With the text of the Âprî hymns should be compared the corresponding Praishas of the Maitrâvaruna priest, i. e. the orders by which this priest directed the Hotri to pronounce the Prayâga invocations. The text of these Praishas is given Taitt. Brâhm. III, 6, 2.
Comp. on the character and the historical and ritual position of the Âprî hymns, Max Müller, Hist. Anc. Sansc. Literature, p. 403 seq.; Roth, Nirukta, notes, p. 121 seq.; Weber, Indische Studien, X, 89 seq.; Ludwig V, 315 seq.; Hillebrandt, Das Altindische Neu- und Vollmondsopfer, 94 seq.; Schwab, Das Altindische Thieropfer, 90 seq.; Bergaigne, Recherches sur l’histoire de la Liturgie Védique, 13 seq. Verse 1.
Note 1. Comp. Delbrück, Syntactische Forschungen, I, 97. Verses 2, 3.
Note 1. Does Tanûnapât, lit. 'son of the body,' mean, as Roth and Grassmann believed, 'son of his own self' (comp. I, 12, 6. agnínâ agníh sám idhyate, 'by Agni Agni is kindled'), or is the meaning 'le propre fils' (Bergaigne, Rel. Védique II, 100)? Narâsamsa, which is nearly identical with the Avestic Nairyôsaṅha, means 'the song of men,' or 'praised by men' (Bergaigne, l. l. I, 305; M. M.’s note on VII, 46, 4). In III, 29, 11 it is said of Agni: He is called Tanûnapât as the foetus of the Asura; he becomes Narâsamsa when he is born.' Of course an expression like this is by no means sufficient to prove that the sacrificial gods Tanûnapât and Narâsamsa, as invoked in the Âprî hymns, are nothing but forms of Agni. Expressions which are constantly repeated in the Âprî verses show that the work of Tanûnapât, and likewise that of Narâsamsa, consisted in spreading ghrita or 'honey' over the sacrifice. Verse 4.
Note 1. 'Magnified' is îlitáh; comp. the note on I, 1, 1. The third, or if both Tanûnapât and Narâsamsa are invoked, the fourth verse of the Âprî hymns is regularly addressed to Agni with this epithet îlita.
