichchhá vipaschitam
    yas te sakhibhya á varam.
Uta bruvantu no nido      nir anyatas chid árata
    dadháná Indra id duvah.
Uta nah subhagán arir      vocheyur dasma krishtayah
    syámed Indrasya sarmani.

Sayana renders: “O sacrificer, do thou approach Indra the intelligent and uninjured, and ask of me the clever priest (whether I have praised him well or not),—Indra who gave perfectly the best wealth to thy friends, the sacrificial priests. Let (the priests connected) with us praise Indra (so Sayana amazingly interprets uta no bruvantu), also, O our censurers, go out (from this country) and from elsewhere (another country),—(the priests) maintaining service to Indra. O destroyer, our enemies have called us wealthy, men (our friends) of course say it, so let us, being wealthy, be in the ease given by Indra.” Whatever else

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may or may not be the sense of the Veda, this confused and ungrammatical rigmarole cannot be that sense. Apart from the questionable interpretation of particular words, Sayana drags into the fourth verse a non-existent mám, which unnecessarily disturbs syntax & sense, for vipaschitam can only refer like the other epithets to Indra and, indeed, if it did not, the relative yah could not refer back to the god, as Sayana would have it, over the head of this new antecedent. In the fifth rik equally, he drags in a non-existent ritwijah; no cannot conceivably stand for nah sambandhino ritwijah, as the scholiast wishes,—the thing is preposterous,—and if it did, dadháná could not refer back over the head of nidah and a whole clause to a far back unexpressed ritwijah which the hearer, if indeed he ever guessed at its existence, has long ago forgotten. In the sixth verse, to take krishtayah as a sort of algebraical symbol for a whole clause, krishtayah tad vocheyur eva, is to establish a kind of syntax which a grammarian in a difficulty may admit, but no writer in his senses would use. We must reject Sayana’s interpretation totally and start afresh with a clean slate.

I reject to begin with vigram in the sense of wise or intelligent,— for it would then be identical with vipaschitam and lead to a heavy tautology; I take it in the sense of vigorous. The root vij expresses any intensity of motion, emotion, thought or being; it signifies “to tremble”, “to be disturbed”, “to be keen-minded”, “to be vigorous”; for the Latin vigor undoubtedly represents an old Aryan vijás and we have in Veda itself vijarbhrit, which signifies, I suggest, “strength-holding”. Vigra, the adjective, may well mean energetic or vigorous. If we take it in this perfectly easy and natural significance, we are at once taken back in thought to the revatah of the second verse and go forward to the epithet astritam that follows. Indra, the impetuous, the intoxicated Soma-drinker, is also a god of vigorous strength, “uno’erthrown”, capable of bearing without a stagger mor a fall the utmost burden of activity demanded of him. He is vigra, vijarbhrit. Parehi, says the singer; him approach, have recourse or take refuge with him; for he will bear triumphantly all the swift & impetuous activity that is demanded of him and

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lead you mightily into the peace of self-fulfilment. We shall see how the idea thus thrown out in these four simple & vigorous words stands as the basis of all the riks that follow. The Rishi adds, prichchhá vipaschitam; question him, for he has the eye of discerning thought.

[6]

[RV I.5]

5. Hymn in Praise of Indra

आ त्वा इत निषीदत इन्द्रमभि प्रगायत । सखायः स्तोमवाहसः ।।१।।

But approach, but sit down, sing out towards Indra, O friends who bear the burden of the psalm.

स्तोम. From स्तु to establish firmly. Stoma is the psalm, the hymn of praise; it is the expression in the potency of speech of those qualities in the Lord of Mental Force—or whatever other Master of being is praised,—which the sadhaka is either calling to his aid or aspires to bring out in his own being and activity. The expression of a quality in inspired & rhythmic speech tends by the essential nature of mantra to bring forward & establish in habitual action that which was formerly latent or vague in the nature. For this reason the psalm is stoma, that which establishes or confirms, as the prayer is uktha, that which desires or wills and the simple hymn is gáyatra, thatwhich brings up and sets in motion or sansa, that which brings out into the field of expression.

पुरुतमं पुरुणामीशानं वार्याणाम् । इन्द्रं सोमे सचा सुते ।।२।।

When the nectar has been distilled, then it is Indra I take for friend, the mightiest of all that is mighty, the lord of all highest things.

पुरुतमं पुरुणाम्. Sayana’s far-fetched & violent gloss, “waster of many (foes), lord of many possessions”, is an entirely needless violation of the plain sense of the words. Purùtamam purùnám

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can have only one meaning & grammatical connection, “most पुरु among all that are पुरु”, just as ईशानो वार्यानां means “master among all that is supreme”. वार्य may indeed mean “desirable”, very much in the underlying sense of वर, a boon, but “supreme” rather than “desirable” chimes with ईशान & suits the balance of the phrases.

सचा is accepted invariably by the grammarians as an adverb in the sense of “together” formed from Rt सच् to adhere, to accompany. But is it certain that the word has no other sense in the Veda? The arrangement, if not the construction of the words in this line calls imperatively for a verb to connect इन्द्रं with सोमे सुते. To read in अभि प्रगायत from the first rik, is intolerably clumsy. Now in form, सचा may be the Active imperative of सच्—the singular would then be addressed to one of the company and replace temporarily the collective plural of the first and fourth riks—as सचस्व is its imperative Middle; or it may be more naturally, if my suggestion in connection with पृच्छा (I.4.[4]) is accepted, the first person indicative present of the verb used in the Active Mood & with a transitive effect. If सचस्व can mean “to consort with, always dwell with as a friend” (I.[1.9]), सचा in the Active may very well mean “I keep with me as a friend or comrade.” The sentence then becomes natural, straightforward & simple and the sense perfect & appropriate not only to the present verse, but to the preceding rik and to the rik that follows. It provides us with the perfect logical connection & transition which is a perpetual feature of Vedic style. In the first verse the Rishi invites his “friends” or “life-companions” to sing the psalm of Indra; the second states the object & purpose of their singing which is to have this mighty&supremeMaster of things as a friend, — the peculiar purpose of Madhuchchhanda as the acknowledged head of this group of sadhakas, यस्ते सखिभ्य आ वरं; the third justifies the choice of the forceful God by affirming Indra’s faithful friendship and his perfect helpfulness.

स घा नो योग आ भुवत् स राये स पुरंध्यां । गमद्वाजेभिरा स नः ।।३।।

It was he that was ever present to us in the union (with our desire), he ever for our felicity, he ever in the holding of our city;

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ever he came to us with gifts of substance (in his hands).

स घा. The emphasis is on सः which is, therefore, repeated with each case of application स योगे, स राये, स पुरन्ध्याम्; and घा serves to bring out the intention of the Rishi to emphasise the word. He is explaining why it is towards Indra, इन्द्रमभि, that the psalm must be upheld; for it is Indra that is there always in the getting of our desire, Indra always when felicity is the result of our active consciousness, Indra always when our gettings & our felicity are attacked & our city has to be held against the dasyus, the robbers, the foes. He comes to us always bringing fresh substance to our mental faculties, increased resources of mental force for our active consciousness.भुवत्, गमत्,—the habitual past, formed direct from the proper stem भू, गम्. I accept राये as the usual dative, although I do not feel at all certain that we are not sometimes in the presence of a form रायः and this राये like योगे and पुरंध्यां a locative.

योग. The idea of Yoga in all its Vedic senses is the reaching out of the being in us to unite itself with being expressed in other persons, objects or forces, whether in the form of application of effort, contact of consciousness or acquisition of things desired.

पुरंध्याम्. I can accept neither Sayana’s योषिति nor his बहुविधायां बुद्धौ; his construction of पुरं = बहु with धि = बुद्धि is almost grotesque in its violence. पुर् is that which is filled or that which contains & protects, the city, the adhara, this nine-gated city of ours in which we guard our gettings and enjoy our felicity; धिः is holding, supporting. Always attacked by spiritual enemies, Dasyus, Rakshasas, Daityas, Vritras, Panis, it has to be maintained and upheld by the strength of the gods, Indra first, Indra always, Indra foremost.

यस्य संस्थे न वृण्वते हरी समस्तु शत्रवः । तस्मा इन्द्राय गायत ।।४।।

Sing to that Indra whose steeds no foemen in our battles can withstand in the shock.

संस्थे. Sayana’s construction यस्य रथे (युक्त्यौ) हरी seems to me in the last degree forced and impossible. If संस्थ means रथ & वृण्वते means संभजंते, the only sense can be that Indra’s enemies in Indra’s chariot do not approve of his horses! We must find a

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more possible sense for संस्थ. In connection with battle, it may well mean the meeting and locked struggle of two enemies, and वृण्वते will have the sense which we find so often, of checking, obstructing or successfully opposing. When Indra and the enemy stand struggling together in the shock of battle, they cannot succeed in restraining the progress of his car; it forces always the obstacles & moves forward to its goal. The verse following on the आ भुवत् पुरन्ध्यां of the last rik & ending in the resumption of the first idea in the word गायत, closes appropriately & with true Vedic perfection of the minutiae of style, the train of thought started by प्रगायत & brought out by इन्द्रं सचा.

सुतपाव्ने सुता इमे शुचयो यन्ति वीतये । सोमासो दध्याशिरः ।।५।।

Distilled for purification are these juices of the Soma; pure, they are spent for thy manifestation, able then to bear their own intensity.

सुतपाव्ने. सोमस्य पानकर्त्रै, says Sayana, & he is well within his rights, for पावन् would undoubtedly be in later Sanscrit a noun of the agent &, so taken in this passage, it makes good sense. “Here are these Somas distilled for the Soma-drinker.” But, as European scholars have discovered, in the old Aryan tongue the dative अने was used verbally to express the action, no less than the agent, and appears disguised in the Greek infinitive ναɩ, εναɩ, while the shorter form अन्, dative or nominative, appears as the ordinary Greek infinitive εɩν. Old Aryan असने for being remains in Greek as εἶναɩ to be, दावने for giving as δoȕναɩ to give, भुवन् for becoming as ϕύεɩν to become, श्रुवन् for hearing as χλύεɩν to hear. Can we hold that this ancient Aryan form persists in the Veda, in such forms as पावने, दावने? The hypothesis is tenable. In that case, however, we should land ourselves in our passage in a piece of grotesque bathos, “These Soma-juices have been distilled for the purpose of drinking Soma”! If we are to accept the idea of drinking for पावन्, Sayana’s interpretation is infinitely to be preferred. But although पावन् occurs to us naturally as of the same form as दावन्, by the addition of अन् to the root पा to drink with the intercalary euphonious व which we find established in Tamil & surviving in Sanscrit forms like ब्रुवन्, स्तुवे, yet पावन् may equally

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derive from the root पू to purify by modification of the root vowel, as in पावक and पावन before the termination अन. If we accept this account of सुतपाव्ने, we get a deep and fruitful significance thoroughly in harmony with the subtle, suggestive and pregnant style of the hymns of Madhuchchhandas. The nectar juices are distilled for the primary process of purification of what has been distilled, सुतपाव्ने; when they are purified, शुचयो, they then come into use यन्ति वीतये, because they are then दध्याशिरः. The presence of the epithet शुचयो becomes at once intelligible; otherwise an ornate epithet, not without meaning, but not really needed, it becomes in this rendering a word of capital importance, logically occurring & indeed inevitable in the context, & दध्याशिरः, led up to naturally by शुचयः, comes with equal inevitability as the climax of the sentence & the thought.

वीतये. Sayana says भक्षणार्थं, but he gives other significances also for वी, गमनप्रजननकान्त्यसनखादनेष्विति. In the sense of going, as in the familiar classical वीत, वी is sometimes the compound of वि +इ to go, but the verb we have in वीतये is rather the long form वी of the primary root वि to manifest, shine, open, be born, appear, produce, grow, spread, extend, move, still surviving in वयस्, वियत्, वयुनं. The rendering खादन strikes me as an additional sense forced upon it by the ceremonialists in order to bring this crucial Vedic term within the scope of their ritualistic conceptions. I take it, in the Veda, in its natural sense of manifestation, appearance, bringing out or expansion. This word वीति describes the capital process of Vedic Yoga, the manifestation for formation & activity of that which is in us unmanifest, vague or inactive. It is वीतये or देववीतये, for manifestation of the gods or of the powers and activities which they represent that the Vedic sacrifice is initiated & conducted internally in subjective meditation & surrender, externally in objective worship & oblation. The Soma-juices purified यन्ति वीतये go to manifest, are spent for manifestation,—in this case, as we see in the next verse (वृद्यो अजायथाः), of Indra, the god of the hymn, Master of mental force.

दधि-आशिरः. This expression must either consist of two separate words, दधि & आशिरः wrongly combined in the Padapatha or it is a compound epithet—as Sayana takes it—of सोमासः.

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In the first case, दधि mean curd & आशिरः milk, used in the plural to express several helpings of milk; we shall have then to translate ritualistically, “Here are (Somas) distilled for the Soma drinker & here, purified, go Somas, curd and milks for eating.” Let those take it so who will and reconcile as they can its puerility with the loftiness of the verse that precedes & the subtlety of the verse that follows. But it is clear from the construction & arrangement of words that दधि-आशिरः is an epithet of सोमासः. Sayana’s explanation is too wonderfully complex for acceptation; nor can दधि-आशिरः mean दधि-आशिरः-युक्त; one of the two factors in the compound may have a verbal force, the other of the governed substantive; nor in the older terms of Vedic language is there any insurmountable objection to the verb in the compound preceding the word it governs. दधि will then be a verbal adjective formed by reduplication from धि (cf दधिष्व, the adjective ददि etc) upholding, able to uphold and आशिर् a noun expressing devouring heat, force or intensity akin to the other Vedic word आशु more than once used adjectivally in this sense by Madhuchchhandas. We get therefore the sense “able, being purified, to sustain the action of their own intensity”,—not, therefore, rapidly wasted so as to be unable to supply the basis of delight & force necessary for Indra’s action.

त्वं सुतस्य पीतये सद्यो वृध्यो अजायथाः । इन्द्र ज्यैष्ठाय सुक्ततो ।।६।।

Thou for the drinking of the Soma-juice straightway didst appear increased, O Indra, for supremacy, O great in strength.

अजायथाः didst appear; again the habitual past.

The idea of the verse follows in logical order on the suggestions in the last. The Rishi has devoted his first four verses to the reasons he has to give for the preference of Indra and the hymning of Indra. He then proceeds to the offering of the Soma, the wine of immortality, ananda materialised in the delight-filled vitality; it is first expressed in the terms of joy & vitality; it is next purified; purified it is spent in the putting out of mental force for the manifestation of divine Mind, Indra; Indra manifests at once, सद्यो अजायथाः, but he manifests वृध्यो increased; a greater mental force appears than has been experienced in the past stages of

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the Yoga or the life. Indra appears thus increased सुतस्य पीतये & ज्यैष्ठाय, primarily for the drinking of the joy & vitality that has been distilled, secondarily, through & as a result of the taking up of that joy & vitality in the active mental consciousness for supremacy, that is to say, for full manifestation of his force in that fullness in which he is always the leader of the divine war, king & greatest (ज्येष्ठ) of the battling gods. Therefore is the appellation सुक्ततो placed at the end in order to explain ज्यैष्ठाय. The Lord of Mental Force is a very mighty god; therefore, when he appears in his fullness, it is always his force that takes the lead in our activity. We have in these two verses a succession of symbolic concepts in perfect logical order which express stage by stage the whole process of the divine manifestation in this lower material activity, devaviti in adhwara yajna.

आ त्वा विशन्तु आशवः सोमास इन्द्र गिर्वणः । शं ते संतु प्रचेतसे ।।७।।

May the fiery Soma-juices enter into thee, O Indra, thou who hast delight in the Word; may they be peace to thee in thy forward-acting awareness.

आशवः. व्याप्तिमंत, says Sayana; but the epithet is then inapposite. आशु like आशिर means devouring, fiery, intense, impetuous, swift—cf the senses of आशिर fire, the sun, a demon. The joy & vitality are to pervade the mental force and, because this is to be done in the force of the word, the mantras, गिरः, therefore Indra is addressed as गिर्वणः,—the word, besides, preparing after the fashion of Vedic interlinking the transition of the thought to the subject of the next verse.

प्रचेतसे. The epithet is not here merely ornamental or generally descriptive; if it were, the vocative would have been preferred. The use of the dative indicates clearly that प्रचेतस् is meant to express the condition in which the peace is desired. The most serious obstacle of the sadhaka is the difficulty of combining action with a basis of calm; when intense force enters the system & is put out in activity, it brings eagerness, disturbance, trouble, an excitement of activity & exhaustion of relapse. There is अशान्ति, absence of शं.It is easy to avoid this when there is quietude & the ananda is merely enjoyed,

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not utilised.But Indra, as mental force, has to be prachetas, consciously active, putting his consciousness forward in thought & action, प्रचेतस्, he has to absorb the Soma-wine & lose nothing of its fire, yet preserve the peace of the liberated soul. The Somajuices have to bring added peace with them to the active mind as well as an added force.

त्वां स्तोमा अवीवर्धन् त्वामुक्था शतक्रतो । त्वां वर्धंतु नो गिरः ।।८।।

Thee the hymns of praise have increased, thee, the hymns of prayer, O Indra of the hundred mights; thee may our Words increase.

अवीवर्धन् the habitual past. In the past and as a rule, praise of Indra & prayer to Indra have increased & increase the mental force; let the words also of this mantra now increase it.

गिरः takes up the गिर्वणः of the last line. It is the mantra that has to make the Soma effective in increasing Indra. The thought, therefore, takes up the प्र गायत of the first rik and applies it to the office which is asked of Indra, for which he has been given the Soma wine, the final purpose of the invocatory chant & the utility of this divine increase in the fiery strength of the Soma offering.

अक्षितोतिः सनोदिमं वाजमिन्द्रः सहस्रिणं । यस्मिन्विश्वानि पौस्या ।।९।।

Unimpaired in his expansion may Indra safeguard this myriad wealth (of mind) on which all our strengths are established.

अक्षितोतिः. The ritualistic interpretation of the ninth rik is not unworth noting for its unadulterated clumsiness & unconvincing pointlessness. Sayana takes वाजं in the sense of food and supposes it to allude to the Soma. “Let Indra” he renders it “whose protection is undamaged enjoy this food thousandnumbered, in which food are all strengths.” Nothing is clear here except the working of a mind ignorant of the meaning of the text and compelled to hammer out a meaning in harmony with tradition and ritualistic prepossessions. In the light of the symbolic interpretation, the verse like every other becomes both in sense & construction simple, straightforward, logical, wellordered & full of subtle purpose & consummate dexterity. ऊतिः

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is expansion, see [    ] & appendix. Indra is supposed to have increased mental force in accordance with past experience (वृद्धो अजायथाः, अवीवृधन्) and in answer to the prayer त्वां वर्धंतु नो गिरः; the Rishi prays that that increased mental force may remain unimpaired अक्षित, and that the Lord of the Force, thus preserved in the expansion of his power, may safeguard, preserve or keep safe (सनेद्) this substance of mind, this rich mind-stuff full of the force of Indra सहस्रिणं in which all human strengths repose for their effectiveness and stability.

सनेद्. The group of words सा:, सातिः, सन्, सनयः, सनः, सनिः, सानसिः, are of great importance in the Veda. Sayana is not consistent in his interpretation of them. He applies to them his favourite ritualistic ideas of giving, favour, praying, eating etc. I attach to them invariably the sense of substance, permanence, safety, preservation, safeguarding. The basic sense of the roots of the Sa family is substance, steadfastness, stability, solidity. साः is the Greek σῶς, safe, सातिः the Greek σῶσɩςɩ, safety, salvation, preservation; सन् is the basis of the Latin sanus, sound, sane, in health which rests on the fundamental sense “well-preserved, safe from harm”, & of the Sanscrit सनत्, सना, सनात्, सनातनः perpetual, eternal, & सनयः, सनिः, सनः, सानसिः are its derivatives in this fundamental significance. We shall find that this interpretation will illuminate the sense of every passage in which the words occur, need never be varied and never lead to either straining of sense or awkwardness of construction.

सहस्रं means “a thousand”; if that be its only significance, सहस्रिणं must mean, myriad, thousandfold, infinitely numerous or varied. I am convinced, however, that सहस्र meant originally as an adjective plentiful or forceful, or as a noun, plenty or force; सहस्रिणं would then mean “abundantly plentiful” or “rich in force”. In any case, it describes well themyriad-shaped wealth of mind-stuff & mind-force which is the basis of all our masculine activities or practical masteries, यस्मिन् विश्वानि पौंस्या. We may, if we choose, take the phrase to mean “wealth counted by thousands” of gold pieces or of cattle, in which, says the Vedic Rishi, reside all forms of human strength and greatness. But I am not disposed to lend the sentiment of Mammon worship to

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men of an early age in which strength, skill and mental resource must have been the one source & protection of wealth & not, as falsely seems to be the fact in a plutocratic age, wealth the source & condition of the rest. The Vedic Rishis may have been primitive savages, but primitive savages did not hold sentiments of this kind; they valued strength & skill first, wealth only as the reward of strength & skill.

मा नो मर्ता अभि द्रुहन्तनू गिर्वणः । ईशानो यवया वधं ।।१०।।

Let not mortal men (or, let not the slayers) do hurt to us, O Indra who delightest in the mantra; be the lord of our bodies & give us to ward off the stroke.

मर्ताः Greek βρoτóς, mortal. The Rishi has already prayed for protection of his spiritual gains against spiritual enemies; he now prays for the safety from human blows of the physical body. But I am inclined to think that मर्ताः here has an active rather than a passive sense; for the termination त may have either force. मर्तः undoubtedly means mortal in the Veda, but it is possible that it bears also the sense of slayer, smiter, deadly one like मर्त् in the Latin Mars, like the transitive sense in mortal, which means either subject to death or deadly. In any case I cannot follow Sayana in taking तनूनाम् as subject to अभि. I take it subject to ईशानो which is otherwise otiose & pointless in the sentence. The significant use of गिर्वणः indicates that the safety from mortal strokes is also claimed as a result of the Vedic mantra. “Let not those who would slay, do harm against us (अभि in our direction); do thou, Indra, lord of mental force, in the strength of the mantra, govern our bodies and when the blow comes in our direction ward it off or enable us to ward it off (यवया, causal).” The reference seems to me to be to that power of the mental force in which the Indian Yogin has always believed, the power which, substituting a divine mental action for the passive, helpless & vulnerable action of the body, protects the individual and turns away all attempts physical or otherwise to do him hurt. If I am right in my interpretation, we see the source of the Tantric idea of the stoma or stotra acting as a kavacha or mental armour around the body which keeps off

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the attacks of suffering, calamity, disease, wounds or death. We may note that if मर्ताः be slayers, तनूनाम् may be governed by मर्ताः, “Let not the slayers of the body do hurt towards us, O Indra who delightest in the mantra; govern them (our bodies with thy mental force) & give us to ward off the stroke.” But, in any case, whether we associate तनूनाम् with अभि or मर्ताः or ईशानो, ईशानो must refer back to तनूनाम्. Sayana’s “ward off the blow, for thou canst”, is a pointless superfluity, one of those ideas which seem right & ingenious to the scholar, but would never suggest itself to the poet; least of all to a master of style like Madhuchchhanda.

[7]

[RV I.82.1]

I.82

उपो षु शृणुही गिरो मघवन्मातथा इव ।
यदा नः सुनृतावतः कर आदर्थयास इद्योजा नु इंद्र ते हरी ।।

upo [shu] ςrinuhî giro     maghavan mâtathâ iva
yadâ nah sûnritâvatah     kara âd arthayâsa id
yojâ nu indra te harî

उप उ अस्मान् प्रति अभिमुख एव सन् towards (us) verily षु सम्यक् well, गिरः शृणुहीशृणुहि उक्तीः शृणु hear (our) words मघवन् हे धनवन् मा अतथाः इव मा यथार्हसि तदन्यथेव किंवासत्य इव भव (be) not as if other than thou art यदा नः सुनृतावतः करः यदा त्वं नः सुसत्यवागन्वितान् वा करोषि when thou makest us possessed of the mind of truth आत् तदा अथर्यासे इत् अर्थं प्रति गच्छस्येव thou seekest the goal इंद्र हरी ते योजा नु हे इंद्र तव दिप्तावश्वावधुना योजय O Indra, yoke now thy two bright horses.

Turn well thy ear of hearing towards us and hearken to our words; O master of riches, be not other than thy Truth; when thou hast made us to have the word of truth, then thou movest

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to the goal of thy way. Yoke now, O Indra, thy bright horses.

उ = एव. अथवाः. S. “not as before”. But I think it means either not right, not as thou ought to be, not giving the just response to our words or else not as thou art really, ऋजुक्रतुः etc, straight of will, a warrior for the Aryan, a conqueror and giver of the riches of truth and its powers; do not seem to be something else. Cf the force of तथा in याथातथ्यतः aright, तथ्य true. सुनृतावतः. सूनृता is taken by S. in its latest sense, true and pleasant speech. The word is probably from सु and ऋत with an euphonic connecting न्. Other passages suggest true mind rather than true speech, but it may here mean speech, since it is the words, गिरः of which the Rishi is speaking. अथर्यासे. S. takes अर्थ् in the sense of प्रार्थं् = याच्यसे, thou art prayed to or desired. I take the verb as a nominal from अर्थ = thou movest to the goal.

For the whole sense of the verse consult the parallel passage I.[10].3 – 4 युक्ष्वा हि कोशिना हरी वृषणा कक्ष्यप्रा । अथा न इंद्र सोमपा गिरामुपश्रुतिं चर ।। एहि स्तोमाँ अभि स्वराभि गृणीहि आ रुव । “Yoke thy two maned bright horses (cf below युनज्मि ते केशिना हरी), strong (males) which fill their girths, then, O Indra Soma-drinker, act the hearkening towards our words, come, give voice in answer to our hymns of praise, utter the word, cry aloud”; and the previous verse I.10.2. तादिम्द्रो अर्थं चेतति यूथेन वर्ष्णिरेजति ।। “Then Indra gives us knowledge of the goal, a bull with the herd (of his rays यूथा गवां), he moves (towards the goal).”

Indra’s hearing of the word उपश्रुति has a meaning as is shown by this parallel passage. His hearing is for a response, the divine nMind answering with its word of Truth गृणीहि आ रुव to the human word that seeks the Truth. This gives a connected sense to मातथा इव, do not seem to give another than the right answer; do not confuse our minds with error. Why? Because it is when Indra makes men सुनृतावतः, that is, gives them possession of the mind and word of the Truth that he leads them towards the अर्थ, तादिम्द्रो अर्थं चेतति, the goal of Truth, the supreme levels rising from height to height सानोः सानुमारुहत् I.10.2.

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[8]

[RV I.86.1-3]

I.86.

The eighty fifth & eighty sixth hymns of the first Mandala, hymns of the Rishi Gotama to the Maruts, are of especial importance, because they fix the subjective character & functions of the Maruts with a greater clearness than most of the suktas addressed to these deities; for in these others the material symbol is so prominent as to veil for modern minds the truths of our inner being and experience which it symbolises. I take first the second of the two hymns, because it is the simplest in language and its indications are quite lucid and definite.

Maruto yasya hi kshaye páthá divo vimahasah,
    Sa sugopátamo janah.

In this verse I cannot accept pátha in Sayana’s sense, somam pibatha, drink the nectar. Pátha clearly prepares us for the sugopátamo in the third páda of the rik and means “protect”. Divo cannot mean “from heaven”, since there is no verb of motion; it must, therefore, be connected with vimahasah. The Maruts are the diffused energies (vi-mahas) of Div, the mental world; they are the rays of the ideal knowledge-force, the Vijnana, pouring itself out in mind and diffusing itself in action of mental knowledge. The expression divo vimahasah gives the justification of sugopátamo; because the Maruts are these diffused energies of the Truth, Right, Wideness above, therefore their protection is perfectly effective for the Sacrificer.

“O Maruts, verily, in whosoever’s dwellings ye protect, the spreading energies of Heaven, he is the most safely guarded of men.”

Yajnair vá yajnaváhaso viprasya vá
    matìnám, Marutah srinutá havam.

The Maruts bear the action of the sacrifice, says Gotama, yajnair.

We have here the fundamental sense of yajna coming to the

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surface; yajna is really the putting out of force which constitutes the effort of the Yati; it is yatna applied or devoted to a particular object or to a particular person; from this latter sense we get the idea of giving and sacrifice. The Maruts uphold the sacrifice of force, joy or being in the human individual by sacrifices of force, joy or being from the store, the samudra, of the mental Brahman,— divas. In other words by outpourings into activity of the universal substance which they as gods have at their command they support the outpouring into being by man of the individual store which he has at command.

Vá .. vá means rather, “both .. and”, than “either .. or”. It is affirmative like vai. Váshabdah samuchchaye, says Sayana. Matìnám depends by a very natural figure on the idea of bearing in “váhaso”, the second part of the preceding compound, which casts out from itself the shadow of an implied “vahnayah” or “vodhárah”. The Maruts are upholders not only of action, but of the thoughts or mind states that express themselves in action —still, because they are divo vimahasah the thought continues logically from the first verse.

“Ye who by your sacrifices uphold alike our sacrifice, and the thoughts of the seer, O Maruts, hear my call.”

Uta vá yasya vájino, anu vipram atakshata,
    Sa gantá gomati vraje.

Uta vá, “And besides”, “moreover”; the Rishi is giving a fresh aspect of the activity of the Maruts; as diffused energies of an illuminated mentality & therefore efficient protectors of our mental being, substance & gains, not only are they upholders of our outgoing action and upholders of our illuminated mind states, but they are the formers of being & thought & image, inward & outward, like Indra their chief (Indrajyesthá Marudganáh), who is surúpakritnu, a maker of perfect forms. Vájino may be an epithet either of yasya or of the subject of atakshata. I think that, like vírasya in the next line, it is meant to describe the state of the sacrificer’s being which is the condition of the action described in the rest of the sentence, not so much the condition necessary in the Maruts for their work of

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formation, although that also is perfectly suitable to the sense. There is a certain difficulty also about vipram. Is it an accusative governed in sense by anu or by atakshata? The former is only possible if we suppose vipra to have, besides its ordinary sense of enlightened, also, like kavi and rishi, the sense of enlightenment. It would be perfectly legitimate to assign this sense to the word and we may even say that it must, in the origins of the Sanscrit language, have borne it for a time; but it is a question of fact whether it still bore it in the language of the Veda. It is, I think, necessary to take it so here, because of yasya. If vipra meant the seer, we should have yam & not yasya. As it is, vipram is evidently something in the sacrificer which the Maruts mould into shape, anu, according to the energy from the vijnana above. For atakshata is the defining into shape of the indefinite substance of mind in Div, through yajna and mati, putting forth of force for activity and movement of the mind state into mental thought & feeling. By these movements the Maruts shape the mental enlightenment of the seer into a well-arranged and well formed knowledge. As a result, sa gantá gomati vraje, he has freedom of movement in the luminous ordered motion of the Chit in mind, vraja in the sense of regular movement, or in the luminous throng of thoughts from above, vraja in the sense of herd or assemblage. The rays of thought, descending from above, are assembled in their movement, the rashmín vyúha of the Isha Upanishad, and among them the man of full substance, right thought & action protected & energised by the Maruts moves a formed and complete thinker & knower, freed from the darkness and the twilight of lower states.

“Then too, whosoever has substance & in him ye have shaped aright his knowledge, moves in the radiant march.”

In these three verses the powers & functions of the Maruts are defined, by virtue of which they are the deities the Rishi chooses for invocation in this hymn. Because they are the supporters, energisers & formers of the knowledge in him, therefore he calls them for the action desired by him in this sukta. So much is praise; the rest of the hymn is prayer.

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[9]

[RV I.122.1-3]

Veda.

ओं प्र वः पान्तं रघुमन्यवो अन्धो यज्ञं रूद्राय माळ्हुषे भरध्वं ।
दिवो अस्तोषि असुरस्य वीरैरिषुध्येव मरूतो रोदस्योः ।।१।।

(1) Sayana

पांतं = पालनशीलं पातव्यं वा रघुमन्यवो = लघुक्रोधा यज्ञं = यागसाधनं असुरस्य = असुराणां निरसितुः (कर्मणि षष्ठी) मीळ्हुषे = फलस्य वर्षित्रे

Rendering—Offer perfectly to Rudra, rainer of the fruit, the protective sacrificial food, O light in anger (priests); I praise theMaruts in the two firmaments & the driver out from heaven of the Asura with his heroes by means of the quiver.

(2) Suggestions

रघुमन्यवो—रघु = swift मन्यु = ϴνμóς, mind, passion, soul. मीळ्हुषे = kindly, friendly अस्तोषि = I stood firm, was established.

Bring forward the substance, O ye who are swift in impetuous passion, a sacrifice for Rudra who hath befriended even that which maintaineth you; by the strengths of the mighty One I sit established in heaven, O Maruts, yea in the two firmaments, as an arrow in a quiver.

पत्नीव पूर्वहूतिं वावृधध्या उषासानक्ता पुरुधा विदाने ।
स्तरीर्न अत्कं व्युतं वसाना सूर्यस्य श्रिया सुदृशी हिरण्यैः ।।

(1) Sayana

स्तरीः = शत्रूणां हिंसकस्तेजसाच्छन्नो वादित्यः अत्कं = अक्तं संततं वा Rendering—As a wife to increase the former call (of her husband becomes swift of gait), so may Dawn & Night variously known (by various mantras) or variously knowing (many ways of increasing us) come quickly; like the sun, wearing a form well-connected with golden rays and extended, well seen by the brightness of the sun (may Usha protect our former call).

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(2) Like a wife for increase of our former offering Dawn&Night be manifoldly manifested; Dawn, wearing Being sewn together like garments, seeing perfectly by the power of the sun, by his golden brilliances.

ममत्तु नः परिज्मा वसर्हा ममत्तु वातो अपां वृषण्वान् ।
शिशीतमिन्द्रापर्वता युवं नः तन्नो विश्वे वरिवस्यन्तु देवाः ।।

(1) Sayana

वसर्हा वसनार्हो यद्वा वासकानामाच्छादकानां वृक्षादीनां हंताग्निः ।
पर्वतः पर्ववान् वृक्ष्यादिपूरणवान् पर्जन्यः ।
शिशीतं तीक्ष्णीकुरूतं शोधयतमित्यर्थः ।
वरिवस्यन्तु प्रभूतमन्नं प्रदातुमिच्छन्तु ।

Rendering—May Agni, destroyer of coverings (trees etc), widely who goes abroad, intoxicate us & may the wind that is rainer of the waters intoxicate us; O Indra & Parjanya, do you make us sharp; therefore (because we praise) may the all gods be willing to give us plenty of food.

(2) May he the wide-pervading who destroyeth all coverings be full of rapture in us; may the Wind be full of rapture, he who is masterful over the waters; O Indra & Parvata, do ye become keen in us, and may all the gods in us attain their supreme substance.

[10]

[RV I.223.1]

Hymns of Kakshivan Dairghatamasa
Hymn to Usha.
I. 123.

पृथू रथो दक्षिणाया अयोजि, आ एन देवासो अमृतासो अस्थुः ।
कृष्णादुदस्थादर्या विहायाः, चिकित्सन्ती मानुषाय क्षयाय ।।१।।

Sayana

प्रवृद्धायाः स्वव्यापारकुशलाया उषोदेवताया विस्तीर्णो रथोऽशवैः सन्नद्धो

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ऽभूत् । एतं सन्नद्धं रथममरणधर्माणो देवनशीला हविर्भाजो देवा आस्थितवन्तः (देवयजनं गन्तुमारूढा इत्यर्थः ।) अनन्तर सोषा पूजनीय विविधगमनयुक्ता महती वा मनुष्याणां निवासायान्धकारनिवारणरूपां चिकित्सां कुर्वती (तमो निवारयन्ती) निकृष्टवर्णान्नैशात्तमसः सकाशादुत्थिताभूत् ।

दक्षिणायाः दक्षिणा in this verse may be an epithet of Usha, the Dawn. There is also a goddess Dakshina in the Veda, who is a female energy depending on the god Daksha. Daksha being the god who conducts the faculty of discriminative judgment, Dakshina is the faculty he conducts, intelligence, discrimination or reason. Intelligence has yoked her car, instituted, that is to say, the joy of her activities; the deathless gods take their seats in the car, not as Sayana suggests to go to the material sacrifice in the car of dawn, but to take their part in the internal yajna in the chariot of the Intelligence. In this hymn, however, since it is the dawn of realisation in the mind that is intended, Dakshina and Usha are possibly identified or at any rate so closely associated that their action and epithets are almost in common.

Intelligence or Dawn has risen up out of the black darkness; illumination of Intelligence has come out of the obscuration of ignorance or aprakasha; कृष्णात् from the black is a description of the tamoguna which is always represented in Yoga by the black colour. Dakshina or Usha is अर्या, noble, one of the high gods that help as opposed to the Dasyus, the dark & ignoble enemies of the spirit; she is विहायाः, either wide or various in her motion or wide & vast in her being, बृहती, a power of the Mahas, a birth from the wideness of the truth of things. She rises चिकित्सन्ती मानुषाय क्षणाय. Sayana’s interpretation, “healing the disease of darkness with a view to human habitation”, is obviously a forced modern gloss. चिकित्सन्ती in the Veda differs in sense from कित् (चिकेत; केतु) only by the addition of the general idea of continuity or else of frequency or prolonged unfinished action. Dakshina or Usha, the dawn of mental illumination, brings knowledge, perception, vision, in a word केतु for the firm establishing either of the mind in its illumination or of the human sadhaka in the fresh spiritual position or abiding place he has gained in the progress of his yoga. क्षय is frequently turned in

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this sense by the figurative & symbolical language of the Vedas. Or else it may be that Dakshina seeks certainty of knowledge (compare विचिकित्सा) for the firm establishment of the mind in its gettings.

[11]

[RV I.176]

I. 176

यस्य विश्वानि हस्तयोः पंच क्षितीनां वसु । स्पाशयस्व यो अस्मध्रुग् दिव्येवाशनिर्जहि ।।
असुन्वंतं समं जहि दूणाशं यो न ते मयः । अस्मभ्यमस्य वेदनं दद्धि सुरिश्चिदोहते ।।

O thou in whose two hands are all the possessions of our five dwelling places, make clear to our eyes him who betrays us, slay him even in heaven becoming the thunderbolt. Slay him who presses not out the nectar, the indifferent and oppressed in hope, who is not thy lover, give us the knowledge of him becoming utterly luminous to the worshipper so that he bears up thy activities.

Experienced, Dec 14 & 15th 1913. There are Powers of pure mind which are indifferent, equal to all things, as in possession of the samata,—but they are void of active delight; they do not press out the wine of immortal delight, they possess man in that state when, his hopes oppressed, he takes refuge in a passive & equal indifference, and is no longer in love with mental activities. In this state man takes this enemy of Indra & of his own perfection as a friend and helper. Mental force becoming entirely luminous in knowledge, súrih, is to pierce this dangerous disguise & make clear to the inner eye the true nature of this harmful agency, sama indeed, but asunvan, sama because dunasha & not because of equal delight. He is to be slain in the pure mind where he dwells by Indra in the form of the thunderbolt, mind force informed with vaidyuta energy

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from Mayas. A uhate is proleptic; the result of Indra or mind force becoming entirely luminous with the solar light of the ideal knowledge is to perfect the mental power of the Yogin so that he is strong to support & hold all the activities of mental knowledge & of the temperament in their fullness.

“Be rapturous in us and a dwelling for the sacrifice, enter with mastery into Indra, O Soma; thou art powerful, moving forward, and thou meetest no hostile forces on thy way. In him give to dwell our self-expressions, who is alone of the lords of action, and according to his movement is self-state sown in us & masterfully he cultivates that crop. O thou etc..... He who has the twofold fullness and his created being is free from flaw or crevice (continuous) in our realisations, in that Indra’s struggle, O Indu, prolong (protect) his richness in its havings. As to thy former adorers, O Indra, thou cam’st into being as a lover, like waters to the thirsty, even after that manner of soul-experience I call to thee. May we find the force that is intense & pierces in the slaying.”

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