Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 51

51. For various blessings.

[Çaṁtāti.—āpyam; 3. varuṇastuti. trāiṣṭubham: 1. gāyatrī; 3. jagatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix., in the verse-order 1, 3, 2. The hymn is reckoned by Kāuç. (9. 2) to the bṛhachānti gaṇa; it is used (25. 20) in healing rites against various diseases, and (25. 21) especially against disorders arising from soma drinking; and (41. 14), with hymn 19 and others, in a ceremony for good fortune; it is further (note to 7. 14) one of the apāṁ sūktāni. Vāit. (30. 7) has it in the sāutrāmaṇī ceremony with the preparation of surā for one disordered by soma. ⌊Keçava (to 61. 5) counts this hymn (not 57) to a pavitra gaṇa.⌋

Translated: Griffith, i. 273.

1. Purified with Vāyu's purifier, Soma [hath] run over opposite (pratyán̄), Indra's suitable companion.

The translation implies, at the end of b, áti drutás (or atidrutas, as the comm. appears to read), which SPP. has rightly in his text. In most mss. dru and hru are hardly distinguishable (and not easily distinguishable from du and hu), and hru was unfortunately adopted in our text, because the first mss. consulted favored that reading. Ppp. has instead adhiçrutaḥ. The verse is found twice* in VS. (x. 31 d; xix. 3 a), twice in TB. (ii. 6. 1^2-3; two immediately successive versions), and thrice in MS. (ii. 3. 8; and iii. 11. 7 two immediately successive versions), and, what is unusual, with differences of reading in the different versions. VS. differs from our text ⌊see note*⌋ in b, having in x. átisrutas, and in xix. átidrutas. TB. has both times vāyús at the beginning, but in b the first time prank and the second prā́n̄k, both times átidrutas. MS. has in ii. vā́yos (doubtless a misprint for vāyós) and átisrutas; in iii., the first time vāyús, prā́k, and átidrutas, the second time vāyós, pratyák, and átisrutas. The Atharvan reading, according to the Prāt, phonetic rule ii. 9, ought to be pratyán̄k before a following s; but (as explained in the note to that rule) the mss. read simple n̄, and both printed texts adopt it. ⌊Cf. Weber, Rājasūya, p. 101, n. 7.⌋ *⌊Should be "thrice": W. overlooked that at xix. 3 also there are two immediately successive versions, the first with pratyán̄k...átidrutaḥ, the second with prā́n̄k...átidrutaḥ. Moreover, VS. has in x. (like TB.) vāyúḥ.⌋

2. Let the mother waters further (sūd) us; let the ghee-purifying ones purify us with ghee; since the heavenly ones carry forth all evil (riprá), forth from them, indeed, I come clean, purified.

The verse is found also as RV. x. 17. 10, with the single variant çundhayantu at end of a; the comm. gives to sūd- the same meaning (kṣālayantu pāparahitān çuddhān kurvantu). VS. (iv. 2) also has it, precisely in the RV. version; and MS. (i. 2. 1), with mā for asmā́n and nas in a and b, and with -váhantu in c. Ppp. has -vahantu likewise, and at the end it reads pūtay emi, which, curiously enough, Schröder notes as read by two of his mss. and by the Kapiṣṭhala text. Ppp. has further the phonetic ⌊? graphic⌋ variant ghṛtapuvas in b.

3. Whatever, O Varuṇa, that is hateful to the people of the gods human beings practise here, if without intention we have obstructed thine ordinances (dhármān), do not, O god, harm us for that sin.

The verse is RV. vii. 89. 5, which, however, reads at end of b cárāmasi, and at beginning of c ácittī yát táva etc. TS. (iii. 4. 11⁶) and MS. (iv. 12. 6) agree precisely with RV.

The fifth anuvāka, 10 hymns with 30 verses, ends here; the Anukr. quotation, pan̄cama, has to be combined with that to the next anuvāka.

Here ends also the thirteenth prapāṭhaka.