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170
VEDIC HYMNS.
NOTES.
This hymn is ascribed to Gotama, the son of Rahugana. The metre varies. Verses 1 and 6 are put down as Prastara-pankti, i. e. as 12+12+8+8. By merely counting the syllables, and dissolving semivowels, it is just possible to get twenty-four syllables in the first line of verses 1 and 6. The old metricians must have scanned verse 1:
ā vidyunmat-bhi marutah su-arkaih rathebhih yata ̄rishtimat-bhih asva-parnaih.
Again verse 6: esha sya vah marutah anu-bhartrī prati stobhati vághatah nă vânî,
But the general character of these lines shows that they were intended for hendecasyllabics, each ending in a bacchius, though even then they are not free from irregularities. The first verse would scan :
a vidyunmat-bhi marutah su-ārkaih rathebhik yatarishňmat-(bhik) asva-parnaik. And verse 6: esha sya vah marutah~anu-bhartrī prati stobhati vaghatah na vānī.
Our only difficulty would be the termination bhik of rishtimat-bhih. I cannot adopt Professor Kuhn's suggestion to drop the Visarga of bhik and change i into y (Beiträge, vol. iv, p. 198), for this would be a license without any parallel. It is different with sah, originally sa, or with feminines in ih, where parallel forms in i are intelligible. The simplest correction would be to read rathebhih yata rishti-mantah asva-parnaih. One might urge in support of this reading that in all other passages where rishtimat occurs, it refers to the Maruts themselves, and never to their chariots. Yet the difficulty remains, how could so simple a reading have been replaced by a more difficult one?
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| SR No. | 007685 |
| Book Title | Grihya Sutras |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Hermann Oldenberg |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1886 |
| Total Pages | 2642 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 49 MB |