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692
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
prosperity of the golden age. In the later legends Parikshit is propagated variously as a terrestrial king.
Stanza 7.
Cf. Sankh. Sr. XII, 17, 1. In Pâda d we have translated a srinotâ of the edition; the MSS. read a sunótâ (cf. the Prakrit root su, 'hear ').
Stanza 10.
The first hemistich is problematic, the comparison of the overflow of the grain with the bursting forth of the light is bold, nay bizarre. The MSS. do not read svàh, as does the edition with Sânkh. Sr. XII, 17, 4. Perhaps sváh is to be read instead of svah (cf. Bloomfield and Spieker in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc., May, 1886; Journ., vol. xiii, p. cxvii ff.): 'On the morrow the ripe barley bursts forth from the opening of the ground,' i. e. grain planted to-day ripens on the morrow. The second hemistich occurs in a different connection at Vait. Sû. 34, 9; here also the MSS. read edhati for edhate, as emended in the edition.
D.
The last four stanzas are designated in the ritual as kâravyâh (sc. rikah), ' referring, or pertaining to the poet;' see Sânkh. Sr. XII, 15, 2-4; Ait. Br. VI, 30, 16 ff.; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12. The expositions contain nothing but a worthless pun with derivatives of the root kar, 'make.' The general sense of the stanzas is clear. Stanza 12 occurs with variants at Hir. Grih. I, 22, 9; Pår. Grih. I, 8, 10; Gobh. Grih. II, 4, 6 (pratîka); SV. Mantra-br. I, 3, 13.
Stanza 14.
d. For the skilfully emended káno dadhishva, cf. Geldner, Studien zum Avesta, p. 58 ff.; Roth, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 110.
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