________________
MANDALA I, HYMN 74.
93
9. And thou winnest, О Agni, brilliant, high bliss in strong heroes from the gods, O god, for the worshipper.
NOTES.
This hymn opens the section ascribed to Gotama Rahagana, and belonging indeed, as several passages show, to the family of the Gotamas (comp. Zeitschrift der D. Morg. Gesellschaft, XLII,221). The metre is Gayatri.–Verse 1: VS. III, 11; TS. I, 5, 5, 1; MS. I, 5, 1 (1, 5, 5. 6). Verses 1-3 = SV. II, 729. 730. 732. Verse 3 = TS. III, 5, 11, 4; MS. IV, 10, 3.
Verse 2 Note 1. Or purvyáh, the old Agni,' cf. IX, 96, 10? (M. M.)
Note 2. I have left untranslated the obscure word sníhitîshu (Sâyana, vadhakärinishu). It seems to be identical with snéhiti, which occurs VIII, 96, 13. ápa snehitih nrimánåh adhatta (the Sama-veda has the reading snîho). Here the verb ápa adhatta (comp. VI, 20, 5; X, 164, 3) and the comparison of the second hemistichs of the two following verses, 14 and 15, seem to show that the word means some kind of hostile powers, which would do very well for our passage.--In Taittiriya Aranyaka IV, 23 the word snîhiti occurs in an enumeration of the 'terrible substances' (ghoráh tanúvah) of Agni.- Comp. Ludwig, Ueber die neuesten Arbeiten auf dem Gebiete der Rigveda-Forschung, p. 93.
Verse 5. Note 1. See above, I, 26, 10, note 1.
Verse 6. Note 1. See Delbrück, Syntaktische Forschungen, I, 20,
III.
Digitized by Google