Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32): Vedic Hymns: I, 87. To the M... | Internet Sacred Text Archive

MANDALA I, HYMN 87.

ASHTAKA I, ADHYÂYA 6, VARGA 13.

To the Maruts (the Storm-gods).

1. Endowed with exceeding vigour and power, the singers, the never flinching, the immovable, the impetuous, the most beloved and most manly, have decked themselves with their glittering ornaments, a few only 1, like the heavens with the stars,

2. When you have seen your way through the clefts, like birds, O Maruts, on whatever road it be 1, then the casks (clouds) on your chariots trickle everywhere, and you pour out the honey-like fatness (the rain) for him who praises you.

3. At their racings the earth shakes, as if broken 1, when on the (heavenly) paths they harness (their deer) for victory 2. They the sportive, the roaring, with bright spears, the shakers (of the clouds) have themselves glorified their greatness.

4. That youthful company (of the Maruts), with their spotted horses 1, moves by itself; hence 2 it exercises lordship, invested with powers. Thou indeed art true, thou searchest out sin 3, thou art without blemish. Therefore the manly host will help this prayer.

5. We speak after the kind of our old father, our tongue goes forth at the sight 1 of the Soma: when the singers (the Maruts) had joined Indra in deed 2, then only they took their holy names;—

6. These Maruts, armed with beautiful rings, obtained splendours for their glory 1, they obtained 2 rays, and men to celebrate them; nay, armed with daggers, speeding along, and fearless, they found the beloved domain of the Maruts 3.

NOTES.

This hymn is ascribed to Gotama. No verse in SV., VS., AV.

Verse 2 = TS. IV, 3, 13, 7.

Verse 3 = TS. IV, 3, 13, 7.

Verse 6 = TS. II, 1, 11, 2; IV, 2, 11, 2.

Verse 1.

Note 1. Ké kit refers to the Maruts, who are represented as gradually rising or just showing themselves, as yet only few in number, like the first stars in the sky. Ké kit, some, is opposed to sarve, all. The same expression occurs again, V, 52, 12, where the Maruts are compared to a few thieves. B. and R., and those who follow them, translate usrâ´h iva strí-bhih by 'like cows marked with stars on their foreheads.' Such cows no doubt exist, but they can hardly be said to become visible by these frontal stars, as the Maruts by their ornaments. We must take usrâ´h here in the same sense as dyâ´vah; II, 34, 2, it is said that the Maruts were perceived dyâ´vah ná strí-bhih, like the heavens with the stars.

I, 166, 11. dûre-drísah yé divyâ´h-iva strí-bhih.

Who are visible far away, like the heavens (or heavenly beings) by the stars.