12. O Açvins, come ye hitherward with worship (bráhman), with váṣaṭ-utterance increasing the sacrifice. O Brihaspati, come hitherward with worship; this sacrifice [is] heaven (svàr) here for the sacrificer: hail!
Ppp. has instead, for d, yajñaṁ vayaṁ svaritaṁ yajamānāya dhehi svāhā. The Anukr. would have us read the last pāda as 15 syllables, and calls the verse a jagatī because amounting to 48 syllables, though the first three pādas are regularly triṣṭubh.
With this hymn ends the fifth anuvāka, of 5 hymns and 69 verses; the Anukr. citation is navā ’paraḥ; and Bp.D. add further aparā ṣaṣṭe navā ’paraḥ (Bp. -raṁ ca cā ’nuvākaḥ).
27. Āprī-hymn: to various divinities.
[Brahman.—dvādaçakam. āgneyam. 1. bṛhatīgarbhā triṣṭubh; 2. 2-p. sāmnām bhuriganuṣṭubh; 3. 2-p. ārcī bṛhatī; 4. 2-p. sāmnī bhurigbṛhatī; 5. 2-p. sāmnī triṣṭubh; 6. 2-p. virāṇ nāma gāyatrī; 7. 2-p. sāmnī bṛhatī (imā ⌊2-7?⌋ ekāvasānāḥ); 8. saṁstārapan̄kti; 9. 6-p. anuṣṭubgarbhā parātijagatī; 10-12. purauṣṇih.]
This peculiar and half-metrical āprī-hymn occurs also in several Yajur-Veda texts: hamely, in VS. (xxvii. 11-22), in TS. (iv. 1. 8), and in MS. (ii. 12. 6); further, in K. (xviii. 17), and (acc. to Schroeder's note) in Kap.S. The versions in VS. and TS. agree very closely throughout, in readings and in division; there is in all the verses a more or less imperfect metrical structure, of three triṣṭubh-like pādas to a verse. MS. also in general agrees with these, but has an inserted passage in its vs. 5 which dislocates the division of vss. 2-4. Ppp. has the same hymn in ix., and follows pretty closely the Yajus-version. In our text the proper division is thrown into great confusion, and there are many readings which are obviously mere corruptions. The Anukr. supports our mss. at all points. The division of VS. and TS., as being necessary to any understanding of the hymn, is noted in brackets in the translation below.
The hymn is not used as an āprī-hymn in the liturgical literature, but is quoted in Kāuç. (23. 7) in the ceremony of consecration of a new house, and again (45. 8), in the vaçāçamana rite, to accompany (with the kindred hymn v. 12) an offering of the omentum of a cow; while (19. 1, note) the paddhati reckons it among the puṣṭika mantras. Vss. 1 and 2 (with the division as in our text) are used by Vāit. (10. 13, 12) in the paçubandha ceremony.
Translated: Ludwig, p. 434; Griffith, i. 232.—Weber, xviii. 269, gives a general introductory comment to the hymn, but leaves it, on account of "the numerous misdivisions and corruptions of this, its Atharvan version," untranslated. Cf. hymn 12 of this book.
1. Uplifted becomes his fuel, uplifted the bright burnings of Agni, most brilliant; of beautiful aspect, with his son,—[2.] son of himself (tánūnápāt), ásura, many-handed,—
All the Yajur-Veda texts agree in ending the verse with the third pāda, and in reading at the end suprátikasya sūnóḥ; of this our text is a palpable corruption, and apparently made after the addition to this verse of the following pāda, in order to help their connection. Ppp. also has -kasya sūnos, and at the end of a bhavantu; it and the the Yajus-texts read viçvávedās instead of bhū́ripāṇis. The description of the verse by the Anukr. ⌊if we pronounce ūrdhuā́ in a⌋ is correct, counting the second pāda as of 9 syllables.
