Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/363

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819
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK XVIII.
-xviii. 1

(? asaṁyát) with my mind [and] heart, that I, a brother, should lie in a sister's bed (çáyana).

The first half-verse ⌊cf. vs. 13⌋ is RV. x. 10. 12 a, b, which latter, however, reads in a te tanvā̀ tanvàṁ sám. All the mss. leave çayīya at the end unaccented, and both editions read accordingly; we ought in ours to have made the necessary emendation to çáyīya. The mss. vary in c between ásaṁyat, asaṁyát, ásaṁyát, and asaṁyat; SPP. gives in his text ásaṁyat, which is better than our asaṁyát; the pada-text divides asam॰yat. The comm. reads instead asuṁ yat, and supplies a verb, apaharet, to govern asum.


15. A weakling (? batá), alas, art thou, O Yama; we have not found mind and heart thine; verily, another woman shall embrace thee, as a girth a harnessed [horse], as a twining plant (líbujā) a tree.

RV. x. 10. 13 varies from this only by reading (as also our Bp.) in d ṣvajāte. The translation given of kakṣyè ’va yuktám agrees with the comm. (also the comm. to RV.), which renders yuktam by svasambaddham açvam. Pāda b evidently alludes to 14 c, where Yama talks of his mind and heart. If batás is a genuine word (the metrical disarray intimates corruption), it looks like being the noun of which the common exclamation bata is by origin the vocative. The RV. Anukr. takes no notice of the defective meter; ours requires the verse to be read as only 40 syllables, which is possible (10 + 9: 10 + 11 = 40); ⌊c and d are good triṣṭubh pādas and b has a triṣṭubh cadence⌋.


16. Another man, truly, O Yamī, another man shall embrace thee, as a twining plant a tree; either do thou seek his mind or he thine; then make for thyself very excellent concord (samvíd).

RV. x. 10. 14 has for a the much better version anyám ū ṣú tváṁ yamy anyá u tvā́m, and in b again ṣvajāte. Our D., and a single ms. of SPP's (with the comm.), also have anyam ⌊at the beginning⌋, and SPP. accordingly admits anyám into his text, in spite of the absence of tvám. But the comment on the Prāt. three times (under ii. 97; iii. 4; iv. 98) reads anya ū ṣu, and it cannot well be questioned that this is the true text of our AV. Our P.M.E. accent again yámi. The Anukr. takes no notice of the lacking syllable in a; ⌊perhaps it balances c against a⌋.


17. Three meters the poets extended (? vi-yat)—the many-formed one, the admirable, the all-beholding; waters, winds, herbs—these are set (ā́rpita) in one being (bhúvana).

The verse is extremely obscure, in meaning and in connection. The mss. vary much as regards the accent of pururūpam; two of ours (O.D.) and several of SPP's accent -rū́p-, which, as it is found in other texts, the latter has very properly admitted in his edition. The comm. renders ví yetire by yatnaṁ kṛtavantaḥ. The Anukr. takes no notice of the irregularity of the meter. ⌊Concerning this prakṣipta-verse, "glossenartige Parallelstelle," see Weber, Sb. 1895, p. 819 note, and p. 828.⌋


18. The bull yieldeth (duh) milks for the bull with the milking of the sky (dív), he the unharmable son (? yahvá) of Aditi; everything knoweth he, like Varuṇa, by thought (dhī́); he, sharing the sacrifice (yajñíya), sacrificeth to the seasons that share the sacrifice.