Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 30

30. Self-laudation of Speech (?).

[Atharvan.—aṣṭarcam. vāgdevatyam. trāiṣṭubham: 6.jagati.]

Not found in Pāipp., but is, with a few insignificant variants, RV. x. 125 (but in the verse-order 1, 3, 5, 4, 6, 2, 7, 8), a hymn ascribed by the tradition to Vāc Āmbhṛṇī, or 'Speech, daughter of Ambhṛṇa'; but there is an utter absence in the details of anything distinctly pointing to speech, and we can only believe that the attribution is an old conjecture, a suggested solution of a riddle, which "space," or "faith," or "right" (ṛtá) would have equally satisfied. But the explanation is universally accepted among Hindu authorities, old and new, and hardly questioned by European scholars. The hymn is used by Kāuç. in the ceremony (10. 16-9) for generation of wisdom (medhājanana), being said over a child before taking of the breast, and also at its first use of speech; also in the same ceremony as forming part of the upanayana (57. 31) ⌊so the comm. and Keçava: but the hymn is not included in the āyuṣya gaṇa⌋; and again in the dismissal ⌊utsarjana, says the comm.⌋ from Vedic study (139. 15). ⌊With regard to the intention of Kāuç. 139. 15 the reader may consult Whitney's notes to the passages there cited by pratīka.⌋

Translated: by Colebrooke, Asiatick Researches, vol. viii, Calcutta, 1805, or Miscellaneous Essays, i.² p. 28 (Whitney, in his notes to this essay, l.c., p. 113, gives a "closer version," "in the original metre," and with an introduction); translated, further, by the RV. translators; and also by Weber, in his article, Vāc und λόγος, Ind. Stud. ix. (1865) 473; Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 146 f.; Griffith, i. 171; Weber, xviii. 117. Here Weber gives references to discussions by himself, by Garbe, and by Max Müller, of the possible connection of the Neo-Platonic λόγος-idea with Indic thought.

1. I go about with the Rudras, the Vasus, I with the Ādityas and the All-gods; I bear Mitra-and-Varuṇa both, I Indra-and-Agni, I both Açvins.

There is in this verse no variant from the RV. text. The comm. says that "I" is the daughter. Speech by name, of the great sage Ambhṛṇa, and that she by her own nature knew the supreme brahman.

2. I am queen, gatherer of good things, the first that has understood the matters of sacrifice; me here the gods distributed manifoldly, making me of many stations enter into many.

RV. (vs. 3) differs only by reading at the end āveçáyantīm. The comm. makes yajñíyānām in b depend upon prathamā́, cikitúī being a separate epithet: this is, of course, equally possible.

3. I my own self say this, [which is] enjoyable of gods and of men; whomsoever I desire, him I make formidable, him priest (brahmán), him seer, him very wise.

RV. (vs. 5) has in b the equivalent devébhis and mā́nuṣebhis. The comm. absurdly explains brahmā́ṇam by sraṣṭāram, or the god Brahman.

4. By me doth he eat food who looks abroad, who breathes, who indeed hears what is spoken; unknowing (? amantú) they dwell upon me; hear thou, heard-of one; I say to thee what is to be credited.

RV. leaves the a of ánnam in a unelided (making the pāda a regular jagatī: our Anukr. takes no notice of it as such, but it would be an extremely bad triṣṭubh), has (as has also the comm.) the regular prā́ṇiti in b, and reads çraddhivám for çraddhéyam in d. One of our mss. (Op.) accents çrutá. The comm. understands a, b to mean "it is by me that any one eats, sees," etc., and takes īm as = idam; amantavas as ajānānā madviṣayajñānarahitāḥ; and upa kṣiyanti as saṁsāreṇa nihīnā bhavanti—as if kṣiyanti came from kṣi 'destroy'!

5. I stretch the bow for Rudra, for his shaft to slay the bráhman-hater; I make strife (samád) for the people (jána); into heaven-and-earth have I entered.

RV. (vs. 6) has no variant. The comm. foolishly regards Rudra's affair with Tripura as the subject of the first half-verse.

6. I bear the heady (? āhanás) soma, I Tvashṭar, also Pūshan, Bhaga; I assign property to the giver of oblations, to the very zealous (?), the sacrificer, the presser of soma.

RV. (vs. 2) has in c the sing. dráviṇam, and in d the dative suprāvyè (which is implied in the translation given); in both points the comm. agrees with RV., and one of SPP's authorities supports him. But the Prāt. (iv. 11) establishes suprāvyā̀ as the true Atharvan reading. The comm. gives a double explanation of āhanasam in a: as abhiṣotavyam and as çatrūṇām āhantāram. The Anukr. does not heed that the first pāda is triṣṭubh.

7. I quicken (give birth to?) the father in its (his?) head; my womb (yóni) is within the waters, the ocean; thence I extend myself (vi-sthā) to all beings; even yon sky I touch with my summit.

RV. reads in c bhúvanā́ ’nu for -nāni. The comm., followed by one of SPP's authorities, has the odd blunder caṣṭe for tiṣṭhe in c. He further takes asya in a as meaning dṛçyamānasya prapañcasya, and pitaram as prapañcasya janakam.

8. I myself blow forth like the wind, taking hold upon all beings; beyond the sky, beyond the earth here—such have I become by greatness.

RV. has mahinā́ instead of mahimnā́ in d ⌊cf. Bloomfield, JAOS. xvi. p. clvi = PAOS. Dec. 1894⌋. In our edition, divó in c is a misprint for divā́. ⌊Enā́ is hardly for enayā (Weber): cf. JAOS. x. 333.⌋

With this hymn ends the sixth anuvāka, of 5 hymns and 36 verses; the Anukr. extract, ṣaṭ, is given by only one ms. (D.).

Here, too, by a rather strange division, ends the eighth prapāṭhaka.