Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/594

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vii. 53-
BOOK VII. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
424

Ppp. fills out the meter of a by reading mā tvā prāṇo hāsīd yas te praviṣṭo, and begins its b thus: mā tvā ’pāno ‘v-; in c and d (its 2 c, d) it has dadhvahe and nayantu. Part of the mss. accent apānó ‘va- in b. SPP. reads, with the small majority of his mss., saptarṣíbhya in c (against our saptaṛṣ-); our mss. vary, as usual. With a, b compare the nearly equivalent xvi. 4. 3 a, b. The Anukr. apparently scans the first line as 7 + 11, but the pada-mss. mark the division after apānas (as 11 + 7). Henry fills the meter conjecturally by adding mó vyānó.


5. Enter ye in, O breath and expiration, as (two) draft-oxen a stall; let this treasure of old age increase here unharmed.

The first half-verse is also iii. 11. 5 a, b. In c, perhaps rather 'let this man, a treasury of old age' (so Henry).


6. We impel hither thy breath; I impel away thy yákṣma; let Agni here, desirable one, assign us life-time from all sides.

A corresponding verse is found in TS. i. 3. 144 and AÇS. ii. 10. 4, but with great difference of text: thus, ā́yuṣ ṭe viçváto dadhad ayám agnír váreṇyaḥ: pünas te prāṇá ā́ ’yati (AÇS. ā yātu) párā yākṣmaṁ suvāmi te.


7. Up out of darkness have we, ascending the highest firmament, gone to the sun, god among the gods, highest light.

This verse (with a different second pāda, jyótiṣ páçyanta üttaram, which Ppp. also gives) is RV. i. 50. 10, and found also in a whole series of other texts: VS. xx. 21 et al. (with svàḥ for jyótiṣ in b), TS. iv. 1. 74 (with páçyanto jyótir in b), TB. ii. 4. 49* (as TS.), TA. vi. 3. 2 (as TS.), MS. ii. 12. 5 et al. (with jyótiḥ p- in b), LÇS. ii. 12. 10 (with jyotiḥ p. u. svaḥ p. n. for b), ChU. iii. 17. 7 (as MS., but jyotiṣ p-).† It is used by Kāuç. (24. 32) in the āgrahāyaṇī ceremony, with the direction ity utkrāmati 'with this he steps upward'; and the schol. adds it (note to 55. 15) in the ceremony of initiation of a Vedic scholar, as one looks at the sun and asks his protection for the boy; and further (note to 58. 18), in the nirṇayana, or infant's first carrying out of doors. In Vāit. (24. 4) it accompanies the coming out of the bath in the agniṣṭoma. *⌊And ii. 6. 64: the d of ii. 4. 49 has uttaram.⌋ †⌊Also K. xxxviii. 5.⌋


54 (56, 57. 1). Extolling verse and chant.

[vs. 1. Brahman.—ṛksāmadevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.—vs. 2, and 55. 1. Bhṛgu.—dvyṛcam. āindram. ānuṣṭubham.]

Notwithstanding the close relationship of the two verses reckoned in our edition as constituting this hymn, and their discordance with the following verse (our 55), the Anukr. and some of the mss. (and hence the comm. and SPP's text) take our vs. 1 as a whole hymn, and our vs. 2 and hymn 55 as together one hymn; and this is probably to be accepted as the true traditional division.* Pāipp. has our two verses in xx., but in different places. Kāuç. (42. 9-10), in a rite for the gaining of wealth by teachers (adhyāpakānām arthārjanavighnaçamanārtham, comm., p. 402, end), gives as pratīka simply ṛcaṁ sāma, which would imply either or both verses; Dārila explains dvābhyām 'with two,' which might mean either hymns or verses. The comm. ⌊p. 41011⌋ appears to regard vs. 2 (57. 1) as intended in rule 9, and both vs. 1 and vs. 2 (56 and 57) in rule 10. *⌊The decad-division comes between vss. 1 and 2: cf. p. 389.⌋

Translated: Muir, iii2. 4; Henry, 21, 81; Griffith, 1. 352.