22. Thou goest through the sky, the broad welkin (rájas), fashioning (mā) the day with [thy] rays, seeing the generations (jánman), O sun.
RV. reads áhā in b. S V. (i. 639) has the same, and also úd for ví at the beginning, and rájaḥ p-. Henry again renders aktúbhis 'with the night.'
23. Seven yellow steeds, O heavenly sun, draw in the chariot thee the flame-haired, the out-looking.
RV. reads at the end vicakṣaṇa, and SV. (i. 641) and TS. (ii. 4. 144) agree with it. MS. (iv. 10. 6) has instead purupriya, and, in the preceding word, çocíḥk-.
24. The sun hath yoked the seven neat (çundhyú) daughters of the chariot; with them, [who are] self-yoked, he goeth.
SV. (i. 640) reads in b naptryàḥ, and TB. (ii. 4. 54), according to its commentary, has ⌊naptriyaḥ⌋, although ná príyaḥ is printed instead in the text ⌊of Calcutta, and naptríyaḥ in the Poona text, p. 518⌋. So also in c, ⌊the Calc. ed.⌋ the printed text has yāsi, but the comm. yāti; ⌊while in the Poona ed. both text and comm. give yāti⌋.
25. The ruddy one hath mounted the sky with penance, [he] rich in penance; he comes to the womb (yóni), he is born again; he hath become over-lord of the gods.
Ppp. reads in a ā ’kramīt. The Anukr. regards the verse as one of four pādas (8 + 6: 12 + 11); but the first two are plainly one triṣṭubh pāda, with tápasā intruded into it. Rohita appears here for the first time in this second hymn, instead of simply the sun; nor do we meet him elsewhere, save in vss. 39-41.
26. He who belongs to all men (-carṣaṇí) and has faces on all sides, who has hands on all sides and palms on all sides—he brings together with his (two) arms, together with his wings (pl.), generating heaven-and-earth, sole god.
The verse is, with considerable variations, RV. x. 81. 3, found also in VS. (xvii. 19: same text as RV.), TS. (iv. 6. 24), TA. (x. 1. 3), and MS. (ii. 10. 2). None of the other texts has yás in b, and only MS. in a; they begin viçvátaçcākṣur (but MS. yó viçvácakṣur); in b, RV.VS. begin with viçvátobāhur, TS.TA.MS. -hasta, and all end with viçvátaspāt; in c, for bhárati, RV. (and VS.) has dhámati, TS.TA. námati, MS. ádhamat; in d, RV.VS.MS. give dyā́vābhū́mī. Ppp. agrees with RV. in b-d. The meter, fairly regular in RV., is distorted greatly in our text (13 + 13: 11 + 12 = 49); the Anukr. gives an acceptable definition of it. The sense also is much defaced in the first line as we have it. Vāit. 29. 14 uses the verse to accompany a certain graha in the building of the fire-altar.
27. The one-footed strode out more than the two-footed; the two-footed falls upon (abhi-i) the three-footed from behind; the two-footed strode out more than the six-footed; they sit together [about] the body of the one-footed.
