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IV, 22. COMMENTARY.
(gayakarma, samgrâmagayârtham), and its rather colourless proceedings are as follows: 14, 24. 'While reciting IV, 22 and 23 he performs the ceremonies which culminate in the presentation (of the bow to the king).' These are described in Sûtras 8-11 of the same chapter, to wit: 8. 'An oblation of ghee and grits is poured out. 9. Upon a fire made of bows a bow is laid on as a fagot. 10. Likewise an arrow (is laid on) upon a fire made of arrows. 11. The bow (of the king), smeared with the dregs of the ghee, is presented to him.'
405
The other performance, Kaus. 17, 28-9, is part of the consecration of a chief ruler (ekaråga, Kaus. 14, 11; cf. ekavrishá in our hymn, sts. 1, 5, 6, 7). The special solemnities of the consecration have been absolved, but every morning the royalty of the king has to be renewed, to wit: 28. Every morning the hymn IV, 22 (or its first stanza?) is recited to the king (by the purohita, the house-priest). 29. They (the king and the purohita) then perform the above-mentioned pouring of water (each into a vessel), and the exchange (of the vessels).' This refers to Sutras 4 and 5 of the same chapter; cf. the introduction to IV, 8, and Professor Weber's discussion of the passage in his treatise, Über die Königsweihe, p. 140 (Transactions of the Royal Prussian Academy, 1893). The hymn, further, is one of a cycle (gana) devoted to the gain of royal power (râshtrasamvarga), grouped together in the indramahotsava, Ath. Paris. 19, 1 (cf. Kaus. 140, 6, note). See also Ath. Paris. 4, I and 16. The fanciful analysis of the hymn by the Anukramanî may be seen in Grill's introduction.
The hymn appears again in Tait. Br. II, 4, 7, 7 ff.; it has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 457; Zimmer, 165; Grill2, 67, 135 ff.; cf. Hillebrandt's Vedachrestomathie, p. 43.
Stanza 1.
The speaker is the purohita, the house-priest, or chaplain of the king; he figures prominently in all the rågakarmâni, Kaus. 14-17.
b. Sâyana with one of Shankar Pandit's MSS. reads
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