The corresponding RV. verse (x. 17. 1) has íti for téna at beginning of b; and the comm. also reads iti. With the first half-verse compare iii. 31. 5 a, b, which is a sort of travesty of it. The second verse of the curious and obscure and much discussed (see Bloomfield in JAOS. xv. 172 ff.) bit of legend is found below, as 2. 33, as much out of all connection with its surroundings as this one here. Neither of the two is used by Kāuç. or Vāit. The comm. quotes a passage of eight verses from the Bṛhaddevatā in explanation of the legend.
54. Go thou forth, go forth by roads that go to the stronghold (pūryā́ṇa), as (yénā) thy Fathers of old went forth; both kings, reveling with svadhā́, shalt thou see, Yama and god Varuṇa.
Or svadháyā may be 'at their pleasure' or 'according to their wont.' The corresponding RV. verse (x. 14. 7) has in a-b pathíbhiḥ pūrvyébhir yátrā naḥ pū́rve pitáraḥ pareyúḥ, and, in c, rā́jānā and mádantā; and MS. (in iv. 14. 16) agrees with it except in reading, with our text, páretās ⌊in b, and in having pūrvébhis in a⌋. Our comm. reads rājānā in c. Prāt. iii. 83 prescribes the ṇ in pūryā́ṇāis (p. pūḥ॰yā́nāiḥ); the comm. absurdly explains the word as = pumāṅso yena...yanti! for the pūr, compare x. 2. 28 ff.; xix. 17 and 19. The Anukr. takes no notice of the metrical irregularity in the verse. ⌊It is due to the displacement of pūrviébhis by pūryā́ṇāis: the secondary character of the latter (occurring elsewhere only at 4. 63 below) is palpable in more ways than one.⌋ Kāuç. does not quote the verse; but our comm. declares it to accompany the laying of the dead body on the cart (for transportation to the funeral pile).
55. Go ye away, go asunder, and creep apart from here; for this man the Fathers have made this world; adorned with days, with waters, with rays (aktú), a rest (avasā́na) Yama gives to him.
The verse is RV. x. 14. 9, without variant; and TA. (in i. 27. 5; vi. 6. 1) has the first, third, and fourth pādas; while VS. (xii. 45) and TS. (in iv. 2. 41), TB. (i. 2. 116), and MS. (ii. 7. 11), have only the first (agreeing with TA. in the second). TA., however, reads dadātv av- in d, and that is found also in our P.M.I. The comm. has for b the pāda of the other texts: ye ‘tra stha purāṇā ye ca nūtanāḥ. ⌊My discussion of the verse in Skt. Reader, p. 378, may be consulted.⌋ The verse, with 2. 37, accompanies in Kāuç. (So. 42) the sprinkling of the place of cremation with holy water; in V^ait. (28. 24), the sweeping of the site for the householder's fire, in the agnicayana ceremony. ⌊Weber, Sb. 1895, p. 839, takes the verse as a call, addressed to all creatures (whether animals or demons) that may infest the resting-place of the dead man, to quit the same (averruncatio).⌋
⌊Böhtlingk, in his paper Ueber esha lokaḥ, discusses this verse at Ber. der sächsischen Gesell. for 1893, xlv. 131.—He would read vī́ta, not vī̀ta, referring to Whitney's Grammar2 § 128, and suggesting that divī̀va is perhaps the only example for the circumflex; but I have noted vī̀ndra, RV. x. 32. 2, vī̀va, vii. 55. 2, nī̀ta, AV. iii. 11. 2, and bhindhī̀dám, vii. 18. 1, and suspect that Whitney has collected all the prāçliṣṭa svaritas from AV. (nearly a score) in his note to the Prāt. iii. 56.⌋
56. Eager (uçánt) would we light thee, eager would we kindle; do thou, eager, bring the eager Fathers to eat the oblation.
