Note [1:79:1:1]1. As to visara I think we should compare VII, 36, 1. vi sa'nuna prithivi' sasre urvi', 'The wide earth has expanded with her surface.' Prof. Max Muller observes with regard to this Pada: when the sky sends forth the rain, the lightning appears.

Note [1:79:1:2]2. On dhuni, see vol. xxxii, p. 112 (I, 64, 5), and Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, 268. I do not take the word with Geldner for an epithet of Vata, the wind, but of the snake, i. e. Agni, who very probably is to be understood here as in the whole Trika, as the fire of the lightning.

Note [1:79:1:3]3. Perhaps we have here again a Pada of ten syllables, of the type which occurs several times in the preceding hymns. Or possibly the text should be corrected: ushasale na navedah, 'a knower (of sacrifices, comp. IV, 23, 4; V, 12, 3) like the dawns,' or ushasam navedah (with dissyllabic -am), 'a knower of the dawns.'--See Lanman, p. 565.

Note [1:79:1:4]4. The waters? Or the dawns?

Verse 2.

Note [1:79:2:1]1. On the nasalization of aminantan in the Samhita text, see my Prolegomena, p. 471.

Note [1:79:2:2]2. I. e. Parganya, the thundering cloud. Comp. V, 83, 1; VII, 10t, 1; Bergaigne, Rel. Vedique, III, 27 seq.

Note [1:79:2:3]3. Regarding yadi idam, comp. IV, 5, 11. There the verb belonging to yadi must be supplied; in the same way our passage must be interpreted also, unless we resort to changing the text and accentuating the verb nonava, in which case the translation would be, 'when the black bull has bellowed here.'

Note [1:79:2:4]4. The women may be the showers of rain. Or they could be understood as the dawns,. comp. ushasah navedah, verse 1.

Verse 3.

Note [1:79:3:1]1. I propose to read piyanam.

Note [1:79:3:2]2. On parigman, see Joh. Schmidt, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXV, 86; Bartholomae, Bezzenberger's Beitrage, XV, 27 seq.; Bergaigne, Rel. Ved. II, 505; and compare especially X, 93, 4. The word evidently is connected not with the verb gam, but with ksham, 'the earth,' of which we find the genitives gmah and gmah.

Note [1:79:3:3]3. It does not seem probable to me that upara means here the lower pressing-stone, as Grassmann, Ludwig, and Pischel (Vedische Studien, I, 109) suggest (Grassmann: den Schlauch beim untern Pressstein. Ludwig: den schlauch ... an des steines ort. Pischel: sie legen das Fell mitten auf den Stein). I propose to supply ragasah; comp. I, 62, 5. ragah uparam; IV, 1, 11. ragasah asya yonau, and especially IV, 17, 14, where we find the 'womb of the atmosphere' (ragasah asya yonau) mentioned, quite as in our passage, together with the leather-bag (tvak), i. e. the cloud.--Bergaigne (Rel. Ved. II, 505) translates and explains, 'arrose la peau dans le sejour de l'inferieur,' c'est-a-dire fait couler les eaux du ciel pour l'Agni terrestre.

Verse 4.