d. ParameshMin is one of the numerous designations of the supreme being, almost monotheistic in character, which serves to form a transition stage from the earlier poly- theism to the pantheism of the Upanishads. Essentially the same idea is incorporated above in the term ^yesh/^a, which Saya/za fitly explains as hira/zyagarbha, 'golden embryo/ another embodiment of the same idea. Simi- larly vi^vakarman, ' fabricator of the universe,' svayambhu, ' self-existing;' cf. the next stanza, and AV. X, 7, 17.
d. Ka^yapa is a divine being identical or parallel with Pra^apati. This style of literature is likely ever to have in mind the pun of the Tait. Ar. I, 8, 8, kasyapak pa^yako bhavati, * Ka^yapa is a seer,' and this leads to the suspicion that the name is merely a personification of the sun ; cf. our note on AV. IV, 20, 7. The epithet 'self-existing' must not be taken too literally : svayambhu is one of the many names of the supreme being (see the preceding note), and as such is mentioned along with the others. Muir, 1. c, p. 408, note, suggests in the light of this passage the unlikely theory that, ' this word must therefore be regarded as not necessarily meaning anything more than one who
Xtx, 54. Commentary. 687
comes into existence in an extraordinary and supernatural manner.'
XIX, 54. Commentary to page 225.
The hymn has been rendered by Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 408 ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III. 191 ; Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen, pp. 80, 82. Cf. also the introduc- tion to XIX, 53.
See the Ka///a-Upanishad IV, 9 : ' Both whence the sun rises, and where he sets — on him all the gods are placed ; no one whatsoever goes beyond that. This truly is that.' Cf. also AV. X, 8, 16 ; Sat. Br. XIV, 4, 3, 34 = Bnh. Ar. Up. I, 5, 23 ; and Tait. Ar. VIII, 8.
The MS. tradition reports this stanza as consisting of three (gayatri) Padas. But a better division of the re- mainder of the hymn results if we add two Padas of the third stanza (making a pankti), fuse the remaining two Padas of stanza 3 with the first two of stanza 4, and the remaining two of stanza 4 with the first two of stanza 5. This leaves the last two (trish/ubh) Padas of stanza 5 to make up one (our fifth) stanza, along with the two (trish/ubh) Padas printed in Roth and Whitney's edition as the sixth stanza1 — an arrangement in form and sense manifestly superior to the traditional one. Saya^a makes this arrange- ment and deserves credit for it.
d, e ( = 3 a, b in the MSS.). The MSS. have kalo ha
bhuta/^ bhavya^ ka. putro a^-anayat pura/z (one of Shankar
Pandit's Pada-MSS. pura). Roth and Whitney emend,
kale ha bhuta;^ bhavya//z ka. mantro a^-anayat pura. We
adopt this text with the exception of mantro, for which
we have retained the original putro. Saya/za reads and
1 Not so in Shankar Pandit's MSS. of the text, where the arrangement is that of the vulgata, except that the last two trishAibh Padas are added to stanza 5, making it to consist of six Padas,
688 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
comments, kalenai*va pitra prerake/za putra^ pra^apati/z bhutam, &c.
Made up of st. 3 c, d and 4 a, b in the MSS. With it
cf. Tait. Br. Ill, 12, 9, 1 and AV. XIX, 6, i3 = RV. X, 90,
9=Va£-. S. XXXI, 7 = Tait An III, 12, 4.
c ( = 4 a in the MSS.). The MSS. read kalo yagn&m sam airayan ; one MS. of the Padapa//£a corrects airayan to airayat, as also Saya^a, who reads and comments, sam- airayat udapadayat. Shankar Pandit adopts this reading, and it is at the base of our translation. Roth and Whitney, on the other hand, restore kale ydLgnim sam airayan, which is the text translated by all our predecessors*
Made up of 4 c, d and 5 a, b of the MSS.
c (=5 a of the MSS.). Saya^a reads devo for divo, which leaves kale to depend upon adhi tish/^ata/z, to wit : angira nama deva/z . . . so * yam atharva atharvavedasrash/a devai* ks. kale sva^anake adhi tish/^ati. Shankar Pandit adopts Saya/^a's text.
Made up of 5 c, d and 6 of the vulgata.
b. vidhritik is translated by Saya/za futilely, lokadharakan. Muir's ' ordinances ' is untenable in the light of the remain- ing occurrences of the word (cf. Pet. Lex.) ; Ludwig, ' die reinen vidhr/ti (zwischenraume, weltgegenden).' Scherman cites KMnd. Up. VIII, 4, 1 and AV. IV, 35, 1 in support of the rendering ' zwischenraume.' Perhaps ' boundary- line' comes nearest to the sense of the original.
d. For iyate, cf. the note on XIX, 54, 2 d.
XX, 127. Commentary to page 197.
The Vedic hymns furnish the germs of a not inconsider- able part of the themes of the later epic narratives, notably in the Mahabharata and the Pura/^as. Especially the danastutis, ' gift-praises,' either independent hymns, or
Xx, I27. Commentary. 689
stanzas at the end of hymns, lauding the generosity of kings or sacrificers to the officiating Brahmans, appear as preliminary stages in the development of epic narratives in praise of warlike kings and heroes. Closely allied with these are the so-called gatha narasamsyak 7, ' stanzas which sing the praises of men,' jlokas which occur in the Brahma^a-texts, dealing with this theme in exorbitant terms. The Brahmanical authorities agree in assigning the so-called kuntapa-hymns, XX, 127-136, to this kind of literature, and the opening stanza of XX, 127 leaves no room for doubting their correctness. The Ait. Br. VI. 32 ff. 2 works up the material of the kuntapa-hymns at the sattras, the ' soma-sessions,' or prolonged soma-sacrifices, at which seventeen priests perform their functions. See Roth, Uber den Atharva-veda (Tubingen, 1856), p. 6 ff. ; Max Miiller, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 493 ; Haug's translation of the Ait. Br., p. 430 ff., and Weber, Episches im vedischen Ritual, Proceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy, July 23, 1891, XXXVIII, p. 770 ff. (p. 4 ff. of the reprint).
AV. XX, 127 consists of four pieces, dealing with dif- ferent themes ; the ritual employs each of them distinc- tively under the names nara\ya;/zsi, raibhi, parikshiti, and karavya. Two of these names, na.rasa.msi and raibhi, occur as early as RV. X, 85, 6 ; Tait. S. VII, 5, 11, 2. Quite a number of the stanzas of kuntapa-hymns are quoted in the Brahma/zas, exhibiting essentially the same textual corruption as the Atharvan version. The iarikh. Sr. XII, 14 ff. exhibits then! in full : AV. XX, 127 = Saiikh. Sr. XII, 14-17.
1 Sometimes gatha^ (indragatha^) and naraja/^sya^ are differen- tiated, being mentioned separately, Tait. S. VII, 5, 11, 2; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5; Ait. Br. VI, 32, 3. 25; -Sat. Br. XI, 5, 6, 8 ; ksv. Grzh. Ill, 3, 1 ff. ; Ya^T/av. I, 45. The Br/'haddevata, III, 154, states explicitly that the nara^a^si-verses are of the nature of d&nastutis.
2 Cf. also Kaush. Br. XXX, 5; Sahkh. *SY. XII, 14; Asv. Sr. VIII, 3, 7 ff. ; Vait. SA. 32, 19 ff. ; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12 ff.
[42] Y y
6gO HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
The first three stanzas, known in the ritual (Ait. Br. VI, 32, 4~ff. ; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5 ; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12) as the nara.ya//zsya/£ (sc. rika/i), contain a danastuti. Their appli- cation, especially in the Ait. Br., contributes nothing to their elucidation. At Tait. S. VII, 5, 11, 2 the commen- tator defines them as manushyavishayakhyanapara riks.k^ ' stanzas devoted to the narration of human affairs/ But n&rai-awsa can scarcely fail to allude in some manner to nara^a;^sa (Agni); cf. the next two parts.
The Ruxamas are praised as liberal bestowers of dakshma
in RV. V, 30, 12-15 ; d. also RV. VIII, 3, 12 ; 4, 2. See
Zimmer, p. 129. The stanza is quoted Asv. Sr. VIII, 3,
10 ; Sankh. Sr. XII, 14, 1,
Cf. 5ankh. Sr. XII, 14, 2 ; RV. VIII, 5, 37 ; 6, 48 ; 46, 22 ; and Pischel, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, 712. The second hemistich is textually corrupt and obscure. The sense seems to be that the chariot pre- sented by Kaurama as part of the dakshm£ is so high that it seems to just dodge the heavens which in their turn flee from its contact. I read ishama^a(/z) with the Pet. Lex., and Whitney in the Index. The MSS. have lshama/za(^) ; the edition ishama^a(A). The word upaspma^ I have taken as an ablative from the abstract upaspr/i", ' touch, contact.' The Pet. Lex. takes it as an adjective, 'the touching heavens as they recede/ The text of 5ankh. Sr. XII, 14, 2 has ^inflate for ^-ihishate.
The next three stanzas are known in the ritual as raibhya/z (sc. rika/i) ; see Ait. Br. VI, 32, 7 ff. ; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5 ; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12. At Tait. S. VII, 5, it, 2 the commentator explains them as referring to Rebha (Agni), rebha^ sabdakrid agni^ tadvishaya rikah ; Saya^a at Ait.
Xx, 12 7- Commentary. 69 1
Br. — where, as well as at Gop. Br., the treatment of them suggests nothing — defines them more vaguely as rebha^a- bdopeta rik&h. Agni is unquestionably spoken of as rebha, e.g. RV. I, 127, 10; VI, 3, 6; 11, 3; it is therefore not easy to decide whether he, the divine chanter, is addressed here, or whether the poet, the human chanter, is urged to perform his function. I incline to the former view, having in mind especially the parallelism of st. 4 with RV. Ill, 6, 2. The text is very corrupt.
Cf. Sahkh. Sr. XII, 15, 1, and RV. Ill, 6, 2, diva^ kid
agne mahina przthivya va^yantam te vahnaya^ sapta^ihva^,
'by the greatness (Ludwig, 307, along the greatness) of
heaven and earth may thy seven-tongued flames disport
themselves, O Agni ! ' For kshuro bhun^or, cf. the interest-
ing kshuro bhrz^van, Tait. S. IV, 3, 12, 3 (bhr^van for
bhuri^van, not in the lexicons), and Pischel in Vedische
Studien, I, 240, 243.
Stanza 5,
Cf. Sankh. Sr. XII, 14, 4. I have translated rebhaso of
the MSS. ; the edition has the vocative rebhaso. The
text of the second hemistich is very corrupt ; its emended
form in the edition is at the base of our rendering.
Cf. Sankh. Sr. XII, 14, 5, with important variants.
The next four stanzas are known in the ritual as the parikshitya^ (sc. rika/i) ; see vSahkh. Sr. XII, 17 ; Ait. Br. VI, 32, 10 ff. ; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5 ; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12. The Ait. Br. and Gop. Br. advance as one of two expositions the theory that Agni is parikshit, ' since he lives about among the people, and the people live around him/ The text itself admits of no doubt : Agni Vaiwanara, the typi- cal god of Brahmanical piety (5at. Br. I, 4, 1, 10-18), is a kindly ruler among men, and his presence secures the
Y y 2
692 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
prosperity of the golden age. In the later legends Pari- kshit is propagated variously as a terrestrial king.
Cf. 5ankh. Sr. XII, 17, 1. In Pada d we have trans-
lated a' srwota. of the edition ; the MSS. read a sunota (cf.
the Prakrit root su, ' hear ').
The first hemistich is problematic, the comparison of the overflow of the grain with the bursting forth of the light is bold, nay bizarre. The MSS. do not read sva^, as does the edition with .Sankh. Sr. XII, 17, 4. Perhaps sv&k is to be read instead of sva^ (cf. Bloomfield and Spieker in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc, May, ]886; Journ., vol. xiii, p. cxvii ff.) : ' On the morrow the ripe barley bursts forth from the opening of the ground,' i. e. grain planted to-day ripens on the morrow. The second hemistich occurs in a different connection at Vait. Su. 34, 9 ; here also the MSS. read edhati for edhate, as emended in the edition.
The last four stanzas are designated in the ritual as karavya/^ (sc. rzkak), ' referring, or pertaining to the poet ; ' see Sankh. Sr. XII, 15, 2-4 ; Ait. Br. VI, 30, 16 ff. ; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12. The expositions contain nothing but a worthless pun with derivatives of the root kar, 'make.' The general sense of the stanzas is clear. Stanza 12 occurs with variants at Hir. Grzh. I, 22, 9 ; Par. Grzh. I, 8, 10 ; Gobh. Grzh. II, 4, 6 (pratika) ; SV. Mantra-br. I, 3, 13.
d. For the skilfully emended £ano dadhishva, cf. Geldner, Studien zum Avesta, p. 58 ff. ; Roth, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, no.
I. INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Abhayagawa, a list of hymns that
secure immunity from danger,
pages 398, 486, 542, 571, 576,
663.