3. The Localisation of certain Hymns of the Rigveda. 



By Mahamahopadhyaya Satis Chandra Vidyabhitsana, 



M.A., Ph.D. 



It is generally held that the hymns of the Rigveda were 

 composed while the Aryans, in the course of their south-eastern 

 journey, still lingered in Eastern Kabul and the Punjab. We 

 must modify this theory in the light of some verses of the 

 Rigveda which refer to the old kingdom of Videha comprising 

 the modern district of • Darbhanga. It is stated in the verses 

 that a certain natural well was bodily transplanted by the 

 Marut-gods and placed before a thirsty sage named Gotama. 

 The water gushing out from the well is said to have quenched 

 the sage's thirst, and formed itself into a river, the source of 

 which was the seat of the original well. One of the verses 

 referred to runs as follows : 



fo^f 33^S3cf a"*n fewfrNijcr*f affaire asu% i 



"wn^^JT^HT f^THRV ^Tfl fasTBJ cnfa*fr ^Ti?fH' II ^ 



(Rigveda, mandala 1, sukta 85). 



It has been translated by Wilson l thus : 



They brought the crooked well to the place (where the 



usly 



sprinkled 



, - . .- ._ , Ratifying 



the desire of the sage with life-sustaining (waters). 



In the commentary on the Rigveda (mandala 1, sukta 85, 

 verse 10), Sayana relates the story of the well i n a pas sage 

 quoted below:— 



STTOTT^Tfinrr I JITcW 3Kfa: ift intra r xftf^cT: **{ <R^<* 



The passage may be translated as follows : — 



" The sage Gotama afflicted with thirst prayed for water 



of the Maruts who raising aloft a well from a little distance 



carried the same to the place where the sage resided. They 



caused delight to the sage by preparing a reservoir which 





1 Wilson's translation of the Rigveda, page 221. 



