Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 50

50. To night: for protection.

[As 47.—saptakam.]

Follows also in Pāipp. xiv. our hymn 49. Has the same liturgical use as hymn 49.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 465; Griffith, ii. 307.

1. Do thou, O night, make the snake blind, harsh-smoked, headless; smite out the eyes of the wolf; cast the thief into the snare.

This verse is nearly identical with that translated as 47. 8 above (8 c, d and 9 a, b of the printed text). As there, the mss. have at the beginning ándha, which SPP., with the comm., changes to ádha; and all, in c, d, have nír jahyās téna* táṁ ⌊or tváṁ⌋ drupadé jahi in a manner analogous with the reading there. ⌊The translation implies the division nír jahy ā́...jahi: cf. my note to 47. 8.⌋ ⌊Apart from some less important variants.⌋ the mss. are divided, as often in such cases, between akṣāú and akṣyāú, and SPP. chooses the worse, akṣāú; our akṣyāù is alone defensible. Ppp. omits (see note to 49. 10) the first two words, and reads, as at 47. 8, tiṣṭadhūmam; ⌊it begins the second line with hano vṛkasya and ends it (as above) with nṛpate jahi; what the intervening words are is not clear from Roth's Collation⌋. ⌊Meantime Bloomfield kindly informs me that Ppp. reads the line thus: hano vṛkasya nir jahy ā tvāinaṁ nṛpate jahi: this gives no support for a jahyās (see note to 47. 8); but the tvāinaṁ obviously stands in some relation to the dvāinaṁ of the Ppp. reading at 47. 8, which is jambhayādvāinaṁ.⌋ *⌊The pada-reading is níḥ: jahyāḥ: téna.⌋

2. What draft-oxen thou hast, O night, sharp-horned, very swift, with them do thou today pass us always (viçváhā) over difficulties.

SPP. follows the mss. in the false accent tī́kṣṇa- in b. In c, d, he reads pārayā́ ’ti with us and with the comm. (also with Ppp.), ⌊but against the mss., most of which⌋ have pārayaty áti. In b, Ppp. gives -çṛn̄gyāçvāsavaḥ.

3. May we pass (tṛ) night after night receiving no harm with ourselves (tanvā̀); may the niggards fail to pass [it], as men without boats a deep [water].

Or tanvā belongs to tarema. The comm., against the accent and the sense, takes áriṣyantas as a future participle (= gamiṣyantas)! Ppp. reads in c, d apravāyuṣaṁ na tarehur ar-.

4. As the millet-seed, flying forth, blowing away, is not found, so, O night, make him fly forth who is malicious against us.

The mss. read in a mostly çāmyā́kas (so the comm. and SPP.), also çyāmyā́kas and çyāmā́kas; and have prapátan or prápatan, with other chance variations; and in b, apavā́n (p. apa॰vā́n) or -vā́ṁ; in respect to this word, the translation ⌊taking it as present participle of apa-vā⌋ follows them rather than our emendation aparám. None of the mss. accent na, but SPP. ventures ⌊with the Berlin ed.⌋ to emend the reading. At the beginning of c, the mss. all have etā́v ā́ ⌊several ā⌋ (p. etāú: ā́); the comm. and SPP. (also Ppp.) agree with our evā́. The majority of mss. have at the end -yánti. Ppp. has in a, b sānyākaṣ prapatante divāṁ nā ’nu-; in d it combines yo ‘smāṅ.

5. Thou didst make the thief stay away, and the kine-driving robber, also him who, haltering the courser's head, tries to lead it [away].

The pada-mss. strangely read at the beginning apáḥ; the rest ⌊save one of SPP's, p.m., which has ápa⌋ accent apá; SPP., as well as our text, emends to ápa, which the comm. also understands. All the mss. have vā́sas, and the comm., and SPP.; our avāsayas is a bold emendation, but makes both good meter and good sense. Ppp. gives no help: apa stedaṁ vāsamathaṁ. In b, SPP. follows the comm. in reading goajám; most of the mss. give gór ájam, but a part górájas (p. górájaḥ! but one ms. gó ‘jaḥ ⌊or gó॰jaḥ: that is gó and jaḥ with avagraha-sign between⌋, corrected to góájaḥ). ⌊Ppp. reads gotham. The comm. absurdly takes goajám as a copulative compound, = gā ajāṅç ca, and makes it and vā́sas objects of nínīṣati. The translation implies rather SPP's text than ours ⌊that is goajám rather than gór ájam, I suppose⌋. ⌊At the end, the níneṣati of the Berlin text is doubtless to be corrected to nínīṣati (cf. the stems in W's Roots, Verb-forms, etc., p. 233-4): nínīṣati is read by Ppp., by W's O.D.I., and (since he reports nothing to the contrary) by all of SPP's authorities. From the Index Verborum and from the Roots (p. 91) it would appear that W's later judgment rejected the níneṣati of the text and some mss., though he has overlooked the matter here. The desiderative⌋ so distinctly calls for a prefix that one is tempted further to emend átho in c to ápa.

6. When, O well-portioned night, thou comest today, sharing out what is good, [then] make us to enjoy that, that it go not away.

The translation follows our text, which is very different from that of the mss. and SPP. Our adyā́ in a implies adyá ā́ (ā́...áyas), which all the pada-mss. have, while SPP., with the comm., treats it as only adyá with the final lengthened by the usual Vedic license. In b all the mss. accent ví bhajanti ⌊p. ví: bhajanti⌋; SPP. emends to vi-bhájanti, while our text means vibhájantī. The comm. understands -nti ⌊supplying çatravas as subject⌋, and takes áyas after it as the noun, 'metal' (ayomayaṁ vastu); to us áyas is verb. ⌊Ppp. has vasuḥ at end of b.⌋ In c the mss., the comm., and SPP., begin with yád; we have emended it to tád. For d, most mss. have yáthe ’dáṁ nā́ ’nupāyási (p. anu॰pāyási); but one -yáti, one -dányā́nu-; SPP. follows the comm. and prints yáthé ’d anyā́n upā́yasi (p. upa॰áyasi), but in a note conjectures yáthé ’d anyā́n nó ’pā́yati 'that it go not unto others,' which is very acceptable, as giving a good sense with less alteration of the original text than our version requires. Ppp. is wholly corrupt: yathed yasmā nitājaya yathed anyān upāyatī; but the last pāda favors SPP's conjecture.

7. Unto the dawn, O night, do thou commit us all, free from guilt; may the dawn bestow (ā-bhaj) us on the day, the day on thee, O shining one.

The comm., two of SPP's reciters, and Ppp., read in c bhajat. Compare the verse 48. 2, above ⌊and MB. i. 5. 15, there cited⌋.