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