________________
III, 6. COMMENTARY.
335
The hymn has been translated by Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers ', p. 224; Weber, Ind. Stud. XVII, 204 ff.; Grill?, pp. 21, 104 ff.; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 58, 257. The Anukramanî, vânaspatyasvatthadevatyam.
Stanza 1. Both asvattha and khadirá are masculines, i.e. males; hence the virility of the asvattha is, as it were, in the second power. The asvatthá, moreover, is intimately related with the production of fire (cf. Tait. Br. I, 1, 3, 9), being in fact an embodiment of the lightning. Hence its special fitness for aggressively hostile practices; see Weber's note, 1. c.
Stansa 2. b. Sayana reads vaibadha dodhatah without support from the MSS. (Samhità or Padapatha). We have adopted this emendation which is indeed self-evident in the light of st. 7. It is of interest to note that the Pet. Lexs., Weber, and Grill felt constrained to resort to the same remedy. The name 'displacer' for the asvattha becomes clear in the light of the natural history of the tree; see the introduction above, and Lassen, Indische Altertumskunde 1?, 304 ff. Sâyana takes vaibâdha as 'sprung from the vibådha, i e. the khadira,' the latter being so-called because it strikes with its thorns (kantakair bâdhate).
Stansa 3. a. Sâyana with the Paippalada reads nir abhinah (nirbhidya utpannossi); some of Shankar Pandit's MSS. (both Padapatha and Samhita) support this by reading nirábhinno (nih ábhinnah); cf. Påda c.
b. Sâyana, correctly, arnave antarikshe; cf. RV. VIII, 26, 17; TS. IV, 5, 11, 1.
c. Sâyana, the Paippalada, and some of Shankar Pandit's MSS., nir bhinddhi; cf. Pada a.
Stansa 4. a. Sâyana, the Paippalada, and some of Shankar Pandit's MSS., kárati.
Digitized by
Digitized by Google
