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NOVEMBER, 1926)
VEDIC STUDIES
207
“Whom, while in the womb, enemies that want to injure and can injure, do not injure. The blind, not seeing, did not harm him ; his dear well-wishers protected him with watchfulness." Pretdrah, which I have rendered as well-wishers,' literally means 'lovers, pleasers. It is preferable to construe abhikhyd, literally, with sight, that is, with forethought, with watchfulness, with arakshan rather than with andha apasya na dabhan (as Grassmann in his Translation, Ludwig and Oldenberg, SBE. 46, p. 173 have done); for the translation "The blind, not seeing, did not injure him with their look hardly yields good sense. Nityah pretárah means the dear well-wishers of Agni (who is the deity of this verse), that is, the priests who are dear to Agni and to whom Agni is dear. Compare 1, 26, 7: priyo no astu vispátir hóta mandró vá renyah | priya'h svagnúyo vayam. 10, 7, 4: sidhri' agne dhiyo asmé sánutrir
yám tra' yase dá ma d' nityahota' rtà' vd sá rohidaśvaḥ purukshúr
dyúbhir asmá áhabhir udmám astu "Efficacious, 0 Agni, and winners of wealth) are the prayers of us whom thou, the dear hotr in the house protectest. He, the red-horsed, is holy and has much food : may everything pleasing happen to him (the sacrificer, yajamana) every day." In the light of the foregoing, I have taken nityahota (with accent on nitya) as a karmadharaya compound; it is, however, also possible to regard it as a bahuvrihi compound meaning 'he to whom the priest, hotr, is dear'; compare priyah svagnayo vayam in 1, 26, 7 cited above; compare also the following passage :
Maitr. Sam. 1, 1, 12: nityahotdram två kave dyumantah sam idhimahi The corresponding passage in the other Yajus-Samhitds reads vitihotram två kave dyumántam sím idhimahi (gne bphantam adhvaré where vi tihotram means 'to whom the hotra, the office of the hot, is dear'; compare Uvata on VS. 2,4: vitih abhildshah hotr-karmani yasya sah vitihotrah. I therefore take nityahotaram here as a bahuvrihi and translate : “We, the bright, kindle, O wise one, thee to whom the hot, is dear." Or is the word hotr here used in the abstract sense of hotra or hotstva-bhava-pradhano nirdesah? If so, nityahotaram would be the exact equivalent of vitihotram.
Saškh. GS. 3, 2, 5: enám sibuh krandaty a kumára enam dhenuh krandatu nitya-vatsd "The child, the young one, cries near it, may the milch-cow to whom the calf is dear, low near it." The milch-cow lowing to her calf is a familiar figure of comparison even in the RV.; compare 9, 12, 2: abhi viprd anúshata ga'vo ratsám na mdtáralindram 'the priests call out to Indra as mother-cows low to their calves '; 2, 2, 2: abhí tvá náktir ushá 80 vavalirégne ratsám ná svásareshu dhenával to thee, O Agni, they called out at nights and at dawns as the milch-cows low to their calves in evenings '; 8, 88, 1: abhí vatsám ná svásaresh, dhenáva indram girbhir navdmahe 'we call out to Indra with our hymns of praise as milchcows low to their calves in evenings'; 6, 25, 24; 8, 95, 1 ; etc.
Ibid., 3, 2, 8: enam sibuh krandaly a kumára dsyandantam dhenavo nitya-valsdh "The child, the young one cries to it; may milch-cows to whom the calf is dear, pour forth (milk from their udders) near it." Oldenberg has here interpreted the verb syandantam in the sense of 'flocking' (SBE., 29, p. 93); but the reference here is to the return home of milch-cows after grazing in the pastures, eager to rejoin their calves and therefore lowing to them (this idea is expressed in Sankh. GS. 3,2,5, explained above, by the word krandantām), and, as the Indian poets expregg it, with udders oozing milk; compare Raghuvaméa, 1, 84 : (anindya Nandini nama dhenur ávavrle vanál).... bhuvam koshnena kund odhni medhye. ndvabhrthad api prasravenabhivarshanti vatsaloka-pravartina ; and Harshacarita Fahrer's
* Is it possible, however, that there is a word asme derived from the radix a--moaning this (idam)? The correlation of yat in this verse and in verse 8, 63, 12 would seem to show that this is the case with the word asme in these verses. Likewise, the asme in verses 1, 24, 7; 1, 71,2; 1, 102, 2; 8, 61, 10 and 10, 61, 26 seems to be of this character.
