Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 67

Velankar Commemoration Volume
in the way Durga, Sayana and Geldner have thought him to do (i.e. an epithet meaning vanagaminau to be understood only with reference to the two robbers). But the way Yaska has worded his statement leaves this point doubtful. He says tanutyak tanatyakta" vanarga vanagaminav agnimanthanau bahů taskardbhyam upamimite. This can mean that according to Yáska vanarga vanagaminau i.e. agnimanthanau (because vana stands for the two aranis) and hence the epithet refers only to the upameya arms (baha) and stands for it. This would mean that vanargü (bähú) are compared with taskard. Whether Yäska intended to take vanargi also with táskard or not may be a moot point. But Oldenberg (Noten) certainly does this and understands vanargu as going with both--the robbers and the hands: "vanargis im Vergleich die im Walde ihr Wesen treibenden Räuber, im Hauptsatz die and den Hölzern arbeitenden Hände."
78
All the interpreters mentioned above have, however, one thing in common, viz. that they understand vanargu to have come from vánar + Vga or gam and the form as nom. dual. Bergsigne, although as noted above has rejected this explanation (vanagaminau), considers the form to be nom. dual. He accordingly feels that in the above verse the robbers are metaphorically called bulls of the forest'. This, however, does not seem to be the case. If vanargu is taken to be nom. dual going with táskard the comparison appears to be very much abbreviated because, besides not mentioning anything about the upameya, it also omits to mention in the upamanavakya what the robbers hold fast. This difficulty will not arise if one agrees with Bergaigne in understanding vanargu as two forest bulls ' but differs from him by taking the form as acc. dual.13 The first two quarters are therefore to be translated as: "(The two arms) have held fast (the two churning sticks with ten fingers) as do two brigands, risking their life, two forest-bulls with ten ropes." In this way the upamanavakya becomes complete. Moreover, the epithet tanúlyájá becomes more relevant in as much as bodily risk is involved rather in binding a forest-bull than in catching hold of a traveller. Of course the dual number in vanargu as well as táskara is occasioned by the two aranists and
11 Why Yaska uses tanutyak (sg.) for tanutyája (dual) is not clear. His explanation tanutyakta has been taken by Durga and Sarup to be dual of tanutyakta-, by Skanda-Mahesvara to be sg. of tanutyakty. The latter interpretation is to be preferred because Yaska is not likely to use a Vedic dual form in -a; in fact he renders Vedic dual by the classical one as duhánta by duhantau (6. 26), kárna by karnau (10. 41), etc. Yaska also occasionally renders a root noun, whether occurring by itself or in a compound, by a derivative in -tr. Hence nid-= (abhi)- -ninditṛ(10.42), brahma-dvis- brahmana-dvestr (6. 11); similarly tanutyaj. = tanutyaktṛ-.
12 If the alternative interpretation of the Nirukta passage suggested above is correct then in that case the upameya hands in the form of vanargu will have been mentioned.
13 Wackernagel-Debrunner, Alt. Gr. III § 121 b x (pp. 218-19) say that a compound with -gu- as the second member has the usual inflexion of u- stems. In the footnote, however, they point out that such compounds occasionally in the Rigveda show strong forms on the analogy of the declension of -go-, e.g. pŕsni-gäv-ah instead of pŕsni-gav-aḥ.
14 The idea of stealing is not present. What is intended seems to be that men of this type were employed for catching the forest-bulls.
15 The dual number will cause some difficulty since the two hands are known to hold only one arani. However, in view of the advantages gained by the above interpretation, it seems necessary to set aside this difficulty. The poet apparently has not been exact in this detail, and has been carried away with the usual dual number of the aranis. Or, does this refer to some different way of producing fire? Madhu Vidya/42