Bloomfield, Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda

8/13/2019 Bloomfield, Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda

1/43


2/43

A R T I C L E J.CONTRIBTJTIONS rro

THE INTERPRE1 ATION OF THE VEDA;Bv MAURICE BLOOMFIELD

PRO ssor t IN . l OHNS H O P K I N S U N I V E R S I T Y B A L T I M O R E MD

Presented to the Society April 1892.

I. T H E L E GE ND O F SOM A N D T H E E G L EThe legend of the rape of the heavenly drink the Soma ison e of tbe most va.lued themes of tbeVedic poets and tbe story-tellers of the Brhmanas The event is constantly alluded toand not infrequently narrated in full. The earliest version of tbelegend in 111antra form is given at RV. iv. 26 and 27 and tbe inter-pretation of these two bymns has engaged tbe interest of Vedicscholars from lvery early times. Especially iv. 27 contains evi-d en tl y t he most complete and rounded s ta te m en t o f tbe event inquestion and m a n y a r e tbe attempts which have been made toelucidate tbis difficult hyrnn. The correct interpretation of thebymn seems to bave been lost among the H indus themselvesat a very early t ime since the AA. ii. 5. 13 ff places the firststanza in the mouth of its reputed author Vmadeva who thusb ecomes h irnself the eagle and is supposed to have discoveredal l the races of the gods. This view of tbe hyrnn is adoptedfrom the AA by Syana and he therefore bas nothing to offerwhich we lllay. employ in establishing the general characterof the myth A da lb er t K uh n in his famous book Die Herab-

k ~ f t des Feuers und des Gttertran.kes p. 146 supposes thatIndra having been confined in tbe bosom of the clouds assumestbe form of an eagle and brings tbe Soma to mortals after hav-ing overcome Tvastar 01 some other hostile divinity. Lud wigin bis translation ii. 592 ff. and in bis commentary v. 46 7 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 threese e this Journal vol. xv. pp . 143 ff.; t he f ou rt h appeared in the A erJourn Philol xii. 414 443.VOL. XVI. 1


3/43


4/43


5/43


6/43


7/43


8/43


9/43


10/43


11/43


12/43


13/43


14/43


15/43


16/43


17/43


18/43


19/43


20/43


21/43


22/43


23/43


24/43


25/43

4 M. Bloomfield,ning, the eagle, breaks f rom the cloud, and with it comes therush of the heavenly fluid upon the earth, Then it beeomes available at the sacrifice, especially in behalf of Indra, who is theSoma-drinker by distinction.Tbe hymn {,V. iv. 27 contains the narrative of this event,undertaken by the two principal performers in it, The firststanza is spoken by Agni, the lightning, and its wording is fullof allusions to the technical features which characterize thatdivinity in distinction from all others, The next three stanzasare spoken by Soma, who describes Agni s achievements in hi sbehalf. Soma narrates in addition that K:rynu, the heavenlyarcher, one of his g ua rd ia ns , s ho t .an arrow at the eagle, whichdi d not disturb him in his flight, but simply caused the loss of asingle feather, that fell upon the earth, It seems quite likelythat this describes the strik in g of the lightning into the ground,but possibly this last fe atu re of the myth is no t a p a r t of thepurely naturalistic phase of the legend, which may at that pointhave passed into the hands of the poet, who, in India as elsewhere, would draw upon the stores of his imagination for theextension and embellishment of myths of a primarily naturalistiocharacter, combining .in accordance w it h t he dictates of his fancyany features from o th er leg en dary sources wh ich s eemed to himsuitable to the ta st e of his hearers.*II. T H E G RO U P O F V E D I C WO RD S E N D I N G IN -pituo. sapit1Ja,pra}Jitva, abhipitva apapitva). t

There is scarcely a group of V edic words which rests under aheavier cloud of misapprehension than that which furnishes thetitle of this article. The native exegetes started the interpretation of the words with false and inconsistent etymologies, andl at er t he western interpreters have substituted others no better.The translations of the passages containing these words haveCf. for this m y remarks in the third series of these contributions,J.A.O.S. xv. 185 t This article was written durin g th e w in te r of 1891-2, and was presented to the American Oriental Society a t its annual meeting, April1892: cf. the Proceedings of t ha t meeting Journal vol. xv. p. ccxxx ,The briefest possible abstract of the p aper w as p rin ted in the J ohnsHopkins University Circulars fo r 1892 Nr. 99, p. 102 . Since then Professor Geldner has printed an elaborate discussion of one of thesewords, prapitvd in the edischeStudien by Prof. Pischel an d himselfvol. ii., pp. 155-179. It is to be regretted t ha t be did not at the same

t i m e unde rt a ke an investigation of all the words of the small category,especially abhipitvd. As it is, our paths diverge hopelessly, and I havenot been able to assimilate any part of his discussion, interesting, fresh,and hold as it is, I cannot repress the hope that he m ay now yieldhimself up to the seduction of m y chief claim, namely t ha t all thesewords contain the stem pitu and in a future a rt i cl e pe rha ps direct hisingenuity to the further elucidation of the difficulties w h ic h h av e re..m ai ne d o n m y h an ds even after this recognition,


26/43


27/43


28/43


29/43


30/43


31/43


32/43


33/43


34/43


35/43


36/43


37/43


38/43


39/43


40/43


41/43


42/43


43/43

Bloomfield, Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda

Documents

Transcript of Bloomfield, Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda