The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.49.2

c11.49.2

Even the adjective *shata-manyu*, which Sâyaṇa interprets as meaning 'the master of a hundred sacrifices' in X, 103, 7, has its counterpart, if not in the Rig-Veda, at least in the Sâma-Veda which reads *sahasra-manyu* for *sahasra-muṣhka* in Rig-Veda VI, 46, 3. This shows that the Vedic bards considered *shata* (a hundred) and *sahasra* (a thousand) as interchangeable numerals in some places; and if the numeral *shata* in *shata-kratu* had been of the same character, we should naturally have met with a paraphrase of the epithet as *sahasra-kratu* somewhere in the Vedic literature. But although the epithet *shata-kratu*, as applied to Indra, occurs about sixty times in the Rig-Veda and several times in other Vedic works, nowhere do we find it paraphrased as *sahasra-kratu*, which shews that the Vedic bards did not feel themselves at liberty to alter or paraphrase it as they liked. The adjective *amita-kratu* is applied to Indra in I, 102, 6; but as *amita* does not necessarily mean more than 'one hundred,' it does not follow that on this account we should give up the ordinary meaning of *shata* in *shata-kratu*. If the word *kratu* had nowhere been used in the Rig- Veda to denote a sacrifice, we may have been justified in interpreting shata-kratu in the way suggested by Western scholars. But, as observed by Dr. Haug, when Vasiṣṭha prayed to Indra (VII, 32, 26) “Carry, O Indra !