51. What one the wind adorns about, or what one Indra, Brahmaṇaspati: kindled with etc. etc.
Ppp. omits vā in b.
52. Having shaped (kḷp) the earth as sacrificial hearth, having made the sky sacrificial fee, then having made heat his fire, the ruddy one made all that has soul, with rain as sacrificial butter.
53. Rain as sacrificial butter, heat as fire, earth as sacrificial hearth took shape; there, with songs (gír), the fire shaped these mountains aloft.
Ppp. reads ‘gnir in a, and some of our mss. (P.M.p.m.W.) give the same. P.M.W. also have in common the blunder bhū́mipr ak- in b. It is doubtless by a loss of part of its text that the Anukr. does not define vss. ⌊57-58⌋ as anuṣṭubh, although it describes a minor feature of vs. 57, taken as an anuṣṭubh. ⌊With 52, cf. vs. 46.⌋
54. Having shaped [them] aloft by songs, the ruddy one said to the earth: in thee let this all be born, what is (bhūtá) or what is to be.
Ppp. reads at the end bhavyam.
55. That first sacrifice was born [as] the one that is, that is to be; from that was born this all, whatsoever shines out (vi-ruc) here, brought (ā-bhṛ) by the ruddy one [as] seer.
Ppp. ends the hymn with this verse, although vs. 58 is found in another place. It combines jajñe ’daṁ, as we are doubtless to read, though not with the sanction of the Anukr., which calls the pāda bṛhatī. ⌊Cf. iv. 23. 7.⌋
56. Whoever both kicks a cow with the foot and urinates in face of the sun—of such a one I hew off (vraçc) thy root; thou shalt not further cast (kṛ) shadow.
⌊Cf. the note on the vs. concerning posture in urination at vii. 102: and add that Buddhaghosa, in his comment on the description of the Acelakas, at Dīgha Nikāya, viii. 14 (as reported by Davids, Translation, p. 227), speaks of the standing posture as wrong.—As to making water with face towards the sun, cf. MBh. xiii. 104. 75 (5029), and note to Manu iv. 48 in my Reader, p. 349, and the references there given, especially the reference to Jolly's Viṣṇu, SBE. vii. 194 f.—As for the loss of the shadow, cf. the Peter Schlemihl story; also Jātaka, i. 1029; vi. 33711.⌋
The character of this and the following verses shows that Ppp. has reason for not making them a part of the hymn. This verse makes its appearance in Kāuç. 49. 26, at the conclusion of a series of witchcraft ceremonies. ⌊For the theoretical k of pratyán̄k, see note to vi. 51. 1.⌋
57. Thou that goest past me shading me, and between me and the fire, I hew off thy root; thou shalt not further cast shadow.
The connection appears to demand this pregnant rendering of abhichāyám 'so as to cast thy shadow on' (so also Ludwig). It is easy to read b as a regular anuṣṭubh pāda, though the Anukr. allows it only six syllables.
