The Arctic Home in the Vedas c10.36

c10.36

Here *ritâvânam* (righteous), *mahisham* (strong), *vishva-darshatam* (visible to all), *agnim* (Agni, fire), *shrut-karnam* (attentive-eared), *saprathas-tamam* (most widely-reaching), *tvâ* (thee) and *daivyam* (divine) are all in the accusative case governed by *dadhire* (placed), and describe the qualities of Agni. *Janâh* (people) is the nominative and *dadhire* (placed) is the only verb in the text. *Sumnâya* (for the welfare) denotes the purpose for which the people placed Agni in front (*puro*); and *girâ* (by praises) is the means by which the favour of Agni is to be secured. If we, therefore, leave out the various adjectives of Agni, the verse means, "The people have placed Agni (as described) in front for their welfare, with praises." The only expression that remains is *mânushâ yugâ*, and it can go in with other words in a natural way only as an accusative of time. The verse would then mean “The people have placed Agni (as described) in front for their welfare, with praises, during human ages.” But Griffith takes *yugâ* to mean ‘generations,’ and supplying a verb of his own, translates the last part of the verse thus: “Men’s generations magnify (Agni) with praise-songs (*girâ*).” This shows what straits we are reduced to if we once make up our mind not to interpret *mânushâ yugâ* to mean ‘a period of time’; for the word ‘magnify’ does not exist in the original. This verse also occurs in the Vâjasaneyî Samhitâ (XII, 111) and Mahîdhara there explains *mânushâ yugâ* to mean ‘human ages’ or ‘periods of time’ such as fortnights. We have, therefore, at least two passages, where *mânushâ yugâ*, must, according to the recognised rules of interpretation, be taken to mean ‘periods of time,’ and not ‘generations of men,’ unless we are prepared to give up the natural construction of the sentence. There are no more passages in the Rig-Veda where *mânushâ yugâ* occurs in juxtaposition with words like *janâh* or *martyam*, so as to leave no option as regards the meaning to be assigned to *yuga*. But if the meaning of a phrase is once definitely determined even from a single passage, we can safely understand the phrase in the same sense in other passages, provided the meaning does not conflict there with the context. That is how the meaning of many a Vedic word has been determined by scholars like Yâska, and we are not venturing on a new path in adopting the same process of reasoning in the present case.