Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/229

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59
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK II.
-ii. 15


The omission of this verse, as being not found with the rest in Ppp. ii., would reduce the hymn to the norm of the second book. Ppp. (in v.) rectifies the meter of d by omitting indras. The metrical definition of the Anukr. is mechanically correct. The comm. understands bhūtapati to designate Rudra.


5. If ye are of the endemic (? kṣetriyá) ones, or if sent by men; if ye are born from the barbarians (dásyu)—disappear from here, O sadā́nvās.

All the mss., both here and in the next verse, accent at the end sadā́nvās, though the word is plainly a vocative, and is so understood by the comm. (who says nothing of the accent, and indeed in general pays no heed to it); SPP. retains the manuscript reading. Ppp. has for a yā devā gha kṣetriyād, and for c yad astu daçvibho jātā.


6. I have gone around the abodes (dhāman) of them as a swift [steed about] a race-course; I have won (ji) all your races (ājí); disappear from here, O sadā́nvās.

The translation implies the evidently necessary emendation asaram at end of b; Ppp. has it, and also the comm.; both editions give asaran, with all the mss. But Ppp. agrees with the mss. in giving just before it the false reading gā́ṣṭhām for kā́- (our text emends, but, by an oversight, gives -çúr instead of -çúḥ before it); and SPP. retains gā́-. The comm. has instead glā́ṣṭhām, and explains it as "the further goal, where one stops (sthā) wearied (glāna)."


15. Against fear.

[Brahman.—ṣaḍṛcam. prāṇāpānāyurdevatyam. tripādgāyatram.]

Found also in Pāipp. vi., but in a much fuller form, with thirteen verses, of which our six are, in their order, vss. 1, 4, 3, 7, 12, 13; the others deal with wind and atmosphere, cow and ox, Mitra and Varuṇa, Indra and Indra's might (indriya), hero and heroism, breath and expiration, and death and immortality (amṛtam); after bibher is added in vs. 1 evā me ’pāna mā riṣayā, and, at the end of the hymn, the same, but with riṣa for riṣayā. In Kāuç. (54. 11), the hymn is used, with vi. 41, at the end of the godāna ceremony, on giving food to the boy. It is also counted by the schol. (ib., note) to the āyuṣya gaṇa. The comm. makes no reference to the godāna rite, but declares the use to be simply by one desiring long life (āyuṣkāma).

Translated: Weber, xiii. 179; Griffith, i. 59.


1. As both the heaven and the earth do not fear, are not harmed, so, my breath, fear not.

⌊MGS., at i. 2. 13, has evam me prāṇa mā bibha evam me prāṇa mā riṣaḥ.


2. As both the day and the night do not fear etc. etc.

The comm. here applies for the first time the term paryāya to these sentences, correspondent but with elements in part different.


3. As both the sun and the moon do not fear etc. etc.


4. As both sacrament (bráhman) and dominion (kṣatrá) do not fear etc. etc.

That is, the Brāhman and Kṣatriya castes (brāhmaṇajāti and kṣatriyajāti, comm.), as the words might properly enough be translated.