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

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that is said here fits the brahma, or some other embodiment, and Sâyana boldly establishes the equation ukkhishta
brahma. Accordingly, too, in at least two stanzas (15, 16) the úkkhishta is personified as the masculine úkkhishtas, quite in the manner of the relation of the neuter bráhma to the masculine brahmán. We may note, however, that the road for this drastic transfer is opened in a measure by the philosophical position of the word anna, 'food.' This is a prominent link in the chain that unites man to the universe. See, e.g. Tait. Up. III, 3, and the stately array of passages in Jacob's Concordance to the principal Upanishads, s. v. The interest of the hymn lies rather in the attempt which it makes to exploit exhaustively the chief concerns of Brahmanical existence and belief. Except for its metrical form it belongs to Brâhmana literature. See Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. v, p. 396 ff., and Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen aus der Rig- und Atharva-veda-Samhitâ, p. 87 ff., where partial translations of the hymn are essayed.
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Stanza 3.
d. The translation of Pâda d is mere guess-work. Since vrá means throng,' drá would seem to mean the converse; cf. the root drâ, 'run:' 'that which is assembled and that which is scattered,' i. e. 'that which is confined and that which is free,' or the like. Sâyana, vrah vârako varunah drah drâvakah amritamayah somah. The difficulty is increased by the appearance of another mystic monosyllable, nyáh in st. 4 a. The Pet. Lex. suggests that all three are artificial abbreviations.
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Stanza 4.
a. This Pâda is again nearly hopeless. The vulgate reads drimha sthiró, and Whitney in the Index Verborum classifies drimha as an imperative. But an imperative is out of place in this hymn which is throughout descriptive. Shankar Pandit with the Padapâtha and Sâyana reads drimhasthiró as a compound (Sâyana, drimhanena sthirîkrito lokah). I have thought of dridhadrimhá(h), 'he who fastens that
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