Note [1:27:13:2]2. The last Pada of this verse, ma' gya'yasah samsam a' vrikshi devah ('May I not, O gods, neglect the praise of the greatest,' Muir, V, 12), offers some difficulty. It may be doubted whether a' vrikshi belongs to a-vrig or to a-vrask.

Let us see what would be the meaning of the passage, if we were to decide for a-vrig. VIII, 101, 16 the cow speaks: devi'm devebhyah pari eyushim ga'm a' ma avrikta martyah dabhraketah, 'Me the goddess, the cow, who has come hither from the gods, the weak-minded mortal has appropriated.' Satapatha Brahmana XIV, 9, 4, 3. ya evam vidvan adhopahasam karaty a sa strinam sukritam vrinkte ' tha ya idam avidvan adhopahasam karaty asya striyah sukritam vringate, 'He who knowing this, &c., appropriates the good works of the women. But the women appropriate the good works of him who without knowing this,' &c. In Rig-veda X, 159, 5 also we probably have a form of a-vrig. There we find the triumphant utterance

of a wife who has gained superiority over her fellow-wives: a avriksham anyasam varkah, 'I have won for myself the splendour of the other wives.' We may conclude from these passages that our Pada, if a' vrikshi is derived from a-vrig, would mean: 'May I not draw on myself the curse of my better.'

On the other hand we have a great number of passages--they have been collected by Ludwig, IV, 249 seq.--in which the verb a-vrask appears. Referring the reader for fuller information to Ludwig, I content myself here with selecting one or two of these passages. Taitt. Samh. II, 4, 11, 4. devatabhyo va esha a vriskyate yo yakshya ity uktva na yagate. In translating this we should remember that vrask means 'to cut down;' a-vrask, therefore, must be 'to cut down so that the object reaches a certain destination.' I translate therefore: 'He who says, "I shall sacrifice," and does not sacrifice, is cut down for the deities,'--i. e. he is dedicated or forfeited to the deities and is thus destroyed (comp. a different explanation of a-vrask by Delbruck, Altindische Syntax, 143). In other passages not the dative but the locative is used for indicating the being to whom somebody is forfeited; see Atharva-veda XII, 4, 6. 12. 26; XV, 12, 6. 10.

A Rig-vedic passage containing a-vrask (with the dative) is X, 87, 18. a' vriskyantam aditaye durevah, 'May the evil-doers be forfeited to Aditi.'