832 F. S. drowse— A Metrical Version of the JPrithirdj Ttascm. [No. 4, 
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III. The Vedic Scriptures, G-od’s best gift, 
First claim respect profound, 
With three-fold branches spreading wide, 
Each leaf a lettered sound; 
Its bark religion, whence the bud 
Of virtue forced its birth, 
Ripening to fruit of noble deeds, 
Heaven’s bliss midst men on earth. 
Who tastes, unshaken by the blast, 
Firm as king’s counsel, stays, 
Aye growing to more perfect good, 
Unsoiled by these foul days. 
I have headed these stanzas ‘ Chhappai,’ that being a more correct 
designation of them than ‘ Kabitt.’ In the first line the word jgraman is 
precisely identical in meaning with nigam in the following line ; both are 
synonymes of the Yeda. A strictly literal translation would be “ first 
having taken the blessed scriptures, reverence them, the divine oracles, the 
original Yeda.” It will be noticed that the poet keeps hovering round 
the same idea, which he repeats in three different metres. Line four here 
corresponds precisely with line five of the Vathua, and as there bar an must 
be translated ‘ A letter of the alphabet.’ In the last line occurs the word 
drhati , which I translate ‘ growing,’ taking it to be formed from the root 
ridh. A Mathura Pandit explained it by sambandh , ‘ connection ;’ in which 
sense chiefly as a business term, for dealings with an arthiya , or ‘ broker,’ 
the word is still very common. 
IY. 
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IY. The prose translation : 
“ Taking possession of the earth like a garden-plot; irrigating it with the fulness 
of the Yeda as with water; placing in it good seed, upsprung the shoot of know¬ 
ledge, combining branches of three qualities , with leaves of many names, red as earth. 
It flowered with good deeds and good thoughts, complete deliverance, union of sub¬ 
stances. The twice-born of pare mind have experienced its flavour of perfect wisdom, 
a banian tree of delight, spreading abroad virtues ; the branches of this excellent 
tree in the three worlds, unconquered, victorious, diffusing virtues.” 
