2 They praise for his heroic deeds Visnu who lurks in the mountains, wandering like a ferocious wild beast, ^ in whose three wide strides all creatures dwell.
^ Let this song of inspiration go forth to Visnu, the wide- striding bull who lives in the mountains, who alone with but three steps measured apart this long, far-reaching dweUing-place. ® 4 His three footprints, inexhaustibly full of honey, rejoice “ in the sacrificial drink. Alone, he supports threefold the earth and the sky - all creatures.
/ Would that I might reach his dear place of refuge, where men who love the gods rejoice.® For there one draws close to the wide-striding Vismi; there, in his highest footstep, is the fountain of honey.
RUDRA AND VI§NU 6 Wc Wish to go to your’ dwelling-pkces, where there arc untiring, many-horned catde.® There the highest footstep of the widc-steppmg bull shines bnghtly down.
NOTES 1. Cf. the various uses of pada in i 164 I. Cf 1321, which begins with the same phrase.
5 The verb {skambb) is related to the noun for ‘pillar’, the axis pjimdi that props heaven apart so that creation may take place. This pillar IS also a mcasunng-stick for Visnu Elsewhere this act is attributed to Vanina (5*85*5)> 'who measures out the earth with the sun 03 with a measure.
4. The commentator suggests that this is a lion, this seems more hkcly, in view of the sinister charactcnstics attributed to Vijnu here, than to interpret it as a reference to the bull who is about to appear (vv 3 and 6) Indeed, as bulls do not usually live in moun- tains, this may merely be an instance of the use of the \v ord (ly/u/i) to denote any male full of seed, in this case a wild beast (as the Vcdic gods arc often said to be wild beasts).
5. This may refer to the entire topic world or to the earth as Opposed to the upper duelling-place 6. The verb can be transitive or intransitive, to be or to mal e someone else happy or drunk. Here both meanings seem appro- priate; the honey in the footprints acts like Soma, intoxicating the creatures who dwell there, the 'men who love the gods’ speaficd in the nc-xt verse. The honey is in all three of his footsteps (v. 4), though the highest Is the fountain of the nectar of immortahu 7 The pronoun, in the dual, refers to both India and Vi;nu 8. Here, as clscuhcrc, the cattle maj simply sjmbohrc otrlc (and, b) extension, the riclies of life), or romcthing more The commentator identifies them as rays of light (extensions of Vijnu ns the sun), thej maj be stars. As cattle, thev are untiring, as rays unfading; *manj -homed’ uould mean something hkc ‘t-a'inkling’ (for stars) or ‘uidclj diffused’ (for sunbeams) (Cf. i tfij ti for hotns as rays.) Ilut the) maj lie just uhit the s erse sas-s, the cattle vi.hu abound m heaven.
REALIA REALIA The R/g Ve^a is a sacred book, but it is a very worldly sacred book. Nowhere can we find the tiniest suspiaon of a wish to renounce the material world m favour of some spiritual quest; rehgion is the handmaiden of worldly life. The gods are mvokcd to give the worshipper the things he wants - health, wealth, long life, and progeny. This is not to say that there is anythmg superfiaal about Vedic rehgious concerns, but merely that these meditations stem from a life-afilrming, joyous celebration of human existence.
Almost every hymn m the Rig Veda expresses at some point a vTsh for the good thmgs m life, but some arc primarily devoted to a cclcbrauon of tliese thmgs, with rclauvely little attention to the gods who arc supposed to provide them, and in others such worldly concerns eclipse what leaven of theistic devotion remains in them. Several of these hymns arc devoted to the waters, the fluid clement or Dionysian clement tliat looms so large throughout the R/g Veda; the waters give renewal of life (lo 9) and arc mvokcd as goddesses (7.49). Water is at the heart of another hymn that combines the pro- fane apprcaation of the rams with a satincal fondness for priests (7,105); the sacrificial arena also provides the setting for another paean to the things that make hfc \\ orth li\ mg It thus becomes evident that, ratlicr tluan cliaractcrtying the ritual world of the R/^ Vedt ns vorldlj, one might do belter to cliaractcrirc the non-ritual Vedic world as sicrcd: religion extends out into cscry aspea of hfc, not mcrclj the official religious moments. Thus blessings arc sought for the warriors’ arms (C 75) and for the gamb'er’s v bh to break awa> from his compuls'on (lo.jt), as s cU as for the brmghttd traacilct m the forest (jo i^C).
T0.9 The Waters of Life 1 Waters, you arc the ones who bnng us the hfe force. Help us to find nourishment so that we may look upon great joy.
2 lit US share m the most deheious sap that you have, as if you were loving mothers.^ / Let us go straight to the house of the one for whom you waters give us life- and give us birth, 4 For our well-being let the goddesses be an aid to us, the waters be for us to drink. Let them cause well- being and health to flow over us.
/ Mistresses of all the things that arc chosen, rulers over all peoples, the v'atcrs arc the ones 1 beg for a cure, 6 Soma has told me that within the waters arc all cures and Agni who is salutary' to all ^ 7 Waters, yield your cure as an armour for my body, so that I may sec the sun for a long time.
I? Waters, carry far away all of this that has gone bid m me, cither what I have done in maliaous deceit or whatever he 1 have sworn to.
9 I have sought the waters today; v/c have joined with their sip. O Agni full of moisture, come and flood me vith splendour.
KOTCS i Thit I*!, as mothers Rtve milk to their children a. Tlic trivclhng singer asks to he rent to a hourc tiho'e owner hit been hlci^cd, so that bj sacrifiang for him the linger may be rcticucd.
} Agni ujthin the waters is a common theme, to ^ hich the h>mn returns In the final vcr*c Cf. to jt.
THE RIG VEDA 7.49 Tbe Wafers, Who are Goddesses I They who have tlie ocean as their eldest flow out of the sea,^ purifying themselves, never resting. Indra, the bull with the thunderbolt, opened a way for them;^ let the waters, who are goddesses, help me here and now.
a The waters of the sky or those that flow,® those that are dug out or those that arise by themselves, those pure and clear waters that seek the ocean as their goal - let the waters, who are goddesses, help me here and now. ^ Those in whose midst King Varuna moves, looking down upon the truth and falsehood of people,^ those pure and clear waters that drip honey - let the waters, who are goddesses, help me here and now.
4 Those among whom King Varuna, and Soma, and all the gods drink in ecstasy the exhilarating nourishment, those into whom Agni Of-all-men entered® - let the waters, who are. goddesses, help me here and now.
NOTES 1. A reference to the cosmic ocean that is their source, in contrast with the earthly ocean that is their resting-point.
2. Indra opened a way for the waters when he killed Vrtra. Cf.
3. That is, those that flow on earth, in contrast with the reservoirs of the sky.
4- Varuna is god of the waters and moves through the heavenly waters.
7-103 The Frogs This unusual hymn moves on two parallel but sharply contrasting levels: as a naturalistic poem, it describes the ogs who are rejuvenated when the season of rains comes; as a sacerdotal hymn, it describes the Brahmins who begin to o t at the start of the rains. The point of comparison is REALIA REALIA the voice, a sacred aad creative force throughout the TUg Veda (which is, of course, a book of songs). For years scholars have argued about whether or not the comparison is meant to satirize the Brahmins (a possibility probably first suggested by the analogue with Aristophanes) But although the mood of the hymn is indeed cheerful, it is unhkely that the Rjg Veda would contam material in actual critiasm of pnests in generak On the other hand, it may well be satirizing some priests (as, for example, the pnests on the ‘other side’ of the agonistic sacrifice). What makes the poem a tour de force is that every verse applies simultaneously to both frogs and Brahtmns, a most elaborate and playful pun.
I After lying still for a year. Brahmins keeping their vow,^ the frogs have raised their voice that Parjanya" has m- spired.
a ^Xfiicn the heavenly waters came upon him® dned out like a leather bag,* lying m the pool, then the cncs of the frogs joined in chorus like the lowing of cows with calves.
) As soon as the season of rams has come, and it rams upon tlicm who arc longing, thirsting for it, one approaches another who calls to him, ‘Akhhhala*,® as a son approaches his father.® f One of die two greets the other as they revel in the waters that burst forth, and the frog leaps about under the falling tain, the speckled mingling his a oicc aaath the green.
/ When one of them repeats the speech of the odicr, as a pupil diat of die tcaclier, eserj' piece* of them is in unison, as vuh fine voices jou chant over ihc vauers. One lows hie a cow, one bleats hi c a goat; one is speckled, one is green, Tliej haac the same name but the) dtiTer m form, and as thej speal they ornament their aoiccs m many vats.
7 Inl c Brahmins at the oscrnigh*!acrtfici:f v ho speak around the full l>ov.l of Soma, to jou frovt around a poo! cclcbiJie the day of the tear a hen the raire come.
THE RIG VEDA fof the beginning of the year; the officiating priests ° come forth heated^® and sweating. None remain hidden, y They have kept the order of the twelve-month as ordained by the gods; these men do not neglect the season.^ ''J^en the season of rains has come, after a year, the hot fires come to an end.
10 He who lows like a cow has given, he who bleats like a goat has given, the speckled one, the green one has given us riches. By giving hundreds of cows, the frogs have prolonged life in a thousand Soma-pressings.^ NOTES 1. A complex pun. Either a reference to the vow of silence which Brahmins (and frogs) have been keeping aU year while estivating, or to their duty to chant (or croak) now.
2. Parjanya is the god of the rain-storm (cf. 5.83 and 7.101).
3. Most obviously a frog; but also with possible allusion to Vrtra lying under the waters that Indra released on a parallel and auspicious occasion (1.32. 10).
4. Cf. Parjanya’s leather bag full of rains (5.83.7).
5. Sanskrit for ‘Brekkekkekkek koax koax koax’ (the sacred chant in The Frogs of Aristophanes).
6. He approaches him for instruction, for the father teaches his son the Vedic chants.
7. A pun. The word {parvan) means a piece of a text, or a chapter, the closing lines of which are chanted in harmony or unison; but with reference to the frogs, it means a limb, a piece of the body. Sayana says that in the hot dry season the frogs turn to earth, and in the rains they reappear with full-limbed bodies, every piece united.
8. An elaborate ceremony lasting through the night and involv- ing Soma.
9- The Adhvaryus, who perform ritual in contrast with the Brahmins who offer prayer, 10.^ Heat’ (in verse 8) refers specifically to the heated cauldron offered in the Pravargya ceremony; when applied to t c ogs, it retains its more general meaning of heat, particularly the cat o summer. The priests sweat over the cauldron, while the ogs appear to sweat as they are covered with drops of water. In REAIilA Tcrsc 9 the ‘hot fires’ refer to the heat of summer, not the sacrificial fires, 11, They perform the proper ritual at the proper season, now they chant the hymns appropriate to the beginning of the year (the rains) 12, The frogs ate described with the phrases traditionally devoted to generous patrons, who extend their own life-spans as a reward for giving nehes to the sages composing the hymns; or as priests extending the life-spans of the patrons This is accomplished by means of a thousand Soma-pressings, or else it extends the life- span long enough to perform a thousand Soma-ptcssings 9.112 Hliwaii Diversity: A. tiynin to Soma A humorous, iromc, and worldly hymn, whose straight- forward message seems to be that we are all after the same thing: wealth. This thought recurs in more lofty tones throughout the Veda (as in the references to wealth in the hymns to Varuna, U^as, and Vijnu) The hymn is loosely linked to Soma through the refrain; it may be a work-song, to be sung during the pressing of the Soma (‘to divert the mind’, says Sayana). It is quite divcrtmg.
t Out thoughts bnng us to diverse callings, setting people apart* the carpenter seeks what is broken, the physician a fracture, and tlic Brahmin priest seeks one \\ ho presses Soma t O drop of Soma, flow for Indra 3 With hiB dned t\\ igs, with feathers of large birds, and aiith stones, the smith seeks all his days a nun uith gold.’ O drop of Soma, flow for India, 3 1 am a poet, my Dad’s a physician and Mum* a miller Miih grinding-stonc.s With diverse thoughts vc all strive for vcalih, going after it like cattle, O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
3 Tlic harnessed horse longs for a light cart; seducers long for a aa Oman's smile; the penis for the tvo luirv lipt, and the fnag for water.* O drop o'" Sonu. (hr • for Iiidrt THE RIG VEDA NOTES 1. All three seek patrons or customers. The Brahmin priest is the one who rectifies any errors that may have been committed in the course of the sacrifice; he is therefore a sacerdotal * fixer (or sacrificial physician) like the other two. ‘Diverse callings’ may also imply conflicting interests: it is to the physician’s advantage when the patient sustains a fracture.
2. The plants, wings, and stones may be used for kindling, fan- ning the flames, and whetstones, or as sticks to make the shafts of arrows, feathers for their fletches, and stones for their arrowheads.
3. Highly vernacular words for father and mother are used here.
4. Sayana points out one more unexpressed longing implicit in the verse: the poet longs for Soma and for gold, for a generous patron, like all the others in the hymn.
6.75 To Arms This is a benediction that the royal chaplain would recite over the arms of the king before a military expedition or to bless the warriors protecting -the consecrated stallion in the horse sacrifice. Each item in the arsenal is described separately and praised.
/ His face is like a thundercloud, when the armoured warrior goes into the lap of battles. Conquer with an unwounded body; let the power of armour^ keep you safe.
■2 With the bow let us win cows, with the bow let us win the contest and violent battles with the bow. The bow ruins the enemy’s pleasure; with the bow let us conquer all the corners of the world.
S She comes all the way up to your ear like a woman who wishes^ to say something, embracing her dear friend; umming like a woman, the bowstring stretched tight on the bow carries you safely across in the battle.
4 ese two who go forward like a woman going to an encounter hold the arrow in their lap as a mother holds S.EALIA.
a son. Let tbe two bow-ups, working together, pierce our enemies and scatter our foes.
/ He is the father of many daughters, and many are his sons.® He makes a rattling sound as he goes down mto battle. The quiver wins the attacks and all the skirmishes when he is strapped on a back and set to work.'
6 Standmg in the chauot, the skilful chanotccr drives his prize-winning horses forward wherever he wishes to go. Praise the power of the reins: the guides follow the mind that is behind them.
y Ncighmg violently, the horses with their showering hoofs outstrip everyone with their chariots. Trampling down the foes with the Ups of their hoofs, they desuoy their enemies without veering away.
The wagon of transport — oblation is its name * — on which the weapons and armour arc placed, on it let us place the working chariot and be of good heart all our days. 9 The fetliers® have assembled around tlic sweet one,® giving power, a refuge in time of need, powerful and deep. "With wondrous arrmes and the strength of arrow's, unhiding and all with equal manly powers, they loom immense as they storm the massed armies, ro Fathers, Brahmins worthy of Soma, let tlic faultless sky and earth be kind to us. Let PDjan keep us from going tlie wrong way. O j ou who thrive on Order, guard us so that no one who plots c\nl w'lll liavc powxr over us. rr Her robe is an eagle, and her tooth js a deer; bound with cows, she flics as she is sent forward.’ Let the arrows give us shelter wherever men run together and run apart.
ra Sparc us, O weapon living true to its mark; let our hotly Ik stone IvCt Soma spcal a blessing upon us; let Aditi give us shelter.
JJ lie beats them on the hack and strikes them on the haundus. O w hip for horses, drive forv.ird mto hi'tlc the horses who sense what is ahead /y It wmapi litclf around the arm like a serpent widt rx iJ7 Tin: RIG VKDA coils, warding ofi’ the snap of the bowstring. Let the gauntlet,^ knowing all tlic ways, protect on all sides, a man protecting a man.
// The divine arrow is smeared with poison, witli a head of antelope horn and a nioudi of iron. To tltis seed of Parjanya^ I bow low.
/(f Once shot, fly fat away, arrow, sharpened with prayer. Go straight to our foes, and do not leave a single one of them tlicrc.
ij Where the arrows fall as thick as boys with untrimmed locks of hair,^® there let Brahmanaspati and Adid give us shelter, give us shelter for all our days. iS I cover widi armour those places on you where a wound is mortal. Let Soma the king dress you in ambrosia.^ Let Varuna make wider yet your wide realm. Let the gods rejoice in you as you are victorious.
1$ Whoever would harm us, whether it be one of our own people, or a stranger, or someone from far away, let all the gods ruin him. My inner armour is prayer, NOTES r. The armour is both the literal mail on the warrior and the armour implicit in the protection afforded by the present hymn, and by sacked power in general.
2. The word can mean both a battle and a meeting (either a rendezvous with a lover or a public meeting like a wedding or a festival).
3. The arrows are the sons and daughters of the quiver.
4. The transport wagon would carry not only the weapons and armour of the warrior, but his lighter war-chariot as well. Here it is farther likened to the oblation that ‘carries’ the prayer to the gods (as Agni is said to be the ‘transporter’), either though pure meta- phor ot as a reference to the actual use of the transport wagon to carry the oblation before and after battle.
5. The fathers are both prototypes of warriors (especially in their role in assisting Indra to set the cows free from the cave) and sources of power for their warrior descendants.
6. The Soma.
realia 7. The arrow is robed m eagle feathers, tipped with deer-hom, and bound with leather thongs 8 The leather protecting the forearm.
9. The arrow is made of reed, which is said to contain the seed (ram) of Parjanya.
10 The simile is based either upon the image of arrows falling as close together as strands of hair on the head of a boy whose hair IS thick, or arrows whose feathers ate like the strands of hair on the boys, or arrows falling helter-skelter like young boys at play.
II. Or m immortality, the effect of drinking ambrosia.
Tradition regards dice as the divinity to which this hymn is addressed, for the dice are praised m it, though they are also reviled" this is a monologue m which a gambler ivrcstles with his compulsive attraction to the dice. First, the dice are ‘bom’ during a storm in which the brown nuts from which tliey arc made cease to hang like pendant carrmgs from the nut tree and fall, to be made into dice. When the gambler loses his money, his wife is first aliemited (v. 2) and then mistreated (‘They touch her, pulbng at her garments, hair, ct cetera’, says the commentator, perhaps thinking of the famous scene in the l\lahohharala where Draupadi, the wnfc of die brothers who have lost her at dice, is.abused); she is asliamcd and angry, rejected by him (probably when she incs to stop him from gambling) and in turn rejecting lum (probabl) when he tries to get money from her). He enters houses at night to steal or to borrow money, but when he finally abjur« the dice, he is advised to be happy with uhat he has and pcrlups even to hope to win back hi* estranged vifc and his lost cattle. Although thin is hasicaltj a secular hamn (and in the monologue-dialogue form associated with noaditurgica! hjmnsk one must Ixrar in mind the rchglnut jiCnificmce of dtcc-pla\ir,g in ancient Indu; the cs*enital ro'e p’i)cd I'i the d’ce game m the royal ceremony ronir. ctanon and the u'c of ihrons o'" the dice to represent the . THE RIG VEDA font* Ages (or Yugas). Moreover, the hymn ends with a vow of repentance and a ‘firm purpose of amendment’ that egress a fervent religious faith.
1 The trembling hazelnut eardrops of the great tree, born in a hurricane, intoxicate me as they roll on the furrowe board. The dice seem to me like a drink of Soma from Mount Mujavant,^ keeping me awake and excited.
2 She did not quarrel with me or get angry; she was kin to my fciends and to me. Because of a losing throw o the dice I have driven away a devoted wife.
j My wife’s mother hates me, and my wife pushes rae away; the man in trouble finds no one with sympathy- They all say, ‘I find a gambler as useless as an old horse that someone wants to sell,’ ^ Other men fondle the wife of a man whose possessions have been coveted by the plundering dice. His father, mother, and brothers all say of him, ‘We do not know him. Tie him up and take him away.’
/ When I swear, ‘I will not play with them’,^ I am left behind by my friends as they depart. But when the brown dice raise their voice as they are thrown down, I run at once to the rendezvous with them, like a woman to her lover.
The gambler goes to the meeting-haU, asking himself ‘Will I win?’, and trembling with hope. But the dice cross him and counter his desire, giving the winning throws to his opponent.
7 The dice goad like hooks and prick like whips; they enslave, deceive, and torment. They give presents as children do,® striking back at the winners. They are coated with honey — an irresistible power over the gambler.
S Their army, three bands of fifty, plays by rules as im- mutable as those of the god Savitr.^ They do not bow even to the wrath of those whose power is terrifying; the king himself bows down before them.
realia ^ Down they roll, and up they spring. Handless, they master him that has hands. Unearthly coals thrown down on the gaming board, though they are cold they burn out the heart.
10 The deserted wife of the gambler grieves, and the mother grieves for her son who wanders anywhere, nowhere. In debt and m need of money, frightened, he goes at night to the houses of other men It It torments the gambler to see his wife the woman of other men, in their comfortable rooms. But he yoked the brown horses ® in the early morning, and at evemng he fell down by the fire, no longer a man.
[To /lit diet ] To the general® of your great army, the first king of your band, to him I hold out my ten fingers’ and swear tlus to be tlic truth: ‘I am holdmg back no money.’
U This IS what the noble Savitf shows me' ‘Play no longer with the dice, but till your field, enjoy what you possess, and v.'iluc it highly. There arc your cattle, and there is your wife, O gambler ’ \To tht dicf] Grant us your friendship; have pity on us. Do not bewitch us with the force of your terrible sorcery. Lay to rest jour anger, your hatred. Let someone else fall into the trap of the brown dice NOTFS 1. The Soma plant that ftrows on Mount Miljavant is often said to ptevent sleep.
t. The dice, or his friends.
3 lint is. tahinp them back oRain 4- Ju'-t as the rules of Savhf arc fixed and bindinf; over nil crea- tures. csen the other pods, so too the actions of the dice arc Jneom- pirhensilde and ineluctable. The roninirn*alor tupees's that the dice pUv on the patumf; board as Savitr plars in the imieerse, j. ri'hcr actual horses, ot a metaphor for the btisn t\ dice, fi rhr prnenl mav l>c Kali, the lonnp thtov, later p'ts'/tiiiied »i tlie tpltn of ^,a'n1('ln^.', THE RIG VEDA 7. The ten fingers arc extended both in the traditional gesture of submission and to show that the gambler is now literally empty- handed, that he has no more money for the dice to take.
Losf hi the Forest A traveller lost in the Forest becomes frightened and succumbs to twilight mirages (w. 3-4). He begs the female spirit of the forest (mentioned nowhere else in the R/^ Veda) not to harm him.
1 Spirit of the forest, spirit of the forest, who seem to melt away,^ how is it that you do not ask about a village Doesn’t a kind of fear grasp you?
2 When the Chichika bird takes up the refrain From the droning cricket, the spirit of the forest is like a hunter startling the game with his noisy beaters.
j The spirit of the forest at evening: You think you see cows grazing; you think you see a house; you think a cart is rumbling.^ 4 Whoever stays in the forest at evening imagines: Some- one is calling his cow; someone else is cutting wood; someone is cr5dng out.
/ The spirit of the forest does not kill — not if no one else approaches.^ She eats sweet fruit and lies down wherever she pleases.® Mother of wild beasts, untilled by a plough but fuU of food, sweet-smelling of perfume and balm - to her, the spirit of the forest, I offer my praise.
NOTES 1. The poet (the traveller lost in the forest) imagines that the spirit of the forest camouflages herself among the trees because she is afraid. He projects his fears upon her.
2. That is, why do you not ask where a village is, so that you can go there?
REALIA 3. People would return in the evening with a cart laden with wood (v 4); the small sounds of the forest imitate the creaking of such a cart 4 A tiger or a robber might krll you, but this is not blamed upon the forest deity.
j. The spirit of the forest, being vegetarian, is harmless, she rests at night, in contrast with the demons and beasts who roam about.
WOMEN The R/^ Vtda is a book by men about male concerns in a world dominated by men; one of tliese concerns is women, who appear throughout the hymns as objects, though seldom as subjects. Though Aditi is the only Vcdic goddess of true stature, many female nouns (often abstractions) arc personified as female divimtics Dawn (1.92), Night (10.127), the Waters (109, 7.49), and the Forest (10.146); so, too, Destruction (Nirjti) makes a simstcr appearance quite often, and the bitch Sarama assists Indrt (10.108). In addition, the Ej^ Veda presents several women who, if not goddesses, arc at least immortal or quasi-immortal: Yaml (10.10), Urvail (10.95), SOrj'a (10,8 j), and the \tivcs of Indra and the monkc) Moreover, several immortal or semi-mortal women appear in the Rrj Veda in two groups of h} mns that crplorc with surprisingly consistent detail and concept the relation- ships betveen men and women, monal and immortal. Ttic first is a group of conscrsation hjmns (SfJySrtas) and tlie second is a group of airratucs centring around marriage: courtship, marriage, adultcrv, and cstrmgcmcnl.
Hie conversation hjmns arc a genre tliat i' scattered throughout the fi/r Vtda (cf. 10 135, 10 51, 10.124, 4 26-7, 10.108, 10 iS, etc.); it is particuhrlv associated with lunins that relate to fertility, and nia) have liecn part of a special ritinl pcrfomionce ins oh mg anors and dancers Ttsc dialogues with women all represent situations in which one tnembrr of the pair attempts to persuade the other to cni:a'’c in ronie tort of rc' ual acti\ in, 'omctimes it n the s onnn '• ho ta^ c* the io!c of persuade' (to.to, 1.179, ^?*)• somrttn’rt tlw nan (1095, lo.FO); Oif mona! wonun is tucct'O-iI (1 17^, 8.91!. v-1 lie the immortal woman.t no* (ic te), il r rrmort.-* tim tuccccd' (10,86), V.1 do the n ot:al i-ih. (t^ 91). The cmvcr- THE RIG VEDA THE RIG VEDA sations between mortal men and immortal women (lo.io, 10.95) end in the separation of the couple; between mortal men and women (1.179) immortal men and mortal women (8.91), the result is union. The complex Vrsakapi hymn, involving two couples, seems to end in union (10.86).