O Agni, [may] I [be joined], with the meters, with offerings, with the deed of the well-doing.
The verse is found also in HGS. i. 16.6, with sundry variants: mā for mām in a; apatac chivāya at end of b; in c, d, manasā ’ham ā ’gām brahmaṇā guptaḥ sukṛtā kṛtena; these are in some respects improvements, especially in relieving the embarassing lack of a verb in our second half-verse. The comm. paraphrases antarikṣāt by ākāçān nirmeghāt, and supplies saṁgaccheya (as in the translation). It is a little strange that the fall of water out of the air upon one is so uncanny and must be atoned for (ākāçodakaplāvanadoṣaçānti).
2. If from a tree it hath fallen upon [me], that is fruit; if from the atmosphere, that is merely Vāyu; on whatever part of my body, and what part of my garment, it hath touched, let the waters thrust perdition away.
This verse also is found with the preceding in HGS.; which in a reads vṛkṣāgrād abhyapatat and omits tat; and in b reads yad vā for yadi and tat for sa; for c, it has yatrā vṛkṣas tanuvāi yatra vāsaḥ, and in d bādhantām instead of nudantu. The comm. paraphrases the end of b thus: vāyvātmaka eva nā ’smākam doṣāya. The third pāda is really jagatī.
3. A fragrant ointment, a success is that; gold, splendor, just purifying is that. All purifiers [are] stretched out from us; let not perdition pass that, nor the niggard.
That is, the uncanny drop is all these fine things. The comm. renders pútrimam in b by çuddhikaram; and adhi in c by "above." The second pāda is redundant by a syllable.
With this ends the twelfth anuvāka, of 11 hymns and 38 verses; the old Anukr. says aṣṭariṅço dvādaçaḥ.
125. To the war-chariot: for its success.
[Atharvan.—vānaspatyam. trāiṣṭubham: 2. jagatī.]
Found also in Pāipp. xv. (in the verse-order 2, 3, 1). This hymn and the next are six successive verses of RV. (vi. 47. 26-31), and also of VS. (xxix. 52-57), TS. (iv. 6. 65-7), and MS. (iii. 16. 3). In Kāuç. (15. 11) it ⌊and not xii. 3. 33⌋ is used in a battle-rite, with vii. 3, 110, and other passages, as the king mounts a new chariot (at Kāuç. 10. 24 and 13. 6 it is ix. 1. 1 that is intended ⌊so SPP's ed. of the comm. to iii. 16⌋, not vs. 2 of this hymn). In Vāit. (6. 8), vss. 3 and 1 are quoted in the agnyādheya, accompanying the sacrificial gift of a chariot; and the hymn (or vs. i), in the sattra (34. 15), as the king mounts a chariot.
Translated: by the RV. translators; and, as AV. hymn, by Ludwig again, p. 459; Griffith, i. 314.—See also Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 155.
1 . O forest-tree! stout-limbed verily mayest thou become, our companion, furtherer, rich in heroes; thou art fastened together with kine; be thou stout; let him who mounts thee conquer things conquerable.
There is no difference of reading among all the versions of this verse. GB. (i. 2. 21) quotes its pratīka ⌊and so does MGS. at i. 13. 5; cf. p. 155⌋; MB. (i. 7. 16) has the whole verse. "Kine," as often elsewhere, means the products of cattle, here the strips of cow-hide; and "-tree" the thing made of its wood ⌊cf. i. 2. 3, note⌋.
