Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 30

30. To secure a woman's love.

[Prajāpati (kāminīmano‘ bhimukhīkaraṇakāmaḥ).—āçvinam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. pathyāpan̄kti; 3. bhurij.]

Found in Pāipp. ii. (in the verse-order 1, 5, 2, 4, 3). Used by Kāuç. (35. 21 ff.), with vi. 8 and other hymns, in a rite concerning women, to gain control over a certain person: a mess of various substances is prepared, and her body smeared with it—which is much like the proverbial catching of a bird by putting salt on its tail.

Translated: Weber, v. 218 and xiii. 197; Ludwig, p. 517; Grill, 52, 97; Griffith, i. 70; Bloomfield, 100, 311.

1. As the wind here shakes the grass off the earth, so do I shake thy mind, that thou mayest be one loving me, that thou mayest be one not going away from me.

The last half-verse is the same with the concluding pādas of i. 34. 5 and vi. 8. 1-3; SPP. again alters the pada-text to ápa॰gāḥ (see under i. 34. 5); Ppp. has here for e evā mama tvāyasī. Ppp. reads in a, b bhūmyā ’dhi vatas (!) tṛ-. We should expect in a rather bhū́myām, and this the comm. reads, both in his exposition and in his quotation of the pratīka from Kāuç.; but Bloomfield gives no such variant in his edition.

2. May ye, O Açvins, both lead together and bring [her] together with him who loves her. The fortunes (bhága) of you (two) have come together, together [your] intents, together [your] courses (vratá).

Notwithstanding the accent of vákṣathas, it does not seem possible to understand céd in a as 'if' (Grill, however, so takes it; Weber as above), since the second halfverse has no application to the Açvins (we should like to alter vām in c to nāu). ⌊But see Bloomfield.⌋ The translators take kāmínā in a as for kāmínāu 'the (two) lovers,' which it might also well be; the comm. says kāminā mayā. He also calls vrata simply a karmanāman, which is very near the truth, as the word certainly comes from root vṛt (see JAOS. xi., p. ccxxix = PAOS. Oct. 1884). Ppp. reads neṣitas in b for vakṣathas; and, in c, d, sarvā ’n̄ganāsy agmata saṁ cakṣūṅṣi sam etc. Both here and in vs. 5 bhága might possibly have its other sense of genitalia, or imply that by double meaning; but the comm., who would be likely to spy out any such hidden sense, says simply bhāgyāni. ⌊In a, açvinā is misprinted.—W's implications are that if vakṣathas were toneless it might be taken as a case of antithetical construction and that there would be no need to join it with céd.⌋

3. What the eagles [are] wanting to say, the free from disease [are] wanting to say—there let her come to my call, as the tip to the neck of the arrow (kúlmala).

The first half-verse is very obscure, and very differently understood by the translators; the rendering above is strictly literal, avoiding the violences which they allow themselves; the comm. gives no aid; he supplies strīviṣayaṁ vākyam to yat, and explains anamīvās by arogiņo ’dṛptāḥ (? SPP. understands dṛptāḥ) kāmijanāḥ. Ppp. has an independent text: yas suparṇā rakṣāṇa vā na vakṣaṇa vā trātānpitaṁ manaḥ: çalye ’va gulmalūṁ yathā—too corrupt to make much of. The Anukr. declines to sanction the contraction çalyé ’va in d.

4. What [was] within, [be] that without; what [was] without, [be] that within; of the maidens of many forms seize thou the mind, O herb.

In the obscure formalism of a, b the comm. thinks mind and speech to be intended. ⌊Why not rétas and çépas?⌋ 'Of all forms,' i.e., as often elsewhere, 'of every sort and kind.' ⌊Ppp. reads abāhyaṁ for bāhyaṁ yad bāhyaṁ.⌋

5. Hither hath this woman come, desiring a husband; desiring a wife have I come; like a loud-neighing (krand) horse, together with fortune have I come.

That is, perhaps, 'I have enjoyed her favors.' None of the mss. fail to accent yáthā in c.