67. For long life and prosperity.
[Brahman.—aṣṭāu. sāuryam. prājāpatyā gāyatrī.]
Not found in Pāipp. According to the comm., it is used in the same manner as the two preceding hymns. ⌊Cf. khila to RV. i. 50.⌋
Translated: Griffith, ii. 319.
1. May we see a hundred autumns.
2. May we live a hundred autumns.
3. May we wake a hundred autumns.
4. May we ascend (ruh) a hundred autumns.
5. May we prosper a hundred autumns.
6. May we be a hundred autumns.
7. May we adorn a hundred autumns.
8. More autumns than a hundred.
The comm.* reckons the hymn as only one verse; the Anukr. and all the mss. ⌊see SPP's ed., p. 543, note 1⌋ count eight verses, and SPP. also adopts this. The first two verses are the last two pādas of RV. vii. 66. 16; they are found also in GGS. iii. 8. 5; a third verse, with çṛṇuyāma, is added in PGS. i. 6. 3; ⌊MS., at iv. 9. 20, has four pādas, with çṛṇuyā́ma pushed to the fourth place by the insertion of prábravāma (ed. prábruv-) in the third;⌋ and the series is carried further in VS. xxxvi. 24, which, beginning as does PGS., has five pādas, ⌊with prábravāma in the fourth, and ádīnāḥ syāma in the fifth, and⌋ with the added ending bhū́yaç ca çarádaḥ çatā́t, which needs emendation. ⌊MGS., at i. 22. 11, agrees with VS.⌋ In TA. iv. 42. 5 and in HGS. i. 7. 10 ⌊the series is carried to eight pādas⌋: these agree from 1 to 7 ⌊with páçyema, jī́vema, nándāma, módāma, bhávāma, çṛṇávāma, prábravāma⌋, and differ only in the eighth, where TA. has ájītāḥ syāma against ajitāḥ syāma of HGS.; and both have the added ending jyók ca sū́ryaṁ dṛçé. In none of the other versions is there anything to help us with the doubtful forms in the Atharvan. In vs. 3, most of the mss. read búddhema (some búdhema); our emendation búdhyema is given also by the comm., and SPP. adopts it. In vs. 5, on the other hand, the mss., the comm., and SPP., give the wholly anomalous pū́ṣema (= puṣṭim labhemahi, comm.); SPP. ought to have emended to púṣyema, as we had done. Bhū́yema (= bhūyāsma, comm.) in vs. 7 is another impossibility retained by SPP. In vs. 8 all the mss. have bhū́yasī ⌊or -āsī⌋; but the comm. has -sīs, and so SPP. has the courage to adopt and read it, as we had done before. *⌊At p. 5439.⌋