the portent of mixed-up plows (whatever that may be*); vs. 4, again, accompanies the marking out of the sacrificial hearth at 137. 19. In Vāit. (28. 30-32), vss. 1, 3, and 2 b appear in the agnicayana, in the ceremony of plowing the sacrificial hearth, and vs. 7 (9. 27) at the end of the cāturmāsya sacrifice, with an oblation to the çunāsīrā. *⌊"Wenn zwei Pflüge sich verstricken beim Ackern," says Weber, Omina, p. 368.⌋
Translated: Weber, xvii. 255; Griffith, i. 106.—Vs. 3 is elaborately discussed by Roth, Festgruss an Böhtlingk, p. 95 ff. See also Weber, Omina und Portenta, p. 371.
1. The poets (kaví) harness the plows (sī́ra), they extend severally the yokes—they the wise ones (dhī́ra), with desire of favor (?) toward the gods.
The verse seems to imply a hidden comparison of the poet's work with the plowman's. The other texts (RV. x. 101. 4; VS. xii. 67; TS. iv. 2. 55; MS. ii. 7. 12; K. xvi. 11; Kap. xxv. 3) read sumnayā́ (but K. has -yuḥ: Kap. not noted), which the translation adopts, -yāú seeming an unintelligent corruption of it; but the comm. gives a double explanation of -yāu, one as "desiring a happy-making sacrifice" and qualifying yajamāne understood, the other as from sumna-ya (-ya for root yā) and qualifying balīvardāu understood! He makes sīra equivalent with lān̄gala, and takes vi tanvate as = "put on the oxen's shoulders"; vi-tan as here applied seems imitated from its use of stringing a bow; in TB. ii. 5. 812 we have even ví tanoti sī́ram.
2. Harness ye the plows, extend the yokes; scatter (vap) the seed here in the prepared womb; may the bunch (?) of virā́j be burdened for us; may the sickles draw in (ā-yu) the ripe [grain] yet closer.
In the first half-verse, RV. (ib. 3) and VS. (ib. 68) have tanudhvam for tanota, the rest (ibid.) agreeing with our text (but K. has kṛto yonir); Ppp. reads kṣetre instead of yonāu; yónāu, of course, involves a hidden comparison of sowing with impregnation. In the difficult and obscure second half, the other texts (not Ppp.) give girā́ ca for the unintelligible virā́jas, and ásat (with accent apparently meant as antithetic) for asat, which is read in all the mss., but in our edition (not in SPP's) emended to ásat; the same texts accent çruṣṭís (and our edition was emended to agree with them; SPP. accents the first syllable, with all the mss.). SPP. reads çnúṣṭs, with the majority of his authorities (including oral reciters), and with the comm.; among his mss. are found also çrúṣṭis, çlú-, srú-, snú-, and çnúṣṭīs. Part of our mss. also (E.I.H.Op.) are noted as seeming to intend çnú-, and, as Ppp. supports it by reading suniṣṭis sabh-, the reading çnúṣṭiḥ is adopted in the translation ⌊as also at viii. 2. 1⌋. The manuscripts are not at all to be relied on for distinguishing çnu and çru ⌊cf. iii. 30. 7 and note⌋. The comm. explains it by āçuprāpakaḥ stambaḥ, and sábharās as phalabhārasahitas 'heavy with fruit'; of virā́j he makes easy work by identifying it with anna, on the authority of TB. iii. 8. 104: ánnaṁ vāí virā́ṭ! In d, finally, the chief discordance of the versions is at the end, where, for ā́ yavan (Ppp. āyuvaṁ), RV.VS.Kap. read é ’yāt, and TS.MS.K. ā ’yāt. But TS. has sṛṇyā̀ (instead of -yàs), and some of our mss. (P.M.W.), with the majority of SPP's, combine íchṛṇyàs or icchṛṇyàs, implying çṛṇyàs. The Anukr. does not heed that pāda d is, as it stands, jagatī. ⌊W., in his own copy and in Index, seems to approve the accentless asat.—Comm. has ā yavam in d.⌋
3. Let the plow (lā́n̄gala), lance-pointed, well-lying, with well-smoothed handle, turn up (ud-vap) cow, sheep, an on-going chariot-frame, and a plump wench.
