7. With a hundred fetters, O Varuṇa, do thou bridle (abhi-dhā) him; let not the speaker of untruth escape thee, O men-watcher; let the villain sit letting his belly fall [apart], like a hoopless vessel, being cut round about.
The two editions read in c çraṅçayitvā́, with the majority of the mss.; but nearly half (including our P.M.W.H.Op.) have çraṅsay-, and two of ours (K.Kp.) sraṅçay all of them misreadings for sraṅsay-, which the comm. gives (= jalodararogeṇa srastaṁ kṛtvā). ⌊The disease called "water-belly," to which c and d refer, is dropsy, Varuṇa's punishment for sin.⌋ In d, SPP. reads abandhás with the comm., but against all his mss. and the majority of ours (P.p.m.M.W.O.Op. have -dhas), which have -dhrás; bandhra (i.e. banddhra, from bandh + tra) is so regular a formation that we have no right to reject it, even if it does not occur elsewhere. Ppp. puts varuṇa in a before abhi, omitting enam, thus rectifying the meter (which might also be done by omitting the superfluous varuṇa) and it omits the n̄ of -vān̄ in b. There is not a jagatī pāda in the verse, and d becomes regularly triṣṭubh by combining kóçe ’vā-.
8. The Varuṇa that is lengthwise (samāmyà), that is crosswise (vyāmyà); the Varuṇa that is of the same region (saṁdeçyà), that is of a different region (videçyà); the Varuṇa that is of the gods, and that is of men—
If the word váruṇas, thrice repeated, were left out, there would remain a regular gāyatrī; and the meaning would be greatly improved also; if we retain it, we must either emend to varuṇa, vocative, or to vāruṇás 'of Váruṇa,' i.e. 'his fetter,' or else we must understand váruṇas as here strangely used in the sense of vāruṇás: the comm. makes no difficulty of doing the last. ⌊Ppp. reads in a, yas sāmānyo; in b, yaç çyaṁdeçyo (or cyaṁ-); in c, yo dāivyo varuṇo yaç ca mānuṣassa; and adds tvāṅs tv etāni prati muñcāmy atra.⌋ For the first two epithets compare xviii. 4. 70; the next two are variously understood by the translators; they are rendered here in accordance with the comm. Though so differently defined by the Anukr. ⌊cf. ii. 3. 6 n.⌋, the verse as it stands is the same with vs. 9, namely 11 × 3 = 33 syllables.
9. With all those fetters I fasten (abhi-sā) thee, O so-and-so, of such-and-such a family, son of such-and-such a mother; and all of them I successively appoint for thee.
If the verse is regarded as metrical, with three pādas (and it scans very fairly as such), we ought to accent ásāu ⌊voc. of asāú⌋ at beginning of b. The comm. perhaps understands anu in c as independent, ánu (SPP. so holds). The last two verses are, as it were, the practical application of vss. 6 and 7, and probably added later. ⌊As to the naming of the names, see Weber's note, p. 73.⌋
