6. Witchcraft-spoiling is this amulet, likewise niggard-spoiling; likewise shall the pov/eriul jan̄giḍá prolong our life-times.
The absence of this verse in Ppp. indicates that the hymn originally consisted of five verses, in accordance with the norm of the book. The verse is very nearly xix. 34. 4. Emendation to arātidū́ṣaṇas (as in xix.) in b would rectify the meter; the Anukr. takes no notice of its irregularity. At the end, two of our mss. (E.I.) and three of SPP's read tārṣat. ⌊For his sáhasvān, see note to i. 19. 4.⌋
5. Praise and prayer to Indra.
[Bhṛgu Ātharvaṇa.—saptarcam. āindram. trāiṣṭubham: 1, 2. upariṣṭād bṛhatī (1. nicṛt; 2. virāj); 3. virāṭpathyābṛhatī; 4. jagatī purovirāj.]
Verses 1, 3, and 4 are found in Pāipp. ii., and 5-7 elsewhere in its text (xiii.). Verses 1-3 occur also in SV. (ii. 302-4) and ÇÇS. (ix. 5. 2); and the first four verses form part of a longer hymn in AÇS. (vi. 3. l). KB. (xvii. l) quotes by way of pratīka vs. 1 a, b (in their SV. and ÇÇS. form), and speaks of the peculiar structure of the verses, as composed of twenty-five syllables, with nine syllables interpolated (three at the end of each of the first three five-syllabled pādas): cf. Roth, Ueb. d. AV., 1856, p. 11 ff., and Weber, notes to his translation. At TB. ii. 4. 310 may be found RV. x. 96. I treated in a somewhat similar way (four syllables prefixed to each jagatī-pāda); the first five verses of RV. x. 77 itself are another example; ⌊yet others are AV. vii. 14 (15). 1, 2; v. 6. 4 a, c; RV. i. 70. 11 as it appears at AÇS. vi. 3. 1; cf. further RV. X. 21, 24, 25⌋. ⌊I suspect that these interpolations were used as antiphonal responses.⌋
The hymn is used once in Kāuç. (59. 5), among the kāmya rites, or those intended to secure the attainment of various desires; it is addressed to Indra, by one desiring strength (balakāma). In Vāit. (16. 11), it (not vs. 1 only, according to the comm.) accompanies an oblation to Soma in the agniṣṭoma sacrifice, and again (25. 14) a ṣoḑa-çigraha. And the comm. quotes it from Nakṣ. Kalpa 17 and 18, in a mahāçānti to Indra. None of these uses has about it anything special or characteristic.
Translated: Weber, xiii. 143; Griffith, i. 46.—Verses 5-7 discussed, Lanman's Reader, p. 360-1.
1. O Indra, enjoy thou—drive on;—come, O hero—with thy two bays;—drink of the pressed [soma]—intoxicated here—loving the sweet [draught], fair one, unto intoxication.
Ppp. omits the three interpolations (as Weber reports certain Sūtra-works to assert of the Atharvan texts in general), and reads indra juṣasva yāhi çūra pibā sutaç ça a madhoç cakāna cārum madathaḥ. The second interpolation in AÇS. is harī iha, apparently to be read as harī ’ha, for which then SV. and ÇÇS. give the senseless háriha. The third, in all the three other texts, is matír ná ('like a wise one'?); the translation above implies the heroic (or desperate) emendation of matér ihá to mattá ihá (to be read matté ’há); Weber conjectures máder ha. AÇS. and ÇÇS. have the older madhvas for madhos. The comm. has no notion of the peculiar structure of these verses: as, indeed, he has no phraseology in his vocabulary to suit such a case; he explains mates first as mananīyasya, then as medhāvinas; and cakānas as either tarpayan or stūyamānas. The Anukr. implies that the second half-verse scans as 8 + 11 syllables, instead of 9 + 10.
