Volume 1 — CHAPTER III. (continued 2)

[Footnote 63: 1. 24. 7-8. The change in metaphor is not unusual.]

[Footnote 64: This word means either order or orders (law); literally the 'way' or 'course.']

[Footnote 65: 1. 24 (epitomized).]

[Footnote 66: Perhaps better with Ludwig "of (thee) in anger, of (thee) incensed."]

[Footnote 67: Or: "Being (himself) in the (heavenly) flood he knows the ships." (Ludwig.)]

[Footnote 68: An intercalated month is meant (not the primitive 'twelve days').]

[Footnote 69: Or 'very wise,' of mental strength.]

[Footnote 70: VIII. 41. 7; VII. 82. 6 (Bergaigne); X. 132. 4.]

[Footnote 71: Compare Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, iii. pp. 116-118.]

[Footnote 72: The insistence on the holy seven, the 'secret names' of dawn, the confusion of Varuna with Trita. Compare, also, the refrain, viii. 39-42. For X. 124, see below.]

[Footnote 73: Compare Hillebrandt's Varuna and Mitra, p. 5; and see our essay on the Holy Numbers of the Rig Veda (in the Oriental Studies).]

[Footnote 74: Varuna's forgiving of sins may be explained as a washing out of sin, just as fire burns it out, and so loosens therewith the imagined bond, V. 2. 7. Thus, quite apart from Varuna in a hymn addressed to the 'Waters,' is found the prayer, "O waters, carry off whatever sin is in me … and untruth," I. 23. 22.]

[Footnote 75: But as in iv. 42, so in x. 124 he shares glory with Indra.]

[Footnote 76: Later, Varuna's water-office is his only physical side. Compare [=A]it. [=A]r. II. I. 7. 7, 'water and Varuna, children of mind.' Compare with v[=a]ri, oùrá = v[=a]ra, and var[=i], an old word for rivers, var[s.] (= var + s), 'rain.' The etymology is very doubtful on account of the number of var-roots. Perhaps dew (ersa) and rain first as 'coverer.' Even var = vas 'shine,' has been suggested (ZDMG. XXII. 603).]

[Footnote 77: The old comparison of Varena cathrugaosha turns out to be "the town of Varna with four gates"!]

[Footnote 78: In India: What Can it Teach us, pp. 197, 200, Müller tacitly recognizes in the physical Varuna only the 'starry' night-side.]

[Footnote 79: Loc. cit., III. 119. Bergaigne admits Varuna as god of waters, but sees in him identity with Vritra a 'restrainer of waters.' He thinks the 'luminous side' of Varuna to be antique also (III. 117-119). Varuna's cord, according to Bergaigne, comes from 'tying up' the waters; 'night's fetters,' according to Hillebrandt.]

[Footnote 80: Loc. cit., p. 13.]

[Footnote 81: One of the chief objections to Bergaigne's conception of Varuna as restrainer is that it does not explain the antique union with Mitra.]

[Footnote 82: II. 28. 4, 7; VII. 82. 1, 2; 87.2]

[Footnote 83: vii. 87. 6; 88. 2.]

[Footnote 84: viii. 41. 2, 7, 8. So Varuna gives soma, rain. As a rain-god he surpasses Dyaus, who, ultimately, is also a rain-god (above), as in Greece.]

[Footnote 85: Compare Çat. Br. V. 2.5.17, "whatever is dark is Varuna's."]

[Footnote 86: In II. 38. 8 varuna means 'fish,' and 'water in I.184. 3.]

[Footnote 87: V. 62. I, 8; 64.7; 61. 5; 65. 2; 67. 2; 69.1; VI. 51.1; 67. 5. In VIII. 47.11 the [=A]dityas are themselves spies.]

[Footnote 88: Introduction to Grassmann, II. 27; VI. 42. Lex. s. v.]

[Footnote 89: Religions of India, p. 17.]

[Footnote 90: The Rik knows, also, a Diti, but merely as antithesls to Aditi—the 'confined and unconfined.' Aditi is prayed to (for protection and to remove sin) in sporadic verses of several hymns addressed to other gods, but she has no hymn.]

[Footnote 91: Müller (loc. cit., below) thinks that the 'sons of Aditi' were first eight and were then reduced to seven, in which opinion as in his whole interpretation of Aditi as a primitive dawn-infinity we regret that we cannot agree with him.]

[Footnote 92: See Hillebrandt, Die Göttin Aditi; and Müller, SBE, xxxii., p. 241, 252.]

[Footnote 93: That is to say, if one believe that the 'primitive Aryans' were inoculated with Zoroaster's teaching. This is the sort of Varuna that Koth believes to have existed among the aboriginal Aryan tribes (above, p. 13, note 2).]

[Footnote 94: VII. 77.]

[Footnote 95: Clouds.]

[Footnote 96: The sun.]

[Footnote 97: The priest to whom, and to whose family, is ascribed the seventh book.]

[Footnote 98: JAOS., XV. 270.]

[Footnote 99: Much theosophy, and even history (!), has been read into II. 15, and IV. 30, where poets speak of Indra slaying Dawn; but there is nothing remarkable in these passages. Poetry is not creed. The monsoon (here Indra) does away with dawns for a time, and that is what the poet says in his own way.]

[Footnote 100: Transferred by Roth from the penultimate position where it stands in the original. Dawn here pays Night for the latter's malutinal withdrawing by withdrawing herself. Strictly speaking, the Dawn is, of course, the sunset light conceived of as identical with that preceding the sunrise ([Greek: usas, hêôs], 'east' as 'glow').]

[Footnote 101: Late as seems this hymn to be, it is interesting in revealing the fact that wolves (not tigers or panthers) are the poet's most dreaded foes of night. It must, therefore have been composed in the northlands, where wolves are the herdsman's worst enemies.]

[Footnote 102: Myriantheus, Die Açvins; Muir, OST. v. p.234; Bergaigne, Religion Védique, II. p. 431; Müller, Lectures, 2d series, p. 508; Weber, Ind. St. v. p. 234. S[=a]yana on I. 180. 2, interprets the 'sister of the Açvins' as Dawn.]

[Footnote 103: Muir, loc. cit. Weber regards them as the (stars) Gemini.]

[Footnote 104: Weber, however, thinks that Dawn and Açvins are equally old divinities, the oldest Hindu divinities in his estimation.]

[Footnote 105: In the Epic (see below) they are called the lowest caste of gods (Ç[=u]dras).]

[Footnote 106: X. 17. 2; I. 46. 2.]

[Footnote 107: I. 181. 4 (Roth, ZDMG. IV. 425).]

[Footnote 108: T[=a]itt. S. VII. 2. 7. 2; Muir, loc. cit. p. 235.]

[Footnote 109: vii. 67. 2; viii. 5. 2; x. 39. 12; viii. 9. 17; i. 34. 10; x. 61. 4. Muir, loc. cit. 238-9. Compare ib. 234, 256.]

[Footnote 110: Muir, loc. cit. p. 237. RV. vi. 58. 4; x. 85. 9ff.]

[Footnote 111: They are compared to two ships, two birds, etc.]

[Footnote 112: In Çat. Br. V. 5. 4. it to the Açvins a red-white goat is sacrificed, because 'Açvins are red-white.']

[Footnote 113: Perhaps best with Brannhofer, 'the savers' from nas as in nasjan (AG. p. 99).]

[Footnote 114: La Religion Védique, II. p. 434. That n[=a]snya means 'with good noses' is an epic notion, n[=a]satyadasr[=a]u sunas[=a]u, Mbh[=a]. I. 3. 58, and for this reason, if for no other (though idea is older), the etymology is probably false! The epithet is also Iranian. Twinned and especially paired gods are characteristic of the Rig Veda. Thus Yama and Yam[=i] are twins; and of pairs Indra-Agni, Indra-V[=a]yu, besides the older Mitra-Varuna, Heaven-Earth, are common.]

[Footnote 115: Perhaps to be omitted.]

[Footnote 116: Pischel, Ved. St. I. p. 48. As swift-going gods they are called 'Indra-like.']

[Footnote 117: VIII. 9 and 10.]

[Footnote 118: Doubtful]

[Footnote 119: The last verse is not peculiar to this hymn, but is the sign of the book (family) in which it was composed.]

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