READING V.
[English Version by Google Translate]
(1) See. Section I, page 270, note 1; page 291, footnote 110.
(2) See. section I, page 295, note 31.
(3) See. section I, page 258, note 29, and page 260, note 37.
(4) Also translated: Let the Devas treat as their children.
(5) Name of Agni.
(6) The poet uses the word Ila in the plural.
(7) Name of the cloud, or of Indra himself, who has this cloud as his base of abode. Ahi, as we have seen, is a name of those Asuras who dwell in the clouds. The word budhna means root, lower part.
(8) That is to say, Agni, does libations. From the libations of the sacrifice the cloud is formed, which Indra must melt on the earth. In this same sense, the sun can also be called the son of waves or libations, since it is born of sacrifice.
(9) Name of Indra.
(10) Anna devata, also called Pitou.
(11) See. Section I, page 271, note 36; page 286, footnote 39.
(12), Natural approach to those who breathe an odor in the air.
(13) Vatapi is the cloud that the wind pushes, and whose volume it increases. The Puranas contain a legend of Vatapi and Agastya. The commentary gives Vatapi for a form of Pitou, god of offerings.
(14) The god of the libation, whom the commentary wants to distinguish from Pitou.
(15) The poet designates the somalata, which is the sarcostema viminalis, or the asclepias acida; and, doubtless also, the other plants which can be employed to form the matter of the offerings.
(16) The name of these cakes is carambha; they are made of fame flower and quail. It seems to me that the shape of these cakes is that which the cloud which the vapors of the offerings contribute to form must present.
(17) I will remind the reader that, by the word deva, I mean the ministers of the sacrifice, or else those deified beings who represent the rites and the hymns.
(18) Name of Agni. See. section I, page 251, note 56.
(19) For this passage, I refer to the notes found in section I, page 252, note 59; and Section II, page 552, note 30.
(20) See. section I, page 246, note 23. The commentator says that these three goddesses are different forms of the essence of Aditya, belonging, Bharati to heaven, Ila to earth, Saraswati to air.
(21) See. section I, page 252, note 61. Twachtri is the vital fire, and we see how it can contribute to the growth of forms.
(22) Vanaspati, name of Agni.
(28) No, of an offering made while pronouncing this word.
(24) That is to say, those who bear the cost of the sacrifice and those who oversee the ceremonies, in a way the laity and the clerics.
(25) These are the children of Cakchivan.
(26) Name of Agni.
(27) See, for the word apri, note 54, page 251, section I. The explanation of this word must be modified here; the sun takes the place of Agni.
(28) I suppose that the poet designates here Agni and the sun, the fire of the sacrifice and the solar fire. The hymn represents the state of heaven before the sacrifice begins.
(29) What I call darkness, by a kind of hypallage, is called in the text the invisible.
(30) Here are the names of these plants:. sara, saccharum sara, vulg. sarahari; cousara, kind of bad sara, hollow; darbha, otherwise cousa, poa cynosuroides; senya, or serya, barleria cristata, otherwise aswabala, saccharum spontaneum; moundja (saccharum munja); virana (andropogon muricatum).
(31) There is an antithesis here that I do not reproduce: the invisible have been seen.
(32) These darknesses are formed by vapors similar to those that the poet supposes elsewhere to come from the offering of the soma. I don't think, with the commentary, that the Soma is the moon here, the abode of the dark vapors of the night: it even seems that this abode is rather the sun.
(33) These genies are called yatoudhanas.
(34) The word rendered by this paraphrase is souravan. The sun must send as rain the vapors which rise towards it; he collects them, and resembles those men who distribute, under a tent which shelters the drinkers from the heat of the day, spirit drinks (soura).
(35) This liquor is the rain itself, which prolongs the life of man by giving the earth a happy fertility. The god who forms it is Indra.
(36) We have seen that this number twenty-one was formed of three times the seven tongues or rays of Agni. If the number three is not formed by that of the savanas, it is perhaps by that of the three colors which compose the tint of the rays, namely, red, black, and white.
(37) See. section I, page 264, note 81.
(38) Note 36 gives an account of the twenty-one flannes; note 80 of reading II, section I, teaches us what is meant by the seven rivers. The rays of the sun, on one side, pump the vapours; these vapors fall in rain, and are, on the other hand, received by the rivers: such is, it seems to me, the meaning of this passage.
(39) Who is this Couchoumbhaca character? I suppose it is Indra, the god who puts order in the world, and whose lightning must separate the clouds to extract water from them, as it is said in this verse. The commentator would seem to believe that it is an Asura, presumed ruler of darkness. We can still think that this character is played here by the poet Agastya, acting by virtue of sacrifice, and destroying evil spells by a species of vidya or charm, to form a beneficent rain; so that the Couchoumbhaca would be the name given to the priest who makes a conjuration whose result must be salutary. My first explanation seems more natural to me. Couchoumbhaca and Harichthas, according to me, are the same person. In the case where the function of the Couchoumbhaca is admitted, instead of the thunderbolt it would be necessary to put the cup of the sacrifice.
(40) Metaphor which indicates that the vapors of the night have become a beneficial wave. I observed myself in the translation of this hymn, to employ no expression which could recall legends which I believe to be more modern than the Rig-Veda, and which are like its poetic commentary. Thus, I avoided rendering the word vicham by poison, because I would have entered into the spirit of those authors who represent the vapors as the poison of the serpents of the night. Now, these snakes are the clouds that snake over the sky. The sun, compared to a bird, becomes Garouda, and makes war on these serpents. The hymn that I have just translated did not seem to me to present similar ideas: this is what should lead to the rejection, with even more confidence, of a piece inserted here, where it is a question of this race of celestial serpents. The first mandala (See section I, page 245, note 1) ends here; it seems that the copyist has the habit of closing each mandala in this way with a piece of his invention, which is not mentioned in the commentary, and which moreover betrays itself by its modern style. The second mandala is called Gritsamada. The first was that of the hundred Rishis.
(41) The poet says Asura.
(42) Name of Agni, who gives wealth.
(43) It seems to me that there is another Gritsamada, son of Sounaca, of the family of Bhrigou.
(44) In the text we find the word Prisni, which is used for the earth. However, it can also mean air (antarikcha).
(45) Ayou and Manou are used, in this sentence, in a general way to say the man.
(46) See. section I, page 249, note 39.
(47) This hymn is related to the thirteenth of reading I, section I, and the sixth of reading II of section II. I refer to the notes of these two hymns for information relating to the epithets.
(48) It must be remembered that Twachtri is the vital fire, which animates the forms to which it comes to ally itself.
(49) The children of Ousidj are the descendants of Cakchivan, or else the word Ousidj must be understood as a synonym of priest.
(50) That is to say that the reflections of the fire spread over the officers of the sacrifice.
(51) The evening sacrifice.
(52) Hotri. The poet, in this hymn, employs seven different expressions, assigned to the various functions of the priest. I try to translate them by a paraphrase which explains their root.
(53) The priests have just produced the fire: they are his fathers, and he, by protecting them, will show himself to be their father.
(54) Guides should have been put in the feminine: because rasmi means both reins and rays. Now, these seven guides or rays are the seven officiants who take part in the sacrifice (hotracas).
(55) Potter.
(56) Agni, in sacrifice, is born and dies; he is considered as a Mauou, as a mortal.
(57) Dadhanou: this word seems to me to be one of the seven names assigned to the ministers of sacrifice.
(58) Prasastri.
(59) Nechtri.
(60) These three sisters are the flames of the three fires garhapatya, ahavaniya and dakchina. See. book I, page 251, note 52.
(61) I thus render the masculine word matri, vessel which measures, which contains the libation. This word also signifies the man, the father of the family who measures, who composes the sacrifice. The commentary sees a feminine name here, and relates it to the enclosure of the sacrifice (vedi). This sister, in question here, is the spoon (djouhou) which is used for libations. We can also give the name of matri (mother) to the reservoir of the waves of sacrifice.
(62) Adwaryou.
(63) Ritwig.
(64) It is born as sacrificial fire and as solar fire: hence its name of dwimatri.
(65) This epithet is remarkable, Bharata. The commentary gives this word as being a name assigned to priests.
(66) The text carries the cows, the bulls and the octopodes. I thought that by the word cows it was necessary to understand, as we have often seen, the flames of the hearth; by the word bulls (oukchan), the libations and by the word octopods, the invocations divided into eight padas. There is also a meter called achti. The commentator says that the word achtapadi relates to the cow when she is full, because her feet and those of her calf form the number of eight. The word achtapadi can also designate the platter of offerings, divided into eight compartments. See. Wilson's dictionary, achtangarghya. The sacrifice in which the sacred butter is offered in eight vessels is called achtacapala.