32 SOCIAL SCIENTIST k. Seek the man who poureth not offering nor sacrifice, The road of the thief and robber thou followest; Seek8 another than us, that is thy road; Homage be to thee, 0 Nirrti, 0 goddess. 1. Praising Nirrti, the goddess, Like father his son, I weary her with my words; She who knoweth all that is born, Discerneth, the lady, every head. m. Abode and collector of riches (nivesanah sangamano vasunam), Every form she discerneth with might, Like the god Savitr of true laws, Like Indra, she standeth at the meeting of ways.8 The post-Vedic Brahminical literature takes it for granted that Nir^ti stands for everything evil and deathlike. Even the distinguished Marxist scholar Kosambi calls her 'a death goddess5. * Nirrti was evidently a pre-Aryan goddess. Hence, such a non-Brahminical sect as the Jaina, is seen taking a totally opposite view of Nirrti. Kalpa-sutra records that Mahavira passed away on the most auspicious of the new moon nights: "This occurred in the year called Candra, the second (of the lustrum): in the month called Prhivardhana, in the fortnight Nandivandhana; on the day Suvratagni, surnamed Upasama; in the night called Devananda snrnamed Nirrti (Devananda namam rajani Niratitti pavuccai)...955 The commentator Samayasundara Gam explains, "That new moon day or night called Devananda is also spoken of as Nirrti (Devananda nama sa amavasya—rajani Nirrtir apy ucyate).'5 It seems for certain that Nirrti retained her exalted position in the early Vedic period. Nighacitu, the Vedic glossary older than the extant recension of I^-g-veda,6 gives Nirrti as a synonym of earth along with Aditiand Ila (I. 1.14,15,16). Nirukta (11.7.8) juxtaposes both the views, pro-Niryti as well as anti-Nirrti. The etymologists rendered Nirrti as earth, while the ascetics interpreted Nirrti as calamity.7 The word Nirrti is formed by affixing the preposition 'nir9 to 'rta'. According to the theory of the grammarian Gargya, quoted by Nirukta 1.3, prepositions (... have various meanings . . . hence, whatever their meaning may be, they express that meaning (which brings about) modifi-* cation in the sense of the noun and the verb . . . '8 It is according to this theory that Nir+rti means un-truth or evil. But, this theory fails to explain the original, non-Aryan and non-Brahminical,, meaning of Nirrti. Only the theory of another grammarian, S§akatayana, provides a satisfactory explanation. 'Unconnected prepositions . . . have no meaning but only express a subordinate sense of nouns and verbs' . . .9 Hence, according to this theory the preposition 'nir5 does not reverse the meaning of rti, but buttresses it.