132 The Sri-sukta, or Litany to Fortune. [No. 2. 



Third varga. 



11. Excellent progeny has been born to thee, in Kardama.* Do 

 thou, Kardama, iuhabit, witli me my abode ; and cause that S'ri thy 

 mother, lotos-garlauded, shall dwell with my family. 



12. May waterf perform its humid offices. Tarry in my domi- 

 cile, Chiklita ; and make that S'ri, thy divine mother, shall remain in 

 my household. 



13. I>o thou, Jatavedas, on my behalf invoke Lakshmi: moist ; 

 accompanied by lotoses : thrift f er sonified ; yellow ; lotos-garlanded ; 

 a moon in glory ; of the nature of gold. J 



14. Do thou, Jatavedas, on my behalf invoke Lakshmi : moist ; 

 verge in hand ; a mace to wrong-doers ; of comely complexion ; wearing 

 a golden necklace ; a sun in glory ; of the nature of gold. 



15. Do thou, Jatavedas, on my behalf invoke that Lakshmi : im- 

 perishable, who being attendant, I shall acquire gold in exuberance, 

 kine, bondwomen, horses, and human beings. § 



Manuscripts of the uncommented text of the S'ri suhta usually 

 give, in sequence to the hymn, more or fewer of the couplets which 

 here follow. The preference has purposely been accorded to the 

 most copious form of the adjunct thus constituted. || 



* Of Kardama and Chiklita, as sons of Lakshmi, I have seen no other men- 

 fcion than in couplets contained in this paper. 



t By metonymy, for the regents of water. So says the glossarist. 



X The expositor proposes a second, but far-fetched, interpretation of the term 

 which I render ' accompanied by lotoses,' 



Yellow is not the ordinary acceptation of fq"^^T | Perhaps ' tawny' is here, 

 as elsewhere, the precise equivalent. Colebrooke, in one place, represents it by 

 " tan- coloured." Algebra, &c, from the Sanskrit, p. 228. Lakshmi is some- 

 thing of a chameleon, as will be perceived in the course of this article. 



The second half of the thirteenth stanza is a literal repetition from the first. 

 With the change of a single word, it is found again in the fourteenth. In sever- 

 al of my manuscripts of the text, the thirteenth and fourteenth stanzas are 

 transposed and confused. 



§ This couplet simply contains two words more than the second, and does- 

 not differ from it, except in them, as to tenor. 



|| Since preparing these pages for the press, I have received, from my very 

 learned friend, Dr. Max Muller, a copy of the third volume of his Rig-veda~ 

 sanhild and Sayana's commentary. In his Varietas Lectionis I see that the Sri' 

 sulcta is exhibited at large, together with the verses above referred to. My most 

 extended reading of them turns out to be fuller than his by only half a stanza. 



