On Vedic Dhénā, "Prayer," "Song"

On Vedic Dhénā, "Prayer," "Song"Author(s): Maurice BloomfieldSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 46 (1926), pp. 303-308Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/593829 .

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ON VEDIC DHiRNA, "PRAYER," "SONG"

MAURICE BLOOMFIELD

JOHNS HOPKNS UNIvESITy

CHANCING into a small article of mine, 'On the drr. AXy. virenyah, RV 10. 104. 10,' 1 I find that the stanza in question holds the much disputed word dhend. Its first hemistich reads:

virenycah kratdur 'ndrah su'ast'r utaipi dherd puruhiatcm atte.

For the impossible vr6nyyah kratur I proposed the compound varettyykrcatur, assuming that the i of virenyah is due to contami- nation with the closely synonymous Wnyah (note the accents of the two words). Indeed, varenyakratuh and idenyakratuh are, as there pointed out, variants of one another in the same passage. Olden- berg, RV Noten, to 10. 104. 10, notwithstanding his well-known rather extreme aversion against emending the RV text accepts my proposal.

Yet my former pupil, Professor S. G. Oliphant, several years later, in his valuable article, "Sanskrit dhenit Avestan daind Lithuanian daina," JAOS 32. 394 if., translates, " Heroic strength and goodly praise is Indra; " and, similarly, Professor Hertel, Die Arische Feuerlehre, i. Teil (1925), p. 87, "Minnliche Kraft (ist) Indra, der hochgelobte." Both scholars preserve the chimera virenya, " as a noun at the head and a verbal adjective of necessity (gerundive) at the tail." My own translation of 10. 104. 10ab was, "Indra, of excellent understanding, deserves high praise, so thel my song praises him that is called by many men." In a foot-note I identified dhend, plural dh6nms, with Lithuanian dainr, plural dainos, taking it for granted that Avestan daena is but a dialect form of the Vedic dhent. Hillebrandt, Lieder des Rig-Veda (1913), p. 48, note 10, accepts the equation dh6n&- daina, but shrinks from drawing the consequences; Hertel, 1. c., regards the identity of dhend with Avestan dacnd as basic, but does not mention Lith. daina.

No less than four carefully elaborated treatments of dh6n4 have

1 The Johns Hopkins University Ciroulars, 1.906, nr. 10, pp. 1060 ff. (pp. 12 if. of the reprint).

303



304 Maurice Bloomfield

appeared within the twenty years or so that have elapsed since the publication of my little article on virenyah: Geldner, Ved. Stud. iii. 35 if.; Oldenberg, Vedaforschung, pp. 93 ff.; Oliphant, JAOS 32. 393ff.; lHertel, Die Arische Feuerlehre, i. Teil, pp. 63 ff. Geldner, then fresher in his reliance on Siyana than now, says: "In this instance almost the entire lexical material is buried in Sdyana. . . . Dhena contains two or three quite different meanings which can scarcely be connected etymologically, still less lexically." Precisely the opposite seems to me true: dhe'n, aside from slight shadings, is everywhere etymologically and lexically one and the same word, "prayer," " song." Oldenberg, accepting the Pet. Lex.'s explanation, " milchkuh," " milchtrank," shuts himself out of any real appreciation of the word. Oliphant, falling in with the ideas of my article on virinya, as well as other, verbal, utter- ances, is essentially correct, but misses some important aspects of the word, especially those of the dual dhe'ne. ilertel, in accordance with his very interesting cosmic fire theory, or perhaps rather, theory of heavenly light, renders dhdnd by " himmelslicht," or the like, yet points out that it is often used in the sense of Vedic hymn (see, e. g., p. 87 bottom).

At the present time it may be possible to stabilize opinion at a few points, so as to reduce to a minimum the vexatious uncertainty from which the word has suffered over and beyond the degree justified by its intrinsic difficulty:

1. Any consideration of dhenJ which leaves out of sight its dialectal sister, Avestan dainr, is quite certain to go wrong. Hence it is not possible that dhinA means " flow," or " flowing substance." On the contrary, the word is related to dhi, "mind," "mental product," and, as regards meaning, to the numerous Vedic words which finally really mean " hymn ": gir, stoma, stuti, arka, mancsa, vip, and many others. We must add to the Aryan pair Lithuanian daint which means " song," probably, primarily, " religious song." This secures for the group I. E. antiquity, even tho the Lithuanian word may not help directly the philological specializations of the two Aryan words.2 Geldner, Der Rigveda, to 1. 101. 10 (his latest utterance on the subject): " dhena ist das, was milch (eigentlich

2 The Lithuanists, curiously enough, seem not to have stumbled upon this etymology of daint; see Bender, A Lithuanian Etymological Index, p. 30.



On Vedic Dhe'ni, " Prayer," " Song " 305

und figUrlich) gibt, und der erguss (der milch oder des soma oder der rede) selbst." The only satisfactory words here are, "der rede," tacked on to " erguss." It is the fatal etymology from dhe, " suck," instead of from dhi, "think": Av. daind, or even the remote Lithuanian word could of itself have ensured the right decision.

2. The 8rduta-texts 3 recite a list of 'wives of the gods,' announced in VWit. by the expression, devapatnir vydcacsva, " tell the wives of the gods." The list contains the two adjacent state- ments, senendrasya (patai), dhend brhaspateh (patnt), "Send is the wife of Indra, Dhend the wife of Brhaspati," meaning, "Missile (weapon) is the wife of Indra; Prayer the wife of Brhaspati." The passage is absolutely basic, and self-explanatory; it contains Hindu ideas which begin in the RV and last to the present moment of Hindu time. Send is the embodiment of Indra's imperium (ksatra); Dhen4 the embodiment of Brhaspati's sacerdotium (purohiti, pdurohitya) .4 There is here no possible discoloration of the meaning of dhemnt; Oliphant, p. 411, quotes my oral statement that dhend is the equivalent of brhas in brhaspctti. Hertel, who urges his theory of "heavenly light," or "heavenly fire," for all Vedic words for " prayer," at many points realizes the identity of dhena and dht in the sense of "prayer "; see, e. g., p. 84, as compared with p. 166; indeed his cosmological theory of the origin of these words is often but a remote back-ground for their practical use both in Veda and Avesta. I would refer to his remark on p. 98, that Avestan daina is a synonym of Vedic brahmakn which coincides, mathematically as it were, with my statement that Vedic dhe'n is the equivalent of brhas in brhaspati. Cf. also Hertel's analyses on pp. 87, 94, 112, and his identification of dhenabhih with dhibhih on p. 84. Oldenberg, p. 94, translates, " Send des Indra (gattin), DhenA des Brhaspati (gattin)." It is much to be regretted that he does not explain Dhenj in that connection. Could he have been content with the intrinsically meaningless idea, that " Milchtrank " is the wife of Brhaspati? And would he have sacrificed to this the obvious antithesis involved (imperium and sacerdotium) ? Surely

s See my Vedic Concordance, under senendrasya. 'Cf. the expressions, b.rhaspatir vdcdm, and brhaspatir brdhmanah (se.

adhipatih) in my Concordannce; they, of themselves, establish the equation dhdnu = brdhman (neuter).

2




the proportions, indra: send- brhaspati: x, must be filled out by " prayer," and nothing else.

3. All Vedic words for "prayer " are intrinsically dualic; the complement of " prayer " is " libation," expressed countless times, implied hardly less often. Even Oliphant, who in the main sees eye to eye with me in these matters, as well as other interpreters, misses this point in RV 1. 141. 1, where occurs the word sasru'tah:

yad q~m Papa hvairate sAdhacte mat'r rtasya dhena anayanta sasru'tah.

He translates the second pada, " The songs of Rta bring him as they flow." The translators, as well as the lexicographers, take sasru'tah as a reduplicated noun from the root sru " flow," a forma- tion really too problematic to discuss. The word is a compound (sa-srut), meaning, "accompanied by oblations"; the pdda is to be translated, "the songs of rta (i. e., the pious or holy songs) together with (our) oblation bring him on." As an example of another pass, take Geldner's rendering, Der Rigveda, p. 178, " es holten (ihn) die fliessenden ergiisse (dhe'ndh!) der wahrheit her." 6

A perfect parallel to 1. 141. 1 is 9. 34. 6,

sam enam ahrubt imd giro crsanti sasrnuah,

"'To him haste together, unerringly, these songs accompanied by libations." Is it really possible to question that dhendh and girah in the two passages are one and the same thing, and that they appear with their natural ritualistic companions, here called srut (oblation) ?

As might be expected dh6na occurs regularly, if not exclusively, in close junction with other words for " libation," or kindred ritualistic acts: 3. 1. 9, vy asya dha'r asrjad Wi dhendh, for which see Oliphant's discussion, p. 407; 10. 104. 3, prograi pitizm v"ruZa iyarmi . . . sutasya . . . indra dhendbhir iha mldayasvat; 4. 58. 6, samyic sravanti sarito na dhenAh . . . ete arsanty irrmayo ghatasya; 7. 94. 4, Indre agn4a- nAamo brhat suvrktim 6rayamahe (suvqrktim refers to the barhsL) dhiya dhena avasydvah; 1. 2. 3, vayo tava Praprinca~tf dhend jigati ddifise, uruct somapitaye; 10. 43. 6, ja6nanih

6 Similarly, and very emfatically, in his mis-rendering of sasrutah, Oldenberg, p. 97. Ludwig (284), no better, " mit der heiligen ordnung stromend brachten ihn die lieder," where the genitive rtdsya is handled very badly.



On Vedic Dhend, " Prayer," " Song " 307

dhend avac dkaiad vrsa, yasydha scakrah savanesu rainati; 7. 24. 2, vmsrstadhena bharate suvrktih (again the barhis). These dualic expressions are on all fours with the simply countless pairs, such as, dhitayah and dhdraya in 8. 6. 8; gird and dhdrayd in 9. 10. 4; dhiyd (matt) and dharayd in 9. 44. 2, not to mention common- places, such as namobhir havise (5. 28. 1); or yajiinbhir girbhih (6. 2. 2).

4. The preceding consideration brings us to the real crux of the matter, namely, two occurrences of the dualic dhene, 1. 101. 10; 5. 30. 9. These have invariably caused a sort of bouleversement at the end of each interpreter's exposition. Geldner, p. 39, following Sdyana's lead, translates vi srjasva dh6ne in 1. 101. 10 by " loosen your tongue (to drink)," but this dualic tongue in the end, is too much for him, so that in his RV translation, p. 119, he has, " lass beide briiste dir strdmen," which has no better foundation. Olden- berg, p. 99, not too enthusiastically, thinks of soma and water. Hertel, p. 91, "giesse dir die beiden himmelsfeuer (i. e. soma and milk) ein." Oliphant, p. 406, holds hard to " two voices," but is put to it to find them: " that of (Indra's) gracious commendation of his worshipper's praises, and that terrifying, thundering battle shout." Or, as an alternative, "we may consider the two dhgma as the gracious, approving song of Indra, and the Maruts' song of praise."

It seems to me that a well-established habit of the earlier lan- guage places the dual dhene not far away from the sfere in which our brief analysis has located the singular and plural. I mean that dhene is elliptic dual (dvaihdva eka~sesa), meaning, "song and libation." The two things are not only close partners in practice, but are held together by the constant idea that both flow, a point very well brought out in Oliphant's investigation. We shall have to accustom ourselves to the not too curious idea that prayers (like oblations) flow from the worshipper into the god whom he worships, and that both contribute to the god's power. In 1. 101. 10,

v* syasva sipre vi sjrjasva dhire, "Open thy lips; take in song and libation," are blended dual- istically the ideas that are expressed separately in 3. 1. 9, vy asya dhara- asfjad vi dh~naih (cf. visrstadhena in 7. 24. 2), in which dhdrdh and dh6nah analyze mechanically the two component parts




of the elliptic dual dhine. In 1. 101. 10, both " flow " into Indra's capacious maw, according to a conception expressly stated, and, after all, natural enough. In 5. 30. 9 the expression ubh6 asya dhine (rendered more familiar and emfatic by the use of ubhJ with the elliptic dual)6 again, and perhaps more clearly, refers 1o hymn and libation which encourage Indra in his demon fights:

striyo hi dasd adyudhdni cacr6 kirnma ckarann abald asya senah, antair hy akhyad ubh6 asya dh6ne athopa pratlid yudhaye dhsyum irndrah

"The demon (Namuci) made his women his weapons: what can they do to me? His missiles (or armies) are feeble! Indra looked upon (considered) both the songs and libations within (him), and then went forth to fight the demon." That is to say, Indra gathers courage for the demon fight from the hymns and soma libations of his worshippers, both of which are supposed to flow into him.7 As compared with all the divergent guesses, for some of which Father Sdyana is directly responsible, it seems scarcely possible to question this natural, grammatical interpretation of dh6ne. The word for " oblation," implied in the elliptic dh6ne is, most likely, dhard which figures frequently by the side of dh6nd.

If any scholar should think the elliptic dual dhene rather unex- pected, I would remind him of the solitary saba1i$U in RV 10. 14. 10, which I had long ago interpreted as an elliptic dual to the ordinary singulars sabala and syd-ma (syava), which do not occur in the RV at all, yet are the old established names of the two dogs of Yama; see my Cerberus, The Dog of Hades (Chicago, 1905), pp. 31 ff.8 A single time, this interesting speech habit of the Veda finds here its opportunity, tho the ordinary analytic statement, Sabala and syama, would certainly have been clearer as well as more picturesque.

6 Cf., e. g., ubhU dydvl, " both heaven and earth," 9. 70. 2. 7In close parallel with the expression vi srjasva dhene in 1. 101. 10,

which means, " Take in song and libation." 8 of course gabdld4u is to be translated " the speckled and the dark,"

not, " the two speckled "; the former is the Hindu tradition, including the Buddhist tradition clear down to Divydvadana, p. 9, 1. 20. See as an example Rouse's translation of Jdtaka 544 (p. 124 in Vol. VI of the

Cambridge Translation).



On Vedic Dhénā, "Prayer," "Song"

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