Dear List Memebers,

First of all: my thanks to all who gave me their time and answered my query - preventing me from commiting a grave error. To Roland Steiner, Hans Henrich Hock, David and Nancy Reigle, Tracy Coleman.

Now, my second question ---

In Mbh I, 30.7c-e Indra says (to Garuda):

01.030.007c na kāryaṃ tava somena mama somaḥ pradīyatām
01.030.007e asmāṃs te hi prabādheyur yebhyo dadyād bhavān imam

VanBuitenen 1973: 90: "If you have no need for the soma, return the soma to me. For those to whom you may give it will forever best us".

[ad 'best': Monier-Williams has several other - sort of 'sharper' - meanings for pra-bādh: to repel, drive away, keep off (Mbh); to torment, vex, hurt, injure, annoy.

By the way - Kalyanov (I value his pioneering translation immensely) 1950: 103: "Yesli ty ne nameren vospol'zovat'sya somoy, to day yeyo mne. Ibo te, kotorym sobirayesh'sya dat' yeyo, budut vredit' nam". 'Budut vredit' nam' - 'shall injure us'; no 'forever'.]

Whom the myth makers may have in mind when they speak about those who "will forever best us"?

I'd be grateful if the comments were directed to the List, not to my private e-mail address.

Thanks,

Artur Karp (M.A.)

Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Pali (ret.)

South Asian Studies Department

University of Warsaw