5. Whose [are] all the snowy mountains by [his] greatness; whose, verily, they call Rasā in the ocean; and of whom these directions are the (two) arms—to what god may we pay worship with oblation?
The comm. extends his construction of vs. 4 through a, b here, and is perhaps right in so doing; the translation assimilates them to c. The verse corresponds to RV. 4 (with which VS. xxv. 12 precisely agrees); in a, RV.VS.TS. have imé for víçve, and MS. imé víçve giráyo m-; for b, all of them read yásya samudráṁ rasáyā sahā́ ”hús (save that MS. puts yásya after samudráṁ; and Ppp. has the same b as MS.); in c, RV.VS.TS. begin yásye ’mā́ḥ pr-, while MS., with Ppp., reads díço yásya pradíçaḥ (Ppp. -çaṣ) páñca devī́ḥ. The "ocean" is of course the atmospheric one; and Rasā, the heavenly river, can hardly help having been originally the Milky Way; but the comm. takes it here as simply a river, representative of rivers in general. Pādas b and c are irregular, being defective unless we make harsh and difficult resolutions.
6. The waters in the beginning favored (av) the all, assuming an embryo, they the immortal, order-knowing ones, over whom, divine ones, the god was—to what god may we pay worship with oblation?
Here a, b correspond to RV. 7 a, b, and c to RV. 8 c, all with important variants, which are in part unintelligent corruptions: RV. reads ā́po ha yád bṛhatī́r viçvam ā́yan g- d- janáyantīr agním; and yó devéṣv ádhi devá éka ā́sīt; VS. (xxvii. 25 a, b, 26 c) agrees throughout; TS. has mahatī́r in a, and dákṣam (for gárbham) in b; MS. also has mahatī́r, and it lacks c. Ppp. has a text all its own: āpo ha yasya viçvam āyur dadhānā garbhaṁ jaitayanta mātarā: tatra devānām adhi deva āstha ekasthūne vimate dṛḍhe ugre. And TA. (i. 23. 8), with an entirely different second half, nearly agrees in a, b with RV., but has gárbham for víçvam,* and svayambhúm for agním. All the mss. (except, doubtless by accident, our I.) give in c āsīt, which SPP. accordingly adopts in his text; ours makes the necessary emendation to ā́sīt. The comm. reads in c deveṣu, as a Vedic irregularity for -vīṣu; he renders āvan in a by arakṣan or upacītam akurvan; perhaps we should emend to ā́ vran 'covered.' *⌊Further, TA. has dákṣam for gárbham of RV.⌋
7. The golden embryo was evolved (sam-vṛt) in the beginning; it was, when born, the sole lord of existence (bhūtá); it maintained earth and heaven—to what god may we pay worship with oblation?
As noted above, this is the first verse in the other continuous versions of the hymn (it is VS. xiii. 4). The others agree in reading at the end of c pṛthivī́m dyā́m ute ’mam; and, in addition, PB. (ix. 9. 12) gives bhūtā́nām in b; some of the texts contain the verse more than once. But Ppp. is more original, reading hiraṇya ulvā ”sīd yo ‘gre vatso ajāyata: tvaṁ yo dyorvṛbhra (?) vaṁtyoṣpa vy apaçyad ūḍur mahīḥ. The comm. understands hiraṇyagarbha as "the embryo of the golden egg." ⌊MGS., i. 10. 10, cites the hymn as one of 8 vss. and as beginning with hiraṇyagarbha; see p. 158, s.v.—Kirste, WZKM. ix. 164, reviewing Deussen, suggests that the golden embryo is the yolk of the mundane egg.⌋ The Anukr. makes no account of the deficiency of a syllable in c.
8. The waters, generating a young (vatsá), set in motion (sam-īray) in the beginning an embryo; and of that, when born, the fœtal envelop (úlba) was of gold—to what god may we pay worship with oblation?
