41. He who knows the golden reed (vetasá) standing in the sea—he verily is in secret Prajāpati.
All the mss. have in c gúhya pr-; perhaps gúhā was the original reading; our text has emended to gúhyaḥ.
The remaining verses are wanting in Ppp.; they appear to constitute no original part of the hymn. They are also not translated by Muir and Scherman.
42. A certain pair of maidens, of diverse form, weave, betaking themselves to it, the six-pegged web; the one draws forth the threads (tántu), the other sets [them]; they wrest not off (apa-vṛj), they go not to an end.
Ápa vṛñjāte perhaps means only 'break off, finish.' ⌊Ná gamāto, 'they shall not go' etc.⌋ A nearly related verse is found in TB. (ii. 5. 53); dvé svásārāu vayatas tántram etát sanātánaṁ vítataṁ ṣáṇmayūkham: ávā ’nyā́ṅs tántūn kiráto dhattó anyā́n nā́ ’pa vṛjyā́te (? both text and comm. have in the Calc. ed. nā́ṣapṛjyā́te ⌊and in the Poona ed. nā́vapṛjyā́te ) ná gamāte ántam; this is a preferable version especially of c. We have to resolve tan-tṛ-am in order to make a full triṣṭubh. ⌊The TB. comment makes the verse refer to day and night: cf. RV. i. 113. 3.⌋
43. Of them, as of two women dancing about, I do not distinguish
(vi-jñā) which is beyond; a man (púmāṅs), weaves it, ties [it] up; a man hath borne it about upon the firmament (nā́ka).
The last two pādas, with 44, correspond to RV. x. 130. 2, which reads: púmāṅ enaṁ tanuta út kṛṇatti púmān ví tatne ádhi nā́ke asmín: imé mayū́khā úpa sedur ū sádaḥ sā́māni cakrus tásarāṇy ótave. Our úd gṛṇatti is only a corruption, but simulates a form from root grath, and is rendered accordingly. ⌊For the exchange of surd and sonant, cf. Roth, ZDMG. xlviii. 110 and note to ii. 13. 3.⌋ The true scanning in a is doubtless -yanti-or ’va; ⌊better -tior iva, with jagatī cadence?⌋.
44. These pegs propped up the sky; the chants they made shuttles for weaving.
See the note to the preceding verse. Both here and in 42 b some of the mss. read mayūṣa. Bp. reads at the end yā́tave. The Anukr. says of the verse ime mayūkhā ity ekāvasānā pañcapadā nicṛt padapan̄ktir ⌊i.e. 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 = 24⌋ ārcy anuṣṭub dvipadā vā ⌊i.e. 12 + 12 = 24⌋ pañcapadā nicṛt padapan̄ktir iti. ⌊The last three or four words seem to be mere repetition.⌋
⌊The quoted Anukr. says caturdaça (i.e. 14 over 30).⌋
8. Mystic.
Found in greater part (not vss. 1, 7, 15, 18, 30-44) in Pāipp. xvi. (in the verse-order 2. 8, 5, 9, 3, 4, 12, 6, 14, 29, 13, 11, 10, 16, 19-28, 17). Not noticed in Kāuç., and only one verse (42) used in Vāit.
