Note 1. It is difficult to find an appropriate rendering for arkín. It means praising, celebrating, singing, and it is in the last sense only that it is applicable to the Maruts. Wilson translates, 'entitled to adoration;' Benfey, 'flaming.' Boehtlingk and Roth admit the sense of flaming in one passage, but give to arkín in this place the meaning of praising. If it simply meant, possessed of arká, i. e. songs of praise, it would be a very lame epithet after panasyú. But other passages, like I, 19, 4; 52, 15, show that the conception of the Maruts as singers was most familiar to the Vedic Rishis (I, 64, 10; Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. i, p. 521. note); and arká is the very name applied to their songs (I, 19, 4). In the Edda, too, 'storm and thunder are represented as a lay, as the wondrous music of the wild hunt. The dwarfs and Elbs sing the so-called Alb-leich which carries off everything, trees and mountains.' See Justi in Orient and Occident, vol. ii, p. 62; Genthe, Windgottheiten, p. 4; 11. There is no doubt therefore that arkín here means musician, and that the arká of the Maruts is the music of the winds.

Note 2. Vriddhá, literally grown, is used in the Veda as an honorific epithet, with the meaning of mighty, great, or magnified:

III, 32, 7. yágâmah ít námasâ vriddhám índram
           brihántam rishvám agáram yúvânam.

We worship with praise the mighty Indra, the great, the exalted, the immortal, the vigorous.

Here neither is vriddhá intended to express old age,

nor yúvan young age, but both are meant as laudatory epithets. See Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 91 seq.

Asan is the so-called Let of as, to be. This Let is properly an imperative, which gradually sinks down to a mere subjunctive, and is generally called so. Of as, we find the following Let forms: belonging to the present, we have ásasi, II, 26, 2; ásati, VI, 23, 9; ásathah, VI, 63, 1; and ásatha, V, 61, 4: belonging to the imperfect, âsah, VIII, 100, 2; ásat, I, 9, 5; ásâma, I, 173, 9; ásan, I, 89, 1. Ásam, a form quoted by Roth from Rig-veda X, 27, 4, is really â´sam.

We find, for instance, ásah, with an imperative or optative meaning, in

VIII, 100, 2. ásah ka tvám dakshinatáh sákhâ me
              ádha vritrâ´ni â´ gaṅghanâva bhû´ri.

And be thou my friend on my right hand, and we shall kill many enemies.

Here we see the transition of meaning from an imperative to the conditional. In English, too, we may say, 'Do this and you shall live,' which means nearly the same as, 'If you do this, you will live.' Thus we may translate this passage: 'And if thou be my friend on my right side, then we shall kill many enemies.'

X, 124, I. imám nah agne úpa yagñám â´ ihi—
           ásah havya-vâ´t utá nah purah-gâ´h.

Here we have the imperative ihi and the Let ásah used in the same sense.