Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 3

3. Against wild beasts and thieves.

[Atharvan.—rāudram uta vyāghradevatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. pathyāpan̄kti; 3. gāyatrī; 7. kakummatīgarbho 'pariṭādbṛhatī.]

Found in Pāipp. ii. (except vs. 5, and in the verse-order 1-3, 7, 6, 4). Used by Kāuç. (51. 1) in a rite for the prosperity of kine and their safety from tigers, robbers, and the like; also reckoned (50. 13, note) to the rāudra gaṇa.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 499; Grill, 33, 118; Griffith, i. 133; Bloomfield, 147, 366; Weber, xviii. 13.

1. Up from here have stridden three—tiger, man (púruṣa), wolf; since hey! go the rivers, hey! the divine forest-tree, hey! let the foes bow.

Ppp. reads for a ud ity akramaṅs trayo; in c-d it gives hṛk each time for híruk, and for c has hṛg deva sūryas. The comm. understands híruk to mean "in secret, out of sight," and hírun̄ namantu as antarhitāḥ santaḥ prahvā bhavantu or antaritān kurvantu. The forest-tree is doubtless some implement of wood used in the rite, perhaps thrown in to float away with the river-current; it can hardly be the "stake of khadira" which Kāuç. (51. 1) mentions, which is to be taken up and buried as one follows the kine.

2. By a distant (pára) road let the wolf go, by a most distant also the thief; by a distant one the toothed rope, by a distant one let the malignant hasten (ṛṣ).

The latter half-verse is found again as xix. 47. 8 a, b. Ppp's version is parameṇa pathā vṛkaḥ pareṇa steno rarṣatu: tato vyāghraṣ paramā. The comm. naturally explains the "toothed rope" as a serpent; arṣatu he simply glosses with gacchatu.

3. Both thy (two) eyes and thy mouth, O tiger, we grind up; then all thy twenty claws (nakhá).

The majority of mss. (including our Bp.I.O.Op.K.D.) read at the beginning akṣāù, as do also Ppp. and the comm., but only (as the accent alone suffices to show) by the ordinary omission of y after ç or ṣ both editions give akṣyāù. All the mss. leave vyāghra unaccented at the beginning of b, and SPP. retains this inadmissible reading; our text emends to vyā́ghra, but should have given instead vyā̀ghra (that is, ví-āghra: see Whitney's Skt. Gr. §314 b). Ppp. reads hanū instead of mukham in a. ⌊Anukr., London ms., has akṣyāu.⌋

4. The tiger first of [creatures] with teeth do we grind up, upon that also the thief, then the snake, the sorcerer, then the wolf.

The conversion of stenám to ṣṭe- after u is an isolated case. The verse in Ppp. is defaced, but apparently has no variants.

5. What thief shall come today, he shall go away smashed; let him go by the falling-off (apadhvaṅsá) of roads; let Indra smite him with the thunderbolt.

The first half-verse is identical with xix. 49. 9 a, 10 d. The comm. separates apa from dhvaṅsena, and construes it with etu; dhvaṅsa he renders "bad road" (kaṣṭena mārgeṇa).

6. Ruined (mūrṇá) [are] the teeth of the beast (mṛgá); crushed in also [are its] ribs; disappearing be for thee the godhā́; downward go (ayat) the lurking (? çaçayú) beast.

The comm. takes mūrṇās from mūrch, and renders it mūḍhās; in b he reads api çīrṣṇās, the latter being horns and the like, that grow "on the head." The second half-verse is extremely obscure and doubtful: Ludwig translates "into the depth shall the crocodile, the game go springing deep down"; Grill, "with lame sinew go to ruin the hare-hunting animal." Ni-mruc is used elsewhere only of the 'setting' of the sun etc.; the comm. renders it here "disappearing from sight"; and he takes çaçayu from çī 'lie'; godhā is, without further explanation, "the animal of that name." The translation given follows the comm.; it does not seem that a "hare-hunting" animal would be worth guarding against. R. conjectures a figure of a bird of prey, struck in flight: "the sinew be thy destruction; down fall the hare-hunting bird." Pāda a lacks a syllable. ⌊W. takes mūrṇá from mṛ 'crush'; cf. xii. 5. 61 and Index.—In a and b, supply "be" rather than "are"?⌋

7. What thou contractest (sam-yam) mayest thou not protract (vi-yam); mayest thou protract what thou dost not contract; Indra-born, soma-born art thou, an Atharvan tiger-crusher (-jámbhana).

The sense of a, b is obscure; the comm. takes viyamas and saṁyamas as two nouns. Ppp. makes one verse of our 7 a, b and 6 a, b (omitting the other half-verses), and puts it next after our vs. 3; its version of 7 a, b is yat saṁ naso vi yan naso na saṁ nasa. The verse is scanned by the Anukr. as 8 + 8: 6 + 12 = 34 syllables. ⌊Read indrajā́ asi?—For a, b, see Griffith.⌋