6. Successfully let the draft-animals, successfully the men, successfully let the plow (lā́n̄gala) plow; successfully let the straps be bound; successfully do thou brandish the goad.
This is RV. iv. 57. 4, without variation; it is also found, with the two following verses, in TA. (vi. 6. 2, vss. 6-8), which reads nārā́s instead of náras at end of a. Part of our mss. (P.M.W.E.) have úṣṭrām in d. The comm. declares Çuna to be addressed in the last pāda. Ppp. has in xii. çunaṁ vṛtrām āyaccha çunam aṣṭrām ud in̄gayaḥ çunaṁ tu tapyatāṁ phālaç çunaṁ vahatu lān̄galam; and in xix. the same a, b ⌊ending -ya⌋, but, for c, d, çunaṁ vahasya çuklasyā ’ṣṭrayā jahi dakṣiṇam.
7. O Çunāsīrā, do ye (two) enjoy me here; what milk ye have made in heaven, therewith pour ye upon this [furrow].
'Milk,' i.e. nourishing fluid. Weber implies at the end "earth" (instead of "furrow"), which is perhaps to be preferred. RV. (iv. 57. 5) reads for a çúnāsīrāv imā́ṁ vā́caṁ ju-; TA. (as above) the same, except that it strangely omits the verb, and thus reduces the triṣṭubh pāda to a gāyatrī; both texts mark the principal pāda-division after b. The comm. changes all the three verbs to 3d dual. The Anukr. forbids in a the resolution -sīrā ihá. In our edition the verse is numbered 6, instead of 7.
8. O furrow, we reverence thee; be [turned] hitherward, O fortunate one, that thou mayest be well-willing to us, that thou mayest become of good fruit for us.
RV. (iv. 57. 6) inverts the order of a and b, and both it and TA. (as above) end c and d respectively with subhágā́ ’sasi and suphálā́ ’sasi. All the pāda-mss. have the blundering reading su॰phalā́ḥ in d. The Anukr. perversely refuses to make the resolution tu-ā in a.
9. With ghee, with honey (mádhu) [is] the furrow all anointed, approved (anu-man) by all the gods, by the Maruts; do thou, O furrow, turn hither unto us with milk, rich in refreshment, swelling with fulness of ghee.
The verse is found also in VS. (xii. 70), TS. (iv. 2. 56), and MS. (ii. 7. 12). VS. MS. read -ajyatām for -aktā in a; all make c and d exchange places, and at the beginning of c read asmā́n for sā́ nas; and VS.TS. put páyasā in place of ghṛtávat in d, while MS. gives ūrjó bhāgám mádhumat pínv-.
18. Against a rival wife: with a plant.
[Atharvan.—vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 4. 4-p. anuṣṭubgarbhā uṣṇih; 6. uṣṇiggarbhā pathyāpan̄kti.]
This peculiarly Atharvan hymn has found its way also into the tenth book of the Rig-Veda (as x. 145, with exchange of place between vss. 3 and 4; it is repeated in RV. order at MP. i. 15. 1-6). Only three verses (our 4, 2, 1, in this order) are found in Pāipp. (vii.). Kāuç. uses it, among the women's rites, in a charm (36. 19-21) for getting the better of a rival; vs. 6 a and b accompany the putting of leaves under and upon the (rival's) bed. And the comm. (doubtless wrongly) regards vss. 5 and 6 to be intended by the pratīka quoted in 38. 30, instead of xii. 1.54, which has the same beginning.
