Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 34
34. Extolling a certain rice-mess offering.
[Atharvan.—aṣṭarcam. brahmāsyāudanam. trāiṣṭubham: 4. bhurij; 5. 3-av. 7-p. kṛti; 6. 5-p. atiçakvarī; 7. bhurikçakvarī; 8. jagatī.]
Found in Pāipp. vi. Used in Kāuç. (66. 6), in the sava sacrifices, with the brahmāsyāudana sava, to accompany the making of pools and channels in the rice-mess, filling them with juices (rasa), and setting on the ground, with surā and water, knob-bearing plants as specified in the text. Doubtless it is on account of this treatment that the rice-mess in question is called viṣṭārin 'out-strewn, expanded.'
Translated: Muir, OST. v. 307 (vss. 2-4); Ludwig, p. 437; Griffith, i. 176; Weber, xviii. 136.
1. The bráhman [is] its head, the bṛhát its back, the vāmadevyá the belly of the rice-mess; the meters [are] the (two) sides (wings ?), truth its mouth; the viṣṭārín [is] a sacrifice born out of fervor (tápas).
Ppp. reads çiras in a, and its d is viṣṭā yajñas tapaso ‘dhi jātaḥ. The comm. explains brahman as signifying here the rathantara sāman, and also satyam in c as "the sāman so called; or else the highest brahman"; viṣṭārín he makes to mean vistīryamāṇāvayava.
2. Boneless, purified, cleansed with the purifier, bright (çúci), they go to a bright world; Jātavedas burns not away their virile member; in the heavenly (svargá) world much women-folk is theirs.
Ppp. makes pūtās and çuddhās exchange places in a; and there is confusion in its text. The comm. explains anasthās by na vidyate asthyupalakṣitaṁ ṣāṭkāuçikaṁ çarīram eṣām, and strāiṇam by strīṇām samūho bhogārtham; the "they" are the performers of the sava sacrifice. The Anukr. does not notice the redundancy of a syllable in c. ⌊There should be a space between prá and dahati.—Regarding sensual pleasures in heaven, see Muir's note. l.c.; Zimmer, p. 413; Lanman, Skt. Reader, p. 379 end, 380; and Weber's note; cf. also AB. i. 2214.⌋
3. Whoso cook the viṣṭārín rice-mess, ruin (ávarti) fastens not on them at any time; [such a one] stays (as) with Yama, goes to the gods, revels with the soma-drinking (somyá) Gandharvas.
Ppp. has kutas for kadā in b, and sāumyāis in d. The pada-text writes ávartiḥ without division, yet the comment to Prāt. iii. 46 quotes the word as exemplifying the combination of final a and initial ṛ; the comm. understands and explains it as a-vartti! somya he paraphrases with somārha. The metrical irregularities (11 + 12: 10 + 11 = 44) are ignored by the Anukr.
4. Whoso cook the viṣṭārín rice-mess, them Yama robs not of their seed; becoming chariot-owner, [such a one] goes about upon a chariot-road; becoming winged, he goes all across the skies.
Ppp. has in c rathāyān īyate. ⌊In the metrical definition, the Anukr. seems confused here; but vs. 4 appears to be intended.⌋
5. This, extended, is of sacrifices the best carrier; having cooked the viṣṭārín, one has entered the sky; the bulb-bearing lotus spreads (sam-tam), the bísa, çālū́ka, çáphaka, mulālī́: let all these streams (dhā́rā) come unto thee, swelling honeyedly in the heavenly (svargá) world; let complete (sámanta) lotus-ponds approach thee.
The mss. (with the exception, doubtless accidental, of our P.K.) all read báhiṣṭhas at end of a, and this SPP. retains, while our text makes the obviously called-for emendation to váh-; the comm. has vah-. The things mentioned in c, d appear to be edible parts of water-lilies: the bulbous roots, leaf-stems, and radical fibres, which in some species, as the Nymphaea esculenta, are savory, and which are eaten somewhat like asparagus. That they should be viewed as special gifts to the pious indicates quite primitive conditions, and suggests a region abounding in standing waters. Either the pools and channels of Kāuç. are founded on these specifications, or they are original and intended to be emblematic of such products. The kumuda is the N. esculenta (kāirava, comm.); and the comm. explains bisa (he reads visa) as the root-bulb of the padma (Nelumbium speciosum) ⌊cf. Lanman, JAOS. xix. 2d half, p. 151 f.⌋, çālūka as that of utpala (a Nymphaea), çaphaka as a hoof (çapha)-shaped water-plant, and mulālī as = mṛṇālī. Çaphaka occurs also at ĀpÇS. ix. 14. 14, where it seems to signify an edible plant or fruit, perhaps a water-nut. Ppp. differs widely from our text: it begins eṣa yajño vitato bahiṣṭho viṣṭāra pakvo div-; it omits c and d; for e and f it has our 7 a, b ⌊with variants: see under 7⌋; then follow our e and f (g, upa...samantāḥ, is wanting), with variants: etās tvā kulyā upa yanti viçvahā, and svadhayā for madhumat. But our c and d are found further on as parts of vs. 7, with puṇḍarīkam for āṇḍīkam, and çālūkham and çapakhas. It is doubtless by an oversight that SPP. has in b, in both saṁhitā and pada, the false accent divám (but our O. also gives it). The verse lacks one syllable of being a full kṛti (80 syllables). The comm. ends vs. 5 with mulālī́, and begins vs. 6 with the following refrain.
6. Having pools of ghee, having slopes of honey, having strong drink (súrā) for water, filled with milk (kṣīrá), with water, with curds—let all these etc. etc.
Ppp. agrees in a, b with our text (we should expect rather madhukulyās); but for the refrain it has etās tvāṁ talpā upa yanti viçvatas svarge loke svadhayā mādayantīḥ (the remaining pāda again wanting, as in vs. 5). The refrain appears much more in place with this verse than in vs. 5. The comm., as already indicated, makes its vs. 6 of our 6 a, b, preceded by the refrain of vs. 5; the refrain of our vs. 6 it omits altogether. The súrā seems most probably to have been a kind of beer or ale ⌊so Roth: not distilled liquor, as Zimmer, p. 280, suggests⌋. A full atiçakvarī (60) calls for two more syllables.
7. Four vessels (kumbhá), four-fold, I give, filled with milk, with water, with curds—let all these etc. etc.
Ppp. had the first two pādas, as noted above, in its vs. 5, reading for a catuṣkumbhyāṁ caturdhā dadāti; its vs. 7 is our 5 c, d (with the variants already given) together with the last two pādas of the refrain, reading svadhayā for madhumat in the former pāda, and mā for tvā in the latter. The comm. (with one or two of SPP's mss. that follow him) has dadhāmi in a.
8. This rice-mess I deposit in the Brāhmans, the viṣṭārín, world-conquering, heaven-going (svargá); let it not be destroyed (kṣi) for me, swelling with svadhā́; be it a cow of all forms, milking my desire.
Several of our mss. (P.M.W.E.) combine in d dhenúṣ kām-. Ppp. has for a imam odanam pacasi miçraddhadhāno; in b, lokajitiyaṁ svargyam (the comm. also has the better reading svargyam); in c, kṣeṣṭa sadasiṣyamāṇā; for d, viçvarūpā kāmadughā dhenur astu me. The verse is irregular in meter: 12 + 11: 12 + 13 = 48.