204: "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. i. p. 157.]

[Footnote 205: Va_g_inivati 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." Va_g_in, no doubt, means a strong horse, a
racer, but va_g_ini never occurs in the Rig-Veda in the sense of a
mare, and the text is not va_g_inivat, but va_g_inivati. If va_g_ini
meant mare, we might translate rich in mares, but that would be a mere
repetition after sva_s_va, possessed of good horses. Va_g_inivati is
chiefly applied to Ushas, Sarasvati, and here to the river Sindhu. It
is joined with va_g_ebhi_h_, Rig-Veda I. 3, 10, which, if va_g_ini
meant mare, would mean "rich in mares through horses." We also read,
Rig-Veda I. 48, 16, sam (na_h_ mimikshva) va_g_ai_h_ va_g_inivati,
which we can hardly translate by "give us horses, thou who art
possessed of mares;" nor, Rig-Veda I. 92, 15, yukshva hi va_g_inivati
a_s_van, "harness the horses, thou who art rich in mares." In most of
the passages where va_g_inivati occurs, the goddess thus addressed is
represented as rich, and asked to bestow wealth, and I should
therefore prefer to take va_g_ini, as a collective abstract noun, like
tretini, in the sense of wealth, originally booty, and to translate
va_g_inivati simply by rich, a meaning well adapted to every passage
where the word occurs.]

[Footnote 206: Ur_n_avati, 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.]

[Footnote 207: Silamavati does not occur again in the Rig-Veda. Muir
translates, "rich in plants;" Zimmer, "rich in water;" Ludwig takes it
as a proper name. Saya_n_a states that silama is a plant which is made
into ropes. That the meaning of silamavati was forgotten at an early
time we see by the Atharva-Veda III. 12, 2, substituting
sun_ri_tavati, for silamavati, as preserved in the _S_ankhayana
G_ri_hya-sutras, 3, 3. I think silama means straw, from whatever plant
it may be taken, and this would be equally applicable to a _s_ala, a
house, a sthu_n_a, 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.]

[Footnote 208: Madhuv_ri_dh is likewise a word which does not occur
again in the Rig-Veda. Saya_n_a explains it by