1. I praise 1 now the powerful company of these ever-young Maruts, who drive violently along with quick horses; aye, the sovereigns are lords of Amrita (the immortal).
2. The terrible company, the powerful, adorned with quoits on their hands, given to roaring, potent, dispensing treasures, they who are beneficent, infinite in greatness, praise, O poet, these men of great wealth!
3. May your water-carriers come here to-day, all the Maruts who stir up the rain. That fire which has been lighted for you, O Maruts, accept it, O young singers
4. O worshipful Maruts, you create for man an active king, fashioned by Vibhvan 1; from you comes the man who can fight with his fist, and is quick with his arm, from you the man with good horses and valiant heroes.
5. Like the spokes of a wheel, no one is last, like the days they are born on and on, not deficient in might. The very high sons of Prisni are full of fury, the Marut cling firmly to their own will 1.
6. When you have come forth with your speckled deer as horses 1 on strong-fellied chariots, O Maruts, the waters gush, the forests go asunder 2;—let Dyu 3 (Sky) roar down, the bull of the Dawn.
7. At their approach, even the earth opened wide,
and they placed (sowed) their own 1 strength (the rain), as a husband the germ. Indeed they have harnessed the winds as horses to the yoke, and the men of Rudra have changed their sweat into rain.
8. Hark, O heroes, O Maruts! Be gracious to us! You who are of great bounty, immortal, righteous, truly listening to us, poets, young, dwelling on mighty mountains, and grown mighty.
The same poet and deity. Metre, Trishtubh. None of the verses occurs in SV., VS., AV., TS. Verses 3 and 5 are found in TB. II, 5, 5, 3; II, 8, 5, 7; MS. IV, 11, 2; IV, 4, 18.
Note 1. On stushé, see M. M., Selected Essays, I, p. 162; Wilhelm, De infinitivi forma et usu, p. 10; Bartholomae, in Bezzenberger's Beiträge, XV, p. 219. I take stushé as 1 pers. sing. Aor. Âtm. (not, as Avery, of the Present) in many places where it has been taken as an infinitive. For instance, II, 31, 5; VI, 49, 1; 51, 3 (with voke); 62, 1 (with huve); VIII, 5, 4; 7, 32; 74, 1; 84, 1 (here the second pâda must begin with stushé). It may be an indicative or a subjunctive. As to stushe, without an accent, its character cannot be doubtful; see I, 122, 8; 159, 1; V, 33, 6; VI, 21, 2; 48, 14; VIII, 21, 9; 23, 2; 23, 7 (grine). In II, 20, 4, tám u stushe índram tám grinîshe, grinîshe is an aorist with vikarana, like punîshé, I praise that Indra, I laud him. In I, 46, 1, stushé may be the infinitive, but not necessarily. It is an infinitive in I, 122, 7. stushé sâ vâm varuna mitra râtíh, your gift, Varuna and Mitra, is to be praised. Likewise in VIII, 4, 17 (see BR. s. v. simian); 24, 1; 63, 3, though in several of these passages it must remain doubtful whether stushé should be taken as an absolute infinitive, or as a finite verb. In VIII, 65, 5, índra grinîshé u stushé, means, 'Indra, I laud and praise,' as in II, 20, 4.
Note 1. Vibhva-tashtá is generally explained as made by a master, or by Vibhvan, one of the Ribhus. This may be so, though it seems a bold expression (see Bergaigne, II, 410-411). But may it not be a mere synonym of sutashta, and intended for vibhvane tashta? see Selected Essays, I, p. 143.
Note 1. See Taitt. Br. II, 8, 5, 7. As to mimikshuh, see note to I, 165, 1.
Note 1. On príshatîbhih ásvaih, see II, 34, 4; V, 55, 6. Bergaigne's note (II, p. 378) does not settle the question whether the horses of the Maruts were speckled, or whether they had speckled deer for their horses.
Note 2. On rinaté vánâni, see V, 57, 3.
Note 3. Dyaus, the father of the Maruts, the oldest and highest god of heaven, the strong bull, or, it may be, the man of the dawn. See v. Bradke, Dyaus Asura, p. 63; Bergaigne, I, p. 316.
Note 1. Roth conjectures svâm for svám, taking it as a locative of sû, genetrix. This is not without difficulties, nor is it necessary. That we find in the Rig-veda no other locative in âm after monosyllabic stems in û is perhaps no serious objection. But the text as it stands can be translated, 'as a husband the germ, they have placed (sown) their own strength.' Sávas is the same as vríshnyam and vríshni sávah in VIII, 3, 8; 10. Dhuh is used like dhâ in retodhâ.
