In other passages, too, particularly in those where the verb dâ or some similar verb occurs in the same verse, it can hardly be doubted that the poet took dâtrá, like dátra or dáttra, in the sense of gift, bounty, largess:

I, 116, 6. yám asvinâ dadáthuh svetám ásvam—tát vâm dâtrám máhi kîrtényam bhût.

The white horse, O Asvins, which you gave, that your gift was great and to be praised.

I, 185, 3. aneháh dâtrám áditeh anarvám huvé.

I call for the unrivalled, the uninjured bounty of Aditi.

VII, 56, 21. mâ´ vah dâtrâ´t marutah níh arâma.

May we not fall away from your bounty, O Maruts!

III, 54, 16. yuvám hí stháh rayi-daú nah rayînâ´m dâtrám rakshethe.

For you, Nâsatyas, are our givers of riches, you protect the gift.

VI, 20, 7. rigísvane dâtrám dâsúshe dâh.

To Rigisvan, the giver, thou givest the gift.

VIII, 43, 33. tát te sahasva îmahe dâtrám yát ná upadásyati, tvát agne vâ´ryam vásu.

We ask thee, strong hero, for the gift which does not perish; we ask from thee the precious wealth.

X, 69, 4. dâtrám rakshasva yát idám te asmé (íti).

Protect this gift of thine which thou hast given to us.

VIII, 44, 18. î´sishe vâ´ryasya hí dâtrásya agne svãh-patih.

For thou, O Agni, lord of heaven, art the master of the precious gift. Cf. IV, 38, 1.

Professor Roth considers that dâtrá is derived rather from dâ, to divide, and that it means share, lot, possession. But there is not a single passage where the meaning of gift or

bounty does not answer all purposes. In VII, 56, 21, mâ´ vah dâtrâ´t marutah níh arâma, is surely best translated by, 'let us not fall away from your bounty,' and in our own passage the same meaning should be assigned to dâtrá. The idea of dâtrá, bounty, is by no means incompatible with vratá, realm, dominion, sway, if we consider that the sphere within which the bounty of a king or a god is exercised and accepted, is in one sense his realm. What the poet therefore says in our passage is simply this, that the bounty of the Maruts extends as far as the realm of Aditi, i. e. is endless, or extends everywhere, Aditi being in its original conception the deity of the unbounded world beyond, the earliest attempt at expressing the Infinite.

As to dâ´tra occurring once with the accent on the first syllable in the sense of sickle, see M. M., 'Über eine Stelle in Yâska's Commentar zum Naighantuka,' Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 1853, vol. vii, P. 375.

VIII, 78, 10. táva ít indra ahám â-sásâ háste dâ´tram kaná â´ dade.

Trusting in thee alone, O Indra, I take the sickle in my hand.

This dâ´tra, sickle, is derived from do, to cut.

Aditi, the Infinite.