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Śakadhūma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

Literature: Weber, Omina und Portenta (1858), p. 363; Naxatra, ii (1861), pp. 272, n., 393; Ind. Studien, v, 257, x,65; Haug, Sitzber. Bayer. Akad. Wiss., 1875, ii, 506; Zimmer, Ai. Leben, p. 353; Ludwig, Rig-Veda, iii, 187; Bloomfield, J AOS., xiii, p. cxxxiv sqq.; AJPh., vii, 484 sqq.; Atharva Veda, p. 81;SBE., xlii, 532 sqq.; Whitney-Lauman, Atharva-Veda, pp. 377 sq.;Henry, La Magie dans I'lnde antique, pp. 68 sqq.; Oldenberg, RV Noten, i, 160; Caland, Ai. Zauberritual, pp. 16, n. 13; 175, n. 8;Papesso, Inni dell' Atharva-Veda, p. 127, n.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1936

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References

page 449 note 1 The verses 1–2 and 4 are fonnd in the Paippalāda xix, with rather strong differences in w. 1–2; these varies lectiones are, however, not important (except perhaps in v. 1d: tato rāstram ajāyata instead of idam rāstram asād iti of the Vulgate).

page 449 note 2 Better perhaps Ppp.: tato rāstram ajāyata “ thus did his rule originate ”.

page 449 note 3 This verse is partly metrically irregular and is not found in the Ppp ., it mayperhaps be a later interpolation. But quite apart from that, Whitney's translation(“ from day-and-night ”, etc.) is unintelligible to me. There is, of course, not the slightest doubt that ahorātrābhyām may mean “ during day-and-night ” (cf. Delbrück, Ai. Syntax, p. 130; Speyer, Ved. u. Skt. Syntax, p. 13), though there may seem toexist some difficulty concerning the other two words. However, I can see little difference between, e.g., naksatrebhyah and naksatresu in a connection like this one. “ The time of the constellations ” would probably be ═ sāyam, the very beginning of the night when the stars first become visible.

page 450 note 1 pratībodhena, although approved of by the dictionaries, can scarcely be quitecorrect. Perhaps pratībddhena, which has undoubtedly been suggested by some scholar, may help us (other suggestions are rather too far off).

page 450 note 2 Henry, MSL., ix, 247, translates: “ entre ciel et terre ”, which is scarcely possible.Geldner, Rigveda, i, 212, has: “ in der Mitte jenseits dieses unteren (Raumes), ” whichis formally quite acceptable though the sense remains somewhat obscure. Grassmann, Wb., 1308 supplies agninā and seems to think that we should translate “ by themiddle (fire) ” which is out of the question. Ludwig, RV., ii, 583, is, as usual, extremely obscure.

page 450 note 3 The words tāni dharmāni prathamāni āsan, which recur in i, 164, 50 (═ x, 90, 16), must mean something like this; dharmāni, according to my humble opinion, does nothere mean “ laws ” or “ customs ”.

page 451 note 1 Cf. Oldenberg, RV. Noten, i, 160.

page 451 note 2 The reasoning of Ludwig, Rigveda, iv, 456, concerning this detail appears to berather a casuistic one.

page 451 note 3 Zauberritual, p. 16, n. 13; p. 175, n. 8.

page 451 note 4 Cf. AV., v, 24, 10; vi, 86, 2; TS., iii, 4, 5, 1 (═ Pāraskara, i, 5); PBr. 5, 9.

page 451 note 5 MSL., ix, 247 (cf. La Magic dans l'Inde antique, pp. 68 sqq.).

page 451 note 6 Geldner himself would not like to decide whether śakadhūma does really meana constellation, dung-smoke or (according to Bloomfield) a weather-prophet.

page 451 note 7 Vedic Index, ii, 346.

page 452 note 1 The passages in which Bloomfield has dealt with Sakadhūma have already been quoted above.

page 452 note 2 Why Bloomfield translates śalalī by “ a boar's bristle ” is not clear to me, the śalalī being well known from the sīmantonnayana.

page 452 note 3 This may be deduced from 50, 16, but is by no means quite clear.

page 452 note 4 The etymology of śakrt, śakan- now generally accepted seems to be the oneconnecting it with “ dung, manure, filth ”, and which is of rather recent date(cf. Bartholomse, BB., xv, 41; Fick, Vergl. Wb., i, 421; Kretschmer, Einleitung, p. 353). Let me admit at once that this etymology appears to me entirely inadmissible. The correct etymology of is found already in Pott, Et. Forsch., page 449 note 1 ii, 205 sq.;Benfey, Griech. Wurzellex, i, 269, etc.; the word belongs to “ smoke, fume”, “ to breathe forth ”, Hes.; lit. kvāpas “ fume, odour ”, kvepiù, “ to breathe forth, to smoke ”; Slav, kopŭ, “ fume ”, etc. Lat. vapor does not belong here, but to ONorse vafr-lozi “ a magic wall of flames surrounding Asgard ”, v´fuðr, name of the wind, váfa “ to totter, to shake ”, Germ, wabern, cf.Danielsson, Gramm. anmärkningar, i, 16, n. 2; Johansson, Goett. gel. Anz., 1890, pp. 767 sq.; BB., xviii, 31. Armen. k[ami “ wind ” (Lidén, Armen. Stud., pp. 124 sq.)scarcely belongs here. The undoubted relationship between Lat. fūmus and fimus well illustrates the connection between and

page 453 note 1 This Śalcapūta is met with in the RV., x, 132, 5: asmín sv èt´c chákapūta éno hité mitré nígatān hanti virđn, within a hymn which is more or less entirely obscure(cf. Ludwig, Rigveda, iv, 123 sq.; Oldenberg, RV.-Noten, ii, 349 sq.). There is, however, no doubt at all that this is the Śalcapūta spoken of in Jaim. Br., i, 171 (Caland, Verhandel. Akad. Amsterdam Afd. Letterkunde, xix, 4 (1919), 66 sq.), and that withthe help of this passage the hymn may be partly reconstructed, though no such attemptcan, of course, be made here.

page 453 note 2 What Brugmaun, Grundriss, page 449 note 2 ii, 1, 581, says concerning these compounds isincomplete and insufficient.

page 453 note 3 In the Symbolx philological O. A. Danielsson dicatx (Uppsala, 1932), pp. 13–42.

page 454 note 1 As far as I am aware only the aborigines of certain parts of Australia consider the Milky Way to consist of smoke, viz. the smoke from the camp-fires of dead warriors.Cf. Stanbridge, Trans. Etknol. Soc. N.S., i (1861), 302.

page 454 note 2 Cf. Weber, Ind. Stud., ii, 240, 413 sq.; Ind. Skizzen, pp. 97 sq., 136; Naxatra, ii, 364; Jacobi, Festgr. Roth., p. 71; etc. The words of Weber Naxatm, ii, 277, concerningthe date of the substitution of theformay still be quoted aaa beneficent criticism of the somewhat extravagant theories of Professor Jacobi.

page 454 note 3 I leave out here the words visūvātā pará enávarena, which are somewhat obscureand cannot possibly be of any decisive importance in this connection.

page 454 note 4 Cf., e.g., Kirfel, Kosmographie der Inder, p. 138

page 444 note 5 In the Vedas the stars are sometimes styled “ bulls ” (usrāh, gāvah), cf. Symb. phil. O. A. Danielsson dicatae, pp. 25 sq.

page 455 note 1 The last words of the verse: táni prathamány āsan I have venturedto translate: “ these were the first settlements.” This, according to my humble opinion, means that the men of yore were at their death metamorphosized into stars and thus had their abode in the nocturnal sky, an idea which is by no means foreign to Ancient India (cf., e.g., Schermann, Am Urquell, vi, 5 sqq., and the present writer, Symb. phil. 0. A. Danielsson dicatae, pp. 30 sq.). According to such an interpretationthe devāh in RV., i, 164, 50 (═ x, 90, 16) are also called “ the first settlements ”, which is, of course, by no means impossible.

page 455 note 2 Cf., e.g., Meghadūta, 68.

page 455 note 3 Viz. dhūmarī, dhūmiā, and dhūmasihā. According to the Petersburg Dict., dhūmamahisī in certain native dictionaries means “ a cloud ”. On dhūmarī cf. Zacharia, Beiträge, pp. 55, 66, 85; dhūmarikā occurs in the Comm. on Gaüdavaha, 639.

page 455 note 4 Cf. ZDMG., lxxiii, 146 sqq., and J. J. Meyer, Hindu Tales, p. 112, n.

page 456 note 1 The , as is well known, are also called bahulāh (cf. Pānini, iv, 3, 34;a person born under this constellation is called Bahula). This scarcely means “ the numerous ones ” (thus Weber, Naxatra, ii, 368), but rather “ the obscure, dark ones ”or possibly “ the ones crammed together ”.

page 456 note 2 Cf., e.g., the quotations from Aratus and Moirō in Athenxus, xi, 490 A; 491 B, etc.

page 456 note 3 TS., iv, 4, 5, 1; Kāth., xl, 4; MS., ii, 8, 13 (with the variants bulā—a simple mistake—and stanayantī instead of varsayantī); cf. TBr., iii, 1, 4, 1.