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404
bhavati yat sarvam paripasyati. The name kasyápa is in some special relation to the Atharvan writings, not as yet fully cleared up; cf. the author in the Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XI, p. 377.
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
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b. The MSS. read katurakshak, but Sâyana fitly comments upon katurakshyah, the form as emended in Roth and Whitney's edition; cf. akshós for akshyòs in AV. V, 4, 10 (see the note). The four-eyed bitch' is Saramâ the mother of the two four-eyed dogs of Yama1, Syama and Sabala, which I have explained as the sun and the moon; see Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 163 ff. The epithet 'foureyed' seems possibly to be derived from the same view, namely the capacity of the two dogs to see both by day (the sun), and by night (the moon). The Paippalâda as quoted by Grill2, p. 135, makes the notable statement that 'the four-eyed dog (obviously the moon) overlooks by night the sphere of the night,' yatha svâ katuraksho râtrim naktâ tipasyati. In practice the fiction of a foureyed dog is materialised both by the Hindus and Iranians in the form of a dog with marks over the eyes; see my article, 1. c., p. 165, note 1, and Kaegi in the Philologische Abhandlungen für Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler, p. 64, note 57.
c. vîdhré, lit. 'in the clear sky;' Ludwig, 'im hellen;' Grill, 'heiteren tags.' sûryam iva is to be read as three syllables, as frequently elsewhere, either suryeva or suryam
va.
Stanza 8.
c. téna may be either masculine, referring to the divinity in st. 4, or neuter, agreeing with bráhma, 'charm.'
IV, 22. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 115.
The hymn is employed twice in the so-called râgakarmâni, 'the royal practices,' Kaus. 14-17. The first is characterised by the scholiasts, Kesava and Sâyana, as a battle-charm
In RV. I, 29, 3 the two messengers (dogs) of Yama are personified as females.
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