Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book III/Hymn 12

12. Accompanying the building of a house.

[Brahman.—navarcam. çālāsūktam. vāstoṣpatiçālādāivatam. trāiṣṭubham: 2. virāḑjagatī; 3. bṛhatī; 6. çakvarīgarbhā jagatī; 7. ārṣy anuṣṭubh; 8. bhurij; 9. anuṣṭubh.]

The first eight verses are found in Pāipp., but only 1-5, 7 together, in iii., vs. 6 being in xx., and vs. 8 in xvii. ⌊More or less correspondent vss. recur at MP. ii. 15. 3 ff. and at MGS. ii. 11.12 ff. (cf. p. 148 ihāiva).⌋ The hymn is reckoned by Kāuç. (8. 23) to the vāstoṣpatīya hymns, and is used with them in a house-building ceremony (43. 4 ff.; the "two dhruvas" mentioned in 43. 11 ⌊are doubtless the same as the "two dhruvas" mentioned in⌋ 136. 7; ⌊and the latter⌋ are, according to the comm. to vi. 87, not vss. 1 and 2, but hymns vi. 87 and 88); vss. 6 and 8 are specially quoted (43. 9, 10). Vāit. (16. 1, in the agniṣṭoma sacrifice) gives a pratīka which is nearly that of vs. 8, but with adhvaryo for nāri. ⌊Vs. 9, q. v., occurs in Ppp. with others of our ix. 3.⌋

Translated: Ludwig, p. 463; Zimmer, p. 150; Weber, xvii. 234; Grill, 59, 108; Griffith, i. 97; Bloomfield, 140, 343.—Cf. Hillebrandt, Veda-chrestomathie, p. 44; and Bloomfield's references; also M. Winternitz, Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, vol. xvii, p. [38].

1. Just here I fix (ni-mi) [my] dwelling (çā́lā) firm; may it stand in security, sprinkling ghee; unto thee here, O dwelling, may we resort (sam-car) with all our heroes, with good heroes, with unharmed heroes.

Ppp. reads abhi instead of upa in d. Pādas a, b are found in PGS. iii. 4. 4, with tiṣṭhatu for -āti; and b in ÇGS. iii. 3, with tiṣṭha for the same; HGS. (i. 27. 2) has the whole verse, with tiṣṭhati in a, anu (for upa) in d, and suvīrās before sarvav- in c.

2. Just here stand thou firm, O dwelling, rich in horses, in kine, in pleasantness, in refreshment, in ghee, in milk; erect thyself (ut-çri) in order to great good-fortune.

Ppp. leaves the a of açvāvatī in b unelided. PGS. (ibid.) has pādas b and d, making one verse of them with 3 c, d; pādas a, b are also found in ÇGS. (ibid.), with considerable variants: sthūṇe for dhruvā, dhruvā for çāle, and sīlamāvatī for sūnṛ-; and HGS. (ibid.) has again the whole verse, with ūrjasvatī payasā pinvamānā for c. The comm., with the usual queer perversion of the sense of sūnṛtā, renders sūnṛtāvatī by bahubhiḥ priyasatvavāgbhir bālādīnāṁ vāṇībhir yuktā. Pādas b and c are jagatī.

3. A garner (? dharunī́) art thou, O dwelling, of great roof, of cleansed grain; to thee may the calf come, may the boy, may the kine, streaming in at evening.

This translation of the difficult and doubtless corrupt first half-verse implies emendation of -chandas to -chadis, and of pū́ti- to pūtá-—which latter is, in fact, the Ppp. reading. In d, SPP. adopts the bad reading āspándamānās, claiming to find it in the majority of his mss.; but the scribes are so wholly untrustworthy in their distinction of sy and sp that the requirement of the sense is sufficient to show that they intend sy here; the comm. reads -syand-, and so does ÇGS. (iii. 2) in the parallel passage: enāṁ çiçuḥ krandaty ā kumāra ā syandantāṁ dhenavo nityavatsāḥ; PGS. (ibid.) has ā tvā çiçur ā krandatv ā gāvo dhenavo vāçyamānāḥ. ⌊MGS. ii. 11. 12 ^b reflects our vs. 7.⌋ The comm. lets us understand by dharuṇī́ either bhogajātasya dhārayitrī or praçastāi stambhāir upetā; and by bṛhachandās either prabhūtāchādanā or mahadbhiç chandobhir vedāir upetā; pūtidhānya is "having corn malodorous from age"—a sign of stores unexhausted. The Anukr. apparently scans as 7 + 8: 10 + 11 = 36: a very poor sort of bṛhatī. ⌊Note that of SPP's authorities for āsyand-, K and V were men, not mss.; none of his living authorities gave āspand-. The blunder is easy for the eye, not for the ear.⌋

4. This dwelling let Savitar, Vayu, Indra, Brihaspati fix, foreknowing; let the Maruts sprinkle it with water, with ghee; let king Bhaga deepen (ni-tan) our ploughing.

Ppp. reads in a, b vāyur agnis tvaṣṭā hotā ni, and has somas (which suits rājā better) for bhagas in d. In c it begins with the true reading ukṣantu; this is so naturally suggested as emendation of the uchántu of the mss. that all the translators assume it (Weber, strangely mistaking the plain statement of the Index Verborum, accuses us of having wrongly altered ukṣántu in our edition to uchántu!); ukṣántu is also read by the comm., and by two or three of SPP's mss. that follow him; and SPP. very properly admits it into his text. SPP. also reads after it udnā́, with the comm., but against all his mss. ⌊except the çrotriya K⌋; there is no instance where udnā́ and udnás are correctly read in any of them (here, our Bp.O.Op. have utnā́, P.M. utvā́, the rest* unnā́: our edition gives unnā́, and Weber has failed to see that it was corrected in the Index Verborum ⌊under udán⌋). The comm. makes d refer to the ploughing of the site of the house: çālābhūmeḥ karṣaṇaṁ nitarāṁ karotu. ⌊*E.H.D.K.Kp. and Ppp. have unnā́; I. has uttā́; W. has -tu tvā.⌋ ⌊For uchantu, see x. 9. 23 n.⌋

5. O mistress of the building (? mā́na), as sheltering, pleasant, hast thou, a goddess, been fixed by the gods in the beginning; clothing thyself in grass, mayest thou be well-willing; then mayest thou give us wealth together with heroes.

Ppp. has, for c, d, ūnnaṁ vasanā sumanā yaças tvaṁ rayiṁ no dhi subhage suvīram. "Grass" in c refers probably to a thatched roof. Mā́na the comm. gives two explanations for: either "of the reverend (mānanīya) lord of the site (vāstupati)," or else "of the spoiling (? mīyamāna) grain etc." (patnī in this case signiying pālayitri). In b the comm. reads nirmitā. HGS. (i. 27. 8) has a, b, c (with a wholly different d) in a corrupt form: mā naḥ sapatnaḥ çaraṇaḥ syonā devo devebhir vimitā ’sy agre: tṛṇaṁ vasānāḥ sumanā asi tvam; but our d (with -vīrāṁ r-) occurred just before (i. 27. 7).

6. With due order, O beam (vaṅçá), ascend the post; formidable, bearing rule, force away (apa-vṛj) the foes; let not the attendants (upasattár) of thy houses be harmed, O dwelling; may we live a hundred autumns with all our heroes.

Ppp. reads sthuṇā ’dhi in a, and in c, d has -tāro ‘tra virājāṁ jīvāṁ çaradaç çatāni. Both meter and sense indicate that gṛhā́ṇām is an intrusion in c; and suvī́rās at the end would rectify the meter of d. The first pāda is the beginning of a verse in AGS. ii. 9; and HGS. (i. 27. 7) has the first half-verse, with sthūṇāu in a, and ūrdhvas and apa sedha in b ⌊cf. MP. ii. 15. 6; MGS. ii. 11. 14 is corrupt⌋. The comm. reads arṣan for riṣan in c; he explains ṛténa by abādhyena rūpeṇa saha, and upasattāras by upasadanakartāras. The verse (11 + 11: 14 + 12 = 48) is defined by the Anukr. with mechanical correctness.

7. To it the tender boy, to it the calf, with moving creatures (jágat), to it the jar of parisrút, with mugs of curd, have come.

Ppp. has tvā for imām in a and c, and in c pariçṛtaṣ; and it ends d with kalaçaç ca yā. The mss. vary between parisrútas and -çrút- (our Bp.H.O.Op.Kp. have ç); the comm. has s, and renders the word by parisravaṇaçīlasya madhunaḥ 'foaming over sweet.' The word is quoted in the comment to Prāt. ii. 106 as an example of s after i protected from lingualization by a following r. The comm. reads in c kumbhās, and in d kalaçīs; half the mss. (including our Bp.E.I.H.K.) accent kalaçāís. The comm. explains jágatā as gamanaçīlena gavādinā, which is doubtless its true sense. The verse is found also in AGS. (ii. 8. 16), PGS. (iii. 4. 4), ÇGS. (iii. 2. 9), and HGS. (i. 27. 4): the first two and the last have (like Ppp.) tvā, and ÇGS. reads enam (for é ’mā́m); for jágatā, PGS. has jagadāis and AGS. jāyatām; ÇGS. gives bhuvanas, with pari for sahá; all differ again as to the last word, presenting -upa (PGS.), ayan (AGS.), ayann iva (HGS.) or gaman (ÇGS.); and ÇGS. has further kumbhyās in c, while for parisrútas AGS. has pariçritas and HGS. hiraṇmayas ⌊see also MP. ii. 15. 4 and MGS. ii. 11. 12^b⌋. The epithet ārṣī, added by the Anukr. to the metrical definition of the verse, is without meaning as distinguishing it from vs. 9 ⌊cf. iii. 14. 6, note⌋.

8. Bring forward, O woman, this full jar, a stream of ghee combined (sam-bhṛ) with ambrosia (amṛ́ta); anoint these drinkers (?) with ambrosia; let what is offered-and-bestowed defend it (f.: the dwelling?).

The well-nigh universal reading of the mss. in c is imā́m pātṝ́n, which SPP. accordingly presents in his text, in spite of its grammatical impossibility (of our mss., E. gives pātrén, -tren being a misreading of -tṝn found also more than once elsewhere; P. has pādán, and W. pātrān); we emended imā́m to imā́n; but perhaps imā́m pātrīm 'this drinking-vessel,' which the comm. has, would be preferable, as better suited to sám an̄dhi; and enām at the end would then refer to it. The comm. has sam indhi instead of sám an̄dhi; he makes enām imply çālām. The corresponding verse in Ppp. (xvii.) is quite different, and corrupt; pūrṇāṁ nābhiri pra harā ’bhi kumbham apāṁ ramaṅt oṣadhīnān ghṛtasya: imām pātrer amṛtāir ā sam agdhi sthirā vīrās sumanaso bhavantu: this suggests imā́m pā́trāir amṛ́tasya in c 'anoint this [dwelling] with vessels of ambrosia'; but also its separation from the preceding verses makes uncertain its belonging to the same ceremony with them. In the ceremonial use, it accompanies the entrance into the new dwelling, the wife first, carrying a water-jar.

9. These waters I bring forward, free from yákṣma, yákṣma-effacing; I set forth (? pra-sad) unto (úpa) the houses, along with immortal (amṛ́ta) fire.

The verse, as already noted, is wanting ⌊in this connection⌋ in Ppp., and neither Kāuç. nor the comm. specify anything as to its use. It appears again below as ix. 3. 23 ⌊with Ppp. version⌋. The comm. gives no explanation nor paraphrase of prá sīdāmi. ⌊"Prepositions" discussed, Prāt. iv. 3, note.⌋