is to show the strength of the Maruts. In that case the mere shaking or bursting of the clouds would sound very tame by the side of the shaking and breaking of the forest trees. Vedic poets do not shrink from the conception that the Maruts shake even mountains, and Indra is even said to have cut off the mountain tops: IV. 19, 4. áva abhinat kakúbhah párvatânâm. In the later literature, too, the same idea occurs: Mahâbh. Vana-parva, ver. 10974, dyauh svit patati kim bhûmir dîryate parvato nu kim, does the sky fall? is the earth torn asunder, or the mountain?

Verse 4.

Note 1. Sâyana was evidently without an authoritative explanation of tánâ yugâ´. He tries to explain it by 'through the union of you may strength to resist be quickly extended.' Wilson: 'May your collective strength be quickly exerted.' Benfey takes tánâ as adverb and leaves out yugâ´: 'Zu allen Zeiten, O Furchtbare!—sei im Nu zu überwält’gen euch die Macht.' Yugâ´, an instrumental, if used together with another instrumental, becomes in the Veda a mere preposition: cf. VII, 43, 5; 95, 4. râyâ´ yugâ´; X, 83, 3. tápasâ yugâ´; X, 102, 12. vádhrinâ yugâ´; VII, 32, 20. púram-dhyâ yugâ´; VI, 56, 2. sákhyâ yugâ´; VIII, 68, 9. tvâ´ yugâ´. As to the meaning of tán, see B. R. s. v., where tán in our passage is explained as continuation. The offspring or race of the Maruts is mentioned again in the next verse.

Note 2. I take nú kit â-dhríshe as an abrupt interrogative sentence, viz. Can it be defied? Can it be resisted? See V, 87, 2:

tát vah marutah ná â-dhríshe sávah.

Your strength, O Maruts, is not to be defied.

Verse 5.

Note 1. Large trees of the forest are called the kings or lords of the forest. Instead of pró ârata, the Taitt. Br. II, 4, 4, 2, reads pró varata, which Sâyana explains by pro, prakarshena, avârata dhâvata.

Verse 6.

Note 1. Práshti is explained by Sâyana as a sort of yoke in the middle, when three horses or other animals are harnessed to a car; róhita as a kind of red deer. Hence Wilson remarks that the sense may be, 'The red deer yoked between them aids to drag the car.' But he adds that the construction of the original is obscure, and apparently rude and ungrammatical. Benfey translates, 'Sie führt ein flammenrothes Joch,' and remarks against Wilson that Sâyana's definition of práshti as yoke is right, but that of róhita as deer, wrong. If Sâyana's authority is to be invoked at all, one might appeal from Sâyana in this place to Sâyana VIII, 7, 28, where práshti is explained by him either by quick or by pramukhe yugyamânah, harnessed in front. The verse is

yát eshâm píshatîh ráthe práshtih váhati róhitah.

When the red leader draws or leads their spotted deer in the chariot.