Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/619

that K. and Kap. S. read with VS.). The word, in whatever form, probably refers to other worshipers who get the start of us and outdo our Agni by their own; the comm. says: asmattaḥ pūrvaṁ tvadviṣayamanaskāḥ or tvadviṣayayāgakaraṇamanasaḥ. All the pada-mss. read at the end ániḥ-stṛtaḥ, and this is required by Prāt. ii. 86; but SPP. alters to áni-stṛtaḥ—which, to be sure, better suits the sense. The RV. pada-text also has (viii. 33. 9) ániḥ-stṛtaḥ; TS. (and by inference MS., as the editor reports nothing), ániṣṭṛtaḥ, unchanged. The verse in Ppp. stands in the middle of our hymn ii. 6 (between vss. 3 and 4); ⌊and it is important to remember that its position in the Yajus texts, VS.TS.MS., is similar: see note to ii. 6. 3⌋. Ppp. reads dabhan for ni kran in b, and kṣatram ⌊and sūyamam⌋ in c. This jagatī has one triṣṭubh pāda.

4. Agni hath looked after the apex of the dawns, after the days, [he] first, Jātavedas, a sun, after the dawns, after the rays, after heaven-and-earth he entered.

Anu 'after' seems here to have a distributive force: Agni is ever present to meet the first dawn etc. with his brightness; or it is the opposite of prati in vs. 5: anu 'from behind,' as prati 'from in front.' The verse is found as VS. xi. 17, and in TS. iv. i. 2², TB. 1. 2. 1²³, and MS. i. 8. 9. All these have in c ánu sū́ryasya purutrā́ ca raçmī́n (an easier and better reading), and, at the end, VS. MS. give ā́ tatantha, and TS.TB. ā́ tatāna. This verse and the next are repeated as xviii. i. 27, 28.

5. Agni hath looked forth to meet the apex of the dawns, to meet the days, [he] first, Jātavedas, and to meet the rays of the sun in many places; to meet heaven-and-earth he stretched out.

A variation of the preceding verse, perhaps suggested by RV. iv. 13. 1 a, which is identical with its first pāda; its second half agrees much more closely with the version of the other texts than does 4 c, d. The comm. is still more faithful to that version, by giving the (preferable) reading purutrā in c.

6. Ghee for thee, Agni, in the heavenly station; with ghee Manu kindleth thee today; let the goddesses thy kin (natpī́) bring thee ghee; ghee to thee let the kine milk, O Agni.

Ppp. reads duhrate in d. The comm. gives naptryas in c, and declares it to mean the waters; it is more probably the daughters of the sky in general.

83 (88). For release from Varuṇa's fetters.

[Çunaḥçepa.—caturṛcam. vāruṇam. ānuṣṭubham: 2. pathyāpan̄kti; 3, 4. triṣṭubh (4. bṛhatīgarbkā).]

The first two verses are found in Pāipp. xx. The hymn (the whole, says the comm.) is, according to Kāuç. (32. 14), to be repeated in a remedial rite for dropsy, in a hut amid flowing waters; also (127. 4) all the verses in a sacrifice to Varuṇa, after iv. 16. 3, in case of the portent of obscuration of the seven ṛṣis. Vāit. (10. 22) has vs. 1* at the end of the paçubandha, when the victim's heart has been set upon a spit; and vs. 3 in the agnicayana (28. 17), on loosening the cords by which the fire-dish has been carried. The comm. quotes the hymn from Nakṣatra Kalpa (14), with an offering to Varuna in a mahāçānti for portents. *⌊According to Garbe, the whole hymn.⌋

Translated: Henry, 35, 104; Griffith, i. 370; Bloomfield, 12, 562.