Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/572

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
vii. 20-
BOOK VII. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
402

20 (21). Praise and prayer to Anumati.

[Brahman.—ṣaḍṛcam. ānumatīyam. ānuṣṭubham: 3, 4. triṣṭubh; 4. bhurij; 5, 6. jagatī; 6. atiçākvaragarbā.]

Found also in Pāipp. xx. (in the verse-order 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 4). Used by Kāuç. (59. 19) with hymn 17 etc.: see under 17; and vs. 1 a appears also (45. 16) as first pāda of a gāyatrī verse accompanying an oblation at the end of the vaçāçamana ceremony. Verse 6 is also understood by the schol. as intended by ānumatī, occurring in the rule ānumatīṁ caturthīm in three different rites, house-building (23. 4), acquisition of Vedic knowledge (42. 11), and vaçāçamana (45. 10). In Vāit (1. 15), the hymn is quoted in the parvan ceremonies on the day of full moon.

Translated: Henry, 8, 60; Griffith, i. 337.


1. Let Anumati ('approval') approve ⌊anu-man⌋ today our sacrifice among the gods; and let Agni be oblation-carrier of me worshiping.

Ppp's only variant is yachatām for manyatām at end of b. The verse is found in various other texts: VS. (xxxiv. 9), TS. (iii. 3. 113), MS. (iii. 16. 4), AÇS. (iv. 12. 2), and ÇÇS. (ix. 27. 2). In a, MS.ÇÇS. preserve the a after no; the others put no before adyá (‘dyá); in d, all save TS. change bhávatām to -tam, and all have máyaḥ for máma. MB. (ii. 2. 19) also has mayas, but in a iyam for adya, and in d sa no ‘dād dāç-. The translation given implies emendation in d to dāçúṣas; the comm. regards it as a case of substitution of dative for genitive. The comm. takes bhávatām as 3d sing, middle; but it may perhaps better be viewed (like the -tam of the other texts) as dual active, with anumati and agni together as subject; the corruption of máyas to máma has rather spoiled the whole construction. The comm. explains Anumati as intending here also, as elsewhere, the goddess of the day of full moon; there is nothing in the hymn that demands or implies that character.


2. Mayest thou, indeed, O Anumati, approve, and do thou make weal for us; enjoy thou the offered oblation; grant us progeny, O goddess.

The first half-verse, with a wholly different second half, is found in the same texts that have vs. 1 (VS. xxxiv. 8; the others as quoted above: also K. xiii. 16): all read mányāsāi instead of máṅsase, and TS. combines naḥ kṛdhi. Ppp. has, for c, d, iṣas tokāya no dadhat pra ṇa āyūṅṣi tāriṣat, of which the last pāda agrees* with the other texts (they have, for c, krátve dákṣāya no hinu). The comm. reads maṅsiṣe for -sase, both here and in 6 d. Our last half-verse is also 68. 1 c, d, and nearly 46. 1 c, d. *⌊But VS.TS.ÇÇS. have tāriṣas.⌋


3. Let him, approving, approve wealth rich in progeny, not being exhausted; let us not come to be within his wrath; may we be in his very gracious favor.

The first three pādas correspond to that part of a verse in TS. iii. 3. 114 (to which the comm., by an almost isolated proceeding, refers, with notice of the differences of reading) which preserves the consistency of the hymn by reading the feminines, -mānā at end of a, and tásyāi in c; Ppp. apparently intends the same with -mānāṣ and tasyā, and it further agrees with TS. in giving, for d, sā no devī suhavā çarma yachatu. The change of our text to masculines seems a mere corruption. Our d is nearly RV. viii. 48. 12 d.