Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/467

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297
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VI.
-vi. 23
it presented in TS. (iii. 1. 118) rather sets off its difficulties than gives any help in solving them. It makes marutas vocative in a, and the comm. also understands the word as vocative, not heeding its accent; the preferable reading would be údapruto marutas, both vocative. The comm. then takes tā́n together with udaprútas as qualifying meghān 'clouds' understood. Ppp., with the majority of SPP's authorities and some of ours (P.M.), reads udaplútas. Then tā́ṅ (pada-text tā́n) is read by all the authorities in both texts, although the sense necessarily requires (as in our translation is assumed) tā́m, as antecedent to yā́. But here, again, all the pada-texts have yā́ḥ, which completes their confusion. TS. has, for b, the wholly different and doubtless secondary phrase vṛ́ṣṭiṁ yé víçve marúto junánti, making of the line 'O Maruts, send those water-swimming ones who, [namely] all the Maruts, hasten the rain.' The comm. understands , but then also víçvā, as neut. pl. (vrīhiyavādisasyāni), while all our pada-texts have correctly víçvāḥ; the comm. then is obliged to supply a ca 'and' after nivátas. In c, d, TS. reads króçāti for éjāti, gárdā for gláhā, pérum for érum, and tuñjānā́ for tundānā́ (some of the mss., including our O.D.R., have tudānā́); the comm. also has tuñjānā, but gahlā (so printed; but it should doubtless be galhā, since he derives it from root garh 'chide': one of our mss. (W.) and three of SPP's have gálhā) instead of gláhā or gárdā; he translates it 'thunder.' These changes on gláhā and éru, at least, are plainly no real variations of reading, but blind blunders over an unintelligible text. Ppp. is corrupt and hardly legible: perhaps ye jahāti ktahnā kanye ’va dunnonaṁ dunnāmā patye ‘va jāyām. R. suggests that the line c-d belongs to a gambling hymn, and that we are to read glahas and ūrum, a comparison being made between the shaking of the dice-holder and the agitatio of a female at the coitus.


23. To the waters: for blessings.

[Çaṁtāti (?)—abdevatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 2. 3-p. gāyatrī; 3. paroṣṇih.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Reckoned by Kāuç. (9. 2) to the bṛhachānti gaṇa, and also (note to 7. 14) to the apāṁ sūktāni; and again (41. 14), with vi. 19 etc., used in a rite for good fortune: as to its combination (30. 11) with the preceding hymn, see that hymn. In Vāit. (4. 14) it accompanies in the parvan sacrifices the pouring out of water.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 431; Florenz, 278 or 30; Griffith, i. 257.


1. Flowing on, devoted to it; by day and by night flowing on; I, of desirable activity, call upon the heavenly waters.

The verse is found as a khila or appendix to RV. x. 9, as vs. 10 of that hymn. It reads there, in a, tádapasas, which is an obvious and called-for emendation of our text, and assumed in our translation; in c, -kratūs, which is also an improvement (our P. has it, but apparently only by an accident); and, for d, ā́ devī́r ávase huve. Ppp. has, for d, ahūpo devīr upa bruve. The first pāda lacks a syllable, unless we resolve sa-sṛ-u-.


2. Let them release here the worked-in waters of the ceremony for conducting forward; let them at once make [them] to go.

The translation implies emendation of ā́pas in a to apás, or else the use of the former as accusative, as in more than one other passage. Ótās, lit. 'woven in': i.e. brought in as part of the ceremony. But the comm. reads ūtās, and explains it as = saṁtatās or avicchedena pravahantyaḥ. ⌊In a, b, the reading of Ppp. appears to be like ours; but in c it has bhavantu etave.⌋ ⌊Cf. v. 23. 1 for ótās.⌋