Here begin the stanzas devoted to Rohim. Cf. RV. I, 39, 6 ; VIII, 7, 28. Both these passages have the nomi- native rohita/^, so that he himself appears as the side horse, the speckled mares or cows of the sky being the main draught-animals. The Atharvan form smacks of adapta- tion, decidedly. For, apparently, Rohita is here in the car, and the speckled female is the side-horse. The gloss on this stanza, Kaui*. 24, 42. 43, which states distinctly that rohita is the sun, pr/shati the sky (dyu), conceives of the latter as a cow1, rather than a mare, as one would expect in the case of the female of the red steed. This is quite
1 The stanza is cited by the Ath. Paddhati (Kauj. 19, 1, note), as one of the push/ika mantra^.
666 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
in accord with the usual description of the dawn ; cf. RV. I, 113, 2; V, 64, 7; 80, 2-4.
The word surf, very common as a masculine, is here, and here alone, feminine. It seems chosen, with conscious straining, for the purpose of alluding to Surya, the female of the sun. We should not forget in this connection the fact that there is another Rohi/zi, the constellation of that name, corresponding to another male divinity of light, the moon ; see Tait. S. II, 3, 5, 1 ; Tait. Br. Ill, 1,1,2; 4, 2 (cf. also Tait. S. I, 1, 7, 7). It is not unlikely that the existence of one of these pairs stimulated the completion of the other. These notions are plastic, and elusive in their multiplicity.
Cf. the similar mantra, Vait. Su. 36, 27. For a possible relation of this stanza and the rohim-episode of the hymn to a certain part of the ceremonies at the horse-sacrifice, see our above-cited essay, p. 435 fif.
This and the next stanza are recited at the £itrakarma,
a rite designed to procure prosperity, during the full moon
of the month £aitra ; see Kau^. 18, 25.
Addressed at the a^yatantra, Kaiu. 137, 10, to him that constructs the fire-altar (vedi). The adjectives payasvatizw, &c, refer doubtless primarily to the earth, the cosmic altar (cf. st. 46).
b. For utpipanam, cf. our discussion, I.e., 441 ff.
c. The Paippalada reads ra.rrnibhL& for ajmana ; this
suggests rasmina, 'with his ray,' but the singular instru-
mental is rare, and in this connection doubtful.
Xiii, I. Commentary. 667
The Vira^* is another personification of the shining female heaven (dawn), and the male sun is viewed here as her calf rather than her husband. The ' bull of prayers' again must refer to the sun : it seems to mean ' he to whom prayers are chiefly directed/ a conception which is fortified imme- diately by the epithet sukraprtshtAa, which I take to be an equivalent of somapr/sh/^a (st. 12). In Pada c it would seem natural to read ghrztenaktam, ' anointed with ghee/ for ghrztenarkam, establishing thus a certain balance be- tween this expression and brahma santam in Pada d. But the construction of abhi ar£ with two accusatives is secure, e.g. AV. VII, 14, 1 ; 72, 1, and at Tait. Br. II, 8, 8, 9 c we have, tarn arkafr abhy ar^anti vatsam. Each reading seems equally good under the circumstances.
Stanza 39.
d. The Paippalada reads vipa^yantam for vipa^itam ;
the reading is not favoured by the metre, and seems in
every way inferior.
Stanza 40.
a. The text as it stands can hardly be sustained. The
Paippalada reads, devo devam ar^ayasi. Henry, without
a knowledge of this, emends to devo devan ar^ayasi ; cf.
our remarks, 1. c, p. 437. We have finally accepted this in
our rendering : the extant 5aunakiya reading must have
arisen on the basis of the reading devo deva^mar^ayasi
with anticipatory anusvara.
A cosmic charade (brahmodyam) = AV. IX, 9, 17, and RV. I, 164, 17 (with the variant anta/£ for asmin in Padad). The subject of the riddle is the dawn. Her calf is the sun, as in st. 33. The disappearance of the dawn at sunrise is depicted prettily, though rather mystically in the second hemistich. The meaning of Pada d is that though a cow she does not beget her calf in this earthly herd : her calf
668 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
is heavenly. Cf. Haug, Vedische Rathselfragen und Rath-
selspriiche, p. 24, for other explanations that seem to us
decidedly strained.
Another, profoundly mystic, charade, essentially identical with IX, 10, 21 and RV. I, 164, 41. Whatever the inde- pendent solution may be (cf. Haug, 1. c, p. 47 ff.), the presence of the stanza here seems to be in some way due to the word pada in 41 b. There the word indicates the part of the body; here, with characteristic jugglery, the metrical ' foot/ The varying light or rays (feet) of the dawn may have suggested the metres with their varying feet, even if the brahmodyam was not really constructed primarily with a view to the answer ' dawn/ It has at any rate no direct bearing upon Rohita, and seems to appear here by way of expanding the laudation of the female divinity of the preceding stanza.
Stanza 45.
Beginning here Surya appears in the role of a cosmic sacrificer, and the elements of the sacrifice familiar in the liturgies are boldly projected into the visible universe. With all the extravagance of the fancies they are on the whole intelligible, and at times not wanting in beauty.
Stanza 56.
Employed at Kaoy. 49, 26 in a conjuration against an
enemy. Pada b, /xr) irpos tov rj\iov optxtiv, Hes. 'Epya kclI
rj^ipat 725.
XIX, 26. Commentary to page 63.
The hymn is not employed in the Kau^ika 1. It is quoted
by Saya;za from the 5antikalpa 1J2, as follows: agne^
pra^atam iti suktena agneyim agnibhaye sarvakamasya ka..
This Saya/za expounds, iti vihitayam agneyyakhyayaw
1 Cf. Kaurika, Introduction, p. xl.
2 Saya/za regularly substitutes Nakshatrakalpa for -Santikalpa.
Xix, 34- Commentary. 669
maha^antau hira^yanirmita;^ ku^aladikam abhimantrya badhniyat. According to this he who is afraid of fire, or desires everything in general, performs ' the great rite of con- secration for Agni, and puts on earrings and so forth, made of gold.' For maha^anti, see Kaui*. 39, 37 ; 43, 5 ; 44, 6 ; 46, 7, and the note on Kaus. 9, 5. Sayana further quotes vSantikalpa 19, in which the hymn is again rubricated : agnek pragatam pari yad dhira^yam iti hira^yam agney- yam, and comments, kar//amadhye Midravad dhira/zya- ku^alam ity artha^. Once more the hymn is rubricated in the Tulapurusha, Ath. Pam. 11, 1, along with other mantras: agne gobhi/z, agne*bhyavartin (Kaiu. 73, 13), agnek pra^atam iti sawpatan udapatra aniya*bhishekakala- ^eshu ninayet. The performances are secondary throughout. The hymn has been translated by Grill2, pp. 49, 193 ; the Anukrama/zi designates it as agneya;/z haira/zyam.
Cf. Tait. Br. I, 2, 1, 4 ; Apast. Sr. XIV, 11, 2. In Pada c enam refers either to mam or some other masculine designa- tion of a jewel. Say ana, hira^yarupa^ padartham arhati.
For pra^avanto manava^, see Bhagavadgita X, 6. The majority of the MSS. read ishire for ishire, and Whitney, Index Verborum, and Roots of the Sanskrit Language, seems to derive the word from ish, ' send.' Saya/za, ishire pra- ptavanta/^.
XIX, 34. Commentary to page 38.
The hymns, AV. XIX, 34 and 35, are not rubricated in either of the Sutras, Kaiurika or Vaitana, and this is in accordance with the general character of the nineteenth book as a paralipomenon in the text of the 5aunaka school; see Kaorika. Introduction, p. xl ff. According to the 5anti- kalpa 17 and 19, both hymns are employed in a maha^anti, ' great consecration' (cf. Kau^. 9, 6, note), pertaining to Vayu, the wind. In reference to this Saya/za has the fol-
67O HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
lowing: pa;z/£ame*nuvake dvadaja suktani, tatra ' gangido *si' iti prathamadvitiyabhya/^ suktabhya^ ' vayavya;/z vatavatyayam ' * iti (5antikalpa 1 7 2) vihitayam vayavya- khyaya;/z mahajantau ^angk/avrzkshanirmita/^ manim ba- dhniyat, tatha nakshatrakalpe (! for .rantikalpe) sutritam, ' " vatag gatak " (IV, 10) iti satikham varu?zyam, "^angiafo *si gahgido rakshitcUsi" (XIX, 34) iti gahgldam vayavy- ayam ' iti (vSantikalpa 19). A number of stanzas have been commented upon by Zimmer, Altindisches Leben : see the index, p. 457.
a, b. The text of our translation of the first two Padas is that of the vulgate. This differs from the MS. reading so much as to amount to an independent composition on the part of the editors. They read, angira (cf. st. 6) asi gahgida rakshita*si gahgida ; the MSS. unanimously pre- sent, £cirigi^6*si £-angi<^6 rakshita*si gaixgxdkh, I am far from feeling that the editors have restored the ancient text. The difficulty with the MS. reading is the absence of any adjective or noun gahgida with appellative meaning, and the cumulation of nominatives. The latter difficulty is paralleled closely by AV. IV. 12, 1, and it would seem almost as though in both passages the nominative had assumed the function of vocative. Neither difficulty exists for Saya/za, who translates the second gahgido as vocative and paraphrases the first as an agent noun, as follows : he gahgida ma/ze gahgido* si yato gatanam krztyanam krztyakritam ka nigara/zakarta, * si (one MS. nigira/za-) ato gahgida ity ukyate . . . gam girati iti gahgivak . . . yad va ^•angamyate i-atrun badhitum iti ^angi^a^. I must say that I do not think it impossible that the original text had in mind some pun on the root gar, ' swallow,' in connection with the first ^ahgi^a, or perhaps some other root, say, gagrt, 'wake.' The latter suggestion would yield good
1 My copy of the vSantikalpa reads vatavatyadyam.
2 Shankar Pandit, erroneously, here and in the following quota- tion, substitutes Nakshatrakalpa for £antikalpa.
Xix, 34- Commentary. 67 1
sense, the first gahg\d6y ' wakeful/ being parallel with ra- kshita in the second Pada.
a. The MSS. at the basis of Roth and Whitney's edition read^agrztsyas tripa^a^, and the editors, inspired doubt- less by RV. X, 34, 8, have emended akshakrztyas tripa^a- sik, 'the sorceries with dice, fifty-three in number/ But the parallelism of the Rig-veda passage is every way doubtful (Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 284 ; Weber, Uber die Konigsweihe, Transactions of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, 1893, p. 72 of the reprint) ; the bold emendation is at any rate not warranted by any too desperate condition of the text. The majority of the MSS. used in Shankar Pandit's edition (both Samhita, and Pada- patka) have gagritsyas, which the editor, with Saya^a, has changed to ya\h) gr/tsyas ; this might mean ' the thieving female demons' (Saya/za, ya gritsyak gardhana^ila yas . . . krityak) ; cf. grhsah at Vag. S. XVI, 35, and Mahidhara's scholium. Notwithstanding that grztsyas is the unanimous lectio difficillima of the MSS., perchance yet destined to be sustained, I have restored simply ya/i krityah1 \ cf. for the juxtaposition of kritya and krityakrit (Pada b), AV. IV, 17, 4; V, 14, 3- 4. 5- 8. no. 12. 13 ; X, 1, 6. 31 ; XIX, 45, 1. The Padapa^a divides tripanka-as i/t, 'devouring fifteenfold,' which would comport well with the reading gr/tsyas. The meaning ' consisting of fifty-three ' assumed for pankasa, 2. in the Pet. Lex., in our translation, and by Saya/za (tryadhikapa££a^atsaMkhyaka^), thus rests upon a fragile basis ; perhaps the Padapa//za is right ; or, per- haps, the word means simply ' fifteenfold/ an adjectivised tripanka-sas, with the well-known adverbial suffix -sas, < fold V
1 Saya^a describes the krz'tya concretely as a figure, or the like, made of mud, wood, &c, mr/ddarvadina nirmitaputtalyadi.
2 Cf. the Avestan fractional numeral adjectives thrishva- 'a third/ ^athrushva- ' a fourth/ &c, which, in our opinion, are adjectivised locatives plural, thrishu, &c, ' that which is in three.'
672 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
c. The MSS. of the vulgate read sarvan vinaktate^aso, for which the edition substitutes vinash/a-. This is Saya/za's reading (vinash/ate^-asa/z hataviryan), and with a slight alteration (vinish/a-) that of one of the MSS. used by Shankar Pandit. The latter recites all the readings of his manuscripts ; they are (besides vinakta-), bhanakti, bhinakti, minaktu, vinakti, and vinaktu. He has chosen the last, making the Pada, sarvan vinaktu te£*asa^, ' may (the ^an- gida) expel all strength' (note, however, the ordinarily neuter gender of te^as). We prefer the text of the editio princeps and Saya/za.
a. Saya/za, abhi^arata utpaditaz/z nada^ dhvani/^, 'the noise got up by the person practising witchcraft (against any one) ; ' cf. Kcyava's purushahava in the introduction to II, 4 (p. 281). The MSS., Sa/^hita and PadapazV^a, read krztn'm anna-adam !
b. Our translation of sapta. visrasa^ by ' seven debilitating (charms) ' is a purely etymological conjecture ; cf. expres- sions like visrastanga, ' lax of limb,' visrasta^etana, ' lax in mind,' and the like. Saya/za, visra^sana^ . . . murdhani- sh/^eshu nasarandhradvaya-^akshurgolakadvaya-irotra^i- dradvaya-mnkhakuhara-rupeshu saptasu ^idreshu abhi- ^arata, utpadita sapta nish vandal, i. e. ( discharges from the seven openings of the head, induced by one practising witchcraft.'