Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/380

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iv. 36-
BOOK IV. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
210
injure us," and amāvāsye "at midnight of a day of new moon"; he has no suspicion of any connection with the doings at an eclipse, as half suggested by Grill. The line is quite unintelligible, and very probably of corrupt text. Most of the pada-mss. have the false accent prati॰kroçè. The comm. reads in c dipsanti for -tas.


4. I overpower the piçācás with power; I take to myself their property; I slay all the abusers; let my design be successful.

All the mss. read in a-b sáhasāiṣām, p. sáhasā: eṣām, instead of the obviously correct sáhasāíṣām, p. sáhasā: ā́: eṣām ⌊cf. note to iii. 14. 3⌋: it is one of the most striking blunders of the traditional text. The comm. understands the true reading, and it is restored by emendation in our edition; SPP. abides by the mss. In d, the comm. has çaṁ nas for sam me. The Anukr., by noting no irregularity of meter, seems to imply ā́ eṣām in b, but his descriptions are so little exact that the evidence is really of no value.


5. The gods that hasten (hās) with him—they measure speed with the sun—with those cattle (paçú) that are in the streams, in the mountains, I am in concord.

Doubtless corrupt in text, and incapable of yielding sense. Grill regards the verse as interpolated. ⌊As for hās, see Bergaigne, Rel. Véd. i. 200 n.⌋ The comm. guesses two wholly discordant and equally worthless explanations; in the first he takes devā́s as (from div 'play') "piçācas and the like," and hāsante as for hāsayanti 'cause to laugh' in the second, he understands devās as vocative, and hāsante as for jihāsante ⌊printed jihsyante⌋ 'seek to leave.' One is tempted to find stenā́s instead of téna in a. The deficiency (unnoticed by the Anukr.) of a syllable in d is an indication of a corrupt text.


6. I am a vexer (tápana) of the piçācás, as a tiger of them that have kine; like dogs on seeing a lion, they do not find a hiding-place (nyáñcana).

The comm. reads anu instead of na in d. The meter requires ‘smi in a.


7. I cannot [bear] with piçācás, nor with thieves, nor with savages (? vanargú); the piçācás disappear from that village which I enter.

Our P.M.W. read -viveçá for -viçé the end. The comm. has naçyantu in c. He paraphrases saṁ çaknomi by saṁçakto ‘nupraviṣṭo bhavāmi, or by saṁgato bhavāmi; and vanargu by vanagāmin.


8. Whatever village this formidable power of mine enters, from that the piçācás disappear; [there] they devise not evil.

The first pāda lacks a syllable, unless we resolve grā́- into two syllables ⌊or read yáṁ-yaṁ⌋.


9. They who anger me, making a noise, as flies an elephant—them I think ill off, like mites (?) on a man (jána).

The comm. (followed by a couple of SPP's authorities) has lipitās (= upadigdhāḥ saṁkrāntāḥ) at end of a; the pada-mss. read lapitā́, which SPP. in his pada-text emends to -tā́ḥ; but, as the participle in ta from such a root can hardly have an active sense, lapitvā́ would doubtless be a better alteration; the redundancy of a syllable, to be sure, would suggest deeper changes. Álpaçayūn in d, literally 'petty liers,' is conjecturally rendered, in accordance with the comm. (parimāṇato ‘lpakāyāḥ çayanasvabhāvāḥ saṁcārākṣamāḥ kīṭāḥ). SPP. reads dúrhitān j- (instead of -tāṅ or -tāñ ⌊see