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Ancient Sanskrit Online

Lesson 10

Karen Thomson and Jonathan Slocum

The world of the poets of the Rigveda was governed by laws of Newtonian orderliness, represented by a group of abstract nouns of complex meaning. One of these, vratá 'holy law, divine commandment', was described in the introduction to Lesson 7. Of similar complexity are dhā́man 'foundation, just law, precept', related to Greek θέμις and English doom, and dhárman 'support, fixed order', both of which are found in the Lesson 10 text, together with r̥tá (see below), a word which is repeated in the last two verses, joining them together into one grammatical sentence.

Reading and Textual Analysis

The lesson text is verses 10-20 of an Archaic poem, VIII, 27 (647) which, like the Lesson 4 text, is in the alternating lyric br̥hatī/satobr̥hatī metre. The poem apostrophizes all the gods, beginning in traditional style with Agni: agnír ukthé puróhitaḥ 'Agni is placed first in holy song' (verse 1). Verses 10-20 are specifically addressed to the gods of Truth and Order, in particular Aryaman, Mitra and Varuna, who are named in the passage. The most important of the network of words describing the abstract concepts that these deities embody is r̥tá, perhaps best translated 'Truth', but also having the sense 'Cosmic Order'. Poetry itself is born from r̥tá: prá bráhma etu sádanād [sádanāt] r̥tásya, ví raśmíbhiḥ sasr̥je sū́ryo gā́ḥ (VII, 36, 1) 'let prayer go forth from the seat of Truth; the sun despatches singers with his rays (raśmí (m))'. And through their attention to Truth, and the wisdom that results, mortals become allied with the gods -- an alliance that is the theme of the Lesson 10 text.

ásti hí vaḥ sajātíyaṃ riśādaso
dévāso ásti ā́piyam
prá naḥ pū́rvasmai suvitā́ya vocata
makṣū́ sumnā́ya návyase

idā́ hí va úpastutim
idā́ vāmásya bhaktáye
úpa vo viśvavedaso namasyúr ā́m̐
ásr̥kṣi ániyām iva

úd u ṣyá vaḥ savitā́ supraṇītayo
ásthād ūrdhvó váreṇiyaḥ
ní dvipā́daś cátuṣpādo arthíno
áviśran patayiṣṇávaḥ

deváṃ-devaṃ vo ávase
deváṃ-devam abhíṣṭaye
deváṃ-devaṃ huvema vā́jasātaye
gr̥ṇánto deviyā́ dhiyā́

devā́so hí ṣmā mánave sámanyavo
víśve sākáṃ sárātayaḥ
té no adyá té aparáṃ tucé tú no
bhávantu varivovídaḥ

prá vaḥ śaṃsāmi adruhaḥ
saṃsthá úpastutīnām
ná táṃ dhūrtír varuṇa mitra mártiyaṃ
yó vo dhā́mabhyo ávidhat

prá sá kṣáyaṃ tirate ví mahī́r íṣo
yó vo várāya dā́śati
prá prajā́bhir jāyate dhármaṇas pári
áriṣṭaḥ sárva edhate

r̥té sá vindate yudháḥ
sugébhir yāti ádhvanaḥ
aryamā́ mitró váruṇaḥ sárātayo
yáṃ trā́yante sajóṣasaḥ

ájre cid asmai kr̥ṇuthā niáñcanaṃ
durgé cid ā́ susaraṇáṃ
eṣā́ cid asmād aśániḥ paró nú sā́
ásredhantī ví naśyatu

yád adyá sū́rya udyatí
príyakṣatrā r̥táṃ dadhá
yán nimrúci prabúdhi viśvavedaso
yád vā madhyáṃdine diváḥ

yád vābhipitvé asurā r̥táṃ yaté
chardír yemá ví dāśúṣe
vayáṃ tád vo vasavo viśvavedasa
úpa stheyāma mádhya ā́

Lesson Text

ásti hí vaḥ sajātíyaṃ riśādaso
dévāso ásti ā́piyam
prá naḥ pū́rvasmai suvitā́ya vocata
makṣū́ sumnā́ya návyase

idā́ hí va úpastutim
idā́ vāmásya bhaktáye
úpa vo viśvavedaso namasyúr ā́m̐
ásr̥kṣi ániyām iva

úd u ṣyá vaḥ savitā́ supraṇītayo
ásthād ūrdhvó váreṇiyaḥ
ní dvipā́daś cátuṣpādo arthíno
áviśran patayiṣṇávaḥ

deváṃ-devaṃ vo ávase
deváṃ-devam abhíṣṭaye
deváṃ-devaṃ huvema vā́jasātaye
gr̥ṇánto deviyā́ dhiyā́

devā́so hí ṣmā mánave sámanyavo
víśve sākáṃ sárātayaḥ
té no adyá té aparáṃ tucé tú no
bhávantu varivovídaḥ

prá vaḥ śaṃsāmi adruhaḥ
saṃsthá úpastutīnām
ná táṃ dhūrtír varuṇa mitra mártiyaṃ
yó vo dhā́mabhyo ávidhat

prá sá kṣáyaṃ tirate ví mahī́r íṣo
yó vo várāya dā́śati
prá prajā́bhir jāyate dhármaṇas pári
áriṣṭaḥ sárva edhate

r̥té sá vindate yudháḥ
sugébhir yāti ádhvanaḥ
aryamā́ mitró váruṇaḥ sárātayo
yáṃ trā́yante sajóṣasaḥ

ájre cid asmai kr̥ṇuthā niáñcanaṃ
durgé cid ā́ susaraṇáṃ
eṣā́ cid asmād aśániḥ paró nú sā́
ásredhantī ví naśyatu

yád adyá sū́rya udyatí
príyakṣatrā r̥táṃ dadhá
yán nimrúci prabúdhi viśvavedaso
yád vā madhyáṃdine diváḥ

yád vābhipitvé asurā r̥táṃ yaté
chardír yemá ví dāśúṣe
vayáṃ tád vo vasavo viśvavedasa
úpa stheyāma mádhya ā́

Translation

Because there is kinship with you,
O benign gods -- there is alliance --
Admit us to our well-being of old,
And soon to newer favour.
For at this moment I have sent up to you --
This moment, for a share of weal,
Honouring you, all-knowing ones,
A paean of praise, seemingly inexhaustible.
Now he has risen straight up, you sure guides,
The one beloved of you, that Savitar;
Two-footed, and four-footed creatures,
Purposeful winged ones have come to rest.
May we call upon you, god after god, for aid,
God after god, for ready help,
God after god that we may gain strength,
Singing with divine thought.
For indeed the gods are of one mind with man,
All united, giving together.
As such may they be today for us, then in future for our offspring
Providers of spacious freedom.
I sing out praises to you, guileless ones,
In amongst paeans of praise;
No injury will befall, O Varuna, O Mitra,
The mortal who has honoured your precepts.
The one who worships according to your wish
Prolongs his domestic life, is afforded fine refreshments.
He is born anew in his progeny, according to established order
Unharmed and whole he thrives.
Without fighting he achieves his ends;
He travels on his ways by good paths
Whom Aryaman, Mitra, and Varuna, giving together,
Joining together, protect.
Even on flat land you make a gentle slope for him,
On the hard way an easy passage,
From him even this thunderbolt, now in the distance
Unfailing -- let it disappear.
When today at the sun's rising
O benevolent rulers, you grant Truth,
When at sunset, at wakening, all-knowing ones
Or at the midpoint of the day --
-- Or when at homecoming, Lords, you proffer a shield
For the worshipper who follows the path of Truth;
Then may we stand, gentle, all-knowing ones,
Closely within the midst of you.

Grammar

46. Primary stems in long vowels.
46.1. Primary stems in -ī and -ū.

The declension of secondary feminine stems in -ī was given in Lesson 4 (17.3). There are three important monosyllabic feminine abstract nouns that follow the primary -ī declension: dhī́ 'thought', bhī́ 'respect, fear' and śrī́ 'splendour, glory'. The usual endings are given below, as they would be if made from from dhī́ 'thought'. When the case endings begin with a vowel -ī- changes to -iy-. Dual forms (nominative/accusative dhiyā́, instrumental dhībhyā́m, gen/loc dhiyós) are rare.

    Singular   Plural
Nom   dhī́s   dhíyas
Acc   dhíyam   dhíyas
Ins   dhiyā́   dhībhís
Dat   dhiyé   dhībhyás
Gen   dhiyás   dhīnā́m
Loc       dhīṣú

A number of compounds follow this declension, like the masculine adjectives su-dhī́ 'of good thought' and brahma-prī́ 'delighting in prayer'.

There are in addition some uncompounded polysyllabic nouns which belong to this declension, and are always accented on the -ī- or -iy- of the suffix, although in the ancient texts -iy- is consistently changed to y with displacement of the accent. Of this group nadī́ (feminine) 'stream' is of frequent occurrence: it appeared in the Lesson 3 text in the accusative plural nadyàs (correctly nadíyas) and genitive plural nadī́nām, again in examples 296 and 258 in these two forms, and in example 157 in the nominative plural nadyàs, (nadíyas).

The endings of the primary -ū stems are parallel to those of the primary -ī stems. When the case ending begins with a vowel -ū- changes to -uv-. Many of the words that follow this declension are adjectival compounds, like nominative singular masculine pari-bhū́s 'being around, encompassing' in the Lesson 2 text, and mayo-bhū́ 'bringing happiness', which occurs in the instrumental singular neuter mayobhúvā in the Lesson 8 text.

Compounds formed with these primary endings show a tendency to be transferred to more common declensions. The -ī or -ū regularly appears in shortened form, the compound then following the declension given in section 3 of Lesson 1. An example of this, the alternative adjective mayobhú, occurs in example 325, in the accusative singular neuter mayobhú, in section 47.3 of this lesson.

46.2. Primary stems in -ā.

Secondary stems in -ā, which form the feminine of masculine/neuter nouns and adjectives in -a as described in section 6 of Lesson 2, are very common. There are in addition a few primary -ā stems, many of which occur as compounds, like the masculine adjectives dhana-sā́ 'winning wealth' in the last example above, vrata-pā́ 'protecting holy law' in example 243, and purā-jā́ 'born aforetime' in the Lesson 6 text. The forms that are found, if made from the monosyllable jā́ 'child' (m/f), are given below. All oblique cases are rare, and only the nominative/accusative/vocative dual forms, jā́ or jaú, occur.

    Singular   Plural
Nom   jā́s   jā́s
Acc   jā́m   jā́s
Ins   jā́   jā́bhis
Dat   jé   jā́bhyas
Gen   jás    
Loc       jā́su
Voc   jā́s    

As with the stems in -ī and -ū, there is a tendency for compounds to be transferred to the secondary declension. The compound prajā́ 'creature', for example, has been assimilated to the secondary -ā declension throughout, and indeed was used to illustrate that declension in Lesson 2. As a result the primary -ā stems are uncommon, and have on occasion been differently assigned: the feminine rā́ 'gift', for example, which appears only in the accusative rā́m in X, 111, 7, the first example below, has been taken to be an irregular form of rayí, and in the concluding verse of X, 127, the only poem in the Rigveda addressed to dawn's sister, the goddess of night, I follow Professor Lanman (Noun-inflection, JAOS vol. x, 1880, p. 443) in taking gā́s to be from a monosyllabic gā́ 'singer', rather than the accusative plural 'cows' (example 316 below). I have also interpreted the word form in this way at its occurrence in VII, 36,1 quoted in the introduction to this lesson.

47. Aorist System: participles and moods.

The examples below are given to illustrate the forms. Participles and moods made from the reduplicating or sigmatic aorists are clearly aorist forms; when made from the simple aorist the Present System forms are given in parentheses for comparison.

47.1. Aorist participles.
47.2. The aorist imperative.

The first two examples are simple aorist imperative forms without connecting -a-, from verbs whose forms in the Present System belong to the thematic (-a-) conjugation. As the endings are added directly to the root in the Aorist System, they are those of the athematic conjugation (compare the aorist middle participle juṣāṇá in example 317 above).

47.3. The aorist subjunctive.

The sigmatic aorist is regularly used to make subjunctive forms.

47.4. The aorist optative.

A rare form of the aorist optative, the precative, adds an -s- before the endings, which when simply consonantal are then lost, as explained in section 18. An example occurred in the Lesson 8 text, repeated below (example 330).

48. The passive.

The passive is formed with the suffix -yá-, and the endings of the middle voice. The middle voice, without the suffix, can also be used with passive sense, as in the seventh verse of the lesson text, ví tirate, and the last two examples below.

48.1. The aorist passive.

This passive is found only in the 3rd person singular. It is formed with the augment, and the suffix -i is added to the verbal root, which is usually strengthened. An example occurred at the beginning of the Lesson 4 text: práty u adarśi āyatī́, uchántī duhitā́ diváḥ 'now she has been seen (a-darś-i, from √dr̥ś 'see, appear'), approaching, shining, the daughter of heaven'. The aorist passive is characteristic of poems of early date.

49. Primary nominal formation.

The formation of nominal (noun and adjective) stems from verbs in Sanskrit is more regular and clear than in any other Indo-European language. The ancient grammarians therefore set up a body of verbal roots, describing the regular processes by which these roots become nouns and adjectives by means of the addition of suffixes.

The table below gives a sample of three verbal roots, √kr̥ 'do', √jan 'produce', and √man 'think', and the nouns and adjectives that they form by means of four common suffixes: -ana, -as, -tu and -man. The position of the accent often differentiates meaning: for example, kar-aṇá 'active' exists alongside root-accented kár-aṇa 'deed'. The form that the root takes can vary depending on the suffix, as √kr̥ demonstrates: *kr̥-aṇá and *kŕ̥-as are not possible word forms.

    √kr̥ 'do'   √jan 'produce'   √man 'think'
-ana   kar-aṇá 'active'   ján-ana 'producer'   man-ána 'thoughtful'
-as   kár-as 'deed'   ján-as 'race'   mán-as 'understanding'
-tu   krá-tu 'power'   jan-tú 'creature'   mán-tu 'arbiter'
-man   kár-man 'deed'   ján-man 'birth'   mán-man 'thought'

Further examples of nouns and adjectives formed with these suffixes, together with four more primary suffixes, are given below.

-ana   cáraṇa from √car 'move', bhúvana from √bhū 'be', vakṣáṇa from √vakṣ 'grow', vacaná from √vac 'speak', sacaná from √sac 'accompany', sádana from √sad 'sit', hávana from √hū 'call upon'
-as   ávas from √av 'favour', uṣás from √vas 'shine', cákṣas from √cakṣ 'see', páyas from √pī 'swell with plenty', vácas from √vac, védas both from √vid 'find' and √vid 'know', vedhás from √vidh 'honour', śrávas from √śru 'hear', sádas from √sad
-tu   aktú from √añj 'make bright', gātú both from √gā 'go' and √gā 'sing'
-man   dā́man from √dā 'give', dhárman from √dhr̥ 'hold firm', dhā́man from √dhā 'place', pátman from √pat 'fly', vídman from √vid 'know', sádman from √sad
-ani   caráṇi from √car, vakṣáṇi from √vakṣ
-tra   mántra from √man, vr̥trá from √vr̥ 'hinder'; with connecting vowel gāyatrá from √gā 'sing', carítra from √car, janítra from √jan
-tha   with connecting vowel ucátha from √vac, carátha from √car, vakṣátha from √vakṣ, vidátha from √vid, sacátha from √sac, stanátha from √stan 'thunder', várūtha from √vr̥ 'protect'
-ra   usrá from √vas 'shine'; with connecting vowel patará from √pat, madirá from √mad 'be pleased'

The addition of secondary suffixes to these nominal stems to form derivative nouns and adjectives was treated in section 17 of Lesson 4 ('Secondary nominal formation'). Among the examples given were the secondary suffixes -a, -ya (-iya), -vant and -mant. Some derivatives made with these secondary suffixes, from nouns given above, are manasá from mánas; śravasíya from śrávas, vidathíya from vidátha, sacathíya from sacátha, (all given with suffixal -yà in the ancient texts) and usríya from usrá; mánasvant from mánas and dā́manvant from dā́man; krátumant from krátu and gātumánt from gātú.

The Lesson 10 text is remarkable for its wealth of adjectives and abstract feminine nouns formed with the primary suffix -ti. The passage contains nine examples: sa-rā-tí 'giving together' from √rā 'grant' and úpa-ṣṭu-ti 'paean' from √stu 'praise' both occur twice, together with bhak-tí 'share' from √bhaj 'share', su-pra-ṇī́-ti 'guiding safely' from √nī 'lead', abhí-ṣ-ti 'ready help' from √as 'be', vā́ja-sā-ti 'strength-winning' from san 'win', and dhūr-tí 'injury' from √dhvr̥ 'injure'.

50. The indological tradition: interpretation of verbal roots and their derivatives in the Rigveda.
50.1. Abstract, not concrete: the example of √grabh.

In the translations of indology the Rigveda often appears an unsophisticated and bizarre text because of the tradition of interpreting verbal roots, together with their nominal derivatives, in a primarily concrete or literal sense. Verbal meaning in the Rigveda is however regularly abstract and metaphorical -- the use of √pā 'drink' in I, 175, quoted in example 338 above, is an instance of this: 'rejoice (Indra), your greatness has been drunk... you were like happiness, like water to a thirsty man'. A few illustrations of the abstract use of the verb √grabh, gr̥bhṇā́ti 'take (not necessarily with the hand)' are given below.

50.2. Later specialization of meaning: the example of √pī.

Indologists call the language of the Rigveda 'Vedic', a word that is also used to describe the language of later texts which owe their existence to the Rigveda and the need to understand it (see the Series Introduction). The influence of these later texts leads to the continuing 'reading back' of interpretations that are later into Rigvedic contexts. A typical example is √pī, pínvate 'swell with plenty, yield abundantly' and its primary derivative páyas 'fruitfulness, plenty'. In the later texts the abstract sense was lost, and the root acquired the specific meaning 'swell with milk'. Despite the varied contexts in which páyas occurs in the Rigveda -- the word is ascribed to rivers, plants and speech for instance (see the first verse of the Lesson 3 text, and examples 88, 98, and 300, and 351 below) -- it continues to be consistently translated 'milk' by indologists, and the rivers in the Lesson 3 text, for example, are understood to be pictured as cows.

In the last example the compound su-dúgha 'richly giving forth', describing the rivers, is formed from a primary nominal derivative of a verb that is similar in meaning to √pī, √duh 'produce, give forth' with prefix su-. The same derivative, dúgha, occurred at the end of the compound sabar-dúgha in example 309 earlier in this lesson: dhīnā́m antáḥ sabardúghaḥ, hinvānó mā́nuṣā yugā́ (IX, 12, 7) 'producing clarity of thoughts within, encouraging the generations of men'. Like √pī, √duh later became restricted in meaning to the production of milk, so that IX, 12, 7, when quoted in a later text, is 'corrected': the genitive plural dhī́nām 'of thoughts' is changed to the accusative singular dhenā́m 'stream of milk', and the ending of the adjective changed to agree with the new noun (SV II,5,1,4,7). In the same way at IX, 108, 8, an Archaic poem, the accusative adjective payo-vŕ̥dham 'plentiful' is changed to payo-dúham (SV II,6,2,6,2). The sophistication and abstraction of the language of the Rigveda was not understood by the authors of the later Vedic texts, and the continuing use of the word 'Vedic' to include the language of the Rigveda perpetuates important mistranslations in these early poems.

50.3. The assumption of ritual meaning: the example of √añj.

Many words continue to be defined in dictionaries in ways that belong to later texts devoted to the description of ritual practice. A significant example of this is the verb √añj, anákti, to which Monier-Williams gives the primary sense for the Rigveda "to apply an ointment or pigment, smear with oil, anoint", and which Macdonell translates simply as 'anoint'. Most recently (1986) the verb is defined by Manfred Mayrhofer in his dictionary of early Sanskrit "salben, bestreichen, beschmieren", 'anoint, smear with oil'. This later specialization of sense occasions many strange translations of Rigvedic passages, and footnotes attempting to justify them. Geldner in the 1920s commented on his translation of example 356 below in a footnote "Das Loblied ist eine Salbe"; Renou in the 1960s translated example 353 "je vais lancer-avec-onction la parole que voici"; and the most recent translator of the Rigveda, Tatiana Elizarenkova (1999) notes to bhānúm añjate in the first example 'they anoint themselves with light as ointment', and to aktó vácobhis in example 359 'anointed with sacrificial butter and praised with words'. The later ritual interpretation also causes perplexity about one of the verb's primary derivatives, aktú 'twilight ray'. The meaning of √añj in the Rigveda, both with and without preverbs -- see examples 352, 353, 358 and 359 -- is abstract and complex, lying in the region 'cause to appear, reveal, make bright'.