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NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS
TWO VEDIC NOTES
(1) kūrin? Grassmann, in his Wörterbuch zum Rig Veda (1872), has two separate entries kīri subst. (m) and kirin both adj. and subst. (m). To the former he assigns the meaning singer and to the latter ' praising' and 'singer'? He lists three occurrences of the forms of kirin, two as instr. sg. kirina 5.4.10 (= TS 1.4.46.1) and 5.40.8, and one as nom. pl. kirinas 5.52.12.2 But the form kirimü can as well be derived from kiri and for this form a separate stem kirin would not be necessary. But this is not true of kīriņas. For its derivation, a sfem kirin would be necessary. The verse where the form in question occurs runs: chandahstábhah kubhanyáva útsam á kūriņo nstuh. The line refers to the dancing of the Maruts near the útsa.4 The author of the Padapātha gives the Samhitā word as kirinas, and following him scholars have interpreted the form as nom. pl. of karin and translated it as 'bards' or 'singers'. But it is also possible to analyse the Samhită text kirino nurtuh as kūriņā u nịtuh where kāriņā could be instr. sg. and can come from the stem kiri. The line would then mean that the Maruts danced, and the singer of the hymn, to whom they had manifested themselves (té me... āsan drsi ... 'they (i.e. the Maruts) appeared to me '5.52.12) danced with them too. In this interpretation we are going against only the Padapātha. But the analysis of kirino as kīriņā u also gives good meaning and does not compel us to assume a separate stem kūrin which would be attested only once. In the RV
1 BR (Wörterbuch) has only kiri (aubet.), but the shorter dictionary of Böhtlingk and Mayrhofer's EWA. I. 1956, have both kiri and kirin. According to Böhtlingk the former is a subst., the latter an adj., while according to Mayrhofer both are adj. Mayrhofer (p. 215) thinks that kiri small, hunable, poor' is perhaps a loan from Dravidian. But on p. 565 he refers to Bailey, TPS, 1965, 63, who compares kiri 'weak, poor' with Iranian--Khotanese khiraa 'sad, cpressed '--and suggests the identification of a base ki beside khi with the meaning . depressed'. The etymology of kirin, which M. translates as possibly romping', is a coording to him 'unsicher'.
Grassinann (Wörterbuch) a.v. kiri makes a suggestion to read kirine in the place of kirini in RV 1.100.9. This would then be another form (dative) to be derived from kirin. But this suggestion is not approved by Ollenberg, Rgveda. Textkr. und exeg. Nolen, 1909, 1, 06, who remarks . Der Instrum. aber ist tadellos. . . !. Geldrer also, as his translation mit dem Armen' (Der Rig. Veda, 1, 1951) indicates, does not accept Grassinann's suggestion.
· Wackernagel-Debrunner, Altind. Gr., 111, $ 147, p. 279, note. Geldner, Der Rig Veda, 11, also derives kirina in 5.4.10 and 5.40.8 from kiri and translates it with bloss'. See his note on 5.40.8 where he details the different shades of meaning to be obtainod from the basic moaning.blogs".
4 According to Geldner, Der Rig Veda, I, 58, footnote on 12b, úlaa is perhaps the Soma tub (Somakufe') and at the same time it alludes to the Gotama legend of RV 1.85.11. According to Lüders, Varuna, 11, Göttingon, 1959, 384-5, útsa is the inexhaustible source or the container which the Maruts milk, swell, or pour out for the thirsty and around which they dance.
5. Barden Geldner, Der Rig Veda, II, 58; Sünger 'Lüdera, Varuna, 11, 386. Geldner thus clearly distinguishes kirin (subst.) from kiri (adj.) possibly assuming a different etymology.
On this supposed hapax legomenon see F. B. J. Kuiper, Indian Linguistics, XIX, 1958, 361--2. He considers Skt. krid and ✓*kir to be of foreign origin <*kid. In the first, the cerebral d of the foreign word is kept intact but the initial simple consonant is replaced by a cluster with ; in the second, the foreign d is rondered by . He translates kirin 'frisking, dancing'. This explanation of kirin has, however, certain difficulties of which the author himself shows awareness.
Madhu Vidya/101
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