56. If he is not scathed a complete scathing, before old age breath quits him.
⌊The quotations from the Old Anukr. for the paryāya-sūkta are given piecemeal at the end of each paryāya. They may here be given together in their metrical form:
ekatriṅçad bhavet pūrvas tasmād dvāsaptatiḥ paraḥ:
tṛtīyaḥ saptako dṛṣṭo "bṛhaspatiḥ çirasy" api:
'In the [hymn beginning] "bṛhaspatiḥ çiraḥ"' etc.—The summations of gaṇas and (gaṇa-)avasāna-rcas are as follows: I. g., o; av., 31; 11. g., 18; av., 72; III. g., o; av., 7. Total of av., 110.—The second paryāya-sūkta is called also a gaṇa-sūkta.⌋
4. Extolling the breath (prāṇá).
Found also in Pāipp. xvi. The whole hymn (together with a considerable number of others) is quoted by its opening words in Kāuç. 55. 17; 58. 3, 11, but not in a way to cast the least light upon its meaning and value. ⌊The hymn is reckoned to the āyuṣya gaṇa (note to Kāuç. 54. 11); the comm. quotes further uses from Nakṣatrakalpa 19, Çāntikalpa 15, and a Pariçiṣṭa.⌋
Translated: Muir, v. 394 (the greater part); Scherman, p. 69 (nearly all); Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 301 (with a general introduction); Henry, iii, 147; Griffith, ii. 64; Bloomfield, 218, 622.—The hymn to Prāṇa, introduced into the second praçna of the Praçna Upanishad, contains reminiscences of this hymn: cf. vs. 19, and Deussen, Upanishads, p. 562.
1. Homage to breath (prāṇá) in whose control is this All, who hath been lord of all, in whom all stands firm.
2. Homage, O breath, to thy roaring, homage to thy thunder; homage, O breath, to thy lightning, homage to thee raining, O breath.
Ppp. reads in c ‘stu for prāṇa.
3. When breath with thunder roars at the herbs, they are impregnated (pra-vī), they receive embryos, then they are born many.
Ppp. makes up the material of our vss. 3 and 4 differently, giving first 4 a, b and 3 c, d, and then 3 a, b and 4 c, d. It reads garbhaṁ in c, and vi jāyate in d. The comm. paraphrases pra vīyante with garbhaṁ gṛhṇanti ⌊cf. xii. 4. 37⌋. ⌊For "many" one might better say 'in great numbers.'⌋
4. When, the season having come, breath roars at the herbs, then all is delighted, whatever is upon the earth.
In d in our text, kiṁ is a misprint for kíṁ. With c, d is to be compared the similar half-verse RV. v. 83. 9 c, d.
5. When breath hath rained with rain upon the great earth, then the cattle are delighted: "verily there will be greatness for us."
⌊Cf. vs. 17 below.⌋ Ppp. has, for a, b: yadā prāṇo abhyakrandīd varṣeṇa stanayitnunā. ⌊Pāda d doubtless means precisely the same thing as the English slang, 'that'll be great for us!'⌋
