23. As glory [is] set in the sacrificer, as in this sacrifice, so let the varaṇá amulet etc. etc.
Wanting in Ppp., as above noted.
24. As glory [is] in Prajāpati, as in this most exalted one, so let the varaṇá amulet etc. etc.
Ppp. reads jātavedasi instead of parameṣṭhini.
25. As in the gods [is] immortality (amṛ́ta), as in them is set truth, so let the varaṇá amulet etc. etc.
⌊The quoted Anukr. seems to say "varaṇāu" (intending varaṇo?).⌋
4. Against snakes and their poison.
Found also in Pāipp. xvi. (with one or two changes of order: see below). Not noticed in Vāit. Quoted (vs. 1), as addressed to Takṣaka (king of the serpent-divinities), in Kāuç. 32. 20, and also 139. 8, in the ceremonies of beginning Vedic study (see further under vss. 25, 26).
Translated: Ludwig, p. 502; Henry, 11, 56; Griffith, ii. 14; Bloomfield, 152, 605.
1. Indra's [was] the first chariot, the gods' the after chariot, Varuna's the third one; the snakes' chariot, the furthest one (?), hath run against the pillar: then may it come to harm (?).
There are very questionable points here; the translation of d implies emendation of apamā́ (p. apa॰mā́) to apamás; yet apa-mā́ might perhaps be understood adverbially (like upamā́, p. upa॰mā́: twice in RV.). Ppp. reads upamā here. The translation of the last clause implies the reading áthā riṣat, which is given by several mss. (P.M.I.K.) and by Ppp., and which the meter favors; but such variants as arisat for arsat are found elsewhere, and the ms. authority is decidedly in favor of arṣat, as the pada-texts read (but Kp. ardvyat, by a curious blunder)—if only we knew what to make of it. No indicative form not an aorist can be coördinated with ārat.
2. Darbhá-grass, brightness, young shoot (? tarū́ṇaka); horse's tail-tuft, rough-one's tail-tuft; chariot's seat (? bándhura).
The translation, of course, is only mechanical. ⌊Henry, Mém. de la Soc. de Ling., ix. 238, corrects an error of his version.⌋ We should have expected the Anukr. at least to add bhurij to its definition of the verse as a gāyatrī (8 + 11: 6 = 25). O. (and E. in margin) read puruṣasya in b.
3. Smite down, O white one, with the foot, both the fore and the hind; like water-floated wood, sapless [is] the snakes' poison, fierce water (vā́r).
