Verse 1.10.1

मटचीहतेषु कुरुष्वाटिक्या सह जाययोषस्तिर्ह चाक्रायण इभ्यग्रामे प्रद्राणक उवास ॥ १.१०.१ ॥

maṭacīhateṣu kuruṣvāṭikyā saha jāyayoṣastirha cākrāyaṇa ibhyagrāme pradrāṇaka uvāsa || 1.10.1 ||

1. Once the land of the Kurus was hit by a bad thunderstorm, and a young man living there named Uṣasti, the son of Cakra, was in great distress. He left home accompanied by his child-wife and moved to a prosperous village.

Word-for-word explanation:

Maṭacīhateṣu, destroyed [hateṣu] by a thunderstorm [maṭacin]; kuruṣu, in the land of the Kurus; ātikyā jāyayā saha, with his child-wife; uṣastiḥ, Uṣasti [a young man by that name]; cākrāyaṇaḥ, the son of Cakra; pradrāṇakaiḥ in great misery; ibhyagrāme [ibhyaḥ, prosperous (i.e., where people owned elephants) + grāme, in a village], in a prosperous village; uvāsa, lived.

Commentary:

So far, much praise has been given to the udgītha, the purpose being to show the importance of the Sāma Veda. Now, prastāva and pratihāra are being introduced with the same object in view—that is, worship of the Sāma Veda. In order to introduce the subject, however, and to make it easy to understand, a story is given:

At one time the land of the Kurus was hit by a very bad storm, which destroyed all the crops, and the country was in the grip of a famine. The son of Cakra, named Uṣasti, was starving and on the verge of death. He then moved with his child-wife to a prosperous village (that is, it was prosperous because people there owned elephants—ibha).

According to Śaṅkara, the word maṭacī means ‘fire from thunder.’ According to the Śabdakalpadruma, it refers to a species of small red birds, and according to Ānandagiri it means ‘locusts.’ Another meaning is ‘hail.’