Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/368

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iv. 28-
BOOK IV. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
198

3. I call on the (two) thousand-eyed Vṛtra-slayers; I go praising the (two) formidable ones, having pastures afar: who lord it etc. etc.

One of the oddest pada-text blunders of the whole work is made in b; stuvánnemi is resolved into stuván: nemi instead of stuván: emi; and then one or two of the mss. (including our Op.) corrupt further to stuvát, and the comm. to nemī (manufacturing for it two different, but equally absurd, explanations after his manner ⌊cf. Festgruss an Roth, p. 91⌋). Ppp. has in a, b huve vā dūrehetī sunemi ugrāu. ⌊Add avasāna-mark after ugrāu.⌋


4. Ye who have taken hold (ā-rabh) of much together in the beginning, if ye have let loose (pra-sṛj) the portent (abhibhā́) among the people (jána): who lord it etc. etc.

The sense of the verse is very obscure. All the mss. without exception have in b the absurd reading ásrāṣṭram, which our edition emends to -ṭam, but which SPP. retains, though the comm. gives -ṭam. Ppp. has the better reading ugrāu for agre in a. The comm. treats bahú sākám, in spite of accents, as one word, = janasaṁgham.


5. From whose deadly weapon no one soever escapes (apa-pad), among gods and among men (mā́nuṣa); who lord it etc. etc.

Ppp. reads in a, b kiṁ canā ’ntar deveṣu uta.


6. Whoso is witchcraft-maker, root-cutter (?), sorcerer, down on him put [your] thunderbolt, O formidable ones; who lord it etc. etc.

Ppp. is defaced in this verse, and omits mūlakṛt. The comm. takes -kṛ́t in a both times as from kṛt 'cut,' and mūla- as "offspring, the root of increase of a family"; the Pet. Lex. conjectures "preparing roots for purposes of witchcraft" ⌊see Bloomfield's note, p. 407⌋; one might also guess mūrakṛ́t ⌊see Weber's comment, p. 114⌋. Most of our mss. (all save H.p.m.K.D.), and the majority of SPP's, have the false reading dhattām in b; both editions give -tam.


7. Bless us in fights, O formidable ones; visit (sam-sṛj) with [your] thunderbolt whoever is a kimīdín: I praise Bhava-and-Çarva; [as] a suppliant I call loudly on [them]; do ye free us from distress.

Ppp. reads me for nas in a, and leaves -su ugrāu uncombined. ⌊Its closing half-verse is as in the Vulgate (as may be inferred from the note to vs. 2).⌋


29. Praise and prayer to Mitra and Varuṇa.

[Mṛgāra.—(see h. 23). 7. çakvarīgarbhā jagatī.]

Found in Pāipp. iv. (with vs. 5 put before vs. 4). The first and last verses also in the Yajus texts (see under h. 23), between those of our hymns 24 and 25. For the use by Kāuç. as mṛgāra hymn, see under h. 23.

Translated: Roth, Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda, 1846, p. 43; Ludwig, p. 137, with an elaborate discussion of the proper names; Griffith, i. 170; Weber, xviii. 114.


1. I reverence you, O Mitra-and-Varuṇa, increasers of right; who, accordant, thrust [away] the malicious (drúhvan); [who] favor the truthful one in conflicts (bhára): do ye free us from distress.