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: VI, 128. COMMENTARY.
533
Once more the hymn is prescribed, Kaus. 100, 3, in a práyaskitti for an eclipse of the moon, probably on account of the prayer in the third stanza; cf. also Sântikalpa 15. For st. 3, see Kaus. 138, 8.
The hymn, with the addition of sundry other stanzas, is repeated in an appendix to the Nakshatrakalpa, and has been presented in our afore-mentioned article, p. 485 ff. ; cf. Weber's translation of it in his Omina und Portenta, P. 353. The vulgata form of the hymn has been rendered by Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 353 ; cf. also Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 187.
Stansa 1.
Sâyana also defines sakadhůma as brâhmana, but in a roundabout way. Primarily, according to his view, it is the fire in which lumps of dung have been placed, and from which the smoke rises (sakritah sambandhi dhûmo yasminn agnau sa sakadhamah agnih). But agni (e.g. according to Tait. S. V, 2, 8, 2) is identical with brâhmana; cf. his words, agnitvena samkalpya, in the note abovel. In the brahmodya-stanza, RV. I, 164, 43=AV. IX, 10, 25, occurs the expression sakamáyanı dhûmám; this is paraphrased in Kâtyâyana's Sarvânukramanî and in Shadgurusishya's comment (pp. 11,97 of Macdonell's edition) by sakadhûma, 'dung-smoke.' Possibly 'the fire that gives forth dungsmoke' (cf. Haug in the Proceedings of the Bavarian Academy, 1875, II, p. 506) forms the true mythic background of these conceptions; the Brahman interpreter may be secondarily called sakadhứma. Weber, 1.c., surmises that it may be the first morning fire, kindled while the stars are still shining, and indicating by its rising or falling smoke the weather of the breaking day; cf. also the same author, Indische Studien, V, 257; X,65; Nakshatra, II, 272, note; 393.
1 Sâyana continues, tam sakadhûmam brâhmanam purâ nakshatrâni târakâh râgånam kandramasam akurvata. According to this the moon (fire) is the sakadhûma, the controller of the weather. This is good folk-lore: the Brahmana may be the moon's representative on earth.
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