Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/478

svā́hāṁ. 33. Our 29 then follows, in the form tulibrahmáṇe svā́hā, and our 30 as given in all the mss.: bráhmajyeṣṭé ’ty ékā. ⌊The foregoing are the readings of the Collation Book: apart from the accents, they require correction, I suppose, to ān̄girasa- and saṁhitā-.⌋

29. To the bráhman, hail!

See above, 22. 20, with which this is identical. This time, two of our mss. ⌊and three of SPP's⌋ have bráhmaṇe; the others, and SPP's text, read brahmáṇe. ⌊As to the meaning, see introduction, p. 932, ¶2.⌋

30. Heroisms were gathered with the bráhman as chief; the bráhman as chief in the beginning stretched the sky; the Brahmán was born as first of creatures; therefore who is fit to contend with the Brahmán?

This is a repetition of 22. 21 above; the commentator's text apparently gives it in full, as SPP. notes that (doubtless only by an accident) it reads this time in c prathamo ‘tha.

24. For prosperity: with a certain garment.

[Atharvan.—aṣṭāu. mantroktabahudevatyam uta brāhmaṇaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 4-6, 8. triṣṭubh; 7. 3-p. ārṣī gāyatrī.]

The hymn, except vs. 2, is found also in Pāipp. xv. The comm. points out that it is prescribed by Nakṣatra Kalpa 17-18 to be used in a mahāçānti ceremony called tvāṣṭrī, on occasion of the loss (kṣaya) of a garment.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 458; Griffith, ii. 281.

1. With what [garment] the gods caused to wrap god Savitar, with that, O Brahmaṇaspati, do ye wrap this man in order to royalty.

The translation implies emendation in b of ádhārayan to ádhāpayan; this, obviously suggested by the whole sense of the hymn (and proposed in the Pet. Lex.), is supported by the Ppp. text, which reads devā ’diyāpayan. The comm. reads -dhār-, but explains it as if it were -dhāp-: paritaḥ sarvata ācchādayan. Many of the mss. have adhārayan, unaccented. The comm. quotes TS. vi. 1. 1⁴, to the effect that "this same garment belongs to all the gods," to explain why the verb in the second half-verse is plural.

2. Wrap ye this man [as] Indra in order to life-time, to great dominion, that [it] may conduct him unto old age; may he long watch over dominion.

All the mss., both here and in the next verse, read at end of c nayā́m, which SPP. therefore accepts, although both form and accent are indefensible; the comm. has both times naya; the translation implies our emendation to náyāt, the propriety of which can hardly be questioned, especially as it is supported by a corresponding verse three times repeated, with variations, in HGS. i. 4. 8: parī ’mam indra brahmaṇe mahe çrotrāya (or rāṣṭrāya, or poṣāya) dadhmasi: athāi ’naṁ jarimā ṇayej jyok çrotre (or rāṣṭre, or poṣe) adhi jāgarat: of these three forms, the first is intended for a Brahman, the second for a Kṣatriya, the third for a Vāiçya: compare our next verse. The comm., ⌊in 2 a and 3 a, appears to have had before him indramāyuṣe and somamāyuṣe, whatever his accentuation and pada-text may have been: this he understands as indra mā