________________
IV, 20. COMMENTARY.
401
239. Cf. also Yasna XI, 7: madhemê thrishvê ainhão zemô, in the middle third of this earth.'
Stanza 3.
a, b. divyásya suparnásya ... kanînika is rendered by Ludwig, 'dises himlischen adlers kleine tochter ;' by Grill, der Augenstern des Adlers, der am Himmel ist.' Sayana glosses suparná by garutmant, which suggests RV. I, 164, 46. Grill follows the Pet. Lex. (s. v. 2 a). a)] in regarding the divine eagle as the sun. But perhaps the lightning-fire is in the mind of the poet. At Våg. S. XVII, 72; XVIII, 51 ; Sat. Br. IX, 2, 3, 34; 4, 4, 3, the divinity addressed, suparno-si garutmân, is treated distinctly as Agni, and Mahidhara states this plainly. In Maitr. S. I, 2, 5; Vâg. S. IV, 32 ; Tait. S. VI, 1, 7, 3, 'the eye-ball (kanînika, kanînaka) of Agni's eye' is spoken of. The expression divya suparná may be the exact equivalent of diváh syéna, and that, I believe I have proved, is Agni, the lightning, personified as a divine eagle; see Contributions, Fifth Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XVI, 1 ff. The descent of this eagle, or the Gayatrî, as the Brahmanas have it, is frequently disturbed by a heavenly archer Krisânu who wounds the eagle, so that he loses a feather which falls to the earth, and grows up as a plant or tree. See Adalbert Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks, p. 148 (first edition). The use of the word suparná in our edition is, in my opinion, intended to convey a double entente, 'bird' and 'having beautiful leaves.' Cf. Tait. S. VI, 1, 1, 5, where Vritra's eye-ball (kanînika) flies away after he had been slain by Indra, and turns into salve (añganam). Ludwig does not comment upon his translation of kanînikå by 'kleine tochter, rather than "eye-ball;' it may possibly turn out correct when RV. X, 40, 9 yields up its meaning. We have there as follows: gánishta yóshå patayat kanînakó ví kás ruhan virudhah, a passage which suggests the situation in our stanza completely and yet vaguely. But it is interpreting obscurum per obscurius
Dd
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