Page 356 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

MONTHS AND SEASONS 141
context again clearly shows that a reference to time is intended,
for the hymn speaks of the creation and the birth of the gods in
early primeval times. Now if we interpret Devana71J. yugam to
,uean • an age of gods', why should mO.ntJ!hya yugani or manu~hti
yuga be not interpreted to mean • human ages ', is more than I can
understand. There are again express passages in the ~ig-Veda.
where man~ha yuga cannot be taken to mean. generations of men'.
Thus in V, 52, 4, which is a hymn to Maruts, we read Vishve ye
manu~hti yuga pdnti martyam ri~ha~. Here the verb panti (protect),
the nominative vishve ye ( all those }, and the object is martyam
( the mortal man ), while ri!ha/J ( from injury ), in the ablative,
denotes the object against which the protection is sought. So far
the sentence, therefore, means •• All those who protect man from
injury "; and now the question is, what does manu!hti yuga mean ?
If we take it to mean " generations of men " in the objective case
it becomes superfluous, for martyam ( man ) is already the object
of panti (protect). It is, therefore, necessary to assign to manu!ha
yuga the onJy other meaning we know of viz. ' human ages ' and
take the phrase as an accusative of time. Thus interpreted the
whole sentence means " All those, who protect man from injury
during human ages ". No other construction is more natural or
reasonable than this; but still Prof. Max Muller translates the
verse to mean " All those who protect the generations of men, who
protect the mortal from injury "• in spite of the fact that this is
tautological and that there is no conjunctive particle in the texts
( like cha ) to join what according to him are the two objects of the
verb ' protect '. Mr. Griffith seems to have perceived this difficulty,
and has translated, " Who all, through ages of mankind, guard
mortal man from injury ". Another passage which is equally .
decisive on this point, is X, 140, 6. The verse t is addressed to
Agni, and people are said to have put him in front to secure his
blessings. It is as follows :-
.[litavanam mahi~ham vishva-darshatam
agnim sumnaya dadhire puro jana~

• See S. B. E, Series, Vol. XXXII, p, 312.
t ].tig. X, 140, 6-'fim<fT"ii ~~{!{ f<t~ ~ ~'t ~ ijfiff: 1
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