Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 80
80. The heavenly dog and the kālakāñjás.
[Atharvan.—cāndramasam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. bhurij; 3. prastārapan̄kti.]
Found also in Pāipp. xix. (with the verse-order 1, 3, 2). The use of the hymn in Kāuç. and Vāit. is obscure and indefinite: the former applies it only (31. 18) in a healing rite for one who is pakṣahata ('wounded in the side'? ⌊Bl. suggests hemiplagia or paralysis.⌋ The comm. reads in the Kāuç. text an̄gam maniroktamṛttikayā for mantroktaṁ can̄kramayā of BI's ed.); the latter has vs. 3 in the agniṣṭoma sacrifice, accompanying (23. 20) the avabhṛha iṣṭi etc.
Translated: Ludwig, p. 373; Bloomfield, JAOS. xv. 163, with detailed discussion and comment; Griffith, i. 288; Bloomfield, again, SBE. xlii. 13, 500.—Bloomfield identifies the two "heavenly dogs" spoken of in various places with the dogs of Saramā and of Yama, and ultimately with the sun and moon.
1. He flies through the atmosphere, looking down upon all existences; what the greatness is of the heavenly dog, with that oblation would we pay worship to thee.
The first half-verse is RV. x. 136. 4 a, b, which differs only by reading rūpā́ instead of bhūtā́ in b; it is part of the hymn that extols the powers of the muni. Ppp. has a very different version of b, c, d: svar bhūtā vyacācalat: sa no divyasyāi ’daṁ mahas tasmā etena haviṣā juhomi.
2. The three kālakāñjás that are set (çritá) in the sky like gods—all them I called on for aid, for this man's unharmedness.
In explaining this verse, the comm. quotes from TB. (i. 1. 24-6) the legend of the Asuras named kālakāñjá, whose efforts to reach heaven Indra thwarted by a trick, except in the case of two of them, who became the heavenly dogs; a corresponding legend is found in MS. i. 6. 9 (p. 101, l. 1 ff.). The different numbers in our hymn, as regards both dog and kālakāñjas, are important, and suggest naturally the dog of our sky (Canis major or Sirius: so Zimmer, p. 353) and the three stars of Orion's belt, pointing directly toward it. The Anukr. does not notice the deficiency of a syllable in a.
3. In the waters [is] thy birth, in heaven thy station, within the ocean thy greatness, on the earth; what the greatness is of the heavenly dog, with that oblation would we pay worship to thee.
Ppp. substitutes ⌊for c, d⌋ again its own refrain, sa no divy- etc., as in vs. 1. The comm. regards the verse as addressed to Agni.