The meaning seems to be that it is strange that two things, namely, a real cow and the cloud, i. e. Prisni, the mother of the Maruts, should both be called dhenu, cow; that the one should always yield milk to men, while the other has her bright udder milked but once. This may mean that dhenu, a cow, yields her milk always, that dhenu, a cloud, yields rain but once, or, that Prisni gave birth but once to the Maruts. See also VI, 48, 22; Gaedicke, Accusativ, p. 19; Delbrück, Tempuslehre, p. 102. Dhenu must be taken as the neuter form, and as a nominative, as is shown by II, 37, 2. dadíh yáh nâ´ma pátyate.

Verse 2.

Note 1. It seems necessary to take arenávah hiranyáyâsah for rathâh, chariots, as in V, 87, 3. Sâyana takes the same view, and I do not see how the verse gives sense in any other way. The first pâda might be referred to the Maruts, or to the chariots.

Verse 3.

Note 1. The relative pronouns may be supposed to carry on the subject, viz. Marûtah, from the preceding verse, unless we supply eshâm mâtâ´. I am doubtful about mahó mahî´; cf. I, 102, 1; II, 33, 8. Grassmann proposes to read mahâm, gen. plur.; Ludwig thinks of garbha. It may also be a compound, as in mahâmaha, mahâmahivrata, or an adverb, but the construction remains difficult throughout. Oldenberg suggests that the second pâda may have been yân ko nú prísnih dâ´dhrivih bháradhyai.

Verse 4.

Note 1. A tentative rendering and no more. I take áyâ for aya as an adverb in the sense of thus, in this way, see I, 87, 4, note 2. Grassmann seems to take it as an instr. fem., dependent on ganúshah, which is possible, but without analogy. Lanman, p. 358, takes it for áyâh, nom. plur. of aya, wanderer, and translates, 'as long as the ones now wanderers quit not their birth.' Grassmann: 'Die nicht verleugnen die Geburt aus jener.' But is gan with instrumental ever used of a woman giving birth to a child? Ludwig: 'Die sich nicht weigern der geburt.'

Note 2. Pû with accusative occurs AV. XIX, 33, 3.

Verse 5.

This verse is again very obscure. It would be more honest to say that it is untranslatable. Possibly the poet may have taken doháse in the same sense as duhré in verse 4. The Maruts are born as by being milked from the udder of Prisni. It would then mean, 'Among whom there is no one not striving to be born quickly.'

Note 1. Stauna is an unknown word. Sâyana explains it as stena, thieves. It probably meant something not favourable, something that must be denied of the Maruts. This is all we can say. It cannot be a corruption of stavânâh, praised.

Note 2. Ayâ´s can hardly refer to Prisni, never tiring to suckle the Maruts. In B.-R. ayâs is explained as sich nicht anstrengend, behende, leicht, unermüdlich. See also Windisch, K. Z. XXVII, 170; also Johansson, Bezzenb. Beitr. XV, p. 180.

Verse 6.