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VI, 83.
503
prays with it to Indra. At 78, 10 the hymn is recited with sundry other mantras (cf. VI, 78) while dregs of ghee are being poured upon the heads of the bridal couple, after they have come home. The hymn has been translated by Weber, Indische Studien, V, 239 ff.; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 470; Grill2, pp. 57, 167. The Anukramanî, aindram, composed by gâyâkâmo bhagah.
COMMENTARY.
Stanza 2.
The marriage of Sûryâ, the daughter of Savitar, to Soma, the moon, is the typical heavenly marriage. The Asvins acted as wooers. Cf. RV. X, 85, 6 ff.=AV. XIV, 1, 7 ff.; Ait. Br. IV, 7, 1. For a large number of correlated passages, see Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 186. To these may be added Maitr. S. II, 2, 7; IV, 2, 12; Kâth. S. XI, 3 (Indische Studien, III, 467); Tait. Br. II, 3, 10, 1 ff. Surya is probably identical with Ushas; the Asvins are frequently conceived as her husbands, rather than wooers in behalf of Soma.
Stanza 3.
According to RV. VIII, 17, 10, Indra is conceived as having a long hook or rake with which he heaps together goods: here he is implored to furnish with its aid a wife (and, implicitly, property also). At II, 36, 6 he is addressed as 'lord of wealth.' The word sakîpate is to be taken here in its secondary, legendary sense, not in its primary sense, 'lord of might;' cf. Contributions, Sixth Series, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 548.
VI, 83. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 17.
The two Petersburg Lexicons; Adalbert Kuhn in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, XIII, 155; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 342, 500; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 54, 97; and Florenz, Bezzenberger's Beiträge, XII, 280 regarded the apakít as a certain noxious insect. In Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI,
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