Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book I/Hymn 10

10. For some one's release from Varuṇa's wrath.

[Atharvan.—āsuram, vāruṇam. trāiṣṭubham: 3, 4. anuṣṭubh (3. kakummati).]

Found in Pāipp. i. Used in Kāuç. (25. 37) to accompany lavation of the head in a healing ceremony (for dropsy, comm. and schol.).

Translated: Weber, iv. 403; Ludwig, p. 445; Griffith, i. 13; Bloomfield, 11, 241; Weber, Sb. 1897, p. 599, cf. 594 ff.—Cf. Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 133.

1. This Asura bears rule over the gods; for the wills (váça) of king Varuṇa [come] true; from him, prevailing by my worship (bráhman), from the fury of the formidable one (ugrá) do I lead up this man.

'Come true,' i.e. are realized or carried out: the more etymological sense of satyá. Ppp. reads viçāya for vaçā hi. The comm. explains çāçadāna as "exceedingly sharp; having attained strength by favor of Varuṇa, gratified by praise etc." Tatas pari in c, as the first example of its kind of combination, is quoted in Prāt. ii. 66. The Anukr. ignores the first pāda as a jagatī.

2. Homage be to thy fury, O king Varuṇa; for, O formidable one, thou dost note (ni-ci) every malice (drugdhá). A thousand others I impel (pra-sū) together; a hundred autumns of thee shall this man live.

The obscure third pāda is understood by the comm., perhaps correctly, to mean "I buy off this man by furnishing Varuṇa a thousand others as substitutes." Two of our mss. (O. Op.) read ugrám (or ugram) in b; Ppp. is defaced in a, b; as second half-verse it reads: çataṁ sahaṣraṁ pra suvāmy anyān ayaṁ no jīvāṁ çarado vyapāye. Here, too, pāda a is an unacknowledged jagatī. ⌊Comm. cites, for c, AB. vii. 15.⌋

3. In that thou hast spoken with the tongue untruth, much wrong—from the king of true ordinances (-dhárman), from Varuṇa, I release thee.

⌊Read yát tvám uváktha ánṛtam?⌋ The comm. has in a the absurd reading uvakta, treating it as for uvaktha, which all the mss. give.

4. I release thee out of the universal, the great flood (arṇavá); speak, O formidable one, unto [thy] fellows here, and reverence our incantation (bráhman).

'Universal' (vāiçvānara), i.e., perhaps, dangerous to all men; and the dropsy, Varuṇa's special infliction, is probably spoken of as 'flood' ⌊cf. RV. vii. 89. 4⌋. The (doubtful) rendering of the second half-verse takes it as addressed, like the first, to the patient; the comm. regards it as said to Varuṇa, which is not impossible. ⌊See Geldner, ZDMG. lii. 733.⌋ Ppp. reads amuñcam at the beginning, and has a lacuna in place of c, d. ⌊Render apa-ci by 'regard'?⌋