Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/400

(Op.D. ugráḥ; O.R.K. ugraḥ ⌊accentless!⌋). The comm. renders a, b thus: "the mighty one, Agni, looks near by upon the birth of the gods, Indra etc., as in a noisy (kṣumati = çabdavati) herd (yūthā being = yūthe) of kine a master sees his own cattle (paçvas)": or, he says, it is the consuming fire that is addressed: "O Agni, this sacrificer who is being consumed by thee, mighty by thy favor, in a noisy cattle-crowd, looks upon the birth of the gods as upon herds of cattle (paçvas); the sense being that the gods come to light in the neighborhood of him who has gone to the world of the gods." This is the kind of help that the commentator gives in a difficult passage. Urváçīs is to him the Apsarases, Urvaçī etc.; and akṛpran = akalpayan, which means upabhoktuṁ samarthā bhavanti. Aryás = svāmī. The verse can be forced into the compass of forty syllables (11 + 8: 10 + 11 = 40), as the Anukr. estimates it.

*⌊The RV. verse has been discussed by Bloomfield, JAOS. xx.¹, p. 183. He renders c, d thus: "Even for mortal men Urvaçīs ere fashioned for the production of the noble lower Āyu." He takes akṛpran as 'there were formed,' aor. pass. of kṛp = kḷp: of. the akalpayan of our comm. and the kḷptās of Sāyaṇa on RV. He explains: Just as Urvaçī, the goddess Cloud, produces the celestial fire, so the fire-drills (called urváçīs) produce for mortals the terrestrial sacrificial fire (úpara āyú).

24. We have made [sacrifices] for thee; we have been very active; the illuminating (vi-bhā) dawns have shone upon [our] rite (ṛtá); all that is excellent which the gods favor; may we talk big at the council, having good heroes.

The first half-verse is, without variant, RV. iv. 2. 19 a, b; the second half is, also without variant, RV. ii. 23. 19 c, d (and VS. xxxiv. 58 c, d). Many of the mss., however, (including our Bs.O.K.) combine in a-b to abhūma rtám. The comm. has in b the strange reading avasvan (voc.: = avanavan or pālaka).

25. Let Indra with the Maruts protect me from the eastern quarter; arm-moved [is] the earth, as it were to the sky above; to the world-makers, the road-makers, do we sacrifice, whoever of you are here, sharing in the oblation of the gods.

⌊As for this whole passage, vss. 25-37, see my introductory notes, p. 847, ¶ 8, and Caland's orientation of it in his Todtengebräuche, p. 154.⌋ This is a very curious and obscure refrain (its last two pādas occur again as refrain of 4. 16-24). In b, bāhucyútā(which ought to mean 'by a mover, or a moving, of arms') is rendered as if it were bāhúcyutā; ⌊Weber proposes to emend to -tām;⌋the comm. also takes -cyutā as past pass. pple., glossing it by vinirgatā, or, in an alternative explanation, by prāptā: either "proceeded out from the arms of the givers" or "arrived in the arms of the receivers"; the allusion being to the giving of land to Brahmans: "as land given protects in the future (upári) the heavenly world which is to be enjoyed by both parties"! The use by the sūtras casts no light upon the meaning. Vāit. (22. 3) prescribes the verse for use with an offering to the Maruts in the agniṣṭoma ceremony ⌊doubtless on account of the word marutvān⌋. In Kāuç. (81. 39), this verse alone, so far as appears ⌊but the comm., p. 152⁵, says vss. 25-29⌋, is combined with 1. 41-43 etc. to accompany the offerings to Sarasvatī at the funeral pile; again (85. 26), vss. 25-37 (the comm. says, 25-35) are used with 2. 24, 26, etc. in connection with the interment of the bone-relics. ⌊This last use does indeed perhaps cast light on the passage. The previous sūtra, 85. 25, with Caland's emendation (l.c., p. 154), reads: edam barhir [xviii. 4. 52] ity