Page 742 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

94 SAMAGRA TILAK: ...:. 2 • CHALDEAN AND INDIAN VEDAS
( sartave ).• For this very reason Indra is described in the ~igveda
as Apsu-jit.t It is usual to explain the compound word Apsu-jit
by treating its first member as a locative of ap =water and trans-
late it as meaning ' conqueror in waters. ' But it will be easily
seen that in spite of the Vartika on Papini VI. 3. 18, this is rather
a forced construction, and that it is better to take Apsu as a word
by itself and translate Apsu-jit as 'conqueror of Apsu.' The
same remark applies to the words Apsu-ja and Apsu-k~hit and the
like. It may be further noted that the phrase apsavam an~avam §
also oceuts in the ~igveda, and there, apsavam, which is an
adjective, evidently means ' of or relating to Apsu. ' Similarly
the word apsumat is also found in the Vedic literature ( Ait. Brah.
VII. 7 ), and it is there applied to Agni. In this word we cannot
take Apsu as a loca:tive of ap; and if we have thus a direct authority
for treating Apsu as a separate word by itself, there is no reason
why we should not take Apsu as a word by itself, and not as the
locative of ap, in such words as Apsu-jit and Apsu-k~hit. Apsu
taken as a separate word, may be derived either from ap = water
and su = to beget, or from psu, which according to Nig. III. 7,
means shape or form. In the latter case apsu would mean a shape-
less or formless chaos, which is the meaning assigned to it 1n the
Chaldean literature. Anyhow there is little doubt that Apsu in
Apsu-jit is the same word as the Chaldean Apsu or Abzu which was
conquered by Marduk, the Chaldean Indra. The word is evidently
Vedic, but owing to the ignorance of its true significance, the
Indian etymologists have treatee it as the locative of ap in
compounds like apsu-jit. The light thrown by the Chaldean

• ~igveda i. 32. 12 . Curiously en~ugh the same phrase occurs in
the Chaldean Creation Tablet No. 4, line 140, where Marduk after
defeating Tiamat, is said to have ordered her ( Tilmat's) waters, whtch
1\'ere not coming out, to come forth. The line is so rendered by Dr.
Budge; but Jensen, following the Hebrew tradition, translates tt to
mean "ordered the waters not to come forth" ( Ko·mologie dtt BaJylonin,
p. 288 ). Vedic tradition and phraseology both support Dr. Budge's
rendering and I prefer it to Jensen's. Prof. Sayee ( HibOerl Lertures, r 887,
p. 383) follows Dr. Budge, and Jastrow ( Ba/tylOtda and Assyria, p. 4 38)
follows Jensen.
t l.t.>VIII. 13. a; Vlii. 36. r; IX. xo6. 3·
§ l.t. X. 55. 3 7.