Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 36

36. Against demons and other enemies.

[Cātana.—satyāujasam.* āgneyam. ānuṣṭubham: 9. bhurij.]

Not found in Pāipp. Not used individually by Kāuç., but only as one of the cātanāni (8. 25). Our mss. of the Anukr. do not contain the expected definition of the hymn as one of ten stanzas (daçarcam). *⌊The Berlin Anukr. reads sātyāujasam.⌋

Translated: Ludwig, p. 526; Grill, 3, 136; Griffith, i. 179; Bloomfield, 35, 407; Weber, xviii. 141.

1. Them let him of real force burn forth—Agni Vāiçvānara, the bull; whoso shall abuse and seek to harm us, likewise whoso shall play the niggard toward us.

The comm. paraphrases durasyāt with duṣṭān ivā ”caret: asmāsv avidyamānaṁ doṣam udbhāvayet. The Prāt. (iii. 18) allows both i and ī in denominatives like arātiy-, and its comment quotes this word as example of the former.

2. Whoso shall seek to harm us not seeking to harm, and whoso seeks to harm us seeking to harm—in the two tusks of Agni Vāiçvānara do I set him.

All the mss. read in a dípsat, which is accordingly retained by SPP.; our edition emends to dípsāt to agree with vs. 1 c; the comm. also has dipsāt; and it is favored by the çápāt of the parallel expression in vi. 37. 3. With the second half-verse compare xvi. 7. 3.

3. They who hunt in assent (? āgará), in counter-clamor (? pratikroçá), on new-moon [day], the flesh-eating ones, seeking to harm others—all those I overpower with power.

The obscure words āgará and pratikroçá are here translated mechanically, according to their surface etymology. The comm. gets the former from gṛ or gir 'swallow,' and defines it as yuddharan̄ga, because samantād bhajyate māṅsaçoṇitādikam atra; the latter is pratikūlāiḥ çatrubhiḥ kṛta ākroçe; while mṛgayante means "desire to injure us," and amāvāsye "at midnight of a day of new moon"; he has no suspicion of any connection with the doings at an eclipse, as half suggested by Grill. The line is quite unintelligible, and very probably of corrupt text. Most of the pada-mss. have the false accent prati॰kroçè. The comm. reads in c dipsanti for -tas.

4. I overpower the piçācás with power; I take to myself their property; I slay all the abusers; let my design be successful.

All the mss. read in a-b sáhasāiṣām, p. sáhasā: eṣām, instead of the obviously correct sáhasāíṣām, p. sáhasā: ā́: eṣām ⌊cf. note to iii. 14. 3⌋: it is one of the most striking blunders of the traditional text. The comm. understands the true reading, and it is restored by emendation in our edition; SPP. abides by the mss. In d, the comm. has çaṁ nas for sam me. The Anukr., by noting no irregularity of meter, seems to imply ā́ eṣām in b, but his descriptions are so little exact that the evidence is really of no value.

5. The gods that hasten (hās) with him—they measure speed with the sun—with those cattle (paçú) that are in the streams, in the mountains, I am in concord.

Doubtless corrupt in text, and incapable of yielding sense. Grill regards the verse as interpolated. ⌊As for hās, see Bergaigne, Rel. Véd. i. 200 n.⌋ The comm. guesses two wholly discordant and equally worthless explanations; in the first he takes devā́s as (from div 'play') "piçācas and the like," and hāsante as for hāsayanti 'cause to laugh' in the second, he understands devās as vocative, and hāsante as for jihāsante ⌊printed jihsyante⌋ 'seek to leave.' One is tempted to find stenā́s instead of téna in a. The deficiency (unnoticed by the Anukr.) of a syllable in d is an indication of a corrupt text.

6. I am a vexer (tápana) of the piçācás, as a tiger of them that have kine; like dogs on seeing a lion, they do not find a hiding-place (nyáñcana).

The comm. reads anu instead of na in d. The meter requires ‘smi in a.

7. I cannot [bear] with piçācás, nor with thieves, nor with savages (? vanargú); the piçācás disappear from that village which I enter.

Our P.M.W. read -viveçá for -viçé the end. The comm. has naçyantu in c. He paraphrases saṁ çaknomi by saṁçakto ‘nupraviṣṭo bhavāmi, or by saṁgato bhavāmi; and vanargu by vanagāmin.

8. Whatever village this formidable power of mine enters, from that the piçācás disappear; [there] they devise not evil.

The first pāda lacks a syllable, unless we resolve grā́- into two syllables ⌊or read yáṁ-yaṁ⌋.

9. They who anger me, making a noise, as flies an elephant—them I think ill off, like mites (?) on a man (jána).

The comm. (followed by a couple of SPP's authorities) has lipitās (= upadigdhāḥ saṁkrāntāḥ) at end of a; the pada-mss. read lapitā́, which SPP. in his pada-text emends to -tā́ḥ; but, as the participle in ta from such a root can hardly have an active sense, lapitvā́ would doubtless be a better alteration; the redundancy of a syllable, to be sure, would suggest deeper changes. Álpaçayūn in d, literally 'petty liers,' is conjecturally rendered, in accordance with the comm. (parimāṇato ‘lpakāyāḥ çayanasvabhāvāḥ saṁcārākṣamāḥ kīṭāḥ). SPP. reads dúrhitān j- (instead of -tāṅ or -tāñ ⌊see note to i. 19. 4⌋), against the great majority of his mss. as well as all of ours; instead of it the comm. has durhatān.

10. Let perdition halter him, as a horse with a horse-halter (-abhi-dhā́nī); the fool (malvá) that is angry at me, he is not loosed from the fetter.

The comm. (with one of SPP's mss.) has at the end mucyase, but explains it as a 3d sing. impv.: mukto na bhavatu; an imperative would be welcome, if honestly come by. Malva he glosses with çatru. ⌊As to abhi-dhā, cf. iii. 11. 8 and note.⌋