At 09:53 29.05.1999 -0500, Michael Witzel wrote:
<one cannot date the RV in 7000 BCE as it has copper/bronze implements, and
with good reasons not below 1200 BCE as it has no evidence of iron. But it
is full of horses>
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On the subject let me post a quotation from what I believe is now a rare
book. The quotation is quite pertinent to Gentoo Studies, radical application of
Yaskan rules to Vedic interpretation, horses. Although not very lengthy, it may
take more than two screens. I apologize in advance. Spelling and interpunction
belong to the author.

"mono mitro varuNo aryamAyurindra RbhukSA marutaH parikhyAn /
yadvAjino deva jAtasya sapteH pravakSyamo vidathe vIryyANi //

Max Muller translates it, "May Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Ayu, Indra, the lord
of the Ribhus, and the Maruts, not rebuke us, because we shall proclaim at
the sacrifice the virtues of the swift horse sprung from the gods."
That the above interpretation may be regarded as real or as true, let
Professor Max Muller prove that the Aryans of the Vedic time entertained the
superstition that at least one swift horse had sprung from the gods, also
that the gods [...] did not like to hear the virtues of the swift horse
proclaimed at the sacrifice, for if otherwise, they would have no reason to
rebuke the poet. Not one of these positions it is ever possible to entertain
with validity. Even the most diseased conception of the savage shrinks from
such a superstition as "the swift horses sprung from the gods." It is also
in vain to refer for the verification of this position to the ashwamedha of
the so-called Puranas. The whole truth is that this mythology of of
ashwamedha arose in the same way in which originates Max Muller's
translation. It originates from an ignorence of the dialectic laws of the
Vedas, when words having a yaugika sense are taken for proper nouns, and an
imaginary mythology started.

To take, for instance, the mantra quoted above. Max Muller is evidently
under the impression that Mitra is the 'god of the day', Varuna, is the god
of the 'investing sky,' Vayu or Ayu is the 'god of the wind,' Indra the 'god
of the watery atmosphere,' Ribhus, 'the celestial artists,' and Maruts are
the 'storm-gods.' But why these gods? Because he ignores the yaugika sense
of these words and takes them as proper nouns. Literally speaking, mitra
means a friend; varuna a man of noble qualities; aryama, a judge or
administrator of justice; ayu, a learned man; indra, a governor; ribhuksha,
a wise man; marutah, those who practically observe the laws of the seasons.
The word ashwa which occurs in the mantra does not mean 'horse' only, but it
also means the group of three forces, heat, electricity and magnetism. It,
in fact, means anything that can carry soon through a distance. [...] [...]

Professor Max Muller translates the "devajata" of the mantra as "sprung from
the gods." This is again wrong, for he again takes deva in its popular,
laukika sense, god; whereas devajata means "with brilliant qualities
manifested or evoked to work by learned men": the word deva, meaning both
brilliant qualities and learned men. Again Max Muller translates"virya"
merely in to virtues, instead of "power-generating virtues." The true
meaning of the mantra, therefore, is:

"We will describe the power-generating virtues of the energetic horses
endowed with brilliant properties, or the virtues of the vigorous force of
heat which learned or scientific men can evoke to work for purposes of
appliances (not sacrifice). Let not philanthropers, noble men, judges,
learned men, rulers, wise men & practical mechanics ever disregard these
properties.""

From: Pandit Gurudatta Vidyarthi, Vedic Philosophy, edited by Durga Prasad,
Virajanand Press, Lahore, 1900. Chapter III: "The Terminology of the Vedas and
European Scholars", pp. 45-47.

With regards,

Artur Karp
University of Warsaw
Poland