Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book III/Hymn 24
24. For abundance of grain.
[Bhṛgu.—saptarcam. vānaspatyam uta prājāpatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 2. nicṛtpathypan̄kti.]
Found (except vs. 7) in Pāipp. v. Used by Kāuç. (21. 1 ff.) in rites for the prosperity of grain-crops, and reckoned (19. I, note) to the puṣṭika mantras. The comm. declares it employed also in the pitṛmedha ceremony (82. 9), but doubtless by an error, the verse there quoted being xviii. 3. 56 (which has the same pratīka).
Translated: Ludwig, p. 268; Weber, xvii. 286; Griffith, i. 117.
1. Rich in milk [are] the herbs, rich in milk my utterance (vácas); accordingly, of them that are rich in milk I bring by thousands.
The first half-verse occurs again, a little changed, as xviii. 3. 56 a, b; it is also RV. X. 17. 14 a, b, etc.: see under xviii. 3. 56. The comm. reads in d bhareyam for bhare ’ham; he understands "be" instead of "are" in a, b. For second half-verse Ppp. has atho payasvatāṁ paya ā harāmi sahasraçaḥ.
2. I know him that is rich in milk; he hath made the grain much; the god that is "collector" by name, him do we call, whichever is in the house of one who sacrifices not.
That is, away from the service of the impious to that of us, the pious. A god "collector" (sambhṛ́tvan) is not known elsewhere. Ppp. reads for a ahaṁ veda yathā payaç, and, in c-e, yo vedas tavaṁ yajāmahe sarvasyā yaç ca no gṛhe. In our edition, an accent-mark has slipped from under -dā- to under ve- at the beginning. It is the fourth pāda that is nicṛt ⌊read táṁ-taṁ?⌋.
3. These five directions that there are, the five races (kṛṣṭí) descended from Manu (mānavī́)—may they bring fatness (sphātí) together here, as streams [bring] drift when it has rained.
Or nadī́s might be nom. sing.; the comm. of course takes it as plural; çāpam he understands as "a kind of animals" (prāṇijātam). Our O.Op. have at the end -vahāṁ. Ppp. reads for b mānavāiḥ pañca gṛṣṭayaḥ (cf. gṛṣṭi for kṛṣṭi in ii. 13. 3); and, for c, d, sarvāç çaṁbhūr mayobhuvo vṛṣe çāpaṁ nadīr iva.
4. As a fountain of a hundred streams, of a thousand streams, unexhausted, so this grain of ours, in a thousand streams, unexhausted.
The metrical deficiency in a calls for a change of reading, and the usual correlation of evá in c suggests yáthā; and, as Ppp. reads yathā, the translation ventures to adopt it, as út instead is hardly better than unmanageable. Weber supplies aca; Ludwig, "I open, as it were"; the comm. says that ut means udbhavati, and does not trouble himself about its construction with an accusative; we may take the verse as a virtual continuation of vs. 3, and the nouns as governed by samāvahān. Ppp. makes the verse easy by reading yathā rūpaç çatadhāras sahasradhāro akṣataḥ; eva me astu dhānyaṁ sahasradhāram akṣatam.
5. O hundred-handed one, bring together; O thousand-handed one, pile together; of what is made and of what is to be made do thou convey together the fatness here.
6. Three measures of the Gandharvas, four of the house-mistress; of them whichever is richest in fatness, with that one we touch thee.
Ppp. reads at the end marṣāmasi; the comm. regards the grain as the object of address in d, and the intent to be "increase thou by the act of touching"; Weber understands rather the master of the house, or perhaps the harvest-wagon. The "measures" are doubtless those of grain set apart; the comm. calls them samṛddhihetavaḥ kalāḥ; and he gives as alternative explanation of "house-mistress" the Apsarases, spouses of the Gandharvas!
7. Bringer (upohá) and gatherer (samūhá) [are] thy (two) distributors, O Prajāpati; let them convey hither fatness, much unexhausted plenty.
Two or three of our mss. (P.s.m.M.W.) read in c vahatam, as does the comm., with one of SPP's mss. The comm. explains kṣattā́rāu by sārathī abhimatakāryasampādakāu.