Nadanimán might possibly mean something like 'a buzzing,' coming from a nadana, root nad. The last pāda is identical with ii. 31. 1 d. Ppp- has instead: hato yavākho hataç ca pavir hato ṣaṁ gaṇavāṅ uta: hatā viçvā ’rātaya anena vacasā mama (cf. 2 c, d).
9. The three-headed, the three-humped (-kakúd), the variegated, the whitish worm—I crush the ribs of it; I hew at what is its head.
The last three pādas are identical with ii. 32. 2 b-d, above. Some of the mss. (P.M.W.H.p.m.) read in a trāikak-. Ppp. has for a, b yo dviçīrṣaç caturakṣaṣ krimiç carn̄go arjunaḥ (cf. the Ppp. version of ii. 32. 2), and in d apa for api. The deficiency of a syllable (unless we read asia) in c is noticed by the Anukr. neither there nor here. The three following verses are the same with ii. 32. 3-5.
10. Like Atri I slay you, O worms, like Kaṇva, like Jamadagni; with the incantation of Agastya I mash together the worms.
11. Slain is the king of the worms, also the chief of them is slain; slain is the worm, having its mother slain, its brother slain, its sister slain.
12. Slain are its neighbors, slain its further neighbors, also those that are petty, as it were—all those worms are slain.
13. Both of all worms and of all she-worms I split the head with a stone, I burn the mouth with fire.
Ppp. reads açminā in c.
24. To various gods as overlords.
[Atharvan.—saptadaçakam. brahmakarmātmadevatyam. atiçākvaram: 1-17. 4-p. atiçakvarī; 11. çakvarī; 15-17. 3-p. (15, 16. bhurig atijagatī; 17. virāṭ çakvarī).]
⌊Not metrical.⌋ In Pāipp. xv. is found a corresponding piece, but one differing considerably in detail; it contains counterparts to our vss. 1, 2, 4, 7-12, 14, 15, 17, but not at all in the same order, and interspersed with nine other verses of similar tenor (1. mitraḥ pṛthivyāḥ; 6. vasus saṁvatsarasya; 7. saṁvatsara ṛtūnām; 11. viṣṇuḥ parvatānām; 12. tvaṣṭā rūpāṇām; 15. samudro nadīnām; 16. parjanya oṣadhīnām; 17. bṛhaspatir devānām; 18. prajāpatiḥ prajānām). Similar passages occur also in other texts: thus, in TS. iii. 4. 5 (and the part corresponding to our 15-17 is repeated again, with slight variations, at iv. 3. 32; and the same part, with variations, is found five times as a refrain in MS. ii. 7. 20), in PGS. i. 5. 10 (which closely follows TS. iii. 4. 5), and in ÇÇS. iv. 10. 1, 3 (with nothing corresponding to vss. 15-17). The hymn is used by Kāuç. in a royal coronation (17. 30), in the nuptial ceremonies (78. 11), and in the ājyatantra (137. 42). And many of the verses appear also in Vāit., with oblations to the various divinities mentioned, in different ceremonies: thus, in the āgrayaṇa, vs. 7 (8. 7); in the cāturmāsyāni, vss. 1-3, 6, 7 (8. 13), 4 (8. 22), 9 (9. 27); in the agniṣṭoma, vss. 8 (19. 2), 5 (19. 3), 11 (19. 11).
Translated: Griffith, i. 228; Weber, xviii. 260.—Cf. Weber's Rājasūya, Berliner Abh., 1893, p. 142.
1. Savitar ('the impeller') is overlord of impulses; let him favor (av) me, in this worship (bráhman), in this rite (kárman), in this representation
