Some Aspects of Kaumudimitranand

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 16

TRET-81990 can be acc. sg. in 1.68.1.
Geldner accepts the suggestion of his predecessors to treat carátham as one word, but he interprets sthātúh differently. He takes it as gen. sg. of sthātr-. Hence, in his opinion, the original reading was not carátham, but caráthām (gen. M.). For this emendation of the text he finds support in stanza 3 of this hymn (1.70) where we read gárbhas ca sthātā'm/gárbhas caráthām.? "(Agni) who is the embryo of those that stand still and of those that move", He borrows from this stanza also the word gárbha for the interpretation of the stanza under consideration which he renders as : "Whom they strengthened during many dissimilar nights (and days), (him who is the embryo), conceived at proper time, of all that moves and stands". 10
All western interpreters thus agree in treating carátham as one word. Not only that, Max Müller is quite confident that "there can be no clearer case of curruption in the traditional text of the Rig-veda than, for instance in I, 70, 4 - 7)...".11 I do not share M. Müller's confidence. In my opinion, the author of the Padapātha has correctly interpreted, the Samhita text before him and separated ca rátham as two words. He certainly knew the phrase sthätús carátham which occurs twice before. In spite of that he chose to separate ca rátham since he interpreted rţápravitam as adjective of the word rátham which occurs immediately before it, and not of any other word like gárbha borrowed from a different stanza. On the other hand, he apparently borrowed carátham for the understanding the present stanza. This borrowing is easily understandable as sthātús carátham is a set phrase. The passage is an example of ellipsis, the full text being sthātus (carátham ) ca rátham rtápravitam.
As ragards rtápravitam, Geldner takes it to be an adjective going with the noun gárbha supplied by him! "den zur