[202] According to Yâska, the Ârgîkîyâ is the Vipâs. Vivien de Saint-Martin takes it for the country watered by the Suwan, the Soanos of Megasthenes.
[203] According to Yâska the Sushomâ is the Indus. Vivien de Saint-Martin identifies it with the Suwan. Zimmer (l. c. p. 14) points out that in Arrian, Indica, iv. 12, there is a various reading Soamos for Soanos.
[204] "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. i. p. 157.
[205] Vâginîvatî is by no means an easy word. Hence all translators vary, and none settles the meaning. Muir translates, "yielding nutriment;" Zimmer, "having plenty of quick horses;" Ludwig, "like a strong mare." Vagin, no doubt, means a strong horse, a racer, but vaginî never occurs in the Rig-Veda in the sense of a mare, and the text is not vaginîvat, but vaginîvatî. If vâginî meant mare, we might translate rich in mares, but that would be a mere repetition after svasvâ, possessed of good horses. Vaginîvatî is chiefly applied to Ushas, Sarasvatî, and here to the river Sindhu. It is joined with vagebhih, Rig-Veda I. 3, 10, which, if vâginî meant mare, would mean "rich in mares through horses." We also read, Rig-Veda I. 48, 16, sám (nah mimikshvá) vãgaih vâginîvati, which we can hardly translate by "give us horses, thou who art possessed of mares;" nor, Rig-Veda I. 92, 15, yúkshva hí vâginîvati ásvân, "harness the horses, thou who art rich in mares." In most of the passages where vâginîvatî occurs, the goddess thus addressed is represented as rich, and asked to bestow wealth, and I should therefore prefer to take vâgínî, as a collective abstract noun, like tretínî, in the sense of wealth, originally booty, and to translate vâginîvatî simply by rich, a meaning well adapted to every passage where the word occurs.
[206] Urnâvatî, rich in wool, probably refers to the flocks of sheep for which the North-West of India was famous. See Rig-Veda I. 126, 7.
[207] Sîlamâvatî does not occur again in the Rig-Veda. Muir translates, "rich in plants;" Zimmer, "rich in water;" Ludwig takes it as a proper name. Sâyana states that sîlamâ is a plant which is made into ropes. That the meaning of sîlamâvatî was forgotten at an early time we see by the Atharva-Veda III. 12, 2, substituting sûnritâvatî, for sîlamâvatî, as preserved in the Sânkhâyana Grihya-sûtras, 3, 3. I think sîlamâ means straw, from whatever plant it may be taken, and this would be equally applicable to a sâla, a house, a sthûna, a post, and to the river Indus. It may have been, as Ludwig conjectures, an old local name, and in that case it may possibly account for the name given in later times to the Suleiman range.
[208] Madhuvridh is likewise a word which does not occur again in the Rig-Veda. Sãyana explains it by nirgundi and similar plants, but it is doubtful what plant is meant. Gunda is the name of a grass, madhuvridh therefore may have been a plant such as sugar-cane, that yielded a sweet juice, the Upper Indus being famous for sugar-cane; see Hiouen-thsang, II. p. 105. I take adhivaste with Roth in the sense "she dresses herself," as we might say "the river is dressed in heather." Muir translates, "she traverses a land yielding sweetness;" Zimmer, "she clothes herself in Madhuvridh;" Ludwig, "the Sîlamâvatî throws herself into the increaser of the honey-sweet dew." All this shows how little progress can be made in Vedic scholarship by merely translating either words or verses, without giving at the same time a full justification of the meaning assigned to every single word.
[209] See Petersburg Dictionary, s. v. virapsin.
[210] "Among the Hottentots, the Kunene, Okavango, and Orange rivers, all have the name of Garib, i.e. the Runner."—Dr. Theoph. Hahn, Cape Times, July 11, 1882.
[211] Dehli, not Del-high.—A. W.