Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 11

11. In praise of the draft-ox.

[Bhṛgvan̄giras.—dvādaçarcam. ānaḍuham. trāiṣṭubham: 1, 4. jagatī; 5. bhurij; 7. 3-av. 6-p. anuṣṭubgarbho ’pariṣṭājjāgatā nicṛcchakvarī; 8-12. anuṣṭubh.]

Found in Pāipp. iii. (in the verse-order 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6, 11, 12, 9, 8, 10, 7). Used by Kāuç. (66. 12) in a sava sacrifice, with the draft-ox as sava. The hymn offers an example of that characteristic Hindu extollation, without any measure or limit, of the immediate object of reverence, which, when applied to a divinity, has led to the setting up of the baseless doctrine of "henotheism."

Translated: Muir, OST. v. 399, 361 (about half); Ludwig, pp. 534 and 190; Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 232; Griffith, i. 144; Weber, xviii. 39.—Cf. Deussen, l.c., p. 230 f. Weber entitles the hymn "Verschenkung eines Pflugstieres zur Feier der Zwölften (i.e. nights of the winter solstice—see vs. 11)."

1. The draft-ox sustains earth and sky; the draft-ox sustains the wide atmosphere; the draft-ox sustains the six wide directions; the draft-ox hath entered into all existence.

That is, the ox in his capacity of draft-animal: the comm. says, çakaṭavahanasamartho vṛṣabhaḥ; later in the hymn he is treated as female, without change of the name to a feminine form (the fem. -ḑuhī or -ḑvāhī does not occur before the Brāhmaṇa-period of the language). But the comm. also allows us the alternative of regarding dharma, in ox-form, as subject of the hymn. The "directions" (pradíç) are, according to him, "east etc."; and the "six wide" are "heaven, earth, day, night, waters, and plants," for which AÇS. i. 2. 1 is quoted as authority. With the verse compare x. 7. 35, where nearly the same things are said of skambha. Ppp. reads in a -vīṁ dyām utā ’mūm. In the second half-verse, two accent-marks have slipped out of place in our edition: in c, that under ṣa should stand under ḍu; and, in d, that under mā should stand under na. The verse is jagatī by count, but not by rhythm. ⌊If, with Weber, we pronounce naḍvā́n, it becomes a regular triṣṭubh.⌋

2. The draft-ox [is] Indra; he looks out from (for?) the cattle; triple ways the mighty one (çakrá) measures out (traverses?); yielding (duh) the past (? bhūtá), the future, existing things (bhúvana), he goes upon (car) all the courses (vratá) of the gods.

Ppp. reads in a indrasya for indraḥ sa, and in c it adds sam before bhūtam, and has bhuvanaṁ instead of -nā. The comm. has in b the curious reading stiyān for trayā́n, and hence we lose his guess as to what may be meant by the "triple ways." He takes paçubhyas in a first as dative, and then as ablative. He understands bhúvanā as virtually "present"; more probably it has its usual sense of 'existences,' and the two preceding adjectives qualify it distributively, or are in apposition with it: "all existing things, both what is and what is to be." ⌊If we pronounce again naḍvā́n, the vs. loses its bhurij quality. The cadence of b is bad.⌋

3. Born an Indra among human beings (manuṣyà), he goes about (car) shining brightly, a heated hot-drink (gharmá); he, being one of good offspring, shall not go in mist (? udārá) who, understanding [it], shall not partake of (aç) the draft-ox.

The verse is obscure, and the translation in various points very doubtful. The second pāda is apparently a beginning of the identification of the ox with the gharma, a sacrificial draught of heated milk, which we find further in vss. 5, 6; he is, since his kind yield warm milk, as it were an incorporation of that sacrifice. And the second half-verse is then a promise to whoever shall abstain from using the ox as food. Ppp. reads eṣa instead of jātas in a, and saṁçiçānas at end of b. In c, d the comm. reads sam for san, ud āre as two words, and no ’ çnīyāt, and of course makes very bad work of its explanation, finding metempsychosis in sam...sarṣat (na saṁsarati punaḥ saṁsāradharmān na prāpnoti). Gharma he takes first as "blazing sun," and then, alternatively, in its true sense. There is no other occurrence of an s-aorist from sṛ; and it is altogether against rule and usage to employ a subjunctive and an optative (açnīyāt) in two coördinate clauses ⌊this seems to me to be a slip—see Skt. Gram. §575 b; and the clauses are hardly coördinate⌋; so that the reading is very suspicious. A few of our mss. (P.M.W.E.) read ṇá after udāré. ⌊Ludwig conjectures suprayā́s for -jā́s.⌋

4. The draft-ox yields milk (duh) in the world of the well-done; the purifying one fills him up from in front; Parjanya [is] his streams, the Maruts his udder, the sacrifice his milk, the sacrificial gift the milking of him.

Ppp. appears to have read in b pyāyet, which would rectify the meter; in c it combines maruto ”dho. Pávamāna in b might signify the wind (then purástāt 'from the east'?) or soma; the comm. takes it as the latter (pavitreṇa çodhyamāno ‘mṛtamayaḥ somaḥ); and "the sacrifice" in d as "the sava sacrifice now performed." The verse is rhythmically a triṣṭubh with redundant syllables (11 + 13: 12 + 11 = 47). ⌊On dakṣiṇā, see Bloomfield, AJP. xvii. 408 f.⌋

5. Of whom the lord of the sacrifice is not master (īç), nor the sacrifice; not the giver is master of him, nor the acceptor; who is all-conquering, all-bearing, all-working—tell ye us the hot-drink which [is] four-footed.

"Which" in d is yatamá, lit. 'which among the many.' The intended answer, of course, is that this wondrous sacrificial drink is the ox. Ppp. begins c with yo viçvadṛg viçvakṛd v-. The comm. declares the first half-verse to convey the universal masterhood and not-to-be-mastered-hood of the ox; in d gharma is, according to him, "the blazing sun, which the four-footed one tells us" (brūta is read, but declared equivalent to brūte!).

6. By whom the gods ascended to heaven (svàr), quitting the body, to the navel of the immortal, by him may we go to the world of the well-done, desiring glory, by the vow (vratá) of the hot-drink, by penance.

Ppp. appears to have read in a suvā ruhanta; in b it has dhama instead of nā́bhim; and it ends d with yaçasā tapasvyā. The comm. has jeṣma (=jayema) in c ⌊instead of geṣma (Skt. Gram. §894 c)⌋; gharma is to him once more "the blazing sun." ⌊As to the stock-phrase in c, cf. Bloomfield, AJP. xvii. 419.⌋ The verse (10 + 11: 10 + 13 = 44) is a very poor triṣṭubh.

7. Indra by form, Agni by carrying (váha), Prajāpati, Parameshṭhin, Virāj; in Viçvānara he strode, in Vāiçvānara he strode, in the draft-ox he strode; he made firm, he sustained.

This is the obscurest verse of this obscure hymn, and no attempt will be made to solve its riddles. Ppp. has a quite different text: indro balenā ’sya parameṣṭhī vratenāi ’na gāus tena vāiçvadevāḥ: yo ‘smān dveṣṭi yaṁ ca vayaṁ dviṣmas tasya prāṇān asavahes tasya prāṇān vi varhah. The two concluding clauses of our text most obviously belong with vs. 7 rather than vs. 8, and both editions so class them; but SPP. states that all his authorities reckon them to vs. 8, ending vs. 7 with the third akramata (which some of the mss., including our P.M.W.E.O.Op., mutilate to akramat). He adds that the Anukr. does the same; but this is evidently an oversight, our mss. of the Anukr. calling vs. 8 a simple anuṣṭubh (madhyam etad anaḑuha iti pañcā ’nuṣṭubhaḥ) and giving of vs. 7 a lengthy definition (see above), implying the division 9 + 10: 8 + 8 + 8: 12 = 55 (restoring both times the elided initial a in f); perhaps, then, SPP. is also mistaken in regard to the unanimity of his "mss. and Vāidikas"; at any rate, part of our mss. (Bp.I.H.Op.K.) divide with the editions. The comm., however, does not; as, indeed, he is repeatedly at discordance with the Anukr. on such points. He explains váha in a as "the part that carries (vahati) the yoke; the shoulder," and has nothing of any value to say as to the general sense of the verse. ⌊The identification of the draft-ox with Agni seems to rest on Agni's chief function of "carrying"; cf. RV. x. 51. 5 d; 52. 1 d, 3 d, 4 a.⌋

8. That is the middle of the draft-ox, where this carrying (váha) is set; so much of him is in front (prācī́na) as he is put all together on the opposite side.

The virtual meaning of the second half-verse appears plainly to be that the two parts of the ox, before and behind the point where the pull comes (i.e. where the yoke rests) are equal; but it is strangely expressed, and the reason why the point is insisted on does not appear. The comm. so understands it: evam prākpratyagbhāgāv ubhāv api samānāu; he renders vaha this time by bhāra; Ludwig takes it as "the hump." ⌊In this verse, b can hardly mean "where the pull comes," but rather 'where the burden is put,' i.e. the back; cf. Deussen, l.c., p. 231. Nevertheless, see BR. under vaha, 2 a and 2 b.⌋

9. Whoso knows the milkings of the draft-ox, seven, unfailing, both progeny and world he obtains: so the seven seers know.

Ppp. reads anapadasyatas both here (b) and at 12 d; it also combines saptarṣ- in d, as does the comm., and a couple of SPP's authorities. For consistency, our text ought to combine in a-b dóhānt s-; SPP. also leaves out here the connecting t. The comm. explains the seven milkings or yields of milk alternatively as "the seven cultivated plants, rice etc." or "the seven worlds and oceans"—not happening, apparently, to think of any other heptad at the moment. He quotes the names of the seven seers from Āçvalāyana. ⌊The number of this vs. is misprinted.⌋

10. With his feet treading down debility (sedí), with his thighs (ján̄ghā) extracting (ut-khid) refreshing drink—with weariness go the draft-ox and the plowman unto sweet drink (kīlála).

The verse seems rather out of place here. As both n and m final are assimilated to an initial palatal, the pada-text commits the blunder in b of understanding írāṁ to be for írān; and, as is usual in such cases, a part of our mss. read írān j- (so P.M.W.E.I.); SPP. very properly emends his pada-text to írām. The comm. reads in d kīnāçasya for -çaç ca (one of SPP's authorities following him: "with the old accent," SPP. remarks, as if the change of reading involved a change of accent), and makes gachatas a genitive agreeing with it—against the accent; but this he regularly ignores. Irām, it may be added, he glosses with bhūmim!

11. Twelve, indeed, they declare those nights of the vow (vrátya) of Prajāpati; whoso knows the bráhman within them (tátro ’pa)—that verily is the vow of the draft-ox.

Or, "those twelve nights they declare to be for the vow" etc.: it is uncertain what is object and what objective predicate in the sentence. Ppp. reads and combines vrātyā ”huṣ pr- in b; for the unusual phrase tatro ’pa in c it gives tad vā ’pi; and in d it has balam instead of vratam. For Weber's conjectures as to the twelve nights and the draft-ox of this hymn, see his Omina und Portenta, p. 388; compare also ⌊Weber's other references, Ind. Stud. xviii. 45, and⌋ Zimmer, p. 366. The comm. glosses vratya by vratārha, and quotes TS. v. 6. 7¹ as to the twelve nights of consecration.

12. He milks (duh) at evening, he milks in the morning, he milks about midday; the milkings of him that come together, those unfailing ones we know.

Ppp. has for a, b duhe vā ’naḍvān sāyaṁ duhe prātar duke divā, and at the end (as above noted) anapadasyatas. The comm. supplies to duhe either anaḍvāham as object (with the worshiper as subject), or anaḍvān as subject (with the performer of the sava sacrifice as beneficiary); saṁ yanti he explains by phalena saṁgacchante.