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V, 19. COMMENTARY.
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had names may be seen from our introduction to II, 32, but this name, 'having her hair braided,' is clearly that of a woman. Apparently the iniquity of the Vaitahavyas reaches its height, when they do not spare the only goat of the poor woman. If the text were only as sound as the moral!
Stanga 12. 8. Cf. V, 19, 11, where the number 99 takes the place of 101. Both are formulaic.
Stanga 14. Cf. st. 6 and XII, 5, 4. 58.
c. hántábhísasténdras ought, in the light of stanza 6, to mean 'Indra slays the curser,' or 'Indra destroys curses.' Accordingly the Pet. Lex. proposes hántás bhísastim (cf. Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar?, $$ 271 d, 946); hántâ sbhísaster is equally possible (cf. 1. c., $ 1182 d). The text might possibly be sustained by reading hántà - bhísastâ (acc. plur. neut.). Ludwig takes both words as nominatives of tar-stems, Indra töter fucher.' Zimmer, still differently, reads hántás bhísastam.
d. For vedhás, cf. our note on I, 11, 1 b.
V, 19. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 171. For the employment of this hymn in the ritual, and other general considerations, see the introduction to V, 18.
Stanza 1. 0. Bhrigu is a typical name for an Atharvan priest ; cf. angirasa in st. 2; bhrigvangiras, like atharvârgiras, is a name of the Atharva-veda itself; see Kaus. 63, 3 ; 94, 3. 4. Like Atharvan and Angiras, the Bhrigu are connected with the production of fire ; cf. Ludwig, III, 140.
For the Sriñgayas, see Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 208 ff., 232; Ludwig, III, 154; Zimmer, 132 ; Weber, 'Episches im vedischen Ritual,' Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie, July 23, 1891, vol. xxxviii, p. 797 [42]
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