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222
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ DECEMBER, 1928
A second time, a third
He said to his father: "Dad, to whom doest thou give me?" time. He (the father) said to him: "I give thee to Death." 01 (4)
Naciketas : "I arrived as the first of many (men), I arrive in the company of manyes (people); what then hath Yama to be done that now he wants to do through me?" (5)
Mrtyu (?): "Look forward : as (did) the former ones-look backward 1-30 (do) the later ones ; mortal man ripens like seed, like seed he is born again.64" (6)
Naciketa:85: “Like (Agni) Vaisvanara the Brahman enters every house as a wayfaring guest."66 Him they appease thus : fetch (me) water, thou son of Vivasvân! (7)
“Hope and expectations, sociability and good fellowship, the reward of sacrifice and good works67, all sons and cattle--all this the Brahman wrenches from that man of small wit in whose bouse he dwells not being offered food." (8)68
Yama: “Because, O Brahman, for three nights thou hast dwelt fasting in my house, though a worshipful guest—hail to thee, O Brahman, and welfare to me!-therefore choose thou just three boons89." (9)
Nacikelas : " That Gautama may be at peace in his mind, of happy thoughts, and not worrying about me, O Death, that full of joy he may greet me when let loose by thee, this I choose as the first of three boons?0." (10)
el All the translators have assumed (in accordance with the commentary on the Taitt. Br.) that the father utters these words in anger at having been importuned by the seemingly senseless questions of the son. But if we read, as has just been suggested, ananda instead of ananda in v. 3 the question of the son is not senseless at all, and there is no need for the father to feel any anger. Hillebran dt, ZDMG. Ixviii, 581, correctly stated that the father does not speak in anger, and Professor Sieg. 1.c. p. 129 sq. follows him
-Mrtyu should be translated by 'Death' (not death'); he is the messenger of Yama according to AV. xviii, 2, 27 (cf, the Buddhist idea of the devadata, Morris JPTS., 1885, p. 62).
63 Correctly Bothlingk SB., 1890, p. 130 : eri = Agacchâmi; Naciketas apparently announces his arrival in Yama's house.
68 bahunan madhyamah=hahunám madhye. There is no discrepancy between these words and the preceding ones. No help towards the interpretation is rendered by Professor Sieg., 1.c. p. 130.
64 Th 3 first half of this verse is not very clear, and it is very uncertain to whom we ought to attribute it. I have hesitatingly suggested Mrtyu, the messenger of Yama, who has fotohod Naciketas and accompanies him to his master's house. Wh. thinks that it is spoken by Nacikotas himself, in which he is followed by Hume; H. thinks of a person acompanying him; G. of the secret voice,' the (daivf)vdk, which is, however, only a fancy of the Taitt. Br. and its commentary: B. speaks of a bailiff of Yama' which is mainly the same point of view as my own. But it must be admitted that this is all very uncertain.
$6 This verse generally is attributed to Yama's bailiff or to the Secret Voice. Both attributions are fanciful and unnocessary. Yama now has arrived on the scene, and the proud Brahman boy announces himself to him.
66 We have gc> to remember that Agni Vaiévinara and the Brahman are alike the welcome guests of every human lodging. Thus grhån does not mean a house'; it is pregnantly plural in sense and means something like every house.
67 istêpurte certainly cannot be interpreted in the way suggested by Hume, 1.c. p. 342 n. 5. Cf. Ait. Br. viii, 16 : ip&partam te lokam sukttam dyuh prajan ur Ajlya, etc.
8 The contents of this verse exactly correspond to Taitt. Br. iii, 11, 8, 3.4, where, in reply to Yama's questions, Naciketas tells him that on the first night he has consumed his offspring, on the second night his cattle, and on the third night his good works.
69 Whitney, 1.c. p. 94, complains of the metrical disorder of the second half-verse, but his own efforts to repair it are futile. In c we have simply to read suasti (80 already Bohtlingk p. 131); in d we should apparently read: tasmat pratitrin (u) vardn vrnisva (u occurs in 1, 14; 2, 1; 4, 9 etc.) All this is fairly simple.
70 This verse has been misunderstood all through ; there is just as little talk of the father being angry with the son here as before. vitanianyre means 'free from worries just as in M.Bh. 1, 6114 etc. The father is, however, in grave doubt and anxiety as to the fate of the son. From these he ought to be liberated, and Nacikotas himself set loose by Yama.
