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tree1 and pebbles. 6. He puts on (fagots of) the kera❜ and arka (calotropis gigantea) plants. 7. Beaten by the rain, with dishevelled hair 3, going thrice around a pit he quickly buries into it the arka-wood.' The symbolism of this performance is not altogether transparent; the use of the arka is doubtless founded upon a double entente: arka is 'flash of lightning,' and its cessation is coaxed by burying the arka-wood in the pit.
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Stanza 1
a. For garayu-gá, 'born of the (cloud-)womb,' cf. abhra-gá in st. 3, and such expressions as vidyún meghásakhâ, 'the lightning whose companion is the cloud,' in the Suparnakhyâna 3, 2. The more literal meaning of the word is 'placenta-born,' an idea thoroughly Indic. Cf. Sat. Br. VI, 5, 3, 5, trivrid dhi pragátih pitâ mâtâ putros tho garbha ulbam garayu. Cf. also VI, 6, 1, 24. Professor Kern some years ago was good enough to impart to me his own somewhat different view: 'As to garâyugá-, I think that is what the Norse skalds called a kenning, an oratorical periphrasis of vatsa, and this is a veiled expression for lightning; cf. apâm vatsa as denoting the fire of lightning, and the srîvatsa, the lightning figure on the breast of Vishnu.' (Letter of May 10, 1887.)-For the epithet vrishan as applied to lightning see now my article on súshma, Contributions, Sixth Series, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, XLVIII, 565 ff. The entire passage has a good parallel in RV. IX, 74, 3, ĭse yo vrishtér itá usriyo vríshâ apám netấ yá itáûtir rigmlyah, where Soma is obviously compared with lightning.
b. The edition reads vátabhragâ(h), but the text is not absolutely certain, as Sâyana comments upon vâtavragâh*.
1 Dârila, sigrupatrâni.
2 Dârila, kerâparnîsti yâ surâsh/re pumdarîkesti; Kesava, paterakasamidhah.
pratilomakarshitas is explained in the light of keseshu karshitâ in the Mrikkhakafikâ 16, 25.
Sâyana refers the entire stanza to âditya, 'the sun.'
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| SR No. | 007679 |
| Book Title | Satapatha Bramhana Part 03 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Julius Eggeling |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2382 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 45 MB |