[Author’s Note: This piece was written a year ago upon this date – however for some reason it’s been sitting unpublished this entire time ! It therefore seemed an aptly auspicious occasion, in light of operations and observances from earlier this week, to finally bring it out to the light here on this site of ours. Some understandings may, of course, have grown further in the intervening 365. Jai Mata Di. ]

We had been interested to observe the maxim found in RV V 61 6:

“And a Woman [Strī] [who] is more dependable / [piously] dutiful [śaśīyasī] is greater [vasyasī] than a Man [puṃso] [who is] non-serving of the Gods [adevatrād], non-Sacrificing / non-Offering [arādhasaḥ]”

It’s an interesting injunction – as it’s something of a counterpoint to how archaic Indo-European valuation of women is often insistently (mis)presented here online.

Certainly, as applies the religious sphere in particular (and the Vedic complex in specia), the situation is both more complex and more nuanced than many would often like to believe.

As a further point of interest, line eight of the same hymnal has the Rsi acerbically observing that the sort of man in question aforementioned … whilst he might be called a man, is really only equivalent to a man in his blood-price should he be killed [both the Griffith and Jamison / Brereton translations use the term ‘Weregild’ / ‘Wergeld’ here for ‘vaíradeya’ [‘Price / Restoring / Levy’ (‘Deya’) for a Man (‘Vira’)], with J/B rather caustically noting “In our case the person in question is hardly worth the name ‘man’ and would be better off dead than alive, since his relatives would still receive the standard recompense for a vīrá, whatever his personal failings had been.”].

It’s certainly thematically on-point, for a trio of verses on offerings, givings, and bestowals. And the use of ‘Vasyas’ to refer to the quality of the pious woman is , itself , resonant with this – if I had the energy there’d be a sustained digression here around Vasu, Vastu, and relevant ritual-mythic conceptry.

But just this once, we shall refrain.

And ditto for attempting to argue that ‘Devatra’ (encountered herein as its opposite – ADevaTra) as ‘Worship’ / ‘Piety’ might incorporate not only the conventionally read ‘Tra’ as in ‘Giving To’ , but also ‘Tra’ as in ‘Protecting’.

That said – it is worth noting the context of all of these aforementioned Verses.

RV V 61 is one of the Marut hymnals. It is also the work of a certain Rsi, Śyāvāśva – with his story being one of a marriage near averted due to unhappy and frustrating … and yet still pursued in earnest by the Seer.

The narrative ‘context’ makes it clearer that which is going on. The Maruts have been called upon by the Rsi in order to help him to finally obtain his Bride (and we might wonder whether the radiant treasures bestowed by Them in line 16 might be akin to those Seven Jewels bestowed by Their Lord and Father, Rudra, in RV VI 74 1 (inter alia) – specified in the Brhaddevata commentary of Shaunaka to include one’s Wife).

To quote from the Griffith translation:

“15 Guides are Ye, lovers of the song to mortal man through holy hymn,
And Hearers when he cries for help.
16 Do Ye, Destroyers of the foe, worshipful and exceeding bright,
Send down the Treasures that we crave.”

[The Horace Hayman Wilson translation for line 15, as a point of perhaps comparative interest for explication, reads:
“Desirous of praise, You are the Guides (to happiness) of the man who propitiates (You) by this pious rite; You are Bearers of invocations to the sacrifice.”]

The last three lines constitute a message (of sorts) for the man Śyāvāśva would have as a father-in-law should things go according to plan, Rathavīti (a name that J / B suggest to mean ‘Pursuit of the Chariot [‘Ratha’]’ in order to infer some rather clever wordplay on the part of the Rsi in what follows; although ‘Viti’ could just as easily have a few other meanings – ‘Light’, ‘Cleansing’, ‘Horse’, ‘Pleasing’, and a more general sense of ‘[in] Motion’):

Sayana suggests its placement here is not coincidental, noting that it occurs following Śyāvāśva “upon concluding the praises of the Maruts and thus having attained the rank of a ṛṣi” [H.H. Wilson translation].

Given the previous circumstances that had stood in the way of Śyāvāśva’s marriage (namely, his being blocked from performing a rite by the aforementioned Rathaviti – perhaps due to not having the proper level of attainment and metaphysical mastery in the eyes of the gentleman to be worthy of his daughter ? ), Śyāvāśva having just managed to produce (and assumedly, perform) a rather stirling Vedic liturgy for the Maruts might indicate that he had finally attained the requisite stature and potency to succeed in his quest (to win (back) his Bride).

However, it is not the Maruts that are salient divinity called upon to ‘bear the invocation’ aforementioned and afore-invoked.

Rather, it is Ūrmya – a somewhat rare hailing for the Night, per customary rendering, as ‘Undulating’.

Who is also – to my perhaps self-referential amusement – called upon to ask Her to ensure the Writer’s intent does not , in a word, “digress” [‘apa veti’ – ‘go off track’, as J / B renders it] in line 18.

The final line to the hymnal, perhaps, is an ‘address’ – how the intended recipient of the message to be conveyed via the Goddess that is Undulating Night (perhaps the ‘Astral Sea’ is inferentially salient here; and certainly, Night has rather unparalleled ‘coverage’ as well as all-encompassing reach) can be located in order that the communication reach its intended goal (and therefore realize its intended purpose – the restoration of Śyāvāśva’s Bride to him).

Griffith translates these as the following:

“17 O Urmya, bear Thou far away to Darbhya this my hymn of praise,
Songs, Goddess, as if chariot-borne.
18 From me to Rathaviti say, when he hath pressed the Soma juice,
‘The wish I had departeth not.’
19 This wealthy Rathaviti dwells among the people rich in kine,
Among the mountains, far withdrawn.”

The Jamison/Brereton, by contrast:

“17 This praise of mine, o Night, carry off to Dārbhya,
(my) hymns (carry away) like a charioteer, O Goddess.
18 And then speak for me thus to Rathavīti who has pressed the Soma:
“My desire does not go off track.”
19 This Rathavīti dwells in peace, a bounteous patron throughout the cow-rich (clans) [/along the Gomatī River],
set back among the mountains.”

However, I think that I am rather partial to the H H Wilson rendition:

“17 Bear to Dārbhya, oh Night, turning away (from me to him), this my eulogy (of the Maruts); convey my praises, Goddess, as a charioteer (conveys the contents of his vehicle to their destination).

18 And say on my behalf to Rathavīti, when the libation is poured out, ‘my love (for your daughter) does not depart.’

19 This opulent Rathavīti dwells upon the (banks of the) Gomatī (river), and has his home on (the skirts of) the (Himālaya) mountains.”

A beautiful sentiment.

Now, we had, of course, not intended to go much further than but briefly looking at the line (and some subsequent elements) with which we opened this piece – and that is on quite a different thematic area of focus in some ways, it must be said, than what has thusly ensued.

Yet upon delving into the actual context and intent behind the verses – the entire Hymnal – even at the risk of going ‘apa veti’ myself, I felt compelled to bring this, too, to light for a broader audience.

It may be a message originally Heard several millennia ago, and amidst a terrestrial realm rather far afield from this one … yet somehow – it resounds ever on.

It’s ‘Shruti’, after all !

Yet there is also another ‘subtler’ coterminity of essence between the thematic we had initiated this (A)Arti-cle with, and that which has formed its ‘other half’ in earnest.

Śyāvāśva was seeking out his wife – the rite woman. I mean that in several senses, most overtly that this would be an ideal woman, who would, in fact, be properly pious and appropriately metaphysically engaged … hence his commentary in line six of the Hymn around the far grander worth of such a woman as compared to an impious man who spurned the Gods (indeed, we note the use of ‘Pani’ (encountered in line 8 in description for such a figure) elsewhere for those demons that steal off and hide away great treasures from the realm of the Divine – only relinquishing these, per RV X 8 (I do rather like that it’s 10 8) upon their being tracked down, terrified and threatened, by the Divine Wolf (Goddess), Sarama : Who comes heralding the imminently, immanently impending attentions of Indra, Brihaspati, and Flame-invoking War-Priests accompanying should the demons not surrender their falsely taken treasure of the Divine Cow(s) and flee off into the distance at the Crack of Thunder).

Perhaps Śyāvāśva had a rival. Or perhaps he was determined to extol as an archetypal epitome for great (Vedic) womanhood some quality to his beloved of this divinely engaged nature.

Yet we might also turn the proposition around.

Śyāvāśva seeking a woman who, like he, had such a divinely countenancing character and accompanying zealous disposition, that is.

After all – many men (at least, in earlier ages) might write poetry in order to woo a woman.

I am unsure just how many men might meaningfully undertake to cultivate (much less actually actively carry out) an entirely new and metaphysically potent liturgy (with embedded social commentary that also exalts (I hesitate to merely say ‘compliments’) the woman in question through extolling one of her virtues) in order to invoke the Heavenly Army of the Storm Gods and Goddess of Night Herself, so that he might (indeed – did ) mobilize such terrific divinity to enable her victorious delivery (back to) him.

But, then, those (of such ‘Ugra’ potency – per RV X 125 5 … ‘Furor’, we might perhaps say) ‘chosen’ (‘Kama’) by Vak are not just ‘(m)any men’, are they.

And ultimately – why settle for anything (much less anyone) who is less.

After all – the only real ‘value’ such a man can offer is the price of his weregeld when retribution eventually catches up with him.

One cannot outrun the Night. Nor withstand the Shakti (‘Spear’) wielding Fury of the Storm.