India: What can it teach us?: A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of CambridgeMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Philosophy
India: What can it teach us?: A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
India; Sanskrit literature -- History and criticism; Vedas
[Footnote 207: Sîlamâvatî does not occur again in the Rig-Veda. Muir
translates, "rich in plants;" Zimmer, "rich in water;" Ludwig takes it
as a proper name. Sâya_n_a states that sîlamâ is a plant which is made
into ropes. That the meaning of sîlamâvatî was forgotten at an early
time we see by the Atharva-Veda III. 12, 2, substituting
sûn_ri_tâvatî, for sîlamâvatî, as preserved in the _S_ânkhâyana
G_ri_hya-sûtras, 3, 3. I think sîlamâ means straw, from whatever plant
it may be taken, and this would be equally applicable to a _s_âla, a
house, a sthû_n_a, a post, and to the river Indus. It may have been,
as Ludwig conjectures, an old local name, and in that case it may
possibly account for the name given in later times to the Suleiman
range.]
[Footnote 208: Madhuv_ri_dh is likewise a word which does not occur
again in the Rig-Veda. Sãya_n_a explains it by nirgu_n_di and similar
plants, but it is doubtful what plant is meant. Gu_n_da is the name of a
grass, madhuv_ri_dh therefore may have been a plant such as sugar-cane,
that yielded a sweet juice, the Upper Indus being famous for sugar-cane;
see Hiouen-thsang, II. p. 105. I take adhivaste with Roth in the sense
"she dresses herself," as we might say "the river is dressed in
heather." Muir translates, "she traverses a land yielding sweetness;"
Zimmer, "she clothes herself in Madhuv_ri_dh;" Ludwig, "the Sîlamâvatî
throws herself into the increaser of the honey-sweet dew." All this
shows how little progress can be made in Vedic scholarship by merely
translating either words or verses, without giving at the same time a
full justification of the meaning assigned to every single word.]
[Footnote 209: See Petersburg Dictionary, s. v. virap_s_in.]
[Footnote 210: "Among the Hottentots, the Kunene, Okavango, and Orange
rivers, all have the name of Garib, _i.e._ the Runner."--Dr. Theoph.
Hahn, _Cape Times_, July 11, 1882.]
[Footnote 211: _Deh_li, not _Del_-high.--A. W.]
[Footnote 212: Cunningham, "Archæological Survey of India," vol. xii.
p. 113.]
[Footnote 213: Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi. 20, 71: "Indus incolis Sindus
appellatus."]
[Footnote 214: The history of these names has been treated by
Professor Lassen, in his "Indische Alterthumskunde," and more lately
by Professor Kaegi, in his very careful essay, "Der Rig-Veda," pp.
146, 147.]
[Footnote 215: Ptol. vii. 1, 29.]
[Footnote 216: Arrian, Indica, viii. 5.]
[Footnote 217: Rig-Veda III. 33, 1: "From the lap of the mountains
Vipâ_s_ and _S_utudrî rush forth with their water like two lusty mares
neighing, freed from their tethers, like two bright mother-cows
licking (their calf).
"Ordered by Indra and waiting his bidding you run toward the sea like
two charioteers; running together, as your waters rise, the one goes
into the other, you bright ones."]
[Footnote 218: Other classical names are Hypanis, Bipasis, and
Bibasis. Yâska identifies it with the Âr_g_îkîyâ.]
[Footnote 219: Cf. Nirukta IX. 26.]
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