17. They overpass defilement (riprá), wiping [it] off in the metal bowl (? kasyá), assuming further on newer life-time, filling themselves up with progeny and riches; then may we be of good odor in the houses.
⌊Pāda c = RV. x. 18. 2 c.⌋ The translation boldly assumes that kasyá is a corruption of, or equivalent to, kaṅsá; the Pet. Lexx. pass the word without notice; the comm. says that kasa means kīkasa 'vertebra,' the kī being dropped by Vedic license (!), and that kasya, as an adjective derived from it, means "the place of cremation"! All authorities read kasyé without variation, ⌊save that SPP's çrotriya K., whose memory of this book was not perfect, recited kásye⌋. ⌊See note* below.⌋ The authorities are divided, however, between mṛjā́nās and mṛ́jānās (among those having the latter are our O.R.); both editions give the former, though it is an isolated accentuation; mṛjāná is regular (and occurs in RV.), while mṛ́jāna is supported (Gram. §619 d) by the analogy of several other such participles; ⌊cf. note to vs. 73⌋. Two of our three pada-mss. (Bp.Kp.) have āyuḥ॰dádhānās in b as compound, and most of our saṁhitā-mss. (all save O.R.) accent accordingly āyur d-; but SPP. acknowledges the reading in only a single ms. (pada), and of course gives in his text (as we in ours by emendation) ā́yur d-. The comm. regards surabháyas in d as figurative, for çlāghyaguṇayuktās. In Kāuç. (84. 10) the verse is directed to be used as the women go three times round (the relics of the funeral pile) leftwise, with disheveled hair and beating the right thigh.
*⌊According to Caland, WZKM. viii. 369, the passage in Kāuç. 84. 8-11 describes the curious rite named dhuvana or 'fanning' of the bone-relics: see his Todtengebräuche, pages 138-9, and cf. my note to vs. 10, above. The dhuvana is part of the procedure called nidhāna or 'laying to rest' (ibidem, p. 129). According to the sūtra next preceding 84. 10, an empty pot, rikta-kumbha, is set down, and beaten with an old shoe. According to our AV. comm. (p. 14317 but see SPP's note 5), our verse is repeated by the one who breaks the empty jar, rikta-kalaça, on the night of the day of cremation, that is, at a time a good deal earlier than the nidhāna!—However that may be, it does seem as if our kasyé might well mean the same thing as the kumbha or kalaça of the ritual authorities.⌋
18. They anoint, they anoint out (ví), they anoint together (sám); they lick the rite (? krátu), they smear (abhi-añj) with honey; the bull (ukṣán) flying in the upheaving of the river, the victim (paçú) do the gold-purifiers seize (gṛh) in them ⌊f.⌋.
The verse is RV. ix. 86. 43, the only variant in which is gṛbhṇate at the end (and our I. also has this; also the comm.). SV. (i. 564; ii. 964) has it also and agrees with RV. in this word, but also has before it apsú instead of āsu, and in b mádhvā. The comm. understands sthālīṣu to be intended by the pronoun āsu. The verse is one of the wild utterances of the soma-purifiers in RV., and seems to be introduced here without any proper connection with the funeral ceremonies, simply because there is so much "anoint" in it. In Kāuç. (88. 16), it accompanies an anointing in the piṇḍapitṛyajña; and in Vāit. (10. 4), a smearing of the sacrificial post with butter in the paçubandha. ⌊Pādas b, c, d are good jagatī: but a has no jagatī character whatever, and by count it is virāj rather than bhurij; but perhaps the Anukr. (see note to the excerpts from Anukr.) does not mean to call it bhurij.
19. What of you is joyous, O Fathers, and delectable (somyá), therewith be at hand (sac), for ye are of own splendor; do ye, rapid (? árvan) poets, listen, beneficent, invoked at the council.
