7. Extolling the ox.
[Brahman.—ekaḥ [paryāyaḥ]. ṣaḍviṅçaḥ. gavyaḥ.]
⌊Prose.⌋ Found for the most part (for details, see under the verses) in Pāipp. xvi. also. Not noticed in Vāit., but quoted (vs. 1) in Kāuç. 66. 19, next after hymn 4 of this book. ⌊For the paryāya-hymns in general, see pages 471-2.⌋
Translated: Henry, 103, 139; Griffith, i. 453.
1. Prajāpati and the most exalted one are his two horns, Indra his head, Agni his forehead, Yama his neck-joint.
The copula and the possessive, wherever read, are supplied in the translation. Ppp. omits yamaḥ kṛkāṭam. The verse has only 26 syllables (instead of 27).
2. King Soma his brain, the sky his upper jaw, the earth his lower jaw.
Ppp. inserts, after mastiṣkas, satyaṁ cakṣur ṛtaṁ çrotre prāṇāpānāu nāmivate, and reads adharā for -rahanuḥ, adding after it agnir āsyaṁ. We are required to resolve pṛthivī adh-.
3. Lightning his tongue, the Maruts his teeth, the Revatīs his neck, the Kṛittikās his shoulders (skandhā́s), the hot drink (gharmá) his withers (váha).
Váha is properly the "carrying" part, that on which the yoke rests. The Revatīs and Kṛttikās, two asterisms, in Pisces and Taurus respectively; their connection with the parts to which they are assigned is, as in nearly all the other cases in this hymn, of the most purely imaginary and meaningless kind. Ppp. has only as far as dantāṣ, following it with pavamānaṣ prāṇaḥ. Read in our text grīvā́ḥ (visarga-sign omitted). The pada-text has kṛ́ttikāḥ, and some of the mss., as usual, retain the ḥ before the following sk. The verse has but 23 syllables (unless we analyze jihu-ā́).
4. Vāyu his all (víçvam), the heavenly world his kṛṣṇadrá, the whirlwind (? niveṣyà) his separator (? vidháraṇī).
The words here in part (and in the last clause the distinction of subject and predicate) are wholly obscure. The pada-text divides kṛṣṇa॰drám ('black-runner'?). Many of the mss. (E.O.D.R.T.K.) accent niveṣyáḥ. Ppp. reads viçvaṁ vāyuṣ kaṇṭhas svargo lokaṣ kṛṣṇadra vyadriṇī vivaçvaḥ; and then it adds the omitted part of our vs. 3 except vahaḥ at the end.
5. The falcon his breast (kroḍá), the atmosphere his belly (? pājasyà), Brihaspati his hump, the bṛhatī́s his vertebrae.
The sense of bṛhatī here is doubtful. Ppp. reads pājasyaṁ and inserts our vs. 7 after it ⌊continuing with bṛhasp-⌋. The required number of 24 syllables is made out by reading kroḍó ant- and pājasí-am.
