Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book III/Hymn 6

6. Against enemies: with açvatthá.

[Jagadbījampuruṣa.—aṣṭarcam. vānaspatyāçvatthadevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found (except vs. 6) in Pipp. iii. Used by Kāuç. (48. 3 ff.) in a rite of sorcery against enemies; vss. 7, 8 are specially quoted (48. 6, 5), with actions adapted to the text. The comm. also describes it as employed by the Nakṣ. ⌊comm. again errs; should be Çānti—Bloomfield⌋ K. (17, 19) in a mahāçānti called ān̄girasī.

Translated: A. Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers etc., 1859, p. 224, or 2d ed., p. 198; Weber, xvii. 204; Grill, 21, 104; Griffith, i. 87; Bloomfield, 91, 334.

1. The male (púmāṅs) [is] born out of the male—the açvatthá forth from the khadirá; let it smite my foes, whom I hate and who [hate] me.

A very acceptable emendation would be pári jātás, since pári is plainly accessory to the ablative puṁsás, as ádhi to khadirā́t in b (cf. ásatas pári jajñiré, x. 7. 25). Ppp. retains the initial a of açvatthas, and begins d with yāṅç cā ’ham. The açvattha begins as a parasite, usually on the çamī (fem.), this time from the hard khadira (masc).

2. Crush them out, O açvatthá, our violent foes, O expelling one, allied with Vṛtra-slaying Indra, with Mitra, and with Varuṇa.

The translation implies the reading of vāibādha in b as an independent word; it is so regarded by BR., Weber, the later translators, and the comm.; all the pada-mss. make it into a compound with dódhatas, and both editions so write it. Ppp. reads instead, for b, çatrūn mayi bādha todhata. Some of our mss. (P.M.W.E.) read in a ní çṛ-; one of SPP's has sṛṇīhi. The comm. explains dódhatas as bhṛçaṁ kampayitṝn; ⌊but see Ved. Stud. ii. 10⌋.

Ppp. adds a verse of its own: yathā ’çvattha niṣṇāmi pūrvāṅ jātān utā ’parān (cf. x. 3. 13-15): evā pṛdanyatas tvam abhi tiṣṭha sahasvatā.

3. As thou, O açvatthá, didst break out [the khadirá] within the great sea, so do thou break out all these, whom I hate and who [hate] me.

"The sea," doubtless the atmosphere, as explained by the comm. (and Weber). The comm. reads ábhinas in a, and two or three of SPP's mss. so far agree with him as to give the (blundering) nirábhinnas; this reading exhibits a much less startling and anomalous crowding-out of the root-final by the personal ending than does -abhanas (see my Skt. Gr. §555), and so is more acceptable. Some of SPP's mss. similarly mix up bhindhi and bhan̄dhi in c; the comm., of course, has the former. A part of the mss. (including our Bp.P.M.E.H.) leave mahati in b unaccented (as again at xi. 8. 2, 6). Ppp. yathā ’çvattha vibhinacchaṁ tahaty arṇave: evā me çatro cittāni viṣvag bhidhi sahasvatā (cf. our vs. 6 c, d).

4. Thou that goest about overpowering, like a bull that has overpowered—with thee here, O açvatthá, may we overpower our rivals.

Ppp. reads in a carati, as does also the comm., followed by two or three of SPP's mss. Ppp. further combines in b sāsahānāi ’va ṛṣ-, and ends d with saṁviṣīvahi. ⌊The saṁhitā-mss. all combine iva ṛṣ- in b; see note to Prat. iii. 46.⌋

5. Let perdition bind them, with unreleasable fetters of death—my foes, O açvatthá, whom I hate and who [hate] me.

Ppp. has avimokyāis in b, and (as in vs. I ) begins d with yāṅç cā ’ham. Several of our mss, (P.M.W.E.) have at the beginning the senseless reading simātu.

6. As, O açvatthá, ascending them of the forest-trees, thou dost put them beneath thee (ádhara), so the head of my foe do thou split apart and overcome.

Ppp. (as we saw above) has the second half of this verse, with variants, as its 3 c, d. What the vānaspatyá is, as distinguished from vánaspáti, is as obscure as the similar relation of rtú and ārtavá ⌊iii. 10. 9 note⌋; possibly 'they of that sort, they and their kind'; our translation marks, rather mechanically, the distinction. The comm. says that here vanaspati means "the place where trees grow," and vānaspatya the trees themselves—which is an explanation quite after his kind.

7. Let them float forth downward, like a boat severed from its mooring (bándhana); of them, thrust forth by the expelling one, there is no returning again.

Ppp. reads in c nurbādha; our Op. has vāibādhá: pra॰nuttānām. Astu in d, for asti, would be an improvement. The comm. gives a double explanation of bandhana, as either place or instrument of fastening. ⌊The vs. recurs at ix. 2. 12, with sā́yaka- for vāibādhá-.—W's collation of Op. gives pra॰, not prá॰!⌋

8. I thrust them forth with mind, forth with intent and incantation; forth with branch of tree, of açvatthá, we thrust them.

Ppp. has in a prāi ’nān nudāmi (which makes the meter easier), and at the end correspondingly the active nudāmasi; for b it gives pra çṛtyena brāhmaṇā. The lingualization of the first n of enān is noted in Prāt. iii. 80, and the comment on that rule quotes the instance in c, but not that in a. According to Kāuç. the thing "mentioned in the text" (perhaps an effigy of the person aimed at, in the "vitals" of which something has been buried by the preceding rule) ⌊having been put upon a boat⌋ is with this verse and ix. 2. 4 pushed forth with a branch, and with vs. 7 made to float away.