27. For protection etc.: with a triple amulet.
Found (except verses 12 and 13) also in Pāipp. x. The comm. quotes from the Nakṣ. K. (17, 19) its use, in a mahāçānti called prājāpatyā, by one desiring progeny and cattle, and in case of the loss of progeny, with the binding on of an amulet made of three metals, gold and silver and copper.
Translated: Griffith, ii. 283.
1. Let the bull (ṛṣabhá) protect thee with the kine; let the virile one
(vṛ́ṣan) protect thee with the vigorous ones (vājín); let Vāyu protect thee with bráhman; let Indra protect thee with Indra's powers (? indriyá).
The comm. reads in a vṛṣabhas.* In b, he naturally understands horses as intended, and connects vājin with the root vij (vājibhir vejanavadbhiḥ çīghragatibhir açvāiḥ). Of bráhman he gives three different and equally worthless explanations. To indriya he says indriyāṇy atre ’ndrasṛṣṭānī ’ndrajuṣṭāni vā, which gives us no help. *⌊But the text of the comm. has pātv ṛṣabhas.⌋
2. Let Soma protect thee with the herbs; let the sun protect with the asterisms; [let] the moon, Vṛitra-slayer, [protect] ⌊thee⌋ from the months; let the wind defend with breath.
All the mss. without exception read in c mādbhyás, instead of the mādbhís which we should have expected, and which the comm. has. It seems like a blundering confusion of the two cases (the reverse of that in 22. 1, above). The comm. makes nakṣatra here refer to the planets, most unnecessarily; he reads in d rakṣati, but glosses it with rakṣatu.
3. They call the heavens (dív) three, the earths three, the atmospheres three, the oceans four, the song of praise (stóma) triple, the waters triple: let these triple ones defend thee with the triple ones.
In Ppp., b and c have apparently dropped out, and d is made to end with trivṛtās trivṛttibhiḥ. The mss. vary between trivṛ́ta (which both editions read), trivṛ́tās, and trivṛ́tāt; the translation implies trivṛ́tas, which the comm. has, and which is pretty evidently the intent of the verse; ⌊cf. vs. 9 d, below⌋. The mss. to a great extent read tṛv- instead of triv-, as in other like cases. In a in our text, emend to tisráḥ. We need to combine trivṛtā ”pa ā- in c to make a good triṣṭubh. ⌊I doubt if it is a triṣṭubh. To reckon trī́ṇi to pāda a is very harsh. I suspect we have to pronounce pṛthvī́s in a, and to read and pronounce trī́ṇy antárikṣā in b. Thus the verse scans as 8 + 11: 11 + 11.⌋
4. The three firmaments (nā́ka), the three oceans, the three bright ones (bradhná), the three at the summit (? vāiṣṭapá), the three Mātariçvans, the three suns, do I arrange (kḷp) as thy guardians.
