Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/338

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xvi. 1-
BOOK XVI. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
794
first and last), each with 3 subdivisions, making 6; while in each of the remaining 4, the refrains (b, c) are counted as one with a (thus a-b-c), making 4; and so, in all, we have 10.—In like manner, in paryāya 8, there are properly 27 gaṇas, each with 4 subdivisions: therefore we have 2 gaṇas (the first and last), each with 4 subdivisions, making 8; and (27-2=) 25, each counted as one (a-b-c-d), making 25; and so, in all, we have 33.⌋


[The book is mainly prose: Whitney, Index, p. 5, excepts verses 1. 10, 12, 13; 4. 2, 6; 6. 1-4, 11; 9. 1, 2.⌋

In Pāipp. (xviii.) are found only fragments of the book, namely 1. 1-3; 4. 7 (beginning with mo ’pa), the first words of 5. 1, then 8. 1, and finally 9. 4, the concluding verse. This looks as if the whole book were acknowledged as part of the text, but its complete presentation deliberately declined for some reason. ⌊The fragments in question follow immediately the fragment of book xv. cited in the note to xv. 2. 1.⌋ ⌊☞ See pages 1015-6.⌋

⌊In the Vāit, the book is noticed only twice: see under 2. 6 and 9. 3. And in the Kāuç., it is noticed only about a dozen times: see under 1. 1; 2. 1, 6; 3. 1; 4. 1; 5. 1; 6. 1; 9. 3, 4.⌋


1. Paryāya the first.

[Prajāpati (?).—trayodaça. 1, 3. 2-p. sāmnī bṛhatī; 2, 10. yājuṣī triṣṭubh; 4. āsurī gāyatrī; 5, 8. sāmnī pan̄kti (5. 2-p.); 6. sāmny anuṣṭubh; 7. nicṛd virāḍgāyatrī; 9. āsurī pan̄kti; 11. sāmny uṣṇih; 12, 13. ārcy anuṣṭubh.]

Translated: Griffith, ii. 201.


1. Let go [is] the bull of the waters; let go [are] the heavenly fires.

The verse, or the hymn (paryāya), is quoted in Kāuç. 9. 9, in the process of preparing holy water (çāntyudaka); with it one "lets go the waters," and then follow question and answer respecting the preparation. In Ppp. the initial a of atisṛṣṭās is not elided.


2. Breaking, breaking about, killing, slaughtering;—

3. Dimming ⌊mroká⌋, mind-slaying, digging, out-burning, self-spoiling, body-spoiling.

All these epithets are nom. sing. masc.; as mroká and nirdāhá are found together in v. 31. 9 as epithets of the flesh-eating fire, they are probably names of the fires mentioned in vs. 1: cf. also vs. 7, below; Ppp. combines -dāhā ”tma-. ⌊Weber (Ind. Stud. xiii. 185), discussing mroká as it occurs above at ii. 24. 3 in the long string of epithets, takes our paryāya here as an evening prayer (see p. 792), and notes the names of the ten Agnis here rehearsed in vss. 2, 3.⌋


4. That one now I let go; that one let me not wash down against myself;—

5. That one do we let go against him who hates us, whom we hate.