Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
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

Page 1885

366
IIYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
criticism in my essay quoted above. The chief difficulty is in ví yâti, which means 'pass through, not 'go apart, scatter.' The passage seems to mean that the whole world on the occasion of the marriage of Tvashtar's daughter to Vivasvant-not to himself-pass through (a given point of observation) to witness the marriage. Thus they might illustrate separation from their ordinary places of abode. Or, a still more literal and philological translation of the passage would be: ““ Tvashtar is preparing a marriage for his daughter," thus saying (or noting) he (who? Tvashtar or Vivasvant?) passes through the entire world.' But the other versions read sám eti, and all the following stanzas (6-11) have for their theme union with the principle of life. Since, now, ví occurs no less than thirty times in the entire hymn, it is possible that sám has given place to it, and the passage would thus revert to its original meaning in RV. X, 17, 1; AV. XVIII, 1, 53. Sâyana takes ví yâti in the sense of going asunder, vahatum ... prastha payati iti buddhya tasya avakåsam dâtum idam visvam bhuvanam prithivyantarikshâdirûpain vi yâti parasparam vigatam bhavati.
Stanza 6. a, b. Or, 'Agni bestows life's breaths.' Agni is frequently identified in the Upanishads with the breaths of life: see Maitri-Upanishad VI, 5. 9. 33 ; Prasna-Upanishad I, 7. Såyana, the Agni of the belly, the cause of the digestion of food and drink.' Similarly the sun (cf. the next stanza) in Maitri-Up. VI, 1. 5; Prasna-Up. I, 5; II, 8; Tait. År. I, 14, 1.
Stansa 11. For vrishtyód (Padapatha, vrishtyá úd) read vrishtyá(1) úd with Roth, Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 684.
IV, 3. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 147. At Kaus. 51, 1-6 the following practices are prescribed : 1. 'While reciting AV. IV, 3 (the shepherd) follows the cattle, (altemately) raising and digging into the ground)
Digitized by
Digjized by Google