HYMNS TO THE VISWADEVAS AND TO THE MARUTS
A HYMN TO THE VISWADEVAS
V. 42. 1-5
1. Let the Word of my thought be full of the peace that it may embrace1 the godhead as Wideness and as the Harmony and as the Enjoyment and as the Infinities of being. Yea, let the Master of all Might hear it who is the multicoloured birth of things, the sacrificer on the five planes, whose path none can cleave across, the creator of the Bliss.
2. Let the infinite Consciousness clutch my affirmation to her bosom, as the Mother her child attractive to her heart in the fullness of her bliss; the soul state of love and joy which has its foundation in the Divine that I gain in the godhead of wideness and the godhead of harmony, even that which creates the Bliss.
3. Make to rise up in you that highest Seer of all seers, send over him in a surge the sweetness and the clarity: he is the godhead creative who brings forth into being for us the delightful treasures of our substance and they are brought forward by his working and are firmly established.
4. And thou, O divine Mind, by the mind lead us and by the radiances and by the illumined gods in us to that blissful state and by the soul that is founded in the divine and by the right mind of the godheads that preside in our sacrifice.
5. The divine who enjoys in us and is the creator of bliss and the master of nectar and the divine Mind that conquers all the wealth which the Coverer keeps from us and the Shaper in
1 Or. let it gain for me.
Knowledge and the Artisan of plenty and the many-thoughted Inhabitant, let all these foster us, immortals who break through for us to our goal.
Incomplete
THE FIRST HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 52
1. Forward! Shyavasva, violently on with thy illumined thought by the Thought-powers that sing to thee their sentences of light, gods of the sacrifice who have rapture of an inspiration that betrays them not. for it follows Nature's self-forming force.
2. Violent are they, yet comrades of a firm gleaming Strength; full of boldness in their driving, but linked each to each they protect by their self-truth thy march.
3. Swift-charging bulls of the diffusion, they leap beyond our Nights; then in their heaven as on our containing earth we mentalise the vast expansion of the Thought-gods.
4. In the Thought-gods we establish by their bold violence affirmation and sacrifice and they protect throughout our human epochs our mortality from the Enemy's harms.
5. They are soul-strengths that become adept in us for the conquest, perfect in force of achievement, no half-strengths of the light; forward through heaven illumine the sacrifice with thy verse for the Thought-powers, gods of the sacrifice.
6. By their golden gleamings. by their battling these soul-strengths move towards knowledge and cast out their searching spears; yea, the lightnings leap at the will of the Thought-gods,1 then of itself the Light of the Sun arises in our heaven.
1 Or. their lightnings obey them.
7. They increase the mights of our clay in the wide intervening spaces and in the energy of the rivers of Truth and in their place in the vast heaven.
8. Express upward the force of the Thought-gods who have the luminous power of the truth and skill to shape it: then of themselves these strengths of the soul are self-yoked and they charge in our forward march towards the light and bliss.
9. Both in the streams of its wide-flowing flood they purify themselves and garb themselves with its densities and here with the wheel of their chariots they break open the material hill.
10. With paths that come home to us and paths that radiate out wide from us and paths within us and paths that follow our movement, and by all these their Names extended, they come galloping to my sacrifice.
11. Now as human things they gallop in and now as yoke-steeds of the nervous Life and now they are thoughts from the supreme and wear richly-shining forms of vision.
12. They maintain the rhythms, they thirst for the waters and, victorious in the work, they dance about the source. They are unseen extenders of my being, my increasers who were with me for a blazing force in the vision.
13. They are finders of knowledge and their lightnings are as spears that search: they are seers, they are creators of harmony: O sage, bow down to the banded Thought-gods and give them delight by thy speech.
14. O sage, approach the banded Thought-gods as one comes to a friend with the goddess who discerns and disparts as with the bride of thy love; then shall they in thy heavens, affirmed, aggressive in their energy rush forward with thy thoughts.
15. If a man mentalises these, towards the godheads by the thought that bears, then by the thought that discerns and disparts he shall be joined to them in the light of knowledge, in their inspiration of movement, in their gleamings out.
16. That I might seek the divine Friend, they illumined, declared to me first their many-hued Mother,1 yea, they declared the bright Mother of the herds: then their Father who gives us the impulsions they declared, the Terrible One2 (they who are his mights).3
17. Seven by seven in their power, each seven his complete hundred gave to me: in the waters of Yamuna I cleanse my wealth and inspiration of her shining herds, I purify my glad wealth of his steeds.
THE THIRD HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 54
1. Raise thou up this voice of the word to the self-lustrous army of the Thought-powers, they who move the fixed hills; they who support the burning light and sacrifice on the back of heaven and have the luminous inspiration, to them sing out by the word a great mightiness of the soul.
2. These are the powers of the Life that are mighty and desire the waters of heaven and they increase our wide being; yoking their swiftnesses they speed everywhere; they join themselves to the lightning, the Third Soul cries aloud to them, the waters raise their voice and rush over all the earth.
3. These gods have the flashing powers of the lightning, they
1 The dappled Cow. mental Nature, mother of the Thought-gods by her light.
2 Rudra. the dread Master of Life, the terrible and easily-angered Compeller of the ascending evolution, father of the upward storming Thought-powers by his nervous impulsions.
3 Phrase within parentheses in original.
are the outflaming of the thunderstone, the fire and lights of the storm-wind of Life, Powers of battle that move the hills; they follow their clamorous path again and again with giving of the waters, shouting in their strength, uplifting their energy with a passionate delight in their force.
4. O violent ones, rushing you pervade in your strength the nights and the days and the mid-world and its kingdoms; when you drive like ships over open ranges or when you possess with your motion the difficult paths, O even then, you Life-powers, you come not by any hurt.
5. That force of yours. O ye Life-gods, has extended its far-reaching vastness as the Sun of Truth extends wide its working; ye are even as his white steeds whose pure light in their journeying none can seize and restrain, when you make to break apart the hill of being because it gives not up to you life's prisoned swiftnesses.
6. O Life-gods, O ordainers of things, your army blazes with light when you wrest out the flood like a woodcutter cleaving a tree. Now therefore shall you, with all your hearts on one object, lead our effort and struggle by an easy way even as his eye guides the wayfarer.
7. O Life-gods, he is not conquered, he is not slain, he stumbles not, nor is hurt nor suffers anguish, his felicities and his increasings are not harried nor made havoc of whom you speed on his way a seer or a king.
8. These Life-gods, they yoke the horses of the Life-power, they are like men that conquer groups and companies, they are as if Lords of Strength and aspiration; when these kings have upraised their voice, they feed (drink) the fountain of the waters and flood earth with the strong essence of the sweetness.
9. This wide earth becomes prone to the advancing movement
of the Life-gods, prone the heavens and prone the paths of the mid-air and prone the mountains.
10. When, O Life-powers, O souls of heaven, with your rich bringings you rejoice in the rising of its Sun of illumination, souls of the world of Light, ah, your horses fall not in their galloping, at once you attain the end of this path.
11. Lances are on your shoulders, on your feet are sharp anklets, on your bosoms golden adornments, O Life-powers happy1 in your cars: lightnings that are flamings of the flame of Will are in your luminous arms, on your heads are wide-extended turbans of golden light.
12. Strivers and fighters. O Life-powers, ye rush over that high heaven whose pure light cannot be seized where is the shining Tree; where their purifying strengths have come together and have become a blaze of light, desiring the Truth they raise a voice of far-extended proclamation.
13. O ye Life-powers that attain to absolute knowledge, may we be wide in our being, charioteers of the felicity you give which never departs from us even as the star Tishya from heaven: let the Life-powers in us delight in a thousandfold riches.
14. O Life-gods, you foster a felicity full of desirable energies, you foster the finder of knowledge who has illumined possession of equality, you for the bringer of the riches establish here his war steed of the plenitude, you his King of the inspired knowledge.
15. O you who at once increase our being, 1 seek from you that substance by which we shall build as if the world of light in the godheads. Life-powers, take joy in this my self-expression so that by its speed for our journey we may pass through safe to the goal of our hundred winters.
1 Or. shining.
THE FOURTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 55
1. Strong for the sacrifice the Thought-powers with their shining spears and the golden light of their bosoms hold a vast manifestation of our being; they journey with swift horses perfectly controlled. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
2. Of yourselves you hold in thought an energy according to your knowledge: great are you and widely illumine a vastness; yea and with your force you have measured out the mid-world. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
3. Together they were born, perfect in their becoming, together they are diffused and ever their godheads increase for the glory advancing more and more: wide are their splendours like the rays of the Sun of Truth. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
4. O ye Thought-powers, your greatness can enter into our being and carries with it a power of vision like the seeing of the bright Lord of Truth; and ye shall found us in the immortality. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
5. O Thought-powers, from that ocean of the Waters you raise up and shower down the rain of your plenty: and your herds that foster are not harried by the foe, O ye achievers of the work. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
6. When for horses of swiftness you have put your dappled deer in your yokes and have drawn about you your vestments of golden light, you scatter and sunder all that strives against you, O Thought-powers of the Life. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
7. Not the mountains of being nor its rivers can hedge you in. but where you discern your way, O Thought-powers, to that you go. Your movement is over all the earth and all the heavens. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
8. Whatsoever is of old and whatsoever is new, that which rises in us, O Dwellers in substance, and that which is expressed, of all this you become the knowers. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
9. Be a gladness in us, O Thought-powers, hurt us not with your blows; work out widely for us your much Bliss; enter into our affirmation and our companionship. One after the other their chariots roll as they journey to Bliss.
10. Lead us, you, O Thought-powers hymned by us, from this to a richer existence out of the sin and evil. Accept our giving and oblation, O lords of sacrifice; let us become masters of your riches.
THE FIFTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 56 .
1. O Flame of will, today I call down even from the luminous world of heaven the nations of the Thought-powers, the host that puts out its force, shaped with shining ornaments of golden light.
2. Even as thou conceivest aught in the heart, that so they express and to that they move; they who come nearest to thy callings increase into a terrible beauty.
3. Our earth full of their bounty moves rejoicing in the impulse of their blows. O Thought-powers, your force tears and cleaves asunder and it is hard to restrain like a luminous bull seeking the Terrible.
4. They move in their energy easily like shining herds that cannot be restrained: they impel forward by their journeyings even the stone of the heavens of light and the hill of being expressed with all its members.
5. Arise, now I call by my affirmings the multitudinous army of these Thought-powers, increased and diffused, a supreme host, as if a herd released of the shining ones.
6. Yoke to your car steeds of rosy light, yoke blood-red swiftnesses to your chariots, yoke those two swift brilliant coursers who are strongest to bear you in the yoke, your strongest bearers in the yoke.
7. Yea and that one shining many-voiced visioned steed of the plenitude hath here been placed; O Thought-powers, let him not delay long in your journeyings; urge him forward in your chariots.
8. Now we call the chariot of the Thought-powers that seeks the inspired knowledge, and there stands the Queen of the two firmaments with the Thought-powers and brings to us all delightful things.
9. I call that keen-shining labouring host of you brilliant (happy) in the chariot, for there she greatens with the Thought-powers perfect in her being, perfect in her felicity.
THE SIXTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 57
1. O violent ones who have one heart, travel with the God-mind in your chariots of golden light on a happy journey to the Bliss. Lo. this thought in us in which ye shall take joy! Come as the waters of heaven to the thirsting soul that desires its streams.
2. Thinkers with your weapons of sound and your lances that seek, bows of firmness, arrows of impulsion, quivers of persistence, perfect are your horses, perfect your chariots, perfect your weapons. O Thought-powers, sons of the many-hued Mother, so you journey to the Bliss.
3. You pour out earth and heaven as his wealth on the giver of the sacrifice, in fear of your movement earth's forests of pleasure start away from their roots. Sons of the many-hued Mother, you hew at the wide earth in your search for the Bliss when fierce in strength you have yoked your dappled ones.
4. O Thought-powers, you are the flamings of the Life-god, the rain of heaven is your robe, you are perfect in form and alike even as twin-born things: gold and rose are your swiftnesses: cleaving all things you are without hurt: you are great and vast like heaven.
5. Many-streaming, luminously adorned, very forceful, a vision of flaming lights, a rich felicity that falls not away from them, perfect in being from their birth, golden bosomed, the illumined singers of heaven enjoy the Immortal Name.
6. O Thought-powers, spears of light are on your shoulders, force and energy and strength are placed in your arms, on your heads are the mightinesses of the soul, weapons of war are in your chariots; all glories have their form1 in your bodies.
7. Give unto us, O Thought-powers, a rich felicity of the herds of the light and the horses of swiftness and chariots for our movement and great hero-energies and delight and joy. Sons of the Violent, create in us our self-expression; let me have enjoyment of your divine increasing.
1 Or. have taken form.
8. Ho! ye divine souls, Thought-powers, of the many plenitudes give us bliss, Immortals and Knowers of the Truth and Right, Seers ever young whose inspired hearing listens to the Truth: and your words express its Vastness and that Vastness is the rain of your diffusion.
THE SEVENTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 58
1. Now will I affirm that puissant host of these Thought-gods full of newborn expression, whose horses are swift and they carry strength in their chariots: they have self-rule, they have mastered Immortality.
2. They are a strong host blazing with light, who wear sharp bracelets on their hands and all whose actions are a rushing speed and they have creative knowledge and are givers of desirable boons, for they are immeasurable in their vastness and creators of beatitude; O mind illumined, adore these divine powers who have many riches for thee.
3. Let them come to you today bearing heaven's waters, all these Thought-powers that speed the rain of its abundance. O Thought-powers, behold here the flaming god high-kindled, cleave to him. O seers who are young for ever.
4. It is you, O powers of the sacrifice, that bring to birth for man the King of the great impulsions; yours is1 this Fighter who speeds forth his arms and smites with his clenched hands, yours, O Thought-powers, this master of hero-powers and excellent swiftnesses.
5. Those who moved not become like whirling spokes, those who were limited in knowledge are born like the days into
1 Sri Aurobindo wrote "comes" (for eti) here, but did not work it into his sentence. [Ed.]
ever greater vastnesses; for the Thought-powers, highest and most rapturous sons of the many-hued Mother, by the force of their own thinking have rained down their bounty.
6. When ye have gone forcefully forward, O Thought-powers, with your dappled deer for coursers and the strong galloping of your chariots, the floods of heaven shall flow in their channels, earth's pleasant growths shall be set in movement, and let Heaven too like a shining Bull (rainer luminous) thunder out its cry upon us.
7. In their passage our wide earth becomes more vast to us, and their desire like a husband places in her its own child; our life-currents they join to the yoke for their horses: they have made their rain as if the sweat of their toil, these sons of the Violent One.
8. Ho! ye divine souls, Thought-powers, of the many plenitudes give us bliss. Immortals and Knowers of the Truth and Right, Seers ever young whose inspired hearing listens to the Truth; and your words express its Vastness and that Vastness is the rain of your diffusion.
THE EIGHTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 59
1. Lo they are in clear movement for the giving of the bliss! Sing the word of light unto Heaven; I will offer the Truth to it from our earth. They are spreading abroad their swiftnesses, they are crossing through the mid-world; they are casting down upon us their own light in seas.
2. In fear of their force our earth trembles into vibration, like a ship that is full it moves from its place and voyages, agonised; for these are they of the far vision who awaken us to knowledge by their goings, within us these godheads strive on in knowledge towards the vastness.
3. Uplifted unto the highest is their horn as of shining herds for the glory; their vision is as that of the sun of the truth in the wide-outpouring of the light. You are beautiful like swift horses and born perfect, — like strong men you awake in your knowledge to the glory.
4. Who has tasted all the great things of your greatness, who your revelations of wisdom, O Thought-powers? who the virilities of your strength? You make our earth to vibrate like a ray of the Light when you bear her forward, for the giving of the bliss.
5. They are as if shining horses of swiftness, brothers each unto the other, they are like heroes that fight in the forefront and they war in our vanguard; they grow like strong men in their utter increase, they limit and measure out the vision of the Sun of Truth by their diffusions.
6. None of them is greatest or least or middle, they have broken out into birth and grown by their own vastness: from their birth they are perfect in their being: as such come to us, O ye sons of the many-hued Mother. O ye strong ones of heaven.
7. Like birds in their series1 they go flying in their strength to the ends of heaven and over all the high level of the Vastness: their galloping swiftnesses move away the clouds that envelop the hill wherever and however gods and men agree in their knowledge.
8. Let the heaven of the undivided Infinite shape our birth and the Dawns richly various with the divided life labour over it; for to the word that declared them these Thought-powers of the Violent One have poured out the treasury of heaven on the finder of knowledge.
1 Or. succession.
THE NINTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 60
1. I adore with obeisance of submission the Flame that shall perfectly foster us; here let him advance and be the discerning judge of our action ; I bring it to him as if with chariots speeding towards the plenitude and from the right hand of knowledge I would enrich my affirmation of the Thought-gods.
2. Ye who ascend, O Thought-powers. O violent ones, your chariots of ease and your dappled deer to whose footsteps we listen, in fear of you, O fierce strengths, our earth's pleasant growths start away from their roots, our earth herself trembles and vibrates and even her mountain.
3. The very hill that had grown into largeness was alarmed and its high level of heaven shook at your cry. When you play. O Thought-powers, with your searching lances, like uninterrupted waters you come running.
4. Like rich bridegrooms they have tricked out their bodies with shapes of golden light, even with forms of their natural being; glorious they seek glory, they are strong in their chariots, always they create greatnesses in their members.
5. None of these is least or greatest, brothers they have grown together towards a blissful opulence; a youth and a good worker is the Violent One. their father; their mother is as a cow that is a good milker and she is many-hued and bright in her days.
6. Whether, O Thought-powers, you stand fulfilled in joy in the highest or in the middle or in the lowest heaven, thence to us, O violent ones. And thou too. O Flame of Will, with these take knowledge of the oblation that we give to you as your sacrifice.
7. When the Will and you, O Thought-powers omniscient, you come driving from the higher heaven over the levels of the hill of our being, then in your rushing motion drunken with rapture destroying the powers that do us hurt establish desirable bliss for the sacrificer who presses the wine.
8. O Will, drink of the wine of delight and grow exultant: with the Thought-powers glorious in their hosts that speak the word of light and give the touch of bliss, beings all-pervading who purify us, drink, O universal Force of all, one with them in impulsion of speed by thy heavenly-shining vision.
THE TENTH HYMN TO THE MARUTS
V. 61
1. Who are ye, O Powers supreme in your glory, you who come to us one by one from the highest supreme?
2. Whence had you your horses'? whence your reins? how had you your puissance? what is the manner of your movement? Their seat is on the back Of Life, their rein of control is in its nostrils.
3. The whip of their urging falls on its loins: these powers labour it with their thighs as if women in the creation of a child.
4. So come over to me, O ye strong Males with your happy consort, that ye may dwell full of the heat of the Flame.
5. She who extends her arms to the hero hath affirmed by the seer of the ruddy-dark Life-powers, let her conquer for me the herd of the horses of swiftness and the herd of the shining cows and the flock of a hundred.
6. Woman is she. greater in bliss and substance than the Male who dwells not in the gods and has not the riches.
7. She knows the sufferer and the thirsty and the soul afflicted with its desire and she forms the mind in the godhead.
8 Because that Male is but half in his being and unaffirmed by the word, therefore he is called the Miser of life; only by the giving of her energy shall he become whole.
9. Young and full of rapture she shall cry aloud his path to the dusky soul; for the illumined who has attained to much riches and to a far flung splendour two ruddy steeds labour on the path.
10. And he shall give me a hundred of the fostering herd, even as the son of him who finds the steed, yea. he shall be in his largeness of bounty even as this host of the Life-powers that travel to their goal.
11. For drinking an intoxicating sweetness they are borne on by swift steeds and they hold here the inspirations of knowledge.
12. By their glory they blaze with light in the two firmaments of our being and they are as if a golden light above in our heavens.
13. Young is that host of the Life-gods and a blaze of light are their chariots; they cannot be confined, unwithheld they travel to the bliss.
14. Who knoweth of them where now they speed and rejoice born in the Truth, free from all hurt of sin?
15. You, O illumined powers, are leaders of the mortal by right thought and you hear him when he calls you to the journey.
16. You, with your many delights, destroy our hurters and you turn towards us, O lords of sacrifice, desirable treasures.
17. O goddess, wide-billowing Night, bear my affirmation over
to the son of the Render, carry my words to him like a charioteer.
18. And thou shalt say this for me to the Journeyer in the Chariot who has pressed out the wine, that my desire passes not away from me.
19. Lo, the Journeyer in the Chariot is a lord of the plenitudes, he dwells in the countries where are the radiant herds; his lodging is upon the mountains.
NODHA GAUTAMA
MANDALA I, SUKTA 58
A HYMN to Agni of the woodlands, the. Flame that feeds on and enjoys the pleasant things of the earthly being and when the emotional and vital being is offered to the gods becomes a creator of the divine birth and a giver of the supreme bliss and the immortal rapture.
1. Now again he has become the envoy of the illumined one; the Immortal born of force tramples on his way and by most effective paths, the middle world has measured out into form. He illumines by the power of the food-offering in the creation of the gods.
2. The ageless Flame is embracing his own proper food. When he means to give increase, he stands up swiftly on the fuel. The back of the burning god shines like a galloping horse. He shouts aloud as if making to thunder the peak of heaven.
3. He is the doer of the work with the Rudras and the Vasus, the vicar of sacrifice, the Immortal, the conqueror of treasures. The godhead shining among the peoples of these living beings is like our chariot and moves uninterruptedly to desirable things.
4. Many-voiced, urged by the breath of the wind, he stands abroad easily among the trunks with the series of his mouths of flame. Black is thy trail, O ageless Flame, when swiftly thou puttest forth thy male might upon the woodlands, O wave of lustrous fire.
5. He ranges like a conquering bull ranges among the herd. Impelled by the blast he is blowing like a storm down in the wood with his burning jaws even while he travels with the mass of his might the unwasted middle world. Then the winged things of heaven are afraid and all that stands and all that moves.
6. The Bhrigus set thee, O Fire, among human beings like a beautiful treasure, one swift to the call of men, an offering priest and desirable guest, like a happy friend for the divine birth.
7. The Flame is a priest strong for sacrifice and the seven offering energies choose him in the rites of the path for the singer1 of the word. He is one who wins by battle all riches. I serve him with my delight and travel to the ecstasy.
8. O Son of Force, O friendly greatness, give on this day to men who hymn thee, the joys of a bliss in which there is no wound or fissure. O Flame, Child of Might, keep thy singer far from evil with thy iron walls.
9. O wide-lustrous Flame, become an armour to thy singer. King of Riches, become that bliss to the lords of the riches. Keep far from evil thy singer, O Fire. At dawn may he quickly come rich with thought.
MANDALA I, SUKTA 60
1. The Lord of Life who breathes in the Mother brought to the Bhrigu like a treasure expressed by the word, a lavish felicity, a twice-born god. a glorious upholder, a thought-vision of the knowledge, a messenger who makes good advance and comes in a moment2 to the object of his journey.
2. Two are the races who cling to this teacher; the gods who desire in heaven and men who are mortals bring him the food-offering. One who was before heaven has sat down as the priest of sacrifice, one to be questioned, a lord of the peoples among the peoples, a creator.
3. Our new glory-song of him enjoys the honey-tongued god in
1 Or, pilgrim sacrifices of the speaker.
2 Or, at once
his birth from the heart of man, whom human living beings beget in the strength, delight for their offering, sacrificers in the seasons.
4. A1 desirable priest was set in the peoples, a2 desiring god, a3 purifying Vasu in men, a4 dweller in the home, a5 master of the house in the mansion; the Flame becomes a lord6 of many treasures.
5. O Flame, we the Gotamas making thee clear and bright like a swift horse who brings our plenty give expression to thee by our thoughts, to the lord of treasures. At dawn may he quickly come, rich with thought.
1,2,3,4,5 Or the.
6 Or. master.
The First Hymn of the Rig-veda
MANDALA I, SUKTA 1
1. Agni I desire who standeth before the Lord, the god who knoweth all the law, the Warrior who disposeth utterly delight.
2. Agni whom the ancient seers desired, the modern too adore; for in his strength he beareth all the Gods.
3. By Agni one getteth substance, yes, and increase day by day. and glorious success.
4. O Agni. that Lord here below whom thou encompassest on every side, is he that moveth in the Gods.
5. Agni, the Warrior whose strength is wisdom, he of the Truth who has the knowledge rich, cometh. a God attended by the Gods.
6. O beloved. O Agni. that thou desirest to do good to him who seeks to hurt thee, this is utterly thy nature, O Lord of Love.
7. To thee, O Agni who protectest us in darkness day by day, if with hearts full of self-surrender we come, then thou tow-erest to thy height.
8. To thee, controller and protector of all things below, of the Immortal brilliant force, ever increasing in thy home
9. So be thou easy to our approach as a father to his child, abide with us for our bliss.
अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवमृत्विजं | होतारं रत्नधातम् ||
[agnimilepurohitam yajnasya devam rtvijam, hotaram ratnadhatamam.]
अग्निम् [agnim]
The stem is अग्नि [agni], the root अग् [ag], with the addition of न [n] combined with इ [i].
The suffix न [n] is nominal, adjectival and verbal and as an adjectival or nominal suffix denotes substance or actuality; it uses, like all other such suffixes, the enclitics अ, इ, उ [a, i, u] to connect it with the root or with the termination or additional suffix or with both or neither.
The root अग् [ag] is a secondary formation from the primary old Aryan root
अ [a] which means essentially to be or, transitively, to have. अ
[a] expresses being in its widest and barest sense without any idea of substance
or attribute. The sound ग् [g] suggests application , contact or a gentle force
or insistence. Combining with अ [a] it gives the sense of being or having with
an application of force to action , to men, to things and easily acquires
significations on the one hand of strength, force , excellence, pre-eminence,
brilliance, on the other of gentle contact, love, possession. Illustrative
derivates are Latin and Greek ago,
[ago], to lead, drive, act; stir ; move ;
;
[agathos], excellent, good; Sanskrit अग्र [agra], foremost , in front; Greek
;
[akros] , top,
[akme], extreme height ;
[akte] extreme limit, border, coast:
[agan] , excessively (old Aryan अगाम् [agam] ) ;
,
[aganos], brilliant, graceful, gentle ;
[aglaos], brilliant;
[Agis]1 .
[Agamemnon]:
[agapao] I love, prefer: ager, a possession, field ; अगस्ति [agasti] , and with
the nasal, अन्ग् [ang], making the root अन्ग् [ang],
to stir, move, walk ; अन्ग [anga], beloved,
distinguished; afterwards used only, from the two senses, as a respectful, yet
affectionate mode of address ; अङ्गति [angati], fire
(also a conveyance, cf. ago, अन्ग् [ang]), अङ्गारः [angarah]
, a live coal, अङ्गिरः: [angirah], from the sense of brilliant, forceful.
distinguished , pre-eminent, foremost. The word Agni therefore means the strong,
brilliant, mighty, and may always suggest along with this, its proper
signification as determined by usage, an allusion to its other possible sense of
"loving" or "lovable" . Afterwards, it was confined to the seese of fire , Latin
ignis.
1 Doubtful reading
ईळे [ile]
Dialectical form of ईळे [ile], also ईड़े [ide]. Root ईळ् [il] with the addition of the verbal suffix ए [e] (composed of the connective enclitic अ [a] and the personal termination इ [i]).
The root ईल् [il]
is a secondary formation from the primary root इ [i]. ई [ī] , which means
essentially to be in relation to some thing, person, time or direction, so to
go, drive, press towards, master, study, approach and also means to produce,
arise, come into being, as opposed to the idea in अ [a] of static existence. The
sound ल [l] is the sabda of love, desire, entreaty,
gentle and wooing touch ; it expresses softness, sweetness, desire, and by a
development passion, intensity, force of the heart. Combining with ई [ī] it
gives the sense of close adherence, to embrace, cling to, love, adore, approach
with love or adoration; of pressure, to crowd, press, pack, press together, make
compact or strong ; of maternal production, motherhood, to bear, produce, give
birth to. It has also the primary senses of motion, to go, move, cast, strike ;
and by a development from the sense of clinging or persistence in a given place,
the opposite idea of motionlessness, rest, - to rest still, lie, sleep. Its
derivates are इला [ila], meaning
mother and applied to the earth, a cow, Speech ; इलिका [ilika] , earth: इली
[ili], a short sword or stick ; and from the almost identical root इड़् [id] or
ईड़् [īd] , the nouns इड़् [id] and इडा [ida]
having the same meanings, and also the meaning "libation,
offering, that which is cast or thrown on the altar or
earth", " a draught, i.e. what is taken down at a cast
into the throat", " heaven, the place of bliss, love and
delight" ; ( इड़् [id] also means people or subjects, from another sense, to control, master, rule, cf. ईष् [is]):
इड़ः: [idah] as an epithet of Agni;
ईडा [īda] love, desire, prayer or praise: ईड़नम् [idanam], adoration: ईड़य [idya] or ईदेन्य [īdenya)
adorable, desirable. Greek derivatives are
[iladon], in a close throng, pressed together,
[eile), a crowd, troop ;
[eileo], press together, gather.
assemble, hem in ;
[eilar], a stronghold, fortification.
The word here means
not to praise or hymn as taken by the commentators and
Europeans, but to love, desire, adore, as is evident from
the use of ईड़यः [idyah] in a later verse. इड़ः [idah] as
applied to Agni means the adored, loved or loving, from
the other meaning of the root अग् [ag]
noted under the word अग्नि [agni] above.
पुरोहितम् [purohitam]
Two
words, not one. पुरो [puro], in front, originally fifth
case (genitive) of पुर् [pur].
meaning door, gate. wall, front; then city or house - cf.
Greek
[pule] , gate:
[pulos] . walled fort;
;
[polis], town: पु [pu] with the nominal suffix
र् [r], in the sense of "cover,
protect" . common to primary, प् [p] roots, as in
प् [pa], पठ् [path],
पा [pa], पाल् [pal], पति [pati], पुंस् [pums]
(originally husband , protector,
then male). पुमान् [puman], पुटम्
[putam] (cup, sheath, covering). पुष्
[pus], to protect, nourish; पिटः [pitah] (roof, house.
basket), पिठरं [Pitharam], etc., Latin pudor.
shame.
हितम [hitam],
fixed , stationed, put, root हि [hi] with adjectival suffix त [ta], in the sense
of to cast, throw down , strike in , fix. plant, common
to the primary ह् [h] roots ; afterwards the sense of
striking predominated, the other being preferably
expressed by धा [dha] and other
roots. Greek
[kheo] (old Sanskrit हया [hya]), I pour,
[hiemi] (old Sanskrit हियामि [hiyami), I throw, cast,
send.
पुरोहितम्
[purohitam] means him who stands before or in front of
and was afterwards applied to the purohita or chief priest at the sacrifice.
यज्ञस्य
Root
यज् [yaj] with the nominal suffix न
[na].
यज् [yaj]
is a derivative from the primary root य [ya], which has the essential significances of motion to or from , yearning, contact and union. The sound ज् [j]
adds to it the idea of sharply applied and decisive or
effective force in the motion, desire or contact. Hence
it gets the meaning of effort, seeking after, wooing, application to, adhesion or strongly maintained union or contact. The sense of successful effort gives that of mastery. Cf. यम्
[yam], यत् [yat],यस् [yas] (
आयासः [ayasah ],
प्रयासः [prayasah], यमः [yamah] .
नियमः [niyamah] . यत्न [yatna],
यति [yati]) . It means in its nominals labour,
actiun , control, mastery, Yoga, and when used transitively, ruler, master, Yogin. The word यमः [yamah] had the same
significance. In another sense, to cast before, hand over
to , cf.यच्छ् [yacch], it means to give. offer,
sacrifice. A third sense is to woo, court, worship, adore. Cf. Greek
[iallo] , to desire. यज्ञः [yajnah] may therefore mean either, the Master, the Almighty. the Lord, Vishnu , Ishwara ; or, action: or, yoga: or, sacrifice. All three senses have to be taken
into consideration in the Veda. Here and ordinarily it means Ishwara, the Lord.
देवम् [devam]
Root दिव् [div] compounded
after modification with the nominal and adjectival suffix अ [a], which gives
simply and vaguely the sense of being.
The root दिव् [div] or दीव् [dīv] has two common senses, to play or sport and to shine, besides some of the significances common to द् [d] roots, viz. to strike, throw ; hurt, cause to suffer, vex, torment, harass; destroy ; squander, give ( द[da], दा[dā], दान [dana]). The sense of to play, gamble, to sport, gambol, rejoice, is its most characteristic significance. The sense of shining comes from the sense of coruscation, brilliance caused by light playing brilliantly, vibrating powerfully. The Gods are therefore primarily those who rejoice, to whom life is play, lila or ananda - their occupations being described in the Smriti by the significant expression देवानुक्रीड़नम् [devanukridanam] . Deva subsequently came to have the sense, luminous or flashingly brilliant, jyotirmaya, attached to it ; also, heavenly, from दिव् [div], the shining or blissful regions, and was used in the ancient language in all these senses, the associations of which have come down to us in the modern sense of देव [deva]. The gods are the jyotirmaya beings of the tejomaya, luminous chandraloka or svar and jyotirmaya, brilliant suryaloka or mahar, the two heavens attainable by mortals.
ॠत्विजम् [rtvijam]
An ancient compound word
ॠत् [rt] and विज् [vij], formed in the early childhood of the language before
the modern laws of Sandhi were applied.
ॠत् [rt] is the root ऋ
[r] with the verbal and nominal suffix त् [t] expressing either action or
quality. ऋ [r] signifies essentially to move or go vibratingly straight or swift
to a mark. It means to go, to go straight: to attempt, attack; reach, acquire;
master. know : think. Hence various meanings for its derivatives, e.g. ॠक्यम्
[rkyam ). acquisitions. wealth; ॠध् [rdh], to flourish, prosper; ॠद्धिः [rddih]
; ॠष्टिः [rstih], a weapon, sword: ॠक्ण [rkna], wounded, etc.; but the common
meaning is based on the idea of straightness, fixity, directness, truth ,
knowledge, as in ऋजु [rju], ॠतम् [rtam ]
(truth, law, rule) , ॠतु [rtu] (fixed time, season ; order,
rule) ; ऋषि [rsi] , knower, thinker, Latin rear, I think , ralio, reason, etc.;
ऋभु [rbhu], wise, adept, expert. The word ॠत् [rt] here means truth or law.
विज् [vij] is a
derivative root from the important primary root वि [vi], which has essentially
the significance of coming into existence, so to appear, open, separate, be
discerned. These meanings can be traced through a host of derivatives in
Sanskrit, Latin and Tamil. From the sense of appearing, being open, we get tra
nsitively the meaning to see, know, Latin video, Greek
[eidon],
[oida],
[isthi] ,
etc.; (cf. Tamil विल् [vil] , to give light, shine ; विळ् [vil] eye) : Sanskrit
विद् [vid]. The form विज् [vij] implies successful, decisive, complete or
spontaneous sight or knowledge. ऋत्विज् [rtvij] is therefore the knower of
truth, the drashrii of the Veda, Agni jiiravedas, or the adept in law and rule.
In the latter sense it came to mean a sacrificial priest versed in the rules of
the sacrifice. The later Nirukta, fixing on the sense of priesthood, the only
one then known, very naturally derived it from ऋतु [rtu] and इज् [ij] ,
sacrificing in season, which is the only possible combination by modern rules
and arrives at the right meaning by another road.
होतारम् [hotaram]
Root § [hu)
after modification with the verbal termination तृ [tr] .
The essential significance of ह् [h] roots, हा [ha], हि [hi]
and हु [hu], is violent contact, movement, application of force. Their
primary meanings are to strike, dash, hit, destroy, slay: then, to cast, throw,
hurl, fling; then, to hurl forth the voice, shout, call. The sense of
abandonment, the sense of casting a libation on the altar, and other derivate
senses are of later origin. होता [hota] in the old Aryan tongue meant a slayer, striker, destroyer, warrior:
हवः: [havah] and आहवः: [ahavah] meant slaughter, battle, war;
हविः: [havih], slaying, strive; हु [hu], to hurl, fight, shout,
call, invoke assistance (cf. Greek
[boe],
[boetheo]). The sacrificial application is of later origin and belongs to the Dwapara Yuga, the age of sacrifice and ceremonial.
रत्नधातमम् [ratnadhatamam]
रत्न
[ratna] and धा [dha] with the superlative termination तम [tama].
The
word रत्न [ratna] is the word रत् [rat] with the adjectival and nominal suffix न
[na] expressing quality or substance. The root is र [r], which has as its
essential significance vibration, swift repeated action, tremulous, eager or
impetuous contact, shock or motion, and its characteristic significance, to
play, enjoy, sport, take delight ; to love, embrace etc.; also, to shine,
coruscate, shed lustre. It and its derivatives also mean to rule, govern,
protect ; to fight , attack; set to, begin ; to move rapidly, shout loud, make a
noise. The word रत् [rat] had several of these meanings, but chiefly delight ,
enjoyment, love, sexual pleasure, passion, lustre, brilliance, and रत्न [ratna]
therefore means delightful , brilliant, and as a noun delight, ananda, or
lustre. It is in later Sanskrit that it took the sense of jewel, from the
adjectival sense, brilliant.
धा [dha] is the root धा [dha] to arrange, place, dispose, used as an adjective or noun. रत्नधा [ratnadha] therefore means disposer of delight, रत्नधातमम् [ratnadhatamam], mightiest disposer of delight.
It is the same idea of discernment, discretion or explanation, allotting things to their place, showing, teaching1 — the family of special significances which have since had so important and brilliant a history.
Once again what is the upshot of this substantially exhaustive statement of the significances in Sanskrit of the di family? Once again the result never varies. It is precisely the same. It is as if this particular family in Sanskrit, at any rate, were insistent on proving the theory with which we started, on declaring themselves all one family, with the same spirit, the same temperament, the same intellectual equipment, the same physical features. Absolutely, we have arrived at hardly a single new significance and none which can be isolated from the rest of the family.
We turn to the du roots. We start with du, to burn, torment, afflict, give pain, be pained; also to go or move. Then there is duna. pained, burned, agitated (the essential idea in all emotional senses in this family, good or bad); duhkh, to pain, afflict, distress and duhkha, pain, grief, trouble, difficulty, unpleasant, difficult, uneasy, with its derivatives; dudi, a small tortoise (duli also means tortoise); dunduka, dishonest, fraudulent, bad-hearted; dundama (probably from root dam, cf. damaru), dundubhi, dundu, dundubha, a drum; dunduma, the sound of a drum; dudh, to kill, hurt, injure, propel, with its derivatives; dur, a particle prefix with the sense of hard, bad: durv. to hurt or kill; duvas, active (cf. daks, devanam.
[drasso]); dul, to toss up, swing: dus, to corrupt, spoil, destroy: to censure, annul; to be bad, impure, sinful, and its derivatives (cf. damsa. a fault or defect); dusika. a paint brush (cf. dih, to smear), rheum of the eyes: dusya. meaning corruptible, pus, or poison, but also cotton, a garment, a tent. — the common root sense to cover suddenly turning up in this unexpected quarter as if to point out the entire identity of these families; duh, to milk or squeeze out (here we have the original sense of violent pressure, to yield or grant, to
1 The paragraphs which follow. are the continuation of an article published incompletely in SABCL Volume 27. This first clause is taken from page 179 of that volume. [Ed.]
enjoy; to hurt, pain, distress) and its derivatives (cf. also dogdhr and dosaka, both meaning a calf); du, to afflict, be in pain; durva, kusa grass (cf. darbha); dura, far, distant (cut off, separated); dusyam, a tent; and finally duta, a messenger, which must derive from the sense of impelling, sending, we have already found in this family. We have also do, to cut, divide, mow, reap: dora, a rope; dosas, dosa, night, darkness (to cover, hide); dos, dosa, dosan, the arm, forearm, the side of a figure (probably, to cover, contain, embrace); doha.... Once more, we receive nothing but confirmation of our theory.
There are, finally, two connected families, connected, as we might say, by marriage with the seed sounds y and v. In the first we have dyu, to encounter, attack; dyu, day, sky, brightness, heaven. sharpness, fire, with a number of kindred words, dyauh, dyumat. dyuman etc.; dyut, to shine, elucidate, express, with its derivatives; dyuta, gambling, play, battle: dyuna, sportive, sorry: dyai, to disfigure, despise (cf. div, to make sport of, squander, make light of). In the second we have dvi, two (to separate) and its derivatives; dvandva, a couple, strife, dual, fortress (to strengthen), secret (to hide); dvar, dvara, door, gate, aperture: dvis, to hate, dislike (cf. druh etc.), with its derivatives; dvipa, shelter, protection, refuge, an island (to divide, cut off, separate), a division of the world, continent: dvipin, a tiger, leopard (to tear, rend); dvr, to cover, hinder (obstruct), disregard, misappropriate (cf. dasyu, a robber). Again, an absolute confirmation.
We have completed our survey of this great D clan of Aryan words, as far as the Sanskrit language holds them and introduces them to us in its classical form. No one, I think, can regard this evidence without being driven inevitably to the conclusion that here we have no chance aggregation of words, no language formed by chance or arbitrarily, but a physico-mental growth as organic, as clearly related in its members, species, families, sub-families as any particular species of physical fauna and flora. The words claim each other for kinsmen at every step. Not a single family, not one small group fails to bring forwards its claim, its documents, its oral evidence. All stand together, shoulder to shoulder, as closely as any Highland clan or savage tribe. The most opposite meanings meet in a single word, but always there is the evidence borne by the
rest of the family to their common origin not only in body but in spirit, not only in physical sound form, but in mental sense origin and development. The proof is complete.
We have then a single great family with a common store of sense-property which each uses according to his needs. We have a number of meanings all going back to a few radical significances. What are those significances? First, forceful, effective or violent division or separation: second, swift, oppressive, overbearing motion; third, heavy pressure or oppression: fourth, violent, oppressive or strongly agitated or simply emphatic emotion; fifth, strong, heavy sound; sixth, strong, overpowering scent; seventh, strong or swift action: eighth, strong, brilliant or oppressive heat or light; ninth, close, solid and heavy contact or cohesion. I have stated them at random, but I think a little reflection will show us that these nine fundamental ideas resolve themselves into the single idea of a heavy, decisive pressure, sometimes the idea of weight, sometimes the idea of decision predominating, applied to the fundamental experiences which would recommend themselves to the newly awakened and virgin observation of mankind; viz. sound, contact or touch, (form), light, (taste), smell, motion and action, sensation objective and subjective. From the da family form and taste seem to be absent; either they have lost it or never applied themselves to these provinces of human observation. But we cannot yet say this precisely; for we have the word deha, body, the Greek 6£uas [demas], shape, body; [demo],
[demas], shape, body;
[demo], to build. It is obvious also that words expressive of taste must necessarily be fewer and more limited than the words expressing sound or touch. It is possible that words of form and taste were drawn by a figure from other primary senses and were not in themselves a primary application of the original mind-impressions to the terms of intellectual appreciation. We shall have to examine languages more widely before this question can be decided. Another idea that hardly appears in this clan is that of human speech itself as distinguished from sound in general.
I, therefore, add an additional hypothesis to those 1 have already formulated, viz. that the original guna or mind-impression created naturally and automatically by the seed sound (in this case the consonantal sound d). was applied primarily to the simple categories of sense observation, contact, sound, light, motion and action, including
speech, sensation, and perhaps taste and form. It is no more than a hypothesis at present; for other sound families will have to be examined before this hypothesis can be either established or dismissed as untenable. I put it forward here for the sake of completeness.
It is not necessary to suppose that this perception of mental or sensational sound values, of the particular impression on mind-sensation of a particular inarticulate sound defining and separating itself on the human tongue or even its systematic application to the categories of sense observation was willed, conscious or intellectually reasoned out in the men who first framed their utterance into the vocables of Aryan speech. Nature, whatsoever Nature may be, guides the unconscious tree and flower, the unreasoning insect and animal to self-expression, to self-organisation, to self-evolution, and the result exceeds the best efforts of the deliberate human intellect. Why should she not have done the same for human speech? Instead of saying that men applied the guna of the particular sound to the sensations they wished to express, let us say that as in plant and tree and animal the sound itself, by the force of Nature, by the law of its own activity, svadham arm, rtumranu, "according to its own self-arrangement in the straight line of the truth of things inherent in it," and helped by the half conscious responsive awakening mind, applied itself in the service of mind to the various classes of sense observation which his awakening mentality demanded. I do not say this is the final and complete truth of the matter. But it is the only part or aspect of the truth of it at all consonant with our present way of approaching Nature as a blind force working in matter out of unconscious through half conscious into fully conscious action. It is the only theory which, provided it can establish itself, deserves, as it seems to me, to be called in the modern sense, rational and scientific; for it takes its stand on the two natural movements which constitute speech, the physical movements of articulation and the mental movements, partly sensational, partly discriminatory which attend the physical movements. And it seeks to establish itself by reducing the relation between these two motions to classified order and ascertained rule.
Chapter III
We have not, however, approached even yet the last step of our theory. For as there are families of words, families of root-sounds, families of simple sounds, so also are there families of seed sounds. These families are known to all grammarians and in Sanskrit they have been distinguished with a faithful and peculiar care and related to those parts of the organ of speech which play the decisive part in their articulation; but their relations to [...]1 seem never to have been studied. The seed sound D belongs to the group called dentals, which consists in Sanskrit of the hard t, the soft d, the aspirates th and dh and the dento-nasal n — for every consonant group except the liquids, the sibilants and the isolated aspirate h is composed of these five members, the hard consonant leading, the soft following, each attended by its corresponding aspirate and a nasal bringing up the rear. Sanskrit has three sibilants and even these it attributes to the complete groups; s to the dental, s to the palatal and s to the cerebral family. The question then arises, are these groups only related in sound? or are they related also in guna and therefore in signification tendency. If there is any soundness in the theory I have been advancing, then as we have found the word-families united in a single root-family with a single paternal root (as, dal, dah, dabh etc.), these root-families united through the paternal root in a single primitive root-family, phratria or brotherhood (as, the da family) with one paternal simple root, and these primitive brotherhoods united through their paternal root (da, di, du, dr) in a single clan with one paternal seed sound (d), so also we ought to find kindred clans united through their ruling-sound into a single tribe based on the kinship of the paternal seed sounds. The sound d being closely related to the sound dh, must hold a similar guna and therefore carry with it similar intellectual significances, and, though they may coincide in a less degree, t, th and even perhaps n, though this is more doubtful, ought to be not far in guna and sense from the d and dh word-clans. We must now proceed to examine the facts and perceive how the theory fares in this last and final test.
We will take first the aspirated soft dental dh. In the last chapter I have taken the reader very much at random through the word-jungle, pointing out as we went, how the different trees fell into groups,
1 Two or three illegible words.
all belonging to families of one species. In this chapter, the theory having once been found, springing up of itself as we progressed, we can afford to proceed with more order and method; we can collect our specimens and present them ready assorted for examination and even speak with greater confidence about the precise nature of their connections.
The commonest sense of the d roots, a significance which we found so pervasive that we were first inclined to take it as the root significance, — was the idea of violent dividing or rending1 pressure, destruction, especially in the senses "to hurt, kill, injure, destroy; to afflict, distress, give pain: to burst open, cleave, split; to deceive, cheat, etc." Do we find the same senses or the same tendency in the dh family? We find dhrad. to divide, split or pluck (flowers); we find dhvanksa, a carpenter; but we do not find any other words with the precise idea of splitting or breaking open or cutting — a deficiency of some importance for the proper appreciation of the guna of the seed sound dh. On the other hand the sense of hurting, injuring, killing, giving pain, is sufficiently common. We have dhakk. to destroy, annihilate; dhanus (dhanu), a bow or an archer; (note dharma also occurs in this sense, but this does not prove that the idea of bow is "the thing held", for dhr has other senses, "to drink, to flow", and its secondary roots mean to hurt, kill, injure), dhrs and its derivatives, to hurt, injure, offend, outrage, attack, violate: dhati, attacking, assaulting: dhu. to treat roughly, injure; dhur. distress or affliction: dhurv and dhurv, to hurt, injure, kill: dhur. to hurt, kill; dhurta. dhattura. dhustura, the white thorn-apple (with its intoxicating and stupefying drug); dhulaka, poison: dhorita. injuring, hurting, striking; dhru and dhvr, 10 kill: dhvams and its derivatives, to perish, fall, sink; also to scatter or sprinkle. We find dhiks, to be harassed, weary; dhyama, soiled or unclean (spoiled, withered); dhrakh. to be dry or arid: dhuka and dhava. a rogue or cheat: dhipsu. deceptive: and did. dhiti. to disregard, disrespect. We find the simple sense of heavy or strong pressure in dhav and its derivatives, to rub. brighten, polish: and in dhvr. to bend, which we have already had with the sense of killing. This harvest is not so plentiful, and that has its significance, but neither is it entirely scanty. We may notice also the sense of giving in dhartram, a sacrifice: dhayu. liberal, and
1 Doubtful reading.
dhenu, a gift, present; but we must also notice that the impression here seems rather to be that of placing than of distributing.
But then we observe that the sense of pressure so scanty otherwise gives more liberal results in two special senses, two particular kinds of strong and insistent pressure,— to shake or agitate and to blow. We have dhu, and dhu with many derivatives meaning to strike, agitate, shake off, blow away, to kindle or excite and, directly from the sense of pushing, to resist or oppose; we have dhunana, dhuka and dhavanaka in the sense of wind: dhuli, the driven dust or ground powder and derivative senses of smoke, fog. incense etc. in dhupa, dhuma and their derivatives, — dhuma meaning also eructation and dhup, to obscure or eclipse: dham, to blow, with its derivates and, connecting these roots with the sense of hurting or giving pain, we have dhamana, cruel. A certain idea of action, labour or effort appears vaguely as in the d family, in dhma, to manufacture and dhuma.
a place prepared for building (cf. Greek
[hidruo].1 I build), but as in the da family, the sense does not prominently emerge We seem to have also the sense of covering, cutting off, in dhara. night (also meaning edge) and perhaps dhvantam. darkness. But dhvantam may also come from the idea of thickness, crassness more proper to this family. Here again we find a difference between dh and d.
Another class of meanings which we noticed in the da family were those which expressed some kind of motion and we perceived that a swift, overpowering pressure of motion was the original idea in that family. In the dha clan also there are a number of words conveying directly or indirectly the idea of motion. As we have dru, to run, there, so here we have dhav, to run, glide, charge, to flow, to give milk, to wash. We have dhunayati. flows; dhuni and dhenu, meaning river; dhena and dhira, the ocean: dhara, meaning a stream, current, shower, the pace of a horse, a wheel (cf. dalbha etc.): dhuma, a meteor; dhor, to run or trot (of a horse), with its derivatives; dhorani, series, tradition; dhara, tradition, fame or rumour, line, series (but here the idea of continuing may be the source); dharuna, water; dhras, to toss up; dhur, dhvaj, dhra, dhru, all in the sense of going or moving; dhraj, to go or move; dhraji, a gliding, persistent motion; dhraji, impulse, storm or wind. It is evident that here there is a great stress not on the force of the motion, though this sometimes emerges, but on its persistence.
1 Doubtful Reading (Incomplete)