4. May we ascend (ruh) a hundred autumns.
5. May we prosper a hundred autumns.
6. May we be a hundred autumns.
7. May we adorn a hundred autumns.
8. More autumns than a hundred.
The comm.* reckons the hymn as only one verse; the Anukr. and all the mss. ⌊see SPP's ed., p. 543, note 1⌋ count eight verses, and SPP. also adopts this. The first two verses are the last two pādas of RV. vii. 66. 16; they are found also in GGS. iii. 8. 5; a third verse, with çṛṇuyāma, is added in PGS. i. 6. 3; ⌊MS., at iv. 9. 20, has four pādas, with çṛṇuyā́ma pushed to the fourth place by the insertion of prábravāma (ed. prábruv-) in the third;⌋ and the series is carried further in VS. xxxvi. 24, which, beginning as does PGS., has five pādas, ⌊with prábravāma in the fourth, and ádīnāḥ syāma in the fifth, and⌋ with the added ending bhū́yaç ca çarádaḥ çatā́t, which needs emendation. ⌊MGS., at i. 22. 11, agrees with VS.⌋ In TA. iv. 42. 5 and in HGS. i. 7. 10 ⌊the series is carried to eight pādas⌋: these agree from 1 to 7 ⌊with páçyema, jī́vema, nándāma, módāma, bhávāma, çṛṇávāma, prábravāma⌋, and differ only in the eighth, where TA. has ájītāḥ syāma against ajitāḥ syāma of HGS.; and both have the added ending jyók ca sū́ryaṁ dṛçé. In none of the other versions is there anything to help us with the doubtful forms in the Atharvan. In vs. 3, most of the mss. read búddhema (some búdhema); our emendation búdhyema is given also by the comm., and SPP. adopts it. In vs. 5, on the other hand, the mss., the comm., and SPP., give the wholly anomalous pū́ṣema (= puṣṭim labhemahi, comm.); SPP. ought to have emended to púṣyema, as we had done. Bhū́yema (= bhūyāsma, comm.) in vs. 7 is another impossibility retained by SPP. In vs. 8 all the mss. have bhū́yasī ⌊or -āsī⌋; but the comm. has -sīs, and so SPP. has the courage to adopt and read it, as we had done before. *⌊At p. 5439.⌋
68. With ceremonial performance.
[Brahman.—ekarcam. mantroktakarmamātradevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]
Found in Pāipp. xix. Quoted once in the text of Kāuç. (139. 10), in the ceremony of introduction to Vedic study, as to be murmured prior to pronouncing, by pādas, the Gāyatrī (RV. iii. 62. 10), and the Atharvan verses iv. 1. 1 and i. 1. 1 (or 1-4). But the various schol. (the Paddhati, Daç. Kar., Keçavī) make frequent mention and use of it: thus (see note to Kāuç. 25. 36), it is reckoned to a svastivācana; it is used in the sīmantonnayana (to 35. 20) and godāna (to 53. 2) ceremonies; it is added (note to 57. 22) to vii. 33. 1 in the ceremony of restoring lost fire, in the initiation of a Vedic student; it is used in the vedavratāni (to 57. 32), in the annaprāçana (to 58. 19), and the preparation for the marriage ceremonies (to 75. 1), and for the ājyatantra (to 137. 4), and in the introduction to the rājakarmāṇi of §14 (p. 315, l. 2). In all this is very probably to be seen only the influence of the occurrence of védam and of kármāṇi kṛṇmahe in the second half-verse; it need not imply any real comprehension of the obscure verse, with recognition of its appropriateness to all these various situations. ⌊As to the critical bearing of the uses of the vs. in the ritual, cf. the table on p. 896, and see p. 897, line 12.⌋
Translated: Griffith, ii. 319.
1. Of non-expansion and of expansion do I untie the aperture with magic; by those two having taken up the Veda, we then perform acts.
