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IV, 20. COMMENTARY.
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a controlling characteristic of Vedic conceptions that the inner, true nature of any divinity, or instrument of power, must be understood in order to control its influence or power : ya evam veda, and ya evam vidvan in the Brahmanas are crystallisations of this idea ; cf. AV. I, 13, 3; VI, 46, 2; VII, 12, 2, &c.
0. sahasrakaksho, here, and XIX, 35, 3, as epithet of the plant gangida, is a vocative from a stem sahasra-kakshu. The beginnings of a stem kakshu, a pendant of kakshus in the ablative kakshos, RV. X, 90, 13. Transition forms between the us- and u-declensions (as also between the is- and i-declensions) are not uncommon in the Veda ; see Lanman, in the Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. X, 568 ff.
d. For the class of demons called kimidin, see AV. I, 7; 1, 28; II, 24; VIII, 3, 25; 4, 2; 6, 21; XII, 1, 50.
Stanza 6. For yâtudhấna, -ns, and pisâká, see the hymns I, 7 and 8.
Stanza 7. 8. Kasyapa is a name to conjure with in the Atharvan writings; amulets and charms handled by him are peculiarly powerful (e.g. 1, 14, 4 ; IV, 37, 1 ; VIII, 5, 14). He rises to the dignity of the supreme self-existing (svayam-bhû) being in AV. XIX, 53, 10; cf. also Tait. S. V, 6, 1, 1, and see the Pet. Lex. s. v. 2 b. He is also intimately related with forms of the sun, Surya and Savitar, as is stated expressly in Tait. År. 1,7,1; see also Tait. År. I, 8, 6, and compare Tait. S. V, 6, 1, 1 with AV. I, 33, 1 b. This fact may by itself account for the expression kasyápasya kákshur asi. In fact kasyápa is the sun as a tortoise, that creeps its slow course across the sky; cf. the conceptions of the sun as a hermit, and a Brahman disciple, XI, 5, introduction. Only we must not forget that these writings neglect no opportunity of being guided in their constructions by puns, even of the most atrocious sort, and kasyápa surely suggests pasyaka,' seer,' to the Atharvan mind, as is written distinctly in Tait. År. I, 8, 8, kasyapah pasyako
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