Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book I/Hymn 16

16. Against demons: with an amulet of lead.

[Cātana.—agnīndram, vāruṇam, dadhatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 4. kakummatī.]

Found in Pāipp. i. Kāuç. does not include the hymn among the cātanāni (8. 25), but a Pariç. (ib., note) reckons it to them (in accordance with the Anukr.). Kāuç. (47. 23) uses it once in a rite of sorcery (for the death of one's enemies: comm.), and its commentator (47. 13, note) in another.

Translated: Weber, iv. 409; Grill, 1, 75; Griffith, 1. 20; Bloomfield, 65, 256.

1. What devourers, on the night of new moon, have arisen troop-wise (?)—the fourth Agni is the demon-slayer; he shall bless us.

Vrājam in b is obscure; 'troopwise' is the conjecture of BR.; the comm. reads instead bhrājam, and absurdly explains it as bhrājamānām or -nam 'shining,' and qualifying either the night or the "hearty" man whom the demons have risen to injure! Ppp. has turyas for turīyas in c; what is meant by it is not clear; the comm. gives three different explanations: fourth after the death of his three brothers and predecessors (quoting for these TS. ii. 6. 6²); as the house-fire apart from the three sacrificial; or as the ān̄girasa fire, as distinguished from the sacrificial, the household, and that of battle—thus teaching us nothing but his own ignorance and perplexity. Grill follows Weber in understanding the word to mean "powerful." For d, Ppp. has san naḥ pātu tebhyaḥ.

2. The lead Varuṇa blesses; the lead Agni favors; Indra bestowed on me the lead; it, surely, is a dispeller of familiar demons.

Ppp. combines māi 'ndra p- in c, and has for d amīvāyas tu cātam (for cātanam). The comm. ascribes the mention of Varuṇa to the fact that river-foam is one of the articles declared (Kāuç. 8. 18) equivalent to lead, and here intended by that name. ⌊Cf. Bloomfield, JAOS. xv. 158.⌋

3. This overpowers the víṣkandha; this drives off (bādh) the devourers; with this I overpower all the races (jātá) that are the piçācī́'s.

The first half-verse is nearly repeated below, as ii. 4. 3 a, b. The short a in the reduplication of sasahe in c, though against the meter and in part against usage, is read by all the mss., and in the comment to Prāt. iii. 13. Ppp. has in a viṣkandam (but compare ii. 4. 3, where -dham). The comm. explains the (more or less fully personified) disorder as a disturbance caused by rakṣas or piçāca and obstructing motion (gatipratibandhaka): cf. below ii. 4 and iii. 9.

4. If our cow thou slayest, if [our] horse, if [our] man (púruṣa), we pierce thee there with lead, that thou be no slayer of our heroes.

Ppp. has for c sīsena vidhyāmas tvā.

The 5 hymns of this anuvāka ⌊3.⌋, as of the next, have just the norm, 20 verses, and the quotation from the old Anukr. (given at the end of hymn 21) is viṅçakāv ato 'nyāu. At the end of the present hymn is read viṅçatyā kuru, which is perhaps the statement as to the assumption of a norm.

The first prapāṭhaka ends here.