Kaus. 61, 18 rubricates Pada a of this stanza along with XII, 3, 14: ‘the mortar and pestle, and the scrubbed winnowing-basket are placed upon the skin. The Sitra seems to substitute mortar and pestle tor the two press- stones. Pada b is rubricated at 61, 22, along with XII, 2 18, avahanti. PAda d along with XII, 3, 19 at 61, 24, udi- $e SS
* Or perhaps even more primarily, the porridge ; ‘the share of
the gods this (Agni) shall bring over to them.’ Cf, however, the feminine endm in st. 7 b.
Xi, I. Commentary. 613
hantim (sc. patnim anumantrayate). The construction of the second hemistich is not altogether clear. We have referred the action to the earth in st. 8. See also st. 11. Sayava refers it to the patni (cf. Kaus. 61, 24, above), and construes imam chiastically with pragdm, to wit: he patni avahananamw kurvati nibadhasva imam atmiydm pragds hantum ye satravad vartante tan ni gahi. This is obviously forced. The construction of ima as iman (but Padapaz/a, imam !), or its emendation to imam (sc. y4gamanam) would render Sayava’s and Kausika’s (61, 24) view more natural. Cf. the notes on sts. 5 and 7 for similar suggestions.
Kaus. 60, 19: grzhavza gravavav ity ubhayam grzhnati.
Sdyava, ardharkena ulikhalamusalam avahananartham
patniw grahayet!. Kaus. 61, 15-17: ‘With the second
hemistich (the priest) addresses the sacrificer, saying,
“Choose three gifts.” (The sacrificer) chooses the first
wish, saying: “ May I by this rite become superior.” The
wife chooses the other two gifts.’ Sdyawa, trayo varah ity
ardhargena nirvapananantaram varam vrzzantau (sc. anu-
mantrayate).
a. We have translated the doubtful az. Acy. sakrZtau, for
which the Paippalada has the equivalent sayugau. Some
MSS. used by Shankar Pandit have sukv/tau, an easier
reading, suspicious on account of its facility.
Kaus. 61, 23: ‘While reciting the first hemistich of this stanza along with the second hemistich of XII, 3, 19 (the sacrificer) takes hold of the winnowing-basket.’ Kaus. 61, 25: ‘With the second hemistich of this stanza and the first of XII, 3, 19 he addresses (the wife) as she winnows.’ Aditi in the stanzas and the patni in the practice are regu- larly correlated ; cf. st. 1. For Pada d, cf. 3 d.
* Sayana obviously violates the sense of the stanza: patnim grahayet collides with grihan4 ... vira in Pada a.
614 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Kaus. 61, 29: The winnowing is performed while this stanza is recited.
a. Our translation of upasvasé, ‘while (the wind) blows, i.e. ‘in the draught,’ is wholly conjectural. The Pet. Lexs. ‘drohnend.’ Sdyavza, with many MSS., reads upasvase dhruvaye (for upasvasé druvaye of the editions), and com- ments as follows: dhruvaye dhruvaya sthirdya satyaphalaya karmaze he tavdulaZ yushman upasvase upa samipe asvasa- yami prabhitén karomi. Nothing usable may be derived from this manipulation of the stanza. For druvaye, see the note on V, 20, 2.
Kaus. 60, 25: ‘With stanza 13 he sends (the wife), guarded and ornamented, to fetch water. Sayava, udakam aharantim patnize sawzpreshayet. This act precedes in the ritual the winnowing, being one of the first features of the ceremonial.
Kaus. 60, 26-28: ‘ With the first Pada he addresses (the
wife) as she brings the water (Sdyaza, prathamapadena
Agakkhantim patnim anumantrayate). With the second
and third Padas he calls upon the wife (to rise). With the
words, “take the water-vessel,” she takes it. But Sdyaza
refers the action in the fourth Pada to the sacrificer
himself: a tvasgan yag#ah iti padaikadesena galakumbha-
datri patni kartarasz preshayet, prati kumbhaz gribhaya
iti ardhapadena patni galakumbhaz grahayet kartaram.
a. Sayava regards the yoshitakX simbhamana/% not as
‘pure waters,’ but as the women who bring them, sobhana-
lamkarayukta ima yoshita# udakahartrya’ striyak. But
Ch stsi1 7,0 7%
b. Sadyaza reads tava samrabhasva, and the Paippalada
tavak samrabhasva. The Pada as it stands in the editions
is not defective: yet tavasam sam rabhasva (haplographia)
may have been the original reading. We have at any rate
translated tavasam as an abstract.
Xi, I. Commentary. 615
Kaus. 60, 29: ‘(The sacrificer) puts (the vessel) down
while reciting the first Pada.’ Sdyamza, prathamapddena
galakumbham bhimau nidadhyat. Kaus. 60, 34: ‘With
the remaining three Padas he places the water-vessel upon
the skin.’ Cf. also Kaus, 61, 33.
a. Our rendering of Pada a leaves some misgivings.
A more natural translation of it is, ‘the share of food that
has of yore been set aside for you.’ But this leaves it
hanging in mid-air.
Kaus. 61, 31: The pot is placed upon the fire; cf. also Kaus. 2, 7.
Stanza 17. |
Kaus. 61, 34. 35: The purifying two blades of darbha-
grass are placed over the pot, and water is poured in; cf.
also Kaus. 2,8. The Paippalada read in Pada c, dadat
pragam bahuldm Asin (pasin ?) me.
Kaus. 61, 36: With this stanza and XII, 3, 28 the grain
is washed in water, and poured into the pot. Cf. also
Kaus. 2, 9.
Kaus. 61, 37: With this stanza and XII, 3, 29 the porridge is allowed to cook.
d. For paktvd in the vulgata, Shankar Pandit, following
most of his MSS. and Sdyaza, reads pakt&; this we have
translated. Cf. also the Index Verborum, s.v. paktvz. The
corruption is due to st. 18 d. Note the alliteration.
Stanzas 21, 22.
Kaus. 61, 41. 42: With stanza 21 and XII, 3, 35 the
porridge is taken off the fire. With st. 22 the pot is turned
to the right.
Kaus. 61, 44 rubricates only the second hemistich,
amsadhrim (some MSS. amsadrim) ity upadadhati. The
616 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
difficult word in the stanza is the dz. Aey. which the vulgata presents in the form amsadhrim. The MSS. present in addition the forms amsaddhrim, aszsadrim, and amsaddrim. Shankar Pandit chooses amsadrim; Sdayavza amsadhrim, glossing as follows: amsan bhagan devamanushyapitrzsam- bandhino dharayati-ti amzsadhri tam ...vedim. The only point that seems worth saving is the statement that the word refers to the vedi, not to the pot, as the Pet. Lexs. have it: ‘vielleicht ein gefass mit handhaben, henkeln auf beiden seiten.’
d. daivanam (sc. brahmavzandm). Read perhaps deva-
tanam, metri gratia; cf. st. 25, and Ill, 3, 2; Vivgaaa.
Mal; 9; GOP Vase Ooo Oe
Kaus. 62, 1: With st. 24 and XII, 3, 36 the performance
indicated in the mantra is made, i.e. the sru# is placed upon
the altar (Sayaza, srukam vedyam sadayet).
a. The feminine hastam is an opportunist formation, made to suit the feminine sruZam. Some MSS., the Paip- palada, and Sayavza read hastam, a facile emendation which is, however, discredited by the universal reading dvitiyam.
Kaus. 63, 3: Four descendants of the Rzshis who know
the Bhvzgu-Angiras texts (i.e. the Atharvan writings) are
seated. Sayava, dsane upavesayet. Cf. also Kaus. 65, 13.
b. Sayava, punar etan pra sida prapnuhi. This meaning
of pra sad is not well authenticated: perhaps ‘favour
them’ is the true sense.
Not rubricated in the Kausika, but Sayava, in the intro- duction, supplies the action, gatura arsheydn ritvigo yaga- mana ahvayet. Not so, however, in the commentary upon the text, suhava sobhanahvana patni Arsheyan... puna/- punar ahvaydmi. Whitney, in the Index Verborum, re- gards suhava as instrumental ‘ with efficient call,’ at III, 26, 6; VII, 47,15; 48,1, in addition to our passage. But if we
Xi, I. Commentary. 617
compare AV. VII, 48, 1 with its parallel in RV. II, 32, 4,
rak4m ahaz suhavdm (so RV. ; suhava, AV.) sushzuti huve,
it seems hard to refrain from emending suhava in our
stanza to suhavd4m# = suhavan. This we have done, sup-
ported further by RV. VII, 44,2; 82, 4; 93,1; X,141, 4.
Kaus. 63, 4: The action indicated in the stanza is per-
formed. Sayama, tesham ritvigas hastaprakshalanartham
udakam dadyat. The stanza is nearly identical with VI,
naz, 5 ycfjalsozsts 17 pand=X, 9; 27:
Kaus. 62, 22: With stanza 28 and XII, 3, 50 he places
gold upon the porridge (Sdyava, odane hirazyam nida- —
dhyat). Kaus. 63,5: With Pada b and XII, 3, 53 he sets
it aside (? Sayama, ishat karshayet).
a. For the relation of light and gold, cf. I, 9, 2.
b. For pakvam kshétrat, cf. vvzkshasz pakvam, RV. III, 45,4; pakvd sakha, RV. I, 8, 8.
Kaus. 63,6. 7: With Pada a the chaff is poured into the fire (Sadyava, agnau tushan guhuyat). With Pada b the refuse is swept aside with the left foot. The precise differ- ence between tisha and kambiika is not clear. Sdyaza. glosses the former by, brahmaudanarthatazdulebhyaz pyrz- thakkrztan ; both Kausika and Sayawa render kambiika by phalikaravza. These indications we have followed. The fire obtains the more valuable and nutritious part of the refuse ; Nirrzti, the goddess of destruction, has the refuse pushed to her as a sop, uncannily, with the left foot.
Kaus. 63, 19. 20: Either with the entire hymn, or with
the part of it that begins here, he first anoints the porridge
with the dregs of ghee. Cf. especially st. 31.
a. I have taken the words srdmyataz &c. as genitives
618 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
singular, dependent upon viddhi. See Delbriick, Altin-
dische Syntax, p. 159. Sdyaza, as accusatives plural:
diksharipam tapas tapyam4nan, &c.
Kaus. 62, 15-17: With the first hemistich of our stanza and XII, 3, 45 he makes a cavity (for ghee) on the top of the porridge (SdAyava, gartam kurydt). The stanza is varied by substituting the word brahman for adhvaryo, if a priest other than the Adhvaryu is addressed. With the second hemistich of each of the two stanzas he floods the porridge with ghee.
For purishizak Sayama quotes to the point Tait. S. IT, 6
4,3: pragd vai pasavad purisham, pragayaisvaisnam pasu-
bhid purishavantaz karoti. Cf. sts. 26a, b; 25d.
XI, 2. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 155.
The hymn is addressed to Rudra (Siva-Agni), under the large variety of names or embodiments (marti) customary with that divinity. These vary from seven to nine in number, most of which, namely Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Pasupati, Ugra (cf. also the word ise in st. 27, as reflecting the name {sana 1) occur in the hymn either as full proper names, or as standing epithets. Connected lists of these names occur frequently, e.g. AV. XV, 5; Vag. S. XXXIX, 8.9; Kaush. Br. VI, 2 ff.: Sat. Br. VI, 1, 3, 10-17; Sankh. Sr. IV, 18,5; Kaus. 51, 8; Par. Grth. III, 8, 6; Asv. Grth. IV, 8,19; Hir. Gvzh. II, 8, 6.7; Markawdeya-puraza, 52, 2 ff.: cf, Weber, Ind. Stud. II, 302: XVIT tage. are und Portenta (Royal Academy of Berlin, 1858), p. 400 ff ; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, IV?, 343, 403 ff.
The hymn is a prayer to Rudra, in his various aspects,
* Sadyana cites the following versus memorialis: sarvam pasu-
patim os gram rudram bhavam See ee mahadevam ka
bhimam fa.
Xi, 2. Commentary. 619
for protection and mercy, and it is rubricated, accordingly, at Kaus. 50, 13. 14 in the course of the performances of a merchant who starts out upon his business. See the in- troductions to the hymns III, 15; VI,59; and 128. Further, in a performance undertaken by a traveller in a lonely place, at Kaus. 51, 7 ff., and again, when an ominous bird of prey holding flesh in its beak alights, Kaus. 129, 3 (cf. stanzas 2,24 0f the hymn). See also Vait. Si. 29,10. The hymn figures also in the raudragawa of the Gawaméala, Ath. Paris. 32,17. It has been translated by Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, IV?, 335 ff.,and Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, p. 549 ff.; cf. also Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Védique, p. 157 ff.
The metrical tradition of the stanza is corrupt: avishya- vad at the end of the first hemistich seems to belong to Pada c, which ends at pasupate. Accordingly our transla- tion. Sdayavza, in Pada b, reads, pampering his etymology, aviklabebhyaZ, and glosses, viklaba adhvish7ah katards tad- viparitebhya/, ‘to those who are the reverse of viklaba (cowardly),’ i.e. ‘bold ;’ cf. the note on XI, 9, 9.
Sayava, ropaya# ropayitryo mohayitryas tanvak. Cf. V,
30, 16, and Rudra’s relation to diseases in st. 22. The
epithet ‘thousand-eyed’ accentuates the relation between
Rudra and Agni; see the note on IV, 20, 4.
One is tempted to emend antarikshaya in Pada d to
antarikshat, ‘from the atmosphere reverence be to thee.’
The change of the ablative to the dative may be due to
st. 5d, prati#indya te ndmaz.
ce. The MSS. read unanimously ardhakaghatina, but
there is no Ardhaka to slay. SAdyama, ‘he whose habit it
is to slay half of the (hostile) army,’ an insipid pis-aller.
620 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.