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AUGUST, 1928)
VEDIO STUDIES
145
Satidevi, the daughter of Daksha, hearing of this from the chatter of those going in the sky, and seeing near her dwelling the wives of Upadevas (i.e., of Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Kimpurushas, etc.) going with their husbands in rimanas from all directions, wearing fine clothes and necklaces and brilliant ear-rings and with eyes glancing here and there, said to her lord Siva in excitement : "The grand festival-like sacrifice of thy father-in-law, the Prajapati, has, I hear, commenced . . . . See also other women going there in troops, wearing jewels, in the company of their husbands, O thou that art birth-less." Mahabharata, 2, 72, 1: tatah sa Kururdjasya sarva-karma-samrddhiman
wajnah pritikaro rájan sambabhau vipulotsavah 1 "Then was celebrated, O king, the sacrifice of the Kuruid king in which not one site was wanting, the grand festival, causing dolight". Ibid., 14, 90, 43 : evam babhava yajñaḥ sa Dharmarajasya dhimatah 1
tam mahotsava-san kåsam hrshta-pushta-janakulam |
kathayanti sma purushd nand-desa-nivåsinah !! " Then took place that sacrifice of the wise Dharmaraja... And this sacrifice that was like a great festival and was attended by many joyous and thriving people was extolled by people that lived in different countries (who were present at it)."
Read also the descriptions of the Rajasůya sacrifice celebrated by Yudhishthira given in the Mahabharata (2, 71) and Bhagavata, 10, ii, ch. 75.
It is therefore not surprising if, in the circumstances, the word yaksha, meaning 'sacrifice took on the meaningof utsava also, though as regards this verse, it is not necessary to assume this latter meaning for yaksha. The original meaning itself, namely, 'sacrifice,' fits in well with the context here. Compare the passage cited above from the Bhagavata where it is said that the wives of Upadeves were going to the yajña-mahotsava wearing fine clothes and jewels in the company of their husbands, and the passage cited above (p. 58) from the Jñatâd harmakathê that describes the dress and jewels worn by ugras, ugraputras, Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, etc., on days of Indramaha, Yakshamaha and similar other utsavas. See also the des. cription of the city and the people on the occasion of kaumudi-mahotsava given in Hemddri, 1.c., p. 352 and in Jñatâdharmakatha, p. 536. It becomes clear from all these that the people used to put on in former times (as in fact they do now) fine clothes and jewels when going to grand sacrifices or other utsavas; and the Maruts are compared with such people because they always deck themselves with ornaments ; see 5, 54, 11; 5, 55, 6; 5, 60, 4, etc., and Macdonnell's Ved. Mythology, p. 79.
Subhráh, radiant, in pada 3, means, as is indicated by the context, clean, speckless, spotless'; and payodhah vatsah means 'young calves'.
Gobhila-gphyas útra, 3, 4, 28 : acaryam saparishatkam abhyetydcarya parishadam ikshate yaksham iva cakshushah priyo vo bhūydsam iti II
"Approaching the teacher with his entourage, he looks at the teacher and entourage (saying): May I be pleasing to your eye like a sacrifice.'" I have here, like Messrs. Boyer and Geldner, construed cakshushah with priya. Oldenberg has, however, contended (RV. Noten, II, p. 45) that this is not right and that such construction would be proper only if the text had read yaksham iva cakshusho vaḥ priyo bhūydsam. He therefore maintains that the correct meaning is, “May I be dear to you as the wonderful thing is to the eye" (as already noted above, yaksha = 'wonderful thing' for Oldenberg) and that the wonderful thing here is the pupil of the eye! But, apart from the consideration that one fails to understand why the pupil of the eye should be called a wonderful thing' (the passage from Sat. Br. to which Oldenberg refers has no bearing at all in this connection) the idea of comparing a thing to the pupil of the eye in point of dearness is one that is foreign to Sanskrit literature,
