Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 16

16. For protection.

[Brahman.—prāṇāpānāyurdevatyam. ekāvasānam: 1. 1-p. āsurī triṣṭubh; 2. i-p. āsury uṣṇih; 3. 1-p. āsurī triṣṭubh; 4. 5. 2-p. āsurī gāyatrī.]

⌊Not metrical.⌋ Found (except vs. 5) in Pāipp. ii. (in the verse-order 2, 1, 3, 4). The hymn, with the one next following, is used by Kāuç. (54. 12) immediately after hymn 15; and the comm. adds, quoting for it the authority of Pāiṭhīnasi, to accompany the offering of thirteen different substances, which he details. Both appear also in Vāit. (4. 20), in the parvan sacrifices, on approaching the āhavanīya fire; and vss. 2 and 4 further (8. 7, 9) in the āgrayaṇa and cāturmāsya sacrifices.

Translated: Weber, xiii. 179; Griffith, i. 60.

1. O breath-and-expiration, protect me from death: hail (svā́hā)!

The first extension of the notion of prāṇa 'breath,' lit. 'forth-breathing,' is by addition of apāna, which also is lit. 'breathing away,' and so, when distinguished from the generalized prāṇa, seems to mean 'expiration.' The comm. here defines the two thus: prāg ūrdhvamukho ‘niti ceṣṭata iti prāṇaḥ; apā ’nity avān̄mukhaç ceṣṭata ity apānaḥ. For svāhā he gives alternative explanations, following Yāska. The verse (without svāhā) is found also in Āp. xiv. 19.3. "Triṣṭubh" in the Anukr. is doubtless a misreading for pan̄kti, as the verse has 1 1 syllables, and 1 and 3 would have been defined together if viewed as of the same meter.

2. O heaven-and-earth, protect me by listening (úpaçruti): hail!

The pada-mss. read úpa॰çrutyā (not -yāḥ), and, in the obscurity of the prayer, it is perhaps best to follow them ⌊'by overhearing' the plans of my enemies?⌋; otherwise, 'from being overheard' ⌊by my enemies?⌋ would seem as suitable; and this is rather suggested by the Ppp. reading, upaçrute (for -teḥ?).

Ppp. has after this another verse: dhanāyā ”yuṣe prajāyāi mā pātaṁ svāhā.

3. O sun, protect me by sight: hail!

Ppp. has cakṣuṣī '(protect my) two eyes.' Our O.Op., with some of SPP's mss., read sūryas for -ya.

4. O Agni Vāiçvānara, protect me with all the gods: hail!

Ppp. makes, as it were, one verse out of our 4 and 5, by reading agne viçvambhara viçvato mā pāhi svāhā. The comm. gives several different explanations of vāiçvānara 'belonging to all men,' one of them as viçvān-ara = jantūn praviṣṭaḥ!

5. O all-bearing one, protect me with all bearing (bháras): hail!

The sense is obscure; at xii. 1. 6 the epithet 'all-bearing' is, very properly, applied to the earth; but here the word is masculine. The comm. understands Agni to be meant (and this the Ppp. reading favors); but he relies for this solely on BAU. i. 4. 7 (which he quotes); and that is certainly not its meaning there. Weber conjectures Prajāpati. ⌊The BAU. passage is i. 4. 16 in Böhtlingk's ed. See Whitney's criticism upon it at AJP. xi. 432. I think nevertheless that fire may be meant—see Deussen's Sechzig Upanishad's, p. 394.⌋ It does not appear why the last two verses should be called of two pādas.