Note 1. The Dasagvas are mentioned as an old priestly family, like the Aṅgiras, and they seem also, like the Aṅgiras, to have their prototypes or their ancestors among the divine hosts. Could they here be identified with the Maruts? They are said to have been the first to carry on the sacrifice, and they are asked to rouse men at the break of the day. Now the same may be said of the Maruts. They are often connected with the dawn, probably because the storms break forth with greater vigour in the morning, or, it may be, because the chasing away of the darkness of the night recalls the struggle between the darkness of the thunderstorm and the brightness of the sun. The matutinal character of the Maruts appears, for instance, in V, 53, 14 (usrí bheshagám), and their father Dyaus is likewise called vrishabháh usríyah, V, 58, 6. In the second line ûrnute, though in the singular, refers also to the Maruts in the plural; see Bergaigne, Mélanges Renier,

[paragraph continues] Paris, 1886, p. 80. There still remain two difficult words, manáh and gó-arnasâ. The former (see Lanman, p. 501) may be taken as an adjective referring to the Dasagvas or Maruts, unless we take it as an adverb, quickly, like makshu. If we could change it into mahâ´, it would form an appropriate adjective to gyotishâ, as in IV, 50, 4. On gó-arnasâ all that can be said is that it mostly occurs where something is uncovered or revealed, so I, 112, 18; X, 38, 2.

Note 2. On yagñam vah, to carry on the sacrifice like a wagon, see Bergaigne, Rel. Véd. II, 259-260. See also RV. VIII, 26, 15; 58, 1, and yagña-vâhas.

Verse 13.