1859.] The Sri-sukla, or Litany to 'Fortune. 123 



The S'ri-sukta, when seen in the Rig-veda, occurs, in my expe- 

 rience, invariably at the end of the fifth mandala. Though brief, it 

 is by no means insignificant. Indeed, it has been selected for pre- 

 sent notice on the ground of its marked pre-eminence among the 



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iu*f §r*r*:si fq-^ xn^f gre i ^ifc ^m feres ^j^m^ 



^?TS | ilfsRT ^T^^^TT: ^T^TO^feHT ^f^^T: *W ftre^J 



A passage 13 given, first of all, professedly from the LaksJimi-stava of the 

 Kds'i-Tchanda. It runs thus : { Unrivalled mother of Madana, abiding in the 

 mansion of Upendra, thou art S'ri. With countenance delightful to the mind 

 as is the moon, to the moon thou art lustre, and radiance to the sun. Effulgent 

 art thou throughout the bright triple world. Constantly be thou benignant, O 

 Lakshmi, protectress, to thy adorers. Ever art thou the intrinsic combustive 

 energy of fire. Vedhas, through thy agency, created this multiform universe 

 Vis'wambhara also, by means of thee, has upheld it all. Constantly be thou 

 benignant, O Lakshmi, protectress, to thy adorers.' This, urges Grovinda, on the 

 argument of verbal similarity and indiscrepancy of import, is paraphrased from 

 the S'ri-sukta of the Atharvana-veda. Some nameless scholiast of the Sapta- 

 s'ati is next alleged to have spoken of ' the S'ri-siikta, notoriously A'tharvana. 

 From the Lakshmi sukta nirukta a couplet is then adduced, with its explana- 

 tion : and it should thus seem — as will be seen in the further progress of this 

 paper — that not only the S'ri-sukta, but its appendix as well, has enjoyed an 

 exposition other than that which I now print. Govinda tells U3, in fine, that 

 somewhere else it is shown at length that the S'ri-siikta is the theme of a detail- 

 ed account in the Meru-tantra. All this is abundantly flaccid and unsatisfying • 



11 2 



