680 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
the Padapa/^a are divided between na ava*prabhra^sanam
and na ava pra*bhra;;wanam. At any rate the ship which
brings down the kush//*a (Soma, the moon ?), and Manu's
ship, may have nothing to do with one another except
their mutual suggestion. Pada a seems to have stood ori-
ginally, yatra n&v&k prabhra;/^anam. See Weber in Kuhn
and Schleicher's Beitrage zur vergleichenden Sprachfor-
schung, IV, 388 ; Grohmann, Indische Studien, IX, 423 ;
Zimmer, 1. c, p. 30 ; Eggeling, Sacred Books of the East,
vol. xii, p. 218, note.
a. We have not translated the text of the vulgate, yim tva. veda purva ikshvakor, a by no means certain restora- tion, since the MSS. of the Sawhita have ikshvako (ishvako), and those of the Padapa//za ikshvaka/z (fshvaka/^). Saya/za comments upon the nominative, puratana ikshvaku ra^a, and that presupposes a more natural reading, ya//z tva veda pfirva ikshvakur, the one adopted for our version. Although this handles the text more severely, I could not get myself to feel certain that purva ikshvako/^ could mean 'the ancestor of Ikshvaku/ as useful as this result is for the current inter- pretation of the preceding stanza 1.
b. The text is doubtful, the MSS. read kush//£a kamya^ (kamya/z). Accordingly Saya^a takes kush^a as vocative and translates kamya/^ as a patronymic, ' the son of Kama/ I could not follow him, but the treatment of the words in the vulgate as a compound, kush///akamya/z, ' women fond of kush^a,' is also doubtful. Perhaps the use of the plants in unguents (AV. VI, 102, 3) is in the mind of the poet. Professor Whitney in the Index Verborum assumes a nomi- native singular masculine kush^akamyas. Ludwig, * der den kusht/ia. liebt (besser, der sohn derer, die den kush///a liebt).'
e. The text as translated is, yim vayaso yam matsyas.
1 Ludwig in the same sense suggests putra ikshvakor, ' the son of Ikshvaku/ But why should this lectio facillima have been completely lost ?
Xix, 53- Commentary. 68 T
The MSS. have ykm va vaso (or vaso) yam atsyas. S&ya/za, moreover, comments upon yamasya^, as follows : yamasya asyam iva asya^ yasya sa tadr/>o (vasa^) etannama devo veda. Matsya is the name of a royal sacrificer in Sat. Br. XIII, 5, 4, 9, and of a Rtshi skilled in special practices in Tait. Br. I, 5, 2, 1 ; and Vayasa, though not quotable as a proper name, might yet be such a one. But vayasa ordi- narily means * large bird,' and matsya suggests matsya, ' fish.' I see nothing good to be done with this suggestion. The translation of the Pada is altogether problematic.
a. The vulgate emends .rirshaloka/^ to ^irshaj-oka^, ' that burns the head ' (inadvertently omitted in the text). To be convinced, we need but watch Saya/za's contortions, when once he is misguided by the traditional text. He refers sirshalok&m to the kush//£a-plant instead of the tak- man : ' your head (O kushMa) is in the third heaven.' But every epithet in Padas a, b refers to the takman, as may be seen by comparing V, 22, 13 ; see the note to the passage.
b. For sada^di, see the note on V, 22, 13 b. h&yana either sums up the varieties of the takman which are described in V, 22, 13 as ^arada, graishma, and varshika, and would then have to be translated c occurring through the year ; ' or it means simply ' yearly,' i. e. occurring (at a given time) every year ; ' cf. vuva^arada at IX, 8, 6 ; XIX, 34, 10. Involuntarily one thinks, too, of Zend zayana, ' winter' (Yasna 64, 20, Yasht 13, 8), and asks whether Vedic hayana does not primarily mean * winter ' and ' wintery ; ' afterwards poetically * year ' and { yearly.' Then hayana here might be added as a fourth variety of the takman to the jdrada, graishma, and varshika. Scarcely probable.
c. For vLsvadhavirya, see V, 22, 3.
XIX, 53. Commentary to page 224.
This and the following hymn, being theosophic and
cosmogonic in character, play no part in the practices of
the Atharvan, except that they are recited (under the
682 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
designation kalasukta) along with the kamasukta (AV. IX, %\ and the purushasukta (AV. XIX, 6 = RV. X, 90) in the tenth Atharva-parLrish/a, the Bhumidana. Saya/za has the following statement in his introduction to this and the following hymn : 'kalo a^vo vahati' iti suktadvayasya sau- varaabhumidane a^yahome viniyoga^, ukta;/z hi parmshfe, anvarabhya^tha^rihuyat kamasukta/^ kalasukta^/ purusha- suktam (Ath. Pam. 10, 1).
The hymn has been treated many times : Muir> Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 407; Ludwig> Der Rigveda> III, 191 ; Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom3, p. 35; Lucian Scher- man, Philosophische Hymnen aus der Rig- und Atharva- Veda-Sanhita (Strassburg, 1887), p, 78 fif. ; Grill 2> pp. 73, 193 fT* ; cf. also Hillebrandt's Vedachrestomathie, p. 41. The Anukrama/21 ascribes the authorship of the hymn to Bhrzgu, and defines stanzas 6-10 as, mantroktasarvatmaka- kaladevatya anushAibha iti*
a. Saya/^a imagines the seven rays as being tied to the mouthj neck, and feet of the steed, and explains them as being the six seasonSj each of two months, the thirteenth (lunar) month of the intercalary year being the seventh1. This is the same explanation as is offered by Saya/^a at RV. I, T64, % for sapta yu^-anti, and SayaTza to our pas- sage offers further in support of his interpretation RV. I, 164, 15, where the thirteenth month is probably described ; see Haug, Vedische Rathselfragen und Rathselspruche, p. 23 (Proceedings of the Bavarian Academy, 1876). Saya;/a here, as well as at RV. I, 164, 2, suggests the seven rays of the sun (cf. AV. VII, 107 ; X, 8, 9 ; XIII, 3, 10) as an alternate explanation, relying upon Yaska's Nirukta IV, 27. The occidental interpretations of this expression —
1 For the thirteenth month, see *Sat. Br. II, 2, 3, 27, and Professor Eggeling's note on his translation, Sacred Books, vol. xii, p. 321, note 6. Also, especially, Professor Weber's learned note in ' Die vedischen Nachrichten von den Nakshatra/ II, p. 336, note.
Xix, 53- Commentary. 683
none of them satisfactory — are enumerated by Scherman, pp. 78, 81, and Grill, p. 193. I am inclined to believe in the kinship of our passage with RV. I, 164, 2, and also in a semi-lucid blending of the attributes of time with those of the sun. Cf. AV. XIII, 2, 39, where Rohita, a form of the sun, is identified with time ; see Henry, Les Hymnes Rohitas, pp. 13, 44, and Contributions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, p. 430. The Maitri-Upanishad states distinctly that the sun is the source of time, suryo yomk kalasya (VI, 14).
b. sahasraksha is an attribute of a great variety of divini- ties, and it does not, therefore, contribute to the definition of the passage, see the note on IV> 20, 4 ; Saya/za, saha- srakira/zopeta^, i.e. the sun. a^-ara and bhurireta^ are attributes of the two Ushas at AV. VIII, 9, 12. The latter, in the RV., only of heaven and earth ; the former, again, of an almost complete assortment of divinities. One must not be too insistent with a later Atharvan production, the poet makes draughts upon the entire stock of mythic and cosmogonic ideas ; the poetic past is his kamadhuk ; he cares not for nicety of distinction.
c. Saya/za: 'The ^z'shis mount (i.e. control) time,' svadhinaf/z kurvanti, svadhinakala bhavanti.
a. The MSS. have £akran which Roth and Whitney emend to £akra; Shankar Pandit adheres to the MS. reading. Saya/za comments upon £akra*nu vahati (sapta rztun anu anukrame/za . . . dharayati). The seven wheels occur again at RV. I, 164, 3. 12, where Saya^a refers them to the seven modes of subdividing the year. But the scholiast to the present passage, again, as in st. 1, has in mind the seven seasons (sapta rztun), i. e., the six seasons and the intercalary month. A wagon with seven wheels occurs also at RV. II, 40, 3, where it is employed by Soma and Pushan to carry the gods. Cf. also the Brzhaddevata, IV, 33.^
b. Saya/za comments upon amrzta//z tanv aksha/£, to wit :
684 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
asya aksha^ tanu sa.mta.tam sukshmam amrztam amara/za- dharmakam avinaivaraM tattvam.
o. The MSS. have a;//£*at, a;//£*at (enclitic), and anyat. Shankar Pandit relying upon Saya/za adopts angat, which the latter renders by a.ngaxi . . . vyaktikurvan. I do not see how we can well escape Roth and Whitney's emenda- tion to arvah in the light of pratyah in the next stanza, and in that case it seems desirable to supply vahati, ' carries,' from Pada a. But we may render also, ' he turns towards all these beings/ Muir, 'he is at present all these worlds ;' Grill. ' er fahrt herbei mit jenen wesen alien ; ' Ludwig, ' er (fahrt) herwarts alle dise welten ; ' Scherman, ' er (fahrt) herwarts kommend alle diese wesen/
d. All translators, except Scherman, render iyate as a verb of motion (Saya/za, in gatau) 1 ; Scherman, ' Kala wird als der erste gott angefleht/ Cf. Tait. Br. Ill, 12, 9, 1, rigbhi/i purvah/ze divi deva iyate (schol. ga^Mati), ya^urvede tish/^ati madhye ahna^, samavedena*stamaye mahiyate. Read seyate with crasis.
a. Ludwig explains the full jar as the sun : Saya/za,
better, as the year with its days and nights, months and
seasons. The Pada is an irregular gagati (read pur/za^ as
three syllables).
b. The MSS. of the vulgate, sintaA, which is emended to santam. Shankar Pandit gives santa/z (accent !) as the reading of both Sa/^hita and Padapa//£a ; Saya^a translates it by ' good men/ satpurusha/&. The emendation can be avoided : ' him we see being in many places/
c. Ludwig, ' er (fiihrt) hinweg alle dise welten ; ' Scher- man, ' er (Kala) [fahrt] zuriickgewandt alle diese Wesen/ The Pada is antithetical to st. 1 c, and indicates decay and death as over against life and growth. Cf. Mait. Up. VI, 14 (end), 'From Time all beings flow, from Time they grow, and into Time they set/ Possibly we may render, ' he turns away from all these beings/
1 So also Ludwig here, but in the almost identical passage, XIX, 54, 6, 'wird angefleht/ It seems impossible to decide.
Xix, 53- Commentary. 685
a. b. In both Padas the caesura is after eva, the pas- sage before the caesura being defective ; the first Pada is a ^agati. Grill, p. 195, by way of amending the metre, goes far in the direction of composing the Padas anew. Ludwig reads san for sa//z in both Padas, and his suggestion is supported by one of Shankar Pandit's MSS. of the Pada- pazV&a. He translates : ' er allein ist, und als solcher hat er die welten gebracht, er allein ist, und als solcher kam er um alle welten herum.,
c. The caesura again after the first three syllables.
The metre is irregular, especially in the first Pada : the Anukrama;zi, nivrzt (nikrzt) purastadbrzhati. Read prz'thvlr in Pada b, and possibly diva^anayat in Pada a.
b. The ' three earths ' are meant ; see IV, 20, 2, and
our note on the same. Saya/za, sanrapra/zyadharabhuta/z
prithivik ; he also quotes RV. I, 108, 9.
c. The MSS., both Sa;/zhita and Padapa^a, kale ha. I follow Roth and Whitney in reading kalena.
d. The MSS. unanimously, havi's tish/^ate, which is emended by the same editors to ha vi tishz^ate. In this they were forestalled by Saya/za, vi tishzVfote vueshe/za asritam vartate. Grill, ' auf grund des Kala steht es fest,' a translation that seems less probable than ours.
a. The MSS. have bhutim wThich Roth and Whitney
have changed to bhumim. Saya/za also comments upon
bhutim, but he approaches closely to the value of bhumim,
bhavanava^-^agat. We with the vulgate.
In Tait. Ar. IX, 3-6 = Tait. Up. Ill, 3 ff. the funda- mental principles prd/za, manas, vi^Tzana (similar to nama in this stanza), and ananda are described ; cf. especially the expression, anandad dhy eva khalv imani bhutani
686 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
^•ayante with the second half of our stanza. See also AV. XI, 4, 4 ff., and Scherman, 1. c, p. 71. For the posi- tion of nama in philosophical cosmogony, cf. also Tait. Ar.
Ill, 12, 7.
For discussions of tapas and brahma, see Scherman, 1. c, p. 1 (note on RV. X, 129, 3), and Grill, p. 196, both con- taining references to previous efforts in behalf of these words. Saya/za well translates tapas by, ^agatsar^ana- vishaya//z paryalo^anam. In explanation of ^yesh^am he has, hira/zyagarhhakhya/^z tattvam. His translation for brahma is mechanical : sango veda/z, ' the Veda and its Angas.' For Pada d, cf. our notion of ' Father Time.'