4. The whole of the Vedic tribal world.
5. Alternatively, worth no more than a glance.
7. ‘Set against’ both in the sense of set in opposition to and se up as equal to.
8. Agni takes the form of a bird or a winged horse, but the poe may simply feel that he is flying, a frequent symptom of drug induced ecstasy. Cf. 10.136.2—4.
9. He imagines himself to have grown so large that he touches heaven and earth at the same time.
10. A salutation of farewell, as he heads for heaven and the gods.
11. A compound image, of a house fuU of Soma (his stomach being the larder), a flying palace (common in later Indian mytho- logy), and the god Agni carrying the oblation — the Soma - to the gods.
9.113 The Eesfa^ of Soma The poet begins by inviting Indra to drink Soma with him and then invokes Soma for himself, praising him. He then SOMA asks Soma to make Mm immortal, as he becomes inspired tmder the halluonogemc influence of the drug (v. 6).
■t Let Indra the killer of V^tra dnnk Soma in §aryanavat,i gathering his strength withm himself, to do a great heroic deed. O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
•2 Punfy yourself, generous Soma fitom Arjika,^ master of the quarters of the sky Pressed with sacred words, with truth and faith and ardour,® O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
3 The daughter of the sun has brought the buffalo raised by Parjanya.® The divine youths have received him and placed the jmce m Soma. O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
4 You speak of the sacred, as your brightness is sacred; you speak the truth, as your deeds are true.* You speak of faith. King Soma, as you are carefully prepared by the sacrificial pnest O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
/ The floods of the high one, the truly awesome one, flow together. The jmccs of him so full of juice mingle to- gether as you, the tawny one, punfy yourself with prayer O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
^ Where the high pnest speaks rhythmic words, O Puri- fier, holdmg the pressing-stone, feeling that he has be- come great with the Soma, giving birth to joy through the Soma, O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
7 Where the inextinguishable light shines, tlic world where the sun was placed, m that immoru-il, unfading world, O Punficr, place me. O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
S Where Vivasvan’s son is king,'' where heaven is enclosed, vhcrc those joung waters arc® - there make me immor- tal O drop of Soma, flow for Indra 7 Wlicrc they mo\c as they vnll, m tlic triple dome, in the third heaven of heaven, where the worlds arc made of light, there make me immortal. O drop of Soma, flow for Indra, JO \>.'licrc there arc desires and longings, at tlic sun’s renith, THE RIG VEDA wliefe the dead are fed and satisfied,*^ there mahe me immortal. O drop of Soma, flow for India. ^ y -l II Where there are joys and pleasures, gladness aud delig t, where the desires of desire are fulfilled, there make me immortal. O drop of Soma, flow for Indra.
NOTES 1. The mountains where Soma is found.
2. Tapas, the heat generated by sacrificial activity (and, later, y asceticism).
3. The daughter of the sun is the wife of Soma; Soma is some times called a buffalo (or a bxiU or stallion); Parjanya, god of rue tifying rain, makes Soma and other plants grow (cf. 5.83.1, 5*^3*5> 4. That is, the deeds done xmder the influence of Soma are true (cf. in vino veriias),, 3. Yama, the son of Vivasvan, is king in the world of the dea, here (and elsewhere in the Rig Veda) thought of as being in heav^ where the dead are nourished by the offerings made to them by their descendants.
6. The cosmic waters bom in heaven.
8.48 We Have Drunk the Soma This hymn celebrates the effects of Soma, particularly the feel- ing of being set free and released into boundless open space, and the belief that the drinker is immortal.
I I have tasted the sweet drink of life, knowing that it inspires good thoughts and joyous expansiveness to the extreme, that all the gods and mortals seek it together, calling it honey.^ .2 When you penetrate inside, you will know no limits,^ and you will avert the wrath of the gods. Enjoying India’s friendship, O drop of Soma, bring riches as a docile cow® brings the yoke.
^ Wc have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; ^ we have gone to tlie light; we have found the gods. What SOMA hatred and the mahce of a mortal do to us now, O immortal one?
4 When we have drunk you, O drop of Soma, be good to our heart, hmd as a father to his son, thoughtful as a fuend to a friend. Far-famed Soma, stretch out® our life- span so that we may hve.
J The glorious drops that I have drunk set me free in wide space. You have bound me together m my limbs as thongs bmd a chariot Let the drops protect me from the foot that stumbles ® and keep lameness away from me.
^ Inflame me like a fire kindled by fraction; make us see far; ttiake us richer, better. For when I aox-intoxicated with , you, Soma, I think myself rich. Draw near and jnake.us thrive. ' ' — 7 We would eniov you. pressed_ wi^ a.fervent.heart, Jike ti^es fromla_father.-Kmg Soma, stretch out our Jife- spans as the. sun stretches the sprinRj^ys.- Kmg Soma, have mercy on us for our well-being. Know' ^t we are devoted to your laws. Passion and fury are stirred up.’ O drop of Soma, do not hand us over to the pleasure of the enemy.
9 For you. Soma, are die guardian of our body; watchmg over men, you have settled down m every limb If we break your laws, O god, have mercy on us hke a good friend, to make us better.
^0 Let me join closely with my compassionate friend® so that he vnll not mjure me when I have drunk him. O lord of bay horses,® for the Soma that is lodged in us I ap- proach Indta to stretch out our hfc-span.
Weaknesses and diseases have gone; the forces of dark- ness’® have fled m terror Soma has chmbcd up m us, expanding. We have come to the place where they stretch out life-spans The drop dm we have drunk has entered our hearts, an immortal inside mortals O fathers.” let us scrac that Soma V, lUi the oblations and abide in his merej and kindness.
Tits’. PIG VI DA Unitini' in:it^rrcnsrrii v'lfh ihr f;s:iiirrs, O drop ofSoms, you htivc cMcndctl your^^vlf throupii J^ky and cartk.
\is serve him wiih an nbkition: let tis h( ma'ilt'rs of dekes.
7^ You pnitcctitsfi f;ovi*;, speaf; out for us. Do not let deep or harmful speeds sei?c u'-. J>e: us,.ihv.sys deartoSoasa, spc.al;.as men of power in the s.icnTiri.ai ptuhenns^.
// Soma, you pivc us the force of life on every side. Enter into us, fmdinp the sunliplu, w.atching over men. O drop of Soma, summon your helpers and protect us before an aftcr.i-'’ Korr.s 1. Here, as elsewhere in the hyn>ns to Soma, hnney is not a refer- ence to the product of bees or the Indo-buropcnn mc.ad made from it, but refers to the essence and sweetness of the ambrosia.
2. Inside the human body, the Soma becomes 'boundless^ in the sense of producing a feeling of infinite expansion, a sensation actcristic of psychedelic drugs. But the word {adili) may also b- taken as the proper name of the goddess Aditi, for Soma is called the youngest son of Aditi and Aditi’s function of liberating fro® sin might be relevant here; Soma, Aditi’s son, purifies from within and pacifies the angry gods, 3. The terra denotes an obedient female animal, probably ^ draught animal; it could be a marc or a cow. Cf. Dawn harnessing docile cows to her chariot in order to bring treasure to the singer (1.92.2). These animals, though naturally fierce in the Indo-Euro- pean world, were also capable of being tamed.
4. The poet has a vision of what life in heaven would be like, a kind of vague, temporary immortality, lasting ‘a Jong time’.
5. The verb means to cross in a forward direction as one would life-span farther away.
Cf. SB 11,1.6.6, in which Prajapati secs the end of his life as one would see the farther bank of a river. The metaphor is repeated in w. 7 and lo-ii, and the idea of prolonging life (or of obtaining the hmited immortality which consists in a fhll life-span) is central to the hymn. Cf. also the recurrent Vedic themes of ‘stretching the thread’ of the sacrifice and expanding in space.
6. The releasing effect of the drug described in the first part of this verse is immediately contrasted with a binding, perhaps by SOMA )oma, perhaps by someone else, and then with some sort of stumbl- ng, this stumblmg may mvolve actual mjury, prefigured in the binding with thongs’ and followed by the ‘lameness’ of the next phrase. The verse may also imply more metaphysical mistakes, but he literal meamng might refer to stumbling and falling m physical aumsiness as a result of the ecstasy induced by Soma.
7 Soma stirs not only the emotions of the drinkers but also the ^predictable emotions of the enemy mentioned in the next phrase.
8. Soma.
9. Indra, here as elsewhere identified with Soma. The singer approaches Indra to come ‘for’ Soma m the sense of ‘m order to ^joy Soma or ‘in return for being given’ Soma, but in any case to act, like Soma, to prolong hfe, or even to allow Soma to remain m the belly for a long time.
to. Personified as females.
II. The fathers, as dnnkers of Soma, are called to witness.
It. Harmful speech’ may mean mjurious slander or may refer to me violation of the vows of remaining awake and silent m the rite of imtiation into the Soma sacrifice Cf. 10 18 14 13. The worshipper asks to be surrounded and protected now and otever m his drug-induced vulnerabibty.
The long-haired ascetic (Keiin), an early precursor of the Upani5adic yogi, drinks a drug (probably some haUuemogen other than Soma) in the company of Rudra, the master of poison and a god who is excluded from the Soma sacnficc. The hallucinations described in the hymn arc related to but not die same as those attributed to Soma-dnnkers in 9 112, I Long-hair holds fire, holds the drug, holds sky and earth. Long-hair reveals everything, so tint every one can see tlic sun ’ Long-hair declares the light.
Tlicsc ascetics, swathed in wand,® put duty red rags on.* V?hcn gods enter them, they ride w-ith die rush of the wind.
i THE RIG VEDA; ^ 'Crazy with asceticism, we have mounted the wind** ^ Our bodies are all you mere mortals can see/ i ^ He sails through the air, looking down on all shap^' | below.® The ascetic is friend to this god and that god, devoted to what is weU done.
/ The stallion of the wind, friend of gales, lashed on by gods - the ascetic hves in the two seas, on the east an on the west.
6 He moves with the motion of heavenly girls ® and youths, of wild beasts. Long-hair, reading their minds, is their sweet, their most exciting friend.
7 The wind has churned it’' up; Kunamnama® prepared it for him. Long-hair drinks from the cup, sharing the drug with Rudra.
NOTES 1. This act is attributed to other Vedic gods, too. Cf. 1.50.5* ^ 2. That is, they are naked; but the connection with the wind is also literally important, as in verses 3, 5, and 7.
3. Some are naked, some wear red (later safifon) rags.
4. The ascetic rides the wind as if it were a horse; cf. v. 5. Th® ascetic controls the wind by controlling his own breath.
5. This act is often attributed to the sun. The ecstatic ascetic takes on the characteristics of several gods. The verse also describes the sensation of flying outside of one’s own body, observed below 6. The Apsarases or nymphs of heaven, with their companions the Gandharvas.
7. The drug.
8. A female deity who appears only here; her name may indicate a witch or a hunchback.
9. Vifa, a drug or poison.
INDRA ndra, the king of the gods, is frequently mentioned m yniDs to other gods. As the great Soma-drinker, he appears 0 en in the Soma hymns (cf. lo 119), and it is he who lures gw away from the waters or the demons (10 51, 10.124). He “ central to hymns about the Maruts (1.165, 1. 170-71), Atn (5*40)1 Apala (8.91), and Vr§akapi (10.86), and appears as a important bit player m many others, indra’s family life is troubled in ways that remain imdear. ■Ihs birth, hke that of many great warriors and heroes, is un- natural, there are also strong hmts that he may have killed 5 father (4 18) So, too, he is m turn challenged by his own ®on, whom he apparently overcomes (10 28). The mcestuous implications m these relationships may have led the Vedic poet to append to one of the Indra hymns the tale of another Wccstuous birth and infancy, apparently that of Agm (3 31.1- But the hymns return agam and again to clearer and more straightforward stones* the heroic deeds of Indra The killing of Vrtra (i 32) is frequently alluded to m other hymns, as is die freeing of the cows m the cave (3 31, 10 108), which shares much of the symbolism and significance of the battle with ^^rtra Other deeds, such as the beheading of the sacrifice (10 171), arc mentioned without being fully explained in the Rtg Vtda, though later mythological texts often expand upon them India’s famous generosity - particularly when he is exul- tant from copious draughts of Soma - and his endeanng an- thropomorphism embolden the poet to imagine himself in Indra’s place (8 m). These same qualiucs, howeser, mat hate led worshippers even in Vcdic times to devalue India, the beginning of a process that culminates m his total loss of w or- ship in the Hindu period; m answer to these tmpliai espre*- THE RIG VEDA sions of doubt, the poet reaffirms his faith in Indra as the greatest of the Vedic warrior gods (2.12).
4.i8 The Birth and Childhood Deeds of Indra This obscure dialogue is partially lUurninated by the recogni- tion of Its place in Indo-European, mythology; tt refers, m purposely mysterious tones, to the story of a male god con-, cealed by his mother &om a father who threatens to kill him, a Ether whom he himself then kills. The hymn alternates between narrative and direct discourse, the latter spoken by Indra and his mother, the former by the poet who questions them and ehats answers that attempt to vindicate and justify the actions of the two protagonists. None of the prmcipals m the drama is named except Indra; later commentary identifies the mother with Aditi and the fether with Tvaspp (who ap- pears in the hymn, though not exphcitly as the father).
The hymn begins with the story of India’s birth; his mother kept him in the womb for many years (v. 4), not, she tnsists, in absence of maternal feelmg but for India’s sake - i.e. to protect him, the hymn does not tdl us why this was necessary, but It may well be because his fether was jealous of India’s great powers (v. 5), a suspiaon ultimately proved vahd when Indra kills his father (v 12) As the dialogue begins, India is still inside the womb and wishes to break out through her side; she attempts to dissuade him (v. 1), but he insists on bemg born (v. 2). She then hides him (v. 3), presumably still m - fear of his father. Agam Indra refuses to be protected, but follows her to Tva^tr’s house, where he dnnks the Soma (v. 5). In response to the narrator’s accusations (w. 4-3), she calls upon the waters to witness her good motives m treating Indra as she did (v^^ 6-7), and speaks of being guiltless of the wounds Indm meutred in fighting the demon Vitra (w. 8-9), who is analogized with Indra s father. The narrator then recapitulates the story of India’s birth (v. 10) and the slaying of Vttra,in vhich Vi^nucamc to Indra said(v. 11) Upon being questioned about killmg his father (v. 12), Indra protests that he had no choice, bang m terrible danger until the eagle brought him the Soma (V. 13).
THE RIG VEDA / \lndra’s mother ‘This^ is the ancient, proven path by "which all the gods were born and moved upward. By this very path he should be born when he has grown great. He should not make his mother perish in tliat way.’^ 2 \lndra’\ ‘I cannot come out by that path; tliese are bad places to go through. I will come out cross-wise, through the side. Many things yet undone must I do; one® I "will fight, and one^ I will question.* } \Narrator He watched his mother as she went away:® *I cannot help following: I will follow.* In Tvastr*s house Indra drank the Soma ^ worth a hundred cows, pressed in the two bowls.
4 Why has she pushed him far away, whom she carried for a thousand months and many autumns? For there is no one his equal among those who are born and those who will be born.’'
/ As if she thought he was flawed,® his mother hid Indra though he abounded in manly strength. Then he stood up and put his garment on by himself; as he was born he filled the two world-halves.
6 \lndra s mother:'\ ‘These waters® flow happily, shouting “ Alalal **, waters that were screaming together like right- eous women.^® Ask them what they are saying, what en- circling mountain ^ the waters burst apart.
7 ‘Are they speaking words of praise and invitation^® to him? Do the waters wish to take on themselves the flaw of Indra With his great weapon my son killed Vrtra and set these rivers free.
8 ‘StiU a young woman, I did not throw you away for my sake; nor did Evil-childbirth^^ swallow you up for my sake. But for my sake the waters were kind to the child,^® and for my sake Indra stood up at once.
^ ‘Not for my sake did the shoulderless one^® wound you, generous Indra, and strike away your two jaws;^’ though wounded, you overpowered him, and with your weapon you crushed the head of the Dasa.'^® 10 [Narrator:] The heifer^® gave birth to the firm, strong, INDRA unassailable bull, lie stout India. *^6 mother let her calf wander unhcked,^ to seek his own ways by himself.
And the mother turned to the buffalo:®^ ‘My son, the gods here are deserting you Then Indra, wanting to kdl Vttra, said, ‘Vi^nu, my fidend, stride as far as you can.’®® Who made your mother a widow?®* -Who wished to kill you when you were lymg still or moving?®® What god helped you when you grabbed your father by the foot and crushed him?®® \lndra:] ‘Because I was in desperate straits, I cooked the entrails of a dog,®® and I found no one among the gods to help me. I saw my woman®® dishonoured. Then the Cagle brought the honey to me.’®® NOTES 1. The conventional birth passage through the womb; Indra, hke 80 many folk heroes, refuses to be bom m this way. Cf. Soma talking m the womb, 4 27.1.
2 She argues that he will kill her if he bursts out through her «ac. In fact, several Indian mythological heroes (mdudmg the Buddha) arc conceived and/or bom through the side without injury to the parent (as is about to be the case with Indra now), but some do indeed kill their mothers (or androgynous fathers) in this Way.
? Vftra, who Is alluded to several times in this hymn * ‘to question’ here contrasts with the verb ‘to fight’, md indicates that Indra will cither speak to make a treaty (with Visnu) or speak before killing (Tvaspr). The former seems more likely, the question that he asks of Visnu is the request to have him stride forward (v. 1 1) j. Tlic commentator says that she died, but the hymn makes this unlikely, she merely abandons him, ns the true mother of the Indo- European hero usually docs Cf. 5 2 1-2, where Agni’s mother hides him from his father for many years in her womb to later tradition, Indra killed Tvasjr Inordcrto get the Soma saat from him.
stguraent h either. Why did she try to kilt him when she THE RIG VEDA knew he was so powerful that he couldn’t be killed, or, Why did she try to kill him when she knew he was destined to be a great hero? In fact, she merely pushed him away in order to preserve him, but one is reminded of the mother of Martan^a, Aditi (who is tradi- tionally identified as the mother of Indra as well), who pushed her son away to kill him (10.72.8).
8. The flaw may be a physical birth flaw such as Martanda had, the cause of Aditi’s rejection of him. Again, this suspicion is invalid; Indra is not physically flawed. But the phrase may also foreshadow the moral flaw which is to be a problem to Indra, the guilt of the slaughter of Vrtra, alluded to in verse 7.
-9. The waters set free when Vftra was killed (1.32.1, 1.32.8, 1.32.11— 12, etc.). Also, perhaps, the waters in which Indra was placed to hide him from danger (cf. 1.32. 10 and 10.51).
10. At first the waters scream for help when Vrtfu assaults them; then they chortle onomatopoetically when they are set free.
11. The cavern where Vftra kept the waters penned up. Cf.
1 2. A technical term for a formula of praise and laudatory epithets, used to call a god.
13. The flaw or stain is the sin incurred in killing Vrtra. Later myths narrate at great leng^ the way in which Indra asked the waters (and other creatures) to take upon themselves a portion of this stain.
14. This may be the name of a demonness who swallows children, - whose name indicates that she brings evil to those in childbirth (i.e. causes the death of the child or the mother or both) or brings forth evil. More likely, however, it is the name of the river who ‘swallows up’ Indra — not for the sake of his mother (i.e. not because she was a rejecting mother), but for bis sake - to save him from danger.
15. The mercy of the waters may be their kindness in adopting him when his mother was forced to abandon him, or their willing- ness to forgive him for the sin of killing the demon (for their bene- fit) and to take part of the sin upon them. Indra’s mother takes credit for persuading them to do this, and for letting Indra stand up at once, though earlier (v. 5) the poet emphasi2es that Indra did this despite her efforts to hide him.
17. Elsewhere it is said that Vrtra wounded Indra in this way, shattering his jaws (1.3 2. 12). Indra’s mother seems to be saying that INDRA It ■wasn’t her fault that India got into sudi trouble; she had tried to keep him safe m her ■womb.
i8 The serpent is identified ■with the native enemy, or slave, of the conquermg Aryan. See i 32 ii.
19' India’s mother is here called a co^w ■who has not yet given ' hitth to a calf Indra is her first-bom Cf. the mothers of Agm as primaparas, 2 35 5.
20 That IS, she did not hold him close to her after he was bom,. but pushed him away uncared for. Idee a cow who fails to eat the afterbirth and hek the calf Moreover, as Indra was not bom through the womb, there would be no afterbirth.
Indra 22 A possible reference to the episode m which the Maruts left mdra to fight Vrtra all alone This pomt is debated (by the Mamts) 2} Indra asks Vi?iju to stnde forward to help him, but he also refers to Visnu’s femous talent for creating space (as Indra docs by killmg V;tta) by stndmg. Cf. 1 154 1 might be a question put by Visnu to Indra, but is more likely asked by the narrator.
23 That IS, while he ■was still Ijnng in the womb or coming out of r Indra himself tnes to kill the Maruts when they arc in the womb of their mother 26 The same language is used to describe the killing of Vrtra ®rid the killing of India’s father. This is not to imply that these arc One and the same, but they arc strangely Imkcd Tvasty is V{tta’s lather in later Indian tradition In any case, the two deeds ate closely parallel in this hymn • India’s father must bckilled,)ustas the dragon roust be killed, and India’s mother tries to prevent both slaughters at first (as Vrtra’s mother is said to partiapatc in the battle with nan, m 1 gnaUy acquiesces and takes Indri’s side, at least in the fight with Vrtra and perhaps, by implication, in the par- node. Cf the v, ay in ■which the mother of Agni holds Agni by the foot when she abandons him. 1.164 17.
Tills comes to be the quintessential polluting act in later Hinduism, an act that is particularly used in mythology as an ex- ample of V hat one is alicntd to do m dire straits one may even cat a dog Indra seems to be arguing that, if this is so, one can surely I'll! one s father under similar circumstances.
B Indra s v. ife has not jvt been mentioned m this liymn, nor ts it clear uliy she would be dishonoured, elsewhere (l E6 i, i.BG 4-3^ Ml THE RIG VEDA 1.86.9) she is dishonoured when Indra loses power, and the gambler’s wife is dishonoured when he is ruined (10.34. ii). It is possible that the * woman’ is Indra’s mother, whom he regards as dishonoured by the actions of her husband, Indra’s father, and therefore avenges by committing parricide.
29. This seems to contradict the statement that Indra took the Soma from Tva§p:’s house (v. 3), as well as the implication that 'Indra accompanied the eagle on the journey to get the Soma (4.26.7, 4.27.3-4). Evidently what is meant is that once Indra had hilled his father (Tva§^?), he had access to the Soma in all of its forms.
io;28 Indra Chastises His Son This dialogue begins in f?iedtas res^ but the situation can be sketchily reconstructed from what follows: A son of Indra gave a sacrifice and invited the gods; all but Indra came to it, for Indra was angry with the son’s pretensions to be another Indra. The son’s wife worried about Indra’s absence, and Indra then appeared, responding to his son’s hasty offerings with a series of riddles intended to humble him. The son at first pretends to be too naive to understand, but when Indra speaks more directly about the consequences of challenging the gods, the son asserts himself, and finally, overcome by the violence of Indra’s increasingly patent fables, praises the god his father.
1 [Sacrificer's wife i] ‘All the rest of the band of my firiends has come, but my husband’s father has not come. He would have eaten barley meal and drunk Soma and gone back home well fed.’
2 \Indra.*] ‘ The sharp-horned bull bellowed as he stood over the height and breadth of the earth. In all combats I protect the man who presses Soma and fills my two bellies.’ 1 ^ \Sacrtficer ‘They are pressing out the impetuous, exhi- larating Soma juices with the pressing-stone, for you, Indra. Drink them I They arc cooking bulls for you; you INDRA 'ivill cat them, generous India, when they summon you with food.’
4 [Indra’] ‘Smger, understand this that I say: The nvers carry their currents upstream. The fox crept up to the lion from behmd. The jackal fell upon the wild boar out of an ambush,’® / [Samficer •] ‘How can I, a simpleton, understand what is said by you who are wise and powerful? ® Y ou who know should teU us truly towards which side is your peaceful (hanot shaft gomg, generous one?’* i \lndra'\ ‘They truly praise me as the powerful one; my chanot shaft is going straight up to the lofty sky, I crush down many thousands at once, for my begetter begot me to have no enemy to conquer me,’ 7 \Sacrificer ] ‘The gods truly know me as the powerful one, a fierce bull m one action after another, Indra. Exhilarated by Soma, I killed Vftra with my Aunderbolt, and I opened up the cow-pen by force for the devout wor- shipper.’ ® S [Indra •] The gods went out and took their axes; they cut down trees and came there with their servants. They laid the good wood m the boxes but burnt the scrub wood right there.’ ® 7 [Sacnftcer The rabbit swallowed up the knife as it came towards him; with a clod I split the mountain far away.'' wi put the great m the power of the small; the ailf ^0*15 and attacks the bull.’
JO I « r/7,] That is the way the eagle caught his talon and \\ as trapped, lil;,e a lion caught in a foot-snare Even the bu a o was caught when he got thirsty a crocodile drag- ped him away by the foot.® 11 In the same way let a crocodile drag away by the foot all u the feeding of priests. As they all eat the bulls that have been set free, they themselves destroy the povers of their bodj.® 11 h’rcfr;/ffr;1 ‘Those vho hastened in person to Soma uith hymns of praise have become supreme in their sacrificial THE RIG VEDA acts and devout rituals. Speaking like a man, measure out prizes for us. In heaven you have earned fame and the name of hero.’
NOTES 1. The imagery of the first two verses, including the references to Indra’s two bellies and the role of the sacrificer’s wife, is similar to that of the Vysakapi hymn, 10.86.14-15.
2. Indra implies that the son, like a fox or jackal, by trying to be Indra, who is like a lion or wild boar, is both creating a topsy- turvy world (in which the rivers flow the wrong way and the cowardly animals attack the fierce) and foolishly taking on more than he can handle.
3. Cf. the young man who challenges his father in 4.5.2 and 4. That is, are you on the side of simple mortals or wise immor- tals? The answer in the next verse seems to be that Indra is on his own side, or the side of the gods.
5. The son here explicitly claims credit for the deeds of Indra (1.32, 3.31), as other gods do from time to time; in offering the Soma that enables Indra to perform these deeds, the sacrificer to a certain extent participates in them.
6. Indra implies that the gods are able to distinguish the good (wood or Indras)‘from the worthless; the former they take home in boxes on wagons, the latter they destroy — a thinly veiled threat to the pretender.
7. Another allusion to Indra’s splitting of the mountain in which the cows were trapped. Cf. 3.31.