21. Earth [is] the staff, atmosphere the embryo, sky the whip, lightning the snapper (? prakaçá), of gold the globule (bindú).
The Pet. Lex. conjectures "Peitschenriemen" for prakaçá. Ppp. leaves the initial of antarikṣam unelided, and for prakaças has prakāçā madhokaçā ci ghṛtācī.
22. He who knows the seven honeys of the whip becomes rich in honey: the Brahman, and the king, and the milch-cow, and the draft-ox, and rice, and barley; honey the seventh.
One does not see why the Anukr. calls the passage brāhmī purauṣṇih ⌊that is 6⁄4 of 12: 8 + 8 = 18: 12 + 12 = 42⌋ rather than simply brāhmī uṣṇih ⌊6⁄4 of 8 + 8: 12 = 12 + 12: 18 = 42⌋; it is the only example of either name in the treatise. ⌊The not very sufficient reason for the preference would seem to be the position of the avasāna, which divides the "vs." as 18:24 and not as 24: 18.⌋ ⌊Ppp. has in a madhukaçāyās for kaç- and sapta madhumatīm for madhumān bhavati; then follows madhumato lokāṅ jayati (cf. vs. 23).⌋
23. Rich in honey he becomes; rich in honey becomes his provision (āhāryà); worlds rich in honey he conquers, who knows thus.
24. When it thunders in a clear sky, that is Prajāpati himself becoming manifest to his creatures; therefore I stand with the sacred cord over the right shoulder, saying: O Prajāpati, take notice (anu-budh) of me: creatures [take notice], Prajāpati takes notice of him who knows thus.
In order to make an aṣṭi (64 syll.) of this piece of prose, we have to restore ánu and separate íti in d, and to resolve ánu enam in e; and to make six pādas the last line has to be violently divided; the pada-text intimates a division after the second ánu. ⌊Ppp. in a-b has a tat also before prajāpatis and in e it reads prajā budhyante for prajāp- budhyate.⌋
⌊The hymn begins with divás and the quoted Anukr. says "divaç" ca catur-uttarāḥ (referring to a plus of 4 over the normal 20).⌋
2. To Kāma: for various blessings.
⌊Partly prose—"vs." 13.⌋ Found also (except vs. 4) in Pāipp. xvi. ⌊with vs. 16 before 12 and vs. 24 before 20⌋. The hymn (vs. 1) is prescribed in Vāit. 24. 10 to be recited, with homage to Kāma, in a part of the Agniṣṭoma ceremony; and in Kāuç. 49. 1 it (vs. 1) accompanies the release of a bull in a witchcraft ceremony.
Translated: Muir, v. 404 (nearly all); Ludwig, p. 519; Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen, p. 76 (part); Henry, 84, 118; Griffith, i. 430; Bloomfield, 220, 591.—Cf. Hillebrandt, Veda-Chrestomathie, p. 40.
