Verse 3.

Note 1. On mimyaksha, see before, I, 165, 1, note 2.

Note 2. The spear of the Maruts is meant for the lightning, and we actually find rishtí-vidyutah, having the lightning for their spear, as an epithet of the Maruts, I, 168, 5; V, 52, 13.

The rest of this verse is difficult, and has been variously rendered by different scholars. We must remember that the lightning is represented as the wife or the beloved of the Maruts. In that character she is called Rodasî´, with the accent on the last syllable, and kept distinct from ródasî, the dual, with the accent on the antepenultimate, which means heaven and earth.

This Rodasî´ occurs:

V, 56, 8. â´ yásmin tastháu su-ránâni bíbhratî sákâ marútsu rodasî´.

The chariot on which, carrying pleasant gifts, stands Rodasî among the Maruts.

VI, 50, 5. mimyáksha yéshu rodasî´ nú devî´.

To whom clings the divine Rodasî.

VI, 66, 6. ádha sma eshu rodasî´ svá-sokih â´ ámavatsu tasthau ná rókah.

When they (the Maruts) had joined the two Rodas, i. e. heaven and earth, then the self-brilliant Rodasî came among the strong ones.

The name of Ródasî, heaven and earth, is so much more frequent in the Rig-veda than that of Rodasî´, that in

several passages the iti which stands after duals, has been wrongly inserted after Rodasî´ in the singular. It is so in our hymn, verse 4, where we must read rodasî´m instead of rodasî´ íti, and again in X, 92, 11.

Besides the lightning, however, the thunder also may be said to be in the company of the Maruts, to be their friend or their wife, and it is this double relationship which seems to be hinted at in our hymn.

The thunder is called Vâk, voice, the voice of heaven, also called by the author of the Anukramanî, Âmbhrinî. It was natural to identify this ambhrina with Greek ὄβριμος, terrible, particularly as it is used of the thunder, ὄβριμον ἐβρόντησε, Hes. Th. 839, and is applied to Athene as ὀβριομο-πάτρη. But there are difficulties pointed out by Curtius, Grundzüge, p. 532, which have not yet been removed. This Vâk says of herself (X, 125, 12) that she stretched the bow for Rudra, the father of the Maruts, that her birth-place is in the waters (clouds), and that she fills heaven and earth. See also X, 114, 8.

In I, 173, 3. antáh dûtáh ná ródasî karat vâ´k.

The voice (thunder) moved between heaven and earth, like a messenger.