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I, 24. COMMENTARY.
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or theft. Hence we have, hesitatingly, adopted the emendation gitva. A later transcriber, shocked by the imputation that the Asuri was victorious, might easily have made the change.
Weber, 1. c., p. 418, regards suparná as the sun and asuri as the night, who, having been conquered by the sun, withdraws into the forest and assumes the form of trees: 'Der vogel, der zuerst erstand, dessen gall’ du gewesen bist. Die Åsurî im kampf besiegt machte die bäuni' zu ihrer form. But there is scarcely any occasion here for a mythical eagle: the eagle and the boar naturally find plants, the one with his eye, the other with his snout (see II, 27, 2; V, 14, 1), and the legend must in some way rest upon this natural fact. This translation, too, establishes no connection between the first and second parts of the stanza. Very similarly Grill.
d. For vánaspátin the Paippalåda has vánaspatih in accordance with the common usage of the Brahmanas, e. g. asvo râpam kritvå, Tait. Br. III, 8, 12, 2; Åpast. Sr. V, 2, 4; krishno rūpam kritvå, Tait. 'Br. III, 7, 4, 8. See Delbrück, Altindische Syntax, p. 103 ; Pet. Lex. s. v. rûpa (column 421); Ind. Stud. XIII, 111. This makes a decidedly better construction : 'having assumed the form of a tree.' Ludwig, translating the Saunakîya-text, '(die Åsuri) hat es zur farbe der bäume gemacht,' and similarly Såyana,gayena labdham tat pittam rûpam kakre, oshadhyâtmana sevyam akāram akarshît, tad eva rūpam aha, vanaspatîn nîlyâdîn. I have followed their lead, though I am for my part unacquainted with any such construction of kar (with three accusatives ; note also the middle, kakre).
Stanza 2. a, b. Såyana treats idam as follows: idam suparnapittena nirmitam nîlyadikam, which corresponds with his and our interpretation of st. 1. In the later literature asuri is a branch of medicine; see the Pet. Lex. under åsurî 3) and manusha. The metre of the two Padas is irregular : idám kilasanasanam seems to be a gloss.
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