Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/495

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325
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VI.
-vi. 60

59. For protection to cattle.

[Atharvan ⌊?⌋.—rāudram uta mantroktadevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Reckoned by Kāuç. (9. 2) to the bṛhachānti gaṇa, and used (41. 14), with vi. 19, 23, 24, etc., for good fortune; and also (50. 13), with vi. 1, 3, etc., in a similar rite.

Translated: Grill, 65, 163; Griffith, i. 277; Bloomfield, 144, 490.


1. To the draft-oxen ⌊do thou⌋ first, to the milch kine ⌊do thou⌋, O arundhatī́, to the non-milch cow, in order to vigor (váyas), to four-footed creatures do thou yield protection.

For the arundhatī́ cf. iv. 12 and v. 5; the comm. identifies it with the sahadevī. Instead of tvam in a, Ppp. reads nas, which is better. The sense of c is very doubtful; Grill conjectures avayase, to fill out the meter as well as ease the translation; the comm. explains vayase as a cow or horse or the like under five years old; perhaps the corruption of the reading is a deeper one. Ádhenu may signify young kine, not yet yielding milk. Both this verse and vs. 3 are defective by a syllable.


2. Let the herb, the arundhatī́, allied with the gods (?), yield protection; may it make the cow-stall rich in milk, and the men (púruṣa) free from disease (yákṣma).

The translation implies the emendation of sahá devī́s in b to sahádevī; this the comm. gives (it is conjectured also by Grill); it may be here simply the name of the plant, but yet probably with pregnant implication of its etymological sense. Ppp., in d, reads -mām and pāuruṣām.


3. I appeal to the all-formed, well-portioned, vivifying one; let it conduct the hurled missile of Rudra far away from our kine.

The comm. understands, in b, achā vadāmi, and explains jīvalām as jīvanaṁ lāti dadāti.


60. For winning a spouse.

[Atharvan (?).—āryamaṇam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (34. 22), in a women's rite, for obtaining a husband, with an oblation to Arymaman (it is added, purā kākasampātāt, which the comm. explains by kākasaṁcārāt pūrvam).

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 236; Zimmer, p. 306; Grill, 56, 164; Griffith, i. 278; Bloomfield, 95, 491.


1. Here cometh Aryaman, with locks ⌊-stupá⌋ loosened in front, seeking a husband for this spinster, and a wife for a wifeless one.

Ppp. reads in b viṣatastugaḥ (i.e. viṣitastukaḥ). Our edition has -srupaḥ, the manuscript distinction of sru and stu being always doubtful, and the majority of the authorities here giving as plainly sru as it is possible to give it. The comm. explains viṣita- as viçeṣeṇa sito baddhaḥ, and as used of the "rays" (stupa-) of the sun (aryaman) in the east (purastāt). Aryaman is perhaps properly rendered here by 'suitor, match-maker' ('Brautwerber,' Weber, Grill); but doubtless at any rate the address implies an identification of such a functionary with the god Aryaman. The pada-