Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/327

sense the second time, but the third time simply prāṇinām. The introduction of "death" in the second half-verse suggests the interpretation (R.) that the deceased predecessor of the prince now to be consecrated is besought to give his sanction to the ceremony from the world of the departed (bhūtá). The comm. regards death as brought in in the character of dharmarāja, as he who requites good and evil deeds. TB. (in ii. 7. 15¹) is the only other text that has this verse, reading in a carati práviṣṭaḥ (for páya ā́ dadhāti) and in c mṛtyāú: the variants are of a character to make us distrust the value of the matter as admitting any consistent interpretation. Ppp. reads in c sa te for tásya.

2. Go forward unto [it]; do not long (? ven) away, a stern (ugrá) corrector (cettár), rival-slayer; approach (ā-sthā), O increaser of friends; may the gods bless (adhi-brū) thee.

Found, with vs. 3, in TB. (in ii. 7. 8¹), and also, with the remainder of the hymn, in K. (xxxvii. 9). ⌊It seems to be a reminiscence of the Indra-verse, RV. v. 31. 2, applied, like vs. 3 of this hymn, to the king.⌋ TB. reads in a (for mā́ ’pa venas) vīráyasva, and Ppp. has vīḍayasva; TB. gives, as also the comm., the nom. mitravárdhanas (a later repetition of the verse, in ii. 7. 16¹, presents vṛtrahántamas instead); and it ends with bravan,* which is better, and might have been read in our text, as near half the mss. give it; but SPP. also accepts bruvan, with the comm. The comm. takes the "throne" as object of the first verb, and renders mā́ ’pa venas by apakāmam anicchām mā kārṣīḥ ⌊cf. vi-ven in BR.⌋. (Weber renders ven by "see.") *⌊But the Poona ed., p. 716, has bruvan.⌋

3. Him approaching all waited upon (pari-bhūṣ); clothing himself in fortune, he goes about (car), having own brightness; great is that name of the virile (vṛ́ṣan) Asura; having all forms, he approached immortal things.

This is a RV. verse (iii. 38. 4: repeated without variant as VS. xxxiii. 22), transferred from Indra to the king; RV. reads, as does Ppp., çṛíyas in b. TB. (as above) has svárocās at end of b, and asyá for vṛ́ṣṇas in c. At the beginning of c, the comm. has mahas (but explains it as = mahat) tad viṣṇo, and a couple of SPP's mss. support him. He renders pári abhūṣan either alaṁkurvantu or sevantām: that the form is imperative is the point he is sure of; and as alternative value of asurasya he gives çatrūṇām nirasituḥ! ⌊Is not ásurasya nā́ma a simple periphrasis of asuryàm, 'the divinity' that "doth hedge a king," in which gods are said to clothe themselves at RV. iii. 38. 7? Nā́ma might then be construed with vásānas, or else as above.⌋

4. A tiger, upon the tiger's [skin], do thou stride out unto the great quarters; let all the people (víças) want thee, the waters of heaven, rich in milk.

That is, let the rains not desert thee (so the comm. also). This verse and the two following are found, in the same order, in TB. ii. 7. 15^3-4; it puts ádhi after vāiyyāghré (sic) in a, reads çrayasva in b, and has for d mā́ tvád rāṣṭrám ádhi bhraçat (found below as vi. 87. 1 d, and in other texts: see under that verse). Ppp. gives yanti ⌊or yānti?⌋ instead of vāñchantu in c.

5. The waters of heaven that revel with milk, in the atmosphere or also on the earth—with the splendor of all those waters do I pour upon (abhi-sic) thee.