Page 148 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

~IBHUS AND V~I~HAK.API 133

remarked that the hymn is one of those which have not yet been
properly understood. Some of the verses have been explained by
YAska, but be has nowhere tried to give us the bearing of the
whole story described in the hymn. S1yapa's commentary is
very often simply verbal, and in many places he too is not certain
about the meaning, while Anukramapi has been several times
disregarded by Siyat:ta himself. On the other hand, Ludwig,
Grassmann, and several other European scholars have tried in
their own way to explain the legend or the story embodied in
the hymn, and the latest attempt of the kind is that of Piscel
and Geldner in their Vedic studies, Vol. VII, Part I. • These
scholars hold that the hymn narrates a legend current in old
days. In other words, they take it, and I think rightly, to be a
historic hymn. But the question, what does the legend signify,
or how did it originate, still remains unsolved. Piscel and Geldner
understand the hymn to mean that Vp,hakapi went down to
the south and again returned to the house of lndra. But even
then the bearing of the legend is but imperfectly explained. The
occurrence of such words as dasa, arya and parshu in the hymn
have led some to suppose that the hymn records the story of a
struggle between the Aryan and the non-Aryan races. But
the hypothesis hardly explains the various incidents in the story,
and the legend may therefore be said to be ·but still imperfectly
understood. Under such circumstances any suggestion which
explains the hymn better is at least entitled io a hearing. It is
admitted that the hymn is a dialogue between Indra, Inddl}i
and Vri,bakapi, a son of Indra as they call him.t But there is a

• I am indebted for this information to Dr. R. G. Bhlndlrkar,
who kindly undertook to explain to me the views of German scholars
on this point.
t Kltylyana in his SarvAnukramaQl says-~ ~) 'r'fcll·
~AI~ I Upon this the VedArtha·dlpiH by Sha~guru shi,hya
~ "i! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
b as t'llif1Ni11 1\\ZI !J~: '<1-..1~'1~"11 Gmf: "'"-l"'l~AI ~.,,~ "(if: ~'"~~"'"
ef~f.« ~fi~6": 1 The verses of the hymn are then distributed
amongst the speakers as follows:- lndra, I, 8, JJ, u, 14, 19, 20, ZI
22; lndrAQf, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, IO, I 5 1 I6, 17, 18; and Vri,hlkapi, 7 1 IJ, 23.
The same distribution is given in the Brihad-devatl by Shaunaka.
Piscel and Geldner introduce VrithlkapAyi in the dialogue and
distribute the ,·erses somewhat differently thus-Indra, r, 3, 8, 12, 14,