39. He verily was born of the sacrifice; of him the sacrifice was born.
The Anukr., as above, forces the elision yajñò ‘j-.
40. He is the sacrifice; his is the sacrifice; he [is] made the head of the sacrifice.
41. He thunders; he lightens; he indeed hurls the stone.
That is, the thunderbolt. The second pāda is one of the examples under Prāt. iii. 36.
42. Either for the evil [man] or for the excellent; for man or for Asura.
'For,' i.e. 'at,' ⌊taking the verse as a continuation of 41⌋.
43. Either when thou makest the herbs, or when thou rainest excellently, or when thou hast increased him of the people (? janyá).
This appears to be the only example known of the accent janyá instead of jánya, and how little authoritative it is may be inferred from the fact that all our mss. leave avīvṛdhas unaccented after it. Our text makes the necessary emendation to áv-. ⌊All SPP's authorities, however, agree in reading not only janyám but also avīvṛdhas. The latter he also emends to áv-.⌋
44. Such, O bountiful one, is thy greatness; and thine, too (úpa), are a hundred bodies.
There is no difficulty in counting the verse into 16 syllables, as required by the Anukr. ⌊It reads naturally as 9 + 8.⌋
45. Thine, too, are two billions, [many] billions (?); or else thou art a hundred million.
The translation implies the readings bádve bádvāni, which, on account of the accent, seem probably meant by the mss., which vary between bádhv-, báddh-, báddhv-; K. reads baddhve vádvāni, D. báddhe baddhā́ni. ⌊SPP's authorities also exhibit very wide disagreements, which reflect a corresponding uncertainty of the tradition.⌋ The word is just such a one as the mss. might be expected to boggle and blunder over, both they and we being left without help from the sense. Henry, who accepts the same emendation, understands bádve as locative, which is perhaps better, and at any rate favored by the fact that the pada-text does not read bádve íti.
46. More is Indra than non-dying (??); more art thou, O Indra, than the deaths.
'Non-dying' is the conjecture of the Pet. Lexx. for namurá, which occurs nowhere else; it is adopted here, simply for lack of anything better, although in itself of a high degree of implausibility. ⌊Henry also adopts it; but see his note, p. 54.⌋ It is surprising to find Indra brought in here at the end for address, instead of the sun; there is nothing to show that the two remaining paryāyas are not for him. ⌊Note, however, the praise of the sun under the names of Indra and Viṣṇu, so prominent in book xvii., below: see page 805. Perhaps we have here a similar identification.⌋
