Page:The Hymns of the Rigveda Vol 1.djvu/63

8 There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters taking courage flow above him.
The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vṛitra with his greatness had encompassed.

9 Then humbled was the strength of Vṛitra’s mother: Indra hath cast his deadly bolt against her.
The mother was above, the son was under, and like a cow beside her calf lay Dânu^[1].

10 Rolled in the midst of never-ceasing currents flowing without a rest for ever onward,
The waters bear off Vṛitra’s nameless body: the foe of Indra sank to during darkness.

11 Guarded by Ahi stood the thralls of Dâsas^[2], the waters stayed like kine held by the robber^[3].
But he, when he had smitten Vṛitra, opened the cave wherein the floods had been imprisoned.

12 A horse's tail wast thou^[4] when he, O Indra, smote on thy bolt; thou, God without a second,
Thou hast won back the kine, hast won the Soma; thou hast let loose to flow the Seven Rivers^[5].

13 Nothing availed him lightning, nothing thunder, hailstorm or mist which he had spread around him:
When Indra and the Dragon strove in battle, Maghavan gained the victory for ever.

14 Whom sawest thou to avenge the Dragon, Indra, that fear possessed thy heart when thou hadst slain him;
That, like a hawk affrighted through the regions, thou crossedst nine-and-ninety^[6] flowing rivers?^[7]

1. Dânu: according to Sâyaṇa, the mother of Vṛitra.
2. Thralls of Dâsas: in the power of Vṛitra and his allies. Dâsa is a general name applied in the Veda to certain evil beings or demons, hostile to Indra and to men. It means, also, a savage, a barbarian, one of the non-Âryan inhabitants of India.
3. The robber: paṇí (literally, one who barters and traffics) means a miser, a niggard; an impious man who gives little or nothing to the Gods. The word is used also as the name of a class of envious demons watching over treasures, and as an epithet of the fiends who steal cows and hide them in mountain caverns.
4. A horse's tail was thou: destroying thy enemies as easily as a horse sweeps away flies with his tail. Cf. I. 27. 1.
5. The Seven Rivers: according to Professor Max Müller, the Indus, the five rivers of the Panjâb (Vitastâ, Asiknî, Parushṇî, Vipâṣ, Ṣutudri) and the Sarasvatî, Lassen and Ludwig put the Kubhâ in the place of the last-named.
6. Nine-and-ninety: [MISSING TEXT] a great number.
7. This fight of Indra is frequently alluded to. It is said that he fled thinking that he had [MISSING TEXT] sin in killing Vritra.