53. O Agni-and-Soma, makers of roads, ye have distributed (vi-dhā) to the gods a pleasant treasure [and] world; send ye unto [us] Pūshan, who shall carry by goat-traveled roads him that goes thither.
The translation implies emendation at the end of gachatam to gáchantam, which seems necessary in order to make sense; the corruption to the former may have been made because it better suits the meter.—⌊The translation also implies the reading préṣyatam, which is given in the Berlin text and is supported by⌋ our Op. (prá: iṣyatam), by SPP's ⌊Cp. (prá: īṣyatam) and by his⌋ Dc. secunda manu: all the rest read préṣyantam (p. prá: iṣ- or prá: īṣ-), which SPP. accordingly adopts in his saṁhitā-text; ⌊but in his pada-text he prints prá: ī́ṣyantam, and he mentions the accent in his note⌋. The comm. glosses preṣyantam with pragacchantam in his usual loose and easy way.—Nearly all our mss. also have ajoyā́nāis (p. ajaḥ॰y-) in d; we followed Bs. in giving ajay- (which the translation implies). ⌊Weber also accepts the reading ajay- and interprets it as 'traveled by man's unborn (a-ja) or immortal part, i.e. his spirit': Festgruss an Roth, p. 138 and note 5.⌋ On the authority of a single ms., SPP. accepts as his reading añjoyā́nāis; ⌊as to this matter, see my note marked with a * in the next paragraph⌋. The reading añjoyā́nāis had already been conjectured by the Pet. Lexx.; ⌊so BR. v. 959, with the meaning 'leading straight to the goal': cf. OB. i. 18 b⌋. The reading añjay- is given by two or three of SPP's mss.; among them is that of the comm., who explains by añjasā, ārjavena yānti...ebhiḥ. The "goat-traveled" roads, of course, are those to which Pūṣan's team of goats are wonted.—Two of SPP's authorities give dadhatus in b; the comm. reads dadhatus in one of two alternative explanations, and -thus in the other.—Possibly ví before lokám is to be taken as belonging to this word alone: 'ye have assigned to the gods a pleasant treasure.' ⌊I do not see what W. means by the last sentence.⌋—For the use of the verse by Kāuç. etc., see under 1. 61 and 2. 48; the comm. includes with it vss. 54 and 55. It exceeds a proper triṣṭubh by two syllables.
* ⌊In reading añjoyā́nāis, SPP. is supported in fact by three or four of his mss. (B.C.R.Dc.p.m.) and presumably also by at least three of his pada-mss., since he reports nothing to the contrary. Moreover, he thinks that further support is given him by the reading añjāy- of two of his authorities (Dc. sec. manu, and the reciter V.), which reading, as he says, may represent an ill-corrected reading añjoy-; and perhaps the ajāuy- of the reciter K. points in the same direction, to añjoy-. As between the readings añjoy- and ajay-, even Whitney's mss. point decidedly to añjoy-.—Leaving the mss. of this passage out of account, however, the word añjoyā́na is well supported by its exact synonym añjasā́yana, p. añjasā॰áyana, used four times of the paths (srutí) by which one goes to the heavenly world (TS. vii. 2. 12; 3. 53; 4. 13: also AB. iv. 17, here as the exact opposite of a 'roundabout road' mah¯ápathaḥ paryāṇaḥ), and also by the doubtless precisely equivalent añjasī́nām (srutím) of the Rigveda (x. 32. 7).—This last phrase Sāyaṇa explains alternatively by ṛjum akuṭilam mārgam; cf. his similar explanation of pathó devatrā́ ’ñjase ’va yā́nān at x. 73. 7; cf. also añjasāyano, used in the Dīgha Nikāya, xiii. 4 ff., as a synonym of uju-maggo: all of which is in most perfect accord with the above-mentioned ārjavena etc. of our comm., whose testimony therefore is decidedly in favor of the reading añjoyā́nāis.—If añjoy- is the true reading and ajay- the corrupt one, the corruption is a very natural one, considering that Pūṣan's team (see RV. vi. 55. 6, 4; 57. 3; x. 26. 8; and the occurrences of ajā́çva) consists of goats.⌋
