ARTICLE J.

CONTRIBTJTIONS

rro

THE INTERPRE1'ATION OF THE VEDA;*

Bv MAURICE BLOOMFIELD,
PROFEssort IN .lOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, MD.

Presented to the Society April, 1892.

I.

THE LEGEND OF SOMA AND THE EAGLE.

The legend of the rape of the heavenly drink, the Soma, is one of tbe most va.lued themes of tbeVedic poets and tbe storytellers of the Brhmanas, The event is constantly alluded to, and not infrequently narrated in full. The earliest version of tbe legend in 111antra-form is given at RV. iv. 26 and 27, and tbe interpretation of these two bymns has engaged tbe interest of Vedic scholars from lvery early times. Especially iv. 27 contains evidently the most complete and rounded statement of tbe event in question, and manyare tbe attempts which have been made to elucidate tbis difficult hyrnn. The correct interpretation of the bymn seems to bave been lost among the Hindus themselves at a very early t ime, since the AA. ii. 5. 13 ff. places the first stanza in the mouth of its reputed author, Vmadeva, who thus becomes hirnself the eagle, and is supposed to have discovered all the races of the gods. This view of tbe hyrnn is adopted from the AA. by Syana, and he therefore bas nothing to offer which we lllay. employ in establishing the general character of the myth, Adalbert Kuhn, in his famous book, Die HerabkUJ~ft des Feuers und des Gttertran.kes, p. 146, supposes that Indra, having been confined in tbe bosom of the clouds, assumes tbe form of an eagle, and brings tbe Soma to mortals, after having overcome Tvastar, 01' some other hostile divinity. Lud wig, in bis translation, ii. 592 ff., and in bis commentary, v. 467 ff., does not present a systematic interpretation of the bymn from

* This is the fifth of the series hearing this title; as to the first three, see this Journal, vol. xv., pp. 143 ff.; the fourth appeared in the A111er. Journ, Philol. xii. 414-443. VOL. XVI. 1

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M. Bloomfield,

ning, the eagle, breaks from the cloud, and with it comes the rush of the heavenly fluid upon the earth, Then it beeomes available at the sacrifice, especially in behalf of Indra, who is the Soma-drinker by distinction. Tbe hymn !{,V. iv. 27 contains the narrative of this event, undertaken by the two principal performers in it, The first stanza is spoken by Agni, the lightning, and its wording is full of allusions to the technical features which characterize that divinity in distinction from all others, The next three stanzas are spoken by Soma, who describes Agni's achievements in his behalf. Soma narrates in addition that K:rynu, the heavenly archer, one of his guardians, shot .an arrow at the eagle, which did not disturb him in his flight, but simply caused the loss of a single feather, that fell upon the earth, It seems quite likely that this describes the striking of the lightning into the ground, but possibly this last feature of the myth is not apart of the purely naturalistic phase of the legend, which may at that point have passed into the hands of the poet, who, in India as elsewhere, would draw upon the stores of his imagination for the extension and embellishment of myths of a primarily naturalistio character, combining .in accordance with the dictates of his fancy any features from other legendary sources which seemed to him suitable to the taste of his hearers.*

II.

ON THE GROUP OF VEDIC WORDS ENDING IN

pra}Jitva, abhipitva, apapitva). t

-pituo. (sapit1Ja,

There is scarcely a group of Vedic words which rests under a heavier cloud of misapprehension than that which furnishes the title of this article. The native exegetes started the interpretation of the words with false and inconsistent etymologies, and later the western interpreters have substituted others no better. The translations of the passages containing these words have

* Cf. for this my remarks in the third series of these contributions, J.A.O.S. xv. 185 ff. t This article was written during the winter of 1891-2, and was presented to the American Oriental Society at its annual meeting, April 1892: cf. the Proceedings of that meeting (Journal, vol. xv. p. ccxxx), The briefest possible abstract of the paper was printed in the J ohns Hopkins University Circulars for 1892 (Nr. 99, p. 102). Since then Professor Geldner has printed an elaborate discussion of one of these words, prapitvd, in the Vedische Studien by Prof. Pischel and himself vol. ii., pp. 155-179. It is to be regretted that be did not at the same time undertake an investigation of all the words of the small category, especially abhipitvd. As it is, our paths diverge hopelessly, and I have not been able to assimilate any part of his discussion, interesting, fresh, and hold as it is, I cannot repress the hope that he may now yield himself up to the seduction of my chief claim, namely that all these words contain the stem pitu, and in a future article perhaps direct his ingenuity to the further elucidation of the difficulties which have re .. mained on my hands even after this recognition,