5. Extolling the Vedic student (brahmacārin).
Found also in Pāipp. xvi. (with slight differences of order, which will be pointed out under the verses). Not quoted either in the Kāuçika or in the Vāitāna Sūtra; ⌊but the schol. to Kāuç. 55. 18 prescribe vs. 3 for use in the upanayana⌋. ⌊It is cited also at the beginning of GB. (i. 2. 1-8), the chapter on the brahmacārin.⌋
Translated: Muir, v. 400 (18 vss.); Ludwig, p. 452; Scherman, p. 84 (19 vss.); Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 277; Henry, 114, 150; Griffith, ii. 68; Bloomfield, 214, 626.—Cf. also Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 161; Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythol., i. 471. Henry, p. ix of his preface to Books X-XII, cites this hymn in his discussion of bráhman, which he connects with root bhrāj; and Oldenberg reviews the matter in IFA. viii. 40-41. Deussen entitles the hymn "The Brahman-pupil as incarnation of Brahm," and gives a general interpretation of its content by way of introduction. This should be consulted. The rendering "Vedic-studentship" is too rigid to fit everywhere: cf. vs. 18, note.
1. The Vedic student goes on setting in motion (iṣ) both firmaments; in him the gods become like-minded; he maintains earth and heaven; he fills his teacher with fervor (tápas).
Ppp. has yasmin for tasmin in b; it rectifies the meter of c by reading at the end dyām utā ’mūm; it combines sā ”cāryam, and ends the verse with bibharti. The comm. explains piparti with pālayati both here and in vs. 2.
2. The Fathers, the god-folk, all the gods individually assemble after the Vedic student; the Gandharvas went after him, thirty-three, three hundred, six thousand; he fills all the gods with fervor.
Ppp. puts the verse after 3, and reads, after pitaras in a, manuṣyā devajanā gandharvā ’nusaṁyantu sarve: trayastriṅçataṁ triçataṁ ṣaṭsahasrān sarvān sa devāṅs tapasā bibharti. None of the mss., nor either edition, reads ṣaṭtsahasrāḥ, as required by Prāt. ii. 8.
3. The teacher, taking [him] in charge (upa-nī), makes the Vedic student an embryo within; he bears him in his belly three nights; the gods gather unto him to see him when born.
Upa-nī probably already a technical term for 'receive as pupil, initiate.' ⌊Prescribed in the schol. to Kāuç. 55. 18, as noted above.⌋ ⌊The first line seems to be prose: see at end of Anukr.-extracts.⌋
4. This piece of fuel [is] earth, sky the second; also the atmosphere he fills with fuel; the Vedic student fills the worlds with fuel, girdle, toil, fervor.
