Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 115

115. For relief from sin.

[Brahman.—vāiçvadevam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xvi. For the use of this hymn by Kāug., and in part by Vāit., with the preceding, see under that hymn; Vāit. has this one also alone in the āgrayaṇa iṣṭi (8. 7), with ii. 16. 2 and v. 24. 7; and vs. 3 appears (30. 23) in the sāutrāmaṇī́ next after hymn 114.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 443; Zimmer, p. 182 (vss. 2, 3); Grill, 46, 172; Griffith, i. 308; Bloomfield, 164, 529.

1. If knowing, if unknowing, we have committed sins, do ye free us from that, O all gods, accordant.

The reading sajóṣasas at the end in our text is, though evidently preferable, hardly more than an emendation, since it is read only by our P.M.T.; SPP. gives sajoṣasas; the comm. takes the word as a nominative. With the verse may be compared VS. viii. 13 f (prose). The redundant syllable in a is ignored by the Anukr.

2. If waking, if sleeping, I sinful have committed sin, let what is and what is to be free me from that, as from a post (drupadá).

The verse nearly corresponds with one in TB. ii. 4. 4⁹, which reads in a y. dívā y. náktam, ákarat at end of b, and muñcatuḥ (-tu?) at end of d. With a, b is to be compared VS. xx. 16 a, b, which has svápne for svapán, and, for b, énāṅsi cakṛmā́ vayám. Our svapán in a is an emendation for svápan, which all the authorities read, and which SPP. accepts in his text. The pada mss. mostly accent enasyáḥ in c (our D. has -àḥ, the true reading), and SPP. wrongly admits it in his pada text. The comm. explains drupada, doubtless correctly, by pādabandhanārtho drumaḥ.

3. Being freed as if from a post, as one that has sweated from filth on bathing, like sacrificial butter purified by a purifier—let all cleanse (çumbh) me of sin.

This verse is found in several Yajus texts: in VS. (xx. 20), TB. (ii. 4. 4⁹), K. (xxxviii. 5), and MS. (iii. 11. 10). TB.MS. add íd after iva in a; in b, for snatvā́, VS. gives snātás, and MS. snātvī́; in d, TB.MS. read muñcantu for çumbhantu, while VS. reads (better) çundhantu and before it ā́pas instead of víçve; Ppp. reads viçvān muñcantu; and it further has sindhu for svinnas in b. This time the comm. gives kāṣṭhamayāt pādabandhanāt as equivalent of drupadāt. The Anukr. passes without notice the excess of syllables in a. ⌊The vs. occurs also TB. ii. 6. 6³, with íd again, and with d as in VS. And the Calc. ed. of TB. prints both times svinná snātvó.⌋ ⌊As to çumbh, see BR. vii. 261 top.⌋