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Vedic Hymns, Part I (SBE32), by Max Müller, [1891], at sacred-texts.com
1. They truly 1 tried to make you grant them welfare. Do thou sing 2 praises to Heaven (Dyu), I offer sacrifice (rita) to the Earth. The Maruts wash their horses and race to the air, they soften their splendour by waving mists.
2. The earth trembles with fear from their onset. She sways like a full ship, that goes rolling 1. The heroes who appear on their marches, visible from afar, strive together within the great (sacrificial) assembly 2.
3. Your horn is exalted for glory 1, as the horns of cows; your eye is like the sun 2, when the mist is scattered. Like strong racers, you are beautiful, O heroes, you think of glory, like manly youths 3.
4. Who could reach, O Maruts, the great wise thoughts, who the great manly deeds of you, great ones? You shake the earth like a speck of dust, when you are carried forth for granting welfare.
5. These kinsmen 1 (the Maruts) are like red horses, like heroes eager for battle, and they have rushed forward to fight. They are like well-grown manly youths, and the men have grown strong, with streams of rain they dim the eye of the sun.
6. At their outbreak there is none among them who is the eldest, or the youngest, or the middle: they have grown by their own might, these sons of Prisni, noble by birth, the boys of Dyaus; come hither to us!
7. Those who like birds flew with strength in rows 1 from the ridge of the mighty heaven to its ends, their horses shook the springs 2 of the mountain (cloud) so that people on both sides 3 knew it.
8. May 1 Dyaus Aditi (the unbounded) 2 roar for our feast, may the dew-lighted Dawns come striving together; these, the Maruts, O poet, (the sons) of Rudra, have shaken the heavenly bucket (cloud), when they had been praised.
The same poet and deity. Metre, 1-7 Gagatî; 8 Trishtubh. None of the verses occurs in SV., VS., AV., TB., TS., MS.
Note 1. If we accept the text as it stands, we have to translate, 'The spy called out to you to grant welfare.' The spy is then either Agni (Bergaigne, II, p. 378) or the priest. See also VIII, 61, 15; X, 35, 8. But there are many objections to this. Pra-krand is not used in that sense, and we should expect pra krânt suvitâya. Pra-kar, when it is construed with a dative, means generally to prepare some one for something, to cause some one to do a thing. Thus, I, 186, 10. pró asvínau ávase krinudhvam. get the Asvins to protect. VI, 21, 9. prá ûtáye várunam mitrám índram marûtah krishva ávase nah adyá, make Varuna, Mitra, and Indra to protect, make the Maruts to protect us to-day. X, 64, 7. prá vah vâyúm—stómaih krinudhvam sakhyâ´ya pûshánam, make Vâyu by your praises to be your friend. I, 112, 8. prá andhám sronám kákshase étaye kritháh, whereby you make the blind and lame to see and to walk. The poet therefore seems to have said in our verse also, 'They (my men or priests) made you or wished you to give them welfare.' What spat can mean in such a sentence, is difficult to say. Till we know better, we must simply accept it as a particle of asseveration, like bat.
Note 2. Árkâ may also be the first person.
Note 1. With regard to vyâthir yatî´, cf. I, 117, 15. samudrám avyathír gaganvâ´n, and VIII, 45, 19. vyáthir gaganvâ´msah; Bergaigne, Journ. As. 1884, p. 490.
Note 2. Mahé vidáthe must be taken as a locative sing. It occurs again X, 96, 1. We have similar forms in mahé ráne, IX, 66, 13. &c. The locative is governed by antáh,
as in II, 27, 8. vidáthe antáh eshâm. The etymology and the meaning of vidatha have been often discussed, for the last time by M. Regnaud, Revue de l’histoire des religions, 1890. Prof. Roth, as M. Regnaud states, explains it by conseil, avis, réunion où l’on délibère, assemblée, troupe, armée. Grassmann takes it generally for réunion, rencontre, combat. Geldner derives it from vid, in the sense of art, science. Ludwig derives it likewise from vid, but in the sense .of Bekanntschaft, then Gesellschaft, and lastly as synonymous with yagña, sacrifice, assemblage. M. Regnaud differs from all his predecessors, and derives vidatha from vidh, to sacrifice. He maintains that *vidhatha would become vidatha, like adhak from dah or dhagh, and phaliga for parigha. I know nothing about the etymology of phaliga, but if it stands for parigha, the second aspirate has lost its aspiration and thrown it on the initial. In adhak, the final has lost its aspiration, and thus allowed its appearance in the initial. But in vidatha, if it stood for vidhatha, there would be no phonetic excuse whatever for changing dh into d, at least in Sanskrit. It is possible that in Sanskrit such a form as vidhatha might have been avoided, but there is no phonetic law to prevent the formation of such a word as vidhatha, like ukatha, yagatha, &c. We say vidhatha in the 2 pers. plur., as we say bodhatha. No Sanskrit grammarian could derive vidatha from vidh. If therefore vidatha signifies sacrifice, this is not because it is derived from vidh, to sacrifice. Vidatha may have been the name of a sacred act, as veda is of sacred knowledge. But the fact remains that it is best translated by assembly, particularly an assembly for sacrificial purposes.
Note 1. On sriyáse, see I, 87, 6.
Note 2. I see no necessity for changing sûryah into sûrah, see Bergaigne, Mélanges Renier, p. 94. He would translate, 'they are like the eye of the sun.'
Note 3. Máryâh may be bridegrooms, as in V, 60, 4
[paragraph continues] (varâ´h iva), but there is nothing to indicate that meaning here. The difficulty is to find a word to express sriyáse. It means to shine, but at the same time to excel. Possibly it may have even a more definite meaning, such as to shine in battle, or to triumph.
Note 1. As to sabandhu, see VIII, 20, 21.
Note 1. On srénîh, see Gaedicke, p. 164; Bergaigne, Mél. Renier, p. 94.
Note 2. The meaning of nabhanú, spring, is doubtful.
Note 3. Ubháye refers to many on both sides, and cannot be taken for ubhe, heaven and earth. It may mean all, particularly when there are two sides only, as in a battle.
Note 1. Ludwig seems to have seen the true meaning of this verse, namely that, though Dyaus may roar for the feast, and though the Dawns may strive to come near, the Maruts alone deserve the sacrifice, because they opened the chest of rain.
Note 2. On Dyaus Aditi, see note to I, 166, 12, p. 261, where the translation has to be corrected.