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598
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
which are needed in the larger Vedic (srauta) sacrifices ; see the Pet. Lex. under each, Zimmer, p. 154, and cf. especially Vâg. S. XIX, 18; Tait. S. III, 2, 4, 3. 4. The divergent metre of the stanza (8 + 8 + 12: Anukramani, paroshnih), and the interruption which it occasions in the account of the breaking up of the house, render it very suspicious. The bestowal of sacrificial epithets upon the house are obviously intended to enhance its value in the eyes of the recipient.
Stanza 8. Technical terms again render this stanza obscure. I imagine a covering of wicker-work, the openings in which suggest a thousand eyes, stretched across a beam and slanting down from it to both sides (vishûváti) in the manner of our roofs. The passage seems, perhaps, to harbour a comparison of the roof with the head and the head-dress of a woman (cf. opasá and vishûváti, and see the note on VI, 138,1). Professor Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, 136, renders the stanza : 'die in der mitte als diadem ausgespannte tausendäugige befestigte aufgesesetzte stange lösen wir durch besprechung. But what occasion is there for a pole with thousand eyes, i.e. countless holes ? Ludwig renders ákshum opasám by 'das löcherige geflecht;' Grill, 'das ausgespannte flechtennetz;' Zimmer, I. c., and p. 265, 'das netz das über den schopf (gespannt ist);' Henry,ʻle réseau tendu.'
Stanza 10. a. He that bestows a house in this world gets it back again in heaven. Ludwig, ‘in jener welt (soll) es ihm entgegenkommen.' Kausika's construction of the hymn renders the meaning very clear.
Stanza 15. At this point the recipient of the house (cf. Kaus. 66, 28, above) begins to see to it that the house shall produce for
"The employment at AV. VIII, 8, 18, of the root han, slay,' with akshugalábhyâm does not prove akshu to mean 'pole, club:' that which catches the enemy may be imagined to slay him ; cf. also st. 7. Sâyana at RV. I, 180, 5, divides á-kshu, 'not perishing.'
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