The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c11.58

c11.58

There are twenty-three verses in the hymn; and of these 3, 4, 5 and 20, 21 and 22 have a direct bearing on the question we are discussing. But to understand these verses properly, it is necessary to discuss most of the other verses in the hymn, and I shall therefore examine the hymn verse by verse. I have already remarked that the hymn is one of those which have not yet been properly understood. Some of the verses have been explained by Yâska, but he has nowhere tried to give us the bearing of the whole story described in the hymn. Sâyaṇa's commentary is very often simply verbal, and in many places he too is not certain about the meaning, while the Anukramaṇî has been several times disregarded by Sâyaṇa himself. On the other hand, Ludwig, Grassmann, and several other European scholars have tried in their own way to explain the legend or the story embodied in the hymn, and the latest attempt of the kind is that of Piscel and Geldner in their Vedic studies, Vol. VII., Part I.∗ These scholars hold that the hymn narrates a legend current in old days. In other words, they take it, and I think rightly, to be a historic hymn. But the question, what does the legend signify, or how did it originate, still remains unsolved. Piscel and Geldner understand the hymn to mean that Vrishâkapi went down to the south and again returned to the house of Indra. But even then the bearing of the legend is but imperfectly explained. The occurrence of such words as *dâsa*, *ârya* and *parshu* in the hymn have led some to suppose that the hymn records the story of a struggle between the Aryan and the non-Aryan races. But the hypothesis hardly explains the various incidents in the story, and the legend may therefore be said to be but still imperfectly understood. Under such circumstances any suggestion which explains the hymn better is at least entitled to a hearing. It is admitted that the hymn is a dialogue between Indra, Indrânî, and Vrishâkapi, a son of Indra as they call him.* But there is a great divergence of opinion in assigning different verses to their deities. I shall examine these points while discussing the verses.