NO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN COOMARASWAMY 1 5 



place to the true dawns that are the Suns' brides and Agni's " second mothers ". 

 It is further noteworthy that in some later texts Nahusa is or becomes a 

 serpent. In literal significance and as an essential rather than personal name, 

 nahusa may be compared to varuna and zfrtra, as derivates of zr. 



11. The samanam varncm daily put on is of course the aryaih varnam of 

 III, 34. 9 as distinguished from the asuryaih varnam of IX, 71, 2 (=^ papam 

 vaniam in Jaimin'iya Brdhmana, I, 220, with reference to Apala) ; and being 

 in fact the " cast(e)" of the Sun, the Dawns are described virtually as becoming 

 every morning savarna in Bloomfield's second sense of " like (Vivasvant) in 

 character or class" (Journ. Amcr. Oriental Soc, XVI, p. 178). 



12. Rnancaya, lit. "debt-collector": either Brhaspati-Brahmanaspati, as in 



II, 23, II and 17 {rnaya, rnacid rnaya), or Indra himself (rnacid .... 

 rnayd, IV, 23, 7), the toll being exacted in either case from the fiend (druli). 

 Monier-Williams, for rnancaya, has nothing better to offer than "name of a 

 man", and it is in this fashion that essential names have generally been 

 treated by translators of the Vedas. How many needless obscurities and 

 complications have been introduced into Vedic studies by a persistent neglect 

 of the warning "Even as He seemeth, so is He called" (V, 44, 6) it would 

 be hard to tell. Katha Up., IV, 14 can be pertinently cited: "He who sees 

 the principles separately, pursues them separately ". 



13; Heaven and Earth, as parents of Agni, " The son within his parents' 

 lap, as being the Eternal Germ" (garbham .... nityant na sunum pitror 

 upasthe, ib.). This nityani, incidentally, recurs in Katha Up., V, 13, "Eternal 

 mid the transient" (nityo' nifyanam). 



14. Krtya as feminine personification of krtya, "that to be done", is per- 

 spicuous in the present context; where that which should be, but is not yet 

 done, and merely in potentia, is as such evil. The putting ofif of krtya is 

 procedure from potentiality to act, nonbeing to being, privation to abundance, 

 death to life. For the conception, typical also in Christian Scholastic philosophy, 

 there may be compared in connection with Indra's procession " Many a thing 

 not yet done I have to do" (bahtlni me akrta kartvani, IV, 18, 2, cf. "Wot ye 

 not that I must be about my Father's business?", Luke II, 49) ; in connection 

 with Usas, "Delay not to go about thy labour" (ma ciram taimtha apah, V, 

 79, 9) ; again in connection with Indra, "Do what thou hast to do" {karisya 

 krnulii, I, 165, 9), who indeed "does what must be done" (cakrih yat karisyan, 

 VII, 20, i), i. e. in Christian formulation "Those things which God must will 

 of necessity" (St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., I, q. 45, a. 2 c), who is also described 

 as being " wholly in act ". The principle involved underlies Brhaddranyaka Up., 



III, 2, 13, "What they praised was Action (karma)", and the doctrine re- 

 garding karma yoga in the Bhagavad G'ltd. Cf. also knsalamassa akatatta 

 (= kusalasya akartatvat) in Jataka, text, I, 205; akarya as "sin" in Mrccha- 

 katika, VIII, 22, 4; and akaranasamvaram as "sins of omission" in Sadha- 

 nainala No. 98 (Gaekwad's Oriental Series, XXVI, p. 201). 



The following verse is apotropaic with respect to the " consumptions " 

 (yaksma) which may be transmitted from the bride's stock (yanti janat ami), 

 and which the Angels are besought to return to the place of their origin. 

 Yaksma is, of course, a disease always thought of as proceeding from Varuna 

 in his unfriendly aspect. Following words derived from RV., X, 17, i re- 

 ferring to Tvastr's gift of his daughter Surya in marriage, the Atha>rva Veda, 

 III, 31, 5 similarly expresses the wish "May I be separated from evil 



