Found also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (30. 11) in a remedial rite against protuberant belly etc. Keç. and the comm. read further in the rule the pratīka sasruṣīs of hymn 23, and detail a second lengthy process in the same rite as performed with the two. Hymns 22-24 are also explained as among the apāṁ sūktāni (7. 14 and note). In Vāit. (9. 5) this hymn appears in the cāturmāsya sacrifice as addressed to the playing (krīḍin) Maruts.
Translated: Ludwig, p. 463 ⌊vss. 1-2⌋; Florenz, 276 or 28; Griffith, i. 256.
1. Black the down-track, the yellow eagles, clothing themselves in waters, fly up to the sky; they have come hither from the seat of righteousness (ṛtá); then, forsooth, with ghee they deluged the earth.
The verse comes from the mystic and obscure hymn RV. i. 164 (vs. 47), and is found again twice below (ix. 10. 22, which see; xiii. 3. 9). It is also found in several of the Black Yajus texts: TS. (iii. 1. 114), MS. (iv. 12. 5), K. (xi. 9, 13). RV.MS. end with pṛthivī́ vy ùdyate; TS. has ásitavarṇās (for kṛṣṇā́ṁ niyā́nam) in a, míhas (for apás) in b, sádanāni kṛtvā́ in c, and, for d, ā́d ít pṛthivī́ ghṛtāír vy ùdyate. Ppp. agrees with RV.MS. at the end of the verse, and it combines, in its frequent way, suparṇā ’po.
2. Ye make the waters rich in milk, the herbs propitious, when ye bestir yourselves, O golden-backed Maruts; do ye lavish (pinv) both sustenance and good-will there, where, O manly Maruts, ye pour honey.
The first, third, and fourth pādas are found as b, c, d of a verse in TS. iii. 1. 118; TS. reads kṛṇuta (as does also Ppp.), and it omits çivā́s; it also has, with the comm., pinvatha in c (which is better). Ppp. further reads yamās for çivās, and ejati for -thā; ⌊and siñcatā for -thā⌋.
3. Water-swimming [are] the Maruts; send ye that rain which shall fill all the hollows; the gláhā shall bestir itself, like a girl that is thrust, thrusting the éru, like wife with husband.
The text of this verse is hopelessly corrupt, and all attempts to make connected sense of the second half must apparently be (like that of Pischel in Ved. Stud. i. 81 ff.) forced and unsuccessful. ⌊Baunack, KZ. xxxv. 532, may also be consulted.⌋ The version of it presented in TS. (iii. 1. 118) rather sets off its difficulties than gives any help in solving them. It makes marutas vocative in a, and the comm. also understands the word as vocative, not heeding its accent; the preferable reading would be údapruto marutas, both vocative. The comm. then takes tā́n together with udaprútas as qualifying meghān 'clouds' understood. Ppp., with the majority of SPP's authorities and some of ours (P.M.), reads udaplútas. Then tā́ṅ (pada-text tā́n) is read by all the authorities in both texts, although the sense necessarily requires (as in our translation is assumed) tā́m, as antecedent to yā́. But here, again, all the pada-texts have yā́ḥ, which completes their confusion. TS. has, for b, the wholly different and doubtless secondary phrase vṛ́ṣṭiṁ yé víçve marúto junánti, making of the line 'O Maruts, send those water-swimming ones who, [namely] all the Maruts, hasten the rain.' The comm. understands yā, but then also víçvā, as neut. pl. (vrīhiyavādisasyāni), while all our pada-texts have correctly víçvāḥ; the comm. then is obliged to supply a ca 'and' after nivátas. In c, d, TS. reads króçāti for éjāti, gárdā for gláhā, pérum for érum, and tuñjānā́ for tundānā́ (some of the mss., including our O.D.R., have tudānā́); the comm. also has tuñjānā, but gahlā (so printed; but it should doubtless be galhā, since he derives it from root garh 'chide': one of our mss. (W.) and three of SPP's have gálhā) instead of gláhā or gárdā; he translates it 'thunder.' These changes on gláhā and éru, at least, are plainly no real variations of reading, but blind blunders over an unintelligible text. Ppp. is corrupt and hardly legible: perhaps ye jahāti ktahnā kanye ’va dunnonaṁ dunnāmā patye ‘va jāyām. R. suggests that the line c-d belongs to a gambling hymn, and that we are to read glahas and ūrum, a comparison being made between the shaking of the dice-holder and the agitatio of a female at the coitus.
