The womb of the rain cloud. A hundred fortresses:cf 'Şambara's hundred ancient castles' (II, 14. 6.) Considered: or reviewed, in hope of finding a deliverer. The speaker is Agni, that is, the lightning which rends the cloud and brings down the sweet rain-the fleet Falcon who brings Soma from heaven. See Prof. Bloomfield, The Myth of Soma and the Eagle, Festgruss an Rudolf von Roth, 1893, pp 149-155. Of. Hymns of the Atharva-veda, VI. 48. 1.
न घा स माम् अप जोषं जभाराभीम् आस त्वक्षसा वीर्येण । ईर्मा पुरन्धिर् अजहाद् अरातीर् उत वातां अतरच् छूशुवानः ॥
na ghā sa mām apa joṣaṃ jabhārābhīm āsa tvakṣasā vīryeṇa | īrmā purandhir ajahād arātīr uta vātāṃ atarac chūśuvānaḥ ||
Not at his own free pleasure: the falcon's mere will was not enough, says Soma; he had first to fight and conquer my keepers. The Bold One; Indra. See stanza 7 of the preceding hymn,
ṛjipya īm indrāvato na bhujyuṃ śyeno jabhāra bṛhato adhi ṣṇoḥ | antaḥ patat patatry asya parṇam adha yāmani prasitasya tad veḥ ||
The allusion in the first line is to the rescue of Bhujyu, by the Asvins (see I. 112. 6), and we should therefore expect indravatoh, 'of Indra's two friends, instead of indravato. Feather: parnám, which became on earth the sacred Parpa or Palasa tree, the beautiful Butea Frondosa.
The metrical form and the ritual application indicate the comparatively recent addition of this stanza to the ancient hymn. The hymn has been discussed by Weber, Vedische Beiträge, pp. 4. ff.