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The first mantra of AV
(1.3) is:
"We know
parjanya of virility, the father of shara. I will make
you happy (sham). Let the earth have the outpouring for
thee with a splash". The Sanskrit word shara has been
retained without translation.
The first five
verses of this hymn are identical except that Parjanya is
replaced by the names of Mitra, Varuņa, Chandra and Sūrya. Since
in the sixth verse the word mūtra occurs, meaning urine,
shara in the verse is translated as reed. Hence the verse is
assumed to deal with the release of the blocked urine by using a
reed, as declared by Sāyaņa and Whitney. The only question is, why
call so many Gods (devās) for this operation?
But ‘mūtra’
is also a symbol of anything which saves or nourishes by purifying
or cleaning. Shara is a popular name for arrow which is a
symbol of force which kills the enemy. Viewed in this way, the
hymn is a prayer for the release of any beneficial shower of
energy which is obstructed. It could be the rain, hence the appeal
to parjanya. It could be a blocked or narrow point of view,
the so called mental blockage which has to be released by Varuņa,
the master of infinity. May be it is some despair which is
released by the deva of Delight, Chandra. In this way the
need for mentioning the names of various devās becomes
obvious.
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