Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book III/Hymn 29
29. With the offering of a white-footed sheep.
[Uddālaka.—aṣṭarcam. çitipādā’ videvatyam: 7. kāmadevatyā; 8. bhāumī. ānuṣṭubham: 1, 3. pathyāpan̄kti; 7. 3-av. 6-p. upariṣṭāddāivībṛhatī kaiummatīgarbhā virāḑjagatī; 8. upariṣṭādbṛhatī.]
Like the preceding hymn, not found in Pāipp. Used (according to the comm., vss. 1-5) by Kāuç. (64.2) in the sava sacrifices, in the four-plate (catuḥçarāva) sava, with setting a cake on each quarter of the animal offered, and one on its navel; and vs. 8 in the vaçā sava ⌊66. 21⌋, on acceptance of the cow. Further, vs. 7 (according to schol. and comm., vss. 7 and 8) appears in a rite (45. 17) at the end of the vaçāçamana, for expiating any error in acceptance of gifts. In Vāit. (3.21), vs. 7 is also used to accompany the acceptance of a sacrificial gift in the parvan sacrifices.
⌊The Anukr. says Uddālako‘ nena ṣaḍṛcena çitipādam avim astāut, thus supporting the reduction of the hymn to the norm of six vss.; see note to vs. 7. From that phrase, perhaps, comes the blundering reading of the London ms. çitipādam avidevatyam: emend to çitipad-avi-devatyam or else as above?—Weber entitles the hymn "Abfindung mit dem Zoll im Jenseits."⌋
Translated: Ludwig, p. 375; Weber, xvii. 302; Griffith, i. 124.
1. What the kings share among themselves—the sixteenth of what is offered-and-bestowed—yon assessors (sabhāsád) of Yama: from that the white-footed sheep, given [as] ancestral offering (svadhā́), releases.
By this offering, one is released from the payment otherwise due to Yama's councilors on admission into the other world: the ideas are not familiar from other parts of the mythology and ritual. ⌊But cf. Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythol. i. 511; Weber, Berliner Sb., 1895, p. 845.⌋ The comm. explains thus: ubhayavidhasya karmaṇaḥ ṣoḍaçasaṁkhyāpūrakaṁ yat pāpam puṇyarāçer vibhaktaṁ kurvanti, as if the sixteenth were the share of demerit to be subtracted from the merit, and cleansed away (pari-çodhay-) by Yama's assistants, etc. In c he reads muñcatu for -ti; çitipād in d he renders çvetapād. The last pāda lacks a syllable, unless we make a harsh resolution. Our text reads in b -pūrttásya; ⌊for consistency, delete one t⌋.
2. All desires (kā́ma) it fulfils, arising (ā-bhū), coming forth (pra-bhū), becoming (bhū); [as] fulfiller of designs, the white-footed sheep, being given, is not exhausted (upa-das).
The precise sense of the three related participles in b is very questionable (Weber renders "da seiend, tüchtig, und kräftig"; Ludwig, "kommend, entstehend, lebend"); the comm. says "permeating, capable ⌊of rewarding⌋, increasing."
3. He who gives a white-footed sheep commensurate (sámmita) with [his] world, he ascends unto the firmament, where a tax is not paid (kṛ) by a weak man for a stronger.
"Commensurate": i.e., apparently, "proportioned in value to the place in the heavenly world sought by the giver" (so Weber also); R. suggests "analogous (as regards the white feet) with the world of light that is aspired to"; the comm., on his part, gives two other and discordant explanations: first, lokyamānena phalena samyakparicchinnam, amoghaphalam; second, anena bhūlokena sadṛçam, bhūlokavat sarvaphalapradam: both very bad. For nā́ka he gives the derivation na-a-kam 'non-un-happiness, which he repeats here and there in his expositions. The translation implies in c the reading çulkás, which (long ago conjectured by Muir, OST. v. 310) is given by SPP. on the authority of all his mss., and also by the comm., and is undoubtedly the true text. Only one of our mss. (Kp.) has been noted as plainly reading it; but the mss. are so careless as to the distinction of lk and kl that it may well be the intent of them all. The comm. paraphrases it as "a kind of tax (kara-) that must be given to a king of superior power by another king of deficient power situated on his frontier." As pointed out by Weber, the item of description is very little in place here, where the sacrifice is made precisely in satisfaction of such a tax. ⌊W's prior draft reads "to a stronger."—Note that SPP's oral reciters gave çulkás.⌋
4. The white-footed sheep, accompanied with five cakes, commensurate with [his] world, the giver lives upon, [as] unexhausted in the world of the Fathers.
That is ⌊the giver lives upon the sheep⌋, as an inexhaustible supply for his needs. The comm. explains d by vasvādirūpam prāptānāṁ somalokākhye sthāne.
5. The white-footed sheep, accompanied with five cakes, commensurate with [his] world, the giver lives upon, [as] unexhausted in the sun and moon.
The five cakes are those laid on the victim as prescribed in Kāuç. (see above). In our edition, sūryamāsáyor is a misprint for sūryām-.
6. Like refreshing drink (írā), it is not exhausted; like the ocean, a great draught (páyas); like the two jointly-dwelling gods, the white-footed one is not exhausted.
The comparison in c is so little apt that what it refers to is hard to see: the comm. regards the Açvins as intended, and Weber does the same, understanding savāsín as "dressed alike" (the comm. says samānaṁ nivasantāu); Ludwig thinks of "heaven and earth"; one might also guess sun and moon. R. suggests the sense to be "he has gods for neighbors, right and left." The Anukr. appears to sanction the contraction samudrá ’va in b.
7. Who hath given this to whom? Love hath given unto love; love [is] giver, love acceptor; love entered into the ocean; with love I accept thee; love, that for thee!
⌊Not metrical.⌋ This "verse" and the following appear to have nothing to do with the preceding part of the hymn, which has 6 vss.* (according to the norm of this book). This "verse" is found in a whole series of texts, as a formula for expiating or avoiding what may be improper in connection with the acceptance of sacrificial gifts. The version of TA. (iii. 10. 1-2, 4: also found, with interspersed explanation, in TB. ii. 2. 55, and repeated in ĀpÇS. xiv. 11. 2) is nearly like ours, but omits the second adāt, and reads kā́maṁ samudrám ā́ viça; that of AÇS. (v. 13. 15) has the latter reading but retains the adāt. That of PB. (i. 8. 17) and K. (ix. 9) differs from ours only by having ā ’viçat instead of ā́ viveça. MS. (i. 9. 4) omits the phrase kā́maḥ samudrám ā́ viveça, and reads kā́māya for the following kā́mena. And VS. (vii. 48: with it agree ÇB. iv. 3. 432 and ÇÇS. iv. 7. 15) has as follows: kò ‘dāt kásmā adāt: kā́mo ‘dāt kā́māyā ’dāt: kā́mo dātā́ kā́maḥ pratigrahītā́ kā́māi ’tát te. ⌊See also MGS. i. 8. 9, and p. 149.⌋ Of course, the comm. cannot refrain from the silliness of taking kás and kásmāi as signifying "Prajāpati," and he is able to fortify himself by quoting TB. ii. 2. 55, as he also quotes 51 for the general value of the formula; and even 56 for the identity of kama with the ocean, although our text, different from that of TB., does not imply any such relation between them. The Anukr. scans thus; 7 + 6: 11 + 9: 9 + 4 = 46. *⌊Cf. introduction to this hymn.⌋
3. Let earth accept thee, this great atmosphere; let me not, having accepted, be parted with breath, nor with self, nor with progeny.
Addressed to the thing accepted (he deya dravya, comm.). The Anukr. regards pāda c as ending with ātmánā, and the pada-text divides at the same place.