Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 2

2. Praise and prayer to Indra.

[Atharvan.—vānaspatyaṁ sāumyam. āuṣṇiham: 1-3. paroṣṇiḥ.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. (in the order 1, 3, 2). The second verse is used by Kāuç. (29. 27) in a remedial rite against demons, while partaking of a rice-mess boiled over birds' nests. Vāit. (16. 13) has the hymn in the agniṣṭoma, when the soma is turned into the large wooden vessel.

Translated: Florenz, 251 or 3; Griffith, i. 245; Bloomfield, 66, 458.

1. For Indra, O priests, press the soma, and add the water; [Indra] who shall hear the praiser's words and my call.

Or, 'the words and call of me the praiser.' With b compare RV. vii. 32. 6 d. Ppp. has, for b, c, çṛṇotanā tu dhāvata: stotriyaṁ havaṁ çṛṇavad dhavaṁ tu naḥ. The comm. regards ā́ dhāvata as referring to the process called ādhāvana, performed for the adābhya graha, and refers to ĀpÇS. xii. 8. 2: or, alternatively, to the general purification of the soma. The concluding four syllables of each verse seem like secondary appendages.

2. Unto whom enter the drops of soma-plant (ándhas) as birds a tree; thou exuberant one, drive away the demon-possessed scorners.

Ppp. reads tvā for yam in a. The comm. takes andhasas as nom. pl., explaining it by annabhūtās.

3. Press ye the soma for the soma-drinker, for the thunderbolt-bearing Indra; young, conqueror, lord [is] he, greatly praised.

The first two pādas are RV. vii. 32. 8 a, b; SV. i. 285 a, b. Ppp. reads in a -pāvane, humoring the meter.