Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/529

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985
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK XIX.
-xix. 52
with less alteration of the original text than our version requires. Ppp. is wholly corrupt: yathed yasmā nitājaya yathed anyān upāyatī; but the last pāda favors SPP's conjecture.


7. Unto the dawn, O night, do thou commit us all, free from guilt; may the dawn bestow (ā-bhaj) us on the day, the day on thee, O shining one.

The comm., two of SPP's reciters, and Ppp., read in c bhajat. Compare the verse 48. 2, above ⌊and MB. i. 5. 15, there cited⌋.


51. Accompanying acceptance (?).

[Brahman.—dve. 1. ātmadevatyā; 2. sāvitrī. 1. 1-p. brāhmy anuṣṭubh; 2. 3-p. yavamadhyo ’ṣṇih (1, 2. 1-av.).]

⌊Prose.⌋ Both the "verses" of this hymn are quoted in Kāuç. 91. 3, in the madhuparka ceremony, accompanying acceptance (prati-grah) of the offering. The second verse contains a formula very often used in the liturgical literature,* and this formula, as far as hastābhyām, occurs several times in Kāuç., given in full, and not to be regarded as having anything to do with the verse here; the same is the case with the use of the formula in Vāit. 3.9. There is nothing to correspond to the hymn in Pāipp. *⌊An idea of its frequency may be gained from the array of citations (fourscore or more) given by Knauer in his Index to MGS., p. 151 a. See the table on p. 896, and cf. p. 896, end.⌋

Translated: Griffith, ii. 308.


1. Unrepelled (? áyuta) am I, unrepelled my soul, unrepelled my sight, unrepelled my hearing, unrepelled my breath, unrepelled my expiration, unrepelled my out-breathing, unrepelled the whole of me.

We unfortunately lack the comm's interpretation of áyuta, there being a lacuna in the ms. at this point; SPP. supplies sampūrṇa, it does not appear on what authority, but certainly without the least particle of plausibility. ⌊The count of the Anukr. (48 syllables) implies restoration of all the elided a's.⌋


2. In the impulse of the heavenly impeller (savitṛ́), with the arms of the Açvins, with the hands of Pūshan, I, impelled, take hold of thee.

To render (in the first clause) 'of god Savitar' would hide the word-play between prasava and savitṛ. The syllables (if the a of açvinos is restored) count 10 + 11 + 6 = 27: a pretty poor uṣṇih.


52. Of and to desire (kā́ma).

[Brahman.—pañcakam. mantroktakāmadāivatam. trāiṣṭubham. 3. 4-p. uṣṇih; 5. upariṣṭādbṛhatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. i. Used* in Kāuç. 6. 37, with xix. 59, at the very end of the sections on the parvan-ceremony (hence perhaps a later addition?), to appease the fuel, in case there has been an omission of the due ceremony; again, in 45. 17 (with iii. 29. 7; vi. 71; vii. 67), after the end of the vaçācamana ceremony (also here a later addition?), to accompany the acceptance of something; once more, in 68. 29, in the savayajñas, with the acceptance of the sacrificial gifts (? sadakṣiṇam) and the Paddhati (note to