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1, 10. COMMENTARY.
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Stanza 3. Allusion seems to be made here to the rape of the soma in Indra's behalf by Agni, the heavenly eagle (syena). According to our interpretation, in Contributions, Fifth Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XVI, 1 ff., this Agni, the eagle, is the lightning.
I, 10. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 11. Varuna punishes crime, especially falsehood (cf. AV. IV, 16; Tait. Br. I, 7, 2, 6, &c.), with his disease, the waterbelly, dropsy? The performance of the Kausika is purely symbolic : 25, 37. 'While reciting the hymn (the priest) sprinkles the patient over the head (with water) by means of twenty-one tufts of darbha-grass together with reeds taken from the thatch of a house.' The water in the body is supposed to be washed out by the water sprinkled upon it (attractio similium)
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, 403-4; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 445; cf. also Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Védique, p. 133.
Stanga 1.
b. Weber regards váså as fem. sing. ; Whitney, in the Index Verborum, as nom. plur. masc. ; Sayana, as neut. plur., vaså vasâni. Varuna and Asura are, of course, the same divinity.
c. Weber, durch mein gebet von da herauss dich reissend ;' Ludwig, mit meinem brahma hervor mich tuend ;' Sayana, brahmana mantrena ... såsadanah atyartham tikshnah ... praptabalah.
Stanga 2. c, d. The passage is a reverberation from the legend of Sunahsepa ; cf. Ait. Br. VII, 15.
1 Varuna is the lord of the waters (see the note on IV, 16, 3): the dropsy is therefore conceived to be due to his infliction.
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| SR No. | 007681 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1890 |
| Total Pages | 2695 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 47 MB |