A lament of nineteen verses with the refrain asking Heaven and Earth to mark the speaker's woe. He sees the moon in the waters, feels his ribs press him like rival wives and his cares gnaw like rats at threads, challenges the gods about truth, law and Varuna's eye, claims kinship where the seven rays shine, and offers a newly made hymn. One verse states that Trita, buried in the well, called on the gods and Brihaspati heard and released him. A last verse recalls a red wolf that saw him on his path and slunk off.
North India · Udapana on the Sarasvati, Kurukshetra regionAll traditions
Told of the tirtha Udapana on the Sarasvati, visited by Balarama. Ekata, Dvita and Trita are sons of Gautama; Trita is the most honoured. Returning with cattle given by their patrons, the two plan to keep the herd. At night Trita, fleeing a wolf, falls into a dry pit; they hear him and walk on from fear and greed. Afraid to die without having drunk Soma, he performs a whole sacrifice in his mind, with a creeper for the Soma plant. Brihaspati hears and brings the gods, who take their shares and grant boons: rescue, and merit for all who bathe there. Sarasvati rises in the well and lifts him out. He curses the brothers to be wolves, their offspring leopards, bears and apes.
What is different here:
Human sages with a father; an accidental fall; a mental sacrifice; the river as rescuer; a pilgrimage site; the curse makes them wolves.
The cruel sons of the she-wolf throw Trita, who was following the cows, into a well and take the cows. He presses Soma there and summons the gods; Brihaspati hears. Trita reproaches the gods, asking where the all-seeing power of Varuna and Aryaman is and saying the bricks of the well have wounded his limbs. The All-gods, urged by Brihaspati, come to his sacrifice and take their shares.
What is different here:
Adds cattle, unnamed attackers called sons of the she-wolf, a Soma pressing in the well and the gods taking shares.
Shatyayana Brahmana as summarised by Sayana on RV 1.105
Pan-IndiaAll traditions
Three sages, Ekata, Dvita and Trita, thirsty in a desert, find a well. Trita goes in, drinks and draws water for the others. They throw him in, take his goods, close the well with a chariot wheel and leave. Trita wishes that the gods lift him out and sees the hymn; at night he sees the moon's rays in the well and laments.
What is different here:
Names the brothers; a desert; theft of his possessions rather than cattle; explains the moon of verse 1. Sayana breaks off before the rescue.
The Aptyas, driving what they had won, grow thirsty in the forest and find a well. Ekata and Dvita refuse to go down, so Trita does. When they have drunk, they cover him with a chariot wheel and go off with the cows. He wishes for a way out and sees a saman; Parjanya sends rain that floats him up to the wheel. He follows their tracks; seeing him, they flee into the woods as a bear and an ape, which the text says he made them. The cattle become his; the chant is the Traita saman, for one who needs help.
What is different here:
A chant instead of the hymn; rain is the rescuer; no Brihaspati; the brothers become bear and ape; the story serves a Samaveda chant.
Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer; The Brhad-devata attributed to Saunaka, ed. and tr. A. A. Macdonell (Harvard Oriental Series 6); Contributions from the Jaiminiya Brahmana to the History of the Brahmana Literature (first series), H. Oertel, JAOS 18 (1897): Jaiminiya Brahmana 1.184 text and translation, and Sayana's summary of the Shatyayana Brahmana on RV 1.105