Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 716

122
VEDIC HYMNS.
in the Veda, III, 26, 5, where it is used of the Maruts, in the sense of noisy, turbulent.
Note 3. Saskata, which I have here translated literally by to cling, is often used in the sense of following or revering (colere):
II, 1, 13. tvấm rati-säkah adhvaréshu saskire.
The gods who are fond of offerings cling to thee, follow thee, at the sacrifices.
The Soma libation is said to reach the god :
II, 22, 1. sáh enam saskat deváh devam. The gods too are said to cling to their worshippers, i. e. to love and protect them: III, 16, 2; VII, 18, 25. The horses are said to follow their drivers: VI, 36, 3; VII, 90, 3, &c. It is used very much like the Greek onw.
Note 4. Ragastih may mean rousing the dust of the earth, a very appropriate epithet of the Maruts. Såyana explains it thus, and most translators have adopted his explanation. But as the epithets here are not simply descriptive, but laudatory, it seems preferable, in this place, to retain the usual meaning of rágas, sky. When Soma is called ragastah, IX, 108, 7, Sayana too explains it by tegasåm prerakam, and IX, 48, 4, by udakasya prerakam.
Note 5. Rigîshín, derived from rigîsha. Rigisha is what remains of the Soma-plant after it has once been squeezed, and what is used again for the third libation. Now as the Maruts are invoked at the third libation, they were called rigîshin, as drinking at their later libation the juice made of the rigisha. This, at least, is the opinion of the Indian commentators. But it is much more likely that the Maruts were invoked at the third libation, because originally they had been called rigîshin by the Vedic poets, this rigîshin being derived from rigîsha, and rigisha from rig, to strive, to yearn, like purîsha from pri, manishå from man; (see Unadi-stras, p. 273.) This rig is the same root which we have in opéyelv, to reach, opyń, emotion, and õpyla, furious transports of worshippers. Thus the Maruts from being called rigîshin, impetuous, came to be taken for drinkers of rigisha, the fermenting and overflowing Soma, and were assigned accordingly to the third libation at sacrifices.
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