The verse is RV. x. 18. 8, whose text differs only by reading in c didhiṣós, and this is given also by two of our mss. (R.D.) and the majority of SPP's, so that it certainly ought to be accepted as the true reading, dadh- being only a corruption. TA. (in vi. 1. 3) has didhiṣós, but after it tvám etát, and in b itā́sum, in neither case making any important change in the sense. ⌊TA., both text and comm. in both ed's, reads abhí sámbabhūva: the comm. renders by ābhimukhyena samyak prāpnuhi! which procedure gives a shock even to one who is wonted to the Hindu laxity of ideas about vāiyadhikaraṇya.⌋ The meaning given to abhí sám-bhū in the translation is decidedly the only admissible one; nor need one hesitate to render didhiṣú according to its later accepted meaning. The woman cannot be left free and independent; she can only be relieved of her former wifehood by taking up a new one (even if this be, as is probable enough, nominal only); he who grasps her hand to lead her down from the pile becomes, at least for the nonce, her husband. The direction of Kāuç. (80. 45) in connection with the verse is simply "one makes her rise"; the comm. ⌊vol. iv., p. 129, end⌋ specifies that this is done "if she desires to live in this world again"; neither tells who is to take her hand—as, for example, Āçvalāyana does (AGS. iv. 2. 18): "her husband's brother, a representative of her husband, a pupil [of her husband], or an aged servant." ⌊Whether the levir and the "representative" are the same person or two different ones does not appear from the translation nor from the original of AGS.⌋ Vāit. (38. 3) uses the verse in the puruṣamedha.
3. I saw the maiden being led, being led about, alive, for the dead; as she was enclosed with blind darkness, then I led her off-ward (ápācī) from in front (prāktás).
The translation of b implies, ⌊not the jīvā́m ṛtébhyas of the Berlin text, but rather⌋ the reading jīvā́m mṛtébhyas: his is accepted by SPP. and is supported by the majority of his authorities ⌊including two reciters⌋ and by the comm. and by some of our mss. collated later (O.Op.R.T.), ⌊and especially by the variant of TA., below⌋. ⌊Compare the cases of yame dīrgham, etc., discussed in the note to xviii. 2. 3.⌋ The version in TA. (vi. 12. 1) is better than ours in a, b: ápaçyāma yuvatím ācárantīm mṛtā́ya jīvā́m parṇīyámānām; but not so good in c, d: andhéna yā́ támasā prā́vṛtā́ ’si prā́cīm ávācīm áva yánn áriṣṭyāi. According to Kāuç. (81. 20), vss. 3 and 4 are used as the cow (to serve as anustaraṇī) is led, at the funeral pile, around (the fires) leftwise; the comm. gives a corresponding explanation; and the comment to TA. also understands it of such a cow (rājagavī); ⌊cf. Caland, Todtengebräuche, p. 40⌋. It is very difficult to believe that this was the original meaning of the verse, and that it did not rather refer to some rescue from immolation of a young wife. The comm. paraphrases pāda d by enāṁ gām pūrvadeçāt çavasamīpād apān̄mukhīṁ çavāt parān̄mukhīm asmadabhimukhīm prāpayāmi: this is of no authority. Pāda a can be made full only by the unacceptable resolution ápaçiam; the TA. reading of the word would remove the difficulty.
4. Foreknowing, O inviolable one, the world of the living, moving together [with him] upon the road of the gods—this is thy herdsman
(gópati); enjoy him; make him ascend to the heavenly (svargá) world.
