A Vedic Reader

296 Pages·1917·11.14 MB·Sanskrit

by  Arthur A. Macdonell

A VEDIC READER
.BY TtIE SAME AUI'IIO_R
IJNIFORbl WITH TItE PRI-_SENT WORK
A VEDIC GRAMMAR
FOR STUDENTS
Including a chapter on Syntax and three
Appendices : List of Verbs,
Metre, Accent
A VEDIC READER
FOR STUDENTS
BY
ARTHUR ANTHONY MACDONELL
M.A., ProD.
BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT
FELLOW OF BAI,LIOL COLLEGE ; YELLOW OF TIIE BR1TISII ACADEblY
FELLOW OY 'J_IE ROYAL DANISH ACAI)E,MY
CONTAINING THIRTY HYMNS OF THE RIGVEDA IN
THE ORIGINAL SAMHIT_- AND PADA TEXTS, WITH
TRANSLITERATION, TRANSLATION, EXPLANATORY
NOTES, INTRODUCTION, VOCABULARY
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1917
L'OHCOTRHDEIAOLO$G[IHCIAHLALRIBYRARY
iT. WAYNE, INDIANA 46825
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY
HUMPHREY MILFORD
I'UBLISHERTOTHEUNIYE_ITY
PRINTEIDNENGLAND_
PREFACE
THis Reader is meant to be a companion volume to my Vedic
G-rammarfor Students. It contains thirty hymns comprising just
under 300 stanzas. These hymns have been taken exclusively from
the Rigveda, not only because that Veda represents tile earliest and
most important phase of the sacred language and literature of India,
but because the addition of specimens from the later Vedic literature
with their divergences in speech and thought would tend to confuse
the learner beginning the study of the oldest period. All the books
of the Rigveda have been drawn upon except the ni,_th. The reason
of this exception is that, though the whole of the ninth book
practically consists of hymns addressed to Soma only, the hymn
which in my opinion represents that deity best occurs in another
(the eighth) book. All the most important metres are represented,
though no specimens of the rare and complex strophic measures
could be given because none ofthe hymns composed in them seemed
to be suitable for the Reader. I have also considered literary merit
as far as possible in making the selection. As regards subject-matter,
each of the more important deities is represented by one hymn, Agni
alone by two. There are besides a few hymns of a different type.
One is concerned with social life (x. 34), one with magical ideas
(vii. 103), two with cosmogony (x. 90. 129), and three with eschatology
(x. 14. 15. 185). The selection thus forms a brief epitome of the
Rigveda, the earliest monument of Indian thought. The arrange-
.ment of the hymns follows their order in the text of the Rigveda as
shown, togethei, with their respective deities and subjects, in the
vi PREFACE
table of contents (p. ix). As the latter list is so short, the name of
the deity addressed in any selected hymn can be found at once, but
it also appears in its alphabetical order in the General Index.
Unlike all Sanskrit and Vedic chrestomathies known to me, the
present work isintended primarily for students who, while acquainted
with Classical Sanskrit, are beginners of Vedic lacking the aid of a
teacher with an adequate knowledge of the earliest period of the
language and literature of India. It will moreover, I think, be found
to contain much detailed information useful even to more advanced
students. Hence difficult and obscure stanzas have never been
omitted from any of the selected hymns, because the notes here
afford an opportunity of illustrating the methods of critical interpre-
tation (see, for instance, pages 36, 47, 139-40, 152, 166, 175).
In conjunction with my Vedic Grammar for Students, the Reader
aims at supplying all that is required for the complete understanding
of the selections without reference to any other book. Each hymn
is preceded by a special introduction describing briefly the deity
or the subject with which it deals. The text of every stanza is
printed in three different forms. The first is the Samhita text, in
DevanagarI characters, exactly as handed down by tradition, without
change or emendation. But each Pada or metrical line is printed
separately so as to exhibit to the eye the versification of the stanza.
Then comes on the right half of the page the traditional Pada text in
which each word of the Samhita text is given separately without
Sandhi, and in which compounds and certain derivatives and case-
forms are analysed. This is an important addition because the Pads
text, as nearly contemporary in origin with the Sazp.hits text, fur-
nishes us with the earliest interpretations, within the sphere of
phonetics and word-formation, of the Rigveda. Next follows the
translitel_ted Sarp.hits text, in which by the removal of vowel-
contractions, the resolution of semivowels, and the replacement of
a, the original metre of the Rigveda is restored and, by the use
of punctuation, the sense is made clearer. The translation, which
follows, is close, accounting for every word of the original, and is
PREFACE vii
based on the critical method of interpretation. The notes furnish
minute explanations of all matters concerned with grammar, metre,
accent, syntax, and exegesis. The general introduction gives a
concise account of the form and matter of the Rigveda, describing in
outline its arrangement, its language and metre, its religion and
mythology, besides the critical method here applied to the inter-
pretation of its hymns. The vocabulary supplements the translation
and notes by giving the derivation of every word and adding in
brackets the most obvious cognates from the other Indo-European
languages allied to Sanskrit, especially Avestic, Greek, Latin, and
English. I have added a copious general Index for the purpose
of enabling the student to utilize to the full the summary of Vedic
philology which this book contains. Any one who has worked his
way carefully through the pages of the l_cader ought thus tohave laid
a solid foundation in Vedic scholarship, and to be prepared for
further studies on independent lines.
Freedom from serious misprints is a matter of great importance in
a book like this. Such freedom has, I trust, been achieved by the aid
of my two friends, Dr. James Morison, Librarian of the Indian
Institute, and my former pupil, Dr. A. Berriedale Keith, Regius
Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the University
of Edinburgh. In the com_e of this obliging task Prof. Keith has
supplied me with a number of suggestions, the adoption of which
has undoubtedly improved the notes in many points of detail.
_ALLIOI. COLLEGE_OXFORD.
Oclober,1917.

CONTENTS
PAGES
PREFACE . v
INTRODUCTION . Xl--XXXi
VEDIC HYMNS . 1-219
Agni i. 1 1-10
Savitr . i.35 10-21
Marut_ i. 85 21-30
Vi._.u . i. 154 30-6
Dy_v_p.rthivi i. 160 36-41
Indra . ii. 12 41-56
Rudra . ii. 33 56-67
Ap_.m nap_t, ii. 35 67-78
Mitru. iii5.9 78-83
Brhaspati iv. 50 83-92
U.sas iv. 51 92-9
Agnl v. 11 100-4
Parjanya v.83 104-11
P_s.an . vi. 54 111-15
Apas vii. 49 115-18
Mitr_-Varun._ vii. 61 118-24
S_rya . vii. 63 124-28
A_vin_ vii. 71 128-34
Varun.a vii. 86 134-41
Man..d_k_s vii. 103 141-7
Vi_ve dev_s . viii. 29 147-52
Soma . viii. 48 152-64
Funeral Hymn x. 14 164-75
Pitaras x. 15 176-86
x CONTENTS
PAGES
Gambler x. 34 186--95
Purusa x. 90 195-203
R_tri . x.127 203-7
Hymn of Creation x. 129 207-11
Yama . x. 135 212-16
V_t_ x. 168 216-19
VOCABULARY 221-56
GENERAL INDEX 257-63