4. Thou whom all the gods did create, the bold one, ⌊[the gods]⌋ making an arrow for hurling—do thou, besung in the council (vidátha), be merciful to us; to thee as such be homage, O goddess.
Dhṛṣṇum in b might qualify íṣum directly. The comm. supplies he açane 'O thunderbolt' as addressed. He reads mṛla in c. Ppp. reads for a, b yaṁ tvā devā ajanayanta viçveṣāṁ kṛnvānā açanāya triṣvāi; and for d mitrasya varuṇasya prasṛṣṭāu. The Anukr. seems to scan as 10 + 11: 10 + 9 = 40 syllables. ⌊Read in c mṛḍaya and in d utá tásyāi?—For vidátha, see discussions of Bloomfield, JAOS. xix.2 17, and Geldner, ZDMG. lii. 757; and the literature cited by Foy, KZ. xxxiv. 226.⌋
14. Imprecation of spinsterhood on a woman.
[Bhṛgvān̄giras.—vāruṇam vo 'ta yāmyaṁ vā. ānuṣṭubham: 1. kakummatī; 3. 4-p. virāj.]
Found in Pāipp. i. Used by Kāuç. (36. 15-18) in an incantation against a woman; the details of it cast no light on those of the hymn; and the comm. defines its purpose simply as striyāḥ puruṣasya vā dāurbhāgyakaraṇam.
Translated: Weber, iv. 408; Ludwig, p. 459; Zimmer, p. 314 (these misapprehend its character); Griffith, i. 17; Bloomfield, JAOS. xiii. p. cxv = PAOS. May, 1886; or AJP. vii. 473 ff.; or SBE. xlii. 107, 252.
1. Her portion (bhága), splendor have I taken to myself, as from off a tree a garland; like a mountain with great base, let her sit long with the Fathers.
Ppp. has for a ahaṁ te bhagam ā dade; its b is defaced; in c it gives mahāmūlāi 'va. The comm. renders bhagam by bhāgyam, here and in the other verse, recognizing no sexual meaning. Pitṛṣu he renders "in the later [2 c, d] to be specified houses of father, mother, etc.," and all the translators understand it in the same way; but it is questionable whether the plural of pitar would ever be used in this sense; and the repeated mention of Yama later indicates that there was at least a double meaning in the expression. Perhaps a girl remaining unmarried was called "bride of Yama," i.e. as good as dead, and her stay at home compared to that in the other world. ⌊Cf. Antigone, 816, "I shall be the bride of Acheron," Ἀχέροντι νυμφεύσω.⌋ The Anukr. appears to ratify the abbreviated reading -budhne 'va in c; it counts six syllables in d.
2. Let this girl, O king, be shaken down to thee [as] bride, O Yama; be she bound in her mother's house, also in her brother's, also in her father's.
Ppp. has yat for eṣā at the beginning. The comm. foolishly interprets rājan as indicating Soma, because Soma is first husband of a bride (he quotes RV. x. 85. 40: cf. AV. xiv. 2. 3 ff.), and takes yama as his epithet, as being her constrainer (niyāmaka). For ni-dhū compare iii. 11. 7; at TS. v. 2. 53 it is used with pitṛṣu. ⌊Does not ni-dhū covertly suggest nidhuvana, which, in its obscene sense, may be as old as the Veda?⌋
3. She is thy housekeeper, O king; we commit her to thee; she shall sit long with the Fathers, until the covering in of her head.
