Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book I/Hymn 14

14. Imprecation of spinsterhood on a woman.

[Bhṛgvān̄giras.—vāruṇam vo 'ta yāmyaṁ vā. ānuṣṭubham: 1. kakummatī; 3. 4-p. virāj.]

Found in Pāipp. i. Used by Kāuç. (36. 15-18) in an incantation against a woman; the details of it cast no light on those of the hymn; and the comm. defines its purpose simply as striyāḥ puruṣasya vā dāurbhāgyakaraṇam.

Translated: Weber, iv. 408; Ludwig, p. 459; Zimmer, p. 314 (these misapprehend its character); Griffith, i. 17; Bloomfield, JAOS. xiii. p. cxv = PAOS. May, 1886; or AJP. vii. 473 ff.; or SBE. xlii. 107, 252.

1. Her portion (bhága), splendor have I taken to myself, as from off a tree a garland; like a mountain with great base, let her sit long with the Fathers.

Ppp. has for a ahaṁ te bhagam ā dade; its b is defaced; in c it gives mahāmūlāi 'va. The comm. renders bhagam by bhāgyam, here and in the other verse, recognizing no sexual meaning. Pitṛṣu he renders "in the later [2 c, d] to be specified houses of father, mother, etc.," and all the translators understand it in the same way; but it is questionable whether the plural of pitar would ever be used in this sense; and the repeated mention of Yama later indicates that there was at least a double meaning in the expression. Perhaps a girl remaining unmarried was called "bride of Yama," i.e. as good as dead, and her stay at home compared to that in the other world. ⌊Cf. Antigone, 816, "I shall be the bride of Acheron," Ἀχέροντι νυμφεύσω.⌋ The Anukr. appears to ratify the abbreviated reading -budhne 'va in c; it counts six syllables in d.

2. Let this girl, O king, be shaken down to thee [as] bride, O Yama; be she bound in her mother's house, also in her brother's, also in her father's.

Ppp. has yat for eṣā at the beginning. The comm. foolishly interprets rājan as indicating Soma, because Soma is first husband of a bride (he quotes RV. x. 85. 40: cf. AV. xiv. 2. 3 ff.), and takes yama as his epithet, as being her constrainer (niyāmaka). For ni-dhū compare iii. 11. 7; at TS. v. 2. 53 it is used with pitṛṣu. ⌊Does not ni-dhū covertly suggest nidhuvana, which, in its obscene sense, may be as old as the Veda?⌋

3. She is thy housekeeper, O king; we commit her to thee; she shall sit long with the Fathers, until the covering in of her head.

The translation of d implies the obvious emendation to samopyāt, which SPP. even admits into his text, on the authority of the comm., but against every known ms.; Ppp., however, gives samopyā. The comm. explains it by saṁvapanāt bhūmāu sampatanāt, and as equivalent to maraņaparyantam 'till death'; that this last is the virtual sense is extremely probable. That vap has not the sense 'shave' in the compound (cf. AÇS. vi. 10. 2) is shown by the inappropriateness of the prefixes sam + ā to that sense, and the frequency of the combination in the other sense. ⌊See Bloomfield, 255, ā́ çīrṣṇáḥ kéçam ópiāt, 'till she shed the hair from her head.'⌋ Ppp. has further imām u pari dadhmasi in b. The comm. gives kulapā (for -pās: our pada-text kula॰pā́ḥ) in a. The resolution çīr-ṣṇ-aḥ in d would make the verse a full anuṣṭubh; the Anukr. counts only 14 syllables in the second half.

4. With the incantation (bráman) of Asita, of Kaçyapa, and of Gaya, I shut up (api-nah) thy portion (vulva?), as sisters do what is within a box (-kóça).

⌊For the names, see Bloomfield, 255, and AJP. xvii. 403.⌋ Bhaga perhaps has here a double meaning. Three of our mss. (E.I.H.) with one or two of SPP's, read in c antaṣkoçám, against Prāt. ii. 62, which expressly prescribes ḥ. The comm. treats antaḥ and koçam as two independent words; antáḥ kóçe would be a not unacceptable emendation. The Anukr. appears to sanction the abbreviation -koçaṁ 'va.