वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

THE COWS' WALK. 219 this place. If the word kratu in shata-kratu be interpreted to mean 'might' or 'power,' the numeral shata, which strictly denotes 'a hundred,' will have to be taken as equivalent to 'many' or numerous,' inasmuch as no definite set of a hundred powers can be pointed out as specially belonging to Indra. That the word shata may be so interpreted is evident from the fact that adjectives like shata-nîtha (I, 100, 12) and shatam-ûtî ( I, 102, 6; 1 30, 8 ), as applied to Indra in the Ṛig-Veda, are found in other places in the form of sahasra-nîtha (III, 60, 7), and sahas- ram-ûti (I, 52, 2). Again Indra's arrow is once called shata-bradhna and also sahasra-parṇa in the same verse (VIII, 77, 7); while Soma is represented as going in a hundred ways (shata-yâman) in IX, 86, 16, and a few hymns after it is said to be sahasra-yâman or going in a thousand ways ( IX, 106, 5 ). Even the adjective shata-manyu, which Sâyaṇa interprets as meaning 'the master of a hundred sacrifices' in X, 103, 7, has its counterpart, if not in the Ṛig-Veda, at least in the Sâma-Veda which reads sahasra-manyu for sahasra-mushka in Ṛig-Veda VI, 46, 3. . This shows that the Vedic bards considered shata (a hundred) and sahasra (a thousand) as interchangeable numerals in some places; and if the numeral shata in shata-kratu had been of the same character, we should naturally have met with a paraphrase- of the epithet as sahasra-kratu somewhere in the Vedic litera- ture. But although the epithet shata-kratu, as applied to Indra, occurs about sixty times in the Ṛig-Veda and several times in other Vedic works, nowhere do we find it para- phrased as sahasra-kratu, which shews that the Vedic bards did not feel themselves at liberty to alter or paraphrase it as they liked. The adjective amita-kratu is applied to Indra in I, 102, 6; but as amita does not necessarily mean more than 'one hundred,' it does not follow that on this account we should give up the ordinary meaning of shata in shata- kratu. If the word kratu had nowhere been used in the Ṛig-Veda