Ppp. has a quite different version of a-c: yasyā ’nya syād vaçābhogo ‘nyām icchetu barhiṣaḥ: hiṅsrā ṇi dhatsva gopatiṁ. We should expect pū́ruṣam at end of c, as elsewhere in such a position.
14. As a deposited treasure (çevadhí), so of the Brahmans is the cow (vaçā́); accordingly ⌊etát⌋ they come unto her, in whosesoever possession she is born.
15. They come thus unto their own property, namely the Brahmans unto the cow; as one might scathe them in any other respect (?), so is the keeping back of her.
The third pāda is unclear, and the bad meter makes the reading suspicious; yet Ppp. has the same, and varies only in combining brāhmaṇā ’bhi in b, and combining and reading ’syā ’dhirohaṇaṁ in d. Most of our mss. (all except D. and R.s.ni.) have the false accent brā́hmaṇās in b; our text emends. The Anukr. takes no notice of the redundant syllable in c.
16. She may go about until ⌊ā́⌋ the space of three years, being of unrecognized (vi-jñā) speech (-gada); should he know the cow, O Nārada, then the Brahmans are to be sought.
This is obscure, but appears to mean that the cow may not betray herself as a vaçā for as much as three years; but, as soon as she is recognized as such, she must be delivered over to the Brahmans. The pada-text has in a, of course, evá: ā́: tr-.
17. Whoever declares her to be not the cow, the deposited deposit of the gods, at him Bhava-and-Çarva, both, striding about, hurl the arrow.
18. Whoever knows not the udder of her, and likewise the teats of her, to him she yields milk with both, if he has been able to give the cow.
That is, probably, if her owner has sought no profit from her (cf. Ludwig). The first pāda is quoted under Prāt. ii. 52, as an example of ūdho (not ūdhar) before a sonant. A number of our mss. read veda, without accent.
19. Door-damaging (?) lies she on him, if he is not willing to give her when asked for; he does not succeed in the desires which, without having given her, he would fain accomplish (cikīrṣa-).
The translation implies the obviously necessary emendation of yā́m to yā́n in d ⌊so Ludwig⌋. As to duradabhnā́ at the beginning, see the note to vs. 4. That the conjectural rendering is extremely unsatisfactory is plain. Ppp. has instead, for a, duritavīnapāçaye; and, in c, d, apparently kāmas sam ṛdhyate yam ad-, thus supporting our emendation. ⌊In Ppp. this verse precedes our 18.⌋
20. The gods asked for the cow, having made the Brahman their mouth; the wrath (héḍa) of them all incurs (ni-i) the man (mā́nuṣa) who gives not.
The translation implies emendation in b to brāhmaṇám. Ppp. reads in a yācanti, which does not rectify the meter. ⌊Read devā́so?⌋
