Note 1. On makhásya dâváne, see note to I, 6, 8, where I accepted the old explanation, 'Come to the offering of the priest.' But does makha mean priest? In later Sanskrit it means sacrifice, so that makhásya dâváne has been translated, 'for the offering of the sacrifice,' that is, 'that we may be able to offer you sacrifice.' If makha means glad and refers to Soma, which is doubtful, the sense would be the same. Possibly dâváne may here be derived from do, to divide, but this would not help us much.

Verse 28.

The AV. reads yám tvâ príshatî ráthe práshtir váhati rohita, subhâ´ yâsi rinánn apáh, which yields no help.

Verse 29.

This verse is very difficult. First of all, níkakrayâ can hardly mean 'without a chariot' (B.-R.), but seems an adverb, meaning downwards. But the chief difficulty lies in this, that we must decide, once for all, whether words, such as sushoma, saryanâvat, ârgîka, pastyâvat, &c., are to be interpreted in their natural sense, as expressing localities, well known to the poet, or in their technical sense, as names of sacrificial vessels. That this decision is by no means easy, may be inferred from the fact that two scholars, Roth and Ludwig, differ completely, the former preferring the technical, the latter the geographical meaning. We must

remember that in the hymns to the Maruts the poets speak occasionally of the countries, far and near, visited by the storm-winds. We must also bear in mind that in our very passage the poet asks the Maruts to come to him, and not to tarry with other people. When, therefore, he says, that they went to Saryanâvat, &c., is that likely to be meant for a tank of Soma at his own or any other sacrifice?

Saryanâvat is derived from sarya, this from sara. Sara means reed, arrow; sarya, made of reeds, saryâ, an arrow, but also reeds tied together and used at the sacrifice for carrying Soma-oblations. From it, saryana, which, according to Sâyana, means lands in Kurukshetra (RV. VIII, 6, 39), and from which Saryanâvat is derived, as the name of a lake in that neighbourhood (not a Landstrich, B.-R.). When this saryanâvat occurs in the Rig-veda, the question is, does it mean that lake, evidently a famous lake and a holy place in the early settlements of the Vedic Âryas, or does it mean, as others suppose, a sacrificial vessel made of reeds? It occurs in the Rig-veda seven times.