________________
MANDALA I, HYMN 146.
169
compare Lanman, Noun-Inflection, 430; Bergaigne, Religion Védique, I, 136, note 1; Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 42, and Göttinger Gel. Anzeigen, 18yo, p. 541 seq.; Hillebrandt, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellschaft, XLVIII, 420. Here it seems most natural to také, nrín, as Pischel has proposed, as standing for the dative plural. Bartholomae (Studien zur indogermanischen Sprachgeschichte, I, 118, comp. p. 48), referring to III, 14, 4, believes that nrin (or, more correctly, *nrfm), both here and there is genitive plural, and that Agni is called the sun of men' because men are able to light this sun themselves. To me it seems very doubtful that this is a Vedic idea, and as to the verse III, 14, 4, I believe that nrin there is a regular accusative plural: Agni is called there, a sun that spreads out men over their dwellings.'
Verse 6. Note 1. flényah. Comp. I, 1, 1, note 2. Note 2. Agni may be called mahah, 'the great one.' But it seems more natural to read mahé, the ancient pronunciation of which word before a word commencing with a vowel (mahá') coincided, or nearly coincided, with that of maháh. The translation then would be: 'he who is to be magnified in order that the great and the small may live.'
Digitized by Google
