Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/601

has kṛṇute in d. Ppp. has in c pṛthivyā(s), which is better. The new version of our text so decidedly calls for an accus. in a that the translation implies vṛddhávṛṣnyān, or else the understanding of -vṛṣṇas as accus. pl. of -ṣan, which is perhaps not impossible, though against usage in composition. The comm. reads -ṇyas, also patnīm in b (having to labor hard to make out a sense for the latter). The mss. vary between patnī́n and pattī́n (our Bp.P.M.W.E.I, have the former). The first pāda is triṣṭubh.

63 (65). To Agni: for aid.

[Kaçyapa Mārīca.—jātavedasam. jagatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. xx. Kāuç. (69. 22) uses it in the preparation of the house-fire, with invocation.

Translated: Henry, 25, 88; Griffith, i. 357.

1. The fight-conquering, overpowering Agni do we call with songs from the highest station; may he pass us across all difficult things; may divine Agni stride (?) across arduous things.

The translation implies emendation of kṣā́mat to krā́mat in d, as suggested by BR. (and adopted also by Henry), since the former seems to give no good sense, and both form and composition with ati are elsewhere unknown for root kṣam: cf. also xii. 2. 28 c. But the parallel verse TA. x. 1. (68) has kṣāmat ⌊so both ed's, text and comm.⌋ and Ppp. reads kṣāmād devo ‘dhi. Our comm. explains ati kṣāmat as = atyarthaṁ kṣāmāṇi dagdhāni karotu! TA. further gives ugrám agním for agnim ukthāis, rectifies the meter of b by reading huvema, leaves the combination devó áti in d, and has duritā́ ’ty for -tāni. Our c is the same with RV. i. 99. 1 c. The verse has no jagatī character at all.

64 (66). Against evil influence of a black bird.

[Yama.—dvyṛcam. mantroktadevatyam uta nāirṛtam. 1. bhurig anuṣṭubh; 2. nyan̄husāriṇī bṛhatī.]

Found also, with very different text, in Pāipp. xx. Used by Kāuç. (46. 47), in a rite to avert the evil influence of a bird of ill omen.

Translated: Grill, 41, 186; Henry, 25, 88; Griffith, i. 357; Bloomfield, 167, 555.

1. What here the black bird, flying out upon [it], has made fall—let the waters protect me from all that difficulty, from distress.

Ppp. reads thus: yad asmān kṛṣṇaçakunir niṣpatann ānaçe: ā. m. t. enaso d. p. viçvataḥ. The second half occurs also in LÇS. ii. 2. 11, which (like Ppp.) has viçvataḥ at the end.* Prāt. iv. 77 appears to require as pada-reading in b abhi-niḥpátan; but all the pada-mss. give -niṣp-, and SPP. also adopts that in his pada-text: abhinipatan would be a decidedly preferable reading. The second half-verse is found again as x. 5. 22 c, d. The comm. says that the bird is a crow. *⌊And enaso in c.⌋

2. What here the black bird hath stroked down with thy mouth, O perdition—let the householder's fire release me from that sin.

Ppp. has instead: yadi vā ’mṛkṣata kṛṣṇaçakunir mukhena nirṛte tava: agniṣ tat sarvaṁ çundhatu havyavān̄ ghṛtasúdanaḥ, which is the same with ĀpÇS. ix. 17. 4 (only this begins yad apā ’mṛkṣac chakunir, rectifying the meter, and has -vāḍ in d).