Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 10
10. For release from evils, and for welfare.
[Bhṛgvan̄giras.—aṣṭarcam. nirṛtidyāvāpṛthivyādinānādevatyam. 1. triṣṭubh; 2. 7-p. aṣṭi; 3-5, 7, 8. 7-p. dhṛti; 6. 7-p. atyṣṭti (eva ’haṁ tvām iti dvāv āuṣṇihāu pādāu).]
Found in Pāipp. ii. (with vs. 8 preceding 6 and 7, and the refrain added only to vs. 8). The hymn occurs further in TB. (ii. 5. 61-2), and parts of it in HGS. (ii. 3. 10; 4. 1). ⌊And its original structure is doubtless clearly reflected by the MP. at ii. 12. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Cf. note to our verse 2.⌋ It is, like the two next preceding, reckoned (Kāuç. 26. 1, note) to the takmanāçana gaṇa, and it is employed (27. 7) in a healing ceremony, performed at a cross-roads, while chips of kāmpīla are bound on the joints of the patient, and they or he are wetted with bunches of grass. According to the comm., the rite is intended against kṣetriya simply.
Translated: Weber, xiii. 156; Ludwig, p. 513; Griffith, i. 52; Bloomfield, 14, 292.
1. From kṣetriyá, from perdition, from imprecation of sisters (jāmí-), from hatred (drúh) do I release thee, from Varuṇa's fetter; free from guilt (-ā́gas) I make thee by [my] incantation; be heaven-and-earth both propitious to thee.
TB. HGS. have for a only kṣetriyāí tvā nírṛtyāi tvā, in c bráhmaṇe and karomi, and in d imé instead of stām. Ppp. has at the end -thivī ’ha bhūtām.
2. Weal to thee be Agni, together with the waters; weal [be] Soma, together with the herbs: so from kṣetriyá, from perdition, etc. etc.
The repetition (with evā ’ham prefixed) of the whole first verse as refrain for the following verses is not made by TB. and HGS. except after our vs. 8, and there only to pā́çāt; and in Ppp. it forms (complete) a part only of the same verse 8 (though this stands before our vs. 6). Its omission from vss. 2-7, and their combination into three whole 4-pāda verses ⌊and the omission of pādas e and f from vs. 8⌋, would reduce the hymn to the norm of the second book, and is recommended not only by that circumstance, but by the ⌊wording in vss. 2-3, the construction in vss. 4-5, the concurrent testimony of TB. and MP., and also of HGS. so far as it goes, and by the⌋ plain requirements of the sense also. ⌊Cf. the analogous state of things in iii. 31 and the note to iii. 31. 11.⌋ For a, b TB. HGS. substitute çáṁ te agníḥ sahā́ ’dbhír astu çáṁ dyā́vāpṛthivī́ sahāú ’ṣadhībhiḥ; and Ppp. differs from them by having dhībhis instead of adbhís, and gāvas for dy...vī (also saho ’ṣa-). The comm. reads tvā for tvām in vss. 2-7 at the beginning of the refrain. This refrain is scanned by the Anukr. as 7 + 7 + 11: 11 + 11 = 47; and the addition in vs. 2 of 9 + 8 makes 64 syllables, a true aṣṭi; but the other verses it is not possible to make agree precisely, in any natural way, with the metrical definitions given; 3-7 are of 69 syllables, 8 of 71. ⌊By beginning pādas a and b with (çáṁ túbhyam, and pronouncing both sahá's with hiatus, and combining 2 ab with 3 ab, we get a perfectly regular triṣṭubh.⌋
3. Weal to thee may the wind in the atmosphere bestow (dhā) vigor; weal to thee be the four directions: so from kṣetriyá, etc. etc.
TB. HGS. have for a çám antárikṣaṁ sahá vī́tena te; Ppp. differs by reading sahavātam astu te; the two former, in b, put bhavantu last. The comm. has in a ⌊for váyo dhāt⌋ the better reading vayodhās, but he makes it mean "sustainer of birds"! ⌊'Weal to thee [be] the wind in the atmosphere, the vigor-bestower.'⌋
4. These four heavenly (devá) directions, having the wind as lord, upon which the sun looks out—so from kṣetriyá, etc. etc.
TB. HGS. (4. 1) have for a yā́ dāívīç cátasraḥ pradíçaḥ; Ppp. also omits imā́s, and combines devīṣ pra-, combining the pāda immediately with our 3 b. HGS. makes one verse of our 4 a, b and 5 a, b, and puts it in 4, after all the rest.
5. Within them I set thee in old age; let the yákṣma, let perdition go forth far away: so from kṣetriyá, etc. etc.
Ppp. has at the beginning tāsv e ’daṁ jarasa ā; TB. HGS. give tā́sāṁ tvā jarása ā́; both the latter read in b nírṛtim.
6. Thou hast been released from yákṣma, from difficulty (duritá), from reproach (avadyá); from the fetter of hatred and from seizure hast thou been released: so from kṣetriyá, etc. etc.
Ppp. has both times amoci for amukthās. TB. likewise, and also, in a, b ávartyāi druháḥ pā́çāṁ nírṛtyāi có ’d am-. HGS. has neither this verse nor the next; that Ppp. puts our vs. 8 before it was noticed above. The comm. explains avadyāt by jāmyādyabhiçaṅsanarūpān nindanāt. ⌊TB., in comm. to Calc. ed., and in Poona ed., has avartyāi.⌋
7. Thou hast left niggardy, hast found what is pleasant; thou hast come to be in the excellent world of what is well done: so from kṣetriyá, etc. etc.
Nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. omit the final visarga of ávidaḥ before syonám. The comm. reads abhūt in b; TB. does the same, and, correspondingly, ávidat in a, with ávartim (better ⌊cf. iv. 34. 3; x. 2. 10⌋) for ārātim. The comment to Prāt. ii. 46 quotes ahās in this verse as not ahār, i.e. as from hā, not hṛ.
8. The gods, releasing from the seizure of darkness the sun whom it had befallen, let him loose from sin (énas): so from kṣetriyá, etc. etc.
It was noticed above that the other texts add the refrain (TB. HGS. ⌊MP.⌋ only to pā́çāt) only to this verse, where alone it is in place. Ppp. has yathā for adhi at end of a, and the other texts yát; b in Ppp. is devā muñcantu asṛjan paretasaḥ; in the other texts devā́ ámuñcann ásṛjan vyènasaḥ.
⌊For ṛtám, cf. ṛtvā́, iv. 40. i. Most of SPP's mss. and our M.I.H.O.K. read nír éņaṣaḥ. For énas, W's first draft has 'evil,' which is better. See Lanman, Festgruss an Roth, pp. 187-190.—If, with the other texts, we drop e, f and omit nírṛtyās from c, we get a perfect meter, 12 + 12: 11 + 11. The other texts spoil the refrain by beginning evám ahám imám.⌋
The anuvāka ⌊2.⌋ has again 5 hymns, with 28 verses; the quotation is aṣṭa kuryād dvitīye.