Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/378

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iv. 34-
BOOK IV. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
208

Several of our mss. (P.M.W.E.) combine in d dhenúṣ kām-. Ppp. has for a imam odanam pacasi miçraddhadhāno; in b, lokajitiyaṁ svargyam (the comm. also has the better reading svargyam); in c, kṣeṣṭa sadasiṣyamāṇā; for d, viçvarūpā kāmadughā dhenur astu me. The verse is irregular in meter: 12 + 11: 12 + 13 = 48.


35. Extolling a rice-mess offering.

[Prajāpati.—ātimartyam.* trāiṣṭubham: 3. bhurij; 4. jagatī.]

Not found in Pāipp. Used by Kāuç. (66. 11) in the sava sacrifices, with a sava for escaping death (atimṛtyu) and, according to the comm., also in the ceremony of expiation for the birth of twin calves (109. 1; he reads yam odanam iti, instead of yamāu janayati, which the edition has). *⌊The Berlin Anukr. reads ātimārcyam.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 438; Griffith, i. 177; Weber, xviii. 139.


1. The rice-mess which Prajāpati, first-born of righteousness, cooked with fervor (tápas) for Brahmán; which, separator of the worlds, shall not harm (?)—by that rice-mess let me overpass death.

For the obscure and questionable nā́ ’bhiréṣāt in c (no tense-stem réṣa occurs elsewhere in AV.) the comm. reads nābhir ekā; Ludwig, ignoring accent and pada-text (ná: abhi॰réṣāt), understands nābhi-reṣāt "breach of the navel"; two of our mss. (O.Op.) read nā́bhiréṣāṁ ⌊and Weber conjectured nā́bhir eṣām⌋. The refrain is found also as concluding pāda of a verse in ĀpÇS. iv. 11. 3. The Anukr. does not note that b is jagatī.


2. That by which the being-makers overpassed death; which they discovered by fervor, by toil (çráma); which the bráhman of old cooked for Brahmán—by that rice-mess let me overpass death.

The comm. explains bhūtakṛ́tas as prāṇināṁ kartāro devāḥ, but ṛṣayas is always the noun used with it.


3. That which sustained the all-nourishing earth; which filled the atmosphere with sap; which, uplifted, established the sky with might—by that rice-mess let me overpass death.

The comm. explains viçvabhojasam by kṛtsnasya prāṇijātasya bkogyabhūtām.


4. That out of which were fashioned the thirty-spoked months; out of which was fashioned the twelve-spoked year; that which circling days-and-nights did not attain—by that rice-mess let me overpass death.

SPP. gives in c the pada-reading ahorātrā́ḥ, as required by the participle pariyántas; all the pada-mss. have -trā́; the comm. has paryantas, but explains it as paryāvartamānās, and says nothing about the abnormal form. The verse (11 + 13: 11 + 11 = 46) is in no respect a jagatī; the ejection of yásmāt in b would make it regular.


5. That which became breath-giving, possessing breath-giving ones (?); for which worlds rich in ghee flow; whose are all the light-filled directions—by that rice-mess let me overpass death.

The pada-text does not divide prāṇadáḥ, and it makes the division prāṇadá॰vān, which the translation follows; our text (either by a misprint or by an unsuccessful