Verse 7 = VS. XXVII, 25; XXXII, 7; TS. II, 2, 12, 1; IV, 1, 8, 5; TA. I, 23, 8; AV. IV, 2, 6.

Verse 8 = VS. XXVII, 26; XXXII. 7; TS. IV, 1, 8, 6.

Verse 9 = VS. XII, 102; TS. IV, 2, 7, 1.

Verse 10 = VS. X, 20; XXIII, 65; TS. I, 8, 14, 2; III, 2, 5, 6; TB. II, 8, 1, 2; III, 5, 7, 1; AV. VII, 79, 4; 80, 3.

This is one of the hymns which has always been suspected as modern by European interpreters. The reason is clear. To us the conception of one God, which pervades the whole of this hymn, seems later than the conception of many individual gods, as recognised in various aspects of nature, such as the gods of the sky, the sun, the storms, or the fire. And in a certain sense we may be right, and language also confirms our sentiment. In our hymn there are several words which do not occur again in the Rig-veda, or which occur in places only which have likewise been suspected to be of more modern date. Hiranyagarbha

itself is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. Sám avartata is found only in the last Mandala, X, 90, 14; 129, 4. Bhûtá also, in the sense of what is, occurs in the tenth Mandala only. It is used three times (X, 55, 2; 58, 12; 90, 2) as opposed to bhávya, i. e. what is and what will be; and once more in the sense of all that is (X, 85, 17). Âtmadâ´h, in the sense of giving life, is another ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. Prasísh is restricted to Mandalas I (I, 145, 1), IX (IX, 66, 6; 86, 32), and our passage. Himávat, ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. The repetition of the relative pronoun in verses 2 and 4 is unusual. In the tenth verse the compound yat-kâmah is modern, and the insertion of etâ´ni between tvat and anyáh is at all events exceptional. The passage V, 31, 2 is not parallel, because in tvát indra vásyah anyát, the ablative tvát is governed by vásyah. In VI, 21, 10, ná tvâ´vân anyáh amrita tvat asti, anyáh is separated from tvát by a vocative only, as in VIII, 24, 11.

But when we say that a certain hymn is modern, we must carefully consider what we mean. Our hymn, for instance, must have existed not only previous to the Brâhmana period, for many Brâhmanas presuppose it, but previous to the Mantra period also. It is true that no verse of it occurs in the Sâma-veda, but in the Sâma-veda-brâhmana IX, 9, 12, verse 1 at least is mentioned a. Most of its verses, however, occur in the Vâgasaneyi-samhitâ, in the Taittirîya-samhitâ, and in the Atharva-veda-samhitâ, nay, the last verse, to my mind the most suspicious of all, occurs most frequently in the other Samhitâs and Brâhmanas.

But though most of the verses of our hymn occur in other Samhitâs, they do not always occur in the same order.

In the Vâg. Samh. we have the first verse in XIII, 4, but no other verse of our hymn follows. We have the first verse again in XXIII, 1, but not followed by verse 2, but by verse 3 (XXIII, 3) b. Then we have verse 1 once more

in XXV, 10, followed by verse 3 (XXV, 11), by verse 4 (XXV, 12), and then by verse 2 (XXV, 13).