Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 10
10. Against evils: with a pearl-shell amulet.
[Atharvan.—çan̄khamaṇisūktam. taddāivatam. ānuṣṭubham: 6. pathyāpan̄kti; 7. 5-p. parānuṣṭup çakvarī.]
Found (except vs. 5) in Pāipp. iv. Used by Kāuç. (58. 9) in the same ceremony with the preceding hymn, but with an amulet of mother-of-pearl; the schol. (not the comm.) also add it in an earlier part of the ceremony (56. 17). The comm. quotes it further from Nakṣ. K. (19), as employed in a mahāçānti named vāruṇī.
Translated: Ludwig, p. 462; Grill, 36, 124; Griffith, 1. 142; Bloomfield, 62, 383; Weber, xviii. 36.—Bloomfield cites an article in ZDMG. (xxxvi. 135) by Pischel, who, in turn, cites a lot of interesting literature about pearl.
⌊Although rain-drops are not expressly mentioned in this hymn nor in xix. 30. 5 (which see), I think it safe to say that the bit of Hindu folk-lore about the origin of pearls by transformation of rain-drops falling into the sea (Indische Sprüche, 344) is as old as this Vedic text and the one in xix. The references here to sky and sea and lightning, and in xix. to Parjanya and thunder and sea, all harmonize perfectly with that belief, which is at least ten centuries old (it occurs in Rājaçekhara, 900 A.D.) and has lasted till today (Manwaring's Marāṭhī Proverbs, no. 1291). See my translation of Karpūra-mañjarī, p. 264 f., and note 5. Pischel, l.c., reports as follows: "According to Aelian (περὶ ζῴων, x. 13), a pearl forms when the lightning flashes into an open seashell; according to an Arabic writer, when rain-drops fall into it, or, according to Pliny (ix. 107), dew."—The persistency of popular beliefs in India is well illustrated by the curious one concerning female snakes: see my note to Karpūra-mañjarī, p. 231.⌋
1. Born from the wind out of the atmosphere, out from the light of lightning, let this gold-born shell, of pearl, protect us from distress.
Of course, all the four nouns in the first half-verse may be coördinate ablatives. The beauty and sheen of the material connect it traceably with gold and lightning, but how even a Hindu ṛṣi can bring it into relation with wind from (or and) the atmosphere is not easy to see. Kṛ́çana ought to mean the pearl itself, and is perhaps used in the hymn appositively = "which is itself virtually pearl"; the comm. explains it in this verse as karçayitā çatrūṇāṁ tanūkartā. Ppp. has in c hiraṇyadās.
2. Thou that wast born from the top of the shining spaces (rocaná), out of the ocean—by the shell having slain the demons, we overpower the devourers.
Ppp. combines in a yo ‘grato r-. Grill takes agratas as "first"; and the comm. as = agre, and not qualifying jajñiṣe: "at the top or front of shining things, such as stars."
3. By the shell [we overpower] disease, misery; by the shell also the sadā́nvās; let the all-healing shell, of pearl, protect us from distress.
Ppp. has in a avadyam instead of ámatim. The comm. takes ámatim from root man ⌊see BR's note, s.v. 3 ámati⌋: "ignorance, the root of all mishap (anartha); and, forgetting his explanation of only two verses ago, he this time declares kṛçana a "name of gold."
4. Born in the sky, ocean-born, brought hither out of the river, this gold-born shell [is] for us a life-prolonging amulet.
Ppp. has samudratas at end of a, and in c again (as in 1 c) hiraṇyadās. Nearly all our mss. (except O.K.), and some of SPP's, with the comm., read in d āyuḥpr- ⌊cf. Prāt, ii. 62 n.⌋; but the point is one in regard to which each ms. is wont to follow its own course, regardless of rule, and both editions very properly give āyuṣpr-, as required by the Prāt.
5. The amulet born from the ocean, born from Vṛtra, making day—let it protect us on all sides from the missile of gods and Asuras.
The comm. makes Vṛtra here signify either the demon Vṛtra or the cloud; doubtless the latter is intended; then he explains divākara as the sun, and jāta as "released," and renders "as brilliant as the sun freed from the clouds," which is extremely artificial; divākara need mean no more than 'flashing with light.' The comm. also foolishly understands in d hetyā instead of -ās (p. hetyā́ḥ). ⌊Dev-, ablative by attraction, from gen.—cf. Skt. Gram. §982 a.⌋ The first pāda is deficient by a syllable, unless we resolve samudrā́t into four syllables.
6. One of the golds art thou; out of soma wast thou born; thou art conspicuous on the chariot, lustrous (rocaná) on the quiver thou. May it prolong our lives!
The last pāda, which occurs in four other places (ii. 4. 6 etc.), looks like a late addition here; as elsewhere, some of the mss. (five of SPP's) read tārṣat. Except our Op., all the pada-mss. blunderingly resolve sómātvám (as it would be permissibly and customarily read by abbreviation: see Whitney, Skt. Gr. §232) into sómā: tvám instead of sómāt: tvám; the comm. understands sómāt, and both editions give the full reading. Here one is strongly tempted to translate soma by "moon," and the comm. takes it so (amṛtamayāt somamaṇḍalāt); but Ppp. discourages it by reading sa hoṣād (for -mād?) adhi. The comm. glosses rocana by rocamāna dīpyamāna. For c, Ppp. has ratheṣu darçatam.
7. The gods' bone became pearl; that goes about within the waters, possessing soul; that do I bind on thee in order to life-time, splendor, strength, to length of life for a hundred autumns: let [the amulet] of pearl defend thee.