Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 58

58. For various blessings.

[Brahman.—ṣaḍṛcam. mantroktabahudevatyam uta yajñikam. trāiṣṭubham: 2. puro- ‘nuṣṭubh; 3. 4-p. atiçakvarī; 5. bhurij.]

The first four verses occur also in Pāipp. i.; ⌊Roth's Collation, strictly interpreted, means that the whole hymn is found there⌋. The comm. quotes vs. 5 as used in Kāuç. 3. 16; but the verse there intended is evidently ii. 35. 5, of which vs. 5 here is a repetition. At the beginning of his exposition of vs. 1 he says: asmin sūkte manasā nirvartyo yajñaḥ stūyate.

Translated: Griffith, ii. 315.

1. The swiftness of ghee evenly always increasing the year with oblation—be our hearing, sight, breath unsevered; unsevered be we from life-time, from splendor.

The translation implies in a samanā́ sadāí ’vá. ⌊This last may be a slip for sádāivá, p. sádā: evá; the Berlin text and the Index imply sádeva, p. sádā॰iva.⌋ Five authorities give samanā́ (so in p.); five or six, samanā́ḥ; the rest samanāḥ or sámanāḥ, or else samānā́ḥ or samānā́ or finally sámanā; SPP. accepts the last, from only two mss.; the comm. reads samanāḥ, and explains it as samānamanaskā. After it the mss. read sádevāḥ (p. sá॰devāḥ), but the comm. and his text sadevā, and SPP. follows these, accenting sádevā. Ppp. has yūtis sumanās sudevās (s-). The comm. says that, since all words signifying 'motion' also signify 'knowledge,' jūti here means sarvatra prasṛtaṁ jñānam! Ppp. combines in c prāṇa ach-. In d, the pada-mss. read áchinnā instead of -nāḥ. The connection of the two half-verses is perhaps this: it is prayed that the prospering flow of the libations of sacred butter be uninterrupted, carrying as a consequence the continuance of physical blessings.

2. Let breath call unto us; we call unto breath; the earth, the atmosphere hath seized (grah) splendor; splendor [also] Soma, Bṛihaspati, the maintainer.

Some mss. (including most of the pada-mss.) begin b with úpa hvayám. In c, one of SPP's mss. and Ppp. combine pṛthivy ānt-. At the end, the pada-mss. have correctly dhartā́; the saṁhitā-mss. vary between this and dhattā́, dhattā́m, and dhattā́t; and the reciter K. gave vidhartā́. The comm's text (SPP.) has vidhattām, but his explanation reads vidhattā (misreading for -arttā?) viçeṣeṇa dhartā ’gniḥ sūryo vā; and SPP. most strangely adopts the senseless vidhattā́ (it is read also by one ms.). Ppp. gives instead bibhartu, which is not bad. Furthermore, Ppp. begins a with apa, but b with upa. The seizing of splendor by these various divinities is, according to the comm., for the purpose of giving it to us. Pādas b and d lack each a syllable. ⌊A similar antithesis with upahū occurred at i. 1. 4, and others were pointed out there.⌋

3. Heaven-and-earth have become joint-seizers of splendor; seizing splendor may we go about upon the earth; with glory the kine, coming, wait upon (upa-sthā) the lord of kine; seizing glory may we go about upon the earth.

⌊The verse is by no means one of 4 pādas, but rather one of 6 (a-f: so designated below): in fact, it is a regular anuṣṭubh, to each half of which is added in prose an ūha-refrain (varco etc., yaço etc.) of 14 syllables.⌋ The mss. read in b babhūváthus, accenting also dyā́vāpṛthivī́; the translation implies the simpler and more probable emendation to -vatus; ⌊and of course the retention of the ms.-accentuation of dyā́vāpṛthivī́: correct the Berlin ed. accordingly;⌋ SPP. leaves both words unchanged, without heeding their irreconcilable character; that the comm. takes dyā́vāpṛthivī́ as vocative is simply in accord with his usual disregard of the accent. In c and f, the mss. vary between ánu-sam ⌊so most⌋, anu-sám, and ánu sám (the pada-mss. have anu॰sáṁcarema: but one has ánu॰saṁcarema!); SPP. adopts ánu sám ⌊cf. note to Prāt. iv. 3⌋, against our anu-sám; there is little choice between the two. In d, the mss. in general begin with yaçásām ⌊some with yáçasām⌋, two or three having yáçasam or yaçásam; SPP. adopts the last, we yáçasā; here, again, there is little to choose; the comm. explains yaçasā, though his text (SPP.) gives yaçasām. The comm. foolishly takes āyatī́s in e as, jointly with yáças, object of gṛhītvā́ in f, supplying dhenūs for it to qualify. The verse counts (16 + 14: 16 + 14 = 60) as a full atiçakvarī; ⌊but see beginning of this paragraph⌋.

4. Make ye a pen (vrajá), for that is men-protecting for you; sew ye coats-of-mail (várman), abundant, broad; make ye strongholds of metal, unattackable (ádhṛṣṭā); let not your bowl leak (sru); make it strong.

The verse is RV. x. 101. 8, with slight variation: RV. has várma in saṁhitā as well as in pada in b; the mss., too, leave dṛ́ṅhatā in d without accent, and SPP. does not correct their error. ⌊Roth notes that Ppp. reads varmā: cf. Noun-Inflection, p. 540 top, 539 end.⌋ But the pada-text exhibits its skill in blundering: in b it reads várma: asi: vi॰adhvám (and nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. accent sīvyadhám), and in c kṛṇudhvam: mā́: ā́yasīḥ (or ayasīḥ): ádhṛṣṭā (and the saṁhitā-mss. accordingly read -dhvaṁmāy-). The comm. gives three distinct interpretations of the verse: as concerned respectively with the senses, with officiating priests, and with soldiers (indriyaparatvena rtvikparatvena yoddhṛparatvena). ⌊As to -dhvam mā-, cf. note to xviii. 2. 3.⌋

5. Of the sacrifice the eye, beginning, and face; with voice, with hearing, with mind do I make oblation; to this sacrifice, extended by the all-working one, let the gods come ⌊ā-i⌋, with favoring minds.

We had this verse above, as ii. 35. 5 ⌊see note thereon⌋. Our mss. cite it by the whole first pāda: yajñásya cákṣuḥ prábhṛtir múkhaṁ cé ’ty ékā. ⌊The Anukr. does not ignore the ā́ at the beginning of d.⌋

6. They that are priests (ṛtvíj) of the gods, and that are worshipful, for whom the oblation (havyá) is made the portion—coming to this sacrifice together with their spouses, let the gods, as many as they are (yā́vant), revel on the oblation.

In b, the mss. have also kriyate, kṛyate, ⌊kṛyáte,⌋ and kṛṇute. In c, the pada-mss. read sahá॰patnībhiḥ, and nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. agree with them; SPP. also emends to pát-. In d, all the mss. have tavíṣā or táviṣā (p. -ṣā) SPP. reads, with the comm., taviṣā́s (= mahāntaḥ, comm.); the translation implies havíṣā, instead of our emendation sám iṣā́. The verse ⌊12 + 11: 11 + 12⌋ has two more syllables than a regular triṣṭubh; ⌊the cadences of a, b, c accord with the number of syllables: but d, with 12, has a triṣṭubh cadence; this casts still further suspicion on taviṣā, in place of which we should expect only two syllables⌋.