The verse is found in no other text, and is perhaps not a proper part of the hymn; it is repeated below as xix. 58. 5. A few of the saṁhitā-mss. (including our O.) ignore the ā́ at beginning of d. The comm. is not certain whether the three nominatives in a designate Agni or sacrificial butter; but he has no scruple about making them objects to juhomi.
36. To get a husband for a woman.
[Pativedana.—aṣṭarcam. āgnīṣomīyam. trāiṣṭubham: 1. bhurij; 2, 5-7. anuṣṭubh; 8. nicṛtpurauṣṇih.]
Found (except vss. 6,8) in Pāipp. ii. (in the verse-order 1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 7). Used by Kāuç. (34. 13 ff.) among the women's rites, in a ceremony for obtaining a husband; vss. 5 and 7 are specially referred to or quoted, with rites adapted to the text. It is further regarded by the schol. and the comm. as signified by pativedana (75. 7), at the beginning of the chapters on nuptial rites, accompanying the sending out of a wooer or paranymph.
Translated: Weber, v. 219; xiii. 214; Ludwig, p. 476; Grill, 55, 102; Grifiith, i. 78; Bloomfield, 94, 322.—Cf. Zimmer, p. 306.
1. Unto our favor, O Agni, may a wooer come, to this girl, along with our fortune (bhága). Enjoyable (juṣṭá) [is she] to suitors (vará), agreeable at festivals (sámana); be there quickly good-fortune for her with a husband.
The text is not improbably corrupt. Ppp. reads in a, b sumatiṁ skandaloke idam āṁ kumāryāmāno bhagena; but it combines c and d much better into one sentence by reading for d oṣaṁ patyā bhavati (-tu?) subhage ’yam. The comm. explains sambhalas as sambhāṣakaḥ samādātā vā; or else, he says, it means hiṅsakaḥ pūrvam abhilāṣavighātī kanyām anicchan puruṣaḥ. He quotes ĀpGS. i. 4 to show that vará also means paranymph. Juṣṭā́ he quotes Pāṇini to prove accented júṣṭā. In d he reads ūṣam, and declares it to signify sukhakaram. ⌊Bergaigne, Rel. véd. i. 159, takes sámana as = 'marriage.'⌋
2. Fortune enjoyed by Soma, enjoyed by Brahman, brought together by Aryaman; with the truth of divine Dhātar, the husband-finder I perform (kṛ).
Ppp. has a mutilated first half-verse: somajuṣṭo aryamṇā saṁbhṛto bhaga; and at the end patirvedanam. The comm. understands in a brahma- to mean the Gandharva, who and Soma are the first husbands of a bride (xiv. 2. 3, 4). He does not see in bhaga anything but kanyārūpam bhāgadheyam; but the meaning "favors" is not impossible.
⌊Both bhagam ("fortune" or "favors") and pativedanam (the ceremony called "husband-finder") are objects of kṛṇomi; which, accordingly, needs to be rendered by 'make' or 'procure' for the one combination and by 'perform' for the other. It is hardly a case of zeugma.—Bloomfield notes that saṁbhṛta contains a conscious allusion to sambhala, vs. 1.⌋
3. May this woman, O Agni, find a husband; for king Soma maketh her of good-fortune; giving birth to sons, she shall become chief consort (máhiṣī); having gone to a husband, let her, having good-fortune, bear rule (vi-rāj).
