Note [1:13:9:1]1. On Ila, see H. O., Religion des Veda, pp. 72, 326.--With regard to Mahi Bergaigne (Rel. Vedique, I, 322) has pronounced the opinion that 'Bharati et Mahi, qui, tantot se remplacent, tantot se juxtaposent tout en paraissant ne compter que pour une, se confondent aux yeux des rishis.' But Pischel (Ved. Studien, II, 84 seq.) has shown that the eminent French scholar was wrong, and that really Mahi ('the great one') is independent of Bharati. Pischel's

own opinion that Mahi is a name of the goddess Dhishana, does not seem to me to be established by sufficient reasons.--On the meaning of these three goddesses Prof. Max Muller writes: 'I should not fix on Nourishment as the true meaning of Ila. Originally those three goddesses seem to be local: Ila, the land or daughter of Manu, the Sarasvati, and another river here called Mahi.'

Verse 11.

Note [1:13:11:1]1. To me it seems evident that the tree, or, to translate more literally, the lord of the forest (vanaspati) invoked in this Apri verse can only be the sacrificial post (yupa) to which the victim was tied before it was killed. The yupa is called vanaspati in the Rig-veda (III, 8, t. 3. 6. ii) as well as in the more modern Vedic texts (for inst., Taitt. Samh. I, 3, 6, 1).--In the Apri hymn, IX, 5 (verse 10), the vanaspati is called sahasravalsa: with this should be compared III, 8, 11 (addressed to the yupa): vanaspate satavalsah vi roha sahasravalsah vi vayam ruhema, 'O lord of the forest, rise with a hundred offshoots; may we rise with a thousand offshoots!'--In the Apri hymn, X, 70 (verse 10), the rope (rasana) is mentioned by which the vanaspati should tie the victim; comp. with this expression the statements of the ritual texts as to the rasana with which the victim is tied to the yupa; Schwab, Das Altindische Thieropfer, 8r. Comp. also especially Taittiriya Brahmana III, 6, 11, 3.--In the Apri hymns the vanaspati is frequently invoked to let loose the victim; in connection therewith mention is made of the sacrificial butcher (samitri), see II, 3, 10; III, 4, 10; X, 110, 10, and comp. Vag. Samhita XXI, 21; XXVIII, 10. The meaning of these expressions becomes clear at once, if we explain the vanaspati as the sacrificial post. When they are going to kill the victim, they loosen it from the post; the post, therefore, can be said to let it loose. Then the butcher (samitri) leads the victim away. See the materials collected by Schwab, Thieropfer, p. 100 seq., and comp. also H. O., Religion des Veda, 257.