aga_h_ in the more general sense of acquisitions, goods, even goods
bestowed as gifts. We have a similar transition of meaning in the Greek
[Greek: athlos], contest, contest for a prize, and [Greek: athlon], the
prize of contest, reward, gift, while in the plural [Greek: ta athla]
stands again for contest, or even the place of combat. The Vedic
va_g_ambhara may in fact be rendered by [Greek: athlophoros], va_g_asati
by [Greek: athlosyne].

The transition from fight to prize is seen in passages such as:

Rig-Veda VI. 45, 12, va_g_an indra _s_ravayyan tvaya _g_eshna hitam
dhanam, "May we with thy help, O Indra, win the glorious fights, the
offered prize" (cf. [Greek: athlothetes]).

Rig-Veda VIII. 19, 18, te it va_g_ebhi_h_ _g_igyu_h_ mahat dhanam,
"They won great-wealth by battles."

What we want for a proper understanding of our verse, are passages
where we have, as here, a movement toward va_g_as in the plural. Such
passages are few; for instance: X. 53, 8, atra _g_ahama ye asan
a_s_evah _s_ivan vayam ut tarema abhi va_g_an, "Let us leave here
those who were unlucky (the dead), and let us get up to lucky toils."
No more is probably meant here when the Sindhu is said to run toward
her va_g_as, that is, her struggles, her fights, her race across the
mountains with the other rivers.]

[Footnote 198: On _s_ushma, strength, see Rig-Veda, translation, vol.
i. p. 105. We find _s_ubhram _s_ushmam II. 11, 4; and iyarti with
_s_ushmam IV. 17, 12.]

[Footnote 199: See Muir, Santkrit Texts, v. p. 344.]

[Footnote 200: "O Marudv_ri_dha with Asikni, Vitasta; O Ar_g_ikiya,
listen with the Sushoma," _Ludwig_. "Asikni and Vitasta and
Marudv_ri_dha, with the Sushoma, hear us, O Ar_g_ikiya," _Grassman._]

[Footnote 201: Marudv_ri_dha, a general name for river. According to
Roth the combined course of the Akesines and Hydaspes, _before_ the
junction with the Hydraotes; according to Ludwig, the river _after_
the junction with Hydraotes. Zimmer (Altindisches Leben, p. 12) adopts
Roth's, Kiepert in his maps follows Ludwig's opinion.]

[Footnote 202: According to Yaska, the Ar_g_ikiya is the Vipa_s_.
Vivien de Saint-Martin takes it for the country watered by the Suwan,
the Soanos of Megasthenes.]

[Footnote 203: According to Yaska the Sushoma 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.]

[Footnote