[Footnote 197: I formerly translated yát vã_g_ân abhí ádrava_h_ tvám by "when thou rannest for the prizes." Grassman had translated similarly, "When thou, O Sindhu, rannest to the prize of the battle," while Ludwig wrote, "When thou, O Sindhu, wast flowing on to greater powers." Vâ_g_a, connected with vegeo, vigeo, vigil, wacker (see Curtius, Grundzüge, No. 159), is one of the many difficult words in the Veda the general meaning of which may be guessed, but in many places cannot yet be determined with certainty. Vâ_g_a occurs very frequently, both in the singular and the plural, and some of its meanings are clear enough. The Petersburg Dictionary gives the following list of them--swiftness, race, prize of race, gain, treasure, race-horse, etc. Here we perceive at once the difficulty of tracing all these meanings back to a common source, though it might be possible to begin with the meanings of strength, strife, contest, race, whether friendly or warlike, then to proceed to what is won in a race or in war, viz. booty, treasure, and lastly to take vâgâ_h_ in the more general sense of acquisitions, goods, even goods bestowed as gifts. We have a similar transition of meaning in the Greek ἁθλος, contest, contest for a prize, and ἁθλον, the prize of contest, reward, gift, while in the plural τἁ ἁθλα stands again for contest, or even the place of combat. The Vedic vâ_g_ambhara may in fact be rendered by ἁθλοφὑρος, vâ_g_asâti by ἁθλοσὑνη. The transition from fight to prize is seen in passages such as: Rig-Veda VI. 45, 12, vã_g_ân indra _s_ravãyyân tváyâ _g_eshna hitám dhánam, "May we with thy help, O Indra, win the glorious fights, the offered prize" (cf. ἁθλοθἑτης). Rig-Veda VIII. 19, 18, té it vã_g_ebhi_h_ _g_igyu_h_ mahát dhánam, "They won great-wealth by battles." What we want for a proper understanding of our verse, are passages where we have, as here, a movement toward vâ_g_as in the plural. Such passages are few; for instance: X. 53, 8, átra _g_ahâma yé ásan á_s_evâh _s_ivãn vayám út tarema abhí vâ_g_ân, "Let us leave here those who were unlucky (the dead), and let us get up to lucky toils." No more is probably meant here when the Sindhu is said to run toward her vâ_g_as, that is, her struggles, her fights, her race across the mountains with the other rivers.] [Footnote 198: On _s_ushma, strength, see Rig-Veda, translation, vol. i. p. 105. We find _s_ubhrám _s_ūshmam II. 11, 4; and iyarti with _s_ūshmam IV. 17, 12.] [Footnote 199: See Muir, Santkrit Texts, v. p. 344.] [Footnote 200: "O Marudv_ri_dhâ with Asiknî, Vitastâ; O Âr_g_îkîyâ, listen with the Sushomâ," _Ludwig_. "Asiknî and Vitastâ and Marudv_ri_dhâ, with the Sushomâ, hear us, O Âr_g_îkîyâ," _Grassman._]