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XIII, 1. COMMENTARY.
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(cf. viliptî ya in the otherwise identical st. 46) renders stanza 44 suspicious. The original order, throwing out 44, may have been 43, 47, 46, 45.
XIII, 1. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 207. The thirteenth book of the Atharvan consists of four hymns devoted to the worship of a divinity called Rohita, and his female Rohini. There can be no doubt that the red' sun and his accompanying female, who in the course of the literature is designated as Ushas, Suryâ, Sûrya Sâvitrî, or Dyu', are primarily in the mind of the poet. Rohita accordingly is identified with Agni (stanzas I, 11. 12), Sûrya (stanzas 1, 32. 45; 2, 1) and other manifestations of the sun? But there is also another equally obvious side to the composition: it represents an allegorical exaltation of a king (râga) and his queen (mahishî). The heavenly Rohita and his female are called upon to protect and exalt the king and queen; the names of the divinities, róhita and róhini, are felt by the Atharvan poet to furnish especially good ground for calling upon them to undertake this protection, since they afford an inexhaustible mine for puns with words that mean "rise, ascend' (cf. st. 4 a). In the royal ceremonies (râgakarmâni) the king frequently ascends (â ruh, or å kram), a throne, or skin, or horse; the act, of course, symbolises every time the moral ascendency of the potentate. Cf. Vait. Sû. 36, 7; Kaus. 17, 3. 9. 13. 22 ; Ait. Br. VIII, 6, 12; and the râgasûya at Vâg. S. X, 1 ff.,
Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 186.
? The word 'identified' is perhaps too strong. The composition of this book is by no means a unit ; it is indeed at times very difficult to see upon what ground the various stanzas have been compiled evidently with the main purpose of glorifying Rohita. But at any rate the compiler finds it especially natural to adapt stanzas in praise of other sun-divinities, and to glide over into the diction familiar to them. At Kaus. 24, 42 rohita is explained directly as the sun (aditya). Another relation of Rohita is Agni with two red steeds (rohitâbhyâm), Lâty. Sr. I, 4, 2 ff.
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