०८८

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सायण-भाष्यम्

‘आ विद्युन्मद्भिः’ इति षडृचं चतुर्थं सूक्तम् । अत्रानुक्रम्यते - ‘ आ विद्युन्मद्भिराद्यान्त्ये प्रस्तारपङ्क्ती पञ्चमी विराड्रूपा’ इति । पूर्ववदृषिदेवते । आद्या षष्टी च द्वे प्रस्तारपङ्क्ती । आद्यौ पादौ जागतौ तृतीयचतुर्थौ गायत्रौ यस्याः सा प्रस्तारपङ्क्तिः । सूत्रितं च - ‘ प्रस्तारपङ्क्तिः पुरतः ’ ( पि. सू. ३. ४० ) इति । अस्यायमर्थः । ‘ जागतौ गायत्रौ च ’ इत्यनुवर्तते । यदि पुरतः पुरस्तात् द्वौ जागतौ पादौ स्याताम् अन्त्यौ गायत्रौ सा प्रस्तारपङ्क्तिरिति । एतत्त्यत्’ इत्येषा पञ्चमी विराड्रूपा । आदितस्त्रयः पादा एकादशका अन्त्योऽष्टकः सा विराड्रूपेत्युच्यते । विनियोगो लैङ्गिकः ॥

Jamison Brereton

88
Maruts
Gotama Rāhūgaṇa
6 verses: prastārapaṅkti 1, 6; triṣṭubh 2–4; virāḍrūpā 5
Metrically, thematically, and poetically complex, this hymn brings Gotama’s Marut collection to a worthy end. It is structured as a “journey” hymn—the Maruts’ jour ney to and arrival at the sacrifice—but unlike the general run of such hymns, with stereotyped and simple expressions, this is a superbly crafted example of the genre, which develops in unpredictable directions.
The hymn is organized by pairs of verses. The first two describe the glittering flight of the Maruts, in fairly typical terms, with special emphasis on their chariots. The focus shifts to the waiting poets in the next verse pair (3–4). At the beginning of verse 3 the Maruts are said to “have axes on their bodies.” This detail seems at first just to continue the inventory of the Maruts’ equipment found in the previous verses, but the poet turns it into a telling image: the poets will raise up their poems “like trees,” thus inviting the Maruts to chop them down with their axes—that is, to take possession of the poems. The next verse (4) picks up another superficially straightforward characterization of the Maruts and complicates it with reference to the poets. In verse 1 the Maruts were urged to “fly like birds” to the sacrifice; in verse 4 unspecified plural subjects “wheel like vultures” (pāda 1). In our view these vul tures are the poets (the Gotamas named later in the verse), mentally circling around the dhī́ “insight, poetic vision” (pāda b) that they are seeking in order to produce a bráhman, a “sacred formulation,” fit for the Maruts. In the second half of the verse they succeed in making this bráhman (pāda c) and, in a different image, push the fountainhead of poetic inspiration upward in order to drink from it (pāda d). They had also been wheeling around the goddess vārkāryā́ (pāda 4b). This hapax has been much discussed, and is generally considered to be the name of the Gotamas’ muse, their “Sangeskunst.” We will propose our own interpretation below.
The last two verses (5–6) depict the simultaneous arrival of the Maruts and of the inspired thought for the poem in their honor, again in complex and obscure imagery. The literary epiphany of a god is often marked linguistically by deictic pronouns and/or the aorist of immediacy (“just now”). The last two verses of I.88 begin with paired double deictics: (vs. 5) etát tyád and (vs. 6) eṣā́ syā́ both mean
ing “this very,” and verse 5 contains also the aorist aceti “has just appeared/been

perceived,” marking the arrival of both the poem and the gods. Verse 6 is the most enigmatic of the hymn, though the general situation is clear: the Maruts have just arrived, and they are greeted—by something that both “sounds” and is “caused to sound.” This something is identified as anubhartrī́, another feminine-gender hapax; it seems a good interpretive strategy to attempt to connect the two mysteri
ous feminines, vārkāryā́ in verse 4 and anubhartrī́ here. Both of them are fairly easy to understand on a literal level: the former means literally “water-maker,” while the latter is made up of the preverb ánu and an agent noun of the root bhr̥. The lexeme ánu-bhR̥has a quite specific value in the R̥gveda and Atharvaveda: it means “pen
etrate sexually, stick (one’s penis) in.” It is, of course, a piquant paradox that the “penis wielder” should be feminine. With this meaning in mind, vārkāryā́ in verse 4 becomes somewhat clearer: the “water-maker” can also refer to the penis. But what would be the figurative or metaphorical sense of these two words, and how, in par
ticular, can the literal sense be made to conform with the statements in verse 6 that the object is question both sounds and is made to sound? The riddle is solved if we assume that it is a musical instrument, and in fact that it is the first reference to the “Indian lute,” the vīṇā (the first occurrence of that word is in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā, an early Vedic prose text), a noun of feminine gender. At least some of the forms of this musical instrument bear a remarkable resemblance to male genitalia. The poet brings his hymn to a climax with this clever sexual pun, which surely would have been appreciated by the lusty Maruts. (This verse and its role in the hymn are discussed in more detail in Jamison 1981.)

Jamison Brereton Notes

Maruts

01 आ विद्युन्मद्भिर्मरुतः - प्रस्तारपङ्क्तिः

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आ वि॒द्युन्म॑द्भिर्मरुतः स्व॒र्कै रथे॑भिर्यात ऋष्टि॒मद्भि॒रश्व॑पर्णैः ।
आ वर्षि॑ष्ठया न इ॒षा वयो॒ न प॑प्तता सुमायाः ॥

02 तेऽरुणेभिर्वरमा पिशङ्गैः - त्रिष्टुप्

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ते॑ऽरु॒णेभि॒र्वर॒मा पि॒शङ्गैः॑ शु॒भे कं या॑न्ति रथ॒तूर्भि॒रश्वैः॑ ।
रु॒क्मो न चि॒त्रः स्वधि॑तीवान्प॒व्या रथ॑स्य जङ्घनन्त॒ भूम॑ ॥

03 श्रिये कम् - त्रिष्टुप्

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श्रि॒ये कं वो॒ अधि॑ त॒नूषु॒ वाशी॑र्मे॒धा वना॒ न कृ॑णवन्त ऊ॒र्ध्वा ।
यु॒ष्मभ्यं॒ कं म॑रुतः सुजातास्तुविद्यु॒म्नासो॑ धनयन्ते॒ अद्रि॑म् ॥

04 अहानि गृध्राः - त्रिष्टुप्

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अहा॑नि॒ गृध्राः॒ पर्या व॒ आगु॑रि॒मां धियं॑ वार्का॒र्यां च॑ दे॒वीम् ।
ब्रह्म॑ कृ॒ण्वन्तो॒ गोत॑मासो अ॒र्कैरू॒र्ध्वं नु॑नुद्र उत्स॒धिं पिब॑ध्यै ॥

05 एतत्त्यन्न योजनमचेति - विराड्रूपा

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ए॒तत्त्यन्न योज॑नमचेति स॒स्वर्ह॒ यन्म॑रुतो॒ गोत॑मो वः ।
पश्य॒न्हिर॑ण्यचक्रा॒नयो॑दंष्ट्रान्वि॒धाव॑तो व॒राहू॑न् ॥

06 एषा स्या - प्रस्तारपङ्क्तिः

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ए॒षा स्या वो॑ मरुतोऽनुभ॒र्त्री प्रति॑ ष्टोभति वा॒घतो॒ न वाणी॑ ।
अस्तो॑भय॒द्वृथा॑सा॒मनु॑ स्व॒धां गभ॑स्त्योः ॥